The young man looked around himself, being on a raised area such as the hill he found himself abandoned on, he reasoned that here of all places would be a tremendous place see if he could find any notable landmarks to help in his direction making.
He looked around himself, looking for anything that stood out and soon found out that there were none. Just trees, trees and trees. Oh and some shrubs here and there though mostly just trees. He was surrounded by them though the short hill he found himself on had none which he thought was odd. He held a hand over his friendly parts and just decided to start walking in the direction he was facing since it all seemed the same from where he stood and he couldn’t imagine standing there all day would amount to much. He trudged down the hill, feeling somewhat embarrassed by his bare pale white flesh that hadn’t seen sun for an embarrassingly long time for a guy who lived a short five minute drive from the beach.
The young man walked for a time until he came to the tree line that stretched around the hill where he had woken. Inside the woods was dark from the shady leaf canopy above that stretched out as far as he could see with barely a sliver of light making it though to the dirt and grass below.
“Hello?” He called, though was met with silence.
Nervously, he looked back one more time to see if he had missed anything though the lack of anything notable urged him onward as he stepped into shadowy woodland before him.
“Sure would be great to stumble on some fucking clothes!” He shouted out as he walked, half hoping that who ever had dropped him out here might be decent enough to leave some for him, even if they were making themselves scarce. Seriously, who on earth would leave someone out here like this.
“If this is like the Truman Show, I’m showing my asshole to the first camera I manage to find!” He shouted out, hoping for something, anything, though only got silence. Fucking shit, what the hell was going on.
There was one thing he noticed on his first short few minutes of walking deeper into the woods and that was he wasn’t Australia. For one thing the plants were not any that he recognised to be native to Australia. They were more what he would imagine out of some sort of fairy tale story or movie. He wanted to say English plants though he wouldn’t have had a clue what those would be. Oak or Elm maybe? The names seemed to fit the feel of the area though then again, he really didn’t know.
Another thing was that there seemed to be a huge lack of insects. No flies, mosquitoes or spiders for instance. He could not see a single spiderweb which compared to his high school camp hikes where the bush had been littered with the crawly things and their all encompassing death webs, these woods seemed almost clean in comparison. Super weird, he thought as he ducked under a branch and continued on. The realisation that he was somewhere far outside of where he would have thought played on his nerves and he found himself jumping at shadows in the periphery of his vision as he wandered deeper into the woods.
“Oh spirits of the forest” he called, mostly to break the earie silence, “Guide my path to clothes so that I may don my persona in the fabrics of man and walk this earth in fields of light forever more.”
“ May the forest bless me in it’s overflowing and throbbing conch of blessings-”
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“What are you doing?” A high pitched voice called from somewhere to the right of where he walked.
The young man squealed and brought his leg up protectively to hide his bits.
“Where are you? I am warning you, I am not wearing clothes!”
“Neither am I” the voice called back causing the young man to scream and run away from the voice, shouting “No, No, No, No” over and over again as he manoeuvred his way through the vegetation, his legs burning from the over enthusiastic escape.
Low hanging branches slapped at his tender flesh as he ran without care for the stings of pain that raced across his chest and arms. It wasn’t for some time, where he found he could run no more that he eventually slowed down to a wheezing, gradual stop. He held a hand to steady himself against the sturdy bark of a close by tree that felt like elm though that was only conjecture to the heaving young man as he bent forward, overwhelmed by the first run he’d attempted in far too long. “Fuck me” he groaned, feeling bile rising in his chest.
“Umm excuse me” the high pitched voice piped up from close behind him. The young man whirled and almost tripped on a tree root as he turned to face whoever this nude woods walker was that had somehow kept pace with him over all this time.
The thing in front of the young man was like a person, though they looked almost etherial in substance and the young man could see the outlines of trees and forest-scape though the body of the hovering creature which seemed male going off it’s anatomy though he really didn’t have enough experience with this sort of existence to say otherwise. It was definitely packing heat so to speak from what he could see though defining features seemed to warp and meld into itself as he hovered before him.
“What are you?” The young man asked with a slight quiver in his voice. His hand had gone back to covering his bits though the etherial floater seemed uncaring as it held its hands off to the sides and out as it hovered there full of majesty and wonder.
The being hovered there for a time before tilting its head slightly to the side in confusion. “What do you mean?” It questioned. “You followed the requirements and called for me, have you brought me out here to ask me stupid questions to things you already know?”
The young man thought back. “Your, a spirit? Of the forest?”
“Yes”
“Am I on drugs?” He asked suspiciously as he held up his other hand in front of his eyes and wiggled his fingers curiously. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and his vision remained normal so it didn’t seem like drugs.
“Are you on drugs?” The spirit peered down at him accusingly. “Walking around alone and naked in the the forest does seem like something someone on drugs would do.”
“Look, if I’m on drugs I didn’t choose to take them, one minute I was in my apartment with my cat and the next I wake up on a lovely hill naked and all alone surrounded by forest. I just need to know where I am so I can get back home and also maybe get some clothes if you have any to spare so people don’t think I’m some crazy naked forest man and try and tie me up without my permission.”
“Your in the eastern forests of Koss and what is an apartment?”
“Is Koss in England?”
“England?” The spirit asked before it seemed to realise something and said “your a wanderlost.”
“No I’m a human, and my name is Sammy, shit wait are you a fairy? Please don’t steal my name.”
“No your a wanderlost, you aren’t from this world are you?”
“What do you mean?” Sammy asked feeling uncomfortable at the spirits surety. Spirits knew things right?
“Where do you live? Back on your original world?” The spirit asked, seeming to enthusiastic at the topic.
“Australia, though Brisbane specifically”
The spirit laughed. “Exactly, no where here on this entire world goes by that name. What are the god’s playing at here.”
“So your saying this isn’t earth?”
“Earth? Like dirt? No, is that what your planet is called?” The spirit’s laughter grew stronger. “Your species loves their dirt don’t they?”
Sammy groaned “look am I just supposed to believe your word for this? Doesn’t this seem a bit far fetched?”
The spirit thought for a short moment and somehow made a clicking sound with its etherial fingers. “Is your planet integrated into the system?”