“Wake up you lazy bum!” Narrator shouted, inducing a natural disaster in my formerly asleep brain.

“Damn it Narrator! Why do you always do that?” I shouted, tangling myself in my bedroll in my attempt to get out of it. Since Narrator popped up, he’s been waking me up like that no matter how many times I ask him not to. I can’t even evict him, and he knows it… Untangling myself from my fluffy prison took a surprising amount of effort, but I eventually escaped with no help from a laughing Narrator.

“Aw man, that was the best one yet!” Narrator said, finally holding his laughter back enough to sneak in a slight insult.

“Tell me about it…” Putting my bedroll back in the void that is my backpack, I made my way out of the cave I’d been staying in to make sure I was as alone in the forest as I felt. Lush green ferns and shrubs surrounded me on three sides as rich black-birch trees soared hundreds of feet in the air, forming a thick canopy of leaves that blocked most of the sunlight from above. Most would gawk at the almost story-like appearance of the forest, but I couldn’t stand the sight of it due to my somewhat extended stay.

What’s even weirder is the fact that there’s nothing else in this forest. No insects to pester me, no animals to eat the abundant plant life, no people traversing the trees and fauna like I am. It’s almost like the entirety of this area has been frozen in time and I’m intruding on its solitude.

“As dumb as you are, I gotta say you’re not wrong.” Narrator said at a reasonable volume for once, “I don’t think I would know otherwise, but this seems a little unreasonable.”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that first part, but yeah” I said forcing myself to echo his statement. Tearing my eyes away from the scene splayed out before me, I continued my attempt to get out of the forest. The lack of food made every movement a little slower than it should have been, but if I stay here for much longer, I’ll starve.

Though the canopy above and thick underbrush below thinned out over the course of a few hours, the forest remained the same shade of plant that it had been for the entirety of my stay. According to the guy who gave me this idea, I could reach Aldir by nightfall, but I’m starting to wonder if he was wrong. A few hours into the day, the hunger pangs started to worsen with my small supply of food gone, taking some of my hope of leaving this forest with it. I would’ve hunted a deer or something, but though I feel closer to the edge, there’s still nothing aside from endless plant-life around.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

It was slow going, but I had to keep walking so I don’t, you know, die… I thought I knew what I was getting myself into when I decided to do this. I packed weeks’ worth of supplies, made sure I knew the route, I even bribed the guard to let me out of town late at night so I wouldn’t get caught. There is no way I’m going to die in this forest after all of this.

“Hey Damion?” Narrator asked innocently, knowing very well his intentions were anything that simple.

“What do you want?” I replied as I almost tripped on an obscured root.

“Why exactly are we going to Aldir anyway? It kind of seems like a waste to go all the way across the country for a small town as far as you’ve told me.”

“You ever tried reading?”

“No? I don’t have eyes…”

“Valid point… But in all seriousness, I can’t read. It had never felt like an important skill to learn because I thought I could just go to a magic school like in all of those stories my parents would tell me.” Though certain circumstances have burnt that bridge… “Now I’m going to have to do this the old fashion way, old dusty books in the corner of some village elder’s library.”

“Okay, I get the whole ‘needing to read’ thing now but how can you speak so well if you can’t read?”

“My mom was a merchant. She wanted me to not be a complete idiot, which I am not complaining about. Going back to the original point, I heard there the village elder in Aldir took on a disciple so I’m going to see if I can get in his… mediocre graces. Definitely not going to get on his good side with you around. Then I can find some books on how to read and use magic and I’ll be set for life. That is if I ever get out of this god forsaken forest... what was that?”

It’d been so long since I heard any noise other than trees swaying in the wind and leaves rustling that it stood out like a sore thumb. It almost sounded like somebody was falling from a tree while managing to hit every branch on the way.

“Come on Damion, what could there possibly be?” Narrator interjected into my thoughts. “We haven’t seen another soul since entering the forest.”

“Can it Narrator, I’m listening. Unlike you, I’m used to having ears.”

I knew there was something there, I just couldn’t see it yet. Even with Narrator going silent at my little jab, there was nothing to hear past the normal forest stuff. But I just couldn’t shake the feeling of missing something. I scanned the forest floor looking for even the smallest insect to confirm that I wasn’t truly alone. I honestly expected the leaves to get up and start dancing in front of me, but it sadly wouldn’t happen no matter how hard I wished for it.

What I didn’t expect was the scene of a person falling out of the sky.