“Shit!” I whispered as the dark ended and a bright blinding light threatened to burn my eyes. I threw myself to the side landing on the ground in a prone position. “Why is it so bright?” I struggled to get my eyes adjusted to the daylight.

“What are you doing?” Tara asked as the rest of the group walked out of the cave.

“Uh, staying low to avoid being spotted by giant killer elephants?” The first sight I saw was her face palming with a heavy sigh, and the rest of the group struggling from breaking out in laughter. “What?” I asked while still prone.

“The Mammorest’s territory is a few klicks from here, the one you saw last night was chased here, but they don’t like sticking around outside their areas.” Tara explained with another sigh. “You really don’t have common sense, huh?” Her look of pity hit hard.

“How am I supposed to know about some alien giant elephants the world has never heard of?!” I stood up in huff, my stomach started rumbling. “I almost died, multiple times in a day. I witnessed something unnatural last night, my legs are magically healed, and that green monkey has an assault rifle!” I point a finger at Millie, who was about to point their gun at me, but Tara stopped them. “To make it worse, you tried to drug me and tell me there are more of those creatures only a mile out there?”

“What’s a mile?” Ivy tilted her head while asking me.

“It’s 1.6 kilometers, you know, the imperial measuring system that Americans use?” I replied back.

“What’s an American?” Yavis spoke up.

“You’re joking…” We locked eyes as I waited for a joke. “You serious?” My stomach growls even louder. “Ugh, I’m starving.”

“Here.” Yavis tosses me a fruit, or something like it. “So what is it?” His seriousness just made me worry more about my circumstances.

“It’s the country I’m from.” I bit into the fruit, it was juicy and delicious. “Feels like a tomato, tastes like an apple, strange but good.” I ate the whole thing with gusto.

“What are the Pals like there?” Yavis held out another fruit for me, his eyes were brimming with curiosity. “How did humans survive the calamities? How many are left?”

“Uh, no alien magical creatures in the real world my guy, just plain old beasts.” I pause before biting into my new fruit. “What do you mean calamities?” I watch him while slowly nibbling my food. “Last population census puts it at about 8 billion or so?”

“What!?!” The group cried out at one. They started spitting out too many questions all at once.

“HOLD IT!!” I shouted, getting them to all shut up. “Why are you so surprised, I thought you were survivors of wrecks too.” The people turn their eyes away and chuckle nervously, except for Yavis.

“I was born here, so I only hear tales of the outside worlds that are plagued by calamities causing death and chaos. Most wreckers get washed up as children who lose their memories, you’re the first I know about to be an adult with your memories still.” He holds out a skewer of some meat from his mysterious pack, it’s still hot with steam coming off of it. “Please tell me more.” He shoves it in front of my face.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Since you asked nicely, what do you wanna know?” I take my payment while wiping my drool away.

“How are there so many humans alive after the calamities struck?” The rest of the group leaned in closer behind him, their curiosity was hard to hide.

“What are you talking about?” I take a bit out of my food. “You mean the World Wars? That happened almost 100 years ago, but the third one feels like it can happen any day now.”

“World war? I thought there were no Pals outside.” Ivy called out.

“Yeah, there are none. The wars were some of the most brutal in the last 100 years, with death counts in the tens of millions I think. We tried to keep the peace, but you know humans, we will kill each other over the stupidest things.” I let out a sigh as I finished my meat, all their faces looked horrified.

“So many poor souls, who was the enemy?” Troy spoke up.

“A few other countries, can we move past this subject?” I wasn’t big into history, and barely knew a few facts. “History isn’t really my thing.”

“When you say other countries, do you mean humans fighting humans?” Yavis asked with a complicated expression.

“Yeah, who else is there? We kill each other for speaking a different language, difference in appearance, or just because they are an evil bastard with no morals.” I look around at our surroundings, while they all mumble amongst themselves. “What is a ‘Pal’ anyways. Where did they come from?”

“That’s easy.” Yavis closed his eyes, and started to recite something from memory “Pals are the offspring of powerful ancient legends, or deities. While they only contain a fraction of their deities’ power, it is still more than humans could handle. Our ancestors failed in their invasion of this world and were captured as servants of the ancient ones. Over time, our oppressors were attacked by the calamities. We were too weak in their eyes to be used as a fighting force, so they sacrificed one deity to split their soul into the ancestors of the Pals you see today. After they successfully sealed away the calamities, our ancestors struck them down in their weakest moment. Only one deity survived, the one who secretly helped us humans fight back.” He opened his eyes to my stunned face, my mouth hanging open.

“Wait, you’re saying we humans aren’t originally from Earth? We are aliens?” I was finding this a bit unbelievable, but I am staring at a green monkey with a heavy duty assault rifle and the intelligence of a human, it even rolled its eyes at me. “So where is this so-called living god?”

“The scripts tell us they are recovering in the branches of the World Tree that sits across the uncrossable ocean. You can see it to the north from a high vantage point.” Yavis informs me.

“World tree? Deities? Next you’re gonna tell me Atlantis was real?” I try to laugh it off, but I’m only met with serious stares.

“The sunken city is just north of the coast of Mount Obsidian, the remnants of the Deep rest there.” Heather speaks from her seat on a rock. “The time for stories and such can wait, did you all forget where we are?” Her stern rebuke made the group break into a rush of motion.

“Where exactly are we?” I ask, trying to push the weird story into the back of my mind. “Is it dangerous?” I look around at the weirdly spacious forest around us. “Why are all these slender trees so spaced out, wait, where’s the damage that thing caused last night?” I spotted the beach a short distance away, it looked untouched and spotless.

“The island heals itself quickly.” Heather says like it is a common sense. “Let's get to basecamp before nightfall, I’m too old for roughing it more than a night.”

“Move out!” Tara yells as Heather mounts a large furry wolf that is bigger than a horse. The group takes off at a sprinting pace that seems like a jog to them.

“Wait for me!” I yell as I sprint my hardest to keep them in sight.