Dave woke up a short time later. Lying on the wet floor, he slowly opened his eyes and tried to pick himself up. No constraints were affecting his movements and the headache was almost gone. He was in a much better condition than he thought. Looking around, Dave found himself at the center of a small, dimly lit room.

  'Wow... What a mess!'

Pieces of wood and glass were scattered across the floor and at the center of the room the destroyed pod. It was a plain-looking tube supported at both ends by a wooden base. The walls and floor were painted with strange symbols forming a circle around the pod.

Dave examined his body but didn't find a scratch on him. Instead, he noticed the same strange symbols in his chest, above the heart.

  ‘This is weird... ’

Looking at his hands he still couldn't believe his mind was transferred to a new body. His height and frame were similar to his original body, but this was just a 15-year-old kid. Some questions started to form in his head but Dave shoved them to the side for now. He needed to get out of this place, fast!

  (Good job destroying everything, Hal!)

  (Sorry Dave. The energy was stronger than I anticipated. I'm glad you're okay.)

  (Hum… How am I… Nevermind! Let's get out of here first.)

A glance was enough to survey the entire room. Besides the pod and a wooden cabinet with broken flasks, there was nothing else worth notice. Dave walked up to the door across the room and placed his ear against it. Everything was silent. He slowly opened the door and saw a staircase connecting to an upper floor. The walls were filled with the same symbols. He crawled up the stairs and peeked his head over the last step.

  “Shit...!”

Dave quickly shut his mouth with his hand and ducked his head. Across the room, leaning against the wall, a dead body with a large hole on his chest. Startled, Dave pressed his body against the stairs and tried to listen to any noise coming from above. The room remained silent, so Dave took another peek and was relieved to see no one else inside. He walked up the final step and looked around the small cabin.

  ‘This is not what I had in mind…’

Dave assumed he was inside a secret lab, filled with amazing technology. But it was a plain stone cabin painted with strange symbols. Like the room below it was almost empty. There was a fireplace with a cooking pot, a small desk, and a bed with a wooden chest at its feet. The front door and window were destroyed with a hole between them. Outside was a barren wasteland. Dave’s gaze focused on the dead body. His hands were placed on top of two rune circles.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  ‘What the hell are those symbols? There is a trail coming from the outside…’

  (Hal? Any idea what those symbols are?)

  (No. But I can detect a faint connection between the ring and those runes.)

  (A connection… Hum.. this is getting weirder and…)

Grrrr!

Dave was starving! Although he wanted to get out of this place as fast as possible, he couldn't leave on an empty stomach. Dave walked over to the cooking pot and took the lid off. Inside, there was some kind of mushroom soup with small pieces of meat that looked edible. He took a sniff and decided to try some. In an instant the pot was empty. Dave gobbled up the soup like it was a delicacy.

With a full stomach, Dave decided to investigate outside the cabin. He found some clean clothes and a pair of shoes inside the wooden chest. The clothes were very simple but fitted nicely. Looking like a medieval peasant, he walked carefully through the hole in the wall. The wasteland stretched as far as the eye could see and in the far distance, a huge thunderstorm was raging. Behind the cabin was a dense forest with giant trees. There were runes outside as well. Dave circled the cabin and saw something approaching from the corner of his eye. Next thing he knew he was sent flying, crashing against a giant tree and breaking it in half.

  '...what the hell...?'

Dave was stunned. Everything happened too fast for his brain to process. He felt an impact, saw everything spinning, and crashed against something hard. His torso ached a little but was something he could easily overlook. It seemed as if he was hit by a bus and survived without a scratch…

  (Heads up!)

He was trying to understand what happened when Hal warned him. Dave looked up and saw a giant beast near the now distant cabin. A giant wolf-like creature, with silver fur and a single horn on his forehead. It crooked its head as if surprised that the human survived the attack. Dave was just as surprised, but didn't have time to waste.

  (Shit, Hal… What is that thing? Should I run for the woods?)

  (No. If that is a wolf, its pack might be hiding in the woods. You should run for the pod room.)

  (Right, it won’t fit…)

While Dave and Hal were thinking of an escape plan, the enraged silver wolf started gathering electricity from the surroundings through its horn. It grew bigger, its muscles expanding in size and his fur standing up. It wasn't going to let his prey run away after failing a surprise attack.

  ‘What the hell is he doing...?’

Dave didn't have time to finish his thought. In the blink of an eye, the beast was already next to him striking with its giant claws. Dave’s unusually fast reflexes allowed him to block most of the blow with his arms. But, without proper footing, he was once again sent flying. He went through the stonewalls of the cabin and out on the other side. Surprisingly, Dave got up immediately after landing on the ground. He was in shock looking through the holes of the cabin. Although he felt a sharp pain in his left rib cage and had a shallow cut on his arm, he was fine.

  (Hal...!? What the hell is wrong with this body!?)

  (I don't know. I could detect that your bone and muscle density were abnormal. But to suffer this kind of punishment unscathed...)

Even Hal drew a blank.

The wolf-like creature quickly moved to the other side, expecting to see its prey dead or at least injured. But the human was just standing there, looking at the cabin, with barely a scratch on him. The beast blinked twice and simply gave up. It went back into the woods.