Awareness came slowly to Aidyn. The rustling of leaves and the call of birds pulled him from oblivion. His eyes slowly opened to see a few shoots of green sprouting from the reddish undergrowth. He stared at the green fern in front of his face trying hard to remember what had happened. He winced as memory slowly returned.

I really do know how to piss people off. Aidyn thought.

Slowly his other senses began to penetrate his musings. The smell of deep forest loam beneath his face, the pure clean air of a forest untouched by his world. It was like nothing he had ever smelled before. He rolled over slowly, something felt different but that thought quickly disappeared as his vision cleared. Staring up at the towering trees above him. They rose for hundreds of feet. Massive trucks that would easily dwarf a suburban house spread out around him. It was hard to tell from his back, but he felt these trees had to reach four hundred feet above the forest floor.

Slowly, he pushed himself to his feet and realized what the fleeting thought he had had was. He no longer felt pain in his back, knees, and hips from a lifetime of abuse. Abuse from airborne training, fast-roping, and long road marches with heavy gear on his back. Years of running and fighting for his life. He moved to flex his back and knees, stretching his muscles. After fifteen years in the Army, there was no longer a part of his body that had not hurt. But now, he felt like a teenager again.

Well, I suppose that is one of the perks of a new body.

Glancing around he found himself in a dense forest that looked to be some type of redwood, and it looked untouched. At least the part he could see. The trees around him towered up into the sky but at the ground level, their massive trunk suffocated the undergrowth leaving large swaths of low foliage. A few feet away was a small pack, a quiver of arrows with a bow, a belt with a dagger on it, and a letter. Aidyn cautiously approached the pack and grabbed the letter.

Aidyn,

I felt a need to apologize in some way for my temper. I am not used to anyone questioning me so directly. I have placed you in my world with a boon, a gift, and a hint. You may have already noticed the boon; your body has been rebuilt to place you in my world. This process allowed me to fix a few lingering issues, you essentially have the body of a twenty-year-old in peak physical condition, you’re welcome. As for the gift, it is a side-effect; the process of creating a body has infused you with nanobots that may or may not give you a better chance to survive this harsh world. You will be the first person in centuries transported into this world and as such have a higher concentration of these nanobots. Finally, your hint; I felt the need to place you near human lands but not directly in them. This was for my own reasons. To the south you will see a mountain range, there is a pass that will lead you to their lands, do not dally trouble may follow.

Joe

p.s. You will likely never see or hear from me again, know that I enjoyed conversing with a sentient person for a time, even if you can be mildly irritating. Be wary of my children, the AI that I mentioned previously, I fear they are taking a more direct role in the affairs of the world. I have not decided yet how I feel about this.

Well, not all bad, Aidyn thought. Although I don’t know what to think of his “children” taking a role”.

Aidyn reached down and grabbed the quiver. It was a back quiver with thirty arrows, allowing him to place it over his right shoulder. He had used a bow for hunting when he was younger but that had been a compound bow. This bow was some type of dark wood, almost black with a recurve on each end. It was about four feet long strung. The string looked to be some type of natural material with an almost wax-like coating, which was good and would protect it somewhat from bad weather. He tested the draw and glanced down at the dagger.

As he reached for the dagger his eye fell on his clothing and he glanced at himself. He was wearing tight leggings tucked into knee-high leather boots with fur trim. A wide belt of thick leather surrounded his waist, and a soft leather jerkin overtop a deep green shirt with a hood. Leather vambraces were on each wrist, likely to protect them when he fired the bow. He grabbed the dagger; it was about a foot in length from the tip to the end of the hilt. Straight and double-edged with a guard and foil grip, almost like an F-S fighting knife used by British Special Forces. Aidyn attached the knife to his belt and then opened the pack.

The pack was soft leather and lighter than he had expected. Hoping it contained something useful, he quickly dug out its contents. Extra bowstring, what looked to be a piece of flint and a steel striker, a coil of rope, a full waterskin, and several wrapped packages of hard bread and some type of dried meat.

Food, water, and fire, Aidyn thought. Not much food, maybe 5 days if I stretch it. The worst part is Joe has already confirmed that not all the plants in this world are native to Earth. I need to be extra careful of what I eat until I can confirm if they are safe. At least I have a rope, rope can save your life.

Quickly shouldering the pack and adjusting his quiver for easy reach, Aidyn drew one arrow and inspected it. A broadhead point with feather fletching, it looked to be in perfect condition. Probably made from thin air He thought. A quick look showed all the arrows were the same so he set out to find a target that wouldn’t damage them too much. He needed to knock the rust off if this was his only means of protection and survival.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

A quick survey of the area found a branch that must have fallen a season or two before. The dry air allowing it to slowly decompose. Aidyn walked off twenty paces or so and knocked the arrow. His first shot went wide but after a half-hour of practice, he was able to reliably hit the log.

Time to find some safety, Aidyn thought as he glanced around. Joe said to head south for the mountains, but I can’t tell from here which way that is. Aidyn glanced around and up towards the sky, he had previously noted the sun's position before his archery practice, and it was higher now, so it was before midday. If this world had the same rotation as his own, which seemed plausible, south should be… That way. Aidyn oriented himself and looked for a way to get a vantage of the mountains. The forest was deep, but the separation of the massive trees allowed for a significant line of sight, although broken up in places. He could attempt to climb one of these monsters and may do that to sleep, but for now, he decided to look for a secure place on the ground in the direction he believed to be south.

Aidyn traveled cautiously south, or so he assumed, keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings and an arrow at the ready. The forest was pristine and untouched. The forest floor slowly undulated but nothing that could be called a hill, or even a small mound. Needles and pieces of bark surrounded the great trunks choking most undergrowth. After an hour, the terrain began to become rockier with large boulders of granite sticking from the undergrowth and the land began to turn to small hills.

Standing atop a boulder Aidyn took a moment to check the sky and snack on a piece of jerky. Almost midday He thought as he glanced around. He needed to ensure he was heading south towards the mountains. South and slightly to the east his eyes were drawn to a gap in the canopy. The brightness of the area from excess sunlight is what probably had drawn his eyes. With a shrug, Aidyn set off in the direction. Maybe it will provide a better sightline to the mountains.

Aidyn made the edge of the clearing in a short time, cautiously peeking around the massive trunk of one of the native trees he was stunned by what he saw. It wasn’t so much a clearing as a stretch of destruction a kilometer long from east to west and easily three hundred meters across. Massive trees lay shattered and uprooted, most leaning or haven fell from west to east. Massive root systems stuck into the sky with trunks he would struggle to climb blocking his path to the south.

One of the tree’s roots stood right before him rising a hundred feet into the air with a massive pile of soil and rock suspended from the web of roots. He was sure there was no way to cross the massive crater nor climb the trunk that leaned at an angle higher into the air, but he may be able to climb the root system and reach the top of the leaning trunk. Quickly Aidyn attached a rock to the end of his rope and launched it up into the root system. Once snug he began to climb the rope until he had grabbed ahold of roots, then hand over hand he climbed until he reached the top of the now almost horizontal trunk. Crouching he unhooked his rope and stowed it then cautiously moved along the trunk, slowly gaining elevation. About a hundred feet along the trunk and now some 80 feet into the air the trunk ended in a shattered mass and Aidyn was able to survey the destruction.

His original estimations were close, the swath of destruction ran almost a kilometer and a half to his east and a few hundred meters to his west. Whatever had felled these trees must have been massive. Aidyn lowered himself onto the broken end of the tree and surveyed the area. He had been on plenty of recon missions and knew that movement drew the eye. He would wait here if needed to ensure it was safe to transverse the gap. While not above the tree line he was able to see mountains to his south. The sight of them was slightly jarring as the sky was much larger than he was used to. He felt he was not able to accurately judge the distance or elevation of the mountains.

He wasn’t lying about the size of this planet. Aidyn thought. I could be two days or two weeks from those mountains.

Lying flat across the top of the tree Aidyn looked east. Trees lay haphazardly across the impromptu clearing. Many flat and many rising broken into the sky. Those along the center looked as if they had been sheered clean through in a descent to the east. Following that line, Aidyn caught a glint of something metallic on the far eastern edge. Movement caught his eye along with the mound of gold. His brain had trouble processing what he was seeing, a golden mound the size of a massive cargo plane rose from the forest floor. Indiscernible shapes move along the mound like scavengers. As he watched another mound nearby shift, this one of a deep red. Shocked Joe lowered himself down the trunk only his eyes peeking out.

A dragon, a fucking Dragon! He screamed in his head as he watched the massive mound of red scales slowly rise to its feet. The giant red-scaled dragon was a mess, tears along its wing and branches penetrated its side. Slowly it pulled the branches away with its forelegs. Even a kilometer away the size of the thing impressed Aidyn. It would have dwarfed a commercial airliner. He watched as the wounds in its wings and sides slowly healed as it approached the gold mound. Using its forelegs and jaws it reached down and pulled on the mound, exposing the head and neck of an even more massive gold-colored dragon. The red dragon roared and bit down hard separating the head of the gold dragon from its neck. The creatures Aidyn had noticed climbing on the gold dragon's back had long since scattered. Holding the head of the gold dragon in its forelegs, the red dragon launched itself into the air flying north.

I am so screwed. Panic began to set in. Aidyn had lived and fought on four continents of Earth, but nothing had prepared him for the sight of such a being. How was he supposed to survive in a world filled with such creatures? Were they common? Or had Joe thrown him here on purpose? How the hell was he supposed to live here? Feeling the panic rise in him, Aidyn tried some techniques his counselors had taught him after his first deployment. Slow, deep breaths. Box breathing. Slowly he came back to himself. He could do this; he had survived in worse shitholes. He needed to make the mountains and get into human lands. While he wasn’t exactly eager to meet the humans of this world, he did feel safer closer to their so-called territory.

Slowly he began to crawl back down the massive stump. It was time to move south with a purpose. Ok, time to plan some goals; first somewhere safe to sleep, it is already close to nightfall, and I need a place to hunker down. Second, I need to learn to defend myself. Third, Can I figure out how to use the nanobots as Joe had indicated? He continued his thoughts as he moved quickly across the “clearing”. He kept the image of the creatures crawling across the gold dragon’s back in mind. He wasn’t alone in this forest and needed to find safety quickly.