As Zack sipped his coffee he pondered, how does one find a wizard he has only met in his dreams? He concluded this to be the weirdest question he had ever considered. Weird because it was also a legitimate and pressing question. Did he need to schedule regular naps and hope he dreamt of the magical world? Could he somehow summon Paxton? He dismissed that notion as he had no idea what summoning entailed. He went outside and stared at the area where the mountain was in his dreams. Now it was forest and empty sky.
It occurred to Zack that he was probably going to be here for a while. He needed to reorganize the cabin to make it more livable. Sleeping in a closet was not comfortable. Maybe take closer stock of the food situation. He wondered if it was even worth it to get the boat fixed. There are a lot of unknown predators in the water. Not sure fishing as he understood it would be very useful, or frankly safe for that matter. Ok Zack thought to himself, one thing at a time. He could tell his ADHD was running amuck in his mind as so many different questions and concerns popped up. With resolve, he decided to focus on moving back into the bedroom. Once that was done, he examined the food he had left over. About 3 weeks’ worth if he really stretched it. He had enough coffee to last a few months. This brought him some measure of relief. None of this happens without the liquid dynamite flowing through his veins.
Next Zack examined the cabin from a safety perspective. He boarded up the bottoms of the windows leaving about a foot and a half for sunlight. He reinforced the side door to buy more time in case another red eyed monster paid a visit. By this time in the day the sky showed brilliant reds and yellows as the sun made its way below the horizon. Satisfied the cabin was safer, he went to bed hoping for another dream and a chance to talk with Paxton.
Zack woke up to a howling in the distance. The light of dawn was just starting to fill the sky. He could hear animals in the distance howling. It sounded like a couple of large animals were in growling standoff. It was still too dark to see anything out the window in the woods. The growling of the creatures intensified. With a loud crash of breaking tree limbs, a much louder growling and blood curdling scream erupted from the forest. As if one of the animals had been severely hurt. Zack heard some whimpers in pain and a loud yelp followed by silence. He was pretty sure he wanted nothing to do with whatever fight was going on in the woods. He kept the light off, rolled over, and covered himself in all his blankets.
Zacks woke a few hours later to the sun in his eyes. He sat up quickly as he remembered the sounds of the monsters fighting. He got dressed, started the coffee maker and went outside. Everything nearby looked normal. He saw no mountains or valleys in the distance. Damn he thought, no luck dreaming. About twenty yards into the woods behind the cabin, he saw something hanging from the tree. He grabbed his hand cannon and investigated in the woods. As he approached the thing hanging in the tree he was met by an awful stench. It smelled like the monster he killed in the cabin. As soon as he got closer he realized the creature in the tree was a slightly smaller version of the monster he had killed earlier. The monster was about 15 feet up in the air impaled through the chest on a broken tree limb. Its face had a wild manic stare. However, there was no life in its eyes as they were a muted red. Zack could see greyish/silver fur with some blood stuck to its claws.
Zack realized this creature must have fought a yellow eyed creature last night. He looked back and estimated he was fifty yards from his cabin. He wondered how many of these creatures are out here in the woods. Were the creatures brought here by the unstable integration? Did they wander over to his side world and get stuck here? Between the creatures and whatever crazy shit is in the lake, some parts of the worlds must have been blended. Paxton did mention the portion of the world Zack existed in would eventually be absorbed into the new world.
Zack heard some water splashing around and some mild yelps coming from the lake on the other side of the cabin. He cautiously moved around the cabin to the lake. He found the same yellowed eye creatures from yesterday splashing around in the water. As he approached, he noticed the large one had three parallel scratches across his chest. They looked to be around 2 feet long from upper left to lower right. The large creature appeared to be washing out his wound in the lake. There were three more fish like reptiles flopping on shore towards the cabin. The smallest creature came up on shore and was dancing around the fish trying to stomp on them without getting bitten. It seemed almost like it was playing with the fish. It would emit a giggling like sound and dance around when it almost got bit. The smaller creature had a small but nasty looking scratch on its back.
The larger two creatures seemed to notice Zack’s presence but did not move towards him. Zack decided to play it safe. He walk over to the deck and sat down. He watched the creatures as they splashed around the water for a while longer. The small creature lost interest in the fish when they stopped flopping around. It noticed Zack and started to indirectly move towards him. It took a couple of minutes of moving in a roundabout way for the creature to end up a couple of feet in front of Zack. Much to Zacks surprise the small creature sat down and stared at him. Zack thought the creature seemed to be inspecting Zack. Its facial expressions changed from amusement to curiosity. At least that’s what it looked like to Zack. He quickly reminded himself he really had no idea what the creatures were thinking.
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Zack looked up to see the other two creatures approaching him. They slowly walked up to the deck. Zack thought he should be more wary of the creatures but just didn’t feel like they were being threatening to him. They seemed curious and amused by Zack as well. When the larger one got within 5 feet of Zack, he noticed it was still moving its claws over the wound from the red eyed monster. He looked closer at the wound and saw something embedded into the deepest part of the scratch across its chest. Zack slowly approached the creature as non-threateningly as he could. The creature moved its hands from the wound. Zack saw the creature’s hands had five digits and an oversized thumb like appendage. They all had claws over 3 inches long. The creature seemed to be showing the wound to Zack as it leaned in. The wound was easily over 3 inches deep into the creature’s flesh. In the deepest part there was something buried into the meat of the chest.
Zack tentatively reached towards the wound. He was not sure how the creature would react to him removing the object. He imagined it will hurt quite a bit. Would the creature understand that Zack was helping or would it blame Zack for the pain. As if the creature could sense his concerns, it moved even closer, the wound was at his fingertips. Zack could feel the heat of the creature’s body with his hands. Zack reached in an grabbed the object. Upon grabbing it he realized it was a claw from the red eyed creature. He carefully worked it back and forth to wiggle it free. The creature grunted and started breathing heavily. As Zack pried the claw free, he could see a dark milky liquid drain from the claw and seep from the creatures wound. The creature howled with relief and pain as it sat back on its haunches. Zack wondered what the liquid was. Could it be poison? The creature was not looking good. The yellow in its eyes was clouded. Its breathing was labored, and the wound looked more than infected.
Zack began to panic, he certainly didn’t want the creature to die, but he had no idea how to help him. The other larger creature approach the injured one and the touched its shoulder. They looked at each other for a moment and then seemed to nod like they have come to a conclusion together. The uninjured large creature reached over and put its hand gently on Zacks shoulder and face. Zack peered deeply into the creature’s eyes and suddenly felt a connection. As if hit by a revelation, Zack understood what was wrong with the injured creature and what to do about it.
He looked at the injured creature and said, “Wait here, I will be right back.”
Zack ran inside and grabbed the claws and red gem from the red eyed monster he had killed. He inspected the claws and noticed they were partially hollow and had a small, enclosed sac full of liquid in them. It was probably the poison; he had the shivers as he realized how close to death he had been that night it attacked. Zack noticed the small red gem was still warm to the touch through the clothe wrapping.
All three creatures looked surprised as Zack unwrapped the gem. He slowly handed it to the uninjured larger creature. It carefully took the gem and dropped it into the injured creatures wound. It then pressed the gem into the wound with enough force to make the injured creature yelp. Zack jumped back in surprise, but the injured creature calmed down right away. In a few moments he heard the creature emit a soft cooing noise. His breathing returned to normal. The wound glowed a light red and began to heal at a visible pace. The uninjured creature used one finger to wipe some fluid off the injury and then applied it to the smaller creature’s injury. Within a few minutes it looked as if the creature had never been injured. A few minutes later the big creature’s injury was completely healed. It looked as if it had never been hurt. Zack stared in amazement at the healed wound. The larger creature howled in delight. All three creatures looked at Zack with what seemed like a big smile on their faces. This was clearly an interpretation from Zack as giant creatures with big fangs did not smile easily.
The previously injured creature moved closer to Zack placed its hand on Zack’s back and face much like the other had done. It looked deep into Zack’s eyes, and he felt the same connection. Without using words, the creature made its intentions known through feeling and abstract concepts. After sensing the creatures mind and feelings for a few moments Zack’s intuition sensed the creature’s motives. It took a little longer to piece together what he thought the creature was doing.
Then all at once it became clear. Zack heard in his consciousness a soft voice ask, “what do you need.”
Zack’s eyes opened wide as he slowly sat down. He realized the creatures were not only sentient, but capable of communication through thoughts. Zack sat stunned for a second before he considered the question. As if showing the creature in his mind, he thought about Paxton, the mountain, the dreams moving him back and forth in time to a new world. He shared his confusion about the integration. He also shared his happiness with the creature’s recovery. That he was grateful for them killing the red eyed beast. The creature responded with his own gratefulness. He showed an image of the larger red eyed monster hunting him and his family. Zack realized way way to late that this was a family of three. Zack’s face went flush with embarrassment that he just put that together. The creature seemed to chuckle at that. The creature shared how grateful they were that Zack killed the larger red eyed monster.
Finally, he spoke in his mind again, “what do you need.”
Zack replied in his mind, “I need to see the wizard Paxton, I need to find a way back to the other world.”
The creature leaned back and touched the other larger creature. They nodded at each other. Then all three creatures touched each other’s shoulders with one hand and put the other on Zack. They nodded their heads and indicated Zack should do the same. Zack nodded his head an felt a sudden bout of motion sickness for the briefest of moments. He looked up at the creatures. They smiled, got up, and walked into the forest. As Zack watched them walk away, bewildered by the experience, he noticed the mountain in the distance with a familiar purple barrier near a waterfall.