Zack spent the rest of the day packing supplies and studying the map. It will be a 15-mile hike straight west to Hone. The first two miles are roughly along the shore of Trophy Lake. The next 13 miles through the forest terrain of Northern Canada. He packed food, water, rope, a big knife, the hand cannon, a tarp, a compass, and many other supplies he remembered from his years as a boy scout. He went to bed early in the closet filled with purpose. He thought it was high time he took control of the situation and find his way home. When he woke up the next morning, he was relieved to have had an uneventful night. No visiting monsters or crazy dreams.
The sun was just up over the horizon. He was glad to get an early start. He wanted to have enough time to get back to the cabin if Hone didn’t have anything to help him get home. The cabin faced due north right at the lake. He walked off the porch and turned left and started walking west. It was a beautiful morning. After about 15 minutes of walking, he looked back and could not see the cabin. The shoreline winded in and out. The trees were full and easily blocked his view. Zack had decided when he was packing to bring red cloth strips to mark his path so he could easily find his way back. He pulled out a strip and tied it around the lowest branch of a nearby tree.
He walked for another 100 feet and began to noticed a sense of dizziness. After a few more steps his vision blurred. A few moments later he had to stop and catch his breath and he felt disoriented, like he might throw up. He looked back the way he came as if he might find something responsible for the disorientation. Everything looked normal except he could not see the red fabric on the tree. He thought that was weird. However, the feeling of being sick increased and pushed that thought out of his head. He started to slowly walk forward not sure if he should go on. In a few more steps he started to feel a little better. Then as quickly as the disorientation came. it left. In another 50 feet he felt completely fine. Zack thought that was really odd. It was almost as if the area he walked through caused him discomfort. Zack shook his head and chalked it up to the bizarre happenings of the past few days. Nothing should surprise him anymore. He thought he needs to be ready for anything.
Zack walked another ten minutes when he noticed another cabin several hundred yards in front of him. While fishing the lake for the past week he had not seen another cabin. In fact, he remembered his dad telling him that Donald had bought the exclusive rights to this lake. There wasn’t supposed to be another cabin on the lake. Yet there it was. As Zack drew closer to the cabin, he noticed it was similar to the cabin he was staying in. Except for the three people on the dock. He was still over 200 yards away looking at the cabin through trees. But he could distinctly make out three people at the dock. One of them jumped into the lake. He thought these people must not know about the weird and aggressive giant predators in the lake.
Zack picked up speed to warn these folks about the predators. When he finally got a direct line of sight to the cabin and the people he jumped back behind a set of bushes in fright. He could not believe his eyes; these were not people but large creatures. They were covered in grayish to silver fur. They had small deer antlers on their head. One in the water was about 12 feet tall. The other two were smaller. They looked like the megafauna from the ice age brought to life. They resembled giant sloths, with the exception of being very muscular and must faster. As Zack stared at them from about 60 yards away, he could tell they were concerned about something in the water. The smallest creature jumped in to help the larger one. Immediately from the left came a giant splash and the smaller creature yelped. The larger creature reached into the water and pulled out a reptilian type fish and yeeted it 50 yards on shore. It had apparently attacked the smaller creature. The reptilian fish landed near Zack. The weird fish reptile was about five feet long and had giant fangs visible in its mouth. The creature had a crushed the fish reptiles head as it was clearly dead. Zack shivered as he stared at the fish. In the water it would have eviscerated Zack without an effort. Further warning to stay out of the water.
As Zack looked from the fish, to the creatures, to the cabin. He had a sudden realization. He looked at the roof of the cabin to confirm it. Above the door on the roof, he could see his handy work. Wood patching up the holes the hand cannon made a few nights ago. This was his cabin. How was this possible. When he left the cabin he walked in a straight line towards the west with the lake on his right. Yet somehow he ended up back at the cabin. The only way that would make sense if he walked around the whole lake. That was not possible as the lake was several miles wide. He sat down and tried to make sense of the situation. It reminded him of old video games where you would leave on the left side of the screen only to appear on the right side heading in the same direction. Except, this was not an old video game. It was a giant lake and forest, and it was supposed be real life. With dread Zack stood up and walked around the front of the cabin to make sure the mountain and the glowing purple barrier were not present. They were not. That meant he probably was not dreaming. At this point he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
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He realized he was standing in the open lost in thought staring at the cabin. He slowly looked to his right and saw the three creatures looking right back at him. The funny thing about the human brain is we can have many thoughts while being in a fight or flight moment. Zack should have run as fast as he could away from the creatures. Instead for some reason, he cocked his head to the side and wondered, how did these creatures’ eyes glow such a bright yellow in the daytime. Their eyes were like flashlights. The creatures just stared at Zack for about 20 seconds. Them the big one grunted and the three of them returned their focus to the lake.
For some reason Zack did not feel any fear of the giant, muscular, yellow glowing eyed giant sloth like creatures. That his brain registered as quite odd. In the real world like back home this scene would send any normal person screaming in the other direction. However, he was more interested in what they were doing in the water. The creatures were just passed the boat lift. Did these creatures sink his boat? Zack very slowly walked at an angle towards the creatures. The big one let out a bellow and seemed to be pulling on something. Zack noticed the front end of his boat peeked out of the water. The other two creatures started pulling. They worked the boat around the lift and dragged it to shore.
Once the boat was on the shore the creatures stopped to look at their work. They turned to Zack, the small one waved with what looked like smile on its face. He noticed they were all smiling with what looked like a sense of satisfaction. The larger one pointed at Zack and then the boat and back at Zack again. Zacks jaw dropped when he realized the creatures rescued his boat for him. Zack dumbly smiled and waved back. Then for reasons he did not know, he put his hands together at the palms as in prayer and slightly bowed in thanks to the creatures. The creatures stared at Zack for a while longer. It was clear to Zack they were intelligent and thoughtful beings. He could see it in their eyes and changing facial expression. They communicated with and clearly cared for each other. After a moment, they returned the bow and walked away.
Zack walked over to the boat and noticed some heavy scratching on the bow. The live well had been ripped out and the battery was also missing. He looked back at the forest, but the creatures were gone. There was no doubt in Zacks mind these were the same creatures he saw several nights ago in the woods. Zack shook his head at the boat and returned to the cabin. He was trying to decide what was weirder. Walking in a straight line and ending up where you started or watching giant sloth like creatures yeet a terrifying reptile fish and rescue his sunken boat. Then it occured to him that somehow these were not the strangest things to happen to him in the past four days. He dropped his backpack at the door and sat on the couch. His head was swimming as he thought, so much to process.
He realized that he might be trapped here. This caused a significant amount of anxiety. What if he couldn’t get home. What if he couldn’t see his family. Or get the satisfaction of ending things with Shelly. He chuckled as he remembered when dealing with her was the most daunting thing in his life. Zack smiled as he realized she was not even in his top ten list of shit to worry about. He admonished himself to focus on the problem. Was it possible he got turned around and accidently walked back to the cabin. That could not be not correct as he approached the cabin from the east. Then he remembered what the crazy wizard Paxton said about some people were slipping in and out of time until the integration stabilized. Had he and the surroundings slipped out of the real world? He felt nauseous again. Zack wanted to turtle in bed a wake up at home from this from this world. He felt like he was losing his grip on reality. He needed to recapture his sense of control. As he thought about it, he understood he really needed to recapture his sense of what is real. It bothered him that the wizard was the only source information that explained anything that is going on. Even if it is hard to believe.
Zack went to the table and grabbed a pen and paper. He wrote two columns. The first column he labeled:
Things I know to be true:
1. I am in a relatively safe place in the cabin.
2. I have enough food for the short term.
3. Some monsters are real.
4. He may be trapped in an area about a mile or so wide.
5. Do not swim in the lake.
Then he labeled the second column:
Things that appear to be true, but not proven:
1. He might be slipping through time.
2. Magic might be real.
3. There might be dragons.
4. There might be wizards.
5. If there are wizards, then he might had killed some evil Duke and his men.
6. In his dreams, he has traveled to a world with a mountain and a village.
7. It appears he visited the world at very different times in its history.
Zack put down the paper and pencil. He took a deep breath calming himself. He realized when he felt crazy or out of control it was when he refused to see this reality for what it was. When he expected the rules of the world to work like it did back home, he was always surprised and caught off guard. He needed to adjust his grasp of reality by letting go of thing he used to take for granted as formal or informal rules of the world. As Zack pondered this thought he began to relax, and his anxiety subsided. Paxton the wizard told him he may be slipping through time. Zack realized that would explain why in each of his dreams the village were at a different level of development. He felt a bit sheepish about how he treated Paxton the last time they spoke. Then again how was he supposed to know the wizard was real and spoke some truths. He needed to gather as much information as he could. He knew it was time to visit the wizard again.