I lie back on the thick moss. It’s comfortable compared to my bed at home; the bed in my apartment had springs that would poke me, jolting me awake in the night if I moved from the specific position on my side. It smelled like body odor and mold. Weirdly enough, I think I'll miss it.

I drift off into a nap, dreaming of when I was around 8 years old. It was nice back then; I didn't worry about incel forums on the internet and arguing with other losers. During the summer I'd sleep on the couch because I didn't want to leave the games console. I’d wake up with the morning sun in my eyes and my dog licking my face. He was a border collie, or really just a sheep dog, whatever you call it. I named him Jax. It sounded so cool when I was 7, but thinking about it now, it just sounds corny. I can still remember what it feels like being licked by him to this day. It’s a shame he died when I was 13.

I start to wake up, and the dream fades away. I can still feel my face being licked. Opening my eyes I see a huge black snout in front of my eyes and a ginormous pink tongue that feels like sandpaper scraping my face. I move my head back to get a look at what is licking me and I see two small piercing brown eyes staring at me from a huge head.

“B-BEAR!” I scream before trying to get up and slipping on the thick damp moss.

“Shit” I blurt out as my body hits the ground, I practically winded myself.

I manage to get up and run away, every step cuts or bruises my bare feet from either a stick or a rock. I look back, the bear doesn't seem to be chasing me, it’s just slowly walking towards me. Maybe it's getting ready to hibernate and the fat bastard doesn't want to expend too much energy. The weird thing is that it has bright pink highlights on the tips of its fur, it doesn't matter how unthreatening it looks, the damn thing is still a bear.

I keep running for what feels like hours. While running I see all sorts of creatures that have that same bright pink color on them, there were even some birds I saw with an actual pink crystal on their backs. This place is mad to look at. I'm a little worried about the creatures in this world.

I walk around the cliff edge and I look down the cliff edge and see a lake with a slight pink tint to it, “everything here is pink huh?” I think to myself as I look into the water trying to spot any fish, I don't know why, I just like fish.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

I look and see a woman with blonde hair. she looks slim, more like an athletic type of slim. Wait, I look at her ears and see she has long pointy ears. That thing did mention there’d be fantasy races. She's pretty cute though, she looks like a stereotypical elf. Except she’s carrying a bow that doesn't have a bowstring, she’s not carrying any arrows by the looks of it either. How strange.

The elf is just standing there next to the lake, and I can't help but feel mesmerized looking at her. I feel like a creep watching a lone woman, but that's neither here nor there. I see a familiar head saunter out of the forest walking towards her. It's the bear, is it going to fight her? Imagine if it rips her shirt off, I think I'm rooting for the bear now. Come on, bear. Let us both win!

The bear walks up to the elf, the elf doesn't seem to react all that much. She puts her comparatively small hand on the bear's head, once her hand touches it’s head; a bright green circle with runic signs appears on its head, a green energy comes from the circle and goes into the elf’s head. This must be the magic that, that thing was talking about.

A split second after the magic goes into her, she quickly turns her head over to my location. She pulls her bow off her back, a green magic replaces where the bowstring should be and an arrow made from the same magic it seems gets placed into the bow. Before I can even fully process what’s happening I feel my clavicle get pierced by a burning hot sensation which is then replaced by pure pain.

“No, please. no” I say as I clutch my what used to be right clavicle which is now just a hole.

I run down the cliff, I stumble and fall. My feet give out from under me making me ragdoll down the slope leading up to the cliff. Each roll causes another sprain or fracture.

The slope ends, I struggle to get up and begin limping as fast as I can away. I can't die like this, I know that thing will be waiting for me. With that being all the motivation I need to force myself to live, I keep pushing onward for what feels like hours but was really around ten minutes. I get to the top of a hill and see two knights in full plate armor holding swords, in the joints of the armor there's a dark blue fabric.

As I feel hope, the familiar burning sensation appears again this time in the back of my knee. For fuck sake, why now? I fall down the hill, flipping around and landing around 20 feet in front of the guards.

As my consciousness fades I hear

“Poor bastard must’ve gotten caught by the elves” I hear one of the knights say as he walks towards me.

I lose consciousness.

“Is he dead?” the other knight says following the knight.

“No, he just seems to have been hit in his shoulder and leg” The knight says nonchalantly.

“Do we help him? He doesn't seem to be from aquanitus” The other knight says curiously.

“Look at his skin, he’s so pale, he must have never done a full day's work in his life. Only nobles have that privilege” The knight says inspecting James's unconscious body.

“Go get sir Roswald, if you don't want us to get executed” the knight orders the other.

“y-yes!” The other knight says before quickly running away.

“What unusual clothing” The knight says to himself, staring at James's unconscious body.