James was outside, sitting in solitude, as his summer scout camp have just ended.

It has been a nice 3 weeks in the clearing of the forest deep in the mountains. Tomorrow, he would get back to his job of an accountant, but right now, he was a scout instructor.

All the kids have already left and the rest of instructors followed soon after. He alone stayed behind, as he did every year, and listened to the nature around himself.With a cup of steaming tea in his hands, and a backpack of his belongings next to him, James enjoyed the quiiet of the forest, wich have been still bristling with human activity just days prior.

After finishing his tea, he leaned agains the rough bark of an nearby pine, and listened to the distant sound of thunder.

"Well thats weird." He said, sitting up. The habit of voicing his own thoughts still rooted deep. "I don´t think it was supposed to rain today... Oh well. You can´t trust the forecast anyway"

Shrugging, James leaned back against the smooth bark of said tre...

Jerking up, he wildly looked aroun himself. "This ain´t no pine. What in the name of all seven hells happened?!"

Around him was a lush green forest, full of broadleaved trees and their saplings. In places there were thick and tall bushes, that formed another layer of forest, just about waist height tall. This layer was so thick, one would have to put a great deal of strength to get through them. Fortunately for him, these bushes formed something akin to natural paths, that stretched all around the forest as far as he could see. On the ground, there were mushrooms almost everywhere. Some of them looked familiar, some of them James haven´t seen or heard of even once in his lifetime.

"Just look at that! Some of them are even glowing in the shade of all those bushes..." Trying to regain his composure, James began to breathe methodically

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"Inhale... And exhale... Inhale... Aaaand exhale... Okay. Now what? Assess the situation... Could this be a hallucination? Doubt it. This feels way too real.Where is my backpack?"

Looking around, he found it just a couple of meters away from the tree he was leaning against. After a quick check of his belongings, James sighed in relief. Nothing seemed to be missing.

His field spade still tightly tied to the outside of his backpack, right next to his axe. His water pouch seemed undamaged and full of water, just like he hung it there. The tarp on the other side of the backpack seemed undamaged as well and was ready to be used. A quick look inside assured him, that nothing was missing. Everything was where it should have been.

Hanging on his belt was his hunting knife, first aid kit and a simple monocular. With his buzola and phone safely stored in the pockets of his army trousers and with a machete strapped to his tigh, he finished checking for missing equipment.

"Okay. Everything´s here. I should probably arm myself. It might not be safe in here. Now to the real question. Machete or spade? If I take the machete, I could protect myself fairly well, but I can also harm someone or even myself really really bad in case this is just a hallucination... But if I´ll take the spade, i can control myself better, appear less threatening and in case of emergency, i can always reach for the machette... Alright! Spade it is, then!"

After untiyng the spade from his backpack and holding it in his hands, James began to walk on the path of mushrooms towards the northeast. Why to the northeast? Well... He still had doubts about the situation he found himself in. The doubts in his mind still suggested that this was all just a hallucination, so if he went northeast he would eventually reach a road where he could get medical help.

The fact, that he kept ascending up the hill, In combination with the air which was cleaner and fresher than usual (as if the Great Pollution didn´t happen), just kept on hardening his conclusion. But still, he continued on. He's looking for a single little cue to tell him the truth. And this stimulus was not long in coming.

"The glow of mushrooms and other vegetation is pretty strong... One could walk here at night, no problem... Plus. I don´t think I´ve ever seen a bird like that... DAFUQ?"

Looking up the branches of a nearby tree, James saw a weird, feathered, bird-like creature, with two pairs of wings and as far as he could tell, just one leg to stand on. This creature looked bizzare.With a wide but flat beak and even wider head, on which sat not one, not two, but three, pearly white eyes, that looked everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Those eyes were the things that sold it out. Because its body was shaped and even coloured in a way one could mistake it for a part of a branch it sat on.

The creature suddenly took off in a soundless flight and headed behind the bushes to his left. And sooner than James could say anything, something started to make its way towards him from the other side of the bush, where the creature flew off to.

Not knowing what to expect, James readied himself with the spade high above his head. "...I should have choose the machet..." Those were the last thoughts that went through his mind before the thing broke the last branch and stumbled out into the light...