Cass found herself standing in wilderness. In front of her, trees reached into dark, grey skies. The underbrush was dense and twisting, glowing with strange lights. Behind her, shear cliffs stretched in either direction as far as she could see, all red-brown earth and fractured stone.

She stood in the center of a square of quarried stone. A circle of sigils were carved into the stone face. A black liquid oozed from them. It pooled on the stone before dripping up into the air, defying every law of nature Cass thought she understood.

The air thrummed with energy.

With magic.

She shook her head. With magic? An hour ago that would have been a laughable thought. The kind of thing she dreamed about in the dark of night. The kind of thing she wished was real without ever really imagining it could be.

It was impossible.

There wasn’t anything beyond the reality she knew and understood. Other worlds were the realm of sci-fi. Magic the domain of fantasy. Portal fantasy an excellent distraction from the mundanity of modern life. None of it was supposed to be real.

But what else could she believe now? She stood in the middle of a summoning circle, oozing with magic. The trees in front of her looked like redwoods in all but color, trading red-tinted bark for something almost blue. Lichen glowing the gamut of color clung to their trunks.

She’d been pulled through a weird void world, exploded, and then put back together again!

How else was she supposed to explain the things before her eyes? How else was she supposed to explain the otherwise nameless energy in the air prickling against her skin?

The magic subsided as the seconds passed, the black liquid sinking back into the stone beneath her.

Hell. She dropped to her knees. This was too much, too fast. And she hadn’t even been here for more than a minute.

Where was here, anyway? How the hell was she supposed to get home again?

Welcome to Uvana Valley!

[Initializing Beginner Quest: Conquer Uvana Valley

Beginner Quest (1): Find a Weapon]

It said something else too, but she was too shaken to read it before it flitted away.

This wasn’t happening. None of this should be possible.

She took a deep breath. The air was moist and earthy.

She could not collapse now. Possible or impossible, she was here. It was too early to panic. This was just a forest. A magic, glowing forest, but a forest. Why did she need to panic?

Deep breath. Focus on what was known.

Did she know it was magic? Bioluminescence was an observed natural phenomenon. Nothing otherworldly or supernatural about it.

Spontaneously appearing in such a forest, on the other hand?

She shoved that thought down into the dark corner of her mind. The point was even if it was magic, there wasn’t a reason to panic yet. Panicking wasn’t going to get her answers. Panicking wasn’t going to get her home.

She took another deep breath, forcing the turning in her stomach to settle and her hands at her sides to unclench.

Step one, figure out how she’d ended up here.

She looked over her surroundings again. There was no sign of the void space. The forest loomed before her, the sounds of life rumbling in the dark shadows and the unnatural glow. The cliffside was devoid of life. Nothing but short weeds, thin wild grasses, and sporadic stones stood within four yards of the cliffs, separating them from the dense forest. That too was unnatural, but not necessarily in a “there is magic at foot” kind of way.

She set that aside for another moment, crouching to look closer at the stone beneath her. It was ash grey; a sharp contrast to the red-brown of the cliffs and the rich brown of the forest floor. And it was flat. Not a natural structure.

Someone had brought these stones here, possibly from very far away. There was also the inscription carved into the faces. The work of intentional design. They were barely visible now that the oozing, black oil had dispersed, but she could feel them as she ran her fingertips over the surface. It was a pattern. Maybe even a language. But she couldn’t read it.

She traced them anyway. Willing the portal to open back up. Willing it to take her home.

The stone cared not.

She sighed and shook her head. She wasn’t going to convince inanimate stone to send her home.

People though? Maybe people could help her. She turned her eyes back to the divide between forest and cliffs. Someone or something kept this area traversable.

To maintain the circle she stood in now? That seemed as likely as any other theory.

If she followed this divide between forest and cliffs, she should eventually find where those people came from or see wherever else they went.

Decision made, she started walking, keeping the cliffs to her right.

Decision made, she banished the bubbling fear that the people who maintained this might want nothing to do with her.

As she walked she took stock of her assets.

She was dressed. It was her PJs, pink fleece with blue and purple hearts. Not her first choice of dress on an otherworldly adventure, but a fair bit better than if she had been kidnapped from her bedroom instead of the campground. Hell, most nights she slept in little more than her underwear. It was a minor miracle she’d been kidnapped with her pants.

Better than that, she had a sweater and rain jacket over the PJs. Which was good, judging by the deep grey of the sky above, quietly threatening rain. Her feet were nice and comfy in her hiking boots and warm socks. She’d have no trouble scrambling over rough terrain in them.

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There was even a flashlight in her jacket pocket. She wasn’t sure how she hadn’t dropped it when she’d been kidnapped, but she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Her long hair was even still braided out of her face and tied back in her favorite scrunchy.

All in all, it was no Survivor Man starter kit, but it was significantly better than it could be. An image of her torn from her bed at home, baggy t-shirt and underwear, no shoes, no pants, no jacket, shivered in the cold of an unknown world in her imagination. That poor imagination of Cass died horribly to the elements, freezing to death the first night.

Now, if only she’d put her glasses on before leaving the tent. She ignored the twist in her stomach as she squinted into the distance. She could see well enough. Well enough to tell there was no one ahead and nothing lurking in the forest to her left.

She powered forward.

That was just the shadow of a tree, not a wild animal. That one, just a rock. Out there in the distance, definitely just a bush. The movement out the corner of her eyes, just the wind ripping through the weeds.

She didn’t need her glasses. She was fine.

It was completely reasonable that she hadn’t stumbled out of the tent prepared to be kidnapped.

They were just for distance vision anyway. This was the wilderness. General shapes for anything over a couple of yards away were more than enough to get by.

She shoved her worries aside again, scanning the forest to her left.

The trees were familiar shapes and textures, if not color. Most were tall and straight, branches extending in every direction perpendicular to the trunk, their bark rough and craggy like the firs and hemlocks of home. A few were twisting, their branches stretching up and out in every direction, bushing into proud oaks. All of it, awash in the glow of bioluminescent lichen.

What if people here couldn’t help her? The thought whispered in the back of Cass’s mind. She ignored it and the way her heart pounded in her chest.

She focused on the trees instead. Was it convergent evolution? Did they fill similar ecological niches? Did this area have a similar climate? Was the blue tint an unusual phenomenon, or was it common the way a red tint was common among Earth's ecology?

What if the people here tried to hurt her?

The thought froze her in place. There was no ignoring it.

It was a wholly illogical thought. There was no evidence. No reason to believe it was true.

The reverse was just as likely.

But that thought didn’t stick the same way. One felt like an oracle from the gods, one felt like wishful thinking.

There was that pit in her stomach, suggesting things with all the authority it didn’t have.

A nervous laugh escaped her lips. She clamped down hard on her thoughts, forcing them into rigid, logical patterns.

What would people of Earth do if they met a stranger?

No, more specifically, what would she have done if she met a stranger in the woods? Nod politely and let them go on their way.

And if they tried to engage in conversation? Reply. Short. Simple. Aware of stranger danger, but not rude.

And if they told her they were lost and from another world? She wasn’t sure about that. Probably assume they were not well. Hopefully, point them in the direction of civilization.

She breathed out. That was the reasonable thing to do.

She shook her head and started walking again. There was no reason to start worrying. She’d—

There was something ahead.

Another square of ash-grey stone stood ahead of her. In its center, a storm of black and red sparked thick and ominous over it. The energies swirled, condensing into a point. Ebbing and building.

A wave of energy exploded out, too thin to push even the thinnest blade of grass, but enough that she could feel the malice over her skin. At its center, a figure materialized.

It was canine in form. Thick coarse fur covered its body, colored a slate grey, almost purple. Too small to be a wolf. Too feral to be a dog. Too heavy set to be a fox.

Its eyes shone in the dim daylight, piercing purple. They glowed. Possessed. Overflowing with that energy. Just as cruel as the energy that had erupted from it a moment ago.

She took a step back. What was that?

A window popped up in the upper left of her vision, still fully in sight but not obstructing her view of the creature before her.

Kylten Hound Pup

Lvl 5

[From the Kylten Realm, this pup is still a juvenile of its species. The adults of its species are six feet tall at the shoulder and capable of splitting space with their claws. They are known for the way they toy with their victims before killing them. They kill for pleasure and experience more often than they kill for subsistence. ]

Cass’s heart stopped as she read the window. None of that sounded good. Should she be thankful this was just a pup? Maybe it wouldn’t be as vicious… That thought died immediately. A malice emanated from the thing.

It was an unnaturally natural sensation. Knowing without a doubt, deeper than the irrational instincts she was constantly reigning back. She knew it the same way she knew the thing’s color. The same way she smelt a corrosive metal in the air. The same way she felt the cold, wet air on her face. She felt the things desire to destroy and kill and maim.

It had spotted her already. It took a step toward her, mouth hanging open just enough to see the rows of glistening teeth.

It padded toward her. Slow. Fully confident in what was going to happen next.

Cass couldn’t move. Her mind was running a mile a minute, but she couldn’t actualize a single, half-formalized thought into action.

She should run. It would catch her.

She should hide. Too late.

She should fight? With what?

Kick it. Her leg would be bitten off.

Just run. How far would she get?

Fight.

Run.

Fight.

Run.

Was this what was to be a deer in the headlights?

It had closed half the distance. It was doggish in shape. Like a pitbull, disproportionately buff in the front, leaner in the back. That was if a pitbull had jaws like an alligator and fur like a boar. If any animal on earth could look at another living thing with such merciless eyes.

Run. She decided. She had to run. That was the plan she’d decided on before. There was no time to think about alternatives. She just had to run.

Her body didn’t move.

Time slowed as the hound took another step toward her. It took its time. Like it knew she couldn’t move. Like it was enjoying the fear coursing through her blood.

She had to move. Her body didn’t.

A foot. Just one. She couldn’t let this creature kill her without any objection. She focused all her will on her right foot. It was already a little behind her left. To push it a little further back and turn her body away from the hound before her. To put her in a position to sprint away from its unnatural eyes. From its—

She cut off that thought as it took another step toward her.

Her foot. That’s all that existed. Her foot and an intense need to move it. The why was unimportant. The consequences were unimportant. She just needed to—

It was like the world around her cracked. Something had been holding her tight, and it broke under her focus. A window popped up at the edge of her vision.

There wasn’t time to worry about it.

She tore away down the divide between the forest and the cliffs. She ran like she’d never run before.

Behind her, she heard a frustrated howl and the heavy footfalls of pursuit.

She didn’t look back. She just sprinted as fast as her legs could carry her.

It was approaching. Even as she rocketed away. It was gaining. Oh god, it was gaining. She needed to be faster.

Around her, the storm built. A pressure above her. A wind rising around her. There was a promise in the air. A potential for rain and lightning and tearing gusts.

The hound was at her heels. The wind picked up. It blew the thing’s breath, heavy with corrosive metal and malice, over her. If only she could ride that wild wind too. If only it could take her far from here.

She kept running, even as her heart reached after the wind. Even as she grabbed after it in desperation. But you couldn’t catch the wind. That was the point.

At that moment the hound leapt forward. A claw raked across her back, tearing through fabric. She tumbled forward. Another system window popped up at the edges of her vision. The wind gusted, running along the base of the cliff walls.

Without knowing how, without knowing why, she faded into it. Somehow she caught the wind and was pulled far along with it.