Pain. Aching, searing, blinding, excruciating pain was what I felt before I even managed to open my eyes. Unable to think, I sucked in a breath and let out a deep, blood curdling scream. The slight movement from that was almost painful enough to make me pass back out on the spot. Clinging onto a sliver of consciousness, I pried my eyes open to assess my situation. I was dangling from a branch, still a good twenty five feet in the air. It was easy to discover the source of my pain.
I had not been lucky enough to lose the momentum to land slung over a branch. Leading into my hip was a solid two to three inch thick branch, and if the pain was anything to go by, it went right on through and out the back. The sight sent a renewed wave of pain through my body and another scream escaped my lungs. I was bleeding heavily, as to be expected.
I heard Aniel yelling from below, but her words couldn’t cut through the haze built up in my head, and they fell on deaf ears. Suddenly, I spotted movement in the corner of my eye. Oruan was making his way up the tree toward me, still glowing, taking careful measures not to jostle the branch I was impaled on. I made my best effort to steady my breathing and gain some semblance of focus.
“-ch! Zach! You need to stay with us, Zach,” Oruan pleaded. “Aniel should be able to heal this, but…” Apprehension slipped into his features. “We have to get you down to her…” Looking down, there were few branches between me and the ground. I doubted I’d be able to climb down in my current state, either way. I closed my eyes and let out a painful sigh, knowing what had to be done.
“Can-” I let out a groan of pain. Waves of burning spread through me at my attempt to speak. “Go down. Can’t climb, can push,” I eked out, looking at the branch. Oruan’s eyes widened with horrified comprehension, but he didn’t waste any time arguing the point, hastily making his way back down the tree. As he reached the ground, I gathered every ounce of resolve I could find within myself. Giving myself no time to hesitate, I drew a breath, wrapped my hands around the branch, and pushed.
There was a sickening wet sucking sound as I slipped off the branch. Everything started to fade rapidly, and half of a scream escaped me before I fell unconscious.
- - - - -
Some time later, I slowly came to, laying sprawled out on my back. There was still a significant degree of pain, but much less than before. Oruan and Aniel were kneeling over me, the latter’s hand hovering over my hip, emitting a green glow. While smaller, the hole still remained in my hip. “So, how fucked am I?” The pair flinched, unaware that I had regained consciousness, which did help to lighten my mood.
Oruan looked me up and down before responding. “Your injuries were very severe, but Aniel managed to stabilize you in time. Your healing will likely be finished within the hour.” For how bad being impaled through the hip tends to be, hearing that helped me relax the rest of the way. Magical treatments were much better than any Earth equivalent. Sure, Earth has anesthesia, but I would have also been in surgery for hours upon hours to fix all the damage the branch did, with a lengthy recovery period to boot. With how the cuts from the bird healed, I’d be good as new as soon as Aniel was finished up.
“Perfect! Sounds good to me.” I gave a thumbs up and a small smile, and I received a dumbfounded look in return. “What? An injury like this would take weeks, if not months, to recover from back home. Less than an hour sure beats that,” I clarified. The pain was already waning severely, so we’d thankfully be able to get back to walking soon. Being impaled hurt worse than being pumped full of lead, but on the bright side, I was unconscious for most of the process. My body may not have been able to handle the shock, otherwise.
“What were you even thinking,” Aniel demanded. “You almost died!”
“I’m not dumb enough to do something like that on purpose,” I said in defense of myself. “I was trying to get some spells to work the whole time we were walking. Almost gave up, then I managed to get telekinesis to work. I was so excited. I just wanted to-” An epiphany suddenly slammed into me like a runaway freight train. I wanted to jump a hundred feet in the air, just like I wanted to throw the stick. There was nothing else but the stick, and nothing but the jump in those moments, I thought.
It felt like I was really onto something. I had the motivation the whole time, but I hadn’t had the intense focus. My mind had been wandering aimlessly, hoping for results more than trying. The first ever piece of hypersonic wood – at least on this world – had essentially been the only other thing in the universe. With the jump, my mind had been entirely consumed by the urge. It was an instinctual reaction, something that didn’t require much effort, but the desire had been much more intense. I put my soul into my legs with that takeoff. Maybe that’s the key? The intent doesn’t matter without the focus, and the focus doesn’t matter without the intent, I pondered.
To confirm my theory, I decided to try casting another spell. I began by taking some deep breaths, and tried to push any thoughts out of my mind. Once I started to feel much more relaxed, I turned my attention to my hand. It appeared much more detailed than I’d normally notice, so I figured I was sufficiently focused. I had one goal, a flame. I pushed that intent to the forefront of my mind, and was delighted to see a small pillar of fire emanating from the palm of my hand. It died out shortly after, as excited thoughts about potential applications attempted to flood my head. The flame had been no larger than one would expect from a lighter, but I had made it out of thin air! The cold chill had been much tamer, but had lasted the whole duration of the flame. However, instead of the black hole feeling, there had only been a mild tingling.
I then noticed, out of the corner of my eye, that Oruan’s eyebrows had shot up his forehead while I conjured the fire. “Well, I see that you’ve figured it out. Impressively quickly, at that,” he remarked. “I’m curious… What is your profession? It is rare for those who are not a member of a clergy or royalty to curry the favor of more than two gods. You carry yourself like neither, yet from what I’ve seen and heard, you have the favor of, at minimum, four.” He gave me an inquisitorial look. Thankfully, that was a question I was quite well versed in answering on the spot by now.
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“I work in private security, and I do freelance contract work in my spare time. Just random odd jobs,” I answered nonchalantly. The perfect lie is a blend of fiction and truth, and I had been working for my – hopefully former – boss for long enough to have solidified my cover. That answer leaves plenty of room to explain a mixture of combat expertise and a wide array of life skills. People here may not have been able to cause waves back home, but being honest with questions like that would not be an option until I had a way home in my sights. Luckily, his curiosity didn’t seem to extend past surface level and he was satisfied with leaving it at that. Despite feeling much better, I wasn’t in the mood to lay out my entire backstory.
“Okay, all done,” Aniel said as she stood up. The pair each offered me a hand and hoisted me to my feet. My savior had me do some range of motion tests to verify that she had been as thorough as intended. All things considered, I felt amazing, just somewhat lightheaded from all the blood loss. I was still in traveling condition, though, and that’s what mattered. I definitely need to figure out healing magic, I thought. Maybe too early to tell, but there doesn’t even seem to be any lasting damage. I was still able to walk, free of a limp. There was no grinding or clicking. Just a roughly circular scar on the front and back sides of my hip.
“Thank you, this is incredible,” I said. “I feel just the same as before, minus a little blood.” I refrained from jumping for joy this time, and instead elected just to offer my gratitude, a cheesy smile, and two thumbs up.
“You’re welcome. Just… Please be more careful, you need to learn to control your magic before you use it freely,” Aniel recommended. Oruan gave an affirming nod, and we resumed our trip. We had to take it a little slower due to my lightheadedness, but were still able to keep a solid pace. By early afternoon, Oruan had managed to hunt down another squirrel, so we stopped to rest and refuel. Aniel made some more of the tea, which when combined with a healthy portion of squirrel meat, helped me to feel much better. It would still take a while to regenerate the lost blood, but I’d be able to keep a faster pace moving forward. After about half an hour, we packed up and got moving yet again, revitalized by our break.
I didn’t bother with any more experimentation, heeding the priestess’ advice. I was fairly certain I had a good idea of how actual spellcasting worked, so it was best to hold off until I could practice in a controlled environment. That was definitely something I needed to do before returning home. Logic would dictate that the crystal’s existence in my world means that magic can work there. Hell, maybe it actually exists and the proper ways to use it were simply lost to time. And if magic could be used there, I was damn well going to be one of the first people to do so in the modern age. Maybe even the only person, if I wanted to be especially greedy.
My mind endlessly roamed with the possibilities that magic would bring me. It had already been stated to me that magic could control any aspect of life. The only limit was my imagination, which meant that the options were infinite. The question is, where’s a good starting point? Do I stick to simple stuff like fire and water, or do I push it? I could lean into telekinesis, that would make guns a pretty moot point. Maybe learn to fly? I shuddered at the thought. Okay, maybe not flight, at least for the foreseeable future. May or may not have instilled a slight fear of heights into myself with that leap…
As my thoughts continued to drift, the sun slowly advanced across the sky, shifting the sky from its usual blue, to the odd sunset palate of this world. It was equal parts mesmerizing and disquieting, serving as a reminder that I was far, far from home, with only one way back. And that way wasn’t even a guarantee, just a lead. I still had to be able to find someone able to repair or replicate the crystal that brought me here. Oh shit, the crystal, I completely forgot. I panicked for a short moment, before piping up. “Did Edran give either one of you the teleport shard? That’s kind of the whole reason for me to go to the capitol.”
To my relief, Aniel pulled the pieces of the crystal out of a pouch on her backpack. “You mean this one,” she asked, with a smug grin. “He handed it to me the night you were found outside the village. I’m surprised you waited until after a whole day of travel to bring it up.” The priestess had a point. I may have been letting my mind wander a little too freely if I was able to forget about my entire reason for coming along. Being in another world is no excuse to forget that you’re in another world, after all. Especially when that world contained genuine monsters, capable of moving at blistering speeds, with an inclination to prey on humans.
I resolved to stay vigilant for the remainder of the trip, not wanting to let my guard down in case some wild beast wanted to turn us into dinner. The villagers were surprised by the presence of a knell, but there were bound to be plenty of other dangers lurking in the wilderness. “Hey Oruan… I know you said knells don’t usually stray this far North, but what else should we be keeping an eye out for,” I inquired. He tilted his head slightly, seemingly thinking through his mental catalog of local fauna.
“Well, most creatures around here are docile,” he began. “The only things we need to be wary of are the occasional bear, atria, metral, or lissaraut.”
“I’m going to be perfectly honest with you, I have only ever heard of bears. We don’t have any of the rest of those on Earth,” I explained. Oruan mulled it over in his head for a moment before replying.
“Atria are a large predatory avian species. They’re not much of a threat on their own, but can quickly become dangerous if you encounter a flock. Metral are predatory felines. They have a speed similar to that of a knell, but are less agile, resorting mostly to stealth hunting. And lissaraut are a vile nocturnal insect. Their bite contains a powerful venom which will rend its victims’ flesh from their body.” His face twisted into disgust with the last description, and I couldn’t blame him. A mosquito with necrotizing venom didn’t sound like anything I’d want to encounter, preferably for all of time.
“I… think a bear sounds like the least problematic out of any of those, and I’m not a huge fan of that,” I muttered. As unpleasant as it was to learn of the local predators, it did help to keep me sufficiently paranoid for the rest of the day. Every rustle of a leaf or cracking of a twig underfoot had my undivided attention, until the next noise made itself known. We eventually found our campsite and got set up, assigning ourselves the same duties as the prior night. Finishing the squirrel, it was time to turn in for the night. Sleep didn’t come easy, but it did come, and I drifted off to dreamland.