“The Electrocardiogram shows that you are having resting heart palpitations. That alone is not uncommon and is most likely the cause of the faintness you felt earlier, but when we ran a stress EKG it showed that not only did the palpitations stop, but your heart-rate plummeted to levels normally indicative of an Olympic athlete.” The doctor shifted his feet. “To be honest, I have never seen anything like this. I’m going to refer you to a cardiologist -- a heart specialist -- who can hopefully tell you more.”

A young man sat across from the doctor, forehead shining with sweat from the stress test. His dark hair almost covered his eyes, one bright pink and the other a dull red. “Well, okay then,” he started as he stood. “Is this something that can, you know…” He motioned across his throat.

“I highly doubt this issue is fatal, if that’s what you mean, Cadmus. On the other hand, you absolutely should have yourself examined more closely.”

“Alright, thanks Doc. And Cad is fine, my parents are way too into Greek mythology. I’ll see myself out then?” he asks.

“Okay then, Cad, have a safe trip back home. I will let you know if I find anything about your condition.”

Cad stepped out from the small white room and headed to the front door, but not before paying an exorbitant fee for all the scans. He stepped outside, taking a deep breath of not-so-fresh Manhattan air. He quickly raised an arm to hail a taxi, deciding the small splurge to save him from the eternal embarrassment of dying on the subway if the doctor was wrong.

As he lifted his hand to catch a taxi, he caught a few people glancing at his eyes. I wore the wrong shirt today, red always makes people think I’m a demon! Not to mention the fact that pink is still sticking around for some reason. As he was musing, a cab with a bright advertisement for a new MMORPG pulled up to the sidewalk next to him. “72 Thompson Street, thanks,” he said as he stepped into the vehicle.

Thinking back to the advertisement, Cad found himself lost in thoughts again. Maybe I should play one of those new games. I’ve been so swamped with work recently, I barely remember the last time I just relaxed. Maybe that’s why my heart is glitching out, he thought with a chuckle. The cab driver looked back for just a moment before deciding it wasn’t worth questioning.

Looking out the window of the slow-moving -- yet still somehow jerky -- taxi, Cad found himself imagining a different world. One where he could move at the speed of sound, or take flight into the air. He imagined a world where he developed magic instead of software. As he imagined, the world itself seemed to shift. He didn’t notice, though, and just fell deeper into the daydream. Unbeknownst to the young man, his eyes slowly grew brighter.

Suddenly, his heart started beating sporadically, going from impossibly low rates to faster than if he had just sprinted for a mile. Cad clutched his hand to his chest and groaned as the taxi driver worriedly looked behind him. Strange text floated over his vision but he could barely spare the mental energy to glance at it. It said something about an odd attribute being “ported” and something about affinities, whatever that meant

“Sorry,” Cad was able to say to the driver before he lost consciousness.

“Ugghh,” Cad groaned. “I guess I’m not dead yet.” He slowly opened his eyes, fighting against the headache caused by the bright suns. His eyes slowly adjusted and he was able to get a glimpse of his new surroundings. They were not at all what he was expecting.

Well, this is new. I was thinking maybe a hospital bed, but I guess a forest works too. Wait. Suns!? I thought that was just a typo. He looked back into the sky to confirm he wasn’t seeing double and that there were, in fact, two suns sitting in the sky roughly a finger's-breadth apart. Putting aside his shock for a moment, Cad tried to take stock of his surroundings. He was in the middle of a forest, but there was something off about it.

The colors looked too vibrant. The leaves on the trees around him seemed to be greener than anything found in nature, the grass and moss at his feet too soft to the touch. Ignoring the extra sun, once again, even the sky looked slightly different, like it held a slight pinkish tint.

Cad had always thought of himself as a rational thinker, the type of person who, when facing a stressful situation, kept a cool head and decided on a logical conclusion. And so, like any other rational person, he stood up and started to panic.

“Where the hell am I?” he asked into the forest. He started pacing around the miniature clearing. “Two suns…. Two suns. Two suns? Two suns! Sure, right, totally normal. Maybe I’m going insane, or wait, maybe I died and this is some form of purgatory?”

Thoughts raced across his mind as he walked in circles. Eventually, he grew so dizzy from the spinning that he gave up on pacing and fell back into the too-soft grass. “Stupid grass, softer than my bed back home,” he said, to no one in particular.

At least my heart doesn’t feel like it’s beating randomly anymore. He thought to himself, trying to cling onto any silver lining. As he lay on the forest floor, he stared up at the treetops above him. His mind began to calm itself. The leaves swayed with a smooth cadence that lulled him in, their shadows slowly moving side to side. Subconsciously his body began to match this swaying motion even as he lay on his back. After a while, it seemed like he began to flicker, almost going slightly transparent before returning to normal. Of course, he had no idea this was happening and was entirely transfixed on the leaves above.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Cad was broken out of his reverie by one of the strangest sights he’d seen in his life. It seemed as if there was text overlaid across his vision. Not only that, but he barely understood a word of what the text said.

New Spell Learned! Camouflage (Earth, C): Become one with your surroundings. When active, living creatures will struggle to see you with standard vision.

Seeing this, Cad immediately jumped back up and immediately started pacing in circles once again. His eyes were having trouble focusing on his surroundings with the strange text still visible. He almost tripped on the root of a tree as he rubbed his eyes, trying to clear his vision.

Eventually, after flailing his arms in front of his face in an attempt to wipe the strange message away, he yelled “Get off of my eyes!” and with that, the text disappeared from his vision. Cad stood there, in the center of the clearing he woke up in, panting heavily and wondering what the hell he managed to get himself into.

As his breathing slowed, he noticed a slight rustling in a small shrub a few steps away from him. Crap. Please tell me that’s not something that’s gonna kill me. He stared at the spot that made the noise as he stood completely still. He remembered the swaying of the trees from earlier and, acting on a weird hunch, he began to shift his body at a similar cadence and began to feel an odd warmth flow through his veins. In the corner of his vision, he saw that camouflage was “activated,” whatever that means, but luckily the message went away almost immediately this time. He slowly and carefully stepped behind a tree and waited, hoping the rustling would fade away.

After a few seconds, a small white rabbit hopped out from the underbrush. Cad let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He’d been ready to bolt at the slightest sign of danger. If there's anything you learn growing up in a family of hikers and wildlife junkies, even as the computer nerd of the family, it’s not to mess with the creatures of the wilderness.

As he began relaxing from the scare, he heard rustling once again and a small black and silver fox jumped out after the rabbit. The bunny squealed and tried to hop away, but the fox was frighteningly quick and pounced on the small white creature. With a single bite, the chase was over and the fox held its prey in its jaws.

Cad could only stand there as the small fox locked eyes with him and in those eyes, Cad saw a sudden hunger directed at him. The fox let out a small squeak and ran straight at the man, the rabbit laying forgotten on the grass behind.

Cad barely brought his hands up in time to prevent the fox from latching onto his throat. He yelled in pain as his arm was covered in bloody scratches and could only thank his lucky stars that the fox failed to sink its teeth into him. But even as he had that thought he felt the warmth that had seeped into him when he had activated camouflage begin to flow through his body, to his arms, and out to the fox. He took a step back and the feeling fell away. He looked back at the fox and saw that it almost looked like it was exuding a slight red glow.

I need to find some way to esca- before he could finish the thought, the fox pounced again. This time, however, Cad was ready for it and managed to catch the small animal from the air with both hands. This close up, he realized the fox was just a cub, only as long as his forearm. That sparked a worry that maybe this fox was just a youngster of a larger den, but he pushed the unhelpful thought away for the moment as he noticed that warmth flowing through him once again and entering the fox. The small creature snarled at him but he moved his hands to its neck so that it couldn’t do much more than lightly scratch his arms. He ignored the weird feeling of the warmth leaving him, and the restarted heart palpitations, and held the small critter down to the ground.

As he trapped the fox in his grip, he tried to portray a sense of strength in the hopes that the animal would get the memo and give up on this hunt. Don’t foxes normally only attack small game?

Cad didn’t want to kill or injure the fox, even if it did attack him. He had always liked animals, foxes especially, and while he wouldn’t choose the fox’s life over his, he wanted to avoid it coming to that if possible. The animal struggled in his grasp, and he had no doubts that this fight might go in a very different direction if the fox was fully grown, but for now, it couldn’t escape.

Even as this was happening, the fox kept draining whatever that warmth was. Not knowing what it was, Cad decided he might as well let the fox have it. He focused on the warmth and pushing it towards the fox. Slowly the warmth built up in his arms and broke through his skin. The fox went completely still and multiple messages crossed Cad’s eyesight even as his vision swam and his heart beat strangely from the outpouring of energy.

New Skill Gained: Internal Mana Manipulation (Magic, R): You have gained the ability to control the natural magical power in your body.

New Spell Learned: Familiar Bond (Life, U): You have learned to connect your mana to that of another creature. Be careful not to bite off more than you chew

You have initiated a familiar bond with a Mana-Fox. Do you accept the familiar? Warning, if you decline, the Mana-Fox will become highly angered. Y/N?

Cad quickly read through his new messages but struggled to understand the third one. He looked down at the now-frozen fox on the ground. This must be a “Mana-Fox,” whatever that means. That sounds like something straight out of a game.

As he finished his thought, a bright red count-down entered his vision right above the lingering message asking whether he accepted the familiar. It showed 00:00:30 and immediately dropped down to 29. Crap, I only have 30 seconds to figure out what is going, Cad thought.

Though in the end, he knew what choice he would make. He was still feeling wobbly from the massive outpouring of what he now assumed to be mana. He could only hope this wouldn’t be a huge mistake.

With 15 seconds left on the clock, Cad said “yes.” The clock kept ticking down. “Accept! Yes! I accept the familiar!” As his time fell to five seconds, Cad mentally yelled at the message. I accept the familiar! As he finished the thought, the countdown vanished and a new message appeared in his vision.