The giant sequoia is the largest tree species that I know of, and although I don’t remember the proportions of the trees, but I know that any person standing at its feet will look like an ant; however, the trees that I see around me now, gives me the feel of small hills!

Their canopy which seems to pierce the sky, is covered in a mist, as such only the outline is visible. Then I look down at their girth, and it looks like it would take about thirty sturdy men, to grab their arms around it.

“Uhhh...”, I hear a groan which brings me out of my contemplation, as I reflexively turn my head towards the person who made the noise. He is lying side-faced on the ground, and one of his arms is bent unnaturally behind him. Perhaps it is fractured.

I stand up, and my mind is still somewhat gloomy from the previous dream. Suddenly I feel my vision darken as a sudden dizziness assails me, forcing me to again sit down. 

Why do I suddenly feel this way? I’m not hungry, so did I take a hit to my head? I wait till the dizziness subsides. Then with these thoughts coursing through my mind, I again stand back up, slowly this time, and go near the person who groaned just now.

Caw…. caw... caw… as I crouch beside him, I again hear the raven calling overhead. I think I don’t like ravens anymore. Not that I had any good impression of them before, but it’s just that the call again reminded me of the dream. And, were raven calls always this deep and piercing?

I shake his arm, and getting no response, I carefully lift his body up and pull out his arm from underneath him, he groans again, but that’s all I can do now to ease his pain. I then turn him round, so that he lies on his back.

Hmm… he has oriental features, but it’s difficult to say where he’s from with that alone. He is probably in his thirties. I maybe wrong, but the thick black framed glasses really make him look a little older.

The navy blue suit on him, no longer looks elegant after being covered in dirt from the ground. While looking at him, I see him squint his eyes, and open them.

He mutters something in a foreign language, to which I reply “Sorry, I can’t understand you... Do you speak English?”

While saying thus I causally look around, half hoping to find a canteen or a water bottle from the other people. When suddenly I see a lady looking at me, hmm… that’s a cautious gaze. Did she wake up earlier, and was watching me? A little perplexed, I was about to open my mouth, when I heard the man before me speak.

“Where am I”, he asks raising his head. He has an accent, but so do I.

“I don’t know” I say, “Woke up here a while ago,... this seems to be a forest.”

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“Forest?!” he says surprised. Yea, forest it is. And with trees that look like mountains. But I didn’t say that to him though. He’ll find out eventually.

“But, I was… driving...”, he says becoming more perplexed.

“Can you sit”, I ask him and offer my hand to him as a support. The lady who was looking at me a while ago, also sits up slowly. 

“Yes, thank you...”, he tries to raise himself up, but soon hisses in agony, when he places his arm as support. Well, it… doesn’t seem to be broken, but it must be sprained bad.

I help him up, and after some time he seem to be somewhat more aware of his surroundings. “Hello, I’m Dhruv”, I say extending my hand out to him. He looks at my hand, and then shakes it “I’m Chin-Hae” he says.

Meanwhile the lady has already made her way here, she seems uneasy and nervous. I guess the more so by looking at the trees, her eyes seemed to be glued to them.

Both me and Chin-Hae look at her, “I’m Saito Hinata” she says with a slight bow. I nod, and Chin-Hae gives her a fatigued smile. Then we three people just wait in silence for a while, each expecting the other to say something. I was never an extroverted person, and so while I think of what to say next, Chin-Hae breaks the silence.

“What time is it?”, he asks looking at his hand. Then as if realizing something, he quickly reaches out for his pockets. Then I hear a short gasp, “My moneybag, dammit!”, “My moneybag is gone! And also my mobile, and watch.”

I also fumble through my pockets, though I didn’t have that much cash on me anyway, but still it was hard earned money. Well, but now it’s gone.

I hear Miss Hinata’s dejected voice, as she mumbles something to herself. It looks like she has also lost her possessions. “My things, they’re also lost”, she says in a somewhat weak voice. “The trees it looks like Amazon”, she adds.

Well kind of,... but I’m quiet certain, that Amazon doesn't have such gigant trees. There’s something peculiar about this place, but I can’t tell what…

Chin-Hae also seem to notice the trees, and his gaze lingers on them for sometime, but he doesn’t say anything in the end. Well, I am a little disappointed,… maybe he knows what there trees are? I’ll ask him later.

“We should wait for the others to wake up, maybe they may know something?”, I suggested to which both Chin-Hae and Miss Hinata nodded.

I sat down, because I was feeling fatigued, and so did Miss Hinata. Suddenly I felt a little frigntened as I began thinking, how I and all these people ended up here in the middle of this Jungle. Were we abducted? But the last thing I remember was waiting on the railway platform bustling with people….

Will someone abduct me in broad daylight, I mean yea it is doable, but what will they gain from it? I’m not nouveau riche, or something like that. So why would anyone bother kidnapping a nobody like me?

“Mr. Chin-Hae, what were you doing before?”, I say looking at him. He looks at me quizzically, it seems I was not clear enough. So I add “I mean, I was waiting on a railway platform, before I suddenly found myself here...”

“I was driving to a meeting”, he says. I could sense the uneasiness from his voice, it seems like he knows something but is not willing to say. Well, let’s leave it at that for now, because from the looks of it, all of us are trapped here. So if it’s something important, I’ll find it out eventually.

Chin-Hae then looks towards Miss Hinata, and says “What about you Miss Saito?”

“Miss Saito?”, is he calling her by her first name? No, probably not. Wait,… the Japanese seem to write their surname first. Got it.

She was looking at the other people, being asked suddenly, she looked towards him with a little lost look in her eyes. “I was going to pick up my daughter from school, on my way back from work.”

“Were you perhaps also driving a car?”, I ask her. Who shakes her head in a denial, “No, I was on the metro.” Then after a pause, she says, “Can we return?”

Then the silence ensued, I don’t know what to reply to her question, because I don’t even know the situation I’m in. Perhaps Chin-Hae also thinks the same.

To divert my attention I was about to go check the condition of the other people, before Chin-Hae spoke “The others, maybe we should look at their condition first. Someone among them may be seriously injured”, he says looking at his arm, which seems to be a little swollen.

I nod to show that I agree. What he said just now sounds reasonable. Perhaps we got lucky, and suffered less injuries than them, that’s why the are still not waking up?

Nervously, we moved towards the others, when suddenly I had this ominous feeling, will there be wild beasts here, the trees seem so huge. I don’t know where we are, so the possibility exists.

But still I decided to keep quiet, lest I should make the other two more uncomfortable than they presently are.