HOME | DD

Description
The Sojourner

Part 2

****

Anton found that for something so large, the snake-woman was quite difficult to track.

She left wide arcs of crushed undergrowth and disturbed soil, but he couldn't see them well from far  and the distance between the arcs was quite long. It got even more difficult when she changed directions.

Anton had never been in a survival situation before, but thanks in part to his unusual ability he was quite knowledgeable on survival tactics. Even though this place was completely alien to him, the basics of survival remained the same. If he failed to find help quickly he would need to locate water, build a few tools, find food and locate a shelter, all before the day was out.

He moved completely silently, a skill picked up playing with his siblings in the forests around his home, and kept his head on a swivel, his senses on full alert. He carefully scrutinized every new plant he saw, steered clear of anything that looked too unusual and stayed close to cover when he could.

The jungle was beautiful, teeming with life and incredibly noisy. A cacophony of alien bird calls and other animal sounds he couldn't identify filled the humid air, echoing strangely. The sun was starting to warm the cool forest floor, drying the humid vegetation and causing a thin mist to fill the still air near the ground. The sun itself didn't seem to be the same colour as on Adara, it had a slightly warmer hue, and it made the scene even more surreal as it cast long rays of lights through the misty forest.

Anton allowed himself occasional pauses to take in the picturesque scenery, it was impossible to completely ignore the beauty of this place anyways, and he started to feel just a bit more calm than before. No matter what kind of trouble he was in, the forest was so breathtaking that he couldn't help feeling at least a little glad he had come here. That was a good thing: One of key ingredients in a survival situation was to have the correct mental attitude, maintaining the will to survive. Seeing the body earlier had jostled his nerves, but he carefully controlled his thoughts to stay positive and focused.

So far, so good.

Little did he know that, intentionally or not; this jungle really wasn't the kind of place where you could come into with a bang and not get something's unwanted attention. And at that moment he was already being hunted.

He was backtracking after having lost the confusing tracks again when he first saw it through the trees: A very big animal, covered in grey fur, moving where he had just been moments earlier.

His heart slammed into his throat. Adrenaline began flooding his system immediately. It came into view and he got a good look at it: It was canine in shape, resembling a Mountain-Wolf back on Adara, but it was well over twenty feet tall! It had three pairs of legs: two pairs were configured as front limbs with wide, independent shoulders. Its six legs moved with uncanny coordination, making its movements fluid but extremely bizarre. It looked young despite its size though, gangly somehow, its paws were slightly too large for its body.

Its head was low to the ground, sniffing the soil. It was obviously tracking a scent - his scent? The snake-woman's? Either way it was only a few hundred feet away and closing faster than Anton could move without making a lot of noise. He had no cover near where he was standing, so he crouched down low and started creeping away from the trail.

Staying silent was difficult, the fight-or-flight response was taking over his body, adrenaline was coursing through his veins, it made him twitchy and clumsy, his hands were shaking violently.

A twig snapped under his feet.

Even though the beast was still quite far, it heard the quiet snap. Its head jerked up, ears raised, and it immediately spotted him.

Anton froze, paralysed by fear. What should he do? What COULD he do? He was staring down a creature nearly as tall as his house. It didn't seem hostile but...

Of course it didn't seem hostile! It had no reason to be, he was no threat to this creature, if it wanted to eat him there was very little he could do to stop it.

Anton steeled himself; back home, when facing a potentially dangerous animal, standing your ground and looking tall and imposing was the best course of action. But the notion seemed utterly ridiculous now! He was a rodent to this creature, less then that even.

But he had nowhere to run! Running would trigger the thing's instincts to chase him and it could surely run him down in seconds in the open, long before he could get to the nearest tree. There was nothing to do but face this thing... It hadn't made a move yet except for tilting its head slightly, curious, as if waiting for something.

With his face a mask of grim determination, Anton stood tall, his eyes never leaving the predator's own golden ones. The huge animal began moving towards him, with its head held high and its ears perked.

Anton cursed under his breath. This was very, very bad.

It closed the distance between them quickly. Anton tried his best not to panic, it took every bit of willpower to stand his ground.

"What the hell are you trying to accomplish anyway? Why not run? What the fuck are you hoping for? Run!" Anton resisted the instinctive urge to flee.

"No point running!" He told himself, "It'll attack for sure AND I'll have my back turned. It might just be curious... Don't do it! Don't run, Don't run! DON'T!" It got much closer and stopped again, Anton had to tilt his head back to look at its face, terror nearly overwhelmed him.

Suddenly the huge beast took a quick step and pounced playfully at him, Anton reacted blindingly fast and dodged backwards a few steps. It pounded the soil where he had been  with all four of its gigantic front paws, the ground shook from the violence of the impact.

It hadn't been an aggressive action, it seemed to be having fun! Like a young dog, playing with a mouse.

The mouse was definitely not amused though. Anton's body was in overdrive, there was so much adrenalin in his system it felt like it might overload itself somehow – he was covered in cold sweat, every single one of his muscles were taught, ready to explode into movement, his heart pounded painfully at his ribcage. His mind however was crystal-clear, fully aware of every little move his gigantic opponent made, completely focused on this lethal game, shutting out everything else.

Still supported by its other legs it attacked him with its razor sharp, black claws. Anton was caught off guard by the sudden and distinctly un-canine move and barely avoided getting shredded, dodging backwards again. The giant wolf-thing paused in its assault, still playful, its tail was wagging left to right lazily and it let out a strange yowl at him; the sound was so loud it was painful.

Anton regained his focus and crouched down low, choosing a direction to jump next; it would expect him to dodge backwards again... He quickly formulated a plan, he couldn't afford a single mistake. He crept slowly to his left, then feigned a quick acceleration, but instead of running left he switched his stance and leapt right.

The ruse worked, the inexperience canine pounced far left, only realizing its mistake mid-air, though it still took a swipe at him with its claws. Anton ducked the inaccurate blow and closed on the creature.

It stood up tall and started to try and stamp on him. Quickly Anton found himself surrounded by huge clawed feet, spinning and dodging, staying close to paws that were already on the ground to encumber its playful but lethal attacks.

Without warning the creature lowered its front so its limbs nearly contacted the earth, trapping Anton between its forelegs. Anton went to run, but it immediately attacked him with its jaws. He saw the thing's vicious teeth close in on him as if in slow-motion, its jaws were so wide he wouldn't be able to dodge them sideways, Anton made a split second decision and rolled forward, towards it. He quickly dropped under its gaping maw, hitting the ground prone, barely avoiding the massive teeth.

He found himself in a world of fur: the beast had brought its head down to the ground to catch him in its jaws and now Anton was pinned under it. In a desperate move he rolled onto his back and grabbed its long, thick fur with both hands and was promptly lifted high into the air, holding on for dear life.

It only took a second for the creature to realize Anton was hanging from its thick mane, clinging to it with all his strength. It tried to bite at him, spinning around on itself many times in an attempt to get at the little human, but it couldn't reach him. It twisted and shook but Anton just barely managed to hang on, dampening its quicker movements with his arms.

And suddenly it froze, ears erect as if it had heard something. Dangling there, Anton thought he heard howling in the woods, but it was hard to hear anything beyond his pulse pounding in his ears, sounding more like banging than a proper heartbeat. The pause only lasted a few seconds at most, barely giving him time to get a better grip, higher up on its neck.

The beast started trying to snap at him again. Its jaws were coming very close to his legs and his arms were getting tired. He heard the giant teeth slam together right behind him; Way too close! He had to move! With an immense surge of strength he threw his legs over its neck and shifted his hands to place himself in a better spot on top of it, just behind its ears.

It was clearly not amused by his new position, and all semblance of play were erased, replaced with vicious snarling and growling as it tried to dislodge him much more violently.

Anton held on desperately, "This it it," he thought,  "I'm going to die..." There was simply no way out of this, it would get him off in the end: he was only delaying the inevitable... But he just couldn't bring himself to surrender, he tightened his grip and flattened himself against the beast's neck.

He heard another howl in the woods, quite clearly now, and the beast froze again.

Was it being called?! By others of its kind? It would make sense, wolves on Adara hunted in packs! It was obvious the pup was torn between heeding the call and continuing its efforts to remove the bothersome human attached to its fur. Should he jump off now? He was really high up, but he would survive the fall, probably not without injury though. He hesitated...

Another howl, much closer this time, caused the great beast to surge into motion. Now ignoring him entirely it took off with a powerful lunge, Anton barely managed to cling to it.

Jumping off was no longer an option, at this speed he would probably be crippled by the fall, so he gripped the fur tightly again as his unwilling mount charged through the jungle. Its speed was incredible, the trees flew by as it ran, but after getting used to the way it moved and adjusting his grip Anton managed hold on more comfortably.

He wasn't in immediate danger for now, his grip was good and even in tight turns he just had to lean a bit to stay solidly mounted on the huge wolf-like creature. He really had to get off before it reached its destination though, he could hear more howling close by and spotted other grey shapes moving quickly though the trees. They were probably hunting something else now, but winding up in the middle of a pack of these things, especially adults, wouldn't end well for him...

But he had a chance! He might actually live! If he managed to get off in one piece he would atleast have a shot! This realization, along with the all the adrenaline in his veins nearly made him giddy... Hope glimmered in his mind; He didn't recall exactly when he had given up on hope on making it out of this alive, but he had, and now with the inevitability of his demise lifted he became twice as determined to survive.

Anton focused on where his mount was headed, looking for a way off; water or mud would break his fall, or particularly thick foliage. There! The beast was headed towards a fallen tree that was still supported at an angle by the branches of other trees. It was covered in vines that hung down in loops from the trunk. The beast would have to pass under it, through the vines! He readied himself...

Just before it would pass under the tree Anton sat up and threw his arms out, hands grasping. Ducking slightly the beast ran right through the vines, ripping through a few of the inch-thick stems as if they were thread. Anton impacted the mess of vines painfully, he was swept off the creature's neck but he managed to grip the vines to avoid falling to the ground.

He was off! But he wasn't safe just yet... Calling on all of his willpower he forced his already over-exerted arms to climb up the vines and onto the trunk, then he ran up its inclined surface to get higher off the forest floor. He didn't stop until he neared the trunk of another, still-standing tree and jumped down onto one of the wide branches.

Anton immediately collapsed, he crawled into a small gap between the fallen trunk and the huge branch then surrendered to his exhaustion. The adrenaline was subsiding, leaving his strength completely depleted; every ounce of stamina spent. His chest hurt, it would probably be bruised from hitting he vines... He had a cut on the bridge his nose and his forehead, blood was running down over his lips, he was gasping for breath, shaking uncontrollably, he couldn't feel his extremities and his heart was palpitating painfully. But he was alive!

Relief washed through him and he let out a quiet, slightly delirious chuckle, unable to find any other way to express both the relief of still being alive and the disbelief of what he had just been through.

He lay on the branch for a long time, letting his body recover from the exertion and the extreme fight-or-flight response. He had time to think about his situation now that he was relatively safe, he couldn't really do anything else while he was recovering.

He played the attack back in his mind. He was incredibly lucky that he had only encountered an inexperienced juvenile, and that its instinct to obey its pack-mates was so strong that it would ignore a small creature crawling in its fur. He still couldn't quite come to terms with just how close he came to dying a very painful death, maybe it just hadn't really sunk in yet.

If the fact that this place was beyond dangerous was ever in doubt, it wasn't anymore: This jungle was a deathtrap! On the bright side, he had managed to access the trees, hopefully he would be safer up here.

Peeking out of his shelter, the canopy was a world unto itself, a three dimensional maze of intersecting branches, hundreds of feet in the air. It would surely be inhabited by its own dangerous animals but hopefully he wouldn't be as outmatched as before; if there were giant creatures up here they would have to keep to the larger branches, possibly giving him an advantage of sorts.

Anton's mind eventually wandered back to the snake-woman. He sighed sadly; her face was getting blurry in his mind's eye already. She had probably been his best shot at salvation, he had pinned all his hopes on finding her, and now her trail was lost for good.

He shut out the despair welling up in his chest... He wasn't even sure he would have manged to track her down in the first place, she was probably miles away now. But there was more to it than survival: Anton now realized that he had really wanted to meet her. He tried to imagine how being in her presence would feel... Probably pretty frightening at first, but he was a very good judge of character, and after seeing what was essentially just a still picture of her, he was certain she was a very kind and gentle person.

Maybe he could still find her somehow...

During his rest, Anton kept an eye on the way the shadows were moving, he would need something to guide him in order to not walk in circles up here: with the different layers of canopy he could easily go in circles a few times without noticing.

The sun was his best bet, but if he was near this world's equator it could be hard to get his bearings near midday. After about an hour he found that thankfully this wasn't the case: the sun moved at an angle through the sky and he would be able to judge his direction all day long. He had been moving with the sun to his right this morning: that would be north back on Adara's northern hemisphere. He would keep going in that direction, hoping either to find someone to help him or some sign of civilization he could follow to the city.

He crawled back out of his hiding spot, took a few moments to stretch his sore muscles, and set off again.

****

Farra slithered quickly towards her home. If the mage wanted to track her he'd probably follow her trail, and now that she was moving in the trees she felt a lot safer. She was fairly good at getting around in the canopy and knew many routes up in the branches. She often preferred travelling up there rather than on the ground when she wasn't actively looking for food.

Her shelter resembled a normal tree, but upon closer inspection its branches twisted and intertwined in unnatural ways, creating a structure that looked a bit like a gigantic basket. A slightly eccentric fairy friend of hers who was good with nature magic had shaped the branches, and Farra kept the giant structure filled with various plant matter to make it more comfortable. It stayed mostly dry in the rain thanks to giant palm leaves she had arranged like a thatched roof. It wasn't much, but it was home, and it was safe. From the ground it was completely invisible and very difficult to access. She reached it before mid morning, slithered into it and curled up, trying to calm her nerves.

When Moxy had proposed to build her what she called a "Treehouse" Farra had insisted that it wasn't necessary, but Moxy had been so keen to show off her skills to her new friend that she had gone ahead and created it anyway, right in her favourite tree while she was away.

It had taken Moxy an entire day to shape, and the poor little thing had completely exhausted herself: she had passed out in Farra's hands, right after presenting her "Masterpiece" to her, beaming with pride for the entire duration of what she had called the "Grand tour." It had been so very endearing, Farra still smiled remembering the little fairy sleeping in her hands.

After all the trouble her friend went through Farra could never have left the treehouse unused, just the thought of ever abandoning Moxy's gift would bring a big lump to her throat. She had never felt the need for a shelter before then, but she had grown very fond of her hideaway with time. She could relax her coils and not worry about falling off some branch, which was never pleasant, and the soft improvised bedding felt wonderful compared to hard wood. Staying dry was wonderful as well, she enjoyed the rain but sleeping was way more comfortable in her nice dry bed of leaves and moss. Even the location was good, it was close to a large stream that eventually ran into the Shard River, right across from the Fairy Pond where Moxy lived, and food was fairly easy to come by.

Farra let out a sigh. Although she was hungry, she didn't want to go back out there at all today. The memory of the weird little human still haunted her. She had never seen a mage from so close! Mages tended to have strange magical auras that would make them stand apart from others of their species, making them fairly easy to spot. But this one been able to hide from her! Just how long had he watched her? Farra shuddered at the thought of the creepy little human slowly sneaking up on her... She would have to be even more careful.

She couldn't stop imagining horrible scenarios in her head. Some of the stories her friends told her about what magic-users could do were really awful! They were so far-fetched they couldn't possibly all be true, but they were still really scary...

Her foster-mother had also warned her very often about mages, and her warnings combined with her friends' stories had caused Farra to develop a near-phobia level fear of them. Come to think of it, she was pretty scared of a lot of things for a giant naga...

But Farra's mood brightened instantly when she felt the familiar presence of a fairy rapidly approaching.

"Moxy!!!" She shouted happily.

The point of faint green light that was her best friend appeared between the branches, zig-zagging towards her quickly. She entered Farra's shelter, buzzed around her head a few times, then quickly flew to the other side of the treehouse, growing to about the size of a human.

Moxy was an odd little fairy, and not just because of her quirky personality. Her skin was a unique shade of green decorated with strange tattoo-like splotches of slightly darker green on her shoulders, down her arms and thighs, and from her collar bone to between her breasts. She had a few delicate markings on her face as well, looking like overlarge freckles in pretty patterns. Farrah had always found them fascinating and quite beautiful, as far as she knew she was the only fairy at the Fairy Pond who had them.

Her hair was dark green and went down to her shoulders, and it was always messy despite Farra's best attempts to tame it, for two reasons: First, Moxy refused to stay in one spot long enough for Farra to fix it, and second, for whatever reason, Moxy couldn't seem to grow herself any bigger than about a quarter of what most fairies could manage and hated getting even that big, she spent most her time a few inches tall, making her look like a speck to the naga.

Currently, her hands were behind her back and she was sporting a huge impish grin as she hovered near the trunk of the tree, her dragonfly wing buzzing quietly.

"Guess what I haaave..." Moxy teased, nearly singing.

Farra brought her index finger to her lips, concentrating. "Hmmm... Two nekos behind your back... Aaaand, three humans in you belly."

"B-But but!... Oh damn! That's just so not fair!" Moxy stuttered, looking half grumpy and half dejected. She set her hands into fists on her hips, sure enough, in each one she held a neko, one male and one female, both looking very frightened. Farra's couldn't help but to start salivating at the sight of them, even though they were currently minuscule to her.

"I saved these two just for you!" Moxy fumed, shaking her fist at Farra, thoroughly dizzying the male neko in the process, "Nekos, your favourites! I wanted to surprise you! And you – you... You could at least have acted surprised!"

It was Farra's turn to grin now, looking at her friend's grumpy expression. "I'm sorry! How can I help it if I've got good senses? They're the only thing I've got!"

"Hmpf..."

"Oh, you're so cute when you're grumpy." Farra poked her tummy with her huge finger, eliciting a reluctant giggle from the fairy and banishing the grumpy expression from her face. The nudge seemed to stir the humans too, as they started visibly struggling in her friend's flat stomach.

"Mmmm..." Moxy closet her eyes and shivered slightly, obviously enjoying their squirming. She arched her back, squeezing them a bit and making their struggles even more visible.

Farra felt slightly uncomfortable at the sight of the little moving bulges, not much though: she wasn't feeling all that charitable towards humans today... Still, she hoped they were the kind of humans she herself wouldn't feel bad about eating.

Farra glanced over at the nekos in her friend's hands. She was starving, and as Moxy had said, they were her absolute favourites. She didn't feel as guilty about eating them: they were very much a part of the food chain here and most of them knew it as well as her. It didn't keep them from begging of course, but these two had already been caught by Moxy; no sense in feeling bad about it.

Farra pondered at that for a second, but her stomach settled any remaining internal conflicts she had by growling loudly. She gave Moxy a mischievous smile, "So... Can I still have my nekos?"

"Well..." Moxy held the cat-people in front of her, as if contemplating them.

The male neko managed to free his face for just a moment, "Please! J-Just let me go! I don't w- mmmpf!" Moxy blocked his mouth again with her thumb before he could finish his rather unoriginal plea.

Farra ignored him, "Pleeeease? I haven't eaten anything all day! I'm starving!"

"Hmmm... I dunno Farra, I might just have a little room for them myself..." Moxy said, but she was obviously just teasing her now.

"Oh c'mon! You look completely stuffed!"

As if to confirm her statement, Moxy burped daintily, eliciting further vigorous struggles from the humans inside her.

Farra put on her very best puppy-dog eyes. "Please?... Pretty please?" she squeaked in the tiny, childlike voice that always worked on her friend. "Do you want me to beg? I will you know... Please don't make me beg!"

"Awww..." Moxy blushed slightly. "Okay... Here you go!"

She unceremoniously dropped the male neko onto Farra's palm and made a quick gesture with her hand. The fairy's size shifting magic quickly grew the unfortunate neko back to his normal size, a much more adequate meal for a giant naga.

Immediately he tried to jump off her palm, but Farra swiftly caught him by the tail, grinning triumphantly. He started screaming incoherently as she lifted him to her face, but Farra paused, staring at the thrashing neko. His frantic movements made it nearly impossible to resist throwing him in her mouth and gulping him down then and there, but she fought her instincts for just a moment: she had an idea.

"Moxy? Can you make him a bit bigger? Like, this big?" She gestured with her hand and adjusted her grip on the little cat-man.

"Ok!" Moxy giggled, and grew the neko to the size Farra had requested.

The neko's new stature made him quite a bit stronger, he was a little larger than her whole hand now and could actually put up a decent fight. He would be much more filling now.

She started stripping off his clothes; they were simple, tan coloured garments well suited for the jungle, easy to remove for the most part. Once she was done, Farra restrained his arms and opened her mouth wide.

The neko's frantic screams became muffled as she shoved him into her mouth. She started running her dexterous tongue over his upper body, tasting him and thoroughly coating him in saliva to make the enlarged cat-man go down her throat easier. She moaned in pleasure as she took in his flavor, but she kept herself from toying with her food for too long. Once she was satisfied that he was well lubricated she positioned the neko face down in her mouth and pushed him deeper, his upper body entering her gullet, with only his feet remaining outside her mouth.

She fought her gag reflex as she tilted her head up. His feet disappeared between her lips as she let him slide a little deeper into her throat. Then with one smooth gulp, Farra sent him on his way. The satisfyingly large lump travelled slowly down her throat into her stomach, squirming wonderfully all the way down.

She felt him plop into her stomach and turned her attention to the other neko. It seemed completely passive, either she was exhausted or she had simply given up. Farra gulped her down in much the same way as before, but a bit more gently. She didn't struggle at all.

Farra let out a sigh of contentment, feeling quite full and satisfied. She thanked Moxy for bringing her the nekos and curled up on the floor of her shelter.

The nekos didn't struggle for long, much to Farra's disappointment, they didn't last as long when she was full, they probaly ran out of air faster... She quickly switched her train of thought before she could start feeling guilty and started chatting casually with Moxy. They exchanged bits of news and gossip, Moxy filled her in on the latest antics her pack had been up to and Farra told her friend about few of her recent discoveries.

Usually the fairy settled on her scales or her shoulder for their chats, but today she was casually inspecting Farra's treehouse, making new branches grow here and there with her magic, rejuvenating others that looked weak or sickly and carefully decorating the place with fragrant blooms in varying shades of blue and pink.

"So, why'd you come back to your tree early if you didn't catch anything?" Moxy asked her after a few minutes.

She hesitated a while before answering, hoping Moxy wouldn't laugh at her, "A human mage attacked me. I was scared so I-"

"What?!" Moxy interrupter her. Farra flinched at her sudden, unexpected outburst, "Where? I'll make him pay if he hurt you!" Moxy started buzzing around Farra, looking her over for any injuries, her purple eyes glowing ominously.

"I'm Alright Moxy, he hit me with some sort of spell, it hurt a bit but I made it out in time."

"Tell me where he is Farra! I'll make him wish he was never born!" She nearly screeched.

"N-NO! Moxy, no! Please don't! It's too dangerous! He turned completely invisible, even I couldn't tell he was there until he attacked me! And if you got hit like I did..." Farra cringed, she couldn't bear the thought, the blast the mage had unleashed would surely shred the fairy's delicate wings, leaving her helpless.

"Please Moxy, don't go after him... I- I couldn't take it if you got hurt!" Farra pleaded, tears welling up in her eyes "Please, I'll just stay up here for a while, I'm sure he'll just go away. Don't go..."

"Farra, I can do this, tell me where or I'll just go looking for him." Moxy crossed her arms, her amethyst coloured eyes still glowing, pulsing with anger.

She rarely got angry, but when she did it was a frightening sight. Even though she couldn't grow as large as most fairies, her nature magic more than made up for it. You really didn't want to get on the diminutive fairy's bad side, but Farra spent a lot of time worrying about her anyways: she had an eccentric personality even for a fairy, and she was reckless at times. She really didn't want Moxy anywhere near that mage, especially not because of her... She should never have told her!

"Moxy, Please! Don't leave! Lets just give it a day, m-maybe he'll be gone tomorrow. And then - then we can go hunting together - it'll be fun! And - and if we meet him w-we can get him t-together! I'll take you to where I saw him and everything!" Farra really was begging now, she held back a sob, a lone tear running down her cheek.

That managed to calm the fairy down, Moxy thought about it for a moment, then finally relaxed. She flew up to Farra's face and gently wiped the tear from it with her hand. "Shhh, It's alright, you big huge  sissy! Don't cry..." She landed on her shoulder and patted her neck, "We'll do it your way, I'll stay here with you... But I still wanna know what happened!"

****

*Drip*

....

*Drip*

....

*Drip*

High off the jungle floor Anton stood on a colossal branch, staring at the fingers of his right hand with a perplexed, slightly concerned expression on his face.

He was surrounded by tall vegetation that grew on the branch, years worth of dead leaves and other organic waste had piled up and decomposed on the branch, turning into fertile soil on which grew a dazzling array of ferns and flowers. Their colours and shapes were varied and exotic, each one beautiful in its own way, and it almost looked as if someone had planted them up here on purpose to form a garden; a garden of surreal, otherworldly beauty the likes of which Anton couldn't have dreamed of back on Adara. Up here, near the top of the canopy closer to the light they were fairly common, all they needed was a wide flat branch, but this one in particular was especially large, and it held something Anton was in great need of:

Water.

Near the trunk of the tree grew a trio of strange bowl shaped flowers, each supported by a thick rubbery stalk, they were full of what Anton had guessed would be rainwater. Upon testing the water with his fingers though he had been quite alarmed: the water was unnaturally cold to the touch.

*Drip*

There was no way the water should be that cold, Anton let it drip off his fingers, eyeing the flowers suspiciously. He rubbed his fingers together, making sure it really was a freezing sensation he had felt and not some sort of numbness, but the water really had been cold and nothing else. Condensation covered the underside of the flower in little droplets. What kind of mechanism allowed this plant to become so cold? Could he drink the water anyway?

-It's safe-

"Finally!" Anton muttered. At long last his abilities gave him something useful! Not just random bits of information on various plants or birds he couldn't use to his advantage. Anton plunged his hands into the water and tentatively took a sip, it was refreshing and tasted amazingly pure. He drank the cool water greedily, then splashed some onto his face, gasping at how cold it felt against his skin.

His thirst relieved, he walked to the edge of the branch. It was hard to tell how high up he was, but he guessed he would be nearly a thousand feet in the air. Anton thankfully wasn't afraid of heights, it went with being a pilot he guessed, most people would get a severe case of vertigo looking down at the ground as he was now. He surveyed the area much as he had done every few minutes during his trek, carefully scrutinizing every tree for threats and for the safest way to move through this maze of branches.

Anton closed his eyes and listened carefully to the wind and the birds, trying to discern anything out of the ordinary that could reveal the presence of a predator or potential saviour. The language of birds was universal Anton found, even across worlds their calls were filled with meaning that one could understand if they took the time to listen. But right now the birds were singing the same songs he'd been hearing all day.

The rest of the day had gone without incident up in the canopy, he had spotted more of those dangerous fruit-like carnivorous plants early on in his journey, but he had been able to avoid them. Their sweet scent was no doubt designed to lure prey, but it still had made Anton painfully aware that he had not eaten breakfast that morning. He had come across a few fruit bearing plants and trees, but without a reliable way to test them Anton decided he would wait till he was much hungrier before he took any risks.

The sun was slowly descending in the sky, he only had a few more hours of daylight to find some sort of shelter, he needed to keep moving. Anton extended one foot off the edge of the branch into empty air and let himself drop off the edge, the air rushed passed him as he fell down towards the next branch. He skillfully absorbed the impact of the the fall, wincing slightly; doing that repeatedly all day was starting to take its toll on his feet.

The canopy was an amazing place, he often couldn't see the ground or sky because foliage was so thick. He moved quickly and silently, carefully balancing on thinner branches, crossing longer gaps between trees by using vines: Being suspended upside down on a vine hundreds of feet in the air made even Anton a little queasy, but often he had no choice.

A few hours later and Anton was much closer to the forest floor; there was very little cover in the canopy and he didn't want to sleep exposed. He walked on the very lowest of the large branches, "only" between one and two hundred feet off the ground, searching for a place to sleep. The light had already faded and Anton was starting to worry he wouldn't find anything before dark. The birds that had kept him company all day had settled down for the night, as had the wind. Strange new sounds filled the air, but overall the jungle was much quieter at night.

Finally he came across something promising: a round hole in a tree, about as tall as he was and partially obscured by a curtain of mossy vines. Anton cautiously approached the wooden cave, not wanting to disturb anything that might already call it home. He looked around at the surrounding forest, there was something else about this place... His mind was nagging at him, as if there was something important he was missing...

THERE!!! Anton nearly jumped when he saw what was unmistakeably a path, cut in the undergrowth directly under the hole! It surely lead somewhere. He could take the path in the morning, or at least follow it in the trees. Finally he had something to guide him, now he wouldn't feel like he was wandering aimlessly in the woods anymore! But that was for tomorrow, it wasn't a good idea to move at night in unfamiliar territory, and he was exhausted.

He carefully pushed aside the vegetation concealing the entrance of the hole and looked around, it was empty. He stepped inside, it wasn't very deep, but it would do.

Anton lay down on the ground – the wood was hard and uncomfortable, but he was very, very tired. He tried to play back all the things that had happened during the day in his mind, but exhaustion was taking hold very fast. He was surprised how easily sleep was coming to him.

All day he had doubted he would get any sleep at all on his first night, but as evening wore on he came to accept what had happened and the situation he found himself in: If he had transported himself here then there was a good chance he could transport himself back. And provided he survived the coming days, he might find his way home one day, one way or another...

He thought of his family back on Adara. Had his displacement left any indication of what had happened? Would they simply think he had disappeared? Would they guess what had happened, as unlikely as it seemed? It was a stretch, but maybe they could guess, Daphné knew he was having an episode... They would be worried sick though, that much he knew. But if and when he did make it back, he would have one hell of a story to tell.

And on that thought, Anton drifted off to sleep.