Falling

There was a blinding blue-white light and then the feeling of falling.

With a shriek of fright Midori jerked her body into a sitting position, looking around only to find herself on an emerald carpet of grass and moss. Running her hands through the long blades, unsure if they were real, her eyes were dazed and unfocused like she were slowly waking from a dream.

Then reality came into sharp and sudden focus.

She sat in the middle of some strange, primeval looking forest, enormous trees reaching toward the sky blocking all but a few slivers of orange-gold light. Thick looking mushrooms grew along the ashen bark like some kind of staircase, their caps were a pale blue with bright pink gills like some kind of forbidden fairy candy.

And although Midori had never before seen trees or mushroom of this kind, the most unsettling thing at the moment was that she was completely alone.

“Sara!? Aki!?…Evan?”

Only the sounds of the forest responded—faint birdsong and chittering insects accompanied by the rustle of leaves tussled by a warm breeze. She repeated her shouts twice more to the same result.

“Okay, well that’s going to get me nowhere.”

Standing up she dusted off any grass that had clung to the cotton trousers she had worn to the get together with her childhood friends; along with pink sandals with flattering floral straps she had been very excited to buy. It was definitely a cute outfit but hardly the attire to wander some strange forest. Nonetheless she headed out.

She first would need to find north, but the main difficulty was just finding a spot through the dense canopy where the sun was visible. Aki had gotten heavily into wilderness survival a few summers ago and subjected the rest of them to learning it too, and she’d never been more thankful for that enthusiasm until now.

“I’m never going to actually tell them that though,” Midori said to herself with a small chuckle while pulling her long, dark green braids into more of a loose ponytail.

The leaves on the trees were long and broad like the leaves of a palm tree, but underneath a glittering azure colour that reflected light akin to shimmering metals. As the wind blew through the dense canopy letting slivers of light bleed through it gave everything a dreamlike atmosphere, almost like she were wandering through the bottom of a crystal clear ocean.

She was thankful that the environment was pleasant enough to somewhat distract from the anxiety threatening to bubble over; the wind rustling the leaves brought forth a faintly sweet, pine scent from them that pleasantly tickled her nostrils. Enormous ferns offered even more shade along the path she slowly picked over toppled trees and mossy rocks.

With such sensational surroundings she figured it would be at least another hour before she broke down into a panic attack, if there was a lake ahead or some pleasant flowers she might even get lucky and last a full two.

Midori continued shouting for her friends, and while she was worried it might alert something dangerous to her location she was more curious where they could be than anything. They had all been sitting around the same table when the light had appeared beneath them, swallowing them whole. If she was here, then where they?

For at least another half hour she walked, chatting briefly to herself about the pleasant surroundings in between shouting for her friends—the silences were strangely uncomfortable— until stumbling upon a small stream that cut through the forest.

Her throat was parched, and sore from the shouting, so she quickly knelt by the bank filling her hands with crystal clear water and drinking her fill. Then taking out a handkerchief she wet it in the cool water and placed it on the back of her neck.

Letting out a sigh of relief Midori sat back and took a moment to let her mind and body rest, she hadn’t realized how tense she had been until now.

The sudden snap of branches nearby caused nearly every muscle in her body to tense up again in preparation to either fight—or more likely—run.

Jutting through the brush no more than thirty feet away was a head so big she momentarily thought it fake, until the upper body followed. An enormous boar—easily fifteen feet in length and almost half that in height, with thick jagged tusks protruding not only from it’s mouth but along it’s neck like some vicious collar—had come to the stream to drink.

Fear gripped her entire body as she watched droplets of crimson drop from matted bits of fur and tusks, small chunks of viscera visible along it’s maw making unsettling plopping noises in the water. If she were less afraid she might have thrown up at the sight and smell wafting toward her from downwind.

After a few seconds her body remembered to breath and everything inside her told her to run as quickly and quietly as she possibly could. But as she shifted her weight from one leg to the other she slipped on a rock slick with algae causing it to tumble out and clatter against several others.

She watched in horror as the enormous beast looked up in her direction, blinking three sets of black eyes; they were not the eyes of a predator, no they were the eyes of a creature that has no need of the cycle of predator or prey.

This was a monster.

It squealed in displeasure before lowering its massive head and charging.

Midori had never run so fast.

During high school she had never been the biggest fan of the “physical education” class, it always felt like a chance for perverted teachers to ogle underage girls while calling it exercise. Despite her apathy she was not the worst in the class, but at that moment she felt like she could outrun an Olympian.

She ran without care for direction, choosing instead the simplest path to travel, the one with the least detritus to trip over. Reason was gone and instinct had completely taken over.

Then, just as she was pushing off the ground, she felt one of the straps on her sandals snap. And Midori watched in horror as the world was turned on its side.

Shadow fell upon her and briefly she thought it was the boar, but that was still several paces away. Her eyes drifted skyward and that was when she saw the humanoid figure silhouette by the sun.

A voice cried out so loudly and with such excitement that even the boar forgot it’s rampage to look up.

“Cheeeee-hui!”

With the force of a jet taking flight the figure fell toward the boar, rearing back an arm before bringing it down on the beasts skull. There was a fraction of a second of sheer silence, as if the laws of sound took a moment to catch up to the inhuman feat.

Midori had never before heard what a cannon sounded like but she figured the explosive booming of that punch was likely close to that. Her ears rang and she sat stunned as dust rose from the crater that had been pounded into the earth. Dust, and a humanoid figure speaking excitedly in a language she was not familiar with; though it sounded close to a Polynesian dialect.

Stepping out of the crater was a figure whose stature seemed disproportionate to their strength, their body was stout and well-muscled but was at least half a foot shorter than Midori. The figure had what at first appeared to be a wild mane of striking azure hair but as he stepped closer she could now see it was some kind of headband with vivid blue leaves sticking up from it; a cape of curly brown hair fell over muscular shoulders, with the faint shadow of a beard and moustache on his face.

But arguably their most striking feature was the remnants of a horn poking through from just above their right temple; the horn looked to have stretched upward but had been broken off at some point leaving jagged points.

Whoever they were they were excited, it was clear by their bright golden brown eyes.

“Ua ʻike ʻoe i kēlā!?”

He reached out a hand to her, the same hand she’d seen smash into the boar’s head, and besides for a bit of redness around the knuckles it seemed fine. As she took his hand and pulled herself to her feet she realized that her worst fears were potentially true.

She’d been transported to some other world. And even worse, she clearly didn’t speak the language.

“I…uh…I’m sorry, I really don’t understand you,” she said as politely as possible while shaking her head and gesturing to her ears.

“Oh, you’re a Northerner,” he said with an tone that was hard not to mistake. Disgust.

“I guess? I mean technically I don’t really know.”

“Whatever,” with a thumb the man gestured behind him and it was then that Midori noticed the shirt he wore was not a shirt at all but meticulously wrapped bandages around the chest; she also noticed tattoo markings that disappeared beneath the bandages. “I killed the bristleheart boar so I’m keeping it.”

She stared at him dumbfounded before shrugging and nodding.

“Go for it? I’m just thankful you came when you did.”

She crouched down and picked up the sandal that had caused her to nearly die. It would be punished later.

“Bad shoes for forest travel. Thought Northerners were supposed to be smart.” He chuckled in amusement at the joke only he was in on.

“Listen you!” She said, waving her sandal threateningly in his direction, “I’m not even sure where the hell I am let alone what place I’m supposed to be from that you apparently hate! I’m just a freaking gig worker who is rapidly approaching the state of panic attack! And…and…are you even listening to me!?”

It was clear he was not and had not been since she threatened him with the sandal, he was staring at her with an unearthly focus.

“Your eyes.”

“My…my eyes?” She reached up to touch them. “Oh god what’s wrong with my eyes?”

“They’re…the colour of seafoam. Not quite blue, not quite green.”

“Oh…yeah,” she shrugged. Her eyes were one of the few things she liked about herself.

“They’re the eyes of my future wife.”

Midori sat for a few moments as the words slowly sank in.

“Your what!?”