Chapter 2
Will groaned as he opened his eyes. The sun was shining so brightly overhead that he had to shield his eyes. He held a hand to his head and looked around himself.
Yup still lost.
He slowly got to his feet. As he did so he put his other hand to his head to best steady himself as a bought of dizziness struck him hard. After a couple seconds the feeling passed and he was able to continue to look around. "Are the trees bigger than they were last night?"
He started paying closer attention on the finer details around him. "I thought this forest was all pine trees. Where the heck did I run to last night?"
He wasn't sure what kind of trees they were but they definitely weren't pine. For one, the trunks were huge. He figured it would take four or five of him to wrap his arms around the whole thing. And they were tall. He looked up. They definitely seemed much bigger than the pines he was used to. They were at least twice the height.
An uneasy feeling gripped him. Something felt off. He shook himself and tried yo push away the feeling. "Nothing to do but keep walking. With as far as I ran last night, I'm probably closer to the other side of this forest than from where I entered it at. Yea, I'm just really turned around."
Another problem was, he wasn't a hundred percent sure which direction he had been going before he knocked himself out.
"And who knocks themselves out? Seriously."
The joke at himself helps him to feel a little better and the uneasy feeling go down somewhat. He the. picked the direction he was almost positive he was heading last night and continued to walk. After half an hour he realized another problem. He was incredibly thirsty. And hunger was starting to set in. Not that hunger was an altogether new feeling for him. Just like loneliness and fear, hunger was an almost constant companion.
Hunger he could deal with though. Thirst however…well one problem at a time.
After another fifteen minutes he finally saw something.
"I think the woods are thinning! Finally I'm at the end of this thing! Whew that was close. I was actually starting to think I might not make it out of here."
As Will walked out of the woods, he realized that he hadn't found the end of the forest, just a decently sized clearing. And it wasn't completely empty. There was a small log cabin smack dab in the center of it, a thin trail of smoke rising from the chimney.
Instantly Will's uneasy feeling skyrockets. He'd watched too many scary movies to not know this was the kind of place mass murderers who eat weary travelers like to live. But honestly what other choice did he have?
"I swear if I get eaten I'm going to be so pissed."
He walked up to the house and stepped onto the small porch. Taking a deep breath to steal his courage, Will knocked on the door.
The door opened immediately and a tall man appeared in the doorway. He was maybe 6'5, broad shouldered, with pitch black hair, a slight goatee, and piercing green eyes. He was wearing an odd looking shirt, designed in a way he hadn't seen before. It looked like to be made of silk, and...were those black leather pants? The expression on his face was menacing with a look of bewilderment.
"You are not supposed to be here." His voice was deep with a pitch to match the menacing look across his face.
"Uhh…sorry?"
The bewilderment vanished and a sense of irritation replaced it.
"How did you get here?"
Will took a second to answer. Looking up at the man that could most definitely kill him where he stood with no trouble at all, seemed to have left him struggling to find his words.
"Um..uh..I..I think there's been a mistake." The man seemed to be about to say something but Will rushed on with his explanation before the imposing man had a chance to pass judgement. "I was just running through the woods, trying to get home. I thought I knew the way and I got turned around. Before I knew it I was lost and then there was this crazy blue moon that seemed to fill everything around me in blue light and then BAM! Tripped, hit my head, and when I woke up everything seemed different. Anyway then I walked a little way and here we are."
Will rambled a little at the end but he just wanted to get through his explanation. He didn't want to die because this man thought he was trespassing on purpose.
The man raised a defined eyebrow into a slight arch. He almost seemed at a loss of what to say or maybe just deciding on what the best course of action would be.
After a few seconds of the man staring at Will he finally turned aside and gestured into the cabin. "Well then, come on in and let's see if we can't get you sorted out."
What?? No way! Awesome, this guys gunna help me out.
Will tried not to think of the slight chance that he was serving himself up on a silver platter here. But at the end of the day he needed help and this guy was the only one around for miles. Well, most likely.
Will hesitantly walked into the cabin and the man closed the door behind him.
"Take a seat."
Will looked around. There looked to be a small bedroom off to the right. At least he guessed that's what the only other door in the cabin led to. To the left was a tiny kitchen and a table with three chairs.
Will walked over to one of the chairs and sat down. The man following soon after.
"Don't suppose you get any cell service out here huh?" Wait….his cell phone!
In his panic he didn't even realize the missing weight from his pocket. His hand immediately went to his pocket and found it empty. "Must of dropped it in the woods." He mumbled.
The man's eyebrow became a bit more arched as he questioningly gazed at Will.
"No. Not really." The man intoned. "I like the peace out here. The quiet. It's a nice place to think and gain perspective."
"Yea, I've heard a lot of people go camping for the same reason. I'm sure having a whole cabin makes that a lot easier."
The man just stared at him again, his expression unreadable. Almost as if he was intentionally guarding himself.
"I'm Will by the way. Will Asher. It's nice to meet you. Again, thank you for helping me out like this."
"Ezra."
He says it straight faced and with no seeming intention to say more.
"Well Ezra, nice to meet you. So do you know the way back to Valley Street? It's where my house is at. I know I ran pretty far into the woods but I didn't think I ran far enough to run into someone's cabin. Have the developers been trying to buy your property? I bet they've been a pain."
Again he realized he had started to ramble. It was hard not to be nervous in this kind of situation.
"You really don't know where you are do you?"
"Umm..no sir? Like I said if you can just point me in the direction of Valley Street I'll be on my way and won't bother you any further."
Ezra took a deep contemplative breath. His eyes searching Will, weighing him. Seeming to decide what to do.
Will continued to get more nervous and then felt a…feeling, pass over him. He would call it a presence, or maybe an assessment? He couldn't explain why if someone asked him to explain it. It's simply what his intuition was telling him.
"What the heck was that?" He mumbled.
"You felt that?" Ezra said, both of his eyebrows slightly raised. "Hmm. That settles it then."
"Um, what settles what sir?"
"Call me Ezra kid." He chuckled. His voice deep and seemed to vibrate the room around him. "I know you don't know where you are. In fact, this whole thing must seem very odd to you." Will was about to say something to confirm but Ezra cut him off and kept talking. "I would explain it, but you wouldn't believe me even if I did." Ezra let a few breaths go by as he looked at Will without saying anything. It looked like he'd finalized a choice he'd made up in his mind.
"Here's what I'm going to do for you kid. I can't send you back. That's beyond even me. Where you come from is off limits to practically everyone. But I'll send you on your way to where you need to go, and even make sure you end up somewhere where you'll be safe. Relatively." Ezra adds the last part as an after thought and with a little smirk, not wanting to outright lie to the child.
"And, because you've been so respectful and show so much talent, I'll even throw in a kicker. Have you ever heard the expression 'blessed by the dragons'?"
Me? Talent? Wait..dragons??
"Listen Ezra, I'm not really sure about what's going on here bu-"
Ezra lets out a booming laugh. Will's ear drums almost rupture. "I look forward to seeing how you turn out kid! You're either going to be really special or a complete flop. I'm bettin' on the special though."
Ezra snaps his fingers and a concussion impact sounds out. Will sees a bright white light and losses consciousness. Again.
Chapter 3
Will woke up disoriented and flat on his back. He gets up and puts a hand to his head. A movement that for some reason was beginning to become a common occurrence.
"This can't be good for me. I hope I don't get brain damage from all these times I've been knocked out." Will says to himself. "At least I think I was knocked out. I don't think I passed out on my own."
Actually, Will felt pretty good. Oddly so. After running for hours, enduring extreme anxiety, fatigue, and being knocked out twice, he should have felt like crap. But he actually felt pretty good.
Will stood the rest of the way up and looked around. The cabin was gone, and so was the clearing. Will stood on the edge of a wood line to a dark forest. Odd how dark it looked despite it seeming to be the late morning, he thought.
Opposite the forest was wide open rolling plains. Little copse of trees were dotted here and there across the landscape, but for the most part, it was all picturesque rolling hills.
"Where am I? I know for a fact I'm no where close to Valley Street."
Anxiety and fear start to creep up on Will again. At the same time, his thirst hit him like a train.
"I don't know what's going on but I need to find drinkable water and fast." Will didn't know much, but he knew finding drinkable water was rule number one of surviving being lost in the wilderness.
Despite his need for water, the entire situation started to become too much for him. The reality of it all was starting to really set in and he started to hyperventilate.
How do I survive this?! I'm just a kid! Am I really going to die because I got lost in the woods?!
His breathing became more labored. His chest rises and fell more rapidly. A rasping moan started to form in his throat.
"Ahhem!" Someone cleared their throat very loudly and clearly behind him.
Will twisted and turned rapidly to face the man standing behind him. Staring open mouthed at the stranger that seemed to appear out of no where.
"Son, what in the blazes is wrong with you?"
Will was caught so off guard by the question that his heavy breathing abruptly stopped.
Did he..did he just yell at me for having a panic attack??
"What's wrong with me?! I'm going to die mister! Die because I somehow got lost in what should have only been a square mile of woods trying to get to my house! And then BAM! Knocked out twice and now I'm sitting here in the middle of no where with NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!" His breaths started to pick back up half way through his tirade and he ended up shouting at the end while hyperventilating again.
The man walked up to Will and promptly slapped him right across the face.
Will stood stock still. Shock written plain across his face and his breathing suddenly back under control. He looked up at the man again.
"Do I need to do that again?"
Will quickly scrambles backward several paces in a panic. "No no no! I'm good now."
The man smirked. "Good. Now that you're more under control of yourself, start from the beginning and try to answer this question. How did you end up in this exact spot?"
Will didn't see a reason to lie. He just needed to find a way home! True, his story did sound a little crazy, he barely believed it himself! But push come to shove, he could just say he must of hallucinated the cabin in the woods part.
With that solution in his back pocket if he needed it, Will told the old man his story.
As the explanation continued the man's expression became more and more stone faced. By the time he finished the man just stared at him.
All of a sudden a feeling similar to the one he felt in front of Ezra occurred again. A feeling of being assessed, a presence laid over him and that presence seeing into him. The feeling wasn't as strong as it was with Ezra, but it was still unsettling.
Will shivered as the feeling passed. "I'm not sure what you're doing but man that feels weird."
The man's eyes widened.
"It's faint, but you have Ezra's mark on you." Which I'm sure he left for me to find. The man thought to himself. "And I can see why if you were able to sense that."
Sense?
"Sir I'm not trying to be rude but I really would like to go home. Do you know which way even the nearest town is?"
"Son…" The man looked at Will for a few seconds. "What's your name?"
"Will, sir. Will Asher."
"Ok Will. My name is Amos Statler. Come with me."
He said it's abruptly and forcefully. He didn't really give Will a chance to say no or ask where he wanted to take him. Lost in the confusion and stress of it all, Will followed.
They didn't go far. Maybe half an hour of easy walking into the dark woods. What was odd was the darkness seemed to permeate everything. It wasn't just an absence of light. It almost felt like the forest was producing darkness.
After half an hour of walking they came upon a small clearing, maybe only fifty feet across, with two decently sized stumps spaced a couple feet apart from each other.
"Take a seat." Amos told him while heading to the stump slightly farther away.
They both sat down and faced one another. Amos with a tense look on his face and Will with one that was becoming more and more exasperated. He just wanted to go home.
"Ok, here it is kid. The man you saw in that cabin was not a man. Not really. You're not in the same world you were born in. You're not even in the same universe. Where you are now is somewhere entirely different, with an entirely different set of rules. At least that's what I would assume. I don't pretend to know the rules of every universe. Getting back there might very well be an impossibility. I'm not really sure. What happened to you is rare and not much is known about the process. The only thing that is absolutely known is that travel between universes is extremely difficult; next to impossible."
He stopped there. Just stopped and stared at Will. The man spoke as if he were discussing having a tough day at work. Annoying but not unmanageable. It took Will so off guard that he couldn't even form an immediate response. He just sat and stared right back at Amos.
After a solid thirty seconds of staring back at him, Will finally responds. "You're serious aren't you?"
"Deadly."
Will say there, eyes going to the forest floor. This man was telling the truth. At least he thought he was. The only scenarios Will could see as possibly being real were either the entire thing was actually true, or he'd been hallucinating vividly for hours and this man is some deranged and probably escaped looney bin patient.
But wait, he was knocked out and he was definitely not in his home town anymore. So was he still unconscious, lying on the forest floor and this was an intense dream? With him alowly dying of hypothermia and thirst?
He shivered at the thought and mentally shook himself. No, he was definitely conscious. So if he was conscious, and not where he started, that meant he hadn't been hallucinating right?
Ugh, this was too much.
I'm not in another world! I can't be! Will thinks to himself.
After a few minutes of arguing, rationalizing, and debating with himself, Will looked back up at Amos.
"Listen. I have no idea what's going on. I know you just explained it. Kinda. But this is all too much to really believe."
The man sighed. "I don't have much patience for people who don't have sense enough to see what's right in front of their eyes. I'll make a small exception for you considering the circumstances. And only out of respect for Ezra."
Amos raises his right hand and a three tiny metal balls, about the size of a marble and dark grey in color, come flying out of his pocket and rotate in a circle over his hand. "Proof enough for you?"
Will stared wide eyed at the display. The ability to speak having left him once again. The man stopped rotating the metal balls and they slowly floated back into his pocket.
"The way I see it kid, you got two choices. You can come with me or you can go out and try to make it on your own. It wouldn't be impossible, but I really wouldn't recommend it."
"You would help me? Just like that?" Will said with no small amount of disbelief and skepticism. In his experience, people don't just randomly decide to go way out of their way to help others.
"You think you just so happened to appear in front of me right as I was walking by this area? Right on the edge of one of the most isolated places on this planet?"
"Uhh..maybe?"
Amos grunted and looked to be about to roll his eyes before holding himself back. "I refuse to believe you're that much of an idiot." He paused as if waiting for a response. Wasn't that supposed to be rhetorical? "Ezra knew what he was doing."
Will started. "Ezra sent me to you?"
"Of course he did. I knew he'd call in this favor eventually. Just a little odd he decided to do it now." Amos seemed to think to himself for a second before dismissing the matter for another time. "I'm willing to help you. If you come with me I'll answer your questions and explain some things to you. I'll even train you, if that's what you decide you want. Be warned though. If you come with me you will not be allowed to leave until I'm sure you will be able to survive on your own in this world and not immediately die as you spend three seconds away from anyone keeping an eye on you."
Didn't really sound like that bad of a deal to Will. "Deal." He said.