Simply Complicated

(Alex)

I fell asleep just after Cara did. Except this time, something happened that I had only ever heard about, never experienced. I had a dream. It felt so real. I was standing in a large meadow, with tall grass and the most beutiful, colorful flowers I had ever seen. I was standing on a trail, behind me was the meadow, no trail, in front of me the trail continued on. I walked down the trail, expecting to see birds or bees or something of that nature, but instead I saw the weirdest thing ever concieved. It was tall and lanky, with a falcon wing on one side and a bat wing on the other. It had the right claw of an eagle, though it had thumbs, and a left lion paw. It had the tail of what could only be described as a dragon, a moose leg, and a dragon leg. It also had antlers, one deer, one goat. But the thing that struck me the most were the eyes. Yellow with red pupils. Like the taxi driver for that one moment.

"Why hello there, human. Like the little dreamscape I've created for you? It's a lucid dream so you can do anything you want. Just don't make things too predictable. Or you could just immediately talk to me, but I thought I'd give you a dream because you've never experienced one before. Oh, by the way, the girl will be here soon as well, Fluttershy said you felt good when you did nice things." He mumbled that last part to himself.

Being that this was all just a figmant of my imagination, I decided to have a little fun. My back felt tingly, stronger, more ridgid. My mouth started to ache and my chest felt like it was burning. My eyes grew more focused, and my hands became more slende. Suddenly my back ripped open, and out soputed two leathery wings. My whole body felt like it was on fire, but yet, it didn't hurt in the slightest. When the transformation was complete, I was twenty times bigger and in the form of someone I knew well. Alduin.

"Interesting, Nordic dragon god of death. Not the most pleasent drake around, and he always cheats in poker." The monster firmly scowled at the last bit. I ignored him. When I changed back to my regular form, it was just a flash of light and 'Poof' I was human.

'POP' I turned around to the noise. (I didn't do that.) was my first thought. Standing there was Cara.

"Ah good, you're both here, now lets get things started, shall we? Your world is by far the most chaotic in the universe, so I picked out of. a hat-" he snapped his fingers and a bowler hat the size of my fist appeared in his hand. "-and out of all seven billion of you, you two came up." He reached into the small bowler hat up to his shoulder and pulled out an ornate, life-sized, DaVinci style painting of me, and an even bigger roman-style statue of Cara. "So, I'm going to send you to my world for an unprecedented amount of time. Time here will be put to a standstill, so when you get back, you can have that little camping trip you planned. Oh, and no guns. The peoples of my world would not take too kindly to a weapon of such calibur. Anyways, arivadercci!" And he snapped again. A blinding flash of light erupted from his lion-paw and I woke with a start.

"Ah!" I take a deep breath to calm myself and look at Cara. She's in much the same position I am, taking deep calming breathes. She looks at me.

"Weird dragon goat thing?"

"Yep."

"Let's go assess the damage." And with that,  she crawls out of the sleeping bag and opens the tent.

"Alex, are there any rainforests in Colorado?"

"No."

"Well this place bears a striking resemblance to the Amazon."

"Shhhii-talking mushrooms."

I walk outside with Cara at my side. We were still by a river shallow in a clearing, but the trees were a lot thcker, vines were hanging from almost all of them, and the foliage surrounded the clearing, completely obscuring the rest of the forest. There is a path leading away from the clearing, deeper into the forest.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god! Alex, what do we do!?" Cara's eyes are wide and she looks on the verge of panic.

"Hey, hey, it's okay, we'll get out of this. We'll still do as we planned and document some animals and plant life, if only to keep us occupied. This could be a great learning experience for us." Despite what I say, I'm just as panicked as Cara. In a completely foreign world, with no sembiance of where we are, it is quite worrying.

"Promise?" I look deep into her eyes.

"Promise." She takes a shaky breath. "O-okay, I believe you. I believe you." She starts taking deep breathes again.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay."

"Okay." We walk further into the clearing. Being in an unknown area, I decided that any weapons at all would be a good idea. I climb up one of the trees and grab some of the thicker vines and ten branches. After I get these materials, I go down to the tent, grab a rucksack, and collect some shapely rocks from the river shallow "Cara! C'mere!" I hear her footsteps from where I'm standing, and when I turn around, I'm quite surprised at what I see. Cara has changed into a different outfit. A camo tank top that hugs her form perfectly with cargo pants of the same color, and matching combat boots to go with it. She tied her hair up into a braid, letting her bangs frame her face. Overall... Damn.

"Yeah?" I just stared like a dumbass. "Uh, Alex? Hello?" Suddenly she was right in front of me, waving in my face.

"Oh! Uh... Sorry. Anyways, since we're here in a completely foreign place, and we have no idea what is here, I've decided to teach you whittling, stone carving, advanced knotting, and the essentials of hunting."

"Oh. Okay." She looks at me.

"Oh! Alright, uh let's get started."

So for an hour we whittled, carved, and tied our own ropes, spears, and arrows. She caught on to whittling and carving quite quickly, but had trouble with the knots. When we were finished, we had four spears, two bow skeletons, and sixty arrow shafts from branches I had collected in the middle of our session. "Alright Cara. We've got the equipment we need, but we just need a couple more things. And we can get all of these by hunting." I get up and motion for her to follow me. "We're going to have to start an exercise and training regimen for you so we can better survive in case civilization is not nearby."

"You know how to fight?" She asks with a skeptical eyebrow.

"My dad thought it would be a good idea to live in a forest, away from civilization. I learned survival skills ever since I could talk, and when I turned fourteen, mom moved us into the city where I got a formal education. I went to college after that and got a masters in psychology, teaching, and astrology. I was planning on applying for physics after I got out of the teaching business."

"When were you planning on doing that?"

"Uh, actually, you are pretty much the only student that I like so, once you went into college, I guess." I feel heat rise up into my face. I look at her and see that her face has taken a crimson tint as well.

"Really?" She smiles a little. I just nod. Her smile grows wider. "That's one of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me. A little weird, but still."

"Yeah, yeah." My cheeks just grow hotter. "Anyway, uh, let's get started." So we set out onto the path.

We encounter a few things as we go. Cara even managed a perfect spear throw right into the head of an elk. We made a few trips back and forth on our hunting trip. We were on our third trip when we heard it. 'CRASH' It was loud and sudden, out of nowhere. We both turned toward the sound, emenating from the left.

"What was that!?" Cara is down low, tensed and ready to flee.

"I don't know, and I'd rather not find out." We start for the camp, which just happens to be in the direction of the sound.

"Shit." I look at Cara. "Hey, I'm eighteen, I can say what I want."

"That's fine, just don't let your dad catch you doing that." We continue towards the sound, spears at the ready. When we hanive, I almost piss myself. Standing there, with my torn up sleeping bag and an elk in its hand, was a giant blue bear.