Of Two Worlds

He winced as something dug deep into the small of his back.

Did I fall asleep on my phone?

He instinctively rolled over, expecting soft relief. Instead there was an unexpected hardness under him and heat on his face.

What the…..?

Opening his eyes to blinding light, he grimaced and brought a hand up.

What the hell?!

As his eyes adjusted, there was nothing but endless grassland peppered with an occasional tree and capped by a blindingly blue, cloudless sky as far as he could see.

“Wha…what?” He shot up and spun his head around in a panic, taking in his surroundings.

As far as he could see, it was the same. He looked up and realized he was sitting under one of the trees. He felt something painful under him and after lifting his thigh, saw one of the roots. He took another deep breath and scanned the area as his heart pounded in his chest.

WHAT THE HELL?!

“Hello? Anyone there?”

His voice faded into the distance.

“Anyone? Hello? This isn’t friggin’ funny!”

He took another breath in a vain effort to calm down.

“Ok, Caden. Stop. Think. What did you do last night?”

Nothing. Nothing stood out to him. The commute home. An empty apartment. Leftover pizza. Netflix on the couch. Facebook on his phone until he fell asleep.

My phone!

He looked around in a panic. Standing up, a scan around him didn’t reveal his phone.. As he looked down at his body, he finally realized what he was wearing.

I’M STILL IN MY PAJAMAS!

He was clad in black gym shorts and a wrinkled white t-shirt. He looked down to see grass between his toes.

Great. Wait, why do I care?

He scrubbed his hands violently over his face, hoping he’d rip himself out of the dream. He opened his eyes to the same scene.

Nope. Still here.

“Ok dude. Think. You went to bed and….woke up here.” He looked around. “WHERE THE HELL AM I?”

He scanned the area again, looking for anything that might give him a clue. Grass. Trees. Azure sky. He could be in almost any temperate part of the country. Of many countries.

His heart continued it’s violent rhythm in his chest as his breathing went shaky. No. Stop. Panicking won’t help. Think! How did I get here?

He took a deep, steadying breath and let his mind race through the last few days. His life had been the very picture of normal. He went to work, came home and sat in an empty apartment, wasted time and then went to bed just to repeat it all day after day.

“Was I kidnapped?” He took a look at himself. He had no bruises and there were no rope marks or torn clothing. He looked perfectly fine. He tried to remember if anything had woken him up last night. Nothing. He had slept like the dead.

Kidnapped? He almost laughed at the absurdity of it.

“Why would anyone kidnap me?” It was insane. He worked as a gym teacher and lived in an apartment furnished with the best Ikea he could assemble. His father was a retired postman and his mother had never worked. His ransom wouldn’t be worth the gas they spent to get him.

He thought of his coworkers and friends. Did they know he was missing by now? Had anyone reported it? What about his parents?

Would they even care?

He shook his head and took another deep breath. That’s not going to help.

“Think. Stop and think.” He forced himself to talk calmly. “You aren’t hurt. You aren’t in pain. You aren’t………” he took a few steps from the tree “….tied down.”

No, you're just standing in the Shire in your underwear.

At least the weather’s nice.

He stared out at the landscape below for a few moments, wondering what he should do next when something caught the corner of his eye.

What?

At the very edge of his vision, something was flying across the horizon away from him.

“What...the hell?”

He rubbed his eyes and looked again. He could barely make out what looked like a large pair of wings attached to a round body. A dark grey body, accented with what looked like a pure white stripe on the top of the head.

He shook his head again. “No friggin way….”

He watched as it quickly moved out of sight.

“That looked like a…” He stopped himself before he said it. “You’re seeing shit Caden.”

“Maybe it was a drone or something. Model plane?” He stared off towards where it had flown out of sight. Maybe there are people that way?

Or maybe you’ll run straight into whoever brought you here.

He looked back at the tree. “No food or water. It’s also possible whoever brought me here will come back to look for me.” He bit his lip and looked back in the direction the object flew.

I’ll starve if I stay here.

He looked down at his bare feet. All those years of track might finally pay off. If I stick to the grass I should probably be ok. It seems to stretch on towards where…..whatever that was flew.

He took one more look around. It was as empty and pristine as when he woke up. He sighed.

Hopefully this doesn’t bite me in the ass. Literally.

He took a deep breath and slapped himself on the cheeks.

“All right, Caden. Let’s go.”

Some time later, he crested a tall, rolling hill and winced at the growing ache in his feet. Sitting down, he grabbed a foot and did his best to rub the soreness out.

At least it’s been grass so far. Walking on rocks would have sucked.

The terrain had been pretty consistent. He had noticed as he went that the hills were increasing, as was the tree cover. He hadn’t seen any signs of civilization yet. Besides the random bird, rabbit or other small creature, he hadn’t run into any kind of life at all. No food or running water either.

He looked out as he started working on the other foot. From here it looked like the hills kept getting steeper and in the far distance, a dark green line painted the edge of the horizon.

A forest?

Along his gaze, the clouds thickened considerably. At the far edge, above the forest they were significantly darker than above him. He looked to be heading straight for a pretty powerful thunderstorm.

Fantastic.

He watched the storm clouds for a moment and sighed as he realized they were heading towards him.

Even better.

He turned and looked behind him. I guess I could turn around or go the other way.

He winced as his hands found a particularly tender spot. He eased his grip, slowly kneading out the pain.

No. I’ll keep going. Even if I turn around, the storm might follow me.

He looked at the horizon again. I really don’t want to be under trees during a lightning storm.

He thought of the plain behind him. Better than being out in the open though. The storm looked wide enough in the distance that he didn’t think he’d be able to outrun it laterally.

He stopped the massage and stood up. Probably better to shelter in the forest.

He also knew there was a chance he’d run into whoever had brought him here. The more he thought about his situation, the more bizarre it became. How did he get here without being awoken? He didn’t feel like he had been drugged. How was that possible?

Why had they just seemingly dumped or forgotten him in the middle of nowhere? Why go to all this trouble just to forget him? Why him at all? How did they get into his apartment? The whole situation made his brain hurt.

And where is here? I live in Colorado. There’s nowhere like this for hundreds...maybe thousands of miles.

Even a thousand miles away, he was having a hard time placing where in the U.S he might be. To say the landscape was pristine was a gross understatement. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen nature this perfect in books or movies. Everything was….almost otherworldly. He didn’t know if he had ever smelled air this clean. There were no roads or paths. It was like the whole place had never been touched by humans.

He shook his head. He had spent a fair amount of the trip thus far trying to get a grasp on his situation. The more he thought about it, the more confused he got.

His eyes snapped up to the rapidly growing grey wall.

Let’s just find shelter, that’s priority one.

He started moving again, this time moving at a full jog. As the edge of the forest got closer, he noticed how dense it was. Large, green trees rose into the sky in a dense, almost uniform line at the end of the hillscape. He made his way over hill after hill, wincing occasionally as the ground became more rocky. His feet were really starting to hurt. Years of track or not, he wasn’t used to running through nature in his bare feet.

After a while, he came to the top of the last hill and through the trees, he could see a small clearing. Past that it looked like the tree cover increased significantly.

Looking up, he saw the edge of the storm was right above him. Between the rapid darkening of the clouds and the sun setting, he was losing light quickly.

Shit.

He stopped and gave the clearing a once over. It would probably provide adequate shelter through the storm.

Better a bunch of trees than out in the open. Less lightning chance that way.

He jogged down the hill and towards the trees. By the time he arrived, the wind had picked up significantly. Leaves and dust whirled around him as he looked up through the treeline. He could see towering, dark clouds surging as flashes of light danced across the oncoming wall. Thunder rumbled from somewhere.

Need to find something fast!

Before long he found a spot that seemed suitable enough to keep him out of the rain. A tree on the edge of the clearing was split down the middle and formed a sort of natural nook that he hoped would keep him dry. Kicking as many rocks, fallen leaves and bits out of the hole as he could, he settled down.

By now the thunder had grown significantly louder and the last of the light had vanished as black clouds overtook him. Within a few moments, the wind kicked up even more and he heard the first drops hitting the ground somewhere in the grove.

He felt himself shivering, more out of stress than cold.

Still, a fire would be nice. He sighed, thinking back to a time when his Dad had talked him out of joining the Cub Scouts and into his first year of sports instead.

At least that was finally useful for something, he thought as his mind drifted to his aching feet..

He pushed the memory away and tried to settle in. Leaning back in his nook, he watched as the storm continued to increase in intensity. Before long he could see the sky churning above him as through the lightning strikes onslaught of lightning.. In a matter of seconds, the rain went from a few drops to a torrent.

He crawled as far back into the nook as he could but it wasn’t much help. Aided by the wind, the rain was pelting him. He shivered again and watched as the storm continued to get worse. The rain was loud now, loud enough that he would have had to yell to hear himself talk. Thunder rumbled every few seconds and the sky strobed above.

He thought back to his apartment and his bed. How in the hell did I get here? What is going on? He swallowed as he felt his throat tighten in emotion. No. Not now. Stay calm.

He looked back out at the lightning bursts above him, wondering what he should do next.

It was between two such bursts that he caught his first glimpse of them. In the darkness across the grove, he saw two huge, glowing emerald green spots floating behind the rain. As he watched, bobbed in the dark and slowly blinked in and out of existence a few times, growing slightly larger between each blink. After a moment, two more sets joined on either side.

Oh shit. OH SHIT!

A rapid series of lightning strikes revealed his stalkers as they slunk into the clearing in front of him.

“What the fuck?” He barely got the words out as his mind tried to comprehend what he was looking at.

They were clearly wolves. The shape, the sounds, the movement. But these weren’t like any wolf he had ever seen.

WHAT IN THE FUCK AM I LOOKING AT?!

The wolf’s entire body was a mass of moving sticks and logs. Even the teeth were small, sharply pointed sticks. He couldn’t see what was holding them together; they just seemed to move as one large mass. Within moments, he saw their mouths pull back to reveal all their teeth as they crouched, clearly preparing to lunge.

He shot out from his shelter and immediately looked around to see if there was anything around him he could use as a weapon. A few branches and small rocks littered the area but he didn’t see anything large enough to use as a weapon.

“Doubt I can outrun them.” He took a panicked glance around and then back at his shelter. “The tree. Maybe I can climb it.”

Between the dark and the rain, it was almost impossible to see any distance. Finally he spied one long, thick horizontal branch from the main trunk that was probably seven or eight feet in the air. He looked back over his shoulder to see that the wolves were now in a full run at him. Sprinting forward, he splashed through the mud and jumped up towards the branch with all the adrenaline-fueled strength he could find.

He was able to get enough purchase to barely wrap both arms around it. The limb itself was soaked and as soon as he’d stepped out from his shelter, he’d been drowned in rain. His hands were soaked and he felt his grip slipping. Gritting his teeth, he tried to reassert his grip.

As he pulled up, he almost immediately felt the strength give in his left shoulder as fire racked the left side of his body. He screamed as a memory of him lying on a track, clutching his shoulder and sobbing shot through his mind.

“Come on. Not now dammit! Pull Caden! PULL!”

He was making headway when he felt himself lurch down as excruciating pain erupted from his left leg. He screamed again and looked down. One of the wolves’ jaws was clamped down on his left calf. He heard it snarl and felt it shake its body, trying to loosen him from the branch. He could see blood running down through the jaws. The other two were jumping and trying to grab his other leg. As it shook, he felt something give way as more fire lanced it’s way through his leg and the wolf fell.

Summoning the last of his strength, he pushed through the fire in his shoulder and got his right leg up and around the branch. All three wolves began jumping at the branch, barking and growling at their escaped meal.

Using his good leg and arm, he pushed himself back on the branch until he was leaning against the trunk. Every push became harder than the last, as the pain in both his shoulder and leg was getting progressively worse.

He pulled the leg up closer to him to inspect the wounds. Blood was pouring out of large gashes along either side of his calf where the wolf’s teeth had ripped the flesh away. It felt like the wound was burning.

With the bloodloss, he figured it wouldn’t be long before he went into shock. Leaning forward, he pulled his shirt off and tried to tie it around his upper calf. Even with the makeshift tourniquet, blood was still oozing from the wounds. He could feel the burning sensation making its way up his thigh.

“Shit...shit shit shit...” he whimpered through clenched teeth. “Calm...calm down Caden.” He tried to slow his breathing, to little success.

Below him, the three were still jumping and nipping at the air through a series of growls and snarls. He knew unless they left, there was no way he was going to be able to get out of the tree. He wasn’t even sure at this point if he’d be able to get down with his leg in the condition it was anyway. The firey sensation had passed his thigh and was now working its way into his lower abdomen.

He took a deep breath and screamed. “HELP! ANYONE, PLEASE HELP!” Rain battered him as his voice faded into the weather. It was taking considerable effort to keep the wind from blowing him our of the tree. Panic rose in his chest and he felt his lip quiver. Was he going to die here? He heard his voice warble at the next call. He doubted at this point that anyone would be able to hear him over the noise from the storm but he knew it was all he could do.

Tears mixed with the rain. “PLEASE! ANYONE? HELP!” He called out over and over.

Over the next several minutes, the burning sensation slowly made its way to his chest and he felt himself starting to go lightheaded. The wolves were still down there, circling patiently for their meal.

Some time went by. He wasn’t sure how much. He could feel himself slowly losing consciousness. He kept calling as long as he could but he knew by now he was barely moaning the words out. He was having a hard time staying up in a sitting position. It took all the strength he had left to stay upright and not fall off the branch and down to the wolves.

Through the haze, he thought he heard something loud rumble from the other side of the grove. He heard the wolves suddenly whimper and the growling stopped.

What…?

He saw two blurs come out of the far edge of the grove and make their way towards his tree. One very large and brown and the other small and yellow.

He could barely process that when the yellow blur suddenly shot up into the air towards him. He thought he heard a soft voice say something. Whatever was said, it was indecipherable. He felt something soft touch his cheek and he tried to focus on the yellow blur.

He got what he thought was one last semi clear look at the blur before he passed out. In that last moment, he got one last semi lucid thought out. Huh, a yellow Pegasus. Neat….

BOOM!

Twilight looked up from her report as a thunderclap echoed throughout her castle. Rain pounded against her massive bedroom windows as lightning lit up the angry, blackened sky.

“Spike?”

A distracted voice came from the floor by the foot of her bed.“Yes, Twilight?”

“When did it start storming?” She stood up from where she had been curled up on her bed and jumped down to the floor.

“About thirty minutes ago.”

She came around the corner of the bed to find the tiny dragon reclined against a pillow, nose buried in a comic book. A stack of them lay next to him.

“Thirty minutes ago? The Cloudsdale Weather Report said it wasn’t supposed to start until 7:00.” She looked over at the clock on the wall and groaned when she saw the hands read 7:30.

“How long have I been reading?”

He lazily flipped a page with a claw. “About two hours.”

“Two hours?! What about dinner?”

Without looking up, he pointed the same claw across the room to a tray sitting on a table. A daisy and daffodil sandwich sat on a plate, next to a pot of tea that she guessed had probably long since gone cold. An empty plate with a few crumbs sat next to those

“I brought dinner around six. You told me to set it over there and said you’d get to it after your page.”

She slapped a hoof to her face. “Sorry Spike.” She picked the sandwich up with her magic and floated it over to her.

He set his comic down and got up as she took a huge bite of the floating dinner. He walked over to the dinner tray. “No worries Twilight. I was able to finish the first eight volumes of the most recent Power Ponies series.” Picking up the teapot, he inhaled deeply and blew a stream of green fire at the pot. Moments later, steam began pouring from the spout.

Taking another bite of her sandwich, Twilight levitated the pot out of his claws and began pouring herself a cup. “Thmeks Spek. Jid dyu get ur chorz dun?”

He turned to her and raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t you always tell me to not talk and chew at the same time?”

She swallowed and stuck her tongue out at him. “Smarty scales. Did you get your chores done?”

He nodded. “After I brought dinner.” He shook his head. “Man, you must have really been absorbed in that report. Missing one thing going on around you is normal but you missed dinner, my chores AND the storm. That’s a lot even for you.”

She wolfed down the last of her sandwich and sipped on her tea. Outside, lightning illuminated the village of Ponyville spreading out from the castle. “I know. I know. I’m sorry.”

He walked over and looked out the window with her. “What are you reading anyway?”

“It’s a report on mining operations in Equestria. Princess Celestia sent it to me earlier.”

He raised an eyebrow “Sounds riveting.”

She nodded. “It really is! Did you know almost all of the gold mining in Equestria comes from the quarry near Las…..”

She was cut off as a deep chime reverberated throughout the castle. She and Spike looked at each other.

“The doorbell? Are you expecting anycreature?”

The tiny drake shook his head. “Nope.”

They exited her bedroom and made their way to the foyer. As they came to the massive room, two more unicorns emerged from another part of the castle.

“Are either of you expecting somecreature?”

Starlight and Sunset shook their heads in unison.

Starlight groaned as the four approached the door. “I swear if Trixie forgot her bits again, I’m gonna strangle her.”

Sunset shot her a catty grin. “I think she told me once she likes it when you do that.”

Starlight grinned back. “Actually thats Sunburst.”

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. “GROSS!”

As they made it to the immense front door, the doorbell chimed again.

“Yes, yes. Coming!” Twilight yelled as she wrapped the door in her magic. As the massive crystal door swung open, they jumped back as a dripping mess of yellow and pink dove squeaking and shivering into Twilight.

“Fluttershy?!”

A thunderclap ripped across the sky, causing the trembling pegasus to shriek and press herself further into Twilight. Sunset grabbed the door in her magic and quickly closed it.

Twilight reached a hoof up and wrapped it around her drowned friend. “Fluttershy? What in Equestria are you doing here? Why were you out in this weather?” Fluttershy’s fear of thunder and lightning was well known among her friends.

“Come on, let’s get you inside. Spike, go grab some towels.”

“On it!”

Fluttershy shook her head and squeaked something out from Twilights chest fur.

“Flutters? What did you say?”

“...pital”

“Fluttershy I can’t understan…”

The dripping mare pulled back, took a deep breath and yelled “HOSPITAL!!” before screaming again and burying her head under her front hooves as another round of thunder echoed through the castle.

The three looked at each other and back at Fluttershy. Sunset stepped forward and set a hoof on Fluttershys quaking back. “Hospital? Fluttershy are you ok? Do you need to go to the hospital?”

Pulling her hooves off her muzzle, she stood back up and took a deep breath. “Iwashidingundermybedwaitingforthestormtostopwhenmyanimalsheardsomethingcallingforhelpinthewoods!”

Another look passed between the three as Spike returned with a stack of towels. Using her magic, Twilight wrapped several of them around her friend.

“Ok. One more time please. What happened at the hospital?”

Taking another deep breath and swallowing, Fluttershy pulled a towel tighter around herself and started over. “I was hiding under my bed, waiting for the storm to stop. I had just settled down with some snacks and a nice pot of tea when a few of my animals told me they heard something weird from the woods.” She winced as another thunderclap rocked the castle but managed to keep her composure. “I was going to ignore it but they said it sounded like some creature was in pain. I couldn’t leave it, so I decided to go find out what was going on.”

Twilight hugged her friend with a wing. “That was very brave of you.”

“When I opened the door, they said it smelled like there were Timberwolves, so I decided to take Harry with me.”

Starlight nodded. “A bear would be a good escort.”

“Harry led me to a small valley not too far from my cottage. When we got there, he scared off some Timberwolves.” Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked up at them. “Oh Twilight it was terrible. We found...something there. Up in a tree. It was barely conscious when we got there and it was soaked and shivering too. It had a large wound in it’s leg. I think it had been out in the storm for quite a while.”

Starlight stepped forward. “Fluttershy, what do you mean ‘something’. What was this creature?”

She sniffed. “That’s partly why I’m here. I don’t know what it was.”

Twilight looked up at Sunset and Starlight wide eyed. There weren’t many creatures in Equestria that Fluttershy didn’t have at least a passing knowledge of.

“Can you describe it?”

“That’s just it. I’ve never seen anything like it before. No claws or wings. No hooves. No fur or scales. I think it might be some sort of ape.” She shook her head, taking another deep breath to calm herself. “It’s big. Not as big as Harry or a dragon but much bigger than a Pony. Taller than Celestia. It was wearing clothes. Harry said it kept calling the same thing out over and over.”

Twilight frowned. While Equestria was filled with its share of unique creatures, the idea of some unknown species wandering towards Ponyville in the middle of the night was concerning.

“If it was speaking and wearing clothes, I’m guessing it must be something sentient.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I thought so too. It was running a terrible fever and seemed to be in a lot of pain so we took it to Ponyville Hospital.”

“Timberwolf venom causes a fever. It must have climbed the tree to get away from them. Probably explains the leg.” Sunset said.

“I got it to Ponyville Hospital with Harry’s help about twenty minutes ago. After they took the creature, I sent him home and flew straight here.”

Twilight hugged her friend again. “Thank you Fluttershy. Honestly though, you could have waited at the hospital till the storm was over. If this thing is as injured as you say, it’s likely going to be unconscious for quite some time.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “That’s not the only reason why I flew over so fast.”

“Why then?”

“Well when we got there, one of the unicorn nurses tried to use her magic to lift it onto a gurney.” She looked up at them. “Her magic didn’t seem to work on it.”

The three spoke in unison. “What?”

“Her horn lit up and I saw her magic wrap around the creature like normal. The nurse looked like she was struggling, kind of like you girls do when you're doing a really complicated spell. After a few seconds, it barely twitched and the spell fizzled away. The nurse said she had never seen anything like it before and asked me to fly over here as fast as I could and tell you.”

Twilight shot up and looked down at her assistant. “Spike, please take Fluttershy somewhere and help her get dry.”

He nodded. “Got it Twilight.”

She looked between her students. “We’re teleporting to the hospital.” They nodded, the concern on their faces as clear as it was on hers.

Fluttershy backed up from them. “What do you think it is Twilight?”

She shook her head. “I have no idea Fluttershy.” She grimaced. “I really have no idea.”

With that, the three vanished in a trio of white flashes.