1 CHAPTER 1: THE FALL

My head hurt. My ears were ringing. Everything was black.

It felt like a pretty long time before I opened my eyes, but eventually I could see. Not much, just some vague figures.

"ahh, ow… fuck…" I said while trying to sit up. I didn't get far. I immediately had to lie down again because the world was spinning, and I felt very nauseous. I don't know what happened, I knew something had happened, but what. I just couldn't tell you. But I was surely going to remember in a few minutes, right?

A little while later, someone leaned over me, but I couldn't see who it was as my vision was almost black. "are you ok?" a stranger (a girl, I think) asked. it was quite distant… like she was a few dozen meters away, but still. I think she was the one leaning over me.

"Are you ok?" She asked again. This time I could hear her better. I mumbled something and groaned as she helped me sit up. "What happened?" she asked, "I think I fell, quite a bit…" "how? We are in an open field." She continued. I didn't ask for this! My head was killing me! "I don't know. I was sitting on the ground one second and the next I was falling through the sky. Then everything was black." I answered. "ow, my head…" I groaned as I grabbed her as to not fall over again. "oh wait, drink this!" she said as she grabbed a flask out of her bag. It looked weird, like something you would see in DND, or any sort of medieval fiction for that matter. "It helps with the headache". I drank the purple contents of the flask. it tasted weird but nice: a bit sweet, but with the aftertaste of… of… boerenkool? What the actual fuck? You know what, I wasn't even going to question it. She sat me down against a tree and as we waited for the thing to take effect, I took the time to get a good look at her. She had brown hair and eyes and was definitely of a Mexican background. She was dressed quite peculiar, she was wearing a sort of cloth clothes, with a dark purple-ish cape.

When my head began to settle, I started asking some questions: "where am I?" "you're on what we call, ." "Who are you?" "The name is Andrea and yours?" "Casper. Hey, you probably don't know how I got here either do you?" "No, I don't." "But you do know a way back to the civilized world right?" "yeah, about that… let me explain some things."

She started talking carefully, as if not to scare me. "ok how do I explain this, you are no longer on Earth, but rather on a different world" "fuck you." I said in disbelief. She continued: "yes, you're on some island off the coast of a large continent, and as of now, there is no way back. The last known portal door has been destroyed…" I laughed. "Wait, you're serious? You're delusional" I said. "you'll see…" she said, "you'll see…"

She helped me walk to her home so I could rest and think a bit. I started looking around at the scenery: it was mostly a forest, with clear spots here and there. It looked like autumn: all the leaves were a purple, pink or brown color. that can't be right. I thought, it was summer, so even on the other side of the equator it should be winter, and not autumn. Then again, I don't think there are a lot of deciduous trees south of the equator. Then I began to hear my surroundings. I had never heard these birds before. I must be outside of Europe. But how? I was in the Netherlands a few moments back, at least, it felt like a few moments.

It was a bit chilly, but that helped with my nausea. I asked why she had called this place the islands of the beast, "well you see," she said. "We are on an island, that is partially made up of the corpse of a giant animal from thousands of years ago." "Could have expected that" I said.

When we arrived at her home (it was more a fixed-up shed), she sat me down on the couch and gave me some water. Right at that moment, some other lady walked in. The first thing I noticed about her was that she had long, pointy ears. "Hey Ani" she said, "what's going on?"

"Oh, hi Am!" Andrea replied. "This is Casper, he's a human just like me and he just got here." She explained. Then she turned to me: " This is Amy, she is my amazing girlfriend!..." Amy blushed a bit. Andrea continued: "she is not a human, because she is not from earth. She's a witch!" "A what now?" "A witch! That's what they call themselves anyway, just like we call ourselves human!" I took the time to think.

Then I felt nauseous again, not because of the concussion this time, but rather because I began to realize what she had said, and because I was thinking about how I got here. It was not a pleasant thought.

I took a deep breath, stood up, and walked towards the door. When I got outside, I started running first slowly, but increasingly faster. They yelled something, but I didn't listen. I might have run 10 minutes through that forest before I got to a clearing. At the end of this clearing was a cliff. It felt like my instincts took over and I kept running. Weird, my instincts seemed to want me dead. The cliff came closer and closer and when it was just a few steps away, I jumped.

When I fell I could just make the thought: "huh, that looks like a street in Disney world!" then I remember to tuck in my knees and extend them at the last second, and I rolled over the ground. I felt nothing and kept running. When I got to a fountain, I stopped to catch my breath and look around. It was a big town with houses and streets that made you feel like you walked in Belle's village in Disney world. Then I looked at the people: they were all kinds of different creatures. Some of them walked on 2 legs, others on 4, and again others on 3. There were flying creatures, crawling creatures, and creatures that seemed to defy the laws of nature. Some were big, others small, some were just as big as me and one of them was as tall as the houses!

Then, suddenly, it hit me like a train: there were 2 suns! I began to panic. "so she was telling the truth! Not on Earth anymore… this is crazy" I sat down against the fountain. "Deep breaths. nose in, mouth out…"

As the panic began to settle, they found me: "oh my god are you ok?" Andrea asked. "yeah I'm fine…" "how did you get here so fast anyway?" she asked. "I thought we were on your tracks". I answered carefully: "I… ahem, I might have jumped the cliff…" "WHAT!?" she screamed. "that is like a 500-meter fall!" "yeah, I don't know what I was thinking either…"

As much as they wanted to know how I survived that fall, I couldn't tell them: I just didn't know.

"Well, now that we're here, we might as well buy him some clothes. These clothes are almost falling off you." Amy said. "Yeah, good idea! I think your fall ripped up your clothes, and because you just ran through a hundred bushes. Or do you have some spare clothes in your bag?" Andrea asked. My bag! I totally forgot it came with me! We were on our way to a hand bow competition or were on our way back, so I had a bag with a bow in it. "did you get my bag?" I asked. "yes, it's at the house" "great! And no, I don't have any clothes in it." I answered her question.

When we got home, I was the owner of 3 new cloth sweaters, 3 pairs of cloth pants, 6 pairs of wool underwear, and 6 pairs of wool socks. "this should last you a while." Amy said. "I will show you to your room" it was more of a closet: a small room with a small bed and 1 tiny window. but I wasn't going to complain, they had already done so much for me while they barely even knew me. "thanks" I said, as I began putting my clothes away. When I had put them away, Amy came into my room. "so, you're going to stay with us, Casper?" she said. "yeah, I guess. I don't really have anywhere else to go." I said. "That's fine, but just so you know, you are going to be earning your stay, that means making money!" "ok" I said. "I'll go looking for a job in the morning." She nodded and walked out.

I decided I was going to bed. When I started taking off my clothes, I noticed the mirror in my room. I looked at my old clothes: a black sweater with a hoody, blue jeans that bordered on skinny jeans, black sneakers, and black socks. They were dirty and full of dust and sand. I took them off and looked in the mirror again: my brow hair (it was more of a copper color this time of year) was surprisingly neat. The rest of my body… not so much. I had not trained my body, like, ever. It was slim, but that was mostly because I had still been growing. Now that I had stopped at the impressive (for non-Dutch people) length of 1.89 meters, I had developed a bit of fat here and there, but it was unnoticeable in my clothes. I also as was pale as well, a dutchman. When I was 17, I had just averted scoliosis (if you are early, you can prevent it! Sometimes…), so my back was as straight as most male singers in the 70s. I had light scoliosis, it was something that ran through my family, but I had managed to stop it from getting worse by going to physical therapy. Which is why if I walked with my back straight, it would look I came from the higher class in the 1600s.

Now what was impressive was the flow from the neck to the shoulders, it was just… right. This was for all the places my muscles should be: if I blew them up just a little, it would look like I've trained my entire life, but remained skinny.

Now could my nerdy mind drool on my own body for so long, but I was going to cut it short here, I still had a massive headache and was going to bed after all.

As I made the final preparations to go to sleep, I looked at the sun, sorry, suns setting. It was weirdly beautiful. They were smaller than the sun on Earth, which must mean they are further away. It made sense. I mean, if they were kind of the same size as Earth's sun, they would together bring twice as much heat, so the planet had to be further away. Anyway. I noticed that one was pinker, while the other was blood red. I looked at them slowly sinking below that boiling sea, then I closed the curtains.

The next day I went looking for a job. As I walked past the little shops I started thinking what would be right for me. "selling clothes… no I don't know anything about sowing. A butcher maybe? Neh, I'll probably be too clumsy around those knives. A smith! You'd have to be strong for that, so that's a pass. Hmm… oh, there!"

It was a small bakery with a sign on the window saying: "help wanted". I walked in and spoke to the man(?) behind the counter: "hey, you still looking for help?" "yes I am, wanna apply?" he asked. "yes" I said. "great! Since you just applied I'll make an exception" he stated. " 'cause normally, we start work at six in the morning here, and I expect you to be on time tomorrow!" I already regretted getting myself into this. He gave me my hat, my work clothes, and an apron. He told me to change in the back. On my way there, it smelled like actual bread! And judging by the flower bags, it was almost the same as on Earth! "that's lucky!" I thought. "that means it'll be edible for me!"

I started to think about the possibility that medieval humans might have made contact with these people. It would make sense. How would they otherwise get grain that looks a lot like Earth's, and why else would everything else look like a fairytale? "I'm gonna ask Andrea about that when I get home" I made a note in my head.

The day went by pretty quickly, and I learned a lot about baking bread! The guy that hired me said I did well, and that my paycheck was at the end of every week. He again told me that I needed to be on time tomorrow, so I could best sleep early. I thanked him and went back to the house. I felt happy, I think I was going to make it here!

As I prepared for bed, I remembered I had my bag, and within my bow.

"I should train with it, maybe I can hunt something edible in these forests, just like the bread." I thought. For some reason, I was always obsessed that I would go hunting with my bow one day, so I packed some essential supplies into the bag: a Swiss-army knife, a compass, the tools to start a fire and a little book on how to make the essentials (like a fire, a rope, a tent, some weapons, etc). I always had these with me in my bag. It was more for show, but it came in really handy now.

I would go hunting the next week, as I was informed that the bakery isn't open on Mondays (it was Wednesday, according to the baker).