Prologue:

It was twilight and the air was starting to get chilly. Pulling his coat tighter, Thomas trudged along home.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I went to school for data analysis. All I do is sit in an office all day looking at spreadsheets. Don’t even find out anything interesting!

He had thought his job would be more like those in the movies, scrounging through data to uncover embezzling conspiracies, or discovering some secret group that actually controlled the company. Not this, not just looking through data, finding where more profit can be made or who could be “let go” aka fired, so the company could make a little more profit this quarter. It bored him to tears. But he was in it now, and had spent 5 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars to get his education. So it wasn't like he was going to change his field.

Coming up to the little grocery store on the corner of his street he popped inside. Moving through the aisles he saw his friend Michal standing behind the cash register.

“Evening Michal, got stuck with the night shift again huh?” The man called out.

“Good Evening Tou-mash.” Michal responded in his thick Polish accent pronouncing the name more like the polish name Tomasz. “Yes, Sadly. I don’t know how Dad thinks I’ll ever find a wife when I’m stuck working here when most people are off. That doesn’t stop Mom from complaining about grandchildren though.”

“Ha, don’t worry, if they are anything like mine even once you give them some they’ll still want more.” Not that Thomas had any children of his own, but his older brothers both did and that didn’t stop their Mother from pestering both him and THEM about having more. “Well, I’m sure you’ll find someone soon. The music festival is coming up again, you gonna be able to make it?”

A bright smile adorned Michal’s face. “Yes! I’ve been telling them I’m going for weeks already! So even if they try to make me watch the store that weekend, I will still be going. Ahh,” Michal sighed, “I cannot wait to finally hear new songs from C3R3AL on a big stereo system. Normal headphones just do not compare.”

“Oh yeah, he’s released some real bangers recently.” Thomas returned a smile of his own. “and…” He drew the word out, “Samantha told me that Jessica will be joining us this year” He added while wiggling his eyebrows.

Michal was still shy after all this time whenever it came to women that he was attracted to and he tended to blush easily. This time once again his face quickly became red. Thomas knew it was actually one of the things that Jessica found cute about him. He just needed to gather up his courage to finally ask her out. Samantha and Thomas were scheming to use this year's festival to finally get Michal to make a move. They had tried to get Jessica to make the first move, but she was still quite old school in that aspect and expected Michal to do so.

“Sounds like I have even more reason to look forward to the Festival then.” Michal responded with a small smile. “Maybe this time I’ll…” He trailed off looking like he didn’t quite realize he had said that last part out loud.

“It’s gonna be great fun. Anyway I have to get my groceries and get home, Charlie is probably already having a fit that I’m not back yet.” He then turned and headed back to the aisles to grab something for dinner.

“Ah! When are you gonna bring your ‘cute little puppers’, as my sister describes her, over again? She asks about it all the time.” Michal called to his retreating back.

“Mmm, how does next weekend sound? I should be free Saturday afternoon.”

“I’ll put it on our calendar, you better not forget. Sabina will have your head if you do.”

Thomas simply waved back in acknowledgment while chuckling. He then proceeded to grab some chicken, bell peppers, onions, rice and some lettuce for a salad, paid and started back on his way home.

He was looking forward to making a nice taco bowl for dinner, especially since he’d have leftovers which meant he wouldn’t need to cook again for a few days. His brain was flying with different ways that he and Samantha could use to try and get Michal and Jessica together.

With his attention so focused in his mind, Thomas didn’t notice the space in front of him tear apart and then implode into itself. He didn’t see the spiderweb like cracks spread throughout the concrete under his feet. He completely missed the distinct popping noise as the pipes under the concrete broke apart. He merely continued walking as if he had no other concerns at all.

It wasn’t until almost the entirety of his vision was overtaken by sudden darkness that he was yanked from his thoughts. As if a barrier that kept everything away shattered all the sounds hit him at once. He tried to take a step backwards but was unable to. His foot seemingly glued to its position inside the blackness in front of him. A pulling sensation hit him a moment later, and then he was simply gone. The portal disappearing with him.

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Chapter 1.

His entire body started with shock as he appeared in the middle of a bright blue sky. “What the hell!” He wordlessly screamed, his lungs unable to make much noise against the strong winds he was falling through.

Looking around he saw his grocery bag of stuff falling with him, just about to come out of his grasp. He quickly adjusted his grip ensuring nothing was able to fall out.

This is gonna hurt. If I even survive in the first place. He thought as he braced himself, the ground coming closer and closer.

His first impact was a tree branch and he felt something in his chest pop and snap, before hitting others, and finally landing on a bush.

I survived. Thomas thought in wonder, and then proceeded to pass out from the pain in his chest and throughout his body. The shock of being dropped from thousands of feet in the air probably didn’t help either.

As he was unconscious Thomas was unable to hear the bizarre sounds of hundreds and thousands of animals, Beasts and wildlife of all kinds fleeing through the forest, all away from a single point. Right where he had landed. He was unable to see the faint outline of a wave of energy explode out in all directions as it seemed to chain the wildlife.

Of course there were the rare few Beasts who stayed, knowing they could take advantage of such an event. But luckily for him they would be vastly to preoccupied to take notice of him.

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Days, weeks and even months passed, and still the man did not wake. The ambient energy levels that had soared due to the spatial tear slowly began to return to normal and the wild life of the forest began to make their way back.

Before long it was almost like everything was back to normal, and the energy hadn’t ever quintupled. However, there were still small pockets here and there that the energy stayed in higher concentrations, and in one of those pockets lay a man.

Slowly opening his eyes Thomas gave an audible sigh. “Ah, that felt great!” He let out as he stretched his arms over head. Then his eyes widened as memories came flooding into him. If I fell from that height then how am I so alert? I should have been unconscious for quite awhile. Instead if feels like I just woke up from a nice nap.

He sat up and cautiously tested his limbs to see if anything gave him pain. Looking around he found himself in a grove of trees, and all he saw around him were more trees. “...shit…” He sighed. This definitely isn’t my bedroom or my bed. Which means these memories must be real. Which brings up the question, how the heck am I uninjured?

He distinctly remembered the feeling of his ribs cracking as he impacted the branches during his fall. It was way too similar to the sensation he could still remember from when he crashed and broke his ribs while skiing.

Well silver-linings I guess, take your blessings while you have them Thomas. You’d be screwed if you had woken up with a bunch of broken bones. Pretty difficult to scavenge when you can barely breath.

Slowly standing up he took in his surroundings in more detail. Confirming what he found with his first cursory glance, he did indeed appear to be in a grove of trees. He had been laying against a huge tree which was encircled by the other trees creating a little park in the middle of wherever he was. Well Thomas, you had said you wanted more excitement in your life. I think we really pulled more than we can handle with this one though.

Looking up at the tree in the middle of the grove, he stared in wonder. Trees continue to grow no matter their age right? Then this thing has to be at least a thousand years old. It’s bigger than those crazy huge redwoods out in California.

Moving away from the central tree, he noticed that there were flowers growing all around the inner ‘park’ of the grove. They were all in varying shades of blue, ranging from deep dark ocean blues to bright cyan blues. While surveying the flowers, Thomas saw something that looked quite out of place against the beautiful nature of the grove. A white, plastic grocery bag.

My groceries! He rushed toward the bag, while unconsciously making sure to step around any flowers that were in his path. Please, somehow say that they weren’t completely destroyed. Taking the items out one by one, he was surprised to find that everything was in good condition. The peppers weren’t even bruised. No you can’t even call this good condition. These are in perfect condition, it looks like I pulled them directly from a TV commercial. Weird, I won’t complain though, this will be a start for food. I’m gonna have to start scavenging. If my memory is right, then when I was falling from the sky it didn’t seem like there was civilization for miles.

“No tools…” Thomas mumbled to himself while looking at the foodstuff. Thinking about a fire as well, he looked for any fallen branches and then up at the trees around him. Unfortunately all the trees in the grove were huge. The lowest branches being well over 20 feet in the air. Guess I’m going to have to head out of this grove sooner than I had hoped. It seems to be safe here though, so we’ll call this my base for now.

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Thomas proceeded to head out of the grove in search of a source of water and a way to start a fire. He cautiously made his way across the forest floor. However, the farther he went the more creeped out he got. There were no fallen leaves or branches anywhere. Rather, it looked more like a manicured lawn that you would see in front of some rich person’s mansion. Even after cautiously walking for almost 5 minutes it still looked the same.

It wasn’t until he traveled for another 10 minutes that things started to appear more like a normal forest. There were leaves and branches littered across the forest floor. He noticed bushes and other forms of underbrush growing. He could hear sounds like those of forest wildlife. Birds calling, and insects chirping and buzzing. One thing was for sure though. He was in a forest unlike any he had ever seen. The trees, while not as huge as the one at the center of the grove, were still large. There branches started well above his head, and he was over 6 feet tall.

As he kept walking he noticed some berry bushes off to the side and slowly approached them. They had multiple different colored berries on them. Some were red, others blue and yet others a purplish color.

As he got closer he saw a small animal was picking through the berries in the bush. That’s definitely a rabbit. I’m surprised it hasn't noticed me yet. Crouching down, he decided to observe the animal for a bit longer. He noticed that the bunny was avoiding specific berries on the bush. The blue ones, I’ll have to keep note of that. Maybe they’re poisonous.

Deciding to test his luck he approached the creature. It’s a rabbit so it should just run away once it notices me, if I can somehow catch it then maybe I can have some meat. Really I want those berries though, I’ll be out of food before I know it.

When he got within 5 feet of the bush the rabbit jumped with a start and turned around to face him in a flash. Thomas barely had time to react as the rabbit leapt square at his chest. With reflexes that startled him, he half stepped half jumped out of the way. Turning around he kept wary eyes on the vicious little creature. He unconsciously let out “Holy shit” as he saw that on the top of the rabbits head were two small but sturdy looking spiral horns, the ends of which looked way too sharp for Thomas’s liking.

Deciding he did not want to deal with the cousin of the rabbit from Monty Python, he quickly began moving back toward the direction of the grove, never taking his eyes off the creature. When he felt like he was finally far enough away from the rabbit he turned and started running. It didn’t register with him that the rabbit hadn’t made a single move to follow, or attack again.

Once safely back at the Grove, he collapsed against the central tree, taking in big gasping breaths, panic in his eyes. What the hell was that thing? There is no way that is something that is on Earth. Someone would have for sure made a news story out of vicious horn wielding feral rabbits running around the forests. Which begs the question, where am I? I should have known when I fell from the freaking sky! That something was amiss. But the bunny terminator really hits that one home.

Taking more deep breaths Thomas worked to calm himself, using different psychological tricks he had picked up in his short stunt in studying psychology during college, such as counting the number of trees, and feeling the ground and items around him. Anything that would distract his mind for a short time.

Some time later a growling sound could be heard throughout the grove and Thomas put his hand over his stomach. Guess it’s time to eat. Grabbing the grocery bag he pulled a couple of bell peppers and an onion out and ate them raw. I’m going to have to go back to the bush even if I don’t want to. Hopefully that bunny will be gone this time.