I stood in a forest, the same pink and purple forest I had seen in my drawings, except it felt all too real. The ground under me crunched with each step I took as I walked deeper into the forest, along a path, though I wasn’t sure what I was walking towards. In the distance I could see a silhouette of someone, yet no matter how much I seemed to walk they never seemed to get any closer.

“Soreen…” a strange voice whispered, echoing around me. I looked around but I couldn’t see where it was coming from. The only thing I could see was just more trees and vegetation rustling in the wind.

“Soreen” the voice said louder, this time with less echoing, as it became clearer, like someone was standing not far away calling out to me, yet again I could see no one.

“SOREEN!” The voice suddenly screamed at me, almost as if someone were standing next to me, screaming right into my face, which I woke up with such a jolt, I scared Cody, who had been sleeping next to me on the bed. He had jumped off the bed and looked at me in confusion, carefully sniffing in my direction as he tried to figure out what had just happened. I was panting hard, sweating as if I had been running for miles, my heart beating fast in my chest and my body trembling. Then I heard the voice again, an echoing whisper. I blinked, confused as I was no longer sleeping and looked around. My eyes stopped at the window, and something told me to get up and look outside.

I had a clear view over the forest, as my house was on a small hill near the outskirts of the forest. It was dark outside, yet something didn’t feel right, like I could feel a strange pull towards the forest. I brushed it off as a lingering feeling from my dream and went back to bed. It was a little over six in the morning, so for once I hadn’t woken up in the middle of the night. I let out a sigh and turned my back to my room, closing my eyes to get more sleep, but the strange lingering feeling inside of me made it hard for me to sleep and after half an hour I gave up and went to the kitchen.

Cody stood waiting for me at the end of the stairs, his tail wagging happily as he watched me. I gave him a good pat on his head before I entered the kitchen and made enough coffee for both of my parents, knowing they would get up soon.

As the coffee where brewing, I sat on the kitchen counter. My eyes kept looking out at the window, towards the forest, and I couldn’t help but feel like I should go there, but it was way too early in the morning to even see where to go.

With coffee in my hand and Cody by my side I went up to my room, and spent the morning on my laptop, either watching videos of lore and mythical creatures, or researching, though my brain kept thinking of the strange orb in the forest. I had to go and see it, because something was telling me that it had changed again.

The faint sunlight shone through the branches of the forest, the snow-covered ground under me made it hard to see the path, but I had been smart enough to paint small green leaves on rocks and trees, leading me to the place. Cody was walking next to me, almost as eager to get to the place as I was, though I was sure he couldn’t see it. Even though it was morning, and people would normally be on walks, it was eerie quiet, with the only sound being the crunchy snow and the squeaking of the tree branches as the calm wind pulled on them.

The closer I got to the place, the more tingling my body felt and I wasn’t sure why. Was I nervous? Excited? I wasn’t sure, but the moment I noticed a faint blue glow in the distance, my heart skipped a beat. Cody seemed to react to it, or maybe he noticed the change in me, because he was starting to seem cautious as we moved forward.

The circle was no longer small, had turned into a huge bluish purple oval shaped swirling thing, which kind of emitted a blue glow to the surrounding ground and trees. As I stepped closer to it, I was so focused on it I didn’t notice it had started to pull in things from around it, until a branch scratched my cheek and I jumped to the side in surprise, while it floated towards the oval thing and disappeared into it.

That was when I realized what was happening, and I stepped back from it, but it’s pull got stronger, like it didn’t want me to leave and it wanted to pull me in. Cody started to bark and growl, the fur on his back and neck stood up and before I knew it, I was holding onto a tree, trying my best to get away, but the pull was so strong that it lifted me up from the ground, my feet dangling as I held tightly around the tree, but no matter how desperately I tried to keep a hold on the tree, I could feel myself slip away. Cody’s leash slipped from my hand, for some reason he didn’t seem to get pulled in and I could see the fear in his eyes as he kept barking, with his tail between his legs, backing away slowly. I tried to scream for help, but for some reason, no words would come out. I fought until the very end, but I could no longer hold onto the tree, and my hands slipped off and I disappeared into the thing.

I realized it was a portal the moment I went into it. I was surrounded by a black thick void, and I was standing as if there were ground under my feet, yet I couldn’t see anything. The void around me felt like air yet at the same time, like some sort of black sludge. It was a confusing feeling because when I stood still, it felt like there was nothing around me, but the moment I moved, it felt like I was walking through something.

Then a faint white dot appeared some distance away from me and I started to walk towards it, feeling a slight pull, though getting there was kind of a struggle, as it felt like I was going through something thick. But even though I barely moved, the dot seemed to grow bigger in no time, and before I knew it, I was falling through the white circle and then through the sky, falling past clouds and heading straight to the ground underneath me, but it was like I was falling in slow-motion.

The ground under me didn’t look like earth, the colors of the trees were a mix between pink and purple, and it wasn’t just a small area but most of the area I could see, though I could see in the distance the trees were greener. To my left something caught my eye as I looked around. A huge rock, almost like a mountain turned upside down, was floating in the sky. From afar I could see trees and tiny buildings on top of it and tiny zeppelin airplanes were docked on the side. Directly above me were not only one moon, but two, and the sun seemed bigger. When I looked down at the ground again, I noticed buildings that didn’t look like anything from Earth, buildings that would fit right into Tolkien’s universe.

I felt like I was falling for a long time until it was like gravity was working normally again, as I got closer to the ground, and I fell with such speed, that I hit every branch I could on my way down and blacked out.

I had no idea how long I had passed out, but I could remember waking up at one point. I was looking at a face I didn’t recognize, yet there was something familiar about him. It wasn’t the face that seemed recognizable, but the huge deer-like antlers that were coming out from his head. He looked down at me and said something in a language I couldn’t understand, but his voice was deep and warm, sounded reassuring in some way, that made me strangely enough feel safe. He had a long thick beard, braided and held together by a leathery string. His eyes were in a deep brown color, and they looked like they had seen many things in his lifetime. He placed his big rough hands on my head and I felt myself slip off into darkness before I woke up again briefly. 

This time I met with a person with fox ears and horns of a ram. He was looking worriedly at me, and when he noticed I had opened my eyes, he glanced back and said something in that strange language again, but before I caught a glimpse of who he was talking to, I slipped off again.

When I finally woke up for the third time, the room was dark, but I could hear voices coming from somewhere not far away, like in a different room. I was lying on a small bed, or something resembling a bed, but it seemed to be made from hay and leaves, with a blanket over it. It wasn’t really a bed, but it was more like an alcove, that was on the side of the house. The walls were made of rocks in different sizes and gave me a feeling this whole house was made of stones, like back in the medieval ages. I noticed movement to my right and saw a curtain, going from the ceiling to the made shift bed.

I pushed myself up a little to get a better look around, feeling a slight pain in my wrist, then I noticed I was wrapped in bandages, from my chest to down my stomach, my right leg, left wrist and my head. I touched my bandages on my stomach gently, and could feel I was sore, but it wasn’t hurting badly.

As my eyes got used to the darkness, I could see light from the edges of the curtains shine in, and as I reached to pull it aside, the light flickered, and I could follow someone’s shadow as they walked by. I quickly pulled my hand back quietly, laying still in the bed, closing my eyes, not too tight but enough to make it seem like I was still asleep. I could hear the curtain being pulled to the side, and the bright light from behind it shone upon my face for a second, before it got blocked off by whoever had opened the curtain. Someone gently touched my forehead with something cold, but because I didn’t expect it, I flinched which made them flinch too.

“Verdjili noxsi’l?” the stranger yelled out and I opened my eyes. What I saw wasn’t what I had expected, and honestly, I thought I was still sleeping. A sand-colored humanoid cat stood in front of me. His wide green eyes stared at me in shock until he hissed and took a step away, his tail puffing up and his ears laid flat back on his head. The commotion had the others running into the room we were in, and my focus went from the human cat to the two cervitaurs and then to the fox, with double fox ears and a pair of ram horns. They were all dressed in plain linen clothes, which would fit perfectly into the medieval setting. The older stag walked up to me, his long beard, which reached his chest, was braided and moved with every step, as the hooves of the stag hit the stone flooring with a clack. He looked at me with careful searching eyes before he spoke.

“Mi’dra ashrio calura?” he asked, though what he was asking for, I had no clue about.

“What?” I replied confused and the others gasped, but the older stag didn’t look so surprised as he turned his focus on the younger stag and spoke again. I sat up as well as I could while they spoke before the younger stag nodded and hurried off, and I could only watch as the others had a discussion, the cat person looking angry while the fox human looked curious. The older stag didn’t say anything as he listened to the others while observing me until the younger one returned, holding a leathery rope with a crystal dangling from it.

The crystal was in a dark blue color, and I could see it had a faint engraving on it, though I couldn’t read it at all. It didn’t look like any language I had ever seen on earth and wondered if it was a completely different language, non-existent on earth. The younger stag handed it to the older one who took it and inspected it, then nodded before handing it to me. I looked at it, then at the older stag then at the others, when my eyes stopped at the younger stag. He smiled at me and gestured to me to take on the necklace. I carefully picked it up and looked at the crystal in my hand. It felt nice and cool to the touch, and when I moved my thumb over the engraved letters, it was almost as if I couldn’t feel them at all. I glanced at the other, who was watching me in anticipation before I took a deep breath and pulled the necklace over my head and around my neck.

The crystal hung down my chest, but it had barely any weight, even though it did have weight when I held it. As I glanced down at it, I noticed the letters quickly flicker, as if there was light in them, but the sound of movement caught my attention and made me look at the others. The older stag was smiling as he watched me and opened his mouth to speak again.

What I expected was the same language as before, what I didn’t expect was them speaking perfectly English.

“Can you understand me now?” The stag asked, his voice deep and rumbly. I flinched in surprise, and my eyes darted to the others before I returned my focus to the stag again and gave him a small nod. The younger stag gasped in surprised then smiled.

 “Good,” the older stag said, smiling. “It’s been over a hundred years since I had to use it, and I was worried it wouldn’t work,” he explained. I looked down at the necklace confused then back at the stag.

“Where am I?” I asked. The stag looked at me seriously and sat down on his hind legs.

“You are in the world of Vallia, in the part called Astheal. And this is my cabin.”