“We found you in the forest after Ceil saw you fall through the sky,” the older stag said.

“Wait, what?” I said confused, as I looked at them. I couldn’t remember much about falling, like my memory seemed foggy. “I fell through the sky? How am I not dead?” I asked in disbelief, glancing down at myself at my bandages. I would have thought falling through the sky and landing on the ground, would place me on death bed, or leave me severely damaged, and not with light bruises and a few cracked bones. The stag smiled a little and gestured to the younger stag as he spoke.

“When Ceil noticed you, I managed to break your fall before you landed on the ground, but you did get beaten up quite badly when you hit the trees on the way down,” he explained, as I looked down at myself. It made sense why I was only covered in a couple of bandages. I looked up at the stag, when the words ‘break your fall’ made me wonder.

“How did you break my fall?” I asked as I couldn’t really make sense of it.

“I used wind to slow you down,” he explained, but it didn’t make me any wiser. I furrowed my brow, looked at the others then at myself again, running gentle fingers over my bandaged arm, as I realized what he meant, but I had to make sure.

“Did you heal me?” I asked, looking up at the stag. He nodded and reached out a hand, with his palm turned upwards as if he wanted to show me something and suddenly green swirls appeared from it. I stared at it, mouth agape, captivated by the sudden display of magic, which only confirmed what I suspected

“How are you doing that?” I asked and reached my hand out to it, wanting to touch it. The stag let me, and I ran my fingers through it. It was like I could feel it on my skin, like a light blanket, cold and slightly moist, but it left me feeling better too and I realized what it was. It was healing magic, something like from out of video games or movies, but it explained why I was only hurting a little and not in agonizing pain. “I didn’t think magic exist,” I said in awe. The cat tsked and rolled his eyes when I glanced at him.

“Stupid human, of course magic exists,” he huffed arrogantly. The younger stag, Ceil frowned a little.

“Makil, humans can’t do magic, or at least not on earth,” Ceil said as a reminder. Makil, the cat humanoid, glared at Ceil before he huffed and looked away. The fox placed a hand on Makil’s shoulder but looked at me with a smile.

“Sorry about that, it’s not every day we get outside visitors like this,” he said and gestured to me.

“It’s been over hundreds of years since we last had any outer world visitor, ever since all the portals stopped working,” the older stag explained. I looked at him, a bit curious about everything, but also confused. It was a lot of information to take in and I could feel my head starting to hurt a little. The fox moved closer and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

“Maybe we should wait with this talk until you are feeling better,” he said with a smile when I looked at him.

“What do you say to get some food in your stomach, and then maybe some more sleep before we continue this conversation?” he suggested. I was about to argue when my stomach rumbled, and I blushed. The fox chuckled and nodded. “I take that as a yes,” he said and turned to look at the others. “Zeid, do you want to take one last look at his bandages before he eats?” he asked. Zeid, the older stag, nodded and got up to stand. “Ceil can you prepare a bowl of food? And Makil can you grab some water?” the fox asked. Makil narrowed his eyes in displeasure but didn’t argue and left without a word. Ceil agreed with a smile and left too. The fox gave me a gentle squeeze, sending me an apologetic smile before he took a step back, letting Zeid take a look at me. 

He pulled off all the bandages and I could finally see the damage the fall had done. I had bruises in all kinds of color, and a few almost fully healed cuts, so it wasn’t as bad as I had thought, and a lot better than what it would have been, if not for Zeid’s healing magic.

When Zeid was done and had rebandaged me, Ceil entered the room, carrying a tray with a bowl of food and a cup of water. Makil was nowhere to be seen, and I had a feeling he didn’t like me that much. The fox smiled when he saw Ceil, then seemed a bit disappointed when Makil wasn’t with him and looked at me, giving me an apologetic smile.

“I’ll let you eat in peace,” he said and went to the door, but before he left the room, he looked at me again. “Oh, and I’m Sha’lie,” he smiled. “Sleep well,” he said, then left the room. Ceil placed the tray on my lap and said that he hoped I would find the food tasty, even though it wasn’t human food before he left me alone with Zeid.

I looked at the food, and even though it didn’t look like anything I have seen before in the human world, it smelled good. I carefully picked up my spoon and scooped up some of the vegetables, if that was what it was, and took a bite. It tasted like a mix of carrots and apples, which was a bit strange, and it was chewy like beef jerky. It was a strange thing and something I would have to get used to, but oddly enough, I found it very tasty.

I glanced at Zeid while eating and I was a bit startled by how he was watching me, like he was studying me. It made me very self-conscious that I stopped eating and placed down the spoon before I turned to face him.

“I… I never got the chance to thank you guys for helping me,” I said and gave him a smile. Zeid smiled back as he nodded, sitting down on his hind legs.

“Well, it’s been a while since humans have roamed these lands,” he said as he looked at me, his eyes observing, “and it would be wrong of me not to help.” I gave him a small nod then glanced down at my arms. “Though,” he continued, which made me look up at him. “I’m surprised by how calm you are about this whole situation,” he said, sounding both suspicious and curious at the same time. I blinked a bit surprised, then glanced at the door where the others had gone out, wondering what to say while I furrowed my brow.

In my brain I knew I should be afraid, maybe even panicking a little, but for some reason I didn’t feel that scared, as if I knew I could trust them. I had a feeling it was because of my dreams, since Zeid and the others were the ones, I had been dreaming about, the ones I haven’t been able to draw, and there was no doubt about it, I knew the drawings was about them.

“It’s hard to explain, but I feel like I know you guys in some way,” I said carefully as my eyes went back to Zeid. “I feel like you guys are someone I can trust,” I said, watching him. He looked back at me, thoughtful, then he stroked his beard and hummed a little, a smile tugged on his lips.

“Trusting others that easily is a dangerous thing, I hope you don’t make a habit out of it” he replied as raised an eyebrow, before shaking his head and stood up on his legs. “It’s getting late, and I bet you are exhausted, so I’ll let you get some rest,” he said and gave me a small nod, which I returned, before he turned around and left the room.

When the door closed behind him, I stared at it for a moment before I looked thoughtfully down at the food. Had it been the right thing to say? Letting him know I felt like I could trust him? What if my gut-feeling was wrong? What if my dreams weren’t about them being someone I could trust, but a warning that I should be careful around them.

Suddenly the food didn’t seem that appetizing, and I placed it on a wooden stool next to the bed and laid down, pulling the thick knitted blanket over me, which I had been sleeping on. As I turned my back to the room, facing the wall, and closed my eyes I could hear voices coming from the other room. The walls were thin, and their voices traveled easily.

“Zeid, you can’t be serious, it's too dangerous, do you have any idea what would happen if we got caught?” Makil stressed, his voice clear and angry.

“Yes, I know perfectly well what would happen if we were to get caught,” Zeid answered, his voice hard and serious. The tone of his voice made me flinch in my bed. Something told me he had experienced the punishment firsthand. Silence followed for a few seconds before Makil continued, his voice calmer, like he had lost most of his anger.

“And how in the worlds did you manage to know he was falling? I mean we were deep in the woods” Makil asked, like he was directing his frustration on Ceil instead of Zeid.

“As…as I said, I saw him falling,” Ceil answered a bit hesitantly.

“You must have pretty good eyes,” Makil said sarcastically, not sounding convinced by Ceil’s answer. “I’m going to bed,” he then said, and I could hear footsteps retreating then a pair of hooves, but they stopped shortly after.

“Do you really think we can help him?” Ceil asked.

“I didn’t sacrifice my place in the council, so I would ignore the next innocent human to enter our world,” Zeid replied, a bit curtly then huffed out a sigh. “But it won’t be easy, and I won’t make you three suffer the consequences of it.”

“I don’t want you to suffer it alone either,” Ceil answered seriously, but I could hear the trembling in his voice as he was probably scared of the punishment, whatever that was.

“I know,” Zeid answered, and I could hear in his voice he felt a bit disappointed.

“So, what’s the plan?” Ceil asked hesitantly.

“I’m in contact with an old friend of mine, one who used to help me some time ago, he might help guiding us in the right direction,” Zeid replied before hooves moved and then another pair as they both moved further away.

The room got quiet except for the slight creaking of the floorboards or the sound of wind outside the window. I lay there in the semi dark alcove and stared at the wall thinking. Laying there in silence the reality of things slowly seeped into every nerve in my body, as the thought of never returning home, never seeing my parents, Cody or my friends again started to scare me, but what worried me the most was Cody, who got left out in the cold wood when I got sucked in. I couldn’t help but imagine him getting lost out there and then dying of the cold, or him returning home and my parents realizing something had happened, and then going out to find me but being unable to. They would be so heartbroken, their only child lost forever.

A tear ran down my cheek as I started to cry and I curled up into a ball, sobbing silently. I had no idea what to do, being in a strange world with no means to come back. Would I even be able to go home again? Or would I be stuck living in the strange world, having to learn about their customs and who knows, maybe having to live in hiding.

I must have fallen asleep while crying because the next time I woke up, it was because of the sound of the door creaking, as someone, carefully and as quietly as they could, entered the room and walked over to where I was sleeping. I could hear the bowl I had left getting removed and something else getting placed in its stead.

“It’s important you eat, it will help with your recovery,” Sha’lie said, then walked away. “I hope you like it,” he said before he left the room and closed the door behind him.

I didn’t move for some time, all I wanted to do was sleep, but my stomach started to rumble, and I knew it was futile to try to get more sleep, so I sat up. I rubbed my slightly swollen eyes and looked around in the room. The sun where shining through the leaves of the trees outside and into the room, casting shadows on the wall.

I hadn’t had a chance to get a good glimpse of the room, with how dark it was before and everything that went on, so I decided to check out my surroundings. It looked like a small living room, with a round table in the middle of the room, surrounded by what looked like two benches, decorated with pillows and a thick knitted blanket. There was a shelf by the far away wall full of books and a few trinkets. There was a small table where a few candles stood half melted on top of it, unlit. On the floor next to where I was sleeping were two blankets along with a few pillows, placed almost like a nest and I had a feeling that either Zeid or Ceil had been sleeping there, to probably keep an eye on him when he was unconscious.

My eyes then went to the small stool next to the bed and looked at the plate with food. It looked like there were a few pieces of bread, with something resembling eggs next to it, though the yolk was redder then yellow, and a couple of sausages, thick and juicy, and slightly darker in color then what you would normally see, but they looked just as good as on Earth. There were also some strange fruits in vivid colors of pink and purple next to the plate.

I took a deep breath as I picked up my fork before I dug it into the food, then carefully took a small bite. What I expected was food that tasted strange or disgusting, not food that tasted just like normal human food. I blinked both surprised but also confused, but I kept eating, getting a bit more at ease with each bite. The fruits were tasty, though I couldn’t really compare them to fruits I had tried on earth.

I was hungrier then I thought because I stopped myself from licking the plate clean, wanting to get more, so I carefully got up from the bed, feeling a bit wobbly on my legs from being in bed for a long time. I looked down at myself a bit surprised that I wasn’t wearing my own clothes but was wearing a plain greyish linen shirt and a pair of brown pants in a slightly thicker material then the shirt. My feet were bare, and I could feel the hard wooden floorboards. I wondered what had happened to my old clothes and made a mental note to ask about it as I carefully made my way to the door, hoping to find Sha’lie and ask for more food, when the door opened.