1 Ill-Advised Haste

Yan frowned. He could not see it. Not the sparkling lights of the decorated city. No black portal standing a proud 10 metres tall which he'd inadvertently passed through.

The streets had been bustling, the lights almost blinding and the sound almost deafening. Christmas trees had lined the road and rosiness marked the cheeks of the countless merry people. A stark aroma of mulled wine had wafted through the air; the Christmas market had been in full swing.

Yan had been exploring this market with his parents and 2 siblings. Yet, with his age of 18 far surpassing that of his siblings, he had been quite bored. Which was why, when the message of his friend appeared on his phone, he left the procession with a few curt words.

Rushing to his destination, he chose to wander through an alley turned waist-slim thanks to being lined with dumpsters. Yan squirmed when the smell entered his nostrils, but continued running.

In his eagerness, he had not noticed the paranormal darkness that this alley exuded. Yan ran and ran, his focus creeping ever closer to himself in an effort to not collide with the more or less aligned dumpsters. Even still, well, his current predicament served as a painful reminder against ill-advised haste.

What greeted him on the other side of what he only now saw as a 10-by-2 oval of darkness was mostly green. Covered in plants of all sorts wherever there was space and grass and weeds where there wasn't.

Yan was placed in a bush. A small one with small oval red leaves sprouting wherever they could. The branches and twigs were, luckily, quite spaced out, thin and springy. A rare feature in this overgrown scenery.

Having avoided the fate of being impaled, Yan began to ponder what happened, how it happened and what he should do now. At least, his brain tried to. His heart was too busy hammering the inside of his body, seeming to want to jump out entirely.

What was worse; the portal behind him suddenly vanished, as if it was never there in the first place.

He forced himself to think about a question. Should he remain here and wait for the portal to return? Or should he try to find civilisation?

On the one hand, it would be simplest if the portal just returned, he walked through it, ended up in that alley again and continued life as if nothing happened.

However, what if it did not return? What if the destination was elsewhere? What if he was just incredibly lucky the first time but would die the second?

Yan could deal with the second worry. After all, as long as he still ended up on earth, it would not be too bad. At most, he would be in the same situation as now; trying to find civilisation. Of course, he could end up in front of a lion, tiger, bear or any other such predators and die immediately.

As for the prospect of entering a different world entirely? Yan only shuddered and gave up on the portal. After all, he knew nothing about them.

With all the vegetation around, Yan fancied his chances of surviving for a while, save all of them being inedible. He would find civilisation first and try to return to his family.

If this turned out to be a different world, he would amass information about the gates and return to his family slightly later. After all, it would not make sense if a portal only showed up once. It has to reappear at some point! At least, thats what Yan tried to comfort himself with.

In order to calm his speeding heart, he glanced around his surroundings; plants, as far as the eye could see - which wasn't very far, thanks to the aforementioned - stretched themselves around his vision, never stopping wherever another started. A giant tree took up much of his front view. Its bark almost shone a kind of full, dark brown, its gaps marbling the trunk more fully and more detailed than the most elegant mosaic, exuding an aura of quiet dominance that no vines dared climb.

'Wow' Yan exclaimed. Well, he tried to exclaim. The sound was far more steeped in timidness than wonder and more closely resembled an unenthusiastic imitation of a dog's bark.

Yan tried again, this time producing a sound much more in line with the intent.

At this time, a light green transparent screen popped up in front of him. It told him that the tree in front of him was called 'Akhim Tree', a very rare species only growing where plant life was the most brimming. Its durability was tested again and again, but the tree still stood tall without a scratch. Due to this and its lack of special abilities, it was given the nickname of 'lone guardian' despite its surroundings.

A miniutarised version of the area of the tree Yan's eyes had captured was rotation along a vertical axis next to this description, becoming more complete as Yan glance up and down the Akhim Tree. Two lines were placed below; 'Abilities: none' as well as: 'Taste: unexplored'.

Yan jerked his head back and after a few moments, reached out his index finger and slowly poked the screen. It passed through as though the screen was air. Yan squinted at the hovering rectangle. What was it to represent? An opportunity? Danger? Whatever it was, it had completely wrecked the calmness of thoughts Yan had just tried to establish.