4 A Familiar World filled with the Unknown (3.1)

A cloud of dust previously enveloped a boy and had opened a portal underneath him. He could feel his tears lift upwards as he continues to fall in great speeds. He yelled his lungs out, in fear of what danger lies in this portal. Cursing to himself, Hatch tried to ask for help but of course, it was only him in this strange place. No one to heed your call, no one to know where you are, all he knows is that he was unfortunate enough to fall.

The clouds of dust continued to swirl around, mixing two colors of gold and purple together. If one were to compare, the portal looked similar to a blend of paint, continued to be stirred together until they make a cohesive color.

And that cohesive color turned grassy green as the portal had finally taken Hatch to his final destination. Ever less gracefully, Hatch landed face first onto the ground. His panic from earlier vanished into discomfort. He rubbed his head in pain, checking if there's a lump in his forehead. Instead, his touch felt wet, checking the tips of his fingers he found that he was bleeding. It didn't take long before a river of blood flowed down his forehead.

Hatch was already dizzy, to begin with, after being sent to the portal with swirling brightly colored clouds. Now he's pretty sure he had a concussion. Thinking quickly, he took off the green shirt and he wrapped it around his head to at least slow down the bleeding.

Not wanting to get his wound infected, and to make sure he didn't have a concussion, Hatch looked around the new environment he's in. His first guess is that Hatch is in a forest, seeing that there are great amounts of foliage covered the ground, trees wider than he is tall pierced through the sky. The sky itself had a slightly darker blue tinge to it, and it seemed that the sun was slightly bigger than he was used to. But what revealed that he was in fact transported to another world was the giant serpent-like creatures flying in the air, devouring the strange birds he could barely spot in the distance.

Panic and anxiety quickly set in, he doesn't know where he is, he's alone without food nor shelter if those giant creatures were just a sample of what the world had to offer then he had to find help fast…if there were any sentient life in this world anyway.

Conflicted on what he wants to do if Hatch screamed for help in this forest, he might attract some wild beast but if he did nothing, he'll get killed either way. The best plan the boy could think of is, finding a river and following it downstream. A fact he learned in survival shows.

Hatch traversed through the thick forest, often being forced to take another route as cliffs and caves were everywhere, and he wouldn't dare to go inside and get himself killed. As he journeyed through the forest, the boy noticed hundreds of exotic plants covered the area and if he were to get close, a dim light would appear out of it. There were also other brightly colored flowers around like a gigantic magenta colored blossom with bright yellow tinges to it, their aroma mixed together and almost nulled Hatch to sleep but he tried to fight off drowsiness and readied himself to go on. Except no matter what he did, Hatch can't seem to find his way out of the flower field, fatigue is slowly building up and knows he couldn't keep up much longer. Out of pure impulse, he picked some of the orange colored ones and moved on.

Except as he rounded the corner, Hatch noticed the stems from where he had taken the flower from. At first, he thought maybe a village was nearby but if so, why were the blossoms taken from the middle of the flower field not its sides, since it would be more of a hassle to take the ones in the middle.

When he was to move once again, Hatch heard a buzzing noise. Akin to that of a dragonfly. Instinctively he crouched down and from behind him, a massive insect the size of his body flung its way towards a bed of flowers. Its exoskeleton is magenta colored and bright yellow tinges to it…similar to the giant flower he saw earlier Concluding that the giant bug tried to eat him, he decided to run the hell away.

Shaking off any flowers stuck to its head, the giant bug then proceeded to chase after its escaping meal. As Hatch ran the fastest, he could fathom, the creature continued to chase him down. He ran but it would only take a moment before it caught up, having already accumulated enough fatigue for him to feel sluggish. The giant insect knew that and continuously snapped its maw in anticipation for another meal.

And with a single small rock in the way, Hatch tripped and had his face full of flower petals. He didn't even have enough energy to scream and instead of fighting for his life, he just gave up and accepted death…Maybe it was all a dream he thought.

As the insect pounced onto its prey another creature jumped it at the same exact time. A loud growl and the buzzing noises took Hatch by surprise. Instead of him being mauled by the gigantic insect, it, itself is being attacked by one big tiger. The big feline had white fur and black patterns, comparable to a zebra. Most striking of the creature was not its beauty but is giant fangs, from what Hatch was used to, tigers only rarely had white fur but for it to have teeth that huge, it was insane. The only animal that came to mind was the sabretooth tiger also known as the Smilodon.

From behind whizzed three crossbow bolts, that hit one of the many limbs of the creature. From the forest stepped out a beautiful woman. With a flowing red hair fashioned by what appears to be a golden tiara on her forehead, a top her head was a golden brace that held her long red hair in place. The entirety of her eyes glowed blue and her ears were longer than anyone Hatch had seen.

"An Elf…" Hatch accidentally spoke out loud.

The insect that previously attacked the boy retreated, as it was injured and greatly outnumbered. Hatch stood to properly give thanks to the woman that saved him. Moving closer, he heard the tiger roar. Pure intimidation caused Hatch to fall onto his rear as the Elf that once saved him, is now pointing her crossbow directly on his head.

"Who sent you here?!" The elf demanded to know.