1 Chapter I

John Mitchelson was at home on a lonely Saturday evening. The air was still in the city, an unusual occurrence here in Thu'umville. Nevertheless, he was enjoying the peace and quiet, when, like a bolt from the blue, a noise that made his ears cry and eyes scream, then it was quiet again, after only a mere second, as if the brief moment of cacophony never happened. Deciding that investigating the ominous sound would give him something to do, and make him feel more at ease, he got up, put on his coat, and grabbed a flashlight and his phone, just in case.

When he stepped outside his house, he noticed a slight humming coming from over the wall that was at the far end of his back yard, as well as a faint glow oozing over the top, beckoning him to come closer. He grabbed a ladder from his shed and positioned it against the wall so that he could see what was on the other side. When he was standing atop the eight foot wall, he looked down and saw a sight worth dying for. It appeared to be a pool of some kind, but it wasn't filled with water, that he was sure of. Never had he heard of water looking like it contained the universe itself in it, or glow such vibrant purples, blues and reds. He had bent down to get a better look, when suddenly he slipped and fell head first into the pool.

Time felt as if it had both frozen still and quadrupled in pace all at once. The first things through John's mind was,

'How deep is that pool of liquid?'

'What does that pool consist of?'

'Is it acidic?'

'Is it even touching the ground?'

And lastly, 'Am I going to die?'

After what felt like ten minutes he finally reached the mystical, aqueous mass, and he felt a strange, warm, soothing, twisting sensation, and then everything went pitch black.

When he opened his eyes, he was blinded by the sheer brightness of a sky he did not recognize, with both a sun and a moon lighting up everything in sight. The colors were so vibrant it almost gave him a headache, sapphire blue water, emerald green grass, ruby red roses and an amber yellow sun. He was dumbfounded, why did everything look like it was made from some crystal or precious gem? Then he looked down to where he was sitting, and realized why. Everything was made up of crystals and precious gems, even the animals as he saw a flock of garnet geese fly overhead.

'If I can take just one of those things home, I will never have to worry about money ever again,' he thought, wondering exactly how he was going to get home in the first place.

As he was trying to catch a turquoise fish, he felt like something was watching him, very intently. Something BIG. Multiple somethings. He started to turn his body, slowly, cautiously, so that he could catch a glimpse of what was looking at him. When he had turned about halfway around, he saw four, brilliant and imposing figures, each in the shape of a mythological creature. There was a Sapphire Sphinx standing seventeen feet tall, a Pearl Pegasus at six feet with a twelve foot wingspan, a Diamond Dragon about fifty feet tall with a wingspan of about thirty feet, and a Black Onyx Basilisk about seventy-five feet long. They all were glowing with a strange energy, and appeared to be looking at him directly.

"Well, that's a weird place to put a few statues, isn't it?" he said, thinking nothing of it. Then the Dragon started to chuckle,

"Statues, you think we're statues, boy?" it growled, with a voice as deep and prominent as an ocean. "We are no more statues than you are." While the Dragon was speaking, something was pulling at the back of Johns mind,

"Why is that statue talking to me?"

"Am I dreaming?"

"Am I dead?"

John didn't even realize that he had stopped breathing until the Sphinx asked, with a voice both as soft as silk and as coarse as sand, "Is he even able to breathe here?"

With a gasp, John realized that he was close to passing out. "So, this is all real? This isn't a dream, and I'm not dead?" he spat out between ragged breathes.

"Yes, dear, this is all really happening. How did you get here, and is there anything we can do to help you get back home?" And that is when it hit him, he didn't even know where he was or how he got there, nor did he know where or how to get back home. As the gravity of his situation settled in, he got scared, borderline mortally terrified. He sat down on the ground, curled up into a little ball, and started to cry. He cried so hard and long the crystalline beings feared that he was dead. After a few hours of tears, John fell into a deep, restless slumber.

When he awoke, he smelled food being cooked, crisp, juicy bacon, light and fluffy eggs, and deep, rich, Sumatran coffee. The tantalizingly succulent aroma soothed him to the point where he almost forgot he was lost who knows where in the universe without any way back home. Almost. The only thing on his mind right now, though, was food. He realized that he had not eaten since before he arrived here and his stomach was telling him that it had been a while. He ate every piece of food they offered him with gluttonous delight.