The Loneliest Number

Chris woke up to the sun streaming through the branches and straight into his eyes. He sat up, his back sore from the bear attack and the hard ground he slept on. His back and sides were completely soaked from the morning dew.

"That was one crazy dream."

He said to himself still in disbelief as of to what happens the night before. He looked around and was brought even further to the belief it was a dream because the bears bodies were gone. He got up and went to check where he thought killed the second bear and only found dust, some crumbled rocks, and a strange fist sized green gemstone. He picked up the gem eyes nearly popping out of his sockets in disbelief.

"This looks expensive! Guess I'll just keep it on me then."

He tucked the crystal into his pocket and went over to check where he thought he killed the leader rock bear. Oddly enough there was some dust and rocks over here to, but this gemstone was larger than his fist and a rocky grey color.

As well it looked like there was something moving around it. Chris leaned down and looked around the gem and saw that a small grey beetle was scraping at the side of the gemstone. Like it was trying to break off a piece. Upon seeing him the beetle froze and stared up at him before it scurried away under a nearby tree. Feeling guilty for disturbing it he thought he should help it out somehow. Unsure of what he was doing he took the grey gemstone over to the tree and tried to crush it. As he pressed his two hands together the gem in between cracks started appearing on its surface. The cracks glowed faintly gradually growing brighter until the gem shattered into hundreds of pieces onto the ground. He then knelt amongst the shards and picked out a couple he judged to be roughly the bugs size. He then held his hand with the broken pieces out to the tree where the big had hidden.

Slowly the bug crept out and observed his hand. He noticed the bug was roughly the size of the tip of his forefinger and had a odd shield shape to it. The bug climbed cautiously onto his hand and went to one of the closest pieces and began eating it. Chris could hear a faint cracking sound as the bug consumed the crystal. He was astounded by the strength of the beetle to crunch easily on the crystal pieces once they were down to its size. It seemed that as it was finishing the crystal like it got slightly larger. It moved on to one crystal after the other until it was able to fit comfortably in his palm. Surprised at its growth Chris carefully brought the bug over to where he first shattered the gem and started hand feeding it the larger chunks. As it finished the last of the crystal Chris rummaged around the grass but couldn't find anymore pieces. The green gemstone suddenly felt like it was burning a hole in his pocket. The bug turned and gazed at Chris's pocket waiting for him to give it the gem. It was easily the size of his hand now.

"Ah what the hell, I've come this far."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the green gemstone and hands it over to the large beetle. It starts crunching away once again with much more vigor than before and finished it very quickly. Suddenly a bright light comes from the bug and Chris is forced to cover his eyes. When the light subsides he finds the beetle has grown absolutely massive! It is now much larger than his hand, as large as an actual shield! On top of that it's shell color changed from a light gray to a glistening silver. Stunned the bug begins climbing up his leg until it reaches his wrist. He then climbs onto his wrist and faces his hand before wrapping all six of his legs around his left wrist. Chris sighs as he looks around the small clearing once more. He gets up his new friend attached to him and begins walking once more towards what he hopes to be civilization.

"Well I guess I should name you since it looks like you'll be sticking around."

He says looking at the shield bug on his arm.

"How about I call you…"

He pauses a moment to ponder a name for his new pet.

"I've never been good with names. How about I just call you Armonite?"

Seemingly in response Armonite lifts his wing casing a little. However instead of wings coming out a metallic material comes out increasing the size of the already massive beetle. Extended Armonite covered the entirety of Chris's arm leaving nothing exposed past the elbow.

"Sweet, you are one cool bug Armonite."

After having wandered a while they stumble upon a large clearing with a pond in the middle. Seeing the water Chris realizes how hungry and thirsty he is. Having gone without food or water for most of the day. He goes to the waters edge and cups his hands and drinks some water. As he does this Armonite also drinks some of the water out of his hand.

"Hey get your own water."

He gently lowers his left hand to the waters surface. Armonite inches forward carefully and drinks from the pond as Chris drinks from it one handed. After both had their fill Chris sits back and stares at Armonite, if the rock bears hadn't made it obvious then Armonite solidified it in Chris's mind that he wasn't on Earth any more. He leaned back and looked up at the sky and thought on this some. He missed his family dreadfully, and if there was a way home he'd find it. On top of that it would seem that this world had magic which might make getting home easy. He caught his arm on fire first and then after ingesting some rocks a small bug turned large was resting on his arm. So magic was real here, and on top of that it seemed he had gained some over the top strength.

"... I am seriously in an anime situation."

Back home Chris was a shut in who had always craved adventure but was to awkward to ever pursue any. Now this opportunity has fallen in his lap and he was afraid to say the least. But right now his best chance of ever seeing home again was to learn as much as he could about this new world. He felt a steely resolution come over him as he came to this decision and he decided his first step in getting home would be mastering his body, and magic.