Chapter 3: Chapter 3 – Selenya

Grayson woke up feeling like he had taken a casual stroll through a wood chipper, and had somehow managed to get a hangover in the process. He tried opening his eyes, but the light from the sun overhead was blinding. Grayson let out a groan and cringed back as his headache flared up, leaving him holding his head in agony. Any movement was torture, so in the end, Grayson just stayed where he was, waiting for the pain to lessen. Taking Shuddering breaths was the only thing he could do for some time.

This is what Velos must have meant when he said that there would be repercussions for body and soul. He thought, trying his best to ignore the pain coursing through his body. Why did it have to be me?

Slowly, ever so slowly, the pain began to recede, and several things were becoming apparent. The first thing was that he was outside. If the cool and gentle breeze wasn’t enough to prove it, then the distinct feel of the grass he was lying on certainly did. The second thing was that he was no longer on earth. Even with his eyes closed, everything was so alien. From the feel of the sun on his skin to the smell carried by the breeze. The greatest indicator was the sounds. Instead of a bird’s song that might be heard on a sunny day on earth, there were clicking sounds that seemed to respond to one another, punctuated by the occasional otherworldly call. He couldn’t quite describe it, and the only comparison he could make to it was an elk bugle, but with a much deeper, fuller sound to it.

Driven by curiosity, Grayson cracked open his eyes to see what was making the haunting cry. He squinted against the light, and immediately did a double take, his aches and pains replaced by wonder. Grayson stared open-mouthed as a jellyfish floated ponderously through the air just a few feet above his head. The jellyfish was semi-transparent, and it boldly defied physics as it drifted past him with tentacles trailing in its wake.

That’s not something you see every day.  He thought, though he smiled wryly when it occurred to him that it might actually be something you see every day on this planet.

Grayson propped himself up, his eyes following the jellyfish as it floated away. Only once one of the strange calls that initially caused him to open his eyes rang out once again did he look away, scanning to find the source of the noise.

He still couldn’t find it, but instead he looked out in wide-eyed amazement as he craned is neck from side to side to take in the full panorama of his surroundings. Everything was so similar to Earth, yet so wholly different at the same time. He was sitting in a grass clearing. The trees surrounding him looked normal enough, but strings of something that looked like kelp that slowly drifted up between the branches were certainly different from anything he had seen before. They swayed back and forth sinuously, looking for all he could tell like they were drifting in a current. Something seemed off about them, but he couldn’t put his finger on it before his attention was grabbed by a yet another oddity.

A creature about the size of a small dog was stalking through the grass off to one side of the clearing. It was striped in various shades of green, which helped it blend into the grass. Grayson wouldn’t have noticed the thing if it weren’t moving. It looked something like a salamander, though it had a massive set of teeth jutting out of its mouth like a crocodile. The creature walked through the clearing for a moment before it noticed Grayson and stopped in its tracks. Black eyes studied him, and Grayson took a step back, not sure if this thing was dangerous. The movement seemed to startle the creature because it immediately launched itself away and began to swim through the air, powered by a rudder like tail. It swam into the forest of trees and kelp, quickly disappearing within its depths.

Grayson shook his head, that’s not even the strangest thing I’ve seen today, he thought with a nervous chuckle that transformed into a groan as his aches began to flare up once again, refusing to be ignored any longer.

Grayson Mentally cursed at Velos for leaving him in this condition. He paused a moment afterward, wondering if there would be some kind of divine retribution for cursing the god, but then he remembered how limited Velos claimed to be. The divinity had even said being a god wasn’t as incredible as he thought, so hopefully Velos couldn’t see into his mind.

He braced himself mentally before rising to his feet. He stumbled as he stood, the world seeming to spin around him, but he closed his eyes and centered himself by taking deep breaths. After several minutes, he was feeling much better and when he opened his eyes once more, the world was no longer spinning.

Grayson ran through a few stretches, trying to loosen up his aching muscles, but his mind wasn’t in it. His thoughts were all directed toward taking in the entire world around him. He hadn’t known what to expect when Velos had told him he would be on a new world, but this certainly wasn’t it. Although, the god’s sigil probably should have given him some sort of clue. Not to mention that Velos had said this world had magic during their conversation. In between all the other revelations and information, Grayson hadn’t had time to truly consider that there was magic here. Childhood dreams of tossing around fireballs played in his head. A wide smile broke out on his face as he continued to marvel at the surrounding sights.

While the thought of gaining magic for himself was incredible, what he was seeing was truly magical in its own right. The more he looked, the more wonders he saw. Schools of exotic looking fish darted in between the branches of trees, and vibrant coral grew out of rocky outcroppings. Various crustaceans and starfish the size of his torso congregated around the coral. He felt like he had been dropped into some alternate universe’s idea of a nature documentary.

Despite it all, Grayson decided to finish up his stretches and get moving. Velos had said he had placed him near a city, but who was to say what ‘near’ was to a god. It looked to be about midday, but the last thing Grayson wanted to do was be left without shelter on a strange planet. Days might not even last as long as they did on earth, He thought. Or they could be longer.

He just didn’t know and once again he was reminded, he needed more information. His mind returned to the salamander creature he had seen. While that particular creature seemed more scared of him than he was of it, who was to say there wasn’t something far more deadly around here. There most likely was, to be honest, though Grayson hoped that Velos hadn’t dropped him somewhere dangerous. He wouldn’t bet on it. The god certainly had issues, and although he had been quite coherent for most of their conversation, there was enough off about the god that he wouldn’t put it past the divinity to drop into a dangerous situation.

After finishing his stretches, Grayson mentally started going through the things that he needed to do. First off, he needed to find civilization. After that, he needed information on this new world. His first few moments on Selenya had proven that he knew so very little, and without more knowledge he would be stumbling about blindly. He also needed food and shelter, though hopefully the temple with the statue Velos had mentioned would be able to provide him with those things.

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Looking around, he didn’t see any sign of civilization, but he did see a small hill that rose above the trees in the clearing. Making his mind up, Grayson started walking toward the hill, hoping that the better vantage point would help him find the city Velos had mentioned. As he started walking, Grayson saw a fairly straight branch lying on the ground. He leaned over and grabbed the branch, groaning in pain when his still sore muscles complained at the action.

Trying to ignore the pain once again, Grayson hefted the branch and nodded to himself when he felt the thing had some good weight to it. He broke off sections of the branch until he was left with something of a walking stick. Not only would it be nice for his upcoming hike, especially in his pained condition, but if necessary, he could use it to try and fight off anything dangerous.

A few determined steps began his trek up the hill through the trees and the kelp. He tried not to get too distracted by the sights in his path, and it was somewhat easier in the wooded area. Without a clear view of everything around him, there wasn’t so much to take in. Once again, he heard the otherworldly call, that had first welcomed him into this world, but still, he couldn’t find its source, so he turned his attention to his immediate surroundings.

As Grayson walked by the stuff he had started calling kelp, he ran his hand through strings of the greenery. They felt slimy as if they were wet, though he couldn’t find any moisture on his hand when he inspected it afterward. He still had the strange impression that something was off about the kelp. After a few moments of thought, it struck him. Even though there was a breeze, the kelp would sway into the wind, as though it were completely unaffected. The discordance between the wind and whatever supernatural current was controlling the kelp was what had made it seem strange.

It was just another wonder that he didn’t have an explanation for yet. Excitement once again filled him to bursting as he continued to walk. He couldn’t wait to reach the city and learn about this world.

It took another half hour or so to reach the top of the hill, and Grayson was exhausted. While he wouldn’t describe himself as unhealthy, he certainly wasn’t fit either. While he always made goals to go to the gym at the beginning of the year, his motivation always petered out fairly quickly. Especially in recent years when he had both time and monetary constraints.

It took a great deal of effort to keep himself from collapsing when he reached the top. Fortunately for him, he hadn’t run into anything dangerous looking during the ascent, and for that, he was grateful. In fact, the farther up the hill he went, the less fantastical things he saw. There were far fewer creatures, and the kelp between the trees had thinned out significantly.  He wasn’t sure what the reason for that was, but it was simply another curiosity for him to learn about in the future.

The sight he was met with was surprising to him. On the other side of the hill a massive city lay before him. It was set quite a distance away from the hill, but Grayson was still shocked at the size of it. It was massive, and stretched out far into the distance, though not so far that he couldn’t make out the entirety of the place. Enormous walls ringed the city, and Grayson couldn’t imagine the amount of effort it must have taken to create them. They were thicker than he thought they probably needed to be, and stood far higher than any of the buildings nearby.

Velos had called this a great city, but it was much larger than he was expecting. He couldn’t even begin to guess how many people were living in the place. Sure, compared to some modern cities it was probably rather small, but from the little details he could make out from where he was, the technological level wasn’t nearly at the level of Earth’s.

As Grayson continued his inspection, he noticed tiny figures patrolling the walls. They looked humanoid, but for the first time Grayson considered that there might not be humans on this planet. Velos hadn’t mentioned anything about it. It would definitely be interesting to meet sapient creatures that weren’t human, but this was all speculation for now. All he could do in the end was just shake his head.

I’ll just have to make the best of whatever the situation ends up being. He thought, squaring his shoulders and getting ready to descend the hill and make his way to the city, but after just a few steps a familiar haunting sound rang out. The same sound he had been trying to find the source to since arriving on Selenya, and for the first time he felt like he knew the direction it was coming from.

He spun around, turning away from the city, and saw them. A pod of whales swam through the sky far off in the distance, moving in and out of the clouds. He must have missed them before because of obstruction from the trees and kelp, but far in the distance, far past where he had first arrived, the whales flew in majestic circles.

He looked on in awe, noting that the creatures weren’t exactly whales like he had first thought. The distance made it hard to make out details, but from what he could see, the creatures were longer and more sinuous than the pictures of whales he had seen on earth. Additionally, there was a short dorsal fin that ran along the entire length of their backs.

Grayson could only laugh at the incredible sight. He wasn’t sure if anything could surprise him anymore, but he still took a few minutes to appreciate the creatures before deciding he shouldn’t wait any longer to start toward the city. He couldn’t wait to see what else this world had in store.

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