Jax was in shock. His mind was blank as he looked out to an idyllic clearing in the middle of an overgrown forest teeming with the sounds of nature. His body was no longer frozen stiff, but he took a long moment before moving. Cloe was missing. A rippling shiver ran down Jax’s spine as he noticed the writhing cloud directly above his head. Slowly tilting his chin skyward, Jax took in the bizarre sight of a mass of undulating putrid tentacles hovering in the air.

  There was no stench, but there should have been. Each tentacle was a revolting limb of puss and rot, drenched in dripping yellow ichor that left small drops ooze off the flesh – dissolving mid-fall in the air before reaching more than a hands-width away from the original limb.

  The air smelled as any lovely spot of forest floor would, so out of sync with the fetid horror above Jax’s head that it did not seem real.

  “Hey, don’t move! I’m sending it away!” a shout came from somewhere nearby. Jax was in shock and barely registered the noise as words will he stood stock still, taking in the writhing mass. A moment later the clear sky above was all he could see. All extraplanetary limbs were rapidly sucked into some sort of hole in space and vanished in a rush of air. Jax stood stock still, trembling.

  -- A moment prior --

  Markus stood panting with exhaustion. He again had made a landmark stride forward today in his personal power and was inspecting the fruits of his latest labors. It was unsettling to look at, writhing its many limbs in endless undulations. A creature from another plane called to this one from his will alone and the mana rushed through his body. The creature was the size of a small room with multiple eyeballs visible on the top of the creature and a sea of limbs below. Between the eyeballs, each a slightly different size, there were the ringed slimy tubes that each looked like a worm’s body sprouting from the center mass. Each tube was in a different state of decay, with a black ichor falling off the limbs. Inexplicitly the foul liquid would dissipate in the air moments after leaving those horrible-looking limbs.

  Markus felt a surge of pride at his latest achievement. He was not dead and the horror next to him was docile. With this, there were exceedingly few humans who were a true threat to him in a straightforward fight. Markus muttered under his breath “Should I try hunting with the creature next to test the limits of control”. Suddenly, Markus felt a chaotic eruption of power directly beneath his summons. In its wake stood a strange man wearing a vibrantly pink and fuzzy bathrobe of the highest quality. The pink fluffy slippers that adorned his feet looked more luxurious than any slippers had a right to be. Markus’s nearly yelped in surprise. He scowled in confusion at the complete lack of power that the pink-robed man broadcasted.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Bringing his powerful mind to bear, Markus reached out with his will to feel for the strength of the newcomer and felt… nothing. Nothing but a weak mind fully exposed to the world and easy to crush with a thought. He hadn’t realized he had been holding his breath until Markus let the air out of his lungs in a deep exhale of relief.

  “Hey, don’t move! I’m sending it back, please don’t move!” Markus shouted with renewed strain. Banishing the horror was just as difficult as summoning it, but now he had to keep it from killing the man underneath as well.

  --

  Jax’s thoughts and emotions were racing. Terror mixed with confusion then bled into disbelief, and there was a mass of squirming tentacles not more than a few feet above his head.

  The tentacle creature was sucked out of existence through a small hole like slurped noodles which left Jax alone in the meadow with a strange man. The man was dressed as a medieval backpacker. Various weapons hung on the stranger’s belt, and a fancy-looking pack was slung over his shoulders. The man was dressed in a kind of leather tunic you might see in a Renaissance fair.

  The stranger cautiously said, “Who are you?”

  Jax latched on to the question as a way to get more information and a waterfall of words fell out of his mouth. Jax rambled “I have no idea what’s going on. Please help me, my girlfriend, where is she? Where am I?”

  The man glanced around the empty meadow. He adopted a much calmer and soothing tone. “Do you know how you got here? My name is Markus, calm down you are safe here.”

  Jax worried that Cloe was in a similar situation somewhere. After a moment’s hesitation, Jax explained “I have no idea what happened. We were at home at suddenly the air around us had cracks in it, like a shattered mirror. I appeared here right after that. What was that creature next to you?”

  The man paused at that. “Where were you before you came here?” he asked with a strange expression on his face. Confusion was carried on Markus’ expressions.

  “Just in my apartment?” Jax said.

  “Apartment? I don’t know what that is. I mean the town that you came from” asked the man.

  “Uh, Augusta, in Maine,” Jax said with bewilderment.

  Shaking his head, the man stated “I’ve never heard of it. Wherever you came from it’s not nearby.”