Chapter 1

I woke up to a musty smell of the forest around me. Now I was quite sure when I went to sleep that my bed wasn’t in a musty woods. In fact, I’m 100% sure of that. But nonetheless, here I am, in my bed, waking outside, with no idea how I got here. Still half covered in my duvet and naked underneath it I kept looking around dumbfounded. Feverishly trying to make sense of my situation. But all my mind could concentrate on was the fact that I was in a forest instead of my bedroom.

Okay, get a grip man, no point in panicking that never help anyone. Take a deep breath and try to analyse the situation calmly.

I tried to force myself to calm down.

Close your eyes and keep taking deep breaths.

After a few minutes of having my eyes closed and taking deep breaths, I managed to calm myself enough to think.

Good now let’s think, start with the most obvious question. Where am I?

I opened my eyes again and took a more calm look around. All I could see was trees and foliage around. I was in a small clearing, and the forest was so thick that I couldn’t see more than about 30 feet around me. The trees were at least 40 to 50 feet tall with large, dinner plate sized oblong leaves.

Still in a forest, but I don’t recognise these trees. So I’m not in England anymore. Next question. Am I dreaming? No, can’t be. I have never dreamt in my life. Or at least I could never remember my dreams. So I can be reasonably sure this isn’t a dream or if it is I can at least be sure I won’t remember any of this if or once I wake up.

3rd question, how did I get here? How the bloody hell am I supposed to find an answer to that.

I quickly started to look around my bed for any clues. I threw off the duvet that was still covering me and went through my pillows and bed sheets, nothing no clues what so ever. I crept onto the side of my bed and took a peek the ground where my bed stood. But couldn’t see anything except fallen leaves, the whole clearing was covered in them. All blackish-brown half decomposed.

So no clues about how I got here. No weird alien technology, no mysterious magic runes, no footprints or drag marks from someone carrying the bed and me here. So how did I get here, this shouldn’t be possible. There is always a logical answer to any problem. But how could there be to this, I would have woken up if someone carried me out of my apartment. And then there is the problem of my king-sized bed not fitting through my apartment doors in one piece. Was I drugged and then carried here? But why? And then these trees, I have never seen their like before.

I could feel my heart starting to beat faster, my breath was quickening, and my mind was losing its focus as panic was beginning to set in.

NO, NO, keep calm Varis, you have always prided yourself on not losing your cool. Keep breathing deep and go back to calmly analysing the situation. No need to think on how or why you got here at this point it won’t help, you are here, and there is no changing that now. You can think about how and why after you are back home. You need to start thinking about this situation like you were shipwrecked. What comes next?

After a couple of minutes, I managed to call myself again. Being shipwrecked with no gear, food or water seemed like a good comparison to my current predicament.

Okay, what do shipwrecked people do? First, they panic. Okay been there, done that. Then they check their immediate surroundings, I have done that as well. Next they… they… they try to find other survivors. But I’m sure I went to bed alone, but maybe the people who took me here kidnapped other people as well. Should I yell? No, I don’t think so. I’m in god knows where who knows what kind of animals there is around here. And whoever took me might still be watching me. So no yelling for help

After all the panicking and trying to find survivors shipwrecked people need to take stock of the gear they have. So what do I have? I have my bed, pillows, bed sheets and my duvet. I can’t carry my bed around with me, but I can make some rudimentary clothes from the bed sheets or wear them as a toga. My duvet will help keep me warm during the night. And…

I was broken from my revery by the rustling of leaves behind me. I quickly turned around and saw a horrid monster that looked like a cross between a bat and an oversized mosquito flying straight at me. A manly yelp left my lips as it swiftly closed the distance. Out of pure reflex, I backhanded the creature as it got near me but missed it’s centre mass only hitting a wing. My hit still managed to knock it off its course, and the creature landed on the bed next to me. It quickly gathered its wits and started to scamper on the bed sheets towards me. Instinctively I threw my duvet over it and jumped on top of it. As my knees hit it, I could hear a soft snapping sound, but the thing was still moving.

Quickly grabbing the creature I tried to strangle it through the duvet, it kept struggling for a while until I managed to good grip around its tiny body. As I had it securely wrapped in the duvet and my hand I started punching it until I could finally feel no movement. A soft *DING* echoed in my head.