Daniel woke with a start and a hoarse shout. He looked around himself and shivered. The ground around him was littered with yellowed bones and fog enveloped the area. He shakily stood up and checked himself over. He was wearing simple brown linen pants and a grey linen shirt. His feet were covered in weird wooden shoes that he promptly discarded. As he was checking over himself, a form coalesced out of the fog into the form of a skeletal dog. Daniel backed away and the dog advanced, it's eyes aglow with blue fire.

Suddenly an image of damp earth invaded his mind. He could smell and taste the soil. A question imprinted itself on his thoughts. It wasn't formatted in words but he understood the meaning clearly. It said 'Sleep?' He shook his head no and stumbled away from the monster. His head started throbbing fiercely, giving him the worst headache he'd ever felt. 'It feels like Master Jet is beating me with his bokken' he thought to himself. Taking a deep breath seemed to help alleviate it so Daniel started jogging slowly in a random direction, trying to get out of the mist before the other shapes shambling about decided to investigate. He looked over at a sound and saw the skeletal dog keeping pace with him.

Once again an image invaded his mind, this time of the dog gnawing on a zombie's leg as he ran away. Then another image of him alone being mauled by zombies. 'So you're protecting me? Thank you. Good boy' the dog gave a rattling bark and even though the skull didn't move Daniel had the distinct impression of happiness from it. The two unlikely companions ran in silence for what seemed hours before Daniel saw a break in the mist. After leaving it, he crowed in happiness and turned around to pet the skeletal dog but it stayed within the mist. An image of a glowing blue chain attached to the blue flame in its chest leading back into the mist showed itself in his mind.

He smiled at it. 'I'll come back to visit you buddy, thank you for protecting me.' He thought as loud as he could, hoping it would hear him. The dog bounced and gave a rattling bark before bounding back into the mist, tail wagging. Daniel reached over the mist barrier and grabbed a rusty spear from the ground before turning away and heading into a lush forest. From careful observation, he saw that there was an area where any plants refused to go, dividing the mist and the forest.

He shrugged and moved into the forest. As he walked, he felt his body getting lighter, his breathing came easier and he took in a deep breath, he smelled and tasted the damp earth on his tongue, he felt the gentle brushstrokes of the breeze upon his skin and he saw the vibrant green and blue of the leaves and skies above. When he looked down, he saw his fingernails growing into points. And felt the weight of his hair growing. 'What the hell is happening to me.'

Daniel looked up to see a giant silver wolf slowly pad into the clearing, lips set back in a snarl. He crouched down and gripped the spear, pointing it at the wolf. He bared his teeth back at it and maintained eye contact. The wolf snorted in contempt at his stance and apparent defiance before barking a challenge and charging at him. The wolf weaved in a zigzag instead of charging straight at him.

'It's intelligent, that puts a wrench in my plans.' Daniel thought as he dodged a bite while cracking the wolf across its snout with the butt of the spear. It yelped and snarled before its fur began to shine like steel.

'Wonderful, a magic, intelligent dire wolf.' He jabbed the point into its side as it lunged again, the spear bouncing off the wolf's side. As it passed the tail whipped across and hit him in the stomach, sending him flying back. Daniel flew for a few feet before a rock stopped his roll. Looking up, he saw flashing teeth aimed for his throat. Daniel threw himself out of the way just in time, the wolf demolishing the rock instead of his head.

Raising the spear up high, he used his body to bring it down on the wolves head. Unbeknownst to the both of them, the blade flashed blue before slicing into the face of the wolf sending it yelping back. He charged forward to finish off the dire wolf but before he plunged the spear into its eye, he noticed the size of its paws. This giant thing that was bigger than a horse was a PUPPY? Instead he raised the spear and scanned the woods around him, poor choice. He saw at least five elephant sized wolves looking down on him.

One broke from the tree line to walk forward, Daniel raised his trembling hands to point the now cracked spear at it. It stopped for a moment before making a chuffing sound, grabbed the spear between its teeth and tore it out of Daniel's grip. 'I won't die without a fight again' he thought to himself as he brings up his hands to make use of his new claws.

"Elit nevahn, Fiiq. Den nomar viid." A man's voice said in his head. He cocked his head and tried to understand what it had said, hoping it wasn't something like 'stay still so I can eat you.'

He raised his hands and signed 'I don't understand you.' The wolf cocked his head. "Fen nokrii Den? Be'rha" the wolf walked past Daniel to lick the whimpering wolf pups wound. It whined, snarled at Daniel and walked around to hide behind what Daniel assumed was the alpha.

Daniel couldn't help himself and collapsed to his knees, giggling. 'I just had a fight to the death with a fucking puppy and almost lost. Gods above.' He watched the wolves leave the clearing, their fur making it hard to make out a clear outline. When the dire wolves were out of sight he got up, dusted his knees off and grabbed the now broken spears two halves. He began walking again, unsure exactly how to find water or food. He had been walking for at least four hours and it seemed like nothing had changed. He was still surrounded by trees, bushes and dirt. Oh and the constant faint sound of water no matter which direction he walked in.

Daniel looked up at the swiftly darkening sky and sighed. 'I should have watched survival tv shows or something.' He slipped the two halves of the spear into his black belt and began to climb a nearby tree. His toenails had grown too, much to Daniel's chagrin. His hair had also reached down to his butt in length. On a positive note, he felt stronger than ever and clambered twenty feet up the tree in seconds.

He reached for a branch only for it to rear back and strike at him. Out of reflex, he caught the camouflaged snake behind the head. Falling to the ground in the process, Daniel increased the pressure on its thick neck until he felt the pop of its spine breaking. 'Can't be too difficult to clean.' He thought to himself, examining the five foot long snake. He grabbed the blade end of the spear and ground the broken end against the tree roots until the splinters were gone, making a long, rusty knife. He tested the edge, barely sharp but it wasn't like he had a better option. Daniel rubbed his back where he had impacted the ground.

Daniel decided to just get it over with, he gathered some sticks and stones until he had a decent firepit set up. He set the spear blade against a stick and shaved it down until he had a nice pile of little splinters and bark. He grabbed a stone and began striking the spear at an angle to get some sparks. Luckily it worked after 20 minutes of trying to get the sparks to catch and stay burning until they could spread to the rest of the fire. Soon, Daniel had a merrily crackling flame. He then turned to the snake corpse and set the head on a flat stone he had grabbed to be his 'plate'. He chopped the head off and worked the edge into the neck hole and slowly dragged the tip along the body.

'I at least know that cutting open the guts is bad, thanks to Connor talking about his hunting trips.' After Daniel had cut it open from neck to the tip of its tail, he used the tip of the spear and slowly did his best to disconnect the guts from the meat without ruining it. He had only the barest of whispers as a warning to a weight crashing against his back and onto the ground. Claws dug into his shoulders as fangs tried to force their way past the stick Daniel had put behind his neck. He roared defiance at the animal trying to kill him and pushed himself to his feet. He grabbed the other end of the spear, roughly the length of a yardstick now, and jammed the broken end into the animal's side, eliciting a pained yowl from it. Daniel slammed back first into the tree behind him, dislodging the animal. He backed away and examined his attacker.

It looked like a cougar, but bigger. This cat looked like it had taken steroids most of its life. With muscles on muscles, Daniel wondered why it had felt so light. The wounds it had left weren't light, even moving his head, he felt the gashes in his back, hips and arm from the bastard in front of him. He grabbed the bladed half of the spear in both hands and charged. It hissed at him and dodged to the side, trying to bite his leg and wrestle him to the ground. Daniel just moved his leg and kicked it in the throat. His sensei's had been much faster than this overgrown housecat. As it coughed up blood from its crushed windpipe, he thrust the spear blade in between its ribs. Daniel collapsed to his knees for the second time today, breathing heavily. The last thing he saw before falling unconscious was the bloodied snout of the cougar.

When Daniel woke, the first thing he noticed was a horrible smell. The second thing he noticed was the pain in his back. He groaned and stood up. He looked down to see huge bugs crawling over the corpses of the cougar and snake. Daniel would later deny ever shrieking like a little girl. He quickly grabbed his weapons and left. As he walked, his back itched more and more. He reached a hand behind to feel, terrified of the possibility of insects inside his wounds but he felt no creepy crawlies. Instead he only felt giant scabs, like he had been healing for weeks instead of one night. 'What the hell is happening to me?' He thought to himself. He stopped for a moment and took off his savaged shirt. Cutting it into strips, Daniel tied his hair into a rough ponytail. He also wrapped his knuckles with cloth to prevent hurting himself when he inevitably broke this spear of his. Wasn't much of a spear anymore, with three feet of the shaft left and a foot long blade. More like a really big knife.

Daniel had been in this new place for about a month now. After testing his limits, he realized he could now run faster and lift more than ever. His nails were incredibly sharp and so were his senses. He grabbed his new bone knife and slipped it into the crude leaf holster he had made for it. He had used his own hair as twine and his nails to poke holes In the surprisingly tough leaf. The knife came from the tusk of a large boar that turned out to be delicious and set his inner fire boiling. Inner fire was what he had come to call the energy he had been breathing in since he came here. Daniel had taken to meditating every night and trying to guide the energy through his body. It had been working and he figured it was why he was so strong. Still, it felt like he was missing something and it bothered him. Either way, this cave he had found was his new home.

He set out to go fishing, taking a makeshift spear made from the other tusk and a long branch also bound with his hair. Another odd thing about his inner fire that Daniel couldn't fathom was how it strengthened his skin and bones, he'd fallen thirty feet without a bruise and the strands of his hair were stronger than rope. It was a good thing he didn't cut it before it toughened up. He walked for a short while before coming upon the shore of a huge river. Why was everything so big here? On earth, no way this place was on earth, he was a pretty big guy at 6'4. Connor being a freak, was even taller than Daniel at a shocking 6'7. Even so, this world made him feel small, with every tree being taller than redwoods. Even the squirrels were huge, bigger than a golden retriever!

Daniel sighed as he got a headache just thinking about it. He waded into the shallows of the river and sat down, closing his eyes and meditating while listening to the river. He felt a small nip at his toe but ignored it, his arms holding the spear completely still above the water. He felt a sharp pain in his leg and his eyes flashed open, the spear plunging down to skewer the two foot long fish that had tried to take a bite of him. He lifted its wriggling body above the water. These fish were the hardest to catch because their scales almost made them invisible below the surface. They were delicious though. Daniel's eyebrows furrowed as he saw water rise through the air and coalesce into an icicle aimed for his head.

His eyes widened and he quickly unsheathed his bone knife, driving it through the eye of the fish. The icicle dropped into the water and the fish stopped moving. Daniel stood and walked to the shore, moving to the circle of ash already present. He quickly built a fire and gutted the fish on autopilot, his mind stuck on what had just happened. 'Was that magic? Is that what my inner fire is? How do I control it?" As he cleaned and gutted the fish, tossing away the insides, Daniel heard a distinct 'clink'. He turned towards the rocks and saw a blue stone. He reached over and picked it up. Taking it over to the riverside, he cleaned the stone and his blood and scale covered hands.

'Was this what let the fish control the water? Do I have one of these inside of me?' Suddenly what had been missing all this time clicked. He didn't have one of these stones. Whatever that wolf was that brought him here had neglected to make him whole. He grit his teeth in anger. Daniel shook his head and took a deep breath, reciting his lessons. 'Anger is a raging beast, with proper training and firm control. It can be a phenomenal ally. Without control it is just as likely to harm you as it is to help you.' He stood up and began moving through a kata. It helped relax him when he lost his temper. Meditating made him antsy most of the time so his sensei's made him practice his kata instead. Daniel felt the gravel beneath and between his toes. He felt the winds twisting through his fingers. He smelled the river flowing beside him. He watched the fire crackle merrily. Daniel felt himself calm down as he practiced, the familiarity of the forms calming him down.

As Daniel practiced, he amused himself by speeding up his practice, the sounds of the forest falling away until the only sounds were his exhaled breathing as he punched and kicked. He soon fell into a trance, moving faster and faster. His eyes and hair began emanating blue mist as he punched and kicked. Daniel felt his inner fire rage, his breathing quickened and his heartbeat hammered. Executing the final forms of his kata, Daniel stomped on the ground hard and punched forward. He was flabbergasted as a stone the size of his head roared up through the ground and shot forward, exploding against a tree.

He grinned and chuckled. 'I can do this.' There was no master Tim here to stop him from training like a maniac, so that's what he would do. He quickly ran back to his cave with his fish and covered the entrance with his makeshift stone door. 'But first before magic, toughness training.' Daniel eyed the poor cavern wall that was going to be beat without mercy.

Maniacal was the nice way to call his training, when Daniel wasn't sleeping, he was training. He finally noticed the blue glow whenever he channeled his inner fire, or mana. Either way, he was constantly breathing in as much as he could and just as fast, expelling it by pushing his body to its limits. As a result, his skin became tougher, his hair became stronger, his nails grew longer and harder, and all his senses grew sharper.

The next day when Daniel was hunting, he came across a huge elk. Its antlers looked to be made of petrified wood with vines growing intertwined between the points. The elk's hooves were cloven and the same white as its rack. Its fur was dark green and long where it wasn't grey. He grinned and crouched down, confident it hadn't seen him. One of the techniques he had stumbled on was cycling his Qi around his skin to prevent his scent leaking out. He crawled on all fours until he was about ten feet behind it before bursting out of concealment. The elk brayed in alarm and ran. Daniel threw his spear, hitting it in the thigh and causing the elk to bellow in pain.

He chased after it, channeling his Qi the whole way to refresh his energy. As the elk began to flag, he kicked up the speed and jumped. Daniel brought both feet together and kicked the elk in the ribs, launching the ten foot tall beast into a tree. It brayed and stumbled to its feet, some ribs clearly broken on both sides. It seemed to realize it wasn't going to escape so it turned towards Daniel and lowered its head. He crouched and took a stance, teeth bared in the predatory grin. The elk charged with glowing green antlers. Vines began to shoot out of the ground to try and restrain Daniel but he had expected something of the sort, the bigger and more strange looking an animal, the more magic it had.

He channeled his Qi into ice, the result being his body being wreathed in ethereal blue mist. Ice always came easier to Daniel than any other elements. His breath froze the air around him, turning the vines to verdant sculptures. The elk saw this and tried to turn away, fear present in its eyes. But it was too late, the elk was going too fast. Daniel sidestepped the beast and grabbed it by the antlers, twisting its head and bringing it down. He jumped onto its back and wrenched its head even farther, keeping it pinned. He focused the ice on his hand raising a fine edge along the blade of his hand. Then, he raised it high and brought down onto the neck of the elk. The 'blade' of his hand slicing straight through, decapitating the elk and causing blood to drench the forest floor.

Daniel had spent a while perfecting his palm blade. It cut nearly anything that wasn't him. Shaking his head, Daniel focused on the present. He took out his bone knife and began gutting the elk. He had gotten a lot better at it since he had been reincarnated. He lifted his head at a somehow familiar scent. Daniel's eyes widened in recognition as he snarled at the dire wolf pack emerging from the tree line. He stood and brandished his knife.

He wasn't weak anymore.