The end was near. I felt the air picking up around me. I must’ve been falling. I was falling. I was falling!

Even though I was falling, in reality, I’d been excited about my situation, less than I was frustrated or fearful. It was just easier to say I was frustrated or fearful. I mean, for the first time, my life was warranting some form of adventure, so maybe falling into oblivion wasn’t so bad. My adventure as an angel was just starting, so maybe I’d be impervious to harm or something. Yeah, that seemed like something that was possib—

Smack!

I’d hit something that felt like ground far sooner than I would’ve expected, and it consequently interrupted my ingenious rationalizing by giving me a face full of dirt. The impact had hurt, so I had to go forward assuming that I wasn’t impervious to harm.

“Bleh! Gross, gross, gross!” I spit out the earthy contents that had collected in my mouth and did my best to wipe my tongue clean—it was likely a rather grotesque display, but why should I have cared about etiquette anyways? I was in the middle of nowhere, it wasn’t likely anyone could’ve seen me.

Anyways, after making sure my tongue was properly cleaned, I made the effort of getting to know my surroundings, and in doing so, I discerned where I was. The tree had been on an isle amidst two roaring streams that nosedived into the abyss below the cliff which the isle presided, and that was where I now laid. There was an incredibly dense, pale-green mist being produced where the waters fell over the cliff, too. It not only blended in with what the leaves of the tree had looked like, causing me to stumble on the unseen sticks of the tree’s corpse as I squirmed along the ground, but it matched with what my hair now looked like, too. Therefore, I had perfect camouflage.

It was a relief to find that I hadn’t fallen through innumerable stories of open air, but it also left me with more questions. Predominantly, the question of why the hell a tree that was suspended over open air decided to fall against the will of gravity and backwards onto a cliff.

“Maybe… Wait, gotta make sure!” For some reason I was full of energy, and I jerked myself off the ground, teetering into a standing position. I was a bit off balance, but I just chalked that up to being in a new body, or maybe a change in how my weight was proportioned thanks to my angel wings.

Once I was fully balanced, I bent my knees to prepare for a jump, only to falter when I was meant to lift off and stumble back onto the ground, gaining another face full of dirt. At the very least, now I knew that there was indeed gravity... Although, in retrospect, that much should’ve been obvious through standing up. I probably didn’t need to test it out.

After mentally recollecting myself for a few seconds, I found my footing once again, and hastily ran back through the process of cleaning out my mouth, and then I also dusted off my newly acquired long hair. I wasn’t used to having hair that could dangle and accumulate dirt and debris when you fell—well, not easily.

Fwoooosh!

It was after getting up that another blade of wind cut through the air a good ways above my head, dispersing the mist. From the temporarily cleared air the blade created, I could make out a figure heading towards me.

I braced myself for anything. My day had been so wild up until that point that I had no idea what to suspect; the approacher could’ve been either friend or foe… or even both.

I say I braced myself for anything, but in reality I did my best to stumble my way into a defensible stance. I was really not used to moving around yet.

As the figure gradually drew nearer, more blades of wind cut through the air on a periodic schedule. I’d always had fairly decent vision, so I could make the approacher out from a good distance away, but he probably required the mist to be absent in order to properly make me out.

Now that the figure was, in fact, closer, I could discern that its shape clearly belonged to a human-like being of seemingly male anatomy, but most features that would typically be considered ‘defining’ were still obfuscated by the ever refilling mist; however, eventually he came fully into view.

The figure was that of a husky, middle-aged man—a man, not an angel. He had scruffy blonde hair, which contrasted with a well-kept and sharp beard. Through one look into his deep green eyes, you would immediately read that he had a sort of kind but stern fatherly might to him. His outfit, much like mine, looked like it was directly ripped out of a fantasy story, consisting of some worn-down armors that padded his body, and durable cloths. He had a large, rigid axe in his hand, too—likely the perpetrator that created the blades of wind… somehow.

I was starting to think that maybe I didn’t die and go to heaven, but instead I was transported to some sort of fantasy world. In truth, as a closet closet shut-in, that prospect excited me far more than, y’know, being dead.

The man kept waltzing his way up to me. He was very slow and methodical about how he was moving, and it took me a second to realize that he must’ve been wading through the water—I was on a very small island, after all. However, he eventually reached me, and when he did a huge smile lit up on his face as he unloaded a sigh of relief.

“Yes! I’m not going insane! Booyah!” Despite appearing to be a middle-aged man, he had no shortage of energy and… interesting ways of exclaiming his apparent relief, as he pumped his fists and shouted into the air.

“Uh… Hi—?” I tried introducing myself to the man, but he wasn’t actually paying attention to me—the girl I could only assume he’d walked through thick mists and rushing waters to get to.

“Ahaha! Do you know how crazy it is to hear someone yelling out in the distance like you were?! Do you? I’ve been exploring this area for countless years and never once have I ever randomly came across someone out here! Not once! I swear, I thought I was having some sort of mid-life psychotic breakdown or that I was hallucinating or something...!” The man was now incredibly close to my face, but still managed to avoid spitting on me. How considerate. I’d always considered myself a veritable expert on how to expressly release emotions, and along with that, an expert on the classic self-celebration, but the man I’d just met beat that consideration right out of me. In his presence, I was an inferior emotional shrub being devoured by the all-consuming aura of the man’s own emotional flexibility and openness. And that was all I was.

So, I found that I didn’t have a choice. I’d regretfully have to be the party killer for once if I wanted anything close to an explanation. “Yeah, that’s great and all, but mind telling me what’s going on?”

“Oh, my bad. I almost forgot.” The man acknowledged that he might have been overly enthusiastic, but that didn’t steer him away from doing what he did next. Without a moment’s notice, the man picked me up like he was carrying a long skinny box, and held me in the air. In response, my body had instinctively converted to a stiffness that could best be compared to a wooden nutcracker or an old Source Engine player model. I was not yet ready for what came next, and I was mentally unable to comprehend what was going on.

“C’mon, lass, bring it in!”

“Wh-wh-what are you doing—Oumf!” Delicately but tightly clutching me, the man tossed his axe aside and wasted no time in bringing me in for the biggest bear hug I’d ever received, and that had likely ever been given. The bristles of his finely trimmed beard brushed against my scalp and his large, muscular arms squeezed me tightly—it was a weird array of tickling and tightness, which prompted me to squirm as he grasped me. He was dirty, but I wasn’t repulsed (I was dirty, too)—the only thing resembling a ‘stench’ that he carried was a more aromatic version of the minty smell brought about by the mist.

Although I was pretty sure what he was doing would likely be considered an act of sexual assault in almost every part of the world, for some reason, it didn’t bother me. Sure, I was overwhelmed, but for the most part the whole thing was just wholesome. There were no sexual or projected intents behind what he was doing—he was just genuinely happy he wasn’t going insane, I suppose.

After some time of holding me closely, the man returned me back into the air in front of him and then started speaking to me.

“Alright, lass, sorry about that. Guess I lost my composure.”

“Oh, don’t worry about it… That sort of stuff happens sometimes. Heheh...” A visible bead of sweat ran down my face as I tried to reassure the man he had caused me no mental or emotional damage through his sudden embrace, but I could tell it wasn’t the best bluff. My voice was shaky and my eyes were averted. I was never the best liar. Still, he seemed to, for some reason, believe me, though, as he continued on naive to my distress.

“Well then, ain’t that just the best news today?!” The man was talking in a loud, heartily booming voice, despite our close proximity. It was slowly causing my brains to be vibrated into a gooey mush.

“Glad you’re happy…” I wanted to ask him to put me down, but I could tell that he had other things planned for me while I was still within his grasp, and it wasn’t long before I was confirmed of this fact.

“Okay, lass, listen here. I don’t know how you got here, but we really shouldn’t be sticking around for long.” The man started explaining to me our situation, and I found the willpower to now once again look him in the eyes. Despite being held away from his body, our faces remained an uncomfortable distance from each other, so I had to persistently readjust my face to mask my restlessness.

“I don’t know how you ended up here, but I’ve decided to get you to safety.”

“Uh... safety? Are we not safe here?” The isle we were on appeared to be merely a serene outlook over the cliff face, AKA not inherently dangerous. I couldn’t really see anything other than the potential of being swept away by a flash flood that could be enlisted as a possible hazard.

“Damn, you’re really clueless, aren’t you?”

“Rather blunt way of putting it, but you could say so, yes.”

“Well then, lass, right now it’s lilydog season, don’t you know? So, how about that? Should be explanation enough, right?”

“That literally tells me nothing…” Considering I had no idea what a lilydog was, I had no way of confirming the severity of what he was saying. So, it literally told me nothing. I swear, I wasn’t just being a bummer for the sake of it.

“C’mon, I can’t be explaining everything to you right now! You’ll just have to trust me for a bit, okay?” The man’s expression was becoming one of slight discomfort, too, which actually helped me become better adjusted to a more comfortable expression around him. Whatever he was talking about, he sincerely believed that we—or at least I—would be in danger if we stayed put where we were, and that was enough for me to give him the leeway to do whatever he needed to with me. “Alright then! Do what you need to.”

“So, here’s my plan. I’m gonna chuck you.” Except that. I wasn’t gonna let him do that.

“Permission redacted! What the hell do you mean by you’re gonna chuck me?!”

“I’m gonna throw you. Toss you. Set you off like a ball of fire soaring through the air, flying off towards its next target.”

“I meant, why are you gonna throw me?!”

“No time to explain! Just deal with it.” He was being literal. Before I had time to object further, the man repositioned his grab towards my feet, and got himself into a throwing stance.

“Hold up! I don’t wanna deal with it! I don’t wanna—AAAAAAAH!!!” And then, I was thrown. As I braced myself for impact, I desperately flailed my arms around in the air, but it appeared my efforts were in vain, as my brace was quickly overshadowed by a gust of wind which promptly cushioned my impact to the ground. Just like that, I was over one of the streams.

“Hey! You’re alright over there, aren’t you?!” The man called across to me to check if I was okay. And physically, I was, but in almost every other compartment I had become entirely drained of resources in only a mere few minutes after meeting the man. Everything in life was happening all so swiftly, much swifter than I’d ever expected life could move. It was all too much.

Still, I found the latent energy that was stored within the deepest recesses of my mind and chidingly called back to the man. “If being alright means being overwhelmed, bruised, and ragged, then I’m the most alright person in the world right now!”

“Hmm… Okay, sounds great! I’m coming over!” Yet the man didn’t appear to catch on to the ridicule in my voice, and using his axe as a superpowered lever, flung himself over the stream in a fashion that would be impossible for just your average old dude… or anyone, actually.

He soared through the air in a pose similar to one that you’d see an acrobatic superhero utilize. Knees and head first, arms pointedly positioned behind him, body leaned forward in a way that made him slice through the air like an arrowhead. It was a deeply awe-inspiring feat to watch, but he performed it so casually that it almost lacked luster.

This lack of luster only further emphasized by the equally inelegant landing that followed the leap, as the man crashed into the ground full force next to me. However, he seemed rather unperturbed by what should’ve been a painful landing, and got up on his feet only a few moments later. Well, thinking on it, he did have armor and padding, so it probably didn’t hurt all that much.

“Ah, so you are alright! Good thing I didn’t throw you like that, huh?” The man quickly found his way facing me and caringly checked me over with his tender eyes. But I couldn’t really find the will to care all that much about what he was doing or thinking.

Once more, I had a new question to add on to my ever growing list. One that arose from seeing the man jump through the air in such a surreal and superhuman fashion.

“Who the hell are you…?”