Much time had passed before the sharp pain faded into a dull pulsing, which was much more tolerable to the man. Slowly, Atrimeaus rolled onto his side as he steeled himself for more agony upon attempting to stand. To his surprise, however, aside from that dull pulsing pain, standing up was remarkably easy. Atri looked himself over for any wounds but only found stone-shaped bruises beginning to form upon his extremities.

Striding over to the rapidly moving water of the river, Atri brought his hands together to resemble a crude bowl. After drinking his fill, the man moved away from the water towards the forest. He thought it would be likely he would find something simple to catch or find in there. Lost in thought, Atri hadn't yet noticed just how tall the trees were from normal ones. When Atri did set his gaze upon the trunk of one tree, his mouth fell agape.

The massive tree Atri stood before soared into the sky, with a crimson trunk several times wider than he could stretch his arms. An entire sea of greens, blues, and every color the man could name lay below the behemoth trees. Many plants in this forest Atri had never seen before, all of which large and incredibly diverse. The aroma of the strange flowers and shrubbery mixing with the scent of the river before entering Atri's nostrils.

Rusling in the bushes cut off any further sightseeing Atri might have done, however. Adrenaline shoots through the man's veins at the noise, hairs all over standing on end. Almost instantly, his legs began to move, slamming his torso into the massive tree. Atri's nails, digging at the dark red bark as he scrambles up the tree a few feet, assisted by a small jump. A buzzing sound filled the man's ears from an unknown source below. Atri climbed at least 20 feet in the air before he dared to see what it was that had come from leafy green overgrowth.

While gazing down, the man's eyes fell upon a strange sight indeed. The thing's body was shiny like the beak of the flying monster, segmented in several sections. The top half of this creature a bright red, fading to orange, before ending black on its underbelly. Wings being translucent allowed light to pass through all four of them, revealing veins inside that formed a hexagonal pattern. The same hexagonal patterns were apparent in its massive eyes, with a single black dot in each moving around, no doubt searching for prey. Its mouth was split in two, each half forming a crescent moon with sharp serrations running along the inside of them. Three legs hung from each side while it buzzed around the forest floor.

*If that thing sees me, I will not be safe up here....* Atri thought to himself, watching the strange creature move around. The second the thing was gone, the man slowly slid down the bark of the tree. When his feet touched the ground after a few moments, he began slowly creeping in the opposite direction. Listening carefully, Atri could now only hear the sound of the rushing water in the river, the buzzing having faded some time ago. Deciding it would be safe to pick up the pace, the man moves through the thick overgrowth as fast as possible. The main concern was finding nourishment and shelter after being so graciously dropped next to a river by the monster.

As Atrimeaus rushed through the dense plant life, he became lost in thought. *All of these unknown beasts... Come to think of it... I cannot remember what the animals I do know resembled... How could this be? What has happened to me? Could it be possible that all of these creatures are ones I should know but have forgotten somehow?*

Atri's hand came to his head, nails digging lightly at his scalp as he continued his thought. * Let's go over what I know. Birds fly, fish swim, the other one....what was it....they were land-dwelling animals...Curses, why can I not remember much?!?!*

The man's train of thought was interrupted by a familiar sound. The buzzing was back and growing louder. An icy chill shoots up Atri's spine. The thing he saw while he was clinging to the tree was back. However, with the wall of green being too thick to run at full speed through, the man decided it would be best to try and lose it. In this spirit, the man turned to his left, sharply pushing past the brush. Then to the right, and finally straight ahead. Hoping this was enough to throw it off, at least until he was at some form of clearing, Atri pushed onward. It was not.

Shortly after doing the now pointless turns, the buzzing grew louder in Atri's ears, soo loud he was sure it was directly behind him. Spinning upon his feet, he flung his right arm out with fist balled up, landing a solid blow on the thing. The hit had stunned the creature and tore one of its thin wings. A horrible noise came from the beast, and it flopped around on the ground in agony. Not wanting more to come, Atri sent his right heel down in a blur, smashing the head of the thing quickly.

Sadly for Atrimeaus, it was too late. A concert of the same sound as before came from all around him. The man gritted his teeth, quietly cursed to himself as he was about to run. However, he had a thought.

*Leaving the corpse of the thing there would be a waste if I manage to escape..*

Atri quickly grabbed the massive corpse of the creature and began pushing once more through the sea of life.

"Faster, somehow I need to go faster!" he thought as the creatures closed in on him.

Looking all around him while moving as fast as physically possible, only one idea would come to him. Climb the trees once more, and run along the branches was the only other option. He had no time to think about it in detail with the swarm closing in. Atri bites down gently onto the wing of the corpse, holding its mass with his teeth. Firmly he planted both of his hands onto one of the towering mass of leaf and wood and began his ascent.

Atrimeaus was worried he would not reach the branches in time for the swarm to miss him, as they did not begin until halfway up the behemoth tree. Fortunately for the man, he did make it just in time to watch the swarm go on their way without issues. From his perch on the first branch he could reach, he could see a clearing near the end of the visible portion of the river. Taking great care as he hopped from branch to branch, for a fall from this high would mean death, he set off towards the clearing, the corpse of the one he killed, now in his right hand.

Atri ran into no pressing issues reaching the clearing, making it just before nightfall. From his position on the branch, he couldn't see much of the clearing. The shadows of the trees blocking any view he may have had.

Deciding it would be best to stay in the tree for the night, rather than the clearing where anything could get to him. After finding the largest branch possible, he laid down. The tree branch was just large enough for him to lay without fear of falling in his sleep. If only falling were the only thing Atri had to worry about in this strange land, he may have gotten some rest.

But a good night's rest was never meant for him, for some time after he had drifted off to the dream world, his slumber was interrupted. The feeling of something slowly crawling on his left leg was what woke him up. He felt all the individual hairs on its leg touch his. There was only one at first, and then two, eventually eight legs rested upon the man's legs. There were four on Atri's left extremity and four on his right, each leg covered in coarse hair.