Air.

There was something terribly different with the air. It was sharper, thicker if air could be described by such a word. When Mono had first arrived at wherever-this-was, he thought that he was having trouble breathing because of his near-anxiety attack earlier. Instinctively, he went through his normal routine of deep breathing to calm down. That, as it turned out, made it worse.

Dizziness and nausea soon struck him after the first few deep but rapid inhales. Mono leaned against a nearby tree for support as his panic mounted. The ringing in his ear drowned out everything and made it even harder to think clearly.

Mono couldn’t figure out why breathing was this difficult. It felt like the times he lost control and started hyperventilating during a panic att– hyperventilating. He clenched his jaw and clamped his nose shut with the thumb and index finger of his right hand. His body occasionally shook as he tried to fight the urge to breathe and instead count to a hundred.

As he held his breath, the dizziness gradually subsided until it disappeared. The air here has more oxygen, he realized. Breathing in too much oxygen too quickly would result in feelings of disorientation and dizziness. As someone who often hyperventilated when feeling panicked, Mono was all too familiar with this fact. He carefully drew in breath again and found that, as long as they were shallow, he wouldn’t get lightheaded or dizzy. With his breathing kept in mind, Mono was finally able to take in his surroundings.

He was in a forest with trees that had bright green leaves. They were spaced far enough that he could comfortably walk between them with his arms outstretched but dense enough that seeing past the first few was impossible. Overhead he could make out the shape of the moon. It was a full moon, larger than any he had seen before. And while he couldn’t see the sun, the red-orange tint in the sky suggested that it was either sunrise or sunset.

Until now, he had held onto a small sliver of hope that he was in a stupidly vivid dream and had behaved accordingly. But to continue to do so would be foolish, dangerous even. No more jokes and no more banter; it was time to seriously consider his predicament. He was lost and had no food, water, or shelter. There wasn’t the slightest indication that other people lived nearby. Wait, he was in another world: the nearest civilization might not even be people. Uncertainty was the only thing he could be certain about.

At that moment, one of Mono’s favorite novels from his childhood came to mind. It was about a stranded boy who survives a plane crash with nothing but his clothes and the hatchet that his mom had gifted him before the flight. When trying to survive, the first thing the boy did was take inventory of everything he had. That, to Mono, seemed like a good place to start.

The only things Mono had were the clothes he slept in and the stone that Sojourn had given him. Mono pulled it out of his pocket to look at it. It was unnaturally warm to the touch and so white that all light seemed to reflect off of it like a mirror. Maybe it was actually glowing. Either way, he wasn’t going to risk using his only chance to go home for anything; it could be fragile. An unusable rock and some worn out clothes. Fantastic. Oh, and himself, Mono added. The most important thing, the novel had emphasized, was the fact that he had himself.

And since he only had himself, he had to think and come up with a plan. Right now civilization didn’t matter as much as finding the essentials. And while wandering around a mysterious forest was not an appealing option – especially if it was sunset and about to be night – Mono saw no sign of anything useful from where he was standing. He’d have to search for anything useful, so he picked a direction and began to walk.

Going bare feet didn’t bother Mono that much. The grassy dirt was soft and he had learned how to step carefully to avoid being hurt while shoeless during his time on the streets of LA. As he walked, Mono carefully scanned the area with his eyes and listened carefully to every sound with his ears. The forest was eerily quiet and that made him even more on edge. What really worried him more was passing over something that could help him or coming across a wild animal unwarned; he didn’t know what was in these woods and wasn’t very eager to find out.

Minutes passed into at least half an hour as Mono continued to walk. The air had grown colder overtime and the lighting dimmer. Of course it was a sunset. The wind had also begun to pick up, blowing from his right and rustling the leaves overhead. Eventually, the trees thinned and Mono could make out a large, steep hill through the foliage to his left. He stopped walking to consider the hill.

He hadn’t tried climbing the trees because he wasn’t confident in his abilities to safely get up and down. But now that he had a chance to get a better vantage point, it was tempting. Even if it was too dangerous to climb because of how steep it looked from here, he might be able to find something useful in the morning when he could see better. The hill could also potentially provide shelter and that was what he really needed at this point. The sun had almost completely set, and the night was only going to get colder. Mono shivered. At least the wind had temporarily stopped so it wasn’t as bad. Stop thinking about the hill for a moment, the wind had stopped. Mono shivered again and this time, it wasn’t from the temperature.

The wind, which had been steadily increasing, had suddenly stopped. The rustling to his right, which was supposed to be from the wind, had not. Something was near him and, judging by the occasional sounds, getting closer. What should he do? Most animals could outrun him and the act of running, he knew, would encourage many predators to treat him as prey and give chase. At the same time, he wasn’t very strong and wouldn’t be able to fight off anything bigger than a dog. As these thoughts flicked through his head, the wind started again and Mono could smell whatever was to his right for the first time. It was musty, like a wet dog. There was also a rusty, metallic smell that was familiar to Mono but he couldn’t place it for a moment. Oh, that was it: it was the smell of old, dried blood.

That realization sent Mono over the edge. He didn’t care about not being considered prey by whatever was watching him anymore. He just wanted to get as far away from it as possible. Without thinking, Mono turned left and ran for the hill. Behind him, like he feared, the thing began to give chase.

Mono didn’t dare look back to see what was chasing him in fear of tripping but he could hear it. It was definitely large, its uneven and lopsided strides loud and deep. It was also gaining on him because the steps were getting louder. Panicked, Mono tried running even faster. His breathing was no longer the controlled shallow breaths he had been keeping but deep inhales. Run, run, run, he told himself. Run. It was getting closer.

The extra oxygen in the air was helping him now. Mono wasn’t athletic by any means and instead only exercised to keep relatively healthy. But with the air here, he was able to run faster for a lot longer. The thing behind him also seemed to have issues gaining when Mono had to run around a tree or shrub, so he began to wrap around as many of them as he could as he kept going.

Run, run, run. Breathe in and breathe out as deep and quickly as possible. Try not to step too hard but it can’t be helped if you do. Humans had better stamina than most animals, right? Maybe he could run until it gave up. That thought was quickly thrown out the window as Mono heard the beast’s breathing. It was panting almost as hard as he was and seemed to convey a complete determination to catch its prey. To catch him.

As Mono was running, he had been steadily making his way towards the hill. Now, it loomed over him as he neared its base. The side facing him was steep, way too steep. At certain areas it was more like a cliff than a slope. Climbing it would be too difficult. Mono tried looking for a way around it to get more distance, but the hill was too wide and turning too sharply would mean that he’d get caught. Going up the hill was the only option.

The foot of the hill was sloped enough that Mono could run up several meters. He grit his teeth as his feet stepped on the tiny rocks that composed the gravelly slope’s surface. No stopping now, the thing was close behind. The next part of the slope was so vertical that Mono had to use both his hands and legs to ascend. At times he was crawling and other times climbing. Sometimes he slipped because of the rocks and he had to scramble to stop himself from falling far. Mono’s entire body shook from the exertion. He couldn’t go on much longer but it sounded like whatever was after him wasn’t able to climb much either. Looking up, he noticed a large stone which jutted out of the hill close by. He’d catch his breath there.

The left of the stone was a slope made of larger rocks. Mono began to climb it because it looked far more preferable to the other side which was extremely steep and covered in more tiny rocks. As he was about to reach the edge of his goal, one of the stones gave away under his foot and he stumbled, scraping his right knee. Righting himself, he reclimbed the portion that he slipped and managed to pull himself onto the stone. Without waiting to catch his breath, Mono turned around to finally see just what was chasing him.

Past half way from the base of the hill to where Mono was resting, there was a wolf. It wasn’t exactly a wolf, but that’s the first thing he could compare it to. Under the moonlight, its fur was incredibly dark and nearly blended in with the surroundings. It was huge, as big as a lion he’d seen at the zoo once. Unlike a lion, though, its head was more elongated and canine. The beast looked up and, upon realizing that Mono had turned around to look at it, snarled at him. It looked back at the hill to climb higher and get to its prey.

At first, Mono thought he was safe. He didn’t think an animal that heavy could climb the unstable path he himself had taken, and, as he kept watching the thing, Mono noticed that the beast was missing one of its front legs. Getting to him would be impossible.

Apparently the wolf-thing didn’t get the memo. It was surprisingly balanced on its three remaining limbs and was able to make jumps between larger rocks that seemed to ignore physics. The gap between it and Mono was closing. Terrified, Mono turned towards the hill. He needed to keep climbing to put more distance between him and the flying wolf.

Unfortunately, the rest of the way up the hill was no longer cliff-like; it was an actual cliff. If he wanted to continue, he’d have to climb the rest of the way. And climbing, no matter how desperate he felt, was not something he could do anymore. His arms were unbearably heavy and Mono knew that if he tried to use them, he’d fall for sure. He was trapped. His chest tightened even more and Mono’s breathing became erratic on top of rapid.

No, he needed to focus. Mono tried to regain control of his breathing and think of a plan. If he couldn’t get more distance between him and the wolf, then he’d prevent it from closing the distance already between them. With shaking arms, Mono picked up a nearby rock the size of his head. Walking to the edge of the jagged bolder he was resting on, Mono looked for the wolf. It was significantly closer now, only about a quarter of the original distance between them. Before the beast could see what he was doing, Mono raised the stone above his head and threw it as hard as he could.

The stone hit the wolf’s shoulder and knocked it off balance. It gave out a short yelp but quickly righted itself. Once more, it looked back up at Mono to snarl and then continued to climb. Mono ran back to grab another stone, and then another, but quickly realized that no matter how many he threw, the wolf was never going to be stopped from reaching him. It was too determined to be deterred and there were only so many smaller stones within arms reach anyways. He needed a new plan.

Up to this point, Mono had only been thinking about himself. He was weak, tired, thirsty, bleeding, hungry, and almost ready to just lay down and give up. He hadn’t thought about the beast’s perspective. After a lengthy chase and an uphill climb with only three legs, it had to have been as exhausted as he was. And since it was so determined to chase after him, it must have been desperate for food long before it had come across him. Mono could use that desperation, he realized.

Instead of randomly throwing stones at the wolf, Mono was now throwing them only when the wolf was attempting to climb the path that looked easier. Everytime it was about to jump, Mono would throw a stone to knock it off balance. Eventually, the beast began to take the harder, more unstable routes with looser stones. Now it had reached the area directly below Mono and had the options of reaching him from either the left or the right side. At first it tried to ascend using the right side, the slope made of larger stones that was less steep, but Mono threw more stones at it. At this range, he could throw more accurately and the stones were heavy enough to hurt the beast if he threw them at its face. Growling in frustration, the beast swapped to the side on Mono’s left. Perfect.

Mono stopped throwing stones and instead watched the wolf climb. The left side was the far steeper side and was covered in loose stones. He could hear the beast’s pants now as it got extremely close; it was as tired as he had hoped. When the wolf finally reached the large stone Mono was standing on, it didn’t try to jump at him or rush him. It simply moved one paw onto the platform to catch its breath and bared its fangs at Mono. That was when he struck.

Mono flung his right hand at the wolf. He wasn’t throwing a larger stone this time but rather dirt and many tinier yet jagged rocks. They hit the thing’s eyes and it yelped in surprise, closing its eyes to try to shake off the debris on its face. Mono quickly ran forward and kicked at the wolf’s leg before shoving it as hard as he could with his shoulder. The beast was heavy, so much so that he doubted he could have moved anything with this much mass on a normal day. But the wolf was on unstable footing and Mono was also extremely desperate. After the kick, Mono was able to push the beast off of the stone and make it lose balance. To his relief, it not only lost its balance but its footing, falling all the way down the slope.

As the beast fell, it hit many of the larger stones before continuing to roll down. It yelped out several more times in a higher, kreening tone. After several more tumbles, it hit the base of the hill and lay there for several moments. Mono held his breath as the beast tried to get up on its legs but could not. Every attempt resulted in it falling back over onto the side missing its leg. Each effort was also weaker than the last. At last, the damage seemed to catch up with the wolf. It was on its side and its attempts to stand up had stopped. Its legs twitched several times but eventually those, too, ceased. The thing gave one more shuddering breath before it stopped moving altogether.

Mono had done it. He’d stopped the beast.