Morgan woke slowly, his mind hazy and vision blurry as he took in the surroundings. He was in the woods, surrounded on all sides but one by trees that reached towards the sky. Thick vines hung from their vast canopies as thousands of small branches formed an entire world above the ground.
On the side where no trees grew, a walled fortress city stood atop a tall mountain, the rocks and bricks of its outer walls a dark grey that contrasted the endless greenery. It reached skywards, its spires intricately carved into beautiful murals that gave life to the otherwise dead structure.
At the foot of the mountain ran a paved road that spiralled around the mountain and made its steep cliffs easily traversable. Likely, it was to facilitate trade with whatever settlement lay behind its walls.
But closer to him was a small crack in the ground, the fissure between two rocks ran deep, clearly the work of nature and not man, dried blood caked its jagged edges, the trail leading up to him. This was where he'd crawled out, half conscious after passing the fallen door.
'Urgh… my head. Everything hurts.'
Rubbing his aching head with his right hand, he winced, wrist aching as it reminded him of its damage. Dried blood flaked off him as he sat up, somehow having survived the immense blood loss caused by his wounds. Wounds that had already scabbed over.
His entire body ached, each breath painful as his broken and fractured ribs shifted under the surface.
Removing the torn shirt, he saw how his entire body was covered in bruises, the discoloured welts ranged from purple to yellow, red to black. For some odd reason he felt like the strange vein-like structures spreading from his scar had grown slightly, but he assumed it was simply him misremembering them.
A glimmer of light atop the distant fortress city caught his eye against the setting sun. The light, like that of the sun glowed a golden red as it grew outwards, its flickering mass rising above the walls as it climbed the central keep.
'Oh… good riddance to that. I hope the innocents get out okay.'
Realisation struck him, not about the nature of the light – it was obviously a fire – but about a detail he'd glossed over.
The sun was setting.
It was setting, and he was alone in the woods with no tools, no weapons, and no clue where he actually was – still. All he had was the faint camping trivia one of his friends had repeated thousands of times in high school, and the knowledge he'd amassed.
Darkness crept over the land as the last light faded beneath the horizon, a chill sweeping through the air.
Panicked, he realised he had to do something. Heading to a town was immediately out, the only town he knew of was the burning city atop the mountain - which was likely where he was held – and he would very quickly be recaptured if he returned.
So that option was out, same with heading to another town – the nearest town was likely too far to navigate to in the dark.
That left him only one option, camping it out.
But he couldn't stay on the ground, that would be a death sentence. No, he'd camp in the trees. Afterall, how hard could it be?
Morgan rose to his feet, wincing as the movement tore open the cuts on his feet. Finally, he noticed the emaciated form of Iskandar laying nearby, their jaw opening and closing slowly as their eyes spun.
He dashed to their side, relieved they lived. Placing his ear near their mouth, he tried to make out what they were saying, whatever they'd done to help him in the dungeon had left them in an even worse state.
"…please… water…"
Pity flashed through his eyes, he was unable to help.
"…I'm sorry my friend, I have none. Can you endure till morning? I may be able to find some then."
"…I'll… try…"
Nodding to his friend, he turned his focus back to finding shelter for the night, his gaze drifting up to the canopy. He approached the nearest tree and grabbed one of the vines. Yanking on it a few times, he confirmed it was strong enough to hold his weight before returning to Iskandar.
'Hhm… how should I do this?'
A finger tapped against his chin, unsure how to get carry an extra person up a tree he doubted he could climb alone. His eyes settled on the shirt he'd hastily discarded, it was already ripped to tatters and unusable, all it was good for now would be scraps.
The distant howl of a wolf echoed through the darkness as he tore the shirt into three pieces, two he wrapped around his feet both as bandages and shoes, and the third he wrapped around Iskandar's wrists, binding them together.
It may have been dehumanising to treat them like a backpack, but Morgan saw no other alternative. They didn't have the strength to hold onto his back, and he didn't have the hands, the broken wrist already a nuisance for the climb.
He approached the tree and gripped the vine, curling it around each foot and hand he began the ascent. Hand over hand he rose upwards, the canopy well over thirty metres above the forest floor.
Sweat poured from his head in an increasingly familiar motion and small tremor ran through his body as each movement aggravated his wounds. Iskandar hung from his back, hands tied together and wrapped around Morgan's neck so they wouldn't fall.
By the time he crawled atop the thick branch he'd targeted, his throat was parched and his lungs ached. The branch was massive, easily over a metre wide were it met the trunk and completely covered in a layer of moss, small branches each as thick as his wrist grew out from it in a web-like pattern that made it difficult to pass through.
Morgan sighed as he leant back against the trunk, his friend was nearby, carefully tucked between colossal green leaves so he wouldn't fall.
For the first time since he'd crashed, he started to relax – not fully though as he was still outdoors. It had all been so hectic and he'd been running around virtually headless, his priority solely on escaping before he could be branded.
Something in his gut told him that would have been the point of no return, and it made him desperate. Now however, he was simply scared.
There was only so long he could deny reality, and after all he had seen today, he had reached the tipping point. What he saw in that damp dungeon lingered with him, the way Pret had moved was too fast, too fluid for any human to achieve. Then there was the clearly inhuman woman, the strange runic array, and his new friend – who should have been dead by now.
None of that was even taking into account his own experiences. He knew no human could have survived losing as much blood as he did. He was dead. That should have been the end, but he just got up and walked it off like it didn't happen.
He sighed, head resting in his hands as he battled against his own common sense. After a few minutes it clicked, a way he could confirm what he'd suspected this entire time but chose not to accept.
"I'll be back in a second, um… try not to move I guess?"
Unsure what was an appropriate thing to say to the crippled person, he ended the conversation awkwardly and spun to the trunk, arms outstretched as he started to climb the many branches like a ladder.
Throughout human history the stars were used as a means to navigate, their nearly constant nature allowed them to serve as the perfect waypoints no matter where on the globe someone was.
As an astronaut Morgan was required to memorise the general location of the constellations in the event he got lost, it was about the only part of the course he'd found fun and hadn't bribed his way through.
It was so interesting he'd even hung around the navigation department's office for a few weeks to learn more. So he was confident in pinpointing his location. Or at least he was.
Morgan's confidence evaporated like mist in the morning sun as he broke through the leaves.
The sky above wasn't one he recognised. Two moons hung in the sky, one a light blue colour reminiscent of the ocean was slightly smaller than earth's moon, the other a rocky grey was almost four times the size.
Behind them, the sky was sparse, the stars few and far apart. There was no milky way, no big dipper, and no satellites.
It wasn't his sky.
If he wasn't clutching the branch so hard his knuckles turned white, he likely would have stumbled.
'I'm… alone.'
The realisation hurt more than any injury he'd received. To be alone, trapped on an alien planet in some far flung galaxy was a fate he'd wish on no-one.
He would likely never see his family or friends again, or take his dog for a walk. Regret and despair was all he felt.
'I never should have bribed my way through the physical parts of the test. I was too blinded by my own confidence to realise how wrong it could all go… is this how Icarus felt when he flew too close to the sun?'
Truth was, Morgan was never meant to be the pilot of the ship. He was merely the mind behind the madness that was faster than light travel.
But worried his name would be forgotten like so many other great scientist, he'd bent his own morals and offered the grunts responsible for the pilot selection a promotion, if they only pushed him to the top of the list.
Now he truly would be forgotten. Someone else would take all his research and rebuild his engine, their name would go down in history as the first person to successfully fly faster than light, while he, and all his effort, would fade away.
Tears streamed down his face as he stared up at the empty sky. What was he to do now?
Streams of light split the sky as they burned through the planet's atmosphere, some might make it to the surface, but most wouldn't. They lasted for twenty minutes before fading, the sky growing dark once more.
Suddenly, a new light appeared in the void that was the sky, followed a few minutes later by another.
No, he realised. This wasn't the end, this was the beginning.
He wasn't alone, there was people here on this planet, and animals, trees, plants and even minerals. All he had to do was reach out and seize the opportunity he was given.
'Yes! That's what I'll do. I'll start again, engraving my name forever on the history of this world as I pioneer a new age!'
With newfound purpose, Morgan spent the rest night gazing up into the endless void as new stars came into being. By the time the sun once more peaked over the horizon he'd unwittingly fallen asleep, head slumped against a branch.
Above him, a leaf dipped as water built up on its surface. Reaching its limit, the leaf dumped its contents onto the slumbering human, startling him awake.
Morgan jolted upright, eyes wide and mouth flapping uselessly, cold water dripped down his forehead and across the bridge of his nose before continuing its path to the ground. Bleary eyed, he looked around, his balance shifting as he carelessly leant to the side.
With a scream he slipped from the branch, tumbling through the leaves towards the ground. Reacting purely on instinct, his hands flew out and latched around a passing branch. A scream, this time of pain, echoed through the canopies as his broken wrist was further damaged.
Yet, he'd stopped falling, and that was what mattered. Nursing his swollen wrist, he inched along the branch towards the trunk, where he used the proper way to descend further.
Guilt niggled at him as he returned to the original branch. The glare Iskandar shot him despite their sunken eyes and non-existent eyelids was scalding.
Awkwardly scratching the back of his head, Morgan winced as he not only used his right hand again but also ripped the scab covering the cut there.
"Sorry? I got distracted… anyway! I figured out where to get water, just wait here a second."
Ignoring the glare he received, he tiptoed his way out along the branch towards one of the larger leaves. Plucking it from the branch, he folded it and used it as a bucket to catch the water dripping from the leaves.
Within minutes, he had his makeshift bucket filled with a litre of water and headed back. Carefully, he crouched by his friend, making sure not to misstep and fall.
"Okay, I'm only going to drip a small bit into your mouth at a time. If you choke, I'll need to toss the water to help you."
Drip by drip he poured the water into their open mouth, stopping after they'd drunk a fifth of what he collected. They could likely drink more, but he wasn't a doctor and they were in no condition to be ingesting too much of anything.
Parched, he lifted the leaf and drank the rest before discarding the leaf. The morning was still fresh, and he could get a bit more later, first he had to address the elephant in the room.
"So… we're going to need some food, how's your knowledge of plants?"
"…good…"
"Awesome. So if I find some berries or fruit, you'd be able to, with some certainty, tell me if it's poisoned?"
"…yes…"
"Cool…cool… that's about as far as I got. You're the local, which direction should we head?"
"…"
Iskandar stared at him with an incredulous look, letting the silence stretch for a few seconds before replying.
"…east…"
"Um… which direction does the sun rise? I mean, I know, but I've got to double-check, it might have changed."
Morgan felt like a little kid nagging an adult with questions that were relatively trivial, but it was needed, he couldn't trust anything he took for granted, such as the direction the sun rose.
"…west…"
Case and point. On earth the sun rose from the east, whereas on this planet it was the west.
"Now that's settled, what say we get out of here?"
"…"
"Cool… I'll take your silence as a yes."
Hoisting the annoyed skeleton over his shoulders, he began the descent back to the forest floor. The day was just starting and he wanted to be as far from here as possible by the time they caught on and sent out soldiers to recapture him.
'I'll deal with the blue panel later.'