I was lost. I'd woken up at a girls house (which wasn't really new for me) and decided to walk home. Realistically being out alone three in the morning posed no threat to me and I needed to clear my head. I was hungry, of course. I'm always hungry. Alice and her sister…I wanted to say Amanda, had been enthusiastic but that last bite is always the one you need to quench the hunger and monster or not I'd never take it again.

I still remember poor little Shelby, who had been my first time. We'de been on a few dates, and I had really liked her. She was a virgin too, and we'de decided to take that next step together. My sister told me afterwards not to feel bad. She says the first time is always fatal, that there was nothing I could do. Lara sometimes really misses the point.

I'd been drowning myself in women since then, but like my demon, my heart remained empty, unsatisfied. I thought walking might clear my mind, as the girls had not, but soon found myself on unfamiliar streets. I wasn't too worried about being lost, after all I was an apex predator, and its not like I needed food or water. I'd just fed fairly deeply and would be fine until I found a way home.

I was lost in my own thoughts when I came across the odd little store. I'd been wandering for hours, and figured the purveyor could at least tell me where I was and give me a direction to head. Apparently it had started raining sometime along the way, and my soggy hair clung to my face, I hadn't even noticed the water in my reverie, and my growing awareness of being caught out in wet jeans was being given a decidedly darker tone by my rather unfortunate decision to forgo underwear today.

The old man at the counter of the shop barely registered my presence when I came in, his head was drooping low in a lazy drift that seemed to be sleep but wasn't. I was pretty surprised, the man had an unusually strong life force, exponentially stronger than any human I'd met till then. I'd have assumed he was from the spooky side of things but my instincts weren't pinging another predator. Curious.

I rapped on the counter with my knuckles. The old mans head jerked up as if in surprise, but his heartbeat stayed steady, this man wasn't nearly as doddering as he was playing, but I was hardly in a position to throw stones about books and covers. "Excuse me sir, I was wondering exactly where I am? I went out for a walk and seem to have gotten lost. Do you know how to get to Michigan Avenue from here?" The man furrowed the brow over eyes he still hadn't opened and cocked his head.

"Never heard of a street like that young man, how long exactly have you been walking?" I searched my mind. I wasn't actually sure. I knew it had been three in the morning when I'd crawled out of the tangle of limbs at the ladies house, but I wasn't sure how long I'd been walking. If I looked I could see some sun peeking through the clouds roiling over the city. Come to think of it I could see shapes moving in the sky, dark shadows surfacing briefly before disappearing back into the storm, like silent sharks moving in the deep recesses of a rolling black sea.

I glanced around me now, looking more closely at things in the shop. What looked like pneumatic tubes of what appeared to be colored sand lined the walls. The case upon which the old mans hands rested was full of brightly colored stones, the depths of which seemed to dance with an inner fire. I looked hurriedly up from the stones, they were alive somehow and I got the feeling gazing into their depths to try to find the source of that life would be a rabbit hole I'd rather avoid. "Where exactly is this shop located? If you don't mind me asking?"

I was getting a pretty distinct not-in-kansas vibe. I cursed myself for being too distracted to observe my surroundings. I should've known better than to wander around without watching where I was going. Wizards and the like could open ways between the mortal world and spirit world but that wasn't the only way to cross. Long before mortal magic had discovered how to open ways there had been paths to the nevernever, secret ways and roads that would lead across the veil if walked the right way.

I had thought they were all closed and had never heard of anyone wandering through them since the days of old, when mortals found themselves in the courts of the fae with no way home, and were trapped there forever. These days of cold iron and science had destroyed the paths as far as I knew, I couldn't have been expected to anticipate this crazy random happenstance, but with how my luck has been over the last few months I should have just assumed murphys law was in effect at all times.

My suspicions were confirmed when the old man raised his weathered gray brow in surprise "Why, this is the city of Vale, you must be here for the Vytal festival? Its quite the sight, men and women from all over remnant, dozens of cultures and walks of life all represented. Not to mention the tournament, broadcast worldwide for all to see. You seem a strong young man to me? Are you here for the tournament?"

This was…not good. I had been pretty sure that I wasn't in any of the lands of faerie, being as I didn't know of any actual societies with independent cities in under hill. But if this man was citing a collective culture made up of a large scale series of kingdoms, all insular and independent I could say for certain wasn't in fae territory. I'd have heard of a nation of fae this big, everyone would've. Even if this had been their only city it was huge, we're talking Chicago sized, that's millions of fae, and my fathers last estimate of Mabs troop count was a tenth of that.

Which meant this wasn't faerie, which touched on the mortal world, this was…deeper. In high school I was pretty introverted (after the tenth or eleventh friend who ended up bailing on me to fuck one of my sisters I kind of stopped bringing them over) so I'd done a lot of reading. I'd come across a book once in one of our libraries that mentioned the hiding lands, the deep realms in the heart of the nevernever that had been lost over the centuries.

If that's where I was this was bad, my people can cross into the real world from the nevernever at places where out power is great, allowing us to pierce the thinning veil to the spirit world. Unfortunately the hiding lands weren't even remotely reality adjacent, I could be standing on a dick shaped skyscraper made of pure magic while enchanted strippers rained from the sky and it wouldn't be enough sex or power to get me home from here. I thanked the old man and wandered out into the rapidly clearing day.

I spent the next hour or two walking in circles, occasionally stopping to stare up at the actually FLOATING COLLISEUM in the sky, and all the AIR SHIPS! Seriously the tech here was nuts, back home my family always had top of the line toys but the flat paper thin things people seemed to use to communicate here (ironically they called them scrolls) were decades if not centuries ahead of the sleek Razr cell phone I'd gotten from Lara for my nineteenth birthday two months before. After confirming that paths to and from the the deepest hidden pockets of the universe were in fact not listed on this worlds version of mapquest, I did the only thing I could do. I went and got myself a drink.

Being me I, of course, didn't pay for my drinks, adoring women and even a couple men started sending me over cocktails the minute I sat down at the bar. Encouragingly enough, though the names and bases weren't the same, cocktails are apparently universal, because they all came in the same familiar glasses and with the same flavors (give or take an aftertaste) I was used to. A pina colada, a strawberry daquari, some beer (which wasn't bad, but theres this little pub in Chicago I go to that makes it way better) I tried basically every drink on the menu, and after an hour or two I was a few bed bath and beyond worth of sheets to the wind.

After pounding my fifteenth shot of Devils Whisper (which tasted a lot like jaegermeister) I noticed the guy next to me had stopped drinking and was watching me imbibe with amusement. "Damn kid, how in the hell are you not dead? I've been pickling my liver for twenty years and just watching you drink is giving me a sympathy hangover, I respect the hell out of your fortitude but where exactly is the fire?" His wine red eyes were sympathetic, despite his gruff tone, and his five o'clock shadow and messy black hair gave the impression that he'de be a great drinking buddy to tell my whale of toe…tale of whoa? Tail of woe.

I slammed my head down on the bar, which luckily didn't hurt even a little for some reason, and groaned. "I wanna go home! I'm not from here and I don't know how I got here, but now I don't have a way home, and I cant even tell you what happened because you'de never believe a word of it. Not to mention being drunk dehydrating me which is making me hungry so now I want to fuck one of these girls, but even sex vampire superpowers cant overcome whisky dick this bad."

My new best friend seemed amused and then interested when I mentioned superpowers, and he made a sympathetic noise. "Ouch, sounds like a mess, getting lost in a strange town sucks, and considering the number of womens underwear that appears to have been shoved into your pockets I'd say that whisky dick is indeed your bane right now. Serious hardcore drunks like me don't even get whisky dick anymore, I could drink this WHOLE BAR AND GET LAID!" This last was roared in challenge as he leapt up on the bar raising his fist to the sky before the bartender hooked his ankle and toppled him onto the floor.

I dove after my new friend to save him "Oh no! Guy! Are you ok? It cant end like this, not after all weve been through! Don't go toward the light! Remember all the good times!" After that it was all a blur of grab ass and girls and drinking songs. My new buddy, whose name was Qrow ( I was informed that "the Q is silent ass-breath") was a regular here when he was in town, and usually didn't get nearly this wasted, but was gallantly stopping me from killing myself via alcohol poisoning by shouldering half of my massive burden.

We were apparently the life of the party, and after about four hours of intense day drinking and Qrow teaching me the words to "The Huntress and the Knight" (which is bar none literally the crudest most graphic song I've ever heard in my life, and I grew up in a family of porn star sex vampires) several lap dances, and a wet t-shirt contest (which apparently I invented here) we stumbled off back to Qrows place, where he was staying with his brother in law and I proceeded to pass out only to wake up where I am now, with literally the worst hangover I've ever had in my life.

Which is how I currently found myself in a strange house, wearing what appeared to be a red hood and cape several sizes too small for me and no shirt, trying desperately not to vomit while I made eggs on Qrows weird magic crystal sand stove, and desperately wishing that I had listened to the nice bartender and quit after that third pitcher of this worlds weird combustible version of sangria. My buddy was asleep on the couch, snoring like a buzz saw and his brother in law was sitting at the table waiting for an omelet glaring daggers at me while his dark haired daughter chattered nervously while sneaking what she probably thought were covert glances at my ass and the busty blonde one eyed me like a steak she wanted to eat.

After I finished the eggs I sat down at the table, careful to keep Taiyang (according to Qrow) between me and the blonde one, Yang (who was polite enough to introduce herself before she started drooling) which put me right next to Ruby, who was absolutely adorable in a sweet little puppy kind of way. The nervous little brunette seemed to stumble a bit as I sat down and passed out the eggs but quickly got over it and changed her chatter to actual questions "So…Thomas, its so nice to see uncle Qrow is making new friends, I never see him spending time with anyone and you seem really" queue the blush "nice".

Taiyang gave me a tight smile "So where exactly are you from Thomas, and how long are you going to be in town? As nice as having Qrow here is and as happy as I am to help his friends, I'm afraid we cant really afford to have you stay here again, since this is just a rental while we're in town for the festival. Landlord problems you know."

Yang looked like she'd been diagnosed with cancer of the puppy and I was suddenly so very glad that I hadn't had to go to sleep here while she'd known I was in the house. Because of all the dehydration from the booze my body was consuming massive amounts of energy, not to mention running around town looking for the path yesterday, so I was HUNGRY. The poor outgoing blonde seemed to be taking the hit harder than her shy sister, and if I didn't get out of here and find a girl to feed on soon I was actually scared she'd come at me over the table.

Seeing as Qrow was literally the only friend I had here and despite some vague memories of him using my abs as a dartboard to score phone numbers, had treated me with nothing but respect, I sure as hell wouldn't be taking advantage of his nieces like that. Not to mention Taiyang looked like he was about to put his steak knife through my eye as it was. I didn't need enemies here already.

I decided to try to relieve some of the tension with surprise, so I answered his question truthfully "Honestly you probably wont believe me but im not from remnant at all. I'm from a city called Chicago on a planet called earth. I wound up here yesterday with no clue how and now I don't know how to get back. Honestly I have nowhere to go and no one to ask for help, if Qrow hadn't stumbled on me drowning my sorrows and been nice enough to have me over I'd have had to sleep on the street" That was actually a complete lie, I could've gotten a place to stay from some girl, but despite what I'd said about whiskey dick I honestly just didn't feed drunk, its hard enough not to kill my partner when im sober.

Taiyangs face had softened a bit, though he looked skeptical, and Yang seemed to have been snapped out of the effects of my hunger by the sadness in my voice. Not a lot of women get past thoughts of sex when I'm hungry, the sympathetic looks or hers and Rubys faces made me like them both. They were clearly strong willed girls to be able to push aside their desires and empathize with my situation.

There was a grinding behind me and I realized the snoring had stopped, Qrow pulled a chair up and sat on it backwards, stealing food off of mine and Rubys plates with unbelievably quick fingers. "So Tommy boy, youre lost and you cant get home. The way you said that, and some of the weird stuff you spouted last night make me think your Chicago might not be of this world. So assuming youre not bat shit crazy, you mustve got here by magic. You a magician, kid?"

He said that lightly, like he was just joking, but I could tell from his sharp eyes he was interested in the answer. Qrow was curious about magic. He believed it was real and he wanted to find some. "Sadly no. I'm…its hard to explain. I feed on life force." They all leaned back a bit and I gave my best reassuring smile "Don't worry, you've all been very kind to me, and I would never feed on someone without permission. You're safe." I looked at Qrow "So what made you believe im from another world? Most people would assume I was just crazy."

The older man grinned at me "Jurys still out on that one Tommy, as for the other world thing? Little stuff, besides the fact that you said as much while we were drinking, for one you kept getting really surprised about all the smallest things. How scrolls work, the air ships, that kind of stuff. Stuff no one from this world, regardless of how small a village theyre from, bats an eye at. But mostly its your aura. I've been around a lot of people, none of them had an aura that feels like yours. Sort of cold and empty. Part of why I got you drunk last night, you seemed dangerous, I wanted to see what youde do if you were too wasted to control yourself."

My eyes widened at that. Now that I thought about it Qrow didn't seem nearly as hungover as I did, which shouldn't have been possible seeing as he was human. I got the feeling he'd been playing drunker than he was to get me to let down my guard. "And what if I'd failed your test? Would you have used that big ass sword on me?" Now I was angry. Not just at Qrow but at myself. I'd been so depressed I'd let myself get stupid, I'd been way too trusting of strangers, and in this world I didn't even know if my Hunger would be able to protect me, I had to shape the hell up or I was gonna get myself killed before Friday.

Qrows eyes somehow both softened and hardened at once "If youd hurt anyone I would've considered you a monster. Huntsmen kill monsters. But even at your drunkest you didn't harm any innocents, as far as I'm concerned youre just a weird kid who got lost. That said, I wasn't faking having fun last night, youre a hell of a drinking buddy, and a good guy. I have a friend here who has some experience with magic, I'll take you to see him after breakfast, maybe he can help you get home."

Ruby looked excited "Uncle Qrow, you know someone who knows how to do magic?! That's so cool! Do you think he'd teach me? I want to learn!" The little brunette was bouncing like an eager puppy and I couldn't help but smile. Even Taiyang was laughing at his youngest and Yang just rolled her eyes.

Qrow cut his neice off "Sorry kid, I said I know someone who knows ABOUT magic. He doesn't know how to do it. Nobody does anymore." Which was interesting, considering where I was pretty sure we were, youde have thought people here would piss magic. "In any case that means we're heading up to beacon with you girls, I'm sure Oz will be able to make time for us."

I grinned at my friend and held out a fist which he bumped. "Well then. Looks like we're off to see the wizard."

A/N Ok folks new story. I'm really into Rwby and I have a ton of great ideas for this story later on down the line. That being said please review if you like this, as reviews feed me and give me sustenance. I repeat. I need reviews. They help me breathe, they give me inner strength. Clearly this is a Thomas story. I have definite plans for where to go but please if you have any ideas feel free to leave them and ill take them into consideration.