Chapter 1: A look into the cosmos

Now, awaken, little wolf-human…

Rex, still half asleep, had attempted to swat away the disembodied voice that commanded him to rise. This was to no avail, however, as there was seemingly nothing to swat, so he shifted a bit in an attempt to get comfortable again, and tried to go back to sleep. The voice seemed to be able to sense Rex's attempt to drift back off to sleep, and spoke again in an effort to awaken him.

Arise, little wolf-human.

This time it sounded a little more solid and strict, but, at the same time, got a little more on Rex's nerves. He twisted and turned a bit more, trying to shake off the annoyance of the voice that kept attempting to summon him to the world. He became comfortable once more, and, again, attempted to return to the dreamscape.

If you wish to live… Open your eyes, little wolf-human.

This brought Rex back to reality, seeing how that he very much wanted to live and not die. He was, however, confused as to what would kill him if he refused to open his eyes. Not intending on finding out, he opened them, breaking down the walls that separated him from the senses of the bright and vivid outside world. The first sense that made it's way to Rex's conscience was the sense of touch. He could feel. He could feel the green vegetation that littered the terrains surface brushing against his face, legs, and feet. He could feel a gentle breeze of the wind blowing on him, which, in all honesty, made him feel a bit cold.

Rex could see. He could see the vibrant light-blue skies dotted with shapeless strips of white overhead. He could glimpse the bright, yellow orb of light that was placed in the light-blue blanket that cover the world, the sun. He allowed his gaze to slowly drift around, which finally landed on a forest that, from his current perspective, didn't seem very far from his current position. He still felt a little numb, and his head throbbed lightly, but he was able to look around to observe a small portion of his current surroundings with ease.

So, you're finally awake.

This time, Rex jolted at the sound of the disembodied voice as the cold, hard words sent a threatening chill down his spine, which triggered feeling in the rest of his previously limp figure. He turned so that his body was facing ground in a push-up position, and slowly rose to his feet from there. He finally stood up and immediately began to observe more of his current surroundings. He seemed to be on the top of a fairly short but wide mountain that was surrounded at the base by an incredibly large forest. Or, at least he assumed it was large, seeing how he couldn't see any sort of ending to the great expanse of the dark green trees. The sun was sitting on it's midday perch high above in the light-blue sky, sharing it's radiant light and comforting warmth with Rex. He shifted his gaze back down towards the forest to see some green-and-gray-littered mountains sticking out of the leafy, green sea. Some smaller than the mountain he currently stood upon, others much larger, that made the mountain Rex was currently on seem like a pebble.

On some of the other mountains, smoke was visible, and Rex could make out tents, which he assumed belonged to other people. He looked over a bit to see a few trees on the mountain that he was on, as well as a small pond of clear water and some plants that he had never seen before growing out of the ground, growing fruit on their many stems. The fruit actually looked quite edible. Appetizing even. He began to walk around some more at a slow pace, continuing to take in the green layout of the land that was spread out vastly before him.

After looking around some more aimlessly, his eyes widened. He had just realized something. Something that he should have realized as soon as he opened his eyes. Something, that he now felt a bit embarrassed about for not realizing sooner. The fact was obvious, but was able to slip undetected by Rex's mindset somehow, until just now. He sped up the pace in which he surveyed the surrounding area. He even ran a bit to the edges of the mountain in an attempt to see farther past the forest which, seeing how the forest looked almost endless, ended fruitlessly. He slowly walked back to where he had awoken and sat there, limply. He had NO idea where he was.

It's apparent that you finally realized your situation.

At this point, Rex felt like the disembodied voice was tormenting him. He felt a bit broken by now. He had no idea where he was, and the sun had already began it's decent in preparation for the moon. He didn't want to be stuck outside with no type of warmth or light, ESPECIALLY at a place that he wasn't familiar with. There could be wild boars, or wolves, or even rabid monkeys for all he could know. He snapped out of this trance of worries and focused on what he needed to do now. He decided that he would have to journey to one of the locations of the smoke pillars and see if anyone would be kind enough to let him hang around for nightfall. Rex jumped up to his feet, with a new goal in mind. As he headed towards a side of the mountain to begin his decent to the ground. Just as he began to move, the voice, again, took notice of this.

Are you even aware of your current appearance?

Current appearance? Rex thought. What did it mean by that? He pondered why the voice had said 'appearance,' and proceeded to look at his hands and wrists. Once he took a look at his palms, he couldn't stop. He had a slight green-ish skin color and his hands were adjourned with small, green leaves. He slowly shifted his gaze to his hands, which were actually claws, sharp and painful-looking. He pulled back the sleeves of his torn jacket to reveal even more leaves that protruded from his arms, which freaked him out to the point where he quickly put his jacket sleeves back in the position they were, with no intention of ever pulling them back again. He spastically looked around for a bit, before locating what he was looking for; the small pond. Rex ran over to the pond at a rapid speed, stopping right before the edge of the small pool of water, nearly falling in. He looked at his reflection in the mirror-like surface of the water, jumping back a bit in fear from the creature he thought he saw in the liquid, only to realize that it was his reflection. He walked over to it again and looked back into the water.

His blue hair seemed to be turned into blue leaves that worked very similarly to hair, expect more… planty. He also saw that his mouth had two downward-pointing fangs on the exterior of his mouth, and a row of incredibly sharp teeth on the interior. His wolf ears were turned into gray-ish leaves that he could still hear perfectly clear out of, despite them now being foliage. His eyes were also different. They were just black. No indication of any color, just solid black iris's and pupils. Rex found this weird, but it wasn't the creepiest part of his new look. He looked like some sort of savage monster. Sighing, Rex decided to traveling over to one of the fires on the other mountains, after realizing there wasn't anything else he could do. He backed away from the pond and looked at his feet. His ankles had some leaves attached to then in a certain pattern, which was odd when you compared them to the randomly placed leaves that were on his arms. His toes were pointed similarly to his claws, which hinted at the ability to climb and run at a bit of a faster pace than humans.

He also realized his current getup. He wasn't wearing the jacket that he normally wore, and this one was tattered and ripped in multiple places, exposing bare skin where pieces of the clothing were missing. He had a sort of poncho made out of leaves that was attached to his gray/silver scarf somehow. He still had his Dragon's Gift wrist-wear with their purple jewels on them that Axis had given him, and he had his bottomless bag that was strapped across his chest. He willed it open and a small, digital screen popped up instead. The top of the screen was labeled inventory, which told Rex that his bottomless bag wasn't so bottomless. It was also very empty. Of course it's empty. Rex thought. How expected. He also had shorts which were in a tattered condition, but nothing was ripped, fortunately. He didn't have any footwear of any sort, but he's been walking around fine without it.

Rex's observation of his new form and current gear was halted when he noticed that the sky was turning slightly orange. He then realized that he was suppose to head out for the other mountain hours ago, and it was almost nightfall. Understanding this, he took off dashing towards the nearest mountain. He jumped off of his mountain in an effort to save time, and landed in a roll, so that he didn't get harmed when he landed. This also allowed him to keep his current speed instead of being slowed down, and continued to race against the sun. The moon…s? The moons, plural, were visible by now, and the sky was more purple than it was orange, which increased the urgency of Rex's mad dash, as unearthly growls and roars could be heard from multiple directions. There really is no way to describe what he's hearing.

As Rex was running through the forest, he saw a feral creature with blue skin, some white horns, and two heads hungry-looking heads running straight at him. It made a sort of voice that didn't sound like anything he had ever heard. The unearthly growled was replied to, by more growls of the same type, which could be heard nearby. Rex was able to jump and land on one of their heads, using it as an extra step platform that he bounced off of to grab the branch of a tree, and used the momentum of his swing to fly a short ways forward. He landed and turned around to face what he thought was maybe one or two of the creatures he had just encountered. But no. There was like, twenty. It may have even been thirty. Rez attempted to summon his spell book and blade from his Dragon's Gift to take out some of the creatures, but neither decided to appear, so now he lost some distance between him and the monsters.

He turned around and continued his sprint, but the trees began to mess with him because he was moving too fast. it became harder to decipher which trees were in the foreground, or closest, and which trees were in the background, or furthest. He finally saw the base of the hill which led to the mountaintop that he saw the fire on and began climbing up it. Rex was right when he assumed that the claws and toe-claws made it easier to navigate, he was already halfway up the side of the mountain, nearing land he could walk on. He made it to the top of the cliffside, and ran up the mountain to the location of the fire, a few tents, and a long, wooden log with some figures sitting on it.

Rex approached the figures cautiously. The two moons were out completely by now and the sun was no where in sight. The moons offered a large amount of light, but not for farther away objects. Rex was close enough to the figures for the campfire's light and the moonlight to make the figures clearly visible. They were both humanoid. One of them had a fin at the top of it's head, and two at the side of it's head. It also had three red eyes forming a triangular shape. The figure looked about a year older than Rex, and is dressed in gray clothing that looked very similar to japanese traditional Kimono clothing. The second figure, which looked slightly younger than Rex, by about a year to two, looked like a bird. It had an odd 'hairstyle' and was a combination of red and white feathers. This one was in a simple skirt and shirt, not as near as fancy or cool looking as the first figure.

As Rex got near, the Kimono-clad one seemed to notice him and grabbed a flaming stick from the campfire, holding it like a weapon. The other one hid a bit behind the one carrying the 'weapon.' "Back, Floran savage! Don't make me use this..!" It shouted, uncertainty in it's voice.

Rex stepped back and but his hands in the air, slightly. "Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to freak you out." He replied.

The One wielding the flaming stick lowered it a bit in a state of, what looked like, confusion. "Y-you can talk normally?" It asked.

Now REX was the one confused, looking at the flame-wielder with a sort of misunderstanding face. Just then, the Kimono creature's eyes widened and it chucked the flame stick at Rex who ducked under it. But when he ducked under it and looked up, he saw that the stick wasn't that close to hitting him, even if he WAS standing. He then heard a growl from behind him and turned around to a creature that was caught on fire, falling to the ground below. When it contacted with the ground, it exploded in a blaze of fire, and Rex could see that others of it's kind backed away slowly. He turned back towards the Kimono creature and managed a half meaningful half scared smile, assuming that it did that to save him from the beast that was sneaking up behind him. "Thanks, er…" Rex tried to thank it, but he didn't know anything about it. They DID just meet after all. And not exactly on the best note you've ever seen.

"Liax. My name is Liax, the Hylotl" He replied. Well, he looked and sounded masculine.

"Well, thank you for that, Liax."

"No problem, and… uhm… sorry for threatening to burn you alive and… uh… sorry for not, ya know, warning you about the monster behind you…" He said, kinda flustered, cheeks red.

"Oh, it's fine. Anyways, I'm Rex. A… what did you say? Floran?" Rex said, in an attempt to introduce himself.

The bird girl came out from behind Liax and looked at Rex curiously. "You… you don't know what you are?" She asked.

"No," Rex said, shifting gaze from Liax to her. "I was originally something else. I turned into this Floran form that you see me in now when I woke up this morning on that mountain over there." He said, pointing to the mountain he woke up on.

"Oh, that's weird. And you don't speak like a normal Floran does. You're weird too." She said.

"Thanks…" Rex replied sarcastically. "Might I have the pleasure of your name?"

"It's Maria. The Avian." She replied.

"I'm a Hylotl, which is a fish person. Florans are flower people, and Avians are bird people." Liax added for clarification.

"Alright, nice to meet you Maria." Rex said, smiling.

"Nice to meet you too, I guess. I still think Liax should have burned you." She replied, heartlessly.

"Now, Maria. That wasn't exactly the nicest thing to say." Liax cut in, looking down at Maria with a face of sadness, not disappointment. "I'm sorry Rex. She's the only survivor from her village when it was attacked by a mob a Florans. I took her aboard my spaceship and we've been a team ever since. She never really forgave them for what they've done."

Maria turned away while this was being said, stealing a glance at Rex every few seconds.

"Well, I suppose I can't blame her for hating Florans. I would probably be upset too if my friends and family weird killed, and I was left alive to mourn over the loss of everyone I knew. So I can understand that." Rex said.

"Come, Rex. Sit." Liax insisted, sitting down on the log with Maria and scooting over a bit to let him sit. "Maybe you could tell us a story?"

• • •

"-and the next thing I knew, I was here." Rex finished. He looked over towards the two who were staring at him, obviously disappointed that the story had ended. He had went ahead and talked about a lot of his adventures, including those when he was a human-wolf, or even just a wolf. His adventures with Lyra, Axis, Serenity… They continued to stare at him, and he shrugged and shook his head, letting them know that was it. Even Maria was disappointed that the story had ended.

"That was quite the story." Liax said. "It sounds like you had a pretty eventful life after meeting this Axis fellow."

Rex nodded.

"A dragon? Axis was a dragon? He was a dragon GOD!? That's so cool!" Maria added, obviously over the fact the Rex was a Floran.

This earned a chuckle from Rex, who remember a topic that he wanted to bring up. "Let's roll back a bit…" Rex started. "Liax, you said you had a spaceship, right?"

"That's Right." Liax answered.

"Really? Like, to travel the universe and things like that?"

"Yeah, about right. We ran out of fuel, so we come here to gather some. We were actually going to head off soon. The forest area is too densely wooded, it's a dangerous place to be at night."

"Yeah, I learned that the hard way… but… you get to travel the UNIVERSE! That's so cool! Go on adventures, Discover cool and exotic things…"

"Heh, yeah. It can get pretty wild out there… Hey, you don't know about the races, right?"

"Right."

"Would you mind a history lesson?"

"Oh boy…" Maria cut in. "This is going to be a long night…."

Liax rolled his eyes and began to speak. "Well, Maria being the only survivor of a Floran attack wasn't the entire reason I was hostile. Florans and Hylotl have a… history. You see, the reason that the Hylotl are scattered throughout the galaxy is because the Florans drove them away from their home planet. So, that's a thing. We're a peaceful race that would much rather talk things over than kill, save when a Floran is involved."

Rex nodded, curious for more information about the different races.

"Florans are the carnivorous hunters that would much rather stab first and not even thing about asking questions later. We were shocked by how you talked because Florans don't use pronouns that often. A lot of the time, the sentence isn't even considered a sentence. It's more like a fragment lacking pronouns. They're hostile to every race save the robot race, the glitches, because they could just about eat every other race. They find Avians to be the most delectable, however. As for why they're 'friends' with the Glitch, is because they taught the Florans their basic level of speaking and how to write."

"Avians are the bird-like race that believe in their deity, Kluex. They believe that they were punished by being sent to the mortal realm, and lost their wings, but they believe those wings will be regained when they go to Kluex in the afterlife."

"I don't believe in Kluex." Maria added.

"Right, those who don't believe in Kluex are dubbed exiles and are usually sentenced to death if that was ever said out loud."

"That hardly seems fair. So much for the right of speech. Besides… why would a god want you to die and get wings later? And how is it a SIN to be born on the ground, and not with Kluex? That would mean that you're dead when you were born." Rex said, quietly.

"EXACTLY! This guy gets me!" Maria shouted, pointing to Rex. He couldn't help but to smile.

"Right. That is a good point. Just… keep it to yourself if you ever come across an Avian village."

"Noted."

"Sadly, I don't know much about the other races, save small details. The Apex, ape people, are technological GENIUSES and have all sorts of electronics. Humans are run-aways from their home planet, which was destroyed by a space monster. Glitch are friends with Floran, and are built with a medieval theme in mind. And I've heard tale of a creature called a Novakid, but have yet to meet one on my travels."

"That's alright, that should be enough information to go off of for now. Thank you, Liax."

"Glad to help, Rex." He said, smiling. Then he realized something, and went into his backpack, pulling out a small capsule with a sword-like object in it, another capsule with a tent in it, and an odd u-shaped, yellow object. He dropped the backpack on the ground and lifted the yellow object to wear a blue beam was showing. At the end of that blue beam lied the hologram of a tent. It was then Rex noticed that the capsule containing the tent item wasn't being held by Liax anymore. He placed the Tent on the ground and it materialized into the real world.

"Woooah…" Rex said, amazing by whatever that yellow object was.

"Yeah. Uhm, would you like to sleep up here with use tonight, Rex? You can borrow this tent." Liax asked.

"Yeah! Come on Rex? Please?" Maria begged.

"U-uhm… I don't want to be a bother…" Rex replied, modestly.

"It's not a bother at all!" Liax replied. "I insist."

"Alright," Rex nodded. "No point in turning anything away."

"That's the spirit!" Maria chimed.

"Oh, and here." Liax said, as he tossed the capsule with the sword-like object in to Rex. "That's a weapon. You can use that to defend yourself." He explained as he crawled into his tent, yawning. Goodnight Rex, night, Maria."

Maria crawled into her tent. "Night guys." She yawned lazily.

"Night." Rex said, as he crawled into his tent. It was surprisingly roomy in there, and he could easily sleep without having to bend his knees to fit within a confined space, or risk leaving his feet outside the tent if he wanted his legs straight. It came with a pillow and blanket. It wasn't that cold, so he laid on top of the blanket instead of under it, and stared at the tent's ceiling, contemplating all that happened today. He had been turned into some sort of creature and dropped in a reality of different races scattered across the galaxy. He wondered what there would be to explore, or what adventures he would embark on. There would be no way he would stay on this planet for the rest of his life, right? He thought about his friends back on Earth, and how they were doing. But slowly, every thought processes was being taken over by the desire to do one thing, that he felt so very inclined to do.

Sleep.

And before he knew it, Rex drifted off to the dreamscape.

Yes, little wolf-human. You are weak and tired. Rest now, for tomorrow is a very important day.

As he did the first time the disembodied voice spoke to him, he swatted at the air attempting to silence it as he rolled himself under his blanket. Only this time, the voice didn't speak again for the remainder of the night. Rex liked it that way.