He opened his eyes to a gradient of green and a lingering feeling that something was wrong.

He was in a jungle unlike any he'd ever seen. It stretched around him in a million shade of green and blue, gigantic trees reaching as high as the eye could see, arms laden with vines that hung down through the air. Creeping plants bursting out in explosions of colour from high in the branches. The air was thick and hot against his skin, spicy with the taste of unknown flowers and sitting in his lungs with a foreign heaviness.

Flashes of movement could be seen in every direction. There was always something moving in the corner of his eye, and for a moment he thought he caught a glimpse of something blue swinging through the trees high above. It was gone again before he could turn to look. Off to his left insects scuttled through the roots of a great tree, shiny shelled and glinting in a dazzling array of poisonous colour when they passed through the light.

He went to push himself up and stopped, staring. Blue. His hands were blue. There were even little stripes, lines of lighter and darker blue decorating his skin. He turned his hands over, frowning. Surely it should be lighter than this?

A sound to his left make his ear flick - and he pushed down another spike of panic. Since when did his ears flick in the direction of sounds? - as he levered himself off the ground, grasping hold of a nearby tree root. He didn't know where he was, didn't know who, what, was out there. It wasn't safe to just hang about in the open, not with-

Not with what? The thought teased at him, slipping out of his mind like smoke between fingers. Not with what?

He needed to find a mirror, something, anything. There were clouds in his head that weren't clearing, settling heavily over his mind like a storm, shrouding his memory and leaving him unsettled and without answers.

The first few steps were clumsy and awkward. His balance was off, and it only took a second to figure out why. He had a tail. He very purposefully turned his eye forward and didn't think about it. He could deal with that, with all of this, in a moment.

He could hear the tinkle of flowing water in the forest not far away, and he made towards it, casting a curious eye the plants as he walked. They were strangely alive - more active than they should be. Growing at the base of a tree there were small polyps with vivid orange fans that swayed back and forth against push of the wind. They flinched when he came too close, quivering beneath a gentle touch and retreating entirely when he pressed a little too hard.

Odd, perhaps, but not too unusual.

Some were less innocent than others, He circled around a particularly energetic plant with long spines shook threateningly when he came too close. Flat compressions along the leaves opened to reveal wicked thorns when he look at it too long. Truly menacing, like something he'd see in-

He scrubbed his hands across his face, frustrated. He couldn't remember what he'd been going to say.

A little beyond the menacing plant was a small river that crept along the ground, trees opening around it to give it space. Water gathered in small clear pools in the rock, trickling down through the mess of interlinking roots in a lazy downhill flow. He crouched down, carefully stepping around the thickest of the roots, some larger than his torso, leaving him climbed over them before finally getting to the water. It rippled, small waves lapping across it's surface, and he leant over it, curious.

The face that stared back was a conundrum of familiarity and unfamiliarity. The sight of golden eyes, inclined with a feline tilt made him blink. There were additions to his body that were different, unfamiliar, and in some cases entirely new, out of place for all that they were his. He prodded at his teeth, grimacing at the second set of canines he wasn't quite sure should be there. They felt unnaturally sharp against the pad of his finger.

When he tried to fall back on his reasoning he found himself grasping at thin air. He knew something was strange, knew something was somehow different than before like he knew the sky was blue. And yet when he looked at the sky it was almost more green than blue, a massive planet hanging in the space above them as if it had been there an eternity. And it probably had.

Unsettled, he turned back to the water. He tried, but for the life of him he couldn't picture what he should look like if not like this.

And yet... the shape of his face was familiar. He glanced away, dipping his fingers into the water, sending out ripples that shattered his reflection. The water was cool and clear against his fingers, and he cupped it in his hands, bringing it to his mouth.

The water was beautifully clean but... odd. Like everything else it had a taste he couldn't quite place. It kept throwing him off. Everything was just slightly different from what he expected - just the sight of the strange four armed monkeys swinging their way high through the canopy had been enough to make him stop and stare, the great shadow of something flying high above the high treetops, like a bird but so much bigger, enough to send him springing for cover, alarmed for reasons he couldn't quite remember.

He sighed, dipping down for another handful of water. Little white pinpricks, like stars in a blue sky, danced across the gentle lapping of the waves. It was a pretty image, calming, and it let him relax enough to consider that, perhaps, just perhaps it wasn't as bad as he had thought.

He froze with the water halfway to his lips, staring downstream. There was a creature there, head bowed to the river. It had to be at least five meters head to tail, built like something from a nightmare - thick muscles swollen beneath its dark hide and long powerful legs that ended in a deadly set of claws. Flexible plates extended from its skull in a crown, ending in long quills that moved back and forth, twitching as if of their own volition.

It didn't seem to have noticed him yet. He held his breath, staying absolutely still. The creature's mouth opened to reveal teeth the side of his fingers, probably strong enough to crush bone as it lent down to lap at the water. Whatever it was, it was a predator. If it saw him, if it got those teeth in him, he was dead.

Had it seen him yet? Had it smelled him? He had no way of knowing. Any second it could spot him.

Slowly - slowly - he dropped his hands, letting the water run silently back into the stream. His heart hammered in hs chest, and he inched back, not taking his eyes off of it. The spiny tree was at his back and it bristled at his approach. He kept going. Between a prickly tree and that, there was no choice at all.

The creatures quills stilled, twitching. His heart stopped in his chest, hands tightening until his nails dug into his palms. He was sure he hadn't made any noise, hadn't done anything. So how-

Its head lifted, golden eyes looking straight at him. He sucked in a breath. Oh, Merlin, fuck. He gave up at attempt at secrecy and scrambled backwards. The first touch of the spines made him pause, but only for a second. Their touch was light at first, barely a scratch, but the further he moved the deeper they cut, all the more painful for the knowledge he was doing this himself. He winced but bit his lip and kept going.

The creature stepped forward, plates around it's skull flaring our, quills on the end shivering intently. One clawed foot dipped into the water, slow, not making a sound. He inched backwards, gritting his teeth when they bit into his skin. Already he could the trickle of blood running down his shoulders.

For one long moment it watched him, and for a second he thought it might not attack at all. But then he saw its eyes. Yellow, poisonous yellow, and fixed on him with a deadly sort of hunger. They almost seemed to glint. That was all the warning he got before is sprung forward, powerful legs launching it at him in a flurry of coiling muscle and sharp, sharp teeth.

He threw himself backwards, scrambling beneath the thorny arms of the tree. It quivered at his touch, spines bristling out. With one last shake the tree exploded outwards, firing barbed thorns in every direction. A couple went straight for the creatures face while he, tucked away safely by the smooth base of the tree escaped with nothing more than a few nasty scratches.

It yowled. The barbs caught in it's flesh, tearing the skin and muscle beneath. Dark blood poured out where it pawed at its face, trying to get them out. It wouldn't be distracted for long. Already it had managed to remove a couple of the barbs. It made him jump to action. Right. As soon as it got them all, maybe even before that, it would be after him again and this time the tree wouldn't be able to protect him. It was drawing its branches back close to its trunk protectively, spines spent.

He crawled out the from the tree, making a break for it while he still could. A deep whispering part of his mind knew that he wouldn't be able to outrun it. It was too fast, too well adapted for the environment, and he was in unfamiliar terrain, exhausted and clumsy. He couldn't hide - even if he managed to get himself out of sight, it would find him. It had noticed him without looking at him, without him even making a sound.

No, hiding wouldn't work.

A rustle of leaves was all the warning he got before it was upon him once more, claws hitting the dirt only feet behind him. It snarled, gathering itself to pounce once more, and he threw himself out of the way. Even the it's claws caught him along his side, burning across his back and hip. He pressed a hand to it, gritting his teeth against the pain. He couldn't stop moving. It would be a death sentence.

He stumbled through a patch of long grasses, leaving them blood streaked and broken in his wake, and emerged face to face with a herd of monsters, grey skinned and built like bulldozers. They bellowed when they caught sight of him, bright fans opening above the great bulk of their hammered heads. He ran straight at them, ducking around them as quickly as he could, trying not to get too close.

He heard rather than saw when the creature appeared. Their bellows grew shrill and angry. They stamped their feet and swung their head threateningly, more than one of them almost hitting him in the the new threat appeared they seemed to forget him completely. He could only hope it stayed that way.

The creature hissed, pacing back and forth before the herd, it's own plates spreading in a warning display. This was a meeting of monsters, equally matched and more than capable of bringing each other down. He moved though the herd slowly, hoping to slip away without drawing the herd's attention.

But his pursuer hadn't forgotten him. Even now its eyes tracked him from across the herd. It's attempt to circle around was met with stamping feet, prompting the first bull to charge. That was enough to set off the rest of the herd, and as one threw themselves into charge, even the smallest trumpeting a war cry.

Despite his best efforts he got caught in the stampede, leaving him to dodge recklessly out of the path of more than one of the charging giants. He ducked out of the way of one's horns, only for it to send him into the path of another, and he bounced of it's side like a twig against a boulder. It hit him like a tonne of bricks and he grit his teeth against a cry of pain as it jarred his side. He was left stumbling, trying to evade the army of crushing legs as the creatures raged around him in a mob, throwing their heads back and forth in a relentless attack.

A single hit from one of them would be enough to shatter bones. He didn't want to think what would happen if he stumbled and got caught beneath the thundering press of their massive bodies.

Behind him one of them squealed with pain. He had to lurch out of the way as the herd pushed forward with renewed vigor, forcing the predator to retreat, driven back by the combined might of the herd. He didn't waste any time watching the end of the encounter, finally slipping out the back of the herd with a breath of relief.

He pushed himself into a painful jog. He needed to get somewhere out of reach, where it couldn't get him even if it saw him. The entire jungle had taken up the warning cry of the herd, creatures in the undergrowth clicking and chirping as they skittered to safety. High in the tree's creatures shrieked in agitation, and he looked up, noticing not for the first time the sheer size of the trees. They stretched for dozens of meters into the sky, branches growing thick and long in all directions.

Up. He needed to go up. The sides of the trees were riddled with vines and creeping roots that descended from plants perching high above. They grew in a dense network around the trunks of the trees, wrapped tightly around the trees or hanging freely through the open air. He stumbled towards one, taking a hold of one of the roots and hauling himself up.

It was a difficult hands were bloody from holding his wounds and the vines were slippery to begin with. He dug his fingers in hard, pulling himself up the winding path of the vine, each new hold hauling him a little higher. In the distance he could hear the bellowing of the herd receding and he relaxed a little, taking a moment to gather his breath before reaching for the next branch.

The attack came without warning. In a terrifying snarl or teeth and claw the creature threw itself up the side of the tree after him. He was at a fair height, mostly out of reach, but that didn't stop it. It claws caught him along his leg, raking deeply down his calf and across his heel as it tried to yank him down.

With a desperate lurch hauled himself higher, grabbing at the vines trying to get a foothold. His hands were shaking, his head spinning, and face was pale, chilled with a cold sweat. The world was blurring before his eyes are he fought to blink through the pain.

The vine. He needed the next vine. He had to go up.

He reached blindly, fingers brushing along the bottom edge of something and coming back empty. It was too far away. He couldn't make it. He was going to die.

No. He grit his teeth and forced his eyes open, looking again. There, a vine. It was out of reach, yes, but only just. One good push and he would be able to reach it. Below he could hear the creature prowling, hear the hiss of breath between its teeth as it paced impatiently back and forth, snarling up at him every few minutes.

He sucked in a harsh breath. It would hurt. Merlin it would hurt so much. He cut himself off, acting before he lost his will. It needed to be done. He could do it. He could-

He threw himself to the side and jamming his injured foot into the next handhold. A shout forced itself up his throat and he didn't try to stop it.

Blindly he reached for the next vine, sending a praise to every god, any god, he could think of when his fingers wrapped around it. He pulled, sobbing breathlessly as it took the weight off his leg.

It was a haze after that. He had to use his injured leg again at one point, and he almost lost his grip, it hurt so much. When he finally hauled himself up into the cradling arms of the tree he curled in the moss, clutching his leg and sobbing. It was all he could do just to grit his teeth and breath, fighting the need hold his breath, clench his fists and beat them against the tree as if that would somehow help.

Distantly he could feel blood running down his leg, soaking the moss red and puddling in the cracks of the bark. Drops of it ran over the side, trickling down through the leaves and to the forest floor. That, more than anything, seemed to torment the creature the most. It's howls growing ever more ferocious. He pressed his hands to his face, trying to shut out the sound

All he wanted to do was curl up somewhere and sleep the rest of his life away. He was still bleeding. That was important. Urgent. He couldn't fall asleep now. Every moment the wounds were open he grew weaker, and if he lost too much blood there would be no turning back.

A little along from him there was a cluster of plants growing on the branch, their long flat leaves weeping over the edges of the branch and into the open air in a tumbling cascade. He look a breath. He needed to-

He pressed his hand to the wound on his heel, tensing against the spike of pain. A deep breath again. Breath through it. He'll be okay. He just needs to breath through it.

- put pressure on the wound. It would lessen the bleeding, give him more time.

Okay. Next. What was next? He glance at the wound on his side, paling at the sight of it. It was raw and ragged but it wasn't bleeding much, blood already starting to clot on the surface. He couldn't quite turn to look at the rest of the scratches across his back but he pressed a hand to them none the less, happy to find that the scratches were relatively minor.

He sent a tentative glance at his foot and cringed, eyes jerking away immediately. Blood. So much blood. He thought he might have seen his muscles. His eyes were screwed shut, and he forced them open, looking back at the wound. It was better than he thought. It's claws had missed his tendons, barely, and he was breathlessly grateful that he couldn't see any bone.

He needed something to cover the wound, to hold it close and stop stuff getting in it. His eyes flicked back to the plants speculatively. That... could work. He hesitated. It could be poisonous, could be covered in bacteria or Merlin knows what that could mess up his wounds. He needed something to cover the wound before he passed out or he would bleed out. Already darkness was threatening the edges of his vision - he didn't have much time.

The meter between him and the plants was torture. He crawled along at a snail pace, stopping every second minute to wait for the dark spots to clear from his eyes. His fingers closer around one of the trailing leaves and he yanked it, ripping it from the base of the plant and pulling it close. It had a slightly rubbery texture but it was flexible and bent without problem, so he wasted no time in tightly winding it around his ankle and calf in a makeshift bandage, pulling it as tight as he could.

Even if it couldn't stop all the bleeding hopefully the pressure would help a little. He collapsed as soon as he finished tying the bandaged. The wound on his side would have to stay uncovered - he didn't think he could have bandaged his torso right now even if he'd tried.

He didn't last long after that. He dragged himself a little closer to the plants, curling up between two of them. Hopefully they would stop him from slipping off the branch while he was out.


He was almost surprised to wake up. He'd had a dim fear that his wounds would prove too great and that he'd just slip off quietly during the night, so actually waking up was a great relief.

For a long time he couldn't muster the energy to move, not able to do more than lay in the plants and doze. The pain in his leg had dulled to an angry throbbing, but he had no doubt the moment he so much as thought about moving he would be doubled over in agony once more.

It was already sometime past midmorning. Sunlight was filtering through the gaps trees, little beams of it dripping through the vivid canopy. Over the edge of the branch he could see the layers of the forest, the crowded press of the undergrowth far below. Fewer plants grew at these heights, but those that did expanded to fill all available space. A single plant sometimes draping itself across several trees in a tangled network of leaves and small budding flowers. Thick mosses clung to the tree trunks in patches, carpeting the tops of the branches.

The aching hunger that had been growing in his belly peaked, forcing him to finally stirr. His throat was dry as sandpaper and his stomach felt like something alive, grumbling and aching in complaint. He weighed the idea of getting up and trying to find something to eat, eventually deciding that he probably needed to get some food in him if he wanted his wounds to get any better.

Slowly he rolled himself over, groaning faintly when he tried to lever himself to his feet. He managed an uncomfortable crouch. His hands were pressed firmly to the ground as he tried to keep his weight off his injured leg. The throbbing had returned with a vengeance sometime while he was trying to get up, and it lingered even in his success. He didn't try to stand up. Already his head was starting to spin, anymore and he might pass out.

There was a curious chattering from above. He looked up, finding a dozen pairs of golden eyes staring down at him through the greenery. Noticing they were spotted, several blinked, disappearing completely, leaving no trace of their ever having been there save the rustling leaves. One or two, more bold, stuck their heads out to get a better look, revealing small turquoise faces, hairless except for two tufty bits by their ears.

Their eyes were large and intelligent. With a start he realised they were the creatures he'd spotted earlier swinging through the trees. He tensed. They didn't look aggressive but he'd already had one bad encounter with the local wildlife and it had put him on his guard. He was weak, vulnerable. If they attacked he was in no position to defend himself.

But they just blinked at him, cocking their heads curiously. Then with a happy chatter one disappeared back into the leaves, the rest following. A moment later he glimpsed a couple through the greenery, swinging away using their four long arms.

He watched them go. Finally he sighed, turning back to the task at hand. It took him a good half an hour of miserable crawling to reach the end of the branch, where he paused. There was a good drop between his branch and the next. He soon realized why. Branches up here stretched out in a network, spreading out and crowing so that every tree touched each other, sometimes directly, sometimes connected by lines of vines that hung down from branch to branch. He had reached the end of one tree's reach. To continue he would have to clamber his way onto its neighbour.

He hesitated, staring at the drop. If he slipped it would be one hell of a drop, and he didn't think he had the strength to catch something on the way down. But he couldn't put it off. He had to find food.

There'd been a vine with bulbous yellow fruit at one point, but when he'd tentatively bitten into it it had been rancid and bitter, like something left too long in the sun. He managed to choke down a couple of mouthfuls but only just. Having a full stomach had helped, a little, but only for a while, until the fruit had made him violently sick. The nauseous feeling still lingered even hours later.

His audience had returned at some point. They loped around in the branches above him, chattering to one another as they watched him. He tried not to pay them much mind but couldn't help but glance cautiously at them now and then. They hadn't shown any signs of attacking so far, and for the most part they seemed shy, tending to hide if they caught him looking.

He shuffled to the edge of the branch, hesitantly edging towards the drop. It took him a bit of complicated wrangling with a nearby vine but he managed to drop down to the next branch without accidentally killing himself.

He had a bit of luck after that, stumbling across a pitcher plant growing on the side of of the branch. it was an odd thing, with a dozen round leaves, each filled with a small basin of water. It looked clear enough and didn't smell funny, so he braved a sip. It tasted clean if a little odd - sweet somehow.

He flopped onto his side and letting himself just breath, relieved when the aching of his leg lessened a little. The wounds on his back twinged painfully when he moved, pressed against the bark, but it was only a background noise compared the throbbing agony of his leg.

Exhausted and sore, he lay there. As he watched a flying lizard a little bigger than his hand glided down to the pitcher plant, the spinning fan on its glowing a warm orange when it passed through shadows. It glanced at him briefly, small black eyes peering at him intensely, before turning away and clambering up the side of the branch, long tongue flicking out to dip in the water. It stayed there awhile, so well camouflaged with its fan closed he wouldn't have known it from just another part of the tree if he hadn't seen it land. It sunned itself in a patch of light not far from him, seeming content just to ignore him, leaving in a swirl of orange sometime later.

At some point he must have dozed off, because the next thing he knew he was startled awake when something landed beside him. One of the strange monkeys was swinging away, leaving a glossy red fruit sitting by his prodded it, remembering his last attempt at eating strange fruit. It smelled faintly sweet, pleasant, and that was enough to set his stomach rumbling. Eventually he decided to brave it. When be bit into it the skin burst, dripping sweet juice down his chin.

He finished it in three large bites, chewing with his mouth full to bursting and licking his fingers when he was done, chasing the last dripping juices. It wasn't enough to fill him completely, but the ache in his stomach lessened. The creature was watching him from within a cluster of branches, a couple of its buddies having joined it. They chattered with obvious delight. He smiled at it wearily. "Thanks."

The day had passed more quickly than he'd thought. Already night was approaching, the air growing cooler. He roused himself. He needed to find somewhere to sleep before he lost the light entirely. For a second he considered making back towards the place hed slept last night, but thought the better of it. He didn't think he'd be able to climb the drop, especially in the dark.

Instead he went in the other direction. In a careful crawl he managed to travel along a few of the narrower branches and up to the trunk of another great tree. Two of its larger branches, a little higher up, spread from the trunk in a v, leaving a bit of an indent between the trunk and branches. A bustle of ferns had taken up root there, spreading out and dangling their leaves over the edge of the branches.

He curled up there amongst the springy ferns, and tried to block out the haze of pain enough to get to sleep. He was just beginning to get drowsy when the light finished dimmed. It never went fully dark, lingering in the twilight no matter how many hours passed.

It was only as he was just on the brink of sleep that he saw it. At first he thought he must be imagining it and rubbed his eyes. It took him another moment to realize it wasn't just his imagination. His eyes flew opened, and he stared, awed and amazed, as the ferns around him began to glowed faintly, the dark prints on their leaves turning a soft pink as the last rays of light faded from the sky.

It wasn't just the ferns. He sat up. All around him the jungle was lighting up in gentle glowing patterns, blues, pinks and pale purples appearing on every plant in sight. Those that had been most mundane in the light shone most brightly at night, even the moss on which he'd crawled without a second thought turned a pleasant green, speckled with pinpricks of brighter light.

The places he touched glowed brightest, and when he reached out, running his fingers along the long lef of a fern. It lit up even brighter than before, the light remaining for a few moments, leaving a trail of light that slowly faded out.

He trailed his fingers back and forth, watching the moss brighten beneath his fingers then slowly darken again. Carefully, he maneuvered himself onto his back gazing up at the canopy. Brilliant patterns glowed softly everywhere he looked, spots and stripes and swirling lines lighting the night with a faint glow. And despite the pain of his leg, despite his exhaustion and hunger and trauma of the last few days, he couldn't help but smile.

Because this? This was beautiful in a way that made his heart lift. The lingering pain and stress tensing his muscles fading just that littlest bit at the sight of it.

He didn't know how he'd missed this. Days he'd been running around in the jungle, yet he hadn't caught a hint of it. He'd always been unconscious or asleep before the sun set, waking only once this nighttime display had long faded beneath the light of day. Along his hands and up his arms small pinpricks of light glowed gently, lighting up in unknown constellations along his arms. Sleepily he wondered what they were, remembering the faint spots he'd seen hidden amongst the patterns on his skin.

They'd been on his face too, he remembered, and was almost tempted to crawl his way back to the pitcher plant to see if they glowed too. Another time, he decided, too tired to try it.

He admired the night glow a while longer, listening to the distant noise of animals moving in the night. Far below something was yipping and howling, rousing a little alarm, but whatever it was passed without incident. Eventually his yawns grew too large and he curled up in the ferns, leg twinging every once in a while, before finally closing his eyes.


The monkey creatures had grown bold while he slept and when he woke it was to one of them tugging at his hair. He mumbled sleepily, lifting his head, and dashed away with an alarmed chatter, dropping over the side of the branch and swinging back to its friends. It didn't go far, settling on a branch a couple of meters away, chewing gamely on a tough piece of root it had tugged off a nearby hanging plants as it watched him.

Beside his head, half hidden amongst the ferns lay a couple more of the red fruit. His fingers twitched towards them, stomach rumbling. He paused, turning to look at the creature. Several others had joined it on the branch and they were all watching him, for once silent, some gnawing away at roots, others holding the same red fruit they'd so generously given him. They were waiting to see what he'd do.

He looked at the fruit, then back at them. Finally he picked one up and popped it down on the branch a little out of the way. He left it there, taking to the other fruit with a ravenous hunger. It ran down his chin, wet and sticky, but he was too hungry to care. He was more careful with the last, sucking at it through a hole in the skin before finally taking a bite.

The bone deep exhaustion that had plagued him since that first day had lessened a little but he was still tired and sore. His leg still throbbed like nothing before, even small movements enough to make him pause, breathless with the pain. There was a fuzzy quality to his thoughts that had gotten worse since waking. He felt muddled, cloudy, as though his head were stuffed with wool. All he wanted was to curl up and go back to sleep, maybe wake up again when he was feeling less horrid.

He hadn't looked at his leg wound since he'd wrapped it up, but he knew it wasn't good. He was reluctant to undo the bandages and start the bleeding afresh, not when there was nothing he could do for it, He just had to hope nothing too nasty had gotten into it.

He must have dozed again - it was happening more and more often. He just slipped off without realizing it - because when he woke up the fruit he'd put aside was gone.

Looking around, he couldn't seen any signs of the monkeys. He could hear them though, their chatter distinct and loud enough that when he craned his neck he managed to catch a glimpse of a couple swinging the trees.

"Thanks." He said, knowing they couldn't hear him, and probably wouldn't understand him even if they could. It made him feel better anyway. He watched them until they disappeared from sight, the last of them vanishing through the trees in a flash of turquoise.

He was on the verge of dozing off once more when he heard something. Rhythmic thumping. An animal moving down below? He almost dismissed it, there were always animals moving around the forest, even in the middle of the night. But then-

Voices.

He sat up. People. He crawled awkwardly to the edge of his makeshift nest, peering over the side. He hadn't been mistaken - there were people down below, as strange and blue as himself. They were riding large six legged mounts he could only describe as almost horse-ish, in the way that a lion was almost a kneazle. They were making good speed, and he was half sure that they would pass him by completely without ever realizing he was there.

Should he call out? They were the first people he'd seen since waking up here. But he hesitated, biting his lip.

In the end the choice was taken out of his hands. He must have made a sound, because the next thing he knew one of them was looking up, meeting his eyes.