Ribbit all, really.

My heart sank and crushed my stomach.

Marcy was bleeding. It wasn't a deep wound, a nick, really, but it still bled a lot. Even if Sasha hadn't meant to, the damage was already done: she had hurt her far deeper, more than any blade could.

I growled. No more games.

I leapt to my feet, Sasuma unsheathed and in my grip, now pointed at Sasha.

"I don't want to hurt you, Sasha. But Marcy's my friend, and I'm done messing around. You've been a terrible friend. And now I'm gonna kick your ass for it!"

"Fine! Have at you, Joshua!"

"Let's go!"

Sasha and I exchanged war cries, and we lunged at each other.

My blade, long and sharp, met Sasha's shortsword and sparks flew.

The blinding light had come to pass, and I found myself lying face first in some soft grass. "Oh, where am I?" I rolled over on to my back - until I realized I still had my backpack on. So I was just stuck on my side.

I blinked, tasting the grass in my mouth, as one does as a stranger in a strange land. First observation.

The grass wasn't green.

Second observation.

The grass was freakin' blue.

So that left me with two options: I was dead and this was heaven. Or I was alive and this was some fresh new hell the good Lord above made for me for who knows what. But then again, it was either that or I was on Namek.

A screech interrupted my growing thoughts on the implications of the ecosystem of weeb stuff, as I turned my head up to catch the commotion.

"...Whoa."

I looked up to find glowing mushrooms of every color, in various sizes, scattered everywhere, as far as I could see, lighting up the dark. I was in a clearing in what was a forest, lucky for me. The moon in the sky was a tint of red. Giant - giant freaking bugs the size minivans flew around in the sky.

Oh, no. No, no, no. How on God's green earth did I get here - the music box. Anne and Marcy.

Sasha. She - I remembered now. She got Anne to steal the box. Then Anne had the bright idea to open it, and what did I do about it? Nothing! You idiot! You doormat! You-

I felt a sharp pain grip my head. "Something's biting me!" I ran my fingers through my hair - oh wait, it was just some brambles from the grass. That's not so bad. I picked them out, taking a few gray hair strands with them in the process-

Wait a darn minute. Gray? Gray hair? Old man hair?

Sure enough, what was once my dark head of hair was now gray. It was official. I was stuck in some stupid swamp god knows where, and that stupid music box whitewashed my hair.

Sasha! Stupid Sasha! This was your fault!

I suddenly felt my skin tingle. I looked down to find a red centipede the length of my wrist crawl around my ankle.

"...Friend? Or foe? I'm alone now, so I can make references to my heart's extent and no one can judge me! Go, Josh!"

The centipede turned its head to look at me. It hissed, baring it's little pincers before wrapping itself around my ankle again, going still.

"Well, I'm hoping that means friend."

Okay, Josh. Gotta do a reality check. You're in a crazy alien world with giant bugs, you have a centipede for a cling-on, and you're all alone. You still have your clothes on, a few good layers at that, and your backpack full of stuff. It's almost night. C'mon, think! What did your survival handbook teach you again?

Oh! Of course: the first step was to find shelter. Then to find water. And lastly to find civilization. That wouldn't be so hard. Sure, things seemed bad now, but I remembered my mom's trustworthy advice.

Things could always be worse.

Cracka-thoom.

And now it was raining. Still, could be worse.

My centipede friend growled.

Oh, boy.

If I ever saw Sasha again, I'd kill her for this.

A few days had passed since I found myself in this bizarre alien location. I had made a shelter out of a barren cave, and I had resorted to using my coat as a blanket to keep warm next to a small kindling whenever the night grew too cold. My centipede friend - who I had taken to calling Sam, never uncurled himself from my foot. I was a bit worried at first, but he was friendlier to me after I had dragged a small spider's corpse to the fire as breakfast. He ate with me in silence before going back to my ankle.

Water was plentiful and easy to find. Food however was a difficult situation. My faith - even if I wasn't the most diligent - told me that bugs were off the table. The only problem? Bugs may have been the only type of critter that lived here. It wasn't easy at first, but I learned that bugs were quite tasty. Roasted, oh mama. Grab a stick, kebab some suckers and you'll never have to worry about going hungry on the trail.

But I was getting pretty lonely. Worried too. Was I the only one who ended up here? Were Anne and Marcy okay? Were they even alive? Here I was, stuffing my mouth and having some company when they could be out in the wild, starving, hungry, cold, maybe even worse.

I couldn't sit around and just hope they were okay. Even if Anne had stolen that box for Sasha, and even if Marcy and I stood back and let it happen, I had to find them. Because I knew they'd do the same for me.

And sure, I was fine, but Anne was the sort of person who'd set fire to a forest trying to roast a marshmallow! And Marcy wouldn't pay attention to the map and get us lost in some undiscovered territory late at night forcing us to share the same sleeping bag for warmth and making things incredibly awkward especially when I rolled over and -

Ugh. Not again. I remembered never to speak of the Cuddling Incident. We took a sacred vow and everything.

I grabbed my jacket, tying it around me like a cloak, and I grabbed what food wrappers and such I had brought with me. Sam hummed, and crawled into my backpack. I trotted out the cave entrance, a spring in my step.

Time to find my friends!