A/N: Wow, 2 stories updated in the same day! Ultraris (my Ultra Crystals Saga muse) is going through my old notes, so MWorld (Monster World muse) stepped up to bat. Short chapter...but the end is coming soon!
Chapter 11 – Through the Looking Glass
He trudged through the barren landscape. He had no idea how much time had passed since his supposed family had thrown him in the vortex. He had been intrigued that he didn't automatically die – but he guessed it was some side effect of the original spell. Or that someone upstairs had a greater purpose for him. Whatever it was – that entity had to have a sick sense of humour. Upon awakening in his new surroundings, he had discovered something very…interesting about his journey. He wasn't in the past – as he had feared he would be. Instead, he was in a warped version of the present. Everything looked the same – sky, sand, and mountains; but there were no humans. Instead, great beasts walked the Earth.
The portal had stayed open for a short while – before snapping shut with a bang that echoed for days. Of course, he had been out cold in his ceremonial armour. For the first few days of his isolation, the issue of finding food was a problem. He knew that he didn't really have to eat to sustain himself; it had just turned into a habit over the centuries. Hunting and walking – that was his day in a nutshell. Occasionally he would come across a colossal beast that wanted to kill him, but they were no threat. He compared those encounters to facing down German Panther tanks in World War Two – only less explosive. And on most days there would be nothing to distract him away from the past. The people he had met, the things he had done – the women he had loved.
Those memories tore at his heart the most. The fact that he had loved so many women over the years – and yet was unable to tell them his secret to longevity. Of course, they wouldn't have believed him anyway; that was beside the point though. Many of them were dead and the most recent woman that he loved was trapped in the world he had come from. She was either dead or fighting. Either way, it was a bleak situation. They were fighting for their lives and he was fighting in another way. Or was he? He didn't know anymore. To fight for death would mean that his family had won and that he had nothing left to live for. To fight for freedom was saying he wanted to leave this place and return home. To fight for survival meant he had accepted his situation. To fight for the sake of fighting would mean he had turned into a monster himself.
It was a true 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. He sighed yet again and trudged in a direction he hoped would lead to civilization.
His journey to Wonderland just beginning, Max Winters or Yaotl, strode toward his destiny.
Whatever that was.