Chapter 2

Hot and Humid

The day started off pretty normally to say the least. It was bright as the midday sun hung almost directly overhead as a well-equipped human made his way forward through the thick and humid jungle. Bugs buzzed around as he wiped a few spots of sweat off his brow. Today looked as if it were going to be another hot day.

"Why can't it ever rain?" the human asked himself, reaching around to the bag slung on his back for the bottle of water in the side pocket.

Taking a sip of the warm liquid, the human snapped the cap back on and returned the bottle to its rightful place. Three days he spent traveling through this jungle and his resources were beginning to wear thin. His bottle of water was more than half-empty and the food he had brought with him was nearly gone. He was beginning to question if going into the jungle in the first place was the right thing to do.

He traveled onwards, attempting to make the best of it. Despite the random sounds of wildlife the thick canopy of the jungle held, the human was feeling pretty lonely. It had been several days since he last saw any other human being.

"Perhaps I should have stayed home and ignored my dreams," the human began, feeling a bit hopeless. "There's nothin' out here."

Sighing deeply, the human trudged on in spite of his best interests. Brushing off some dirt that clung to his light brown shirt, he stopped for a moment to stretch his legs. Silently, he knew he needed closure if his dreams were to ever become normal once again.

The day slowly trudged on. The humid air the jungle contained slowly made the human more tired with each passing minute. After a few hours, the sun was beginning to set, but was barely visible through the tall exotic trees. The human made sure to obtain whatever fruit he could carry during his travels. They would certainly help in the long run.

As it begun to grow dark in the jungle, the human noticed something a bit odd ahead of him. Making his way forward through the jungle, he came upon a circle of rocks in a small opening in the area. In the center of the circle was ashes.

The human could come up with only one explanation.

Someone else had been here.

It was very odd. What business did somebody else have in this remote jungle?

Carefully looking around for any other clues, the human thought it out. There wasn't anything out here of interest for anyone.

"I don't even know why I'm here," the human sighed, sitting down on a nearby stump. "Guess I have no other purposes right now."

Making use of the small pre-made campsite, he decided to call it a day and get some rest. Plenty of time to think about it during his much needed slumber. The human dug in his bag and pulled out a neatly folded red tarp out. He quickly unfolded it and laid it on the flattest part of the ground there was. As soon as he did, he set his bag down beside it and pulled out a small lighter from the side-pocket. Quickly gathering some wood, leaves, and anything else he could use to start a small fire, the human piled them up in the center of the pre-made camp and lit it.

He wasn't after its warmth, but its light. With all the noises in the jungle, he felt a bit more easy with there being a light source as he attempted to try to sleep on his tarp once more.

Despite the sounds of the local wildlife the human eventually found himself falling asleep in the most comfortable position he could find. Several hours passed as he fell into his dreams once more. It wasn't a mystery to what he was going to dream about.

The human found himself in a jungle once more, similar to the one he was asleep in. The sun was up above the canopy as he looked around. It seemed there was a clear path ahead of him, as if someone had been through here before. But it seemed there was one feature in this dream that he failed to notice in the others.

There was some kind of noise in the distance.

It sounded like a low tone with a kick of bass to it. He could almost feel the vibrations as the noise emitted every few seconds. Whatever it was, it was close.

Making his way forward, he followed the pre-made path before him. It seemed to be the logical choice of where to go. Slowly the bass began to grow louder as well as the vibrations becoming more tense. Eventually he came upon a half-broken stone pillar somehow still standing on the side of the path. Something was definitely in this direction.

Picking up the pace, the human continued down the road before him. There was no breeze, no sounds of wild animals, just the bass and vibrations in the ground.

Then he found it.

Sitting in front of him was some kind of ancient structure covered in vines and strange etchings around it. He slowly made his way closer to the object, then everything turned bright.

Then the human found himself opening his eyes, staring at the treetops.

"That dream again," he said to himself. "But it went more into detail this time. Am I getting close?"

Giving out a small yawn, the human slowly stood to his feet to see the sun's rays gleaming through the trees. Given the sun's location in the sky, he guessed it must have been sometime after ten o' clock. Looking back down, he noticed some embers where his campfire used to be. Kicking some dirt on top of it, he turned around to retrieve his tarp.

After being sure the fire was out, the human began making his way deeper into the jungle. The wildlife wasn't very active at the moment. He guessed they must have been sleeping in.

Around an hour passed and not much happened along the way. He decided to grab a random piece of fruit out of his bag to have something to munch on for breakfast. What he grabbed was considered an orange, but was green. Still good enough to eat though.

After eating a few of those fruits, the human began to notice something a bit out of the ordinary.

It was quiet.

The jungle was known for it's wildlife and hearing no sounds of it was a bit unsettling. Usually animals tended to stay clear of dangerous areas. The jungle itself couldn't possibly pose a threat, which meant there was something else causing the animals to stay away from this particular place.

No sooner than he thought it, a growl toward his right made itself known to him. The humans' immediate reaction was to reach into his bag, just as a predator breached from it's hiding place.

It was a black panther. A large vicious cat with claws sharp enough to tear through skin like it were mere paper. The cat growled as the human felt the handle of what he was after in his bag, just as the predator charged straight for him. The human quickly snatched the item he wanted out of his bag, revealing a nine inch exposed blade. Readying himself, he held the knife out in front of him, ready to strike the feline down.

But the cat stopped.

The panther sat there, staring at him with his bright green eyes, not even growling anymore. His ear were flopped back as he looked at the knife the human threatened it with. The human was a bit confused as to why the panther stopped, but wasted no time in taking action in this perfect opportunity.

Jumping forward toward the panther, he slashed downwards at the cat aiming for his neck. The panther's ears flopped back forward and quickly jumped out of the blade's way, escaping the weapons' blood thirst.

It was obvious that the human never seen anything quite like it, especially when he realized the panther was backing off. Just as it turned around to run, the human jumped it.

He wasn't expecting to land on its back, but did so with ease. He quickly reared his knife back, ready to give the killing blow. Then something stopped him in his tracks.

"Stop! Don't kill me!"

What was this madness? Did that panther just . . . ?

"I'm not here to hurt you!"

"What are you talking about?" the human replied, deciding to play along.

The panther's struggles ceased. "I can explain if you get off of me!"

Oddly enough, the panther had the voice of a immature child. Still, the human didn't know if he could trust it. Panthers weren't meant to speak.

Shrugging, but keeping his knife held tightly, the human slowly pushed himself off the animal, making sure to keep the knife at his neck just in case he tried anything. The panther slowly stood to his feet and shook his head around.

"Why did you have to be so rough?" the panther spoke once more, still a bit shaken up.

The human was a bit surprised. "You tried to maul my face off!"

"I did not! I was only scaring you!"

"Well it worked. Here's a tip, don't scare someone who's armed." A silent moment passed as he took a deep breathe to calm himself. "So? You gonna explain about how you talk and why you decided to scare me?"

The panther sighed as he sat down facing the human. "I was only protecting this area from intruders. As for the panther thing . . ."

It took only moments for the panther to suddenly become enveloped in a dark light. The human grew wide-eyed as he watched the panthers white figure to quickly change shapes into a much smaller creature of stature. The process took only seconds, but when it was done, the human was looking at a small light red fox with a white underbelly as well as a white tip on his bushy tail.

The human felt his grip loosen on his weapon as he felt awed by what he witnessed.

"What are you?"

The fox grinned. "You humans. You think you know everything but you obviously don't."

"You're a shape-shifting fox?"

"Pretty much. You humans called our species the Chinese fox, which was a mythological creature."

"The Chinese fox?"

The fox nodded. "I can change my shape whenever."

"But why are you out here?"

The human could see a bit of hesitance in the fox. "Well . . . some humans are nuts. They just want to find stuff and get rich. I guess . . . I could tell you. I'm guarding a gate."

Feeling no need to keep his knife out any longer, the human stowed it away into his bag once more. "A gate?"

"Yep!" the fox answered with a bit of enthusiasm. "A gate!"

"What kind of gate?"

"A super gate!"

"No, really."

"I don't know!"

The human raised an eyebrow. "You don't know what you're guarding?"

The fox shook his head. "Not really no. My only purpose was to guard it to make sure nothing finds it."

"Ah, that's why you tried to scare me off."

The red furred canid nodded. "Yep, but I've never seen anyone stand up to me before. You're something else!"

"Ah . . . I see."

"So whatcha doing out here anyways? Don't tell me you're wanting passage through the gate too?"

Now the human was puzzled. "Wait, too? Someone else was here?"

The fox nodded, "There was a girl that came through here. I tried to stop her but she outran me. She was fast and got through the gate before I could stop her."

"What did she look like?"

The small canid took a few moments to think about it. The human was definitely intrigued by this other human. Perhaps it was the same person who made that campsite?

"She was about your height with black hair. She looked a bit young to be out here."

"How young?"

"I don't know, about your age I would guess. Which reminds me, why are you here again?"

The human sighed. "I've been having reoccurring dreams of this place. Since I have no other purpose in my life, I figured I do some research about it. As I got closer to this place, my dreams had become more and more intense. Last night I dreamed I found an old structure somewhere near here."

"Stone arch and broken pillars?"

The human nodded, "That's it."

The fox smiled. "That's the gate."

"What is this gate?"

The fox shrugged. "A portal to another world, dimension, or even universe. I don't even know."

"Interesting," the human replied, bringing a hand up to his chin in thought.

"Would you like to see?"

"Is it okay?"

The fox made a small nod. "You know what this place is and you've been having dreams about it. It has to be for a reason." The canid turned and began walking down the path. "C'mon."

Unable to resist, the human began to follow. The jungle was still as quiet as it was before. No wildlife made itself known and the wind was barely able to blow through the many trees surrounding them.

"So what's your name?" the fox asked, looking back for a few moments making sure he was being followed.

The human didn't hesitate to answer that question. "It's Steven."

"Steven? It suits you I guess."

"You guess?"

"Well how should I know? I don't see many humans around here," the fox playfully joked. "You can call me Orion."

"Like Orion's belt?"

"What's that?"

Steven chuckled, still continuing down the path the same pace as before. "Star constellation."

Orion shrugged. "I've been living in a jungle. Sorry if my knowledge about blinky dots in the sky isn't too great."

"I understand," Steven replied, finding the situation more and more amusing by the minute.

Still, a polymorph red fox in a random jungle guarding an ancient gate to another dimension. He would never be able to explain that to any other human being without being sent to a psychotic ward kicking and screaming. If it were any other person, Steven would think they would pass out upon seeing such a creature.

It wasn't hard to believe for him. Steven had been through so much more in the past, turning into a dragon for one and being sent into another universe was another. So much took place while he was a dragon. Breathing elements, fighting baddies, saving the world from a dark twin planet set on a collision course due to the magic of an evil wizard. Yeah, he seen a lot.

Steven's thoughts were interrupted as he heard a faint noise in the distance. His pace pickened up slightly as he began to walk past Orion, who eyed the human oddly.

"What's up?" Orion asked, matching the humans' speed.

"That sound," Steven mumbled. "I know that sound."

"Sound?"

Getting closer to the source, the sound became a deep constant bass that emitted every few seconds. Soon enough, he begun to feel the vibrations of sound as he came up the familiar sight of a broken stone pillar off to the side of the path.

"The gate's up ahead," Orion began. "But what sound are you talking about?"

"It's a bass. I can feel it up ahead."

Without another word, Steven took off into a run. Finally, the answer to these constant dreams were about to be answered. Orion quickly caught back up with ease just as the ancient structure came into view.

Just like his dream, it was an old stone arch with strange etchings on it. It rested atop a stone ledge and was decorated with vines that twisted around everything it could. Steven kept his eyes facing the arch. The source of this constant bass was definitely coming from there.

"There's the gate," Orion announced, although he silently knew Steven already knew that.

"That's where the sound is coming from . . . I need to approach it."

"W—wait!" the red fox began. "I still guard this gate! I can't just let you go to it!"

"Orion, I need to go. This is the source of my dreams and the sole reason why I'm here," Steven pleaded. "I promise I won't do anything to it."

The fox was still hesitant about it and the human could see it in his eyes. Orion looked downwards, giving the request some heavy thought. He still guarded it. That was his purpose. But . . . perhaps he could let this slide just once. After all, he was fairly certain he wouldn't get scolded for it. Even if he would, who would do the scolding?

"Alright," Orion folded. "But I'm coming with you. No funny business okay?"

The human couldn't help but show a smile. "You have my word," Steven happily replied.

The human and fox turned back toward the sleeping gate and slowly began to make their way towards it. Orion looked up toward Steven for a moment, seeing he had his eyes set on the gate and nothing else. He never let anyone near this gate freely. Why was he starting now?

Soon enough, the duo found themselves climbing the ledge to stand in front of the gate itself. The stone arch was twice Steven's height and even wider than that. Taking a deep breathe, the human approached it to take a closer look. He also noticed the bass and vibrations had ceased due to his arrival. Orion made sure to stick to him like glue.

"What are you going to do?" Orion asked, hoping to receive some sort of answer.

Steven began studying the gate, attempting to decipher the reason of its existence. "I don't know honestly. If I do anything you're not comfortable with, don't hesitate to tell me. I don't mean to desecrate the thing you live to protect."

Orion nodded. "Thank you, it's comforting to know that you care."

The human wasted no time to make his way to the left arch to see what the etchings were all about. Upon closer examination, it seemed to him that the etchings actually seemed to be some other language but with symbols, similar to Japanese or Chinese. Steven could read neither language, but knew that whatever language this was written in was neither of those.

"The gate has been here for longer than I have," Orion explained. "Even I don't even know what language that is."

Disappointed, Steven took a few steps back took examine the whole gate further. "That girl you saw . . . she went through this gate?"

Nodding, Orion stood to his feet. "Yep, somehow she opened the gate and ran straight through. I don't know where she went though. I didn't intend on finding out honestly." The small canid slowly walked over toward the gate then looked up toward the center top of it. "There is one thing I do know about this gate though."

"Oh," Steven began, a bit intrigued.

"Look up there, its hard to tell for someone who isn't a polymorph, but there's two matching symbols up there."

"Interesting," Steven began. He looked up to where the fox described, but was unable to see what he was referring to. The symbols were much too small to be read at a distance.

"Here," Orion began. Steven looked back down to see the fox beginning to morph into a larger version of himself. Large enough to easily reach the top of the gate. "Climb onto my back," the fox offered, laying on his belly.

"You sure?"

Orion nodded. "Of course! I don't mind."

Hesitantly, Steven made his way over toward the overgrown fox and slowly climbed onto his back. Once he was good and comfortable, Orion stood to his feet, raising Steven's level to about where the top of the arch was. From here, it was much easier to see the symbols the red fox was referencing to. Squinting a bit, Steven looked upon the two symbols, then immediately grew wide-eyed as soon as he saw it.

"Those are dragons!" Steven exclaimed.

"Dragons?" Orion asked. "What are those?"

"They're fire-breathing winged reptiles! But . . . I don't understand. What is the purpose?"

Figuring he was done, Orion laid back down on his belly for Steven to dismount. The human slid off the back of the fox to land on the stone below. The fox wasted no time changing back to his original size.

"How do you know dragons?" Orion asked, turning toward the human.

Steven was silent. He looked down toward the fox and could see the gears turning in his head. The canid was interested to know about what he was guarding all this time.

"I may sound crazy . . . but a few months ago . . . I was a dragon myself."

"Odd," the fox replied unexpectantly. "Do continue."

"I was sent to the dragon world to defend it from the threat of a powerful human wizard named Ismeral Nexis. From what I know, he discovered an element he called the void. Ultimately he became corrupt and the government of that time banished him to a dark world. Long story short, he came back thousands of years later to destroy the government which he thought still existed. Me and several other dragons defeated him and banished him to the void."

It was a bit to take in so Steven let Orion think about it for a moment. He looked over toward the gate a few moments until he heard the fox speak.

"How did you get back to this world?"

Steven shrugged, returning his attention to the fox. "Whatever gods existed in that realm sent me back along with five others, who were also like me. Humans from this world that turned into dragons on arrival to their world. We were all forced to go and had no say so in the matter. It was a really sad day that I begged myself to forget."

"Why?"

The human was quiet.

Orion was also quiet for a short while. He hoped he didn't cross some sort of line asking him about something that seemed to be fragile toward him.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

Steven forced a grin, "Thanks."

"Did you still call yourself Steven when you were a dragon?" the fox asked, tilting his head in wonder. "Steven seems a bit odd if you were a dragon."

The human chuckled, "Nope, in fact I called myself Cosmo."

Suddenly, the bass and vibrations he felt earlier began to emit once again, only this time it was much more intense. Steven's immediate response was to slap his hands against his ears, hoping to block out the painful noise that assaulted his eardrums.

"What's going on!" Orion cried out. "What's with that sound!"

"It's what I've been hearing since I got close to this thing!" Steven nearly yelled, referring to the gate. He found it strange that it started reacting to his presence so strongly for no reason after it had stopped earlier.

Or was it really no reason?

"Cosmo!" Steven called out once more. "I'm Cosmo! Cosmo the dragon!"

As if on cue, the noise and vibrations ceased immediately. Steven sighed in relief as Orion's ears flopped back in confusion. Before anything could be done or said, the gate began to have a reaction.

The breeze picked up as Steven watched a small light form in the middle of the arch. It slowly expanded as the wind began to blow even more as the white light reached the inner edges of the arches, leaving a small swirling white light as the wind begun to die down.

"Amazing," Orion began in pure wonder. " The gate reacted to you! It somehow knew what you are!"

"Yes," Steven began. "I don't know where this gate came from, but I have a strong feeling it's connected to the dragon world that I was forced to leave."

The red fox turned back toward Steven. "What are you going to do?" he asked, without second thoughts.

The human grinned. "If you don't mind, I'm going in."

Orion nodded. "I see . . . well . . . in that case, I'll come with you."

"Orion," Steven began, "Are you sure?"

The fox nodded. "I want to know what I've been guarding all this time. If you don't mind my companionship—."

"Not at all," Steven interrupted. "But I don't know if this gate is a two-way trip. Once we enter, there's a chance we won't be getting back for a very long time."

"And I'm completely fine with that. Besides, the gate only seems to react to people like you. How many people are like you? Not many I'm sure."

Steven felt a bit more at ease at this point. It would be odd having a polymorphic fox to travel around with, but it beat solo any day.

"Ready?" Orion asked, showing a sly grin.

"Of course," Steven replied, returning a grin.

Without another thought, the fox turned and jumped headfirst into the portal, disappearing from existence instantly. Steven turned and looked back at the jungle one last time as he tightened his bag on his back, then followed the fox's example.