Felix blanched as his vision swirled into a kaleidoscope of colour. The ground beneath him tilted and fell away, slipping into a speckled void. The vertigo hit hard, then vanished, replaced by blinding sunlight and a familiar warmth on his face. He doubled over, violently vomiting as his mind reeled, the overwhelming sense of falling gripped him. When the feeling passed, he unsteadily rose to his feet as his eyes focused.

  Something was wrong. Not only was it late into the evening moments ago, but it was also deep into the icy chills of winter. He swore it was only an instant, but something deep inside him told another story, one of isolation, but also an infinite connection to everything. "What the..." he started before he realised the sun's intense heat beat down on his entire body. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. A wet streak dragged across his bicep. He paused. Then glanced down. "Err... where are my clothes?" He checked himself over, yep, completely naked. “Those were my favourite shoes…” He clenched his eyes shut as he took a deep, calming breath. "This can't be real," he muttered. Slowly, he lifted his head and opened his eyes, only for them to bulge in surprise.

  He slowly turned, taking in the scene around him. A vibrant plane stretched out into the horizon, small hills and depressions with thick brush and clusters of trees sparsely decorating the landscape. Much further away, enormous mountains stood proudly, their snow-capped peaks glinting faintly in the light. "Wow...” Felix murmured, awe clear in his voice. “This is beautiful, but..." He looked at his surroundings once more and raised his voice to almost a yell. "I'd like to go home now, you can drop... whatever this is." He waited, straining his ears for the slightest whisper or shuffle. There was nothing. He was naked and alone, his privates taking in the pleasant breeze for possibly the first time in his life. "I don't know if I should feel relieved or not." He pondered as he searched the ground for anything to cover himself. "This doesn't seem like anywhere I know, definitely not anywhere in England." He stared at the mountains in the distance.

  Giving up on regaining his modesty, he looked towards the sky. There was the sun, its yellow mass gently hanging beyond the sparse clouds. "Where the hell am I?"

  Suddenly, a blue, semi-translucent window appeared in his vision. "Shit!" he exclaimed as he jumped back. His lack of shoes caused his heel to dig deeply into the soft earth, catching his foot. He fell hard, like a wet bag of sand with an audible thud as his skull connected with the ground. He took in a sharp breath and groaned, aggressively caressing the back of his head. "Dammit..."

  When he opened his eyes, the screen had followed him to the ground, staying within the centre of his vision. "Wha...? How?" He stared at the strange window. It felt oddly familiar, though he couldn’t quite place why... It took him longer than he'd ever admit before he realised what he was looking at. "It's a... map? Like from a game?" In the centre of the rectangular window, was a small circle depicting his immediate surroundings, with a smaller, blue arrow sat comfortably in the middle pointing in what he assumed was East, according to the map. His thoughts began to race. How could this be possible? Everything felt so real, the landscape, the cool summer breeze, the scorching heat, and the grassy ache in his ass, "Am I going insane? Is this what it's like?" He took slow, deep breaths, the fresh air filling his lungs as he tried to settle his rising heart rate. "Ok, calm down. Think this through" he took another long drawn breath in through his nose, held it, then released it through his mouth. "Maybe I am going crazy. I'll shelve that thought for now” he paused to rub his face as it had already become slick with sweat. “I'd probably have no real way of knowing." As he considered how to close the window, he waved his hand in a dismissive gesture and it blinked out of existence. He focused on opening the map, and it appeared in front of him once again. "This is pretty cool." He let out an amused, breathy hum as he scanned the map once again. When he focused on the arrow, the map zoomed in, filling the blank space around the circle with the revealed area and enlarging the arrow. "Huh..." He scratched at the uneven stubble on his chin "If I have a map, I wonder..." The map closed and was replaced by a new screen, this one filled with text."I’m a genius!" he grinned as a character sheet opened up.

  'Character Sheet: Race - Human, Dimensional Vagrant. Stats, Rank - F, Progress to next rank - 0%, Attributes; Strength - 0, Agility - 0, Mind - 0, Soul - 0. Magic Cores - 0 of 6. Core abilities unlocked - None.'

  Felix groaned "Rank 'F'? Seriously? And my stats are zero? Not even one? That seems a bit unfair..." Suddenly, realisation hit him,"Vagrant? Not just human? I'd have thought that's more a class than a race... And what's with the dimensional part? Like dimensional travel? Is that real? Well I guess it is... That's really, really... It's not good, but it's kind of amazing. " He took in his appearance once again, running his hands down his face and body. "I feel and look the same as far as I can tell, I hope I'm not some sort of monster." He looked back towards the character window. “And what the hell is a magic core?” He stared at the phrase for a moment, the implications of requiring a number of them had his mind racing. “Zero of six… maybe I need 6 to get home? Or maybe they unlock something when I get one? Core abilities must be connected somehow.” He frantically rubbed his temples before sighing “there's too much I don't know.” He turned his attention back towards the window.

  'Nascent Abilities: User Interface; Character Sheet, Map, Inventory, Plunderer.'

  "Most of these seem self-explanatory...'plunderer' seems a bit ominous, like a pirate?" He dismissed the screens and stretched, leaning backwards. "I guess I should leave that for now." Again, his head swivelled, searching for anything of note. "I should make a list. This is… a lot" he sighed, his next thought having a bigger impact on his mental state than he expected."I should have done more survival training... I should have done more in general, really..."

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  He shuddered "Get a grip, dude, probably not the time." his head dropped, and he sighed. "Fuck it" he muttered, spinning around a few times with his eyes clenched shut before stopping and opening them. His stomach gurgled, and his vision whirled as he felt his face go cold. After a moment it subsided and he let out a sigh of relief "That could have been... messy..." he glanced down at the patch of vomit near his feet and took one step to the side and turned his eyes ahead of him. "As good a direction as any I guess." With that, he began walking. The soft, vibrant grass tickling between his toes. He missed those shoes.

  As he marched, his body grew sore and his breath heavier. He was never the most athletic or fit in any sense of the word. His scrawny body felt like a rusty hinge, being used for the first time ever. "I've got to find somewhere to rest." He tilted his head upwards, as he eyed the setting sun "sooner rather than later..."The last few hours had been almost disturbingly quiet, with nothing but he, himself and the gentle breeze to keep him company. Now that he thought about it, it was extremely quiet. No animals frolicking or grazing as far as his eyes could see, not even a bird flying overhead. "Huh, this has to be prime real estate for something, anything." Not for the first time, he looked around "no predators, no people, no... nothing. Not even a ruin or road". As he continued to scan the landscape, he noticed displaced earth scattering the seemingly endless field around him. As he approached one closer to his chosen path, he bent down and peered into the crater. "Huh, what the hell did this?" he looked up and around, eyeing another, larger divot a short ways from him. "Some kind of bomb maybe? God I hope not..." He glanced up towards the sky, then back into the hole at his feet, examining the dirt and grass scattered around it. His stomach growled, bringing his focus back to the task at hand "I could do with some berries or wild fruits or something." He lifted his head back to the sky as his legs carried him onwards "Actually, now that I think about it, is that a good idea?" He ran his hand down his face, wiping away the sweat that had built up in the heat. "I mean you see it all the time in movies and stuff, poisonous berries that cause crazy trips or vomiting, hell even shits so bad it goes from hilarious to pure nightmare fuel." He let out a groan that mutated into a sigh and stood. "Some meat would be amazing, I'd kill for a burger. Cooking animals is usually a safe bet" His body slumped "If I'm lucky to find some anyway."

  Around an hour later, a groan escaped him again, his stomach agreeing with the sentiment "God, anything will do, please" he pleaded to sky "I'll take a rat at this point!" he sighed "Maybe a nice, juicy-" He paused, a soft squeaking snatching him away from his thoughts . Straining his hearing to locate the new noise, the first thing he'd heard in hours, other than himself. He turned slightly, spotting a mound over to his left about 20 feet away from him. It was odd, despite all the rolling hills and craters in the earth, not once had he seen a pile of dirt, rock or any other material. He also hadn't spotted it until just now. He thought he'd been observing his surroundings pretty well but somehow missed this seemingly obvious deviation from the status quo.

  He waited for another sign of whatever grabbed his attention in the first place. There it was, a faint squeaking, and he was sure it came from the mini mountain. He crouched down, lowering himself as to be less visible and he approached. Slowly and carefully, he gingerly stepped closer. It was louder now, the squeaking easier to make out. It sounded... pained. Like an injured animal calling for help. A grin slowly formed on his tired, slightly sun-burned face. "I've never killed an animal before but..." He thought, placing a hand on his stomach, hoping his anticipation for a meal would cause any loud gurgling and spook what he hoped was his first meal in... How long? 5 hours? 6? Maybe even 7? It seemed to be around noon when he began walking. "Focus" He admonished himself silently.

  As he reached the mound he peaked his head around the side of it, his eyes going wide and he almost cheered in triumph when he saw it. There was a large concave, almost perfect in shape, like a crescent moon carved into the earth. Lying inside of it was a large, brown rabbit with white stripes, whimpering and shivering, a large amount of blood caked against its hind leg. "Perfect!" he thought, not only was he getting a meal, but a place to sleep that would shield him from the elements. "Talk about a two for one deal" he murmured, letting out a shaky chuckle as he wiped his sweaty palms on the ground. He tensed up. Thankfully, the creature seemed not to have noticed him talking to himself "Way to go asshole, almost ruined your one and only chance..." he admonished himself "just keep it together."

  As soon as he finished that thought, the rabbit's head jerked up, looking directly at him. A chill ran down his spine and suddenly he was very cold. It wasn't looking. Its head was completely blind, not just blind but no eyes at all, or even a space for any to sit, like a blank slate. He stumbled backwards, falling on his ass and froze. The rabbit-thing wiggled its nose, its ears twitching and pivoting atop its head. It gave no sign of any intention to flee. It faced him. "What is this thing?" He shuddered, the unsettling creature causing his stomach to flip, he might have thrown up if it wasn't empty. He rose to his crouched position once again and, keeping his distance, slowly made his way around to get a clearer view of the eyeless, whimpering rabbit. Kneeling ahead of the small animal he examined it as it continued its suffering squeaks.

  Its body was similar to a rabbit, two short front legs with larger, powerful hind ones that ended in pink, fleshy stumps instead of paws. Its fur was short, almost like a horse with a straw-like quality. A long, thin line ran across the front of its elongated head where you would expect its mouth to be, looking more like that of a dog than a rabbit.

  As he considered its unusual and honestly quite disturbing, almost mutilated appearance, it chirped again. This time, Felix's blood ran cold, as he realised that, not only did the creature seem to be not breathing, but the squeaking wasn't coming from the rabbit itself... but the mound. As he looked away from the rabbit to the earth behind it, what he saw horrified him. It was slowly widening, like the maw of a giant creature. The air seemed to vibrate as something massive shifted beneath him. The instant his eyes darted back to the rabbit and he took a step back. As if it was yanked on a rope, it whipped into the air attached to a thick grey tongue, like the lure of an anglerfish. "What is this thing?" he thought, standing quickly as the rabbit whipped around. As it disappeared into the earth, the ground rumbled as it began to shift. The mound leapt up at him.