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Chapter 3: A New World

It took a moment for Jason so comprehend what was going on. There was a part of his brain that refused to believe what it saw. This clashes with the part of the brain that believed everything it saw. The result was confusion. Jason was muddled and slow to respond as he looked down at himself.

Where there used to be hands, there were paws. Rather, a cross between paws and hands. The fingers were longer like a hand, but there were pads and fur like a paw with sharp nails poking out of the top of each digit. It didn’t end just there.

Where there used to be skin that had a light amount of brown hair on it was now a mix match of black, silver and white fur. It poked out of the spaces of his clothes. From his collar, under his shirt, his face, it was everywhere and he could feel it everywhere. He didn’t want to see a reflection of himself, but Janice held up her phone camera with the screen facing him.

There was a long snout with a wet nose that twitched every time Jason breathed. He started to breathe slower.

On the top of his head, poking equivocally upwards and rotating to meet every sound we’re a pair of pointed ears. Then, there were the eyes. They weren’t animal like the rest of him, Jason saw that they were his eyes, the ones he had seen every time he looked into a mirror and Anthony seemed to see them as well.

“It’s weird, like defying every law of physics and biology known to man, but,” he stepped closer and gave that same weak smile that Jason had just given him before the lightning had struck, “you’re still my Jason.”

Jason felt tears well up. Did dogs cry? Well, he wasn’t dog, he was Jason and Jason did cry. He hugged Anthony tight and Anthony squeezed back.

“That’s great and all,” Kieth yelled out. “But I’m still stuck down here.” He peered up from inside the car.

“Oops,” Janice giggled and helped Kieth out of the car.

“Whoa, man. Heel,” Kieth snickered when he got a good look at Jason and then apologized when he got nothing but glares from everyone else. He then changed the subject quickly. “Where are we?” He gave a quick glance around. “Where’s my house?”

Everyone looked around. The woods looked the same, then again all woods seemed to look the same in the dark, but the house that had just been there, was gone. The road was gone too. Nothing man made was nearby except for the overturned car.

“Maybe we went airborne or something,” Jason said, the words were a bit slurred. He had a longer mouth now and words came out a bit differently for him. Reminded him of a southern accent a bit with each word getting a drawl.

“We’d still hear the highway or something,” Anthony countered, but didn’t offer up any kind of other explanation. “Plus, What happened to the rain.” He looked up. The sky was perfectly clear.

Janice hopped off the car carefully, spreading out her arms to balance herself as she landed. He knelt down and touched the ground. “It’s dry.”

“It’s like an episode of X-Files or something,” he said and then whistles the tune. He and the others slowly got down from the car. “First Jason is turned into an anthromorphisized dog and now the past two hours of weather have been erased.”

Jason dig into his pocket and grabbed his phone. He forgot that his thumb print was a bit different now and after a few long seconds of struggle, used his passcode to unlock his phone. “No cell service either.”

“We’re gonna die,” Kieth said and checked his phone as well. Anthony and Janice didn’t bother. Janice was already on the move.

“Let’s see if we can’t find the road,” Janice waved the others to follow her lead. With no plan or idea, they followed her.

It became very clear, very fast that the ground hadn’t dried up, it just hadn’t been wet recently. They weren’t in Washington, it Kansas as Kieth liked to point out.

“The stars are all wrong,” Jason pointed upwards. “Orion should be right there along with the big digger over there,” he drew ginger circles. “I don’t recognize anything up there. It’s like a poorly stickered child’s ceiling.”

“What?” Anthony said and turned. He was beginning to sweat. It was a lot warmer here as well. “We teleported or something? That’s not poss-“ he paused when Jason motioned down to himself. “So teleportation. Hmm.”

“Magic teleporting lightning... neat,” Janice said and then stopped walking because it was kind of pointless to walk randomly in the dark now. “Unless we teleport again, we can figure all of this out in the morning when we can see and have a bit of rest.”

It was scarcely an hour later that Janice had a fire going.

“You really can do anything,” Jason said. He sat next to Anthony on one side of the fire, on a pair of large rocks while Kieth and Janice sat opposite of them.

Janice shrugged. “My dad wanted to make sure I was prepared. He was one of those doomsday preppers. A loon for sure, but he was a good dad. Taught me a lot about survival and wanted nothing but the best for me.”

“So, did he teach you how to read stars in a random part of Earth,” Kieth said and looked up. “I can’t tell squat from them.”

“This isn’t Earth,” Janice said calmly and the others gave her puzzled looks.

“You sure we’re just not in the Southern Hemisphere?” Jason asked as he plucked pine needles and little sticky barbs from his new fur. Showering and then drying was going to be a big problem.

Janice shook her head. “It’s no star pattern that we can see on Earth. North or south.”

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, contemplating their rapidly changing understanding of the situation. Not on Earth. It was a lot to take in at once.

“My head hurts,” Kieth said first and held his head in his hands.

“Let’s get some sleep,” Anthony said and looked at the bare ground. “Not gonna be comfortable, but something is better than nothing. I’ll take first watch.” They didn’t know if something could be out there, but Anthony staying up to watch the unknown night made it seem all the more real.

Jason slept the best, he found himself naturally curled up by the fire with his arms and legs tucked in, his body forming a crescent.

Kieth fell asleep on a massive pile of leaves he had gathered up. They itches and scratched him, but he was too tired to care.

Janice closed her eyes, laying up against a nearby tree, her and ankles crossed. She was a wound spring, capable of jumping to action at a moment’s notice. She didn’t show it, but she was very wary, more so than the others. This was an unknown world and it had unknown threats. She feared that they would run into something dangerous well before they came across something helpful. There was also something off, she couldn’t quite put her finger one it, but the air was just different. Heavier in a way.

Anthony stayed up for two hours when he saw undeniable truth that they were on a different world. The moon had come into view. It was a iridescent green and had a smaller moon of its own that could be seen visibly orbiting as a small ball that slowly made its way across the face of the larger moon. It was something truly special to see and he decided to take a video of it on his phone to share when Jason woke up.

Anthony looked over at Jason’s sleeping form. A warmth came to his heart, but also a sinking feeling in his stomach.

“We’ll get home soon,” Anthony promised. “I’ll make sure of it.” Anthony woke Kieth up to take the next watch and he then went to sleep.

Jason had a strange dream. It was vivid and yet he knew, even when in the dream, it was not reality.

Jason stood in a white void, completely devoid of anything but himself. He was naked, which he was extremely aware of and yet, he couldn’t bring himself to care. It was just him after all, yet there was the feeling that he was being watched very closely, the the white void around him wasn’t just nothing, but a presence in of itself.

“Hello,” Jason called out, cupping his hands over mouth.

There was no echo. It didn’t sound like his voice carried that far at all, as if it went an inch from his mouth and then died.

If he wasn’t going to be able to call out to anyone, then he was going to find someone visually. He began to walk. It never even came to his mind that there would be no one. He just knew there was someone to find. A gut feeling that felt as if it was fact. He couldn’t explain. There was just someone out there. He knew it. He was going to find that person.

Jason walked swiftly. In the white void, it was impossible to judge distance. However, he just felt as if his legs, strange digitigrade and furry leg, were carrying him farther than a normal stride. Again gut feeling. This place was nothing but gut feelings.

The void wasn’t total pure whiteness like an led light shined straight in the eye. There was a very slight change in tone that they eye could just make out to distinguish the sky and the floor. Some places were shaded for apparently no reason as if clouds loomed overhead. It helped Jason cope with the strangeness and immensity of the void.

There was no noticeable passage of time. The shadows never shifted and Jason never felt fatigued. Did time even matter? It was a dream, it would last however long or not that it desired to and he would just wake up all the same in the morning.

“We’ll get home soon. I promise,” a voice said from everywhere. It permeated Jason’s very being.

“Anthony?” Jason turned all around and looked. It was definitely Anthony. He’d know that voice anywhere.

“He’s not here,” another, much older voice said. This one had direction.

Jason hadn’t noticed, or perhaps it had simply popped into reality, but about fifteen years away was a figure cloaked in grey. Actually, it was more than a cloaked figure. Above his head was a halo of daggers that gave off a slight glow. Across his back were large wings, like and eagle’s, but made of metal.

“You an angel or something?” Jason asked, but got no response.

The figure’s face was shrouded in an unnatural darkness that his it, but Jason still got the feeling that it was watching him. Was disturbing as hell.

“Who are you?” Jason asked and then it came to him. He spoke it softly. “Antes.”

The figure gave a very slight nod and then the void changed. There was a sense of it closing. It was suffocating. It also changed color, slowly becoming a mix of earthly colors until he suddenly woke.

“Jason,” Anthony shook his boyfriend.

Jason’s eyes snapped open and focused on Anthony. The man was worried. Deep lines etched his face and he was frowning.

Even though he was awake, Anthony shook Jason one more time and then held a finger to his lips and whispered. “We’re not alone anymore.”

Jason slowly got up into a crouching position and rubbed his eyes. He looked questioningly at Anthony.

Anthony thought the look was the cutest thing he had ever seen. Jason had his head tilted slight and his ears quivered, but he had to stay focused. There was danger.

Kieth had spotted them early on, a set of dancing lights from torches. He had doused their fire with dirt and then woken Janice, who had woken Anthony.

They moved away from their campsite in case the torches were moving towards them, which they were. They hid in a bunch of bushes and waited in silence.

“I told you that we should have come in without the torches,” a voice snorted. “Their watch saw us coming from a kilometer away.”

“They must British,” Kieth said as quietly as he could because he couldn’t resist putting in a word. The strange figures, of which there were about four, didn’t hear him.

“Well,” The other one quickly replied. “They couldn’t have gone far.” His voice was higher pitched and his body shape was leaner than the other who was big and round.

Big and Round turned and sniffed the air. He came into the better light of the torch. He was a pig. A big pig on two legs with tusks sticking from his lower jaw. He wore leathers that made Jason think of medieval armor from any number of tv shows he had watched before.

The other three were all different animals as well, each standing on two legs, armed with medieval weaponry and armored in leather or chain mail.

“Spread out,” Big and Round commanded, throwing out a hand with hooded fingers in a wide arc. The others did so and began to comb the area.

Big and Round stayed at the fire. He sniffed the air again and began to walk towards the bush that everyone was hiding under.

Jason tensed and grabbed Anthony’s hand tightly. Anthony squeezed back as well. If there was more light, the bush would do nothing to hide them, but it was still dark enough that they were nothing more than shadows.

Big and Round stopped a few paces around. His wide, pink snout flexed and snorted with each deep inhale. The pig then took a knee and shoved his hand into the dirt almost in front of Jason’s face. He could feel flecks if dirt hit his nose and he wiggled it to get it off.

Big and Round churned the dirt with his hands until he had what he wanted. He pulled a fat truffle from the ground and then stood up. He regarded the morsel for a moment before popping it into his mouth. He would have turned and gone then and there if Kieth hadn’t sneezed.

“By Gorgon’s wrath,” Big and Round shouted out and began to stomp to the bush. “Right under my nose. Must be my lucky day.”

“Run!” Janice yelled, but instead of running away, she ran at the pig.

Jason and Anthony went in the opposite direction. He didn’t see where Kieth went.

The two ran as fast as they could, or at least, as fast as Anthony could run. Jason found that he was a lot faster now, easily able to bound twice the distance he had been able to before, but he didn’t want to leave Anthony behind, so he kept pace.

There was shouting and whoops from all around. The forrest around them came to life. There had been far more than just four. A dozen torches lit up and began to move to move towards them.

“Go!” Anthony shouted as hard as he could. He was slowing fast. He hadn’t been in the best of shape before and he certainly wasn’t in any condition to run at a sprint for much longer. “You’re faster. Run. Get away.”

“No,” Jason said and then grabbed Anthony, hauling him off the ground. Anthony had weight to him, but Jason was still able to move faster while carrying Anthony. He carried him as if he were priceless cargo, because he was. There was also a slight part of him at the back of his mind that thought of Janice and Kieth, but that was not important. He had to get himself and Anthony out of here.

The torches were getting closer and moving to cut him off. The had set up an ambush and Bug and Round had been sent to flush them out. There was little chance to escape.

One of the figures, a hyena that was laughing maniacally, threw a bolo, which wrapped around Jason’s knees.

Jason screamed out and came crashing down, throwing Anthony several meters. The two hit the ground hard and didn’t even have a chance to get up before the torch-bearing bandits were on them.

A set of paws and hands pulled Jason up onto his knees. Anthony was just a bit away. His face was scratched up and his nose was bloody from the fall, but he was awake.

“Should have run,” Anthony said, but with remorse.

“Should have, could have, would have,” Jason said and then looked around. It was a heavy mix of different species. They were jeering and prodding with their swords and spears. Some spoke language that Jason had never heard before.

The group parted down the middle after the two were dragged a bit of a distance forcefully and Big and Round came up to them. His eye was swollen and dark, courtesy of Janice.

“Where’s Janice!?” Jason snarled out. He didn’t know he could make that noise.

“She’s alive, barely,” Big and Round laughed. “Quite the fighter. Would have done me in honestly if she had a weapon. She’ll fetch a pretty penny in the Molamse fighting pits.” The others nodded in agreement. “Don’t know where your other friend went. Slippery one he is.”

Jason pulled against his captors, forcing them to yank him back hard against the ground. “Let us go,” he demanded, suddenly filled with courage and rage.

“My my,” Big and Round snorted and held out a hand to which one of the bandits handed him a scary looking glove that only a fingered pig could wear. It had spikes and blades coming out of the fingers. “Quite the attitude there.”

Jason barked and snarled and then stopped.

“Calm.” It was less of a word than a feeling that came from inside. It consumed him and for a moment, he was calm, but the anger boiled up again.

“You fucking swine!”

The sly smile on the pig’s face melted away immediately as the crowd quieted down. “Swine?” He stepped up to Jason and put on the glove. “A mouth like that doesn’t sell well and I don’t need bad merchandise.” He stabbed the bladed fingers deep into Jason’s chest, a look of shock coming to Jason’s eyes.

“No!” Anthony, who had been too scared to speak until then, cried out. The bandits held him back, they were smiling. “You monster.”

“Plenty worse out there,” Big and Round pulled the blades out and Jason slumped over, gasping and clenching his bleeding chest. “You’re lucky human, hard to find your kind so far south. You’ll sell fast.”

Big and Round gave a squeal and pointed away. The band began to drag Anthony away, leaving Jason to his fate. Anthony cried and struggled well after he could no longer see Jason anymore.