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A witch’s death flung virulent magic into the aether .

Slithering ribbons of power twisted and warped reality in the wake of her passing.

Such an ancient, primal force had consequences on the world.

A modern world where I no longer belonged.

And perhaps my dormant, now withering, power had effects on the rotten magic all around.

I ran on newborn legs, stumbling through shimmering air thickened with magic so potent it clung to my skin like grime.

My breaths were shallow and thin, each gasp tasting of sparkling power and static energy.

Suffocating and stifling, heavy on unfamiliar limbs.

Magic, always a weighty thing, pressed heavier on infant muscles, as oppressive as the insensible scenario enveloping me.

That lingering power, corrupted by curses and death, snuck around me in wispy, cold tendrils, threaded through the new platinum blue tresses flying behind me, and seeped into foreign pores.

There was no telling where I ended, and the magic began .

The ground shuddered beneath my feet, and in the next blink, a deafening, swirling mass of color and shadow warbled to life.

Acidic fear corroded my insides as that shuddering mass of power opened before me.

The magic-laden air shoved me, a hungry tide urging me into the mouth of the unknown.

Divine, primordial, celestial, and monstrous; the maw of a gaping portal swallowed me whole.

Vertigo assuaged me as the world tilted, throwing me into the gullet of a portal.

I careened through an array of swirling colors and flashes of inky blackness.

A churning sea of power dragged me along, thrashing and compressing as if intending to crush me before digesting. Chewing before the last gulp.

As the edges of my vision blurred, a quaking contraction around my frame reinvigorated my panic. With a violent heave, the portal spat me out. Vomited into an unfamiliar and alien world, I landed hard. The impact jarred my bones, and shockwaves of pain echoed through my new mortal form.

A yelp, a strange voice from my vocal cords, leapt from my tongue as I rolled across solid ground. I stopped, sprawled and groaning, but motionless. Unmoving for long enough that the stark realization of a new world sank in.

The air, cooler here, felt different. Still thick with magic, though of a different kind, like a melody I knew sung in a different tune.

An alternate wavelength dancing out of reach.

I felt it in the rustle of leaves, the shadows cast by a thin, amber light.

I felt it in the weight of the shadow’s gaze, watching me as if alive, tensed and breathing.

I needed to move, but I froze.

The sky held no moon.

Only a portrait of overlapping darkness stretched overhead.

My vision cleared from the dizzying aftershocks of traveling.

Trees stretched skyward, their branches twisting into unnatural arcs.

The leaves reflected an ethereal glow. Even the landscape was odd, familiar but askew, as if the world had been lifted and tipped, molded anew in the hands of a giant.

An otherworldly resonance rang in my ears, a magical hum that tugged on something in my bones.

I rose on shaking legs, unsteady yet determined to move.

Tentative steps carried me along as I wandered deeper into a new realm.

There were no signs of humans as far as I could see.

No marks of humanity scratching out the nature of the land.

It wasn’t my sanctuary, and it wasn’t my world.

If I was the last of my kind, had it been my world anymore?

No, I couldn’t think like that. Not now.

Not when I didn’t know where I was or how to survive in my cursed skin.

If it was true that a proclaimed mage was hunting me, then I had to keep moving, keep running, and keep surviving.

A man tracking magical creatures might have the ability to travel realms as purposefully as I had accidentally. Nowhere was safe.

Frigid air bit my raw, fragile mortal skin and the thicket scraped at my clumsy limbs as I stumbled through the woods. Shadows stretched in the manor of a creature’s claws, sinister and eager to drag me into the underbelly of darkness.

Days blurred into nights.

Even the burnt-gold days were tinted with darkness.

An umbral aurelien hue hugged the hours, casting a distressing light on the realm.

This world, and its creatures, were strange and unusual.

Deer with too many eyes, bears with extra legs, rabbits with horns, insects that glowed a frightening shade of red.

And I wandered aimlessly, flipping between shivering to sleep and aching for food.

My mortal stomach churned violently when I tried to sustain myself with the food of nature. Grasses and ferns were heaved up as my new body rejected them. I spent hours retching until only bile lingered on my tongue. This world, this body, wasn’t made for me.

My body was dying.

A third day dawned, time passed, and another bleak dusk settled over the land.

This sun wasn’t quite golden. It was rust-red like copper, illuminated from within.

As hostile as the despair threatened to burn me from within.

After another day of floundering through the woods, a long shadow reached from the horizon and seized me .

Silhouetted against the ochre horizon, a large, tiered, sharp castle speared toward the sky, sitting like a broken and infected tooth jutting from the ground.

A towering and foreboding structure rising like a sentinel against the moonless sky.

Even in a mortal body with my magic caged inside me, I could sense the inherent veil of power draped over the ancient stones.

A prickling sensation trickled down my spine and a cold wind caressed my skin.

There, among the gnarled branches barricading the castle, a garden of fruit trees spread through the encroaching shadow of night.

Not quite apples, the colors of plums, and just as juicy.

I had reached up and plucked three before my brain caught up with my body.

My teeth sunk into tender flesh, and red juice dripped down my chin.

I massacred the fruits, humming as their sweet flavor burst on my tongue.

I devoured another, then another, shaking with relief as I gorged and beat back the grasp of starvation.

Either I was delirious with hunger, or those were the best fruits in existence. They were good. So, so good.

A sharp crack sent alarm through me. I tensed, ear twitching toward the disturbance.

A large, malformed creature surged from the hedges.

My coiled muscles sprung, but my attacker was faster.

A twisted and grotesque form seized me, a monster like I’d never seen before, as if mis-matched pieces of different beasts were melded together.

A demon.

Mere myth on Earth, but a frightening reality in this plane of existence. Alive for millennia and this was my first encounter with one of the damned beasts.

“You dare take from his lordship!” a voice like stone grating on stone rasped into my ear. Putrid hot air brushed my skin. “You will beg him for mercy.”

The absurdity of the situation nearly knocked a laugh from me, but my rising fear choked it down.

I thrashed and kicked, wishing to fly away, but my form no longer contained wind and power.

The much larger monster held me aloft and carried me through the garden toward the castle’s enshrouded entrance.

Futile, trapped, prey. For the first time in my life, I screamed.

“Unhand me you wretched creature!”

The castle inhaled me, breathing me into its lungs like a living entity.

The stone flesh and wooden bones of a great monster sucking me into its depths.

A shiver of fear snaked through me, yet I continued struggling until my exhaustion caught up to me.

I was limp and panting by the time the creature hauled me through a maze of corridors and towers, finally coming to a stop at an ornately carved, weathered door.

Two sharp knocks.

“Who dares to disturb me!” A growl resonated through the stone, through the door, rumbling over my skin. “It must be urgent for you fools to provoke me now!”

“Apologies, my lord.” The creature holding me recoiled. “There is something you must see… a thing was stealing from the garden. A thing I don’t know.”

“A thing?” I yowled, my flailing fist landed a swift smack on the demon’s head. “You are a thing! ”

The demon hissed, wobbling precariously as it struggled to contain me.

“Enter!” The deep voice silenced my squabble.

A pause followed, and my heart skipped.

A rough push and wobbly legs sent me tripping into the spacious room. My knees hit a threadbare rug, and pain shot through my joints. My palms scraped where frayed edges of a rug met stone, and a curtain of pale, sky-blue hair fell over my shoulders, shielding my face from view.

A sharp inhale cracked through the room.

“Get out. Now,” the occupant of the room snarled.

“But sire—” the demon protested.

“OUT!” he roared, baritone timber reverberating through the room with the force of thunder. The door slammed shut behind me, and a cool brush of air accompanied the avaricious presence bearing down on me.

I held my breath, overwhelmed by the oppressive aura of the creature before me. I sensed a predator, and feared I was precariously close to becoming his prey. My heart raced, a panicked rhythm in my chest.

Wooden legs scraped against stone. My head remained down, eyes following the grooves in the floor, stomach swooping as prowling steps rounded the obstacle separating us. A shadow crossed my vision, and my heart juddered against my ribs.