Hecaterra

Chapter 1

The moment Aspen had stepped into the portal, he felt out of place, like his mind and body wasn't internally there. What really got to him was the feeling of being watched. Like pairs of eyes watching him from the darkness.

Once he stepped foot out the portal, he felt like a heavy pressure was lifted. The ominous feeling was gone now. He heavily sighs, not realizing how he was holding his breath.

He takes a minute to breath and take in the scene he was in.

Aspen observes his surroundings and notices how overgrown the area was. The lack of animal noises caught his attention. The only thing Aspen noted was the sound of the trees and grass shuffling.

It was windy, which probably meant he was somewhere high. Taking another look he moved forward, pushing the grass to the side. After about a minute he can see the grass become less crowded and seem to scatter now. A few steps later and he understands why it was so untamed.

He looked down and around. He was in the sky, on a small floating island. Surrounded by a variety of other islands. What an interesting place for a portal to be in.

Aspen could only do so much getting down without anyone spotting him. Just the thought of getting caught gave him a headache. He takes another look but realizes there was another island under him, preventing him from seeing and further.

Annoyed, he rolled his shoulders and the sound of something ripping can be heard. A pair of bat-like wings were now fully exposed on his back. Aspen moves his wings and stretches them out, he rarely ever takes them out. It was annoying and painful, it also wasn't long ago he learned he could fly.

After adjusting his wings he makes sure to keep his personal belongings close to him. Once satisfied he spreads his wings and leaps off the edge.

So after about a good 30 minutes he made it all the way down. It wasn't the smoothest landing but he made it to the bottom. The main island from what he could see. When coming down he saw buildings, ones in ruins. He could now assume the place was abandoned when he got a closer look.

Aspen takes this as a good sign, but that means he worried for no reason, or did he? Either way it doesn't matter now. Now he needed to find a map he was able to get a good look of the island from above and something he noticed was a crater at the edge of the island, with a circular building in the middle of it.

He thought he would head there last, since just looking made him feel a bit uneasy. So he started to explore the other buildings that mostly looked like warehouses, but there seemed to be this one building that looked like a huge dorm. Now that he saw the other buildings and how there's a chance that the place was a porting area, or a place to transport certain things.

But how would they get the stuff down? Also, were there different sizes of portals? All these questions made his head feel a little light, he didn't need to figure out the history of this place, but he did need to find a map of sorts so he could leave the place.

He then heads towards a building that looked like it was the main office building due to how fancy it looked, even if it was ruined. Stepping into the building Aspen looked around to find anything important, but there was just papers and cabins all over the place, it was absolutely wrecked. Guess this just proved that the place had been abandoned for a very long time.

While searching the building Aspen was finally able to find something useful, a map. Of course he didn't know where or what was considered north or south. For all he knows they use an entirely different system for traveling, this included the distances. This troubled his mind but it wasn't just that, the map itself seemed unfinished. Because what should be more islands or continents was covered with what looked like clouds, and it looked like half of the page was covered except for clustered little islands. He wanted to assume this was where he was due to the fact that he was surrounded by islands.

But he won't question it further. After examining the map a bit longer Aspen decided that he should explore the place a bit more, that's when he remembered about the crater near the edge of the island. When making his way there he had felt something off about the area, he was only about half way and he really didn't want to go any further. But his curiosity only grew.

When he made it to the edge of the place he felt weirdly tired, like something was draining his energy. This made him uncomfortable, and going any further was a no go for him, but he could at least see the building in the crater. It was an interesting building, it kind of looked like a bell with a few columns for the edges to keep it steady. Another interesting thing was that there were a couple of small floating islands leading to what seemed like the front of the building.

He couldn't see anything more, nor did he want to. The place was strange, and now that he really felt his surroundings, it felt like he wasn't alone like someone else was there. Something also like the pair eyes he felt before, but this feeling was different. Aspen, wanting to get rid of these strange feelings left the area, and once he did he felt like a huge weight had been lifted from him, he didn't even realize this until he got a good distance away from the place.

He frowned a bit, and was now annoyed with how this whole experience was. The whole place gave him the creeps, he felt exposed. He needed to leave. But how could he? He needed a boat or at least found which direction was which on the map. He should explore some more.

After deciding to continue with exploring he would go back to the building where he found the map, he wanted to make sure he didn't miss anything. And while searching he would find another map, but this map was that of the islands itself, so now he could see everything in more detail. And there seemed to be places that were labeled, but he couldn't read the labels.

But this would actually help him alot, now that he knew the shape he just needed to align it with the bigger map and just head in a direction that would hopefully bring him to a continent full of people. After he did some aligning and figured which direction was which he just needed to figure where to go, the map was old so many things could have changed like locations or certain things were no longer places.

But the map should bring him to a civilization in the end, and that was all he needed. But there lies the other problem, he doesn't know any of the languages. Sure he might have gotten a couple of their languages through scrolls but that doesn't mean he was able to read it himself, besides even if he did the language might be dead. The more he thought the worse he felt, he was well aware of these problems but that didn't stop him from going through the portal. But he wanted answers, even if it meant going to a portal leading him somewhere unknown.

Another thing he took note was the distances, they seemed distantly far and plus a storm seemed to have formed far in the distance. Or perhaps it was always there, he was able to hear subtle sounds of thunder when he was on the island.

Interesting, perhaps he should wait for it to disperse before heading out. But he could always fly above the clouds, but then he wouldn't be able to see for resting spots. But the idea was also so incredibly dumb, if he had only other options he would go with that. He couldn't find anything to use, couldn't even create a raft. There was nothing good here to keep him afloat.

He wasn't even that good with his flying, so this plan of his was not only stupid, but dangerous. So he sighs to himself, and reluctantly opens his wings once again. Aspen looks forward towards the horizon, seeing nothing but dark clouds and clashing of waves. He takes a breath in, then drops himself from the edge.