Breed Me

Chapter One

Crack.

He sat up in a panic and instantly regretted it.

"Shit." Gripping his head and pinching the bridge of his nose, he waited for the roaring in his ears to subside to open his eyes.

Red dirt dirted his pants and slowly pulling his hands away from his face, he looked at the ground around him.

"Red clay?" His brows furrowed and upon further inspection it felt like regular dirt. At least what felt like what frozen dirt was supposed to feel like.

He started to survey around him further and his stomach bottomed out. Red hills stretched for miles and the only objects obstructing the view were boulders that were scattered across the red ground. Scrambling to his feet, his field of view became more wide but it didn't help this feeling.

A chill wind blew from behind him but he was already numb while he reached up to touch his throat and the pendant that hung from the thin rope. Twisting it between his fingers, he stood there staring in no particular direction while all his thoughts ran each other over.

"W-where am I?" He closed his eyes again and clutched the pendant tight inside his palm. After a moment, he opened them again and looked up at the sky. "Huh, that's different."

Turning slowly in a circle, his gaze bounced around the stars in the sky which weren't usually visible and knew for a fact this wasn't right. This was unlike anything he had seen or experienced. It reminded him of something his parents would describe in fairytales when he was younger.

"Screeeechhhh." He froze and with his breath caught in this throat searched for where the sound came from.

"I can't stay here." Stumbling in a direction that he hoped was in the opposite of where the noise came from, he surveyed the land around him more closely. He walked up a gradual incline and a sudden burst of heat washed over him stopping him dead in his tracks.

Eyes wide, he stared in awe at the river of molten lava below him and pulled at the sleeves on his shirt. Motion caught his eye and a few hundred yards to his right was what looked like a bridge, if that's what it could be called.

Making his way over to it, he had to climb down a small ledge to where the bridge started and landed on his steadily. The posts on either side held a sigil that was unfamiliar to him but out of curiosity he brushed it softly and it was cool to the touch. Leaning forward, he examined the planks of the bridge and they didn't look like wood but the same stone that the pillars were made of.

Stepping carefully onto one, it didn't move under his weight and he slowly made his way across. Sweat trickled down his face and mixed with the blood that was coming from his bottom lip as a result of him chewing it on. Peaking up, the end was only a few steps and he took a deep breath before quickening his pace until his feet hit the solid rock on the other side.

Crackkk.

Looking up there were clouds now covering the stars and it was getting darker. He glanced behind him, looking at the bridge again and had to admit what he had been avoiding thinking.

This wasn't Earth.

+++

He sat against the boulder that had become his shelter the night before and wondered what had become of his family. There wasn't much he could remember except that he had gone to bed one night and then the next morning he was not on the planet he fell asleep on.