Red…

Everything was completely red around me. This is all I could see. That the red flames had surrounded me and I couldn’t move my body to escape from it. But even if I could, it would be no point of it, because the result would be the same. There weren’t any gaps or escape paths as the tall wall of flames had surrounded this area in a full circle, completely isolated those with in it. The rubble that had fallen from the surrounding, collapsed buildings also made it impossible to move around.

And I was in the middle of it. I don’t know why or how it happened. I don’t even remember what I was doing or which part of the town I was. All I knew, that I was laying on the ground, unable to move, while I was in the center of this living hell and waited to become a burnt corpse like the rest of the people around me.

I guess, I got injured when this big fire started. My back was hurting so much, it felt like somebody had removed my spine and replaced it with a hot, burning iron rod. At first it hurted so much, that I wanted to scream in agony, but I couldn’t find my voice. And because of the pain in my body, I couldn’t move at all, my limbs felt numb and they were aching. My head was pounding and my ears were drumming. I couldn’t see much, because of the heat, that came from the flames, hurted my half-open eyes so much, and my vision became more blur with every passing seconds, because of the lack of oxygen.

Despite that I couldn’t see properly, despite the drumming sound in my ear and despite the sound of the burning flame and the sound of the rubbles collapsing on each other, weakly I could still hear the screams of those that were still alive or half-dead. I could hear them screaming in agony and fear. I could hear them shouting in panic. I could hear them crying out for help, but none of them received.

It was useless.

All of their efforts were useless. I’m not sure, how wide had the fire spread, but it was such an absolute hell back then, that even a small child, like me could understand that none of us will survive this. It was a simple fact. I knew, no matter what happens, I’m not going to survive and I had no hopes at all. The fact that I was still alive, while I was this close to the center of the fire was already a miracle, but I coulndn’t expect to be saved. Neither of us will be saved. So I thought how such a foolish thing trying to call out for help, when there is no chance for us to survive.

However, I can’t help, but wonder, if I could have still moved my body around and talked, would I have done the same thing like the remaining people around me, despite that all the facts were against me? Would I have called out for help? Would I have tried to find my way out of here while I was walking around aimlessly? Well, I guess neither of my questions will be answered. I was going to die here, anyway.

…At least, that’s what I thought.  

Suddenly, the pain has gone and the screams have died down. When I came to, I was here in this strange place. I saw a landscape, I’ve never seen before. A desert as far as I could see. There were no trees, no cars, no houses, or any other people around me. Nothing at all. Just an endless barren land. I looked up and I saw a fiery colored sky, with some dark stormy clouds above. The unceasing, ashen wind stired up the golden sand, stinging my eyes.

I had no idea where I was. At first, I thought I was dead and I was in Hell, because God wanted to punish me for I didn't believe in him strongly. Well, I was still a kid back then, so I didn’t quite understand God’s ways. No matter how many times did my mother brought me to the church, I just didn't get it what the priest was saying.

After some time had passed, I started to doubt that this place was Hell. First off, there was a sky up there, an odd one, but still it was there. And as a kid, I always thought that Hell was somewhere near to the Earth's core. With lava-rivers, stone made cells where the bad guys were kept, and who are waited to be cooked by little demons. And in Hell’s neighborhood lived happily the Mole Man and his little family.

*sigh*

I was really such a kid back then, having stupid thoughts like that…

*sigh*

…Whatever.  On with the story.

So after I have assured myself, that this place wasn't Hell, I also found out that I could move my body again. So I stood up to my feet, a bit unsteadily though, and I started to walk in one of the directions. I had no idea, where I was heading. While I walked, I was pondering what this place could be. Surely this wasn't Hell or Heaven. Then what else could it be?

I only took a few steps from the spot where I was lying, when suddenly the wind got stronger. I shut my eyes and I brought up my arms to my face to protect it from the sandy wind storm. The wind just got stronger, and I couldn't see or move any further. All I could hear was the sound of the blowing wind.

Then as suddenly as it came, the wind stopped and everything went silent. I tried to move, but I didn't feel my body anymore and I couldn't see as the darkness started to fill my vision. Eventually my consciousness started to fade away and nothing remained there anymore. Just the darkness and this emptiness…

The darkness backed away, as the boy's consciousness started to return. His eyes were closed, but through them he could still see the light and could feel on his face the warm rays of the sun.

’Wait! The sun? What the hell!?’ he thought, ’ There is only one window in my bedroom and it is on the west side. There is no way, that the sun would shine through here in the morning.  And why is my mattress so uncomfortable?’

He slowly opened his eyes, but regretted it, as the beams of the sun assaulted them. As soon as the white blur vanished, he could see the sun shining down from the sky, through the canopy of a tree.

’…The fuck?’

For a few moments he just laid there motionlessly and stared at the sky through the canopy. Then he slowly raised his body to a sitting position, which was aching all over and leaned back onto his arms for support. He grunted in the process, as he finally sat up. As he looked around, the boy noticed that he was in a forest. Although, some rays of the sun shone through the tree canopies, most parts of the forest stayed dark. The air had a strangely unnerving enmity.

’Where… am I…?’ he thought.

Then his thoughts trailed off, as everything came back to him, before he passed out.

’Oh, yeah… I remember now. ’

He looked around again, checking his surrounding. He was alone. Aside from the hostile feeling that this forest radiated, there were nothing else is his near that gave any similar feeling.

*sigh*

’Good. I’m alone.’ he thought with relife.

He sat there for a moment, then realization hit him again, like a cold shower.

’Of course, it's not good, you idiot!’ he kicked himself mentally, as he started to panic, ’ I wasn't alone!’

He started to move, to quickly get on his feet.

’I need to get back to them and get the hell out of here! Who knows, how long I was unconscious! If any of those damn things have attacked them-’

”Argh!” he grunted, as pain rushed through his body.

He sat back on the ground immediately. The pain was still there and his breathing became a bit irregular, as he felt his heart pounding in his chest. He dragged his body a little bit back and leaned his back against the tree trunk behind him.

’Alright. Calm down. Take a few breaths, before you do something stupid, again.’

Slowly, but surely he started to control his breathing as he took small, deep breaths. Once his breathing was normal again, he shifted himself a much more comfortable sitting position as much as possible, leaned his head back to the tree and closed his eyes. He stayed like that for few minutes. Then he slowly opened his eyes again and looked through the canopy. He wasn't looking at the sky or anything else in particular, he just stared absentmindedly into nothingness.

*sigh*

He heaved a sigh.

He leaned his head a bit forward, and put his right hand on his forehead and over his right eye. Once his head was more or less clear, he tried to gather his memories about what happened, before he passed out.

He remembered walking in this forest…

Then he heard screams…

A roar…

Claws and fangs…

And blood…

*sigh*

He heaved a sigh, again.

Thinking carefully on every detail about what's happened.

’…They should be okay.’ he thought after a long thinking, ’Last time I checked, I made sure that none of those… (whatever those things were) will hurt them, so they should be fine… For now, at least…’

*sigh*

He heaved a sigh again, but this was a bit relieved.

He removed his hand from his face and took a look at himself. His clothes were dirty and torn apart here and there. After that he checked his body for injuries. There were some cuts and scrapes on it, but nothing major to worry about. And thankfully, there weren't any roots or branches impaled in him.

After that he checked his arms, legs, fingers, toes and his neck. He flexed them experimentally and winced as his body protested against the pain. Noticing that nothing was broken and his body was more or less in an acceptable condition, the boy was satisfied. The pain was still there and he felt a dull pounding on his temples, but it wasn't as bad as when he tried to quickly get on his feet.

Now he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The young man mentally prepared himself for checking the most important and most critical part of his body…

*grab*

’ Alright, everyone's here.’

*sigh*

A sigh of relief.

He opened his eyes and took a look around, again. He wasn't sure which part of the forest he was, but he knew that he shouldn't stick around in one place for too long.

’I better get moving and try to find a safe path back "home". If there IS anything that considered safe in this fucking forest, that is...’

Using the tree behind him for support, the young man slowly stood up to his feet. His injuries didn't really prevent his body from moving, although he took careful steps forward. He moved slowly, swiveling his head to and fro, trying to make use of his dull senses and scanning the forest for any dangers that lurked nearby. After the recent events, he would rather wanted to avoid another encounter with those "things" as much as possible.

’But before that, I need to find those little guys, first. Hopefully, they were smart enough to not to try to leave their hiding place, while I was taking a nap on the ground. But the problem is that I have no fucking idea about my current location. I wasn't paying attention enough to my surroundings when those beast-things showed up and now I'm lost. Again.’

*sigh*

’Maybe I should try to find some clues. Like broken branches, trampled plants or bloodstains… Or maybe I should just look for my footprints. The ground is pretty soft here, so it should be able to lead me back to my tracks…’

That's where his train of thoughts were interrupted, when he heard several voices. He silenced his thoughts for a moment and concentrated on the voices, trying to find their source.

’…People?’ he thought in surprise.

He turned his head in the direction, where he thought the voices were coming from. Which turned out to be the opposite direction of where he was heading.

’Huh. And here I thought I was all alone.’

He couldn't understand what the voices owners were talking about, because one always interrupted another. Were they arguing about something…? Even though, he couldn't hear them clearly, they weren't too far from him.

The boy weighed his options:

Option #1. Meet up with them, and hope things will turn out fine.

Option #2. Ignore them and just continue your aimless search back to your current base in this dark forest, which is filled with hungry, bloodthirsty beasts, that are waiting for some injured fool, who will walk right into their territory and they can finally rip the flesh off of your bones with their fangs.

'So those are my only options, huh?' he thought, as a bitter smile curved on his lips.

*sigh*

'Well, I guess, I will stick to Option #1., then. Although, I doubt that my current appearance will give them a good first impression, but it can't be helped.' he thought, as he looked at his muddy, torn up clothes and at his cut and bruised body again, then shrugged his shoulders, 'Let's just hope that they won't freak out too much.'

The young man than turned and headed into the direction, where he heard the voices coming from.

'Now that I think about it, though.' he thought, as he proceeded through the bushes, 'I'm not sure what kind of people, I'm going to meet up with. Maybe they are people, who recently got here like me or maybe they are people, who were in this place before me. ...Well, the later is unlikely, considering, that I have been here for a while (even if not so long), and I haven't seen any other human around. But the possibility is still in the air. Maybe they just went hiding in different parts of these woods.'

'...Anyway, considering that they are arguing about something, even though I don't know about what, they might be not in the mood to welcome a newcomer in there group...? Maybe I should sneak up on them and just observe them in a safe distance, at first. After all, I really don't know what kind of people, I'll meet. And there is chance that the people, who were here before me have gone insane, while they tried to find their way out of here...' the thought made him unnerving, but it didn't discouraged him, as he continued through the bushes with more cautious steps, trying to make as less noise as possible.

'Well, if that's the case, than I should tread this carefully. If they recently got here, than I will have to explain them a few things (For my damn amusement!), and let's hope, they won't freak out and will cooperate. And if they are people, who were here before me, than maybe they can help me and tell me more about this place... if they haven't gone insane already, that is. I won't reveal myself, until I made it sure, that they don't mean any harm to me. If they do, than I have get as far away from them as possible. I'm in no condition for another fight. And the least thing I want right now, is some lunatic to stab me in the back, when I don't pay attention. I'm not even sure that I'm sane anymore...'

As the boy slowly walked through the bushes the voices had died down. They stopped talking. Though, he couldn't hear them anymore, he could roughly guess where the voices came from.

When the young man finally came out of the bushes, he noticed that he had approached a clearing. He walked up to the middle of the clearing, stopped and looked around. But the only thing he saw, was the surrounding trees, bushes and the long grass. There were no signs that anybody had passed through here or had been here at all.

'...I was sure that I heard them from this direction.' he thought, and scratch his head in frustration, 'Would we have avoided each other...?'

That's where his thoughts were interrupted, when he heard the bushes rustling on his left. Before he could do anything, suddenly a purple blur came out of the bushes. It rushed in to his direction, then it suddenly halted a few inches away from him.

'You know, after all that bullshit, that happened to me so far, ever since I ended up in this strange place, I'm not even surprised anymore.' he thought, 'I mean, I'm not shocked, because I've seen a few weird things, since I got here, but in a way, I'm surprised, because the creature in front of me right now, is nothing I've expected. I was expecting some kind of huge, muscled, horrible monstrosity with sharp claws and fangs and with the look of death in its eyes. Like a manticore, a cerberus or a chimera. Hell, I would even expect a dragon to show up! I was expecting everything, but not THIS.'

In front of the boy's very eyes stood a unicorn with a purple coat and it seems, it took great interest in his footwears.

”...Well, that's not something you see everyday.” he said.

Hearing this, the unicorn turned its head in his direction and its eyes went wide, when it saw the young man's face. It seems, it didn't notice him until now, because it took much more interest examining his footwears, than to try to find out who they belonged to.

The two just looked at each other for a while, not moving a muscle.

As the boy stared down at the little critter, he examined it as much as possible. He wasn't sure, what to make of this odd creature. He had seen horses before, in his childhood, so he knew a thing or two about them and while this critter certainly looked horse‐like, compared to other equines it was nothing like them.

Yeah, sure, it had a freaking horn and outrageous colored coat. Anyone with a working pair of eyes could see that. Obviously, those two features are the most conspicuous.

However, if anybody have ever seen a real-life horse before or saw them in the movies or at least looked up on the internet about them, then you could see that there were some physical differences between this creature and a regular horse's body.

Firstly, its height. Compared to other equines this one was rather small, even by pony standards. It wasn't taller more than four feet. The horn that sticked out of its forehead wasn't applying too much height.

Secondly, its ankle was as wide as its hoof. The boy wasn't too versed, when it came to an animal's anatomy or to its mechanics, but he knew that an average horse's ankle shouldn't be that wide. Then again, he wasn't really good at this, so he decided, it's better not to think about it too much.

Thirdly, its head. It had a rather round, enlarged skull, instead of having a head that sloped up in a uniform fashion, like in most equines case. Even its muzzle was rather short and small. It looked like somebody took a smaller version of a horse's muzzle, put some glue on it then stuck it on a bowling ball.

Fourthly, its mane and tail. Both were well-groomed and beautiful. The mane looked more like a woman's hair, than an animal's scruffy fur. Both hair was straight and had a dark-blue color, safe for two thick strands of hair. One was a bit darker purple than its coat. The other one was pink.

Fifthly, its face, especially its eyes. A horse eye color is usually dark-brown, but there are some rare variety of colors. Like blue, hazel, amber, or green... But NOT, and I say it again, NOT freaking purple! And compared to regular equines, this little horse's eyes were just too large. The corner of the eyes were sharp a little bit, even when it was looking at boy with wide eyes. And for good or ill, with the combination of these large eyes and the small muzzle, its expressions was disturbingly human-like!

As they continued to stood there motionlessly, the young man didn't know what should he think of this animal. It was defying any common knowledge he knew about horses. It didn't seem hostile, but looks can be deceiving.

In the animal world, regardless that they are predators themselves or the prey, they have only two options, be camouflaged so they could blend into their surroundings, or be poisonous enough to kill anything that could eat them. It was clear that the camouflage option in this equine's case was very unlikely, since its purple appearance was rather outstanding.

...Wait. Was that purple or lavender? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the two.

'Does that even matter!? Purple? Lavender? Who cares, anyway? All the same to me! Besides, the color of the coat is ridiculously unnatural already.'

And the second option was unlikely as well, since horses weren't famous for being poisonous. However, since this strange forest gave home to the weirdest creatures that nobody else had ever seen before him, he couldn't deny the possibility.

The boy's eyes wandered to the unicorn's horn. It was rather short and blunt. It could hardly pierce anyone with it, more-less kill with it. Maybe the horn carried the poison...?

It might be possible. Maybe it projects its venom from the horn, like a spitting cobra sprays out its venom from its fangs and into the eyes of its victims.

Though, he still couldn't feel any kind of enmity from it.

Eventually the boy removed his hand from the top of his head, which he left there ever since the unicorn showed up, and let it lazily drop to his side. Seeing this, the purple equine took a few steps back from him. As the young man watched this, he noticed an all too familiar look in its eyes. A look that he often gets, even among his own kind. Although, he felt kinda bad for frightening the little creature, he couldn't help it, but somehow he found it adorable at the same time. He offered a small smile to the critter, then slowly walked in its way.

The boy wasn't able to tell an animal's gender just by looking at it. When he was little kid, his mother took him to a trip once and some of the people they met were able to tell an animal gender just by taking a glance at it, even though they have never seen that particular animal before or even when it was in the distance. And most of them was right. He on the other hand couldn't tell an animal's gender, not until he walked up close to it, moved behind its back and took a look at... well... I guess, you can figure it out the rest on your own.

But in this equine's case, it was different. Somehow its large eyes seemed rather feminine to him, as well as earlier mentioned mane.

...Then again, looks can be deceiving.

”Easy there... I'm not going to hurt you.” he said, as he carefully approached it (her?).

Once he was in an arm's length from the unicorn, the young man crouched down, thinking that this way, he will look less threatening in the equine's eyes. For a moment, they just stared in each other's eyes, then the boy a bit hesitantly reached out with one of his hand, avoiding the horn, and gently stroke its mane.

At first it tensed up from his touch, then as the caressing continued on it slowly started to relax. The boy could see that the critter became less defensive of him, as it closed its eyes and let him continue petting its head. Then he moved his hand behind one of its ears and continued there. It seemed, it was enjoying it, as it moved its tail back and forth and silent moans escaped its mouth, while a slight blush appeared on its face.

'Wait. A blush? What the hell!? How is that even possible, blushing through the fur like that? Is that even a blush? Or is she some sort of horse/chameleon hybr- ...Oh, crap.'

The young man immediately took his hand away from the unicorn as he felt the urge of-

”AACHOOO!!”

He raised both of his hands to his face and formed a cup with them, covering his mouth and nose, when he sneezed. After that he tiredly exhaled in his hands.

”...Ah! Bless you!” said a feminine voice.

”Thank you...” he said through his hands, tiredly.

'Wait! Who said that?'  he thought, perked up, when he heard the unfamiliar voices.

He looked up from his hands, then checked his surroundings, but he didn't see anyone else on the clearing. Question marks were all over his head, since he didn't understand, why wasn't there anyone else. The voice he heard, it sounded its owner was close by, so it shou-

”Um...”

He heard the voice, again. It came from his left side. The young man slowly turned his head to the left, but instead of a female human, there stood the purple unicorn. He thought it had ran away, when he loudly sneezed. The way the unicorn looked at him, it seemed like it was a bit anxious. Like a student was trying to say the right words to her teacher or something.

Wait...

A strange thought came into the boy's mind, as he looked bewilderedly at the equine.

”D-Did you just-”

”Twilight, watch out!”

'Huh?'

That's all what the boy heard, before something made contact with his back and he suddenly hit the ground face first and blacked out... Again.