Jason hurt all over. This was just like the one and only time he’d had a hangover, plus his worst bail down a 5-stair.
“Ouch,” he complained to the universe.
Jason opened his eyes.
“What the fuck?” Jason was in a cave. An honest to god, goddamn cave. It was wet and cold, like a fucking cave.
Jason stood up carefully and tried to remember how he’d gotten here. The last thing he remembered was night skating. He’d really been on fire. Landing shit he’d really not been landing before. It felt like he’d leveled up.
He looked down at his clothes. They were what he was wearing last night, assuming this was the morning after. Maybe he’d taken his other stuff to wherever this was?
He looked around. Yes indeed, there was his skateboard and backpack. Both were a little damp on the sides they’d lain on, but his board’s bits didn’t seem rusty and the contents of his bag were dry.
It was early morning alright. He could see sunlight coming from (what he hoped) was the mouth of the cave. The light made his headache worse. Jason put on his backpack, picked up his board, and headed toward it.
Goddamn he was sore. Part of it must have been normal soreness from so much skating last night. But he also felt bruises and scrapes, way more than normal. And why the hangover? He didn’t drink.
Also, what the fuck was he doing in a cave? He’d never been an outdoorsy type before. He’d never gone to any wildlife parks with caves in them.
He reached the exit. The mouth of the cave was actually pretty big. He could just walk out. He’d been a little afraid the opening would be in the roof or something equally inconvenient. The cave mouth came out to a fair amount of solid rock on the ground. Beyond this was grass.
The rocks around the cave mouth were worn and smooth. They kinda looked skate-able, lots of curves that looked just like quarter pipes. A slab of rock jutted out and looked for all the world like a bench made just a little too tall to sit comfortably on.
Probably best not to try skating here, as tempted as he felt. He might piss off a park ranger. He probably wasn’t supposed to be in this cave in the first place. Best to find a discreet exit, call a friend, and get a ride home.
Wait. Had he been dumped in a cave by kidney thieves? He started to check himself but, no. It was a stupid idea anyway. That kinda thing was probably a myth. Plus, weren’t they supposed to leave you in a tub of ice or…
“Oh shit.” Jason had finally looked up at the sun. Or rather, suns. He kept on staring until he realized he was frying his eyes. He stood for a few minutes, dumbfounded. Then, once the after images had faded from his eyes he looked up again, just to be sure.
There were definitely two fucking suns in the sky. Also the sky which only had a few small clouds floating by, was green. He was pretty damn sure a clear sky like this wasn’t supposed to be green. He looked at one of the clouds. It had a slightly purple hue. A flock of bird-sized dragons flew across the mostly white (but slightly purple) cloud.
“Am I high?” Jason had never done more than drink a beer or two and smoke weed once or twice. He’d never done acid or shrooms, though he’d never been opposed to the idea. Even as he asked the question out loud, he decided this was all too real to be a hallucination.
He looked at the ground. It looked like regular dirt. The rocks looked like rocks. The trees were some kinda pine or similar evergreen. A pleasantly warm wind had been lightly blowing. An unfamiliar creature called out in the distance in the unthreatening way a bird might sing or a cricket might chirp. This place was goddamn beautiful.
The pain he woke up with was lessening.
Ok, so he was in another world. Wasn’t that kinda cool? Wasn’t that amazing? He decided to reserve judgment about how fucked he may or may not be. For all he knew this was a better world than the one he left, and if not…
Hell, if there was a way from earth to here shouldn’t there be a way from here back to earth? The first step was to get the lay of the land. There were some taller hills in the distance and some mountains beyond them.
Jason smiled at himself. He was scared, sure, but he was more excited than anything else. Didn’t most people dream of this kinda thing? And here he was, living a goddamned adventure. He started toward higher ground.
Steven L Smith 