Everyone believed the world would end in flames. That the nations of the world would be unable to find peace, and nuclear escalation would simply spiral out of control, destroying the planet, turning it into a nuclear wasteland.
That was before the Cataclysm.
-Varyn Ignivar, A General History of Rifts
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Cas awoke with a gasp to the sound of a deep roar in the distance.
The first thing he noticed as the fog in his mind began to clear, was the soreness in his back, likely because he was lying on a rough surface of dirt and rock. The second thing he noticed was that he was in the middle of a forest–a massive one, with trees larger than any he had ever seen.
"What the fuck?" was the only thing he could say as his thoughts turned, trying to grasp onto the situation he currently found himself in. The last thing he could remember was bleeding out alongside Max in an alley after being brutally beaten while attempting to save a young girl.
He glanced around, trying to get his bearings.
Through the trees, he could see the sky was cloaked in large, unnatural blackish-grey clouds, preventing most of the sunlight from reaching him. There also seemed to be some kind of fog or mist coating the ground in a similar shade of color.
Is this some sort of lucid dream?Or maybe this is the afterlife? he thought.
Another roar rumbled through the forest, causing the leaves and branches to lightly sway.
Shit
He couldn't decipher what animal it was from the sound alone, but he wasn't going to hang around to get a good look at it to find out.
He turned to run, but paused at the sound of rustling behind him.
Thinking quickly, he spotted a small boulder and, with both hands and some effort, hauled it off the ground.
He had no illusions that he could actually win against whatever had made that roar, but he wasn't going to die without putting up a fight.
The bushes rustled, and Cas tightened his grip around the boulder, preparing to hurl it at whatever was out there, but when the bushes parted, a young boy with messy white hair stumbled out, slowly rubbing the top of his head.
"Man... what the hell happened?" the kid muttered to himself. "One second I'm in an alley, and the next thing I know, I'm..."
Cas froze, slowly stringing what the boy had just spoken together in his head.
"Max?" He spoke aloud, loosening his grip and lowering the rock from the throwing stance he was in.
The boy's steps paused abruptly, and his eyes quickly locked onto Cas's.
For a long moment, the boy just stared, clearly contemplating something.
As he stared, his brows knitted together as the expression on his face turned to confusion.
"Cas?" He questioned hesitantly.
A smile lit up on Cas's face at the confirmation, though he was still thoroughly confused by Max's new boyish appearance.
"Yeah, it's me," he said, and began walking toward his friend.
Max's face grew even more confused at that. "Why do you look like that?" He asked slowly.
"Huh?" he asked.
Max gestured up and down at him as if it was obvious. "Like a... little kid?"
Cas frowned and was about to rebuke, saying he was the one who looked like a little kid, but the words caught in his throat when he realized he was standing the same height as Max.
He held his hands out in front of him, and his eyes widened in shock.
They were small. Too small.
"What the...?"
Max burst out laughing, tears running down his face. "Oh man, dude, you should see the look on your little face."
Cas glared at him. "You know you also look like a little kid, right?"
Max's laugh faltered, and he blinked in confusion before examining himself.
He ran his hands over his body in disbelief. "No way..."
A laugh escaped Cas. "Not so funny now, is it?"
Max frowned, flexing his fingers as he still tried to make sense of it all. "No, no, no, dude," he said, panicking. "What the hell happened to us?"
Just as Cas was about to answer, another roar ripped through the forest. This time, sounding far closer than before.
"Was that a fucking bear?" Max hissed, his voice dropping to a whisper as he stared out into the forest.
"I don't know," Cas said quietly. "But I definitely don't want to be here when it arrives."
Nodding, Max started running in the direction opposite to the roar.
"Let's go," he said. "Quickly."
As Cas sprinted after him, he nearly stumbled when his foot caught on a massive root. He wasn't used to this small frame, so running at full speed was more difficult than he had initially anticipated.
His mind raced as he assessed their situation. None of this made sense, but it felt real. Very real. He had already been beaten half to death, and he really didn't want to add getting torn apart by an animal to the list of bad things that had happened to him today.
"You know," Max huffed out as they ran. "I thought our situation couldn't get any worse than in that alley, but somehow..."
"Well, it could be worse," Cas chuckled. "At least we're alive."
"I don't know," Max said. "I think I'd rather be dead in that alley than mauled by a bear."
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They ran for a long time before they felt comfortable that they had lost whatever it was that roared.
Flopping down onto the grass, out of breath, Cas stared up at the cloudy sky. "We were running for well over an hour, and this forest doesn't seem to be getting any less dense. Where the hell are we, dude? The Amazon?"
Max thought for a moment before replying, "Isn't there supposed to be a ton of water in the Amazon? I haven't seen a single drop." Then added, "Plus, I've never seen trees like these before; they're enormous. Everything's enormous."
Cas nodded in agreement, glancing around at the massive forest.
"Well, we should probably keep walking in this direction," he said, gesturing in the direction they had been running. "As long as we stop before it starts getting too dark; I don't want to be walking around an already dark forest at night with that bear or whatever it is lurking around, but eventually we're going to need to find some water."
Max nodded emphatically at the idea of staying clear from the bear.
"Yeah, you're right. We should get moving."
The hike through the forest was extremely tiring. Neither boy knew the first thing about survival in the wilderness, which made navigating quite difficult.
Other than the colossal trees that surrounded them, long green vines hung everywhere, and tall, vibrant, colorful plants were scattered all across the ground. They weren't sure if anything was poisonous or not, so they decided to try to path around any strange-looking vegetation whenever they could.
They wandered for a couple of hours until the sun began to set–although this was just an estimate since they had no real way of telling how much time had passed–not managing to find any source of water along the way.
"My legs are killing me, man," Max complained as he plopped down onto the ground, massaging his calves.
"You're telling me," Cas said, following suit. "I feel like my legs are about to fall off."
"Where do you think we should sleep for the night? I was looking for a cave or something, but I didn't see anything," Max said nervously while looking around, likely afraid an animal was about to pounce on him.
"Yeah, I didn't see anything either," Cas said. "I was thinking maybe we could climb one of these trees and sleep on one of the lower branches; they look big enough for us to sleep on without worrying too much about falling off."
Cas was also nervous about potentially being attacked, but he was trying to keep himself calm. He knew that panicking would only make the situation worse for them.
Max glanced up at one of the huge trees before nodding.
"Yeah, I guess there's no better option."
Climbing one of the trees proved to be very challenging. The trees were significantly larger than any Cas had ever climbed before, and he was much smaller than he used to be, which made it difficult for him to find a good grip to begin to scale up the tree.
Eventually, with some very awkward movements, both Max and he were able to make it onto a couple of the lower branches that were close to each other, where they could sit somewhat comfortably and sleep for the night.
"It's strange," Max said, disturbing the silence that had fallen over them. "We didn't see any wildlife the entire day."
"Hm?" Cas mumbled, dazed; he had been about to doze off.
"I mean, we didn't see anything at all, really, not even a bug," Max continued. "Don't you think that's weird?"
Cas pondered for a moment. He wasn't exactly an expert with the nuances of the life that lived in the forest, but he supposed it was odd that they hadn't seen anything other than the trees, bushes, and plants.
"Maybe it's the lack of water?" he speculated. "Or maybe that bear or whatever animal it was that made that roar scared them all off?"
"Maybe," Max said quietly. Then silence fell over the two again.
Cas thought about the events of the day. Now that he considered it, other than the complete lack of wildlife as they walked, there were a few peculiar things. The unnatural, dark clouds in the sky, the vibrant, colorful plants unlike any he had ever seen, the eerie silence of the forest, and of course, how they ended up here in the bodies of two children in the first place.
If they ever got back home, they'd have quite the story to tell their friends and family.
If there was one good thing to all of this, it was that he wasn't dead in an alley, and he wasn't alone; he was with his best friend, Max. Those thoughts comforted him as he drifted off into a deep sleep after an exhausting day.