After Klein was done studying his newly acquired spells for the night, he opened his eyes and fixed his eyes on the stars.
Like most nights, he couldn't sleep.
He sighed, making his way into his vehicle.
He sat there, staring into the distance; at the long well-paved road, at the river running across it, and at the strange forest beyond.
Whether any thoughts made it through his mind, or whether his mind was blank, his face became placid.
He remained like that, silent and still.
Then, just as his consciousness began to fade to sleep, he made out movement in the corner of his vision in the field.
'What's that?' Klein immediately left his vehicle, preparing to cast. He slowly made his way toward the anomaly, hiding himself in the darkness.
When he was finally able to see it, his breath hitched.
'Are you kidding me...?' Klein thought as maintained a tense silence.
Illuminated by rays of crimson and blue moonlight...
Out there... Beyond the barn, the field was no longer a field.
Or rather, it was a field...
A field of a twisted mass of flesh stretching out in the darkness and through the horizon.
It squirmed and roiled. A thick miasma rose from it, blackening the night.
The thing he fought was not even the merest speck compared to that vast abomination in the distance.
Bones, eyes, teeth, and flesh of various beasts were jigsawed together, creating an unfathomable horror.
'What...' Klein had lost his ability to reason. Millions of eyes shook and squirmed, rotating, searching.
Klein remained there, not moving at all, and could only chuckle to himself.
'Maybe the world will really end if there are more of those about'
As he waited there, he made out the one he fought earlier. Looking at it now, Klein internalized his weakness and powerlessness once again. It was such a small, insignificant thing compared to that vast terror on the field.
Nystagmus dissolved the barn with a thick poison, and slowly slithered grotesquely towards its unfathomably large parent, joining with it in a strange manner.
Klein watched it all with morbid curiosity.
After what seemed to be an eternity, the first light of dawn pierced the darkness.
And the field returned to the way it should have been.
No mass of flesh. No horror. Just... Golden grain stalks shining in the first rays of sunlight.
Bewildered, Klein could only sigh in relief and make his way back to his APC, completely exhausted.
He barely had the strength to smile.
And for the first time in what seemed to be too long, he fell asleep.
Birds chirped. Grass rustled.
Beams of sunlight made it through the window of Klein's APC, finding his face.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
A knock tapped the window.
Klein stirred and then opened his eyes with reluctance.
"Breakfast?" Amelia asked the wizard-soldier. She had slept off her confusion, and when she woke up to find that she was still in the same place, she had to confront the facts.
That the world she knew had changed, that there were most likely beasts and other dangers abound, and that she and her family were in the presence of a wizard.
Though, oddly enough, she also felt relieved. It meant that she was still sane. Or as sane as one could possibly hope to be, considering the circumstances.
She was also more accepting of the wizard.
Klein stared blankly at the woman, his eyes vacant for a moment - briefly seeing someone else in the light, before they twinkled again like the bright day.
"Break...fast...?" Klein rolled his tongue around, getting a feel for the foreign-sounding syllables, trying to comprehend their meaning. He smiled at her and scratched his head.
He had decided to push what he had witnessed in the night to the back of his mind. Thinking about it wouldn't do him any good, anyway.
If that thing wanted to kill them, they had no say in the matter.
"Umm... What... Breakfast?" He opened the door and jumped out, doing his best to speak English.
The kids were awake, roaming around the area, a close watch being kept on them by their father.
Amelia smiled at the foreign wizard. She knew that it would probably be a long while before he was comfortable with the language.
She also didn't want it to show too much, but she was incredibly curious about magic.
When her husband woke up this morning, they discussed the experiences they had the day prior to ensure they were on the same page.
When they confirmed they hadn't dreamed the whole thing, their fear slowly subsided and it began to be replaced by wonderment and curiosity.
Of course, the fear still remained - where would they go? How would they take care of their children? How dangerous of a situation were they actually in?
They tried their best to allay those deep anxieties by focusing on something else.
Wizards.
Amelia stretched out her hand to the young man, offering him a cereal bar.
Klein looked at the woman, and then back to the offering, taking it cautiously.
"Won't... Explode?" Klein asked with a smile of apprehension. He had to be cautious at all times with alien things. He observed the item closely - the aluminum wrapping had a printed image of a smiling cartoon tiger that stared into his soul.
Klein gulped.
'What kind of dastardly...'
Amelia observed the soldier, and without really knowing the whole reason why, she laughed. Harold looked over to his wife, and their kids too ran to their mother.
"Mama, what's funny?" Amanda, their daughter asked as she held her mother's leg.
"Uh, well sweetie. There's a wizard that's afraid of a cereal bar" she spoke with mirth in her eyes as she picked her daughter up and held her in her arms.
"Afraid of... ahh... right" Harold glanced at the wizard who was cautiously handling the cereal bar as if it were a piece of dynamite and also began laughing.
At that moment, the road began to tremble slightly, and Klein quickly turned his head in the direction of the commotion after gently placing the strange alien item in his pocket.
'Ah, it's only a bunch of armored Stoneback rhinos' He sighed in relief and smiled, reaching back into his APC, retrieving his military knife.
"Nothing some spells can't fix, I should be done with this before breakfast" Klein looked at the family and spoke in Common, knowing they wouldn't understand him.
He waved at them with a smile, then Blinked away.