'Wake child, for I need you. I have been poisoned by light and darkness, and those whose mandate is to protect me have forsaken me.' A voice resonating in my head woke me from my deep sleep.
Stretching for the blanket that I usually kept under my pillow, I focused on falling asleep again. My phone's alarm had yet to go off, and there was still time before I needed to get ready for work.
'This feels odd,' a vague unease whispered in my mind.
I couldn't feel my blanket, not even my pillow. All I could feel was an odd wet sensation between my fingers. As if all I had grabbed were leaves. Startled, I opened my eyes, only to be confronted by an alarming reality.
The sight that met my eyes sent a bolt of fear through my body. I stood up in a flash, with my vision still adjusting to the eerie surroundings, illuminated by scant moonlight.
'This must be a nightmare, a vivid one, but still a nightmare,' I told myself as I looked at the tall trees that blocked the night's feeble light. Their shadowy presence seemed to watch me from all angles. I could feel how the cold sweat trickled down my spine.
"I need to wake up," I shouted, pounding my cheeks. "Wake up, goddamnit."
My self-inflicted blows ceased as the pain proved that this was no dream. I was well awake.
'My sleepwalking stopped after I switched jobs,' I muttered, leaning against a tree for support. 'I never went further than my kitchen, but this is beyond bizarre.'
A sensation of impending faintness gripped me. It was clear that I was not in my apartment, but I had no idea where I had wandered. It took me some time to regain enough composure to walk again. I roamed the forest for signs of life but only found more trees. I concluded it was wiser to wait until morning to make my way back to the city.
'At least it's a good night, I should be able to see the stars,' I thought while sitting next to a tree and looking at the sky. 'In other conditions, this might have been enjoyable.'
However, the sky above held an entirely unexpected sight. I glanced up, expecting to see the familiar night sky, but it was nothing like that. A massive, blue celestial body, more akin to a planet than a moon, graced the firmament. I rubbed my eyes, hoping that what I saw was a trick of my eyes. Still, when I opened them back, the enormous blue moon remained. The blue moon was accompanied by a smaller spire-like reddish moon beside it, transforming the scene into a science-fiction tale.
"What is going on?" I cried out. "Where the hell am I?"
No matter how much I tried to understand what was before me, my head could not follow, and the thoughts of being in a dream started to resurface.
"Wake up!" I shouted once more, to no avail; I was still trapped in this unknown place.
The disbelief consumed me. There was so much going on that I failed to hear the approaching sounds until it was nearly too late. Clouds covered the little light that managed to pass the treetops, making the forest almost pitch black. An abrupt crack in the nearby underbrush made me jump, fearing a predatory animal's ambush. I strained to peer toward the noise and observed an indistinct figure, my vision hindered by the oppressive darkness. Yet, something about it seemed off, something unsettling.
A pair of crimson, luminescent eyes, far larger than those of any creature I'd ever encountered, locked onto me, causing my legs to tremble uncontrollably. As the menacing eyes drew near, I froze, gasping for air.
As the terrifying red eyes approached, the cloud cover blocking the moonlight dissipated, revealing the creature that was mere meters away. It walked upright on two legs and was entirely alien in form, its diminutive stature doing little to mitigate the fear inspired by its grotesque, greenish skin, oversized red eyes, and menacing claws.
"This must be a nightmare," I insisted, refusing to accept the impossible reality bordering on delusion. "I must wake up."
However, the creature's cautious approach prevented me from continuing my thoughts. The grin on its face, now showing all its fangs, was scarier than any horror movie I had ever watched until then. It felt as if the creature realized that it had found the prey for the night.
My heart pounded, and my mind urged me to flee, but my body initiated the escape before I knew what was happening. My feet, protected only by socks, struggled to maintain balance on the treacherous forest floor. Inevitably, a tree root tripped me up, and in that moment, I came to a grim realization.
'I am going to die,' I thought, sure of what would happen next.
Closing my eyes and trying to at least cover my face with my hands, I prepared for the imminent attack. I waited there for what felt like an eternity, but no pain came.
'At was painless death,' I sighed in relief.
When I finally mustered the courage to open my eyes expecting to be in the afterlife, I was met with a sight even stranger than anticipated. There, just millimeters from my body, the terrifying creature appeared frozen mid-air, as if someone had pressed pause on a movie. It felt like I was watching a surreal scene under a gentle, bluish light against the night sky.
'Did I have a heart attack, and my spirit left my body?' I wondered while looking at my translucent hands.
Curious, I attempted to touch the creature, only to pass right through it. The same result ensued when I attempted to interact with a nearby tree. For some reason, the only thing I couldn't go through was the forest floor.
'So if my spirit left my body, can I just jump back into it?' I mused, preparing to re-enter my body.
But to my astonishment, I couldn't pass through my own body. On the contrary, after my attempt, my body moved after I crashed with it. I moved my hands as if they were the hands of a mannequin used for paintings, but once I stopped moving them, they stayed in the last position I placed them.
The heaviness of my body struck me as a stark contrast to its immobility. Still, as I manipulated my limbs, I watched my body respond.
'Perhaps, if I reposition my body out of danger...' I started to think while moving my body in a stand-up position, but my discovery was disrupted.
I noticed how the goblin's body moved when my physical body came in contact with it. At that moment. Right then, a plan was formed. I placed my left hand on the creature's neck, and my right hand grabbed its legs. The monster that moments ago was so menacing that even my spirit left my body, didn't look that scary anymore.
An odd sensation coursed through my spiritual form as I began to relax. It was as if my body was calling my soul back. After a moment of darkness, the next I remember was the frantic movements of the creature now in my hands. It was clear that time had returned to its normal flow. I knew the creature would kill me if I didn't take action.
I struggled to maintain my grip, as the pain from the claws digging into my arm as the creature tried to escape. I couldn't let it break free, but the growing pain of its desperate attempts to harm me was excruciating. With all my strength, I squeezed tighter, using my other hand to try and rip its legs apart. The creature's movements ceased in mere moments, and its once-menacing red eyes extinguished.
I released the lifeless body, as I collapsed on the floor gasping for breath. The pounding of my heart in my throat made swallowing a difficult task. Dizzy and nauseous, I noticed the bloody cuts on my arm that made it clear I could die from these wounds. I needed to staunch the bleeding urgently.
"I won't die here," I resolved, crafting a tourniquet from one of my socks to slow down the bleeding.
Once the bleeding slowed down, I regained some composure. I tried to piece together what I just experienced. The details of the creature's appearance flooded my mind. Small body, frog-like greenish skin, long ears, menacingly large red eyes, razor-sharp fangs, claws, and bipedal. In my head, there was only one creature that fitted that description. Yet, it seemed beyond belief.
"This can't be real; these creatures are only found in fantasy stories," I mumbled aloud, shaken by the implications.
My thoughts retraced the countless tales I had consumed in my free time until I could not deny it anymore.
"Is this... a GOBLIN?" I exclaimed, bewildered by the implications. "This can't be; goblins are fictional. I'm certain I'm not dreaming. But if I'm not dreaming, then where am I? Creatures like this cannot exist."
I continued ranting until I came to an even more absurd conclusion.
"Could it be? Have I actually been transported to a fantasy world?" I wondered, with a strange excitement hard to contain.
I had fantasized about being transported to a magical world where I could do everything I could imagine. I knew it was just fantasies but It seemed it had happened to me. But what I couldn't understand was how I almost died on my first encounter with a goblin. I only narrowly escaped thanks to that power that stopped time.
The more I contemplated this baffling reality, the more it crystallized. Magic had intervened to rescue me. The prospect of a world brimming with magic and possibilities thrilled me. My fight with the goblin and the pain from my wounds went away momentarily as a faint smile was drawn on my face.
Lost in my thoughts, I was snapped back to reality by approaching sounds. There were many types of goblins in all the stories I had read before, and one commonality among them was that they seldom hunted alone. Fearing for my life, I was about to flee when I spotted more ominous red eyes emerging from the forest's shadows as if to prove my thoughts right. The pair of eyes were looking in my direction. However, they weren't looking at me; they were looking at the body of their dead companion on the floor.
'If one goblin nearly killed me, what would a group of them do to me?' I pondered, dread setting in.
I continued to try and make my escape as the goblin made a screech that stopped all my body movements. It was a sound akin to a fork scratching into glass. I instinctively knew what that sound was; it was calling for backup.
Panicking, I fled in the opposite direction, navigating the forest's obscurity as best I could. After a hundred meters or so, I stumbled upon a clearing, and when I looked back, I couldn't have anticipated what I saw.
It was more than just a lone goblin. In the moonlight, I counted at least ten pairs of crimson eyes approaching. I had inadvertently made myself an easier target and had nowhere to hide. Fear washed over me as they silently prepared to close in for the hunt.
I stood helpless in the center of the glade, gazing over the goblins as they encircled me. Cold sweat formed on my forehead as my eyes met a horrifying goblin guarded by two slightly bigger goblins. Its deep black eyes focused on me, giving me a feeling like my soul was pierced by daggers. This goblin was not coming closer; it stayed in the back, watching me without moving.
The other goblins drew nearer, positioning themselves roughly five meters away, ensuring I had no escape. I faced the dire certainty of my demise once again.
One goblin broke from the circle and advanced as if they believed one of their own was enough to subdue me. As the goblin lunged at me, I closed my eyes, hoping for a repeat of the magic that previously had saved my life.
As if to answer my unspoken plea, that familiar sensation enveloped me. I quickly opened my eyes to see how the time had stopped. I could see my physical body in the middle of the goblin encirclement. With the dim blue light that covered the surroundings, I could count seventeen goblins of different sizes.
'If I want to survive, I must deal with all the goblins before my spirit is called back to my body,' I urged myself.
I used my hand to grab the hand of the goblin that launched towards me. I was overjoyed when the action worked. I then forced its own claws to pierce its heart. I pushed as much as I could until the long claws came through the other end of the goblin. Once the first one was done, I proceeded with the rest of the goblins.
'I should have listened to my friends and lifted a bit more instead of just running,' I lamented while dragging my body around the goblins.
I used the claws from the first goblin to cut through the necks of the other goblins, as it was faster than piercing their hearts. Even with my heavy body, it took me about four minutes to finish going through all the goblins around me. I was halfway dragging my body towards the black-eyed goblin and its bodyguards when my spirit was forced back to my body.
I looked back at the goblins, still holding the body of the goblin I used as a weapon. Some collapsed immediately, while others, perhaps with less severe wounds, remained standing.
'I didn't cut deep enough,' I realized. 'I should have aimed for their hearts.'
I threw the body in my hand toward the three remaining goblins, and the smirks on their faces quickly vanished. To them, it was a sure victory, they had me surrounded and on the brink of annihilation. But just a moment later, I was before them; only a few of their kind were left standing. Some of them were struggling to staunch the bleeding from their necks, but it was clearly too late for them. Others, in better condition, had started running away, leaving only the black-eyed goblin and its bodyguards.
Yet, the black-eyed goblin exhibited an unusual defiance for its current predicament. Its contorted face radiated anger as it pointed at me, releasing a piercing shriek. It was hard for me to remain menacing after it, but they didn't advance this time; they fled.
I stood in the same position for several minutes before I dared to relax. Exhausted, I fell to the ground, my strength depleted. I examined my arm, realizing the tourniquet was gone, and I was bleeding profusely. Without noticing it, I had lost too much blood.
'I got transported to another world, and I'll die on my very first day,' I chuckled wryly.
Right when I was about to start thinking about 'what could happen if I die in this world,' my consciousness completely faded away.