Something rough and wet dragged across my face.
Once. Twice. Three times.
"Mmph... five more minutes, Grandma..." I mumbled, trying to turn away from whatever was disturbing my sleep. My body felt like it had been run over by a truck, then backed up on for good measure.
Maybe I'd fallen asleep studying again? Last time Grandma found me face-down in my business textbooks, she'd sent Loki to wake me up by—
My eyes snapped open.
Loki.
The underwear chase.
The earthquake.
The void.
Instead of my bedroom ceiling, a canopy of unfamiliar trees loomed above me, their branches twisted in shapes I'd never seen before. Sunlight filtered through leaves that seemed too vibrant, too... alien. A warm breeze carried scents that didn't belong in an Ontario forest—something sweet and something else distinctly... wrong.
"What the hell...?" I groaned, trying to sit up. Pain shot through my body, and I fell back with a gasp. Every muscle protested as if I'd been thrown from a building.
Given what I last remembered—being sucked into a tear in reality—maybe I had been.
Another wet rasp across my cheek brought my attention to the black cat sitting on my chest, yellow eyes staring intently into mine.
"Loki?" My voice came out as a croak. "You're here too?"
The cat meowed loudly, kneading his paws against my chest. His claws extended slightly with each press, just enough to be uncomfortable through my hoodie. A familiar tactic—his not-so-subtle way of saying "get up, human."
"Okay, okay," I winced, forcing myself to a sitting position despite my body's complaints. "I'm up. Now where—"
The question died in my throat as I took in our surroundings properly for the first time.
We definitely weren't in Ontario anymore.
Hell, I wasn't sure we were on Earth anymore.
The trees around us weren't just unusual—they were impossible. Their trunks twisted in spirals, bark iridescent with colors that shifted in the light. The leaves were massive, some easily the size of dinner plates, in shades of green so vivid they almost hurt to look at. The forest floor was carpeted with moss that seemed to glow faintly, pulsing like it was... breathing?
"This is... not normal," I gulped, reaching down to touch the moss. It felt warm beneath my fingers, and I could have sworn it leaned into my touch. I snatched my hand back.
"Definitely not normal."
Loki meowed again, this time with an impatient edge. He jumped off my lap and moved a few paces away, looking back expectantly.
"You seem awfully calm for a cat who just got transported to Wonderland," I said, struggling to my feet. My legs wobbled but held.
"Did you hit your head too, or am I the only one freaking out here?"
My joke fell flat in the eerie silence of the forest. No birds chirping. No insects buzzing. Just the soft rustle of those too-large leaves in the breeze.
I patted my pockets, relieved to find my phone still there.
No signal, of course—that would be too easy. The time showed 11:32 AM, but who knew if that meant anything here. The battery was at 87%—not great if this turned into a long... whatever this was.
"Okay, think, Ethan," I said aloud, trying to organize my thoughts. "Strange forest. No idea how we got here except through that... portal thing. No immediate danger. First step is to figure out where we are and find a way back."
Loki made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort.
"You got a better plan, fur ball?" I challenged him. The strange familiarity of arguing with my cat helped ground me, even as panic threatened to bubble up my throat.
"We need to find civilization, or at least some landmark to orient ourselves."
I turned in a slow circle, looking for anything that might suggest a direction to head. The forest looked identical in all directions—the same impossible trees, the same glowing moss. Nothing that hinted at a path or—
Wait.
The forest might look the same in all directions, but it didn't feel the same. There was something... pulling me. Not like the void had pulled, not physical. More like the feeling you get when you know someone is staring at you from across a room. A subtle awareness in a specific direction.
"This way," I found myself saying, pointing to what felt like north, though without the sun visible through the thick canopy, I had no way to be sure.
Loki mewed and trotted in the exact direction I'd indicated. Either he felt it too, or this was one hell of a coincidence.
I took a step and felt something wet on my upper lip. Wiping it automatically, my fingers came away red.
Blood. My nose was bleeding.
"Aw fuck," I sighed, tilting my head back slightly. I pinched the bridge of my nose, waiting for it to stop.
That's when I noticed something else strange.
The air... shimmered around the drops of blood that had fallen onto the glowing moss. Like heat waves rising from hot asphalt, but more concentrated, more purposeful. The moss where my blood had landed was pulsing faster, the glow intensifying.
A low, thrumming vibration began beneath my feet. The entire forest seemed to be coming alive around us, the shimmering in the air spreading outward from the bloodstains like ripples in a pond.
"Loki..." I said slowly, backing away from the blood drops.
"I don't think that's a good sign."
The cat was already bristling, back arched, tail puffed to twice its normal size. His eyes were fixed on something behind me.
I turned—and immediately wished I hadn't.
Through the trees, perhaps fifty yards away, something was moving toward us.
Something big.
I caught glimpses of scaled hide between the trunks, heard the crack of branches as it pushed through the forest with little regard for stealth. A huffing, snorting sound reached my ears, like an enormous pig mixed with... something else. Something predatory.
"Oh shit," I whispered, frozen in place. "Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit."
My brain cycled through possibilities, each more absurd than the last.
A mutated bear? Some undiscovered forest creature? A hallucination from hitting my head during the earthquake?
Then it emerged into a small clearing, and all rational thought fled my mind.
It was like someone had taken a boar, increased it to the size of a rhino, then decided to add the nightmarish elements of a scorpion for good measure. Tusks curved from a snout that was split into mandibles. Multiple red eyes glittered across what should have been its forehead. And arching over its back was a segmented tail ending in a stinger dripping with something viscous and yellow.
"That's... that's not possible," I stammered, taking an instinctive step backward.
The creature's head swiveled toward me, those clustered red eyes fixing on my position. It snorted, pawing at the ground with hooves that looked sharp enough to slice through steel.
Then it charged.
"RUN!" I screamed, though whether to Loki or myself, I wasn't sure.
My body reacted before my mind could catch up, spinning me around and launching me into a desperate sprint through the alien forest.
Branches whipped at my face. Roots seemed to reach up to grab at my ankles. Behind me, the sound of destruction grew closer as the monster crashed through the underbrush in pursuit. It was faster than something that size had any right to be.
Loki darted ahead of me, his black form weaving expertly between obstacles. Damn, at least one of us might make it.
"Go, Loki!" I gasped, lungs already burning. A business major who spent more time studying than at the gym was not equipped for running for his life.
The forest ahead lightened, suggesting a clearing or break in the trees. Maybe a chance to change direction, to find somewhere to hide—
I burst from the treeline and skidded to a halt at the edge of a cliff that hadn't been visible until the last moment. Below stretched more forest, at least a hundred-foot drop. To my right, the cliff face extended as far as I could see. To my left...
To my left was what looked disturbingly like a cave entrance. Dark, foreboding, but potentially out of reach of the monster crashing through the forest behind me.
The creature's roar vibrated through the ground as it neared the treeline.
Fuck it.
I scooped up Loki, who had frozen at the cliff edge, and sprinted for the cave.
"Please don't be a dead end, please don't be a dead end," I chanted as we plunged into the darkness.
The temperature dropped immediately, the air growing colder and damper. I slowed, letting my eyes adjust to the gloom.
The cave was deeper than it had appeared from outside, the passage narrowing but continuing inward.
Behind us, a roar of frustration echoed as the monster reached the cave entrance. A massive shadow fell across the opening.
I pressed myself against the wall, holding Loki tight against my chest. His heart hammered against my palm, matching the frantic rhythm of my own.
The creature pawed at the entrance, its bulk too large to follow where we had gone. Those red eyes glared into the darkness, searching.
I held my breath, trying to make myself as small and still as possible.
After what felt like eternity, the monster snorted in what sounded like disappointment and withdrew. The shadow at the entrance receded, though I could still hear it pacing outside.
"What the actual fuck was that thing?" I whispered, my voice shaking.
"And where are we that something like that exists?"
Loki squirmed in my grip, clearly wanting to be put down. I loosened my hold, and he jumped to the cave floor, shaking himself as if offended by the rough handling.
"Sorry for saving your life," I rolled my eyes. "Next time I'll leave you for monster chow."
The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving me shaky and nauseous. I slid down the wall until I was sitting on the cool cave floor, drawing my knees up to my chest.
"This can't be real," I said, though the damp rock beneath me felt solid enough. "Giant scorpion-boars don't exist. Forests with glowing moss don't exist. This has to be a dream, or a hallucination, or—"
Loki headbutted my shin, a familiar gesture that said "stop panicking, idiot" more effectively than words could have.
I took a deep breath. "Right. Dream or not, we need to figure this out."
I pulled out my phone again, turning on the flashlight function to better examine our surroundings.
The cave wasn't a natural formation. The walls, while rough, showed signs of deliberate carving. Symbols I didn't recognize were etched at regular intervals—swirling patterns that seemed to catch and hold shadows in unusual ways.
"Someone made this," I murmured, running my fingers over one of the symbols. "Or... something made this."
The passage continued deeper into the cliff, curving gently to the right. With the monster still prowling outside, going back wasn't an option.
"Forward it is," I decided, pushing myself to my feet.
"Stay close, Loki. If there's one monster in this place, there are probably more."
I took a step deeper into the cave, then froze as my phone's flashlight caught movement ahead. Something was skittering along the floor toward us—multiple somethings, each about the size of a large rat, but with too many legs and what looked disturbingly like tiny human faces.
"NOPE!" I yelped, backing up rapidly. "Nope, nope, absolutely not!"
But behind us was the monster outside, and ahead were these... things. We were trapped.
As the creatures drew closer, their features became clearer in the flashlight beam. They weren't just rat-sized—they were actually more like spiders, with eight spindly legs supporting bodies that ended in distorted, doll-like human faces. Their too-small mouths opened to reveal needle teeth.
Loki hissed, backing up until he was pressed against my legs.
I looked around desperately for anything I could use as a weapon. The cave offered nothing but smooth stone and dust. The only thing I had was my phone, and I doubted throwing it at these things would do much good.
The first of the spider creatures lunged, leaping with surprising speed toward my face.
Instinctively, I swung my arm, catching it mid-air and sending it crashing into the wall. It made a high-pitched squealing sound that turned my stomach.
Two more jumped at me. I kicked one away, but the other latched onto my jeans, quickly crawling upward. I slapped at it frantically, feeling its legs crunch under my palm. The sensation was revolting.
More were coming. Dozens now, pouring from crevices in the walls I hadn't noticed before.
"We have to go back!" I shouted to Loki, stomping on another creature as it neared my foot. "Take our chances with the big one!"
I turned to run, but the passage behind us was already filling with the spider things, cutting off our escape. They moved with horrible coordination, like they were controlled by a single mind.
"We're trapped," I realized, voice hollow with fear. "We're actually going to die here."
Loki made a sound I'd never heard from him before—a low, rumbling growl that seemed too deep, too powerful for his small body. I looked down just in time to see something impossible happen.
My cat began to change.
His black fur rippled like water, his form expanding, growing. Bones cracked and reformed as his spine elongated, his limbs stretched. In seconds, where my housecat had stood was now a creature straight out of mythology—a black panther the size of a lion, with curved horns sprouting from its head and glowing yellow eyes that blazed with intelligence.
I stumbled backward in shock, my back hitting the cave wall. "L-Loki?"
The transformed cat—if it even was still Loki—roared, the sound reverberating through the narrow passage with enough force to shake dust from the ceiling.
The spider creatures froze, their doll-faces twisting in what looked unnervingly like fear.
Then my cat—my seven-year-old pet who stole underwear and knocked cups off tables for fun—pounced.
What followed was a blur of black fur, flashing claws, and the sickening sounds of spider bodies being crushed.
Loki moved with savage grace, each swipe of his massive paws eliminating three or four of the creatures at once. His jaws closed around others, crushing them instantly.
I stood frozen against the wall, unable to process what I was seeing.
My cat was now a mythical beast slaughtering monsters in a cave in another world.
And I thought business statistics was weird.
The battle, if you could call such a one-sided massacre that, lasted less than a minute. When it was over, Loki stood in the center of the passage, surrounded by the broken bodies of the spider creatures.
He turned to look at me, those familiar yellow eyes now huge and glowing with an inner light.
"So," I said, my voice coming out as a strangled squeak.
"You can do that. That's... that's a thing you can do now."
The giant cat made a sound that, despite everything, I recognized as the same noise Loki made when he was feeling smug about something.
"I always knew you weren't a normal cat," I said weakly, attempting a joke to cover the fact that I was one weird revelation away from a complete mental breakdown.
"All those times you knocked my stuff off shelves... you were just hiding your true power, weren't you?"
Loki padded toward me, and I instinctively pressed myself harder against the wall. Jesus fucking Christ.
Intellectually, I knew this was still my pet, but primal instincts screamed that a giant horned panther was approaching and I should probably run.
He stopped in front of me, lowering his head until we were eye-to-eye. Then, in a gesture so familiar it made my heart ache, he butted his forehead gently against mine—the same way he did every morning when he wanted breakfast.
A laugh bubbled up from my chest, half-hysterical but genuine. "Okay," I said, cautiously reaching up to scratch behind one of his horns. "Okay. This is happening. My cat is a monster-killing machine now. Cool. Totally cool. Not freaking out at all."
Loki rumbled something that sounded suspiciously like a purr.
The moment of reunion was broken by a roar from outside the cave—the scorpion-boar monster, reminding us it was still there and still hungry.
"Right," I sighed, straightening up. "One problem at a time. Think we can take that thing now that you're all... upgraded?"
In answer, Loki turned toward the cave entrance, his muscles bunching beneath that midnight fur. The message was clear: Let's find out.
I took a deep breath, the reality of our situation settling over me like a heavy cloak. Somehow, we'd been transported to a world of monsters. Somehow, my cat had transformed into something from a fantasy novel. And somehow, I was now considering fighting a creature that shouldn't exist instead of hiding from it.
What had happened to my life in the span of... how long had it even been? Hours? Days?
"Grandma and Grandpa," I whispered, the thought of them hitting me anew. Were they okay after the earthquake? Were they worried about me? Or had time stopped in my world while I was here? Would I ever see them again?
Loki growled softly, drawing my attention back to the present danger.
"You're right," I said, squaring my shoulders. "Let's deal with the monster, then figure out where we are, then find a way home."
I followed my transformed cat toward the cave entrance, trying to ignore the sound of spider carcasses crunching beneath my sneakers. The light grew brighter as we neared the exit, and with it, the sounds of the monster's snuffling grew louder.
"I hope you know what you're doing," I muttered to Loki.
"Because I sure as hell don't."
As we reached the cave mouth, I got my first clear view of the scorpion-boar in daylight. It was even more horrifying than my initial glimpse had suggested—its hide covered in overlapping plates that looked like natural armor, each of its tusks the length of my arm, and that stinger dripping venom that sizzled when it hit the ground.
It spotted us immediately, those clustered red eyes focusing with malicious killing intent.
"Second thoughts?" I asked Loki, my mouth dry with fear.
The cat-turned-panther rumbled deep in his chest, tensing for battle.
"Yeah," I swallowed hard. "That's what I was afraid of."
The monster charged, and Loki leaped to meet it, a black shadow against the bizarre landscape of this world that wasn't ours.
I pressed myself against the cave wall, feeling utterly useless, a bystander in what was quickly becoming the strangest and most terrifying day of my life.
All I could do was watch and hope that whatever had transformed my pet was enough to keep us both alive in this nightmare of a forest.
And try not to think about the blood still trickling from my nose, the blood that had somehow attracted the monster in the first place. The blood that meant something was very, very wrong with me.