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Brande awoke with a jolt, panting and shaking. "What in the..." Brande trailed off as he rose his head from the ground to find it to be completely dark. Groaning, he pushed himself off the ground. On his knees, he looked around at his surroundings.

He was obviously not in the warehouse anymore; more of a thick forest. He was surrounded in foliage and trees thicker than he had ever seen. "Where the hell am I?" Brande though to himself as he pushed himself onto his hooves. He swatted away at the clusters of insects that swarmed around his form.

Pulling on his hood, Brande stepped forward and tried to push past a large bush that grew inbetween two of the massive trees. He moved his hand towards it but, suddenly, something caught him by the wrist and yanked his arm forward. Brande cried out as he dug his hooves into the ground, trying to pull his arm back. He looked down and saw that a thick, violet purple vine had wrapped its way around his arm.

"What the fuck!" Brande shouted in horror as he struggled to keep his balance. Groaning, he pulled against pull on his wrist. Digging his finger from his other hand, he struggled in vain to remove the vine. He cried out as another one whipped out from the ground and slashed his arm.

Suddenly, a massive roar sounded from beside Brande and a massive axe slashed the thick vine in half, spraying something green everywhere. Brande practically flew backwards onto the ground, causing him to let out a loud "oof!". Stars hazes Brandes eyes as he sprawled on the forest floor once more. He heard a deep voice call out to him.

"...Hey... You hur..." Brande could only hear portions of what he was saying, due to the spinning of his head. He attempted to rise to his elbows, but only succeeded in falling back and hitting his head against the ground once more. "Dont move... And get you to help," the voice rumbled once more. Brande tilted his head up and thought he was looking in a slighlty disorted mirror. It was him... Except, it wasn't. It was a minotaur...

"Wh-wha'?" Brande stammered. Surely he was seeing things. But when he blinked, the face of the blue-eyed bull still remained. Brande's savior extended a hand. Taking it, he pulled himself to his hooves. He tried to take a step forward, but ended up stumbling over. A strong hand caught him by the chest.

"Woah there, friend," said the minotaur. "Take it easy." Brande steadied himself with his help and looked over at him. The bull was huge! He had to be at least two heads higher than Brande and his shoulders were enourmous. He had a massive battle-axe strapped behind him that was still covered from the ooze of the vine.

"I-Thank you," Brande looked down trying not to stare at the black-furred bull that towered over him. "You saved my life. What the hell was that thing?"

The bull chuckled. "A vuzeuala. Nasty creatures if you can even call them that," he said in his baretone voice. "Once they grab you, you probably wont make it away alone. You're lucky I was passing through. What's your name?"

"Brande," he said, looking up at him. The minotaur smiled and patted him on the shoulder with a massive hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you then, Brande," he said still smiling warmly."You can call me Tairn." He looked down and saw the large gash on Brande's arm. "Oh wow, it really got you good, there. Come, I'll introduce you to the tribe."

"Tribe?" Brande asked, confused, following the bull as he took out a large knife from his belt and began slashing through the brush.

"Yes, tribe..." Tairn stopped hacking and looked back at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Who are you?"

"What do you mean, I alread told you. My na-"

"No, WHO are you? You show up in the middle of the Corrupted Forest wearing these strange clothes," he paused momentarily and looked Brande up and down. "And you're different. Never have I seen one with your stature before. You're small and your horns are pointed forward instead of to the side where they should be. So I ask again, who are you?"

Brande looked down. "I-I..." He tried to think of something to say to him, but was at a loss of words. Recalling the stone from before, he wondered if he had been brought to an entirely different planet. "I found a stone, in a place called 'Earth'. The stone had strange writings on it, and when I read it... I woke up here."

"Earth... I have heard that name before..." Tairn trailed off, looking off into the tree-tops. "Yes, the shamans had spoken of it to us before, speaking of a prophecy that seems to elude my mind. As for the stone, I have never heard of such magics. You must come with me, the shamans will know what to do with this situation." He didn't wait for Brande to answer and instead turned around and continued slashing through the shrubbery.

"What the hell is going on?" Brande asked himself. What is this place that he had been torn away to? He felt even more lost and alone than had felt back in the city. He would have to follow Tairn. What choice did he have? It was either come with him, or be killed in this forsaken forest. He shuddered at the thought of the latter. He stayed close behind the massive minotaur as they slowly made their way through the thick forest. Eventually, the brush broke up and they stepped onto a narrow dirt pathway.

"We're close, we just have to follow the trail North and I'll be able to find the way to the camp," said Tairn before trodding forward on the dirt trail. It was hard to navigate in the darkness, but as long as he stayed close to Tairn, he felt he would be okay.

They walked down the path in complete silence. It was fine with Brande, however, for he was absorbed amongst his own thoughts. He wondered if he was ever going to be able to return to Earth. He also wondered if he even wanted to return there. He never really belonged in that hazey, crowded world in the first place. Maybe he could start anew in this strange world that he had found himself in.

The time had flown past Brande and soon the forest began to grow less dense and the trail grew wider beneath their feet. He had to increase his pace to keep up with Tairn as the bull grew more confident with his strides. "Here we are," A small, wooden sign came into view with strange symbols etched into the face of it. Tairn led Brande off onto a path that branched away from the trail that they had been following. Soon, they could make out a stream of smoke as they made their way up a fairly steep hillside.

Once they reached the top, Brande looked down and saw dozens of tents spread across an open field with campfires spread across the area. Tairn strode down the other side of the hill towards the center of the camp with Brande still following close behind. As they drew closer, he could see that the frabric of the tent seemed to be sown together from multiple different colors of furs. A figured appeared from inside ones and stepped towards them.

"Tairn! What have you brought back for us?" the figure bellow. As it drew closer, Brande was able to make out a minotaur, similar to Tairn but smaller with light brown fur. "Oh, look what we have here! Looks like Tairn brought us back a new toy to have fun with." The minotaur grinned mischieviously at Brande, looking him up and down.

Tairn glared at the other bull. "You are not to touch this one, understand?" Tairn lowered his horns menacingly. "He is not some play-thing that you can just screw and leave to die. Now, where is Mother Tireseus?"

The bull gulped and looked down. "She is with Baske in her tent. I do-" Tairn held up his hand, silencing any other words.

"Dismissed," Tairn growled and watched as he turned and walked quickly back to his tent, ducking inside. Brande simply stared at the large minotaur before him, not knowing what to say that wouldn't anger him further. "Come," Tairn motioned for Brande to follow. Brande walked behind him as he stepped bewteen tents until he stopped in front of one that had a large wooden pole with the skull of some strange creature atop of it.

Voices could be heard from inside as Tairn stepped up to the flap that served as a doorway. "Mother Tireseus, I request your audience. It is most urgent," He said loudly. Brande could see the flap fold back, but could not make anyone out past Tairn's massive shoulders.

"What is it, Tairn? Im speaking with Baske," Brande could hear the voice of annoyed, elderly woman. Tairn leaned forward and spoke in a hushed tone to the woman. Brande struggled to hear what he was saying, but soon gave up. Tairn suddenly nodded his head in response to something unheard and he stepped back as the flap closed once more, and then reopened as a minotaur that Brande assumed was Baske stepped out from the tent, nodding to Kairn.

The woman Brande had heard from before stepped out and walked over to him. "Well, you must be Brande, then," she clasped his arm warmly and smiled. She was fairly small and lacked the horns that the males carried. She wore a simple, brown roble with a belt tied around her waist. "It's very nice to meet you. You may ignore our formalities here and call me Tireseus. My, thats quite the cut you have there," she said worriedly, taking his arm and pulling up the sleeve to his jacket. Brande winced slightly and the torn fabric rubbed against the gash.

Humming, she lifted her and and placed it above the wound. Brande's eyes widened as a green light spilled from her fingertips, basking it with it's radiance. His mouth gaped open as the wound seemed to disappear completely, the tissue completely sown back together.

Brande couldn't help but gawk at the woman. She looked up and chuckled. "What, you never seen a bit of the ol' magic?" Brande shook his head slowly as he looked down at his arm, gazing at wear the gash used to be. "Well, why dont we all come inside where we can talk in private." She opened the flap once more and stepped back inside with Tairn close behind her. Brande followed, still staring at his arm.

The first thing Brande noticed was the destinct odor of candles and other fragrences. It was nearly overwhelming, but still pleasant at the same time. Tireseus and Tairn had already gotten comfortable on a two piles of furs. Tairn motioned for Brande to take a seat on another mound beside him. Brande sat, happily, finally able to rest after all that walking.

"So, Tairn here tells me that you have come from Earth, is that correct?" the shaman asked, looking into Brande's brown eyes.

Brande nodded, looking down at his hooves. "What exactly happened that brought you here, Brande? I am most curious," she questioned softly.

"I-I dont know exactly," Brande told her of the strange stone he had found and how he read off the strange words on the edge of it. "And then I woke up here, in the forest," he finished, looking away from the elder's baring eyes.

"Odd... I have never heard of such an artifact. It must have held great power to be able to transport someone from one realm to another like that," she said, scratching her chin. "Tairn also told me of your encounter with that vuzeuala. You're very lucky indeed he found you when he did. Or else you would have ended up as nothing but pulp inside it's stomach, hah!" She grinned at Brande.

Silence enveloped the room as she sat, peering at the young minotaur. The elder seemed to be lost in thought. Brande looked down into his hands. He used to think that he was the only one. A freak of nature. But now that he had already met four all in the same night, he had no idea what to think.

He jumped slightly as Tireseus spoke. "Tairn, can you wait outside for a moment?" she had broken her gaze from Brande and looked at the bull beside him.

"Yes, Mother Tireseus," he said, respectfully, rising from his seat and bowing to her before exiting. The elder focused back to Brande.

"I can sense something about you... Something different, yet familiar," she said, slowly.

"Tairn said I looked different from the others," Brande suggested.

She waved it aside. "No, it's not that... You have an... Aura about you. A powerful one, too. I didn't know what to think before." she looked down for a moment and sighed. "There is a prophecy. I believe Tairn mentioned it to you once before. It tells of someone who is one of us, but yet, isn't, that will come from the distant land of Earth. That person is said to come bearing salvation in one hand and doom in the other. It is a very ancient prophecy, one that is passed down from Shaman to Apprentice." She gazed into Brande's eyes. "I believe you have a powerful destiny ahead of you, young one. Dont be one to spurn it."