Hello! This is my first novel, though I've done lot's of Minecraft and Wings of Fire fanfiction in the past. Enjoy!

Crunch, Crunch, Crunch went Peter's footsteps as he trudged through a stranger's back woods. He had run away from home a couple of days ago, and now that he thought about it, running away into the wilderness in mid fall was probably not a good idea. Sure, there was lots of food at harvest time, but winter was coming, and he didn't have enough time to get prepared for the cold, dark months ahead. Then he realized that that was the least of his problems. Lightning and thunder could be heard in the distance, and a couple of seconds later, a big, fat raindrop landed on Peter's shoulder. The rainfall increased, and within a couple of minutes it was a torrential downpour. Lighting crackled not too far away, so Peter seeked shelter inside a hollow tree. Climbing into the leaf-filled hole, he tried to get comfortable. It would be a long time before the rain let up. Suddenly, when he moved his foot, it found empty air. He overbalanced, and started to fall.

He fell for more than ten seconds before finally hitting the ground. Somehow, though, he was completely uninjured. He looked up to see gray light coming in through a large hole in the side of the pit he had fallen into. Utterly confused, he crawled out into a beautiful frozen forest. Ice covered every branch and every twig, coated the trunks of the trees, and bent all the grass able to poke up out of the snow with its weight. Peter could hear waves crashing against rocks a little ways away, and realized that he had somehow been transported to the coast! There was only one thing to do.

He dashed back inside the pit.

Peter started climbing back up the hole that he had fallen into, trying to get back to the surface. It didn't work, but not just for the reasons you must be thinking. When he got to about eight feet up, he hit his head on something. Craning his neck, Peter saw nothing in his way. He pushed at the invisible barrier, hoping it would give.

It didn't budge.

"Ugggg!" cried Peter as he crawled out of the tree. "How did this happen!?" He decided to walk toward the sound of the waves, hoping that there might be civilization. When he emerged through the leafless trees, he saw only sea stacks offshore and barren rock cliffs leading down to small pebble beaches as far as the eye could see. "No, no, NOO!" He yelled. He was already chilled to the bone, and knew that he couldn't survive more than another day out here. Otherwise, he would be happy–that pit probably transported him miles away from the people that he was trying to get away from. Peter set off in the opposite direction. He started to jog to keep warm. After about ten minutes, he heard the burbuling of a stream. He started to run towards the sound. Streams, he knew, usually ran into rivers, and there was almost always civilization along a river. Then something caught his eye. He moved closer. Was that... A shack?

Smoke rose out of a pipe sticking out of the roof. That meant fire. Maybe whoever lived there would let him in, just to warm up? He knocked on the door. He almost screamed when he saw who came out the door. Standing in front of him was a humanoid fox, wearing leather armor with some metal plates, holding a sword.

The fox man looked at him and said, "Oh. Well hello there."

"Umm... Hello?" Peter managed, staring in awe at this new being.

"How did you get here, human? Your nearest settlement is more than a hundred miles away." He asked.

Peter replied, "I fell down a long tunnel in the center of a tree and crawled out a hole in the wall, coming out here. The weirdest thing is that when I looked back at the pit from outside, it was inside a normal-sized tree!"

The stranger's eyes widened. "The portal's open again!? Impossible. That thing hasn't worked in centuries!"

"Uh-huh." Peter said, looking longingly into the shelter where a fire was blazing on a clay hearth, a pot of what smelled like stew cooking above it.

"Oh." The man said after turning around to see what Peter was looking at. He turned back around. "Want to come in and warm up?"

"YES PLEASE!" Peter exclaimed, jumping at the chance to eliminate the cold from his body. He walked in and sat down in front of the flames.

"My name is Whisper," The fox man said, laughing. "I come out here every few weeks to hunt and trap, then sell my wares at the nearby Krewin village. Mind if I head out and go see this tree you were talking about? Feel free to have some stew while I'm gone!"

"Alright! My name's Peter, by the way." Peter said. After Whisper was gone, he searched the cabinets and found a stack of bowls and a few hand-carved wooden spoons. He took a ladle from a bench by the fire and scooped some of the thick broth from the cauldron into his bowl, careful not to spill any on the floor, as it was carpeted with bear furs and he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to get it out of those. He blew on it a bit to cool it down, then tried a spoonful.

"Whoa!" He said. Not only was it probably the most delicious thing Peter had ever tasted, but it was also the most filling thing ever. With just a few more bites, he was stuffed. He put the remaining stew back in the pot and waited for Whisper to get back. It was only a few minutes before he returned.

"Come on!" Whisper yelled, helping him up from the stool he was sitting on. "They're coming!"

"Wha-" Peter asked, but when they got outside, he saw what the fox man was talking about. Five strange beasts were charging full-tilt at them from the woods. They looked like grizzly bears, but then he realized that they possessed the hindquarters of horses, and blue dorsal fins protruded from their backs. "What are they?!" Peter asked Whisper.

"Railenku!" Whisper told him, "They came out of the portal and attacked me!" He took Peter by the arm and started to run. "If we can get to the Krewin settlement five miles from here, we'll be safe!" With that, he leapt across the stream in a single bound, followed by Peter, who had to jump from stone to stone. "Come on!" Whisper cried, starting to climb a tree. Peter started up too, grabbing the lowest branch and getting hoisted up by Whisper. When they reached a good enough height, the fox man ran along a branch, springboarded off the end, and onto another tree nearby. He turned around, ready to catch the boy if he fell. Peter tried to do the same, but didn't land on the branch quite right, slipping off the ice-slick bark. He thought he was dead for sure, until he felt a rope coil around his waist. He looked up to see Whisper holding onto a grappling hook, pulling Peter back up.

"Thanks!" He called up to his new friend as he neared the branch.

"Can't have you dying, you might be the only one who can close the portal!" He said as Peter regained his footing. "From now on, don't go falling out of trees when there are monsters chasing you." Whisper told him, jumping to another tree. He tried the springboarding again, and this time he ended up hanging onto the end of the branch for dear life. He hauled himself back up, promising himself that he'd get it. He looked back, and saw that the Railenku had climbed into the trees themselves and were now hurling themselves off the trunks to land lower down on the next one. Peter quickly followed Whisper, who had already moved on. After a few more trees, he did get better at landing, and he quickly found that he was landing almost every jump. They continued on for what seemed like hours, and Peter looked back to see a furry bear face two inches from his own.

"AAAAAAH!" He screamed, sprinting along the next branch. The beast leapt just as Peter did, but the instant the thing's back legs left the tree, an arrow sprouted out of its chest. In the blink of an eye, another thunked into its arm. The Railenku hit the trunk, but couldn't grasp the wood with its injured paw, so it fell more than twenty feet to the ground, hitting the earth with a mighty crash. It wasn't breathing.

"Come on!" someone said from behind him, but it wasn't Whisper. Peter turned to see a person standing by Whisper in the next tree over, but this person wasn't human either! They had the head, legs, body, and wings of a snowy owl, but they stood upright like him, and had feathered arms that ended in hand-like talons.

Before he could start to ask questions, Whisper told him, "This is Soumel; he's a Krewin scout. He saw us coming and shot that thing."

"I can't take this anymore!" Peter said to them, "Can someone explain to me what is going on?!"

Whisper raised an eyebrow. "I thought you had at least a vague idea of the troubles this world is facing."

"No, I don't! I just slid down into a deep pit and I came out here! I have absolutely no idea what is happening!"

"Ooh boy." Whisper sighed. "It'll take hours to fully explain our current situation to you. We'd better get to the village. Come on!" With that, he leapt down out of the tree. Peter took his descent slower, jumping from branch to branch. He knew the other Railenku couldn't be far behind, but he wasn't willing to risk breaking a bone to get away. After all, Soumel and Whisper could take them out if they got too close.

He reached the ground. In the distance, he could clearly see the remaining five bear monsters pounding through the trees, having left the canopy and started to follow on foot. He and Whisper broke into a run, with Soumel soaring above them. "They're gaining!" The Krewin scout cried down to them. Peter looked back to see that the Railenku were indeed quickly closing in on them, their powerful horse hindquarters eating up ground. When the monsters were just about ten feet away, though, Peter broke through the trees and into a field filled with the dead stalks of corn. Suddenly, the roars of the Railenku cut off. He quickly turned around to see that each one had a small assortment of spears and arrows sprouting out of their thick hides.

He looked up to see about half a dozen Krewin circling, weapons out. A couple of them landed, approached the bodies, and, after a couple of seconds of investigation, confirmed that they were indeed dead.

"Thank you for dealing with those beasts for us!" Whisper told the feathered warriors.

"Our pleasure," A tall, wiry Krewin replied, "our kind have always hated theirs. We should return to the village–it's getting dark, and if these Railenku are here, the Helmethines will follow soon enough."

"Helme-what now?" Peter asked as they started towards the village.

"Oh, I expect you'll learn soon enough. We have a lot to talk about." Whisper told him. They entered the village a couple minutes later. Luckily, there was an inn, and after they had gotten a room for the night, Whisper sat him down at a table downstairs. "Alright, well, I guess it's time I explained to you everything that you've just gotten yourself into." He said. "This could take awhile."

A/N: Hi again! I hope you've liked this first chapter, and I'm going to try and update as often as possible, but I can't make any promises. I'm hoping that I can publish about a chapter every two weeks, maybe a bit less.