Chapter 1

I’d managed to escape a demon, crash-land into another world entirely, and become something just above royalty. All in one morning. Nice.

                On yet another Monday morning, I woke up to an empty house; nothing odd about that, my parents were both at work. I stumbled into whatever outfit I could find. Breakfast, brush my hair, grab my stuff, amble out the door. I hadn’t walked thirty feet down my block when everything started, when my life changed forever.

…Wow, that sounded silly.

                Anyhow, I had assumed it was my extreme sleepiness that was bringing on a hallucination of some kind. Because I could've sworn that standing right there, in front of me, was a…honestly, I had no idea what it was. At the time, I suppose I’d have described it as vaguely bird-like. Demonic might’ve been a better word, though. It was about a foot shorter than me, and quite a bit longer thanks to that long neck and tail. It had a beak, yes, but I saw the glint of fangs, inch-long and razor-sharp. The soulless-looking red eyes didn’t help things, nor did the dripping tusks. It had no wings, just this long, naked, writhing body balanced on long, stilt-like legs.

I quite naturally abandoned my morning grogginess and my natural response, of course, was to run--as fast and as far away as I could from that thing. Dropping my backpack, I turned and sprinted into the woods, mostly out of panic. I could've run into town, but of course I wouldn't have had any trees or stones to madly crash into. Which I did. Repeatedly. And that was before I noticed it had actually given chase. After a mad dash through thorn-covered bushes and gripping, clawing tree limbs, I ran into—slammed  into—the well.

                Everybody in town knew about that damn well. For decades it had just sat there in some nearby woods, unnoticed, unused. It had come into the public eye a few years before I was born, when a few local kids had jumped (or fallen) into it. No bodies were ever found, the well was boarded up, but no one had ever forgotten the story. I had no time to ponder it, though; that thing was coming up fast. My sneakers slipped on the mossy edges of the well, but I scrambled to the top just as it approached. The well was big-a good four feet in height-and I stood carefully on the moldy boards sealing it.

                It...growled at me, but despite those legs it looked like it couldn't climb. Not that it wasn't trying. It scratched savagely at the stones, leaving gauge marks an inch deep. I reached desperately for a tree limb above me.

                "What  are you? What do you want?  I asked in a still-disbelieving daze, as if it would answer. Those would be the last words I uttered in my hometown, on my planet, because as I said them I slammed my foot on the boards. The wood tore like paper, and with another scream, I went down.