“Ow,” I said through gritted teeth as I curled up in the fetal position at the base of my spacecraft. I bit down hard on my hand to keep myself from screaming once or twice when the pain spiked. My eyes were shut tightly, and more colored fairies danced in my vision. I hadn’t felt pain like this before in my life and I hoped I wouldn’t experience it again. Virtual reality did some pain simulation because to play the games you needed that sort of feedback, but it was incredibly dampened compared to what I felt right now.

  I took a few deep breaths, in through my nose, out through my mouth. I tried to calm down my berserk nervous system. A few breaths later I finally had some semblance of control over my body again. I nervously got to my feet, leaning heavily on my left side and I turned towards the spacecraft.

  Which, coincidentally, is when I finally began to grapple with the fact that I was completely stranded here with no immediate hope of getting off this planet and headed back towards my original destination. I was estranged from humanity now, never to meet the people I’d known or their children.

  This was all because the highly scientific rock in front of me now trended heavily towards the rock side of that description. The entire thing looked somewhat like an egg. Its base was buried in the dirt beneath my feet and so I couldn’t see the un-egglike thrusters. The cockpit was about a meter off the ground and was the safest part of the entire craft. The rest of the ship was built to transfer the energy of a harsh landing to anywhere that could keep the passenger safe, resulting in pieces of the craft getting demolished or ejected at high speeds.

  It was still somewhat shiny, but the sharp edges and the sheer amount of smoke that plumed into the air made it clear this thing was anything but functional. The panels along the sides were malformed, no longer creating a seal. Wires hung from gaps in the metal carapace, some even sparked loudly and menacingly. The bottom of the ship had dug itself a hole into the cliff I stood on, based on my memory of the craft blueprints and my few spacewalks during my time aboard, it was likely that at least a third of the ship was now buried. Which is to say I had no way of assessing the state of the engines and the ion thrusters. If I had to give an estimate for them on a scale from bad to perfect, I would say they probably landed in the “not looking good” zone.

  I was standing in a small crater about a few meters wide and about a meter deep. I staggered up the slight incline to get a better look at where I was, and what was around me.

  The short walk was incredibly exhausting.

  “First order of business Gin, we’re going to have to get into shape.” I said between heavy breaths.

  I felt a cough come on and I covered it, blood on my hand when I took a look at it. That was also bad. Worst case scenario I would have to add punctured lung to my list of medical conditions. Scratch that, worst case scenario was I was going to die. But that seemed too likely for me to put it on the table.

  No one wants to admit they’re going to die.

  That would be silly.

  I stood triumphantly at the top of the small crater and looked out towards the sea. It was still beautiful, and from this vantage point I could see all sorts of strange creatures flying about over the water, or swimming just below the surface. I didn’t recognize any of them. There was a white scaled creature that flew so fast it created a wake on the water. It had what looked like three sections: A head, a body with wings and its tail. Each section had what looked to be tough scaled armor. It did not have legs. Its large white wings spread out to its full body length on either side of it. Every once and a while it closed its wings in a single motion, dropping down into the water before springing back out with a flick of its tail, wings already open. A single flap sent it forward like a bullet. Based on the way water fell from its mouth every time it performed this maneuver, I deduced that it was hunting the other creatures below the water.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  I turned my head from watching it, just in time to see a large sea monster rise out of the water near the shore. It looked like a turtle that had tentacles instead of flippers. It had a shell, grey patched with green that was surely at least ten meters across, though knowing exactly how large it was would be impossible from this distance. Six large thick tentacles extended out from the shell, four in the water, and two reaching up towards a flying creature with four fins, a bone white shell, and a neck like a giraffe from the picture books my dad had read me. I had no clue how it was flying, but it quickly dodged the tentacle strike and flew away like it was completely unbothered by this occurrence. The squid-turtle sunk back into the water having failed its surprise attack and disappeared into a dark spot in the shiny blue waves a few moments later.

  Off in the distance to my left, I saw a pair of black half-spheres on the horizon. It must have been a few kilometers away, but the size of the spheres was surely massive given how large they were even from this distance. I considered for a moment if they were moons, but, no, they were simply domes in the water a short distance from shore far down on the coast. I was sure of it; I’d even squinted at them to make doubly sure.

  After a few more moments of staring at the water, I turned around to the scene behind me.

  The rocky cliff extended only about twenty meters before it met extreme vegetation. The patchy grass turned into a full-blown forest in the span of a few meters. Greens and blues dominated my vision. Upon further inspection there were also yellows, purples, and reds as I saw some flowers, berries, and vines bearing incredibly bright colors. Once again, I was astounded by the absolute brilliance of everything around me. It was like looking at a painting. Nothing I’d seen, or read, or experienced in virtual reality could have prepared me for what something like this felt like in real life.

  A bird was singing a song somewhere up in the trees, and insects buzzed around the flowers. I noticed a particularly large, green, bug with what looked like six wings, and sharp pincers was weaving around a tree as a bird with a long sharp beak tried to snap it up and eat it. The bird was magnificent and only a little larger than the insect it was hunting. It had a green plume on the top of its head and feathers of black and red along its relatively small wings. The bottom of its back was a deep crimson that broke into a pair of lines that detailed the twin tails of the bird, each ending in three pointed tips. The creature was using these tails to push off of trees and was even seemingly trying to swipe at the insect with them when it saw an opportunity and its beak was in the wrong spot. Alas, I did not get to see the conclusion of their bout as they flew deeper into the forest and out of my sight.

  Off to my right, I noticed an opening in the trees, though it was a small change compared to the rest of the view, I saw that there were objects placed on the ground nearby the opening. They were black stakes, with a cage at the top, shoved into the dirt and poking out at about shin height. I then noticed what I had thought was intentional stonework earlier, was just that. The opening had the same grey stones and they formed what looked like a path that led over towards the cliff that I had landed on. I tried to walk over towards them to get a better look at this probably not -made, but -made opening, however I found myself completely devoid of energy and breath after just a few limps towards it.

  The pain and exhaustion were too much. I couldn’t keep distracting myself from it all forever. I sat down on the rocks in a particularly grassy spot and stared up at the sky, not sure what to do next.

  For the first since I landed, I noticed the notifications icon in my vision. I sighed and took my headset off. I’d forgotten it was still on since I’d practically lived with it as a part of me for the last few years.

  I set it down next to me and looked back up at the sky.

  But the notification icon hadn’t disappeared.

  I looked at the headset sitting next to me. Then focused on the exclamation mark still in my field of view. A message appeared in front of me, floating like any pop-up notification from my virtual reality headset would.

  [Species: Human: Earth-2, incompatible with magic. Please select a new species.

  -Mayam]