So, I get what I get for falling asleep. I only took a short nap. I was surprised that the short nap turned out to be spectacularly unexpected and also, very messy. As it turns out, I’ve way overslept my way into the future and next to a bear’s cave no less.
You see, it all started on a semi-warm, snow-covered day. I made a mistake on an outing never realizing what I’d be getting myself into. Or the place I’d end up seeing and let me tell you. The whole place to go…people…to see, a bunch of malarkey. Because by the time I woke up an eight-to-ten-foot furry malarkey, to be exact, stands over me now. Fortunately, no teeth are bare..yet! But that look upon its face. Who are you and where are you? Type of look! However, that isn’t what threw me at this point.
It is the fact that the bear can speak human. I almost had a little accident in my shorts when they introduced themselves. I should have an extra pair on me. Nonetheless, they help me up and start asking me all kinds of questions that, of course, I can’t answer. How did I get there?
Then he pauses, glancing over at the mouth of the nearby cave. When it hits him, it has something to do with this cave. I interrupted his train of thought with the question, where are the humans?
He ignores me at first, continuing to study the mouth of the cave.
They are gone, he snapped. Extinct for many eons now. Now it is only what you humans called us once. Animals. The evolutionary scale is close to what you are. We don’t need to hunt anymore. We have systems that can give us everything we need. But do not get me wrong if you annoy us. We do get pretty angry, if you know what I mean.
For safety’s sake, I think it best if you remain here at the mouth of the cavern. I need to understand why you’re here. Return to where you came from. I agreed to stay because I was afraid of my life. It wasn’t long before they found out about me.
By this point, the bear scientist has rescued me from them about fifty or so times now from being chased, roasted, up trees, down holes, you name it.
It’s six months into this unexpected visit when he finally figures out how to send me back. It turns out the winter storm’s lightning is what sparked something weird inside the cave, making the gems that are embedded into it active like a portal point.
The natives are restless and as a storm system appears to build up. He makes me bolt into the mouth quickly just as lightning strikes the top of the cave with a bright explosion. I’m now being transported through something brightly multicolored swirling violently as something knocks me out cold. Where I wake up days later just outside the caves. At first, I thought it was just a wild dream. Until I look down at the odd marks up and down my arm and the dirt all over me.
I guess it’s safe to say in the future the animals have it.
My Labyrinth 