A whole new world

Chapter 2: Caves and fire

Next morning, he woke up by light shining in his face. He had fallen asleep on the entrance of a cave, and sunrays where merciless towards his desire for sleep. Then he noticed that he didn't know how he got in a cave. He had to stand up and take a few minutes to realize where he was. Then it all came flooding back. In order to create some structure and logic in the chaos that ravaged his mind at the moment, he tried to sum it all up.

"Okay, so I was hiking in Norway, on my way to see my sister. While I was climbing a mountain, a rock slide happened and I fell into a deep fissure that opened in the process. Somehow, I woke up in ancient China, and in a different world or dimension where humanity has a different role or more likely, doesn't exist at all but is filled instead with anthropomorphic animals. And to top it all off, the world has uncanny similarities to a fictional movie" he said out loud, to no one in particular but solely to hear it himself.

He quickly noted this down in his smartphone, grateful for the invention of touchscreens. He loved them. Made typing so much easier on a larger model and it spared him the weight and place of a tablet or laptop. He felt a bit easier now that he had his situation in a small text. At least it gave his logical side something to work with, and it would make sure his feelings of panic and helplessness were reduced. Not until he knew everything and had some answers.

"Alright, now ask the basic questions. What, when, where, how, why." He grumbled when he couldn't really make a good plan on his smartphone, and proceeded by a pen and paper on a writing pad of his.

"I've just noted down what happened, where can be answered by China, probably central China by the looks of the vegetation as in opposition to my last known location, 110 miles north of Oslo, Norway."

When? It was June when he was hiking, and it seemed to be somewhat summer like around here, so for the sake of convenience he momentarily assumed it was roughly the same time of the year. Which year that was, was a totally different question however. He hadn't seen modernity. Now he understood chances were high it was not a lack of contact with the modern cities, but more likely that this world was a couple of centuries behind in terms of technology. Would make sense, since it is "ancient" China, no?

How created a bigger question, mainly because there was absolutely nothing present to give him something to work with. He'd have to let that question slide for now. Wormhole, portal, energy lapse, inter-dimensional gateway, or for fuck's sake, magic? No time for those theories now, he'd work on them when he had time and securities. Why was a mystery as well, since 'falling from a rock' wasn't an answer that could satisfy him. It was probably linked with the how anyway.

Now that he at least had worked out some things, he felt comfortable enough for breakfast and making other plans without freaking out. While boiling some filtered water to clean it from bacteria (he couldn't be too careful) he thought for logical steps to continue.

Obviously, he needed to find some way back. If it worked one way, chances are it worked backwards too. However, he had spent enough time yesterday to know that such a gateway was not where he had landed. He had stumbled around too much not to encounter it. So that left an immediate return cut off, at least with his knowledge. So he would have to make contact, and hope he might find someone, a scholar or something that might know more about this matter, maybe point him in the right direction.

He'd only find a sign of those in the village, so with nothing else to do, he hid most of his gear in the cave. He decided to put on some more natural woven clothes in neutral color, no sense in not being precautious or give them reason to make him stand out. With a small backpack with some emergency gear in, and a hunting knife hidden on the inside of his belt he took off towards the village, talking himself some courage in that they would be friendly. It was an animation universe right? The hero was a noodle-cooking panda, it was friendly. It would be all right.