Matt's Exploration - A DSaF AU

|| Chapter 1 - Unexpected Expeditions ||

Matt was cleaning the bright, cluttered space of the pizzeria, due to the fact it was a complete mess after all the kiddins were done thrashing a once clean party room. After a couple minutes, Matt finally finished cleaning up and started packing his belongings, slowly stuffing them into his messenger bag. Out of nowhere, his boss, Jack emerged from the prize corner..
"ACK!" Matt cried out of shock, falling flat onto the floor, "Boss, what the hell?!"  Matt glared at Jack before standing and dusting himself off.
Jack just chuckled and looked at Matt slyly before his face turned somewhat serious, "Matt, it's WAY past work hours, what are you still doing here?" Jack asks, tilting his head and glancing at Matt expectantly with crossed arms.
"Just cleaning, y'know, since nobody else did." Matt replies, rubbing the back of their head. Jack let out a sigh, an air of annoyance floods the area around the two men. Jack just shrugged and handed them a pink slip while tapping his foot.
"Well, your shift is over now, permanently." Jack says before turning and walking away. Matt was surprised he was being fired, especially for a reason they didn't even know about,

"Wait what.." Matt stuttered, not knowing whether to feel upset or confused. Matt just glanced at the pink slip, picked his bag up, and left. Matt decided to take out his phone to call his sister, Cherri. As he was pulling his phone out, a strange figure ran by and snatched his bag! Matt wasn't paying attention for a moment but finally noticed what happened.
"I— HEY!" Matt shouted in an irritated manner. He darted after the mystery person straight into the gloomy, moss green forest which slowly got worse the darker it was outside. Matt and the criminal ran past the chestnut trees, hopping rock to rock to avoid falling into the swampy creek. Matt was determined to catch this thief and was slowly catching up, as he got closer, he reached out for his bag and latched onto it before sprinting even quicker to try and trip the burglar. Matt angrily yanked the bag back, removing it from the criminal. The thief landed on their back with a loud thud before quickly standing up. The burglar bolted away and into the bushes. Matt swore at the crook under his breath before looking back and seeing nothing but darkness, leaving Matt ponderous, "..Where am I now?" Matt wondered before pausing his train of thought and  turning to his right. To his side was a massive, amethyst purple arch with many cracks and vines seeping and spreading across its surface and curves, on the vines were a couple blossoming, lilac flowers with jagged petals that switch from purple to white every few minutes. Matt stood there, stunned and awestruck. When this was here, he never saw it when he passed the creek. Matt took a glance at the flowers before picking one, the flower began to dissolve onto Matt's cold hand sending a shocking, burning sensation through his hand and up his arm, startling him, this alone convinced him enough to let go of the now dissolved flower, "...This is..weird.." He muttered, looking down at his right palm, seeing a blood red, flower-shaped burn on it, leaving Matt freaked out. His hands began to tremble as he fumbled with his phone. Matt managed to pick up service and call Cherri, "Hey, Cherri?" Matt called.
"Matt? What's up?" Cherri replies after a few seconds of silence.
"So, uhm..I'm lost?"
"Ugh, again?" Cherri asks with skepticism.
Matt just scoffs, "Last time I got lost was last month..!" He claims, now embarrassed. Cherri went silent for a few seconds before speaking up again,
"I'll come pick you up.." Cherri said with faint irritation. Matt sighed and approached the arch with hesitation in his step. Matt then placed his right hand on the freezing, stone surface. For a moment nothing happened, which was expected until..
the vines on the arch began to glow brighter to the point it was blinding,

"AHH!" Matt yelped, nearly removing his hand. But then.. Everything went dark.

As the blazing light faded from Matt's eyes, he saw himself in a mystical, wide-ranged woodland area. Further in the scenery were animals and plants Matt couldn't even think of. Matt ponderously eyed the mythical, iris purple forest. Matt began to feel a sting on his cheek, not knowing what it was grabbed his phone to look at. On his cheek was a large cut, but from what? As he was examining the injury a voice erupted from the phone, catching Matt off-guard.

"Matt!! What happened?! Are you okay?" A familiar voice shouted, clearly concerned by their tone. Matt tried thinking for a moment and remembered he was on a call with his sister.

Matt spoke up, "...Yeah..Yeah, I'm fine," He replied calmly, "I just blacked out."

Cherri was silent for another few seconds, "If that's the case, where are you?"

"Uh, a forest with purple trees..??"

"..Purple trees?"

"Mhm."
Both of them stopped talking, after a few minutes, Matt began to roam the eccentric forest. Matt decided to face-time Cherri so she could see what he was seeing, as he flipped the camera, Cherri stared in surprise, "..No way.." She muttered.

"It's so weird..But uh, I'll call you later." Matt responded.

"Okay, fine. Just stay safe and call me if anything happens." Cherri said, pacing around her living room.

"Alright, I promise I will." Matt promised before smiling and hanging up. Matt began to explore the magical forest, looking around at the animals and plants. Matt spotted what seemed to be a deer with plum purple fur, chartreuse green & black striped hooves,  4 obsidian black eyes and sharp fangs. Assuming it was hostile, Matt fled further into the forest, the deer followed hastily and in an aggressive manner. Matt booked it in the first direction he could assume was the safest, trying to escape the hostile deer. Matt spotted a stick on the ground that had similar shaping to a sword and picked it up, preparing to fight the deer. As soon as the deer got close enough, Matt swung his wooden blade at it, causing it to jump backwards. The deer ran up to Matt and rammed its head into his stomach. Matt fell over and landed with a thud, the deer kicked Matt against a tree, the tree bending as Matt hit it. Matt landed on the ground, unable to keep his head raised, he felt dizzy and had an unbearable ringing in his head. Matt struggled to intake another breath of air, as he stumbled to his feet. The deer prepared to attack again but in a final effort, Matt quickly plunged the stick in one of the deer's 4 eyes and pulled away, tearing its eyes out, a bloody mess spewing from the deer's eye and onto the stick as well as Matt's clothing. The deer let out a shriek of pain before running away out of fear.  Matt looked at the stick looking at the eye he ripped from the deer, it was a bloody sight, Matt felt nauseous looking at it, as if he'd throw up just staring at it. But still, he picked the stick up, swung it to fling the eye off of it, and progressed further. As he wandered the seemingly infinite forest, he found some berries, and since he was hungry, he picked the berries up. He was nervous but plopped a few in his mouth. The berries had a cotton candy taste to them but felt like they were pricking the inside of his mouth with needles, causing him to spit the berries out. Matt's stomach rumbled as he sighed and continued to venture.
After a long time of traveling, Matt began to get anxious, will he ever go home? Will he see Cherri again? Is he going to die here? All these questions overwhelmed Matt and caused him to freak out. Matt's breath began to shorten as he continued walking while getting more and more dizzy overtime. He eventually bumped into a brick wall, causing his nose to bleed. Matt angrily kicked the wall, already feeling panicked and pissed off. Matt wiped the blood off his nose and looked past the wall and not only was there a house, but a village near it as well! The village was a beauty and felt otherworldly to look at, there were houses in many different locations, some even stacked over top of each other! It was overall an obscure scene for Matt to take in which also got Matt thinking.

"What else is out there..?"

   END