Felarya - Jora - Welcome to Felarya

She was sleeping so deep, it felt wonderful. The last day she didn't get any sleep and after the failure with the calculations Jora had felt terrible. She was tired and exhausted after her night-shift and so the sleep was well deserved. The soft ground she was lying on felt great and and the only think she missed right now was her blanket. Probably she had it just kicked from her bed. Her mind began to work slowly but refused to lay too much effort in organizing all events for the moment; it wasn't necessary right now.
She didn't want to waste any thoughts in getting up, because then she would have to face again the fact that her last attempt to get the artifact working had failed. She just wanted to enjoy the relaxed feeling that was running through her body until the alarm-clock would ring and she would open her eyes, getting up, drinking her coffee and then let the day start anew again.
Jora moved herself to the site so that she could lie a little more comfortable when she felt something harder hitting her ankle. For a moment she was confused, did she left her Smartphone in her bed? A little bit of pain was running through her body, normally not enough to be realized, but it started to awaken Jora's mind completely and her brain began to work.

The artifact, the bright light, she had pulled the wires of it, that strange feeling, this immense pain …  she opened her eyes instantly and regret it already. A wave of sickness was overrunning her and for a moment she wasn't sure if she had to puke her last meal at the ground. The ground … Jora was  now facing the ground she was lying on and it wasn't her bed, nor was it the clean and sterile fllor of the laboratory. She was blinking at very small and soft blades of grass, a soft breeze was running around her body and when she slowly lifted her gaze, she was looking at trees that were surrounding her.
Confusion was about to overwhelming her when she sat up very carefully and looked around. When she was sitting, her view went over her own body and Jora noticed, that her labcoat was gone. She only wore her green skirt and top she was usually wearing beneath her coat, but this was just something she was realizing for some moments when the big question came into her mind: Where the hell was she?  


Her mind tried to figure out what happened, but there was not a single realistic solution or answer to that question. A few hours before she had been in the lab and now she was in some kind of … jungle-like surrounding. The climate was warm and the whole fauna didn't look like it would fit into the European area, not even in her fantasy. Moments before she had touched the artifact and then all this light … and Jora blinked.
The artifact! It seemed to have worked and in the end her algorithm was right. But why did it work this time and not the time when Professor Toramen was using it? More important: How could such a small piece of stone do such a thing? Her mind was running and for just a moment she also ignored the fact that she was completely alone somewhere else, before she took a deep breath and looked around again. Whatever happened to her, whether the artifact had worked correctly, this was an accidence or she was really dead and now haunting the amazons-jungle as a ghost … she had to do something instead of just sitting around.
Carefully she stood up and suddenly she felt dizzy. The sickness was running through her body into her stomach again and for a moment she wasn't sure if her stand was ground enough to stay on her legs.
More important, she felt strange, like somewhat at her had changed drastically, but she couldn't say exactly where this feeling came from. The first thing she would have to do was finding other people; wherever she was, civilization was never far, on every country on Earth and so she would first find some other people, then she would call the embassy, because she was pretty sure that this wasn't Western Europe. For a moment she thought about using her cellphone but the device was inside of her labcoat and that one she couldn't see anywhere.
Now was also the first time she realized that she didn't wear any shoes; Jora was staring at her naked feet and wondered what the hell happened to all that stuff and that she was pretty much happy about the fact not standing naked here. When she raised her head to gaze into the sky she tried to figure out in which direction; she was looking for airplanes or anything, but she didn't see anything, only the bright sun shining down at her without any cloud protecting her.
And so she decided to walk along the border of these woods in front of her; probably she would meet sooner or later some of these lumbers who were grubbing the jungle all the time and destroying the nature – you could hear it all the time in the news. Such people would help her and if not of charity, then for the goal of getting some money for their help. And so Jora began to walk into an unknown destination.


The more time she walked forward, the more strange and wrong looked the whole area to her. All the time she tried to figure out where exactly she could have landed, but no part really had some very typical characteristics of any country she knew about. What was even more confusing was the fact that she didn't meet any other people.
In the far she heard some noises from time to time; like some birds were singing and even some bushes from inside the woods were shaking, which led her take a bigger distance between the border of the wood and herself. But the real big confusion should follow: After one hour of walking in one direction, the area was still looking the same; no signs of streets, no city in the far, nothing.
And to make everything perfect strange she suddenly stopped and stared down when she noticed something very disturbing: To her left she suddenly saw some trees that were different than the one she had seen before. These trees were looking exact the same … the “big” difference between both was the size of them. Most of the trunks didn't even reached her knee. They were small, no, tiny and Jora couldn't believe what she saw there. Of course she had heard of tiny trees like bonsais and other, but she never had heard that they were growing wild in the nature. She stepped closer and went on her knees to watch the tiny trunk.
It was amazing and confusing at the same time and now with these small trees she realized what was bugging her all the time too: The grass she was walking on was also that small. Normally the grass in the central park where she was living was at least covering her toes, sometimes even her ankles, but this grass just had deserve the name because of the softness and the fact that it was green. Again Jora had to ask herself where she was and what was going on.
All this didn't make any sense and slowly she began to worry that the lack of civilization could continue for a while. But then she scolded herself like she did sometimes: The planet was civilized for the most parts and whatever that Artifact did to her, she would find some people soon, she knew it.


The hours passed and Jora was walking without any goal. The sun had been at the highest point and was sinking now slowly. Sweat was dropping of her forehead and her top was sticking at her body. Her feet hurt, she felt tired and more important, she was hungry and thirsty like hell. That plus the fact that she didn't had any coffee for a too long time, made her situation really bad and so she decided to sit down and take a break. There was no gain in walking all the time when she would probably need all her power when she finally would find the first settlement. Still, this whole flora was strange and the noises from inside the jungle-like woods became louder and louder from time to time. Was this a kind of biotope?
Maybe she was inside a safe-zone for animals and that was the reason why she didn't find any other people around? The more she thought about it, the more it made sense; of course she had to be at a place were human presence was restricted; which would also explain all these animal-noises. She just had to wait until one of the park-ranger would find her on his patrol through the park and she would be fine. Of course she would have to explain how she came there; Jora really hoped they would speak her language, otherwise it would become a little bit difficult to communicate with the locals.
Knowing that she was safe and somebody would find her soon, she was able to relax a little bit and crossed her legs. She thought about how she would explain her situation to Professor Toramen – he would probably be furious and angry with her and if she would be lucky, he would just yell at her and not firing her on the instant. Jora just thought about what kind of expression she should have on her face, when she caught something within the corner of her vision.
Something was moving on her right, where also some woods were. Something small was moving there and for a moment Jora was really surprised that she was able to notice the noise. But before she could ask herself since when she had such a good sense of hearing, the small creature came out of the wood and instantly stopped;  gazing at Jora – and Jora gazing at the small creature. For an outsider it would have been hard tot ell to say who looked more confused and disturbed; but probably Jora would have won that contest.

In front of the blonde woman was a male human standing. He wore some practical stuff, like everybody would expect to wear if you're out in the wilderness. So far this all wasn't that strange. Strange was the fact, that this man was not just looking down at her-like most men did-, he was looking UP to her and that's because he wasn't bigger than the distance between Jora's thumb and her index finger.
Both were staring at each other in disbelief; this couldn't be possible, was this some kind of machine or anything? Jora asked herself. But before she could say anything or even react, the man in front of her became pale, lifted up a walkie-talkie and screamed in it


“Predator! PREDATOR! RUN!” and he turned around like Jora was the devil herself and ran. Now Jora blinked and her sense came back, she couldn't let this -whatever it was- escape, she needed answers. She dashed forward and stretched her hand out and for a moment it was looking like she would be successful. Her index finger even touched the tiny figurine for a moment, but then she crashed too far forward and her face hit one of the small trees, ripping it out of the ground.


“Wait! Hey! Wait! You need to stop! HEY! I'm a friend! PLEASE! I NEED HELP!” she screamed with all the power of her lungs into the forest where the tiny person had vanished and her loud voice was so strong that several tiny birds began to start from their trees and flying into the sky. Jora watched them with disbelief and then stared into the darkness of the woods in front of her. “COME BACK! PLEASE!I BEG YOU!” she shouted one time again but there was nothing more.


It was too much for the moment. She led herself fall backward to the ground, now lying on her back and staring up into the blue sky. Where the hell was she? Was this some kind of strange dream? Or maybe she was lying in coma and had hallucinations? The person in front of her had looked like a tiny human, like a little figurine that became alive, but that wasn't possible, there was no logical explanation for all this.  
Tiny persons just exist in tales like Alice in Wonderland or the story about Gulliver, where fairies and giants were living and all that – but not in the real world! She closed her eyes and pressed them together as hard as she could; like this could help her waking up from this bad dream. But when she opened her eyes again she was still lying on the ground of this strange place and with all the power of her lungs Jora led out a scream of frustration.

Wherever she was, she wasn't in a national-park, that much she had figured out since she had seen that tiny man. And with this realization she had given up all her hopes that someone would stop by and bringing her into safety. So she would have to find a way back to the next city on her own. There had to be one, and so she continued walking while the sun was burning down at her. With time she was pretty happy about the fact that she didn't wear any shoes because she was sure that she would already have blisters all over her feet.
The ground was soft enough to walk comfortably but this didn't change the fact that Jora wasn't used to walk such long time. The most distances she crossed with her car, the subway or any other transportation and at work she was most of the time sitting in her lab and the only walking around were some deliver-tasks she did from time to time. The other fact that she slowly realized was that she felt extremely hungry. During her nightshift she didn't eat very much and after the failure in the lab she had to force herself to eat a sandwich.
The last time she bit in that tasty and delicious sandwich with the salami and the turkey felt like half an eternity. Her stomach was growling and her throat was dry as hell. Inside her mind she tried to think about, how long she would made it without eating and drinking. The result wasn't very promising: She would survive a long time without both; but the more important question was how long her body would work if he was used to regular meals. And that was a question she didn't want to think too much about.



During her wandering she passed several woods that were flanking her, when she suddenly heard something that sounded like music in her ears: the plashing of water. With all her strength she was moving as fast as possible in direction of the origin of the plashing. When Jora just crossed the distance and moved around a part of a close wood she saw it: there was a spring.
Fresh water was pouring out of it and it looked delicious. She was stumbling forward like an helpless newborn animal and dived her hands into the water, just to take out a whole hand and drink it with just three swallows. She took some new water and enjoyed the fresh feeling of the cold wet water, flowing down her throat, it was so refreshing like nothing else ever before in her life.
Now Jora raised her view and looked around; nobody seemed to be here at the spring, no animals or other creatures, not big or small, which wasn't what she had expected from a wild place like this but it was fine with her. She was looking up to the sky and saw the sun sinking down at the horizon and the blonde human made a decision.
She had really hoped that she would find any signs of civilization before the sun would go down but now she had to stay somewhere to spend the night. This place was close to some fresh water and that was a good beginning. She still felt hungry but at least the thirst was already fading and that was even more important: dying because of dehydration was more likely than starving.


When the sun had vanished the air became cooler but it wasn't cold. The ground had saved all the warmth and Jora was pretty tired so that she just rolled herself up on the ground and closed her eyes very soon. After a night of sleep the world would look much different and probably she would even find an explanation for the strange appearance of that small man.
Maybe Jora was in some strange kind of fun-park from an old rich man and he just didn't know it. Maybe this small human was just a machine. Whatever he was, it wasn't important right now, she just needed some sleep … and after this thought her eyes closed and she fell asleep.



She was sitting again in her lab in front of the artifact. Jora was staring at the small stone-like object and was watching it. She knew that she was missing something, she was looking at it all the time but she couldn't say what exactly was hiding in front of her eyes.

“Maybe something under the surface? When we tried to shoot some pulses through it, it was always glowing.” it was the voice of Susan who was suddenly sitting to Jora's left.

“No, the pulses were just animating it. We need to see the bigger part ...” Jora answered.

“That's always your problem Jora. You always try to see something bigger. We can't know what purpose this object had. Maybe it was just a light-device?” Susan asked and smiled.

“Come on … we'll find it out. We just have to find the right calculation … we need to dig deeper.”

“But you are not supposed to do so, Mrs. Ferenden. You were not allowed to do this experiment without anyone overseeing it.” Professor Tomaren was now sitting to her right. “And although you disobeyed your orders. And see what happened. You are ambitious, that's good … but you went too far, Mrs. Ferenden.”

“You had already tried the sequence and it didn't work. Why this time? Why? I can't figure it out, it doesn't make any sense!”

“Sweetie, you shouldn't worry about that” her mother just replied, standing behind her and laying her hands on Jora's shoulders.

“I have to, Mum. The answer is the solution to my problem … I know it.” Jora answered.

“That could be but right now you should be aware of your surroundings …

Be aware …

Aware”



It was like something deep inside her mind was screaming at her and from one moment to the other Jora opened her eyes and startled up. She was now sitting in front of something, that woke up some primal fears inside her.
A creature, no a monstrosity, was not too far away from her. It was a strange kind of insect-like creature, a bug with thorns all over the body, two pair of red glowing eyes, at least Jora thought they were glowing, and long limbs. It was as big as Jora imagined a horse and it made clacking noises while it moved closer toward the blond scientist. Her breath began to run, panic tried to overwhelm her and it was successful: With a loud and terrified scream she jumped up and began to run away.
Maybe this kind of screaming saved her life because instead of moving closer to her, the creature held some distance for a moment, so that Jora had enough time to flee and now she was running for her life. She didn't see where she was running, it was completely dark and the surroundings were passing by to fast for the moment.
No gaze over her shoulder, nothing, she just moved forward with all her power, bringing her muscles to their maximum. Her lungs were burning and she felt sick, but she didn't stop. She was just rushing forward, until she suddenly felt how her right leg was hanging in something; Jora tried to keep balance but she couldn't.
With a painful slam she landed face forward in the dirt, her right leg paining like hell and she had to force herself up, stumbling away. She continued this for about fifteen minutes until she could be sure that nobody or nothing followed her and she was alone again. Then she felt to the ground and in front of her eyes appeared the picture of that monster again. What was that? And where the hell was she? Where was she?


This desperate thought was circling inside her mind until she couldn't hold it back anymore. She sat there and tears were flowing out of her eyes. She was crying like a little child.
Jora was hungry, she was tired, she saw strange things, she didn't know where she was, she was chased by monsters – it was too much. Way too much, and so she cried, and cried, and cried – for about an hour she didn't do anything else. She cursed herself, cursed her curiosity, cursed that damn artifact, cursed her Professor what that the code didn't work when he tried it and they all were in safety. She hated her situation, she just wanted to make it stop, she wanted to wake up! Now!



Of course she didn't suddenly woke up in her bed and after she wasn't anymore able to cry, she had continued her walk. With the knowledge that such monsters were outside here, she couldn't sleep anymore. And so she hobbled forward, her right leg hurt but after Jora had examined it she was pretty sure that nothing was broken; probably just a little bruise. The whole night nothing happened and she was even that lucky that she found some strange kind of berries.
Jora wasn't able to identify them and normally she would have never tried them, but she was that hungry that she didn't care. In the end they didn't seem to be poisoned and so she had at least a little bit inside her stomach. When the night faded and the sun began to rise, Jora had lost all feelings for distances.
She didn't know how much progress she had made since she awoke at this terrible place; it felt like she had surrounded the whole world, bur she also knew that her feelings probably tricked her. When she was younger her dad insisted to take her at a Camping Holiday and the days and marches they took all the time seemed like an eternity; in the end they were very short and nothing worth on a map.
Jora always hated to be in the wilderness; she was born and raised close to the metropolis and wen she moved out from home she couldn't wait to find a place to live in the big city.


Without any watch, a compass or a map she was lost; a thought that came to her close to midday of this new day. She still couldn't find any signs of a city or other persons; she didn't even saw another small human again. Maybe this also was just an illusion, maybe she became mad because of her weakness.
Maybe she should just give up and sit down, accepting her fate. The thought seemed to be more and more attractive, not at least because her right ankle began to hurt and so Jora led herself fall on the ground close to one of these bigger trees and took a deep breath. If this was her end, she wanted to die with pride. She would leave some hints for the rescue team so that they could learn what happened to her and … Jora suddenly stopped with her thoughts.
Something was moving behind her in the woods. Something wasn't just moving, it was coming closer, and it wasn't small as the tiny human was; it was something bigger than that. The monsters were coming back! They had followed her! She would die, now and under much pain. Her breath began to run again, tears were collected inside her eyes and then she couldn't stand it any longer- she jumped forward, turned around and stared into the wood. When the creature came closer, she whimpered and closed her eyes.


“Please not, I don't want to die!” she screamed and sobbed. “I don't, I don't, I don't!”


“You will die if you're not silent, stupid woman!” a voice answered harsh and suddenly Jora stopped. These were words, spoken in her language, from a being that was in front of her and probably looking down at her.


Very slowly Jora began to open her eyes, just to expect to be killed by something but when she opened her eyes completely she was looking up to a woman. She had a slim figure, some strong leg-muscles, the rest seemed to be trained but not too much . She wore long, brown hair and a stern expression was on the youthful face.
The first moment Jora thought that woman would be much younger than she was, but the brown eyes of the woman told her different; they were experienced and fixing her. Her bronce like skin was covered with a kind of bustier and a short skirt, both made from the fur of an animal Jora couldn't really tell.
Telling from her skin-tone she was a native to this country, maybe she was at last in Africa or any other southern part of the world? Her hands were pushed at her side and she was still looking down at the blond woman. Jora guessed that the stranger was at least one head bigger than she was.


“Crying and shouting around … do you want to draw attention from some Tonorions?!  Damn it woman, I'm wondering all the time how you can survive out here.” she sounded upset but Jora didn't care, there was a human in front of her.


After all the time she finally had found another human. A bright grin appeared on her face and she had to fight back the urge to just hug this woman. “I'm so glad you're here Miss. You can't imagine what I went through … it was horrible. You have to secure this national-park much better, even if it's quite exotic, I have to admit. Say … where do we find the next city? I really need to make a call to tell my superiors what happened … I'm pretty sure that there is a way to call Europe, right? We're all connected with each other, aren't we?” she smiled satisfied. Finally, she was safe.


The woman stared at her and Jora couldn't say if she wasn't able to understand her or why she was looking like she had no clue what Jora was talking about. “Call? Europe? Superior? Are you hurt? Did you fall on your head?” now the woman seemed more worried than anything else. “I knew that you're acting strange but this ...”


Now Jora started to get angry. What did this wild woman doing? “Can't you see I'm in need for a transport? I was lost for two days in this wilderness. Without anything to eat! It was horrible, you can believe me. I even was attacked by some wild animals of yours!”


“Wild animals of mine? What are you talking about? And why didn't you eat for days? There is enough food around us. I don't see your problem ...” now the confusion came back and the stranger shook her head. “Are you sure you're okay?” she asked again.


Jora took a deep breath. Maybe you had to talk slowly with those savages and explain them everything piece by piece. “Okay, let us discuss the details later, okay? Where is the next city where I can get some food?”


“City? The only big city is Negav in the far, and you would be crazy to go there to get some food.” the woman still shook her head with disbelief.


Negav? She had never heard of a city called Negav. Maybe a smaller city deep inside the continent. “Why should it be dangerous? Is is that expensive or what? Look … just help me to your car and take me there, okay?”


“Car? What is … what the hell are you talking about? Speak clear, woman, you don't make any sense! Aren't you from here? Where are you from? And what the hell are you doing in my territory?”


“Your territory? What do you mean?” Jora asked now confused and even more annoyed. She just wanted to get back into the city, rent a room and then fly back home.


“Yes, my hunting territory. And with you screaming around you'll scare away all my prey.”


“Hunting … ohhh I see. You're one of these wild natives, right? I understand. Look, I'm from Europe, it's from faaar away from your continent Africa. But if you take me tot he city with biiig building I'll be fine, yes?” if she just spoke like to a little child that woman would understand her.


“Africa? I don't know any Africa, or Europe. Are you sure you're okay? Because I've never seen a giantess acting like as strange as you do.”


“Gian … what? Are you saying I'm fat? What do you mean with giantess? And why the hell don't you know your own continent?”


Now it seemed like the woman lost her patience. “YOU are a giantess. You are like me, and you're in my territory where I had sensed some humans and I'm pretty sure they are gone now. And you're not in “Africa” wherever this is. You're in Felarya.”


Giantess. Humans .. did she say … humans? The small man, the trees, the grass, the strange feeling. Jora became pale.


“Felarya? I don't know any country with that name” she mumbled.


“Felarya is no country, its this world, this dimension. Damn woman you should now such thing if you came here, you're definitely no native, huh? Are you okay? ...” her voice now sounded worried again.


“Felarya … dimension ...” Jora whispered, then she realized everything and all color went out of her body. She stared at the woman just to collapse again. And this time she was thankful for just breaking together.



Jora didn't hear the stranger curse loud and she even didn't feel how she was picked up and dragged away. “Felarya” - it was the last thing she thought.