The smoke was thick enough to choke on, black and oily as it rolled through the collapsing hallway. Nathan Lawrence pressed his sleeve against his mouth, squinting through the heat haze that made the air shimmer like a mirage. His lungs burned with every breath, but he kept moving forward, one hand trailing along the scorched wall to keep his balance.
He shouldn't have come back inside. The firefighters had told everyone to stay out, that the building was seconds away from total collapse. But Nathan had heard it, that small voice crying somewhere on the third floor, and his feet had moved before his brain could catch up.
"Hello?" His voice came out hoarse, barely audible over the roar of flames eating through the apartment complex.
"Where are you?"
A whimper answered him, thin and desperate. Nathan followed the sound, kicking open a door that hung loose on its hinges. Inside, curled beneath a table in what used to be a kitchen, was a little girl no older than six. Her face was streaked with soot and tears.
"It's okay," Nathan said, dropping to his knees despite the way his vision swam.
"I've got you."
The girl reached for him with trembling hands, and Nathan pulled her close, tucking her face against his chest. He turned back toward the door, but the ceiling groaned overhead, a deep and ominous sound that made his stomach drop.
He ran through the hallway that seemed longer now, stretching impossibly as chunks of burning debris rained down around them. Nathan felt something hot slash across his shoulder, then his back, but he didn't stop. The girl was light in his arms, fragile as glass, and he held her tighter as the world turned into a blur of orange and black.
The stairwell was just ahead. He could see the emergency exit sign, still glowing green through the smoke.
"Almost there!"
Then the floor gave way. Nathan's stomach lurched as gravity took hold, and for one surreal moment, he was weightless.
He twisted midair, curling his body around the girl, making sure she stayed on top as they fell. The impact drove the air from his lungs in a violent rush, and pain exploded through his spine.
He couldn't breathe, and move. His vision flickered in and out, dark spots blooming like ink in water.
Above him, the girl was coughing but alive. Someone was pulling her away, shouting words Nathan couldn't quite make out anymore. His hearing had gone distant, muffled, like he was underwater.
He tried to lift his head, but his body wouldn't respond. Everything felt cold now, despite the flames still raging around the edges of his vision. Strange, how quickly warmth could leave you.
Nathan closed his eyes. He thought about his research, the ancient texts he'd been translating just that morning, and forgotten languages from forgotten people.
He'd always been drawn to the past, to civilizations that had crumbled into dust and myth. His colleagues used to joke that he lived more in dead worlds than the living one.
Maybe they were right. His breathing slowed. Each inhale was a struggle, shallow and weak.
Then he heard it. A voice, soft but clear, cutting through the chaos like a blade through silk. It didn't come from outside. It came from somewhere deeper, inside his own fading consciousness.
"Your soul remembers the forest."
Nathan's eyes flew open, but there was nothing to see. Only darkness now, thick and absolute.
"Return, Elf King."
The words wrapped around him, cold as winter wind, and Nathan felt something shift. Not in the world, but in himself. It was as if invisible hands were pulling him backward, unraveling the threads that tied him to his body, to the burning building, to Earth itself.
He wanted to ask what it meant, who was speaking, but his lips wouldn't move. The last sensation he registered was the feeling of falling again, not down but away, tumbling through an endless void where time and space meant nothing.
Then everything stopped. There was only silence with absolute. Until it wasn't.
Sound returned first, a confusion of voices speaking in a language Nathan didn't recognize but somehow understood. Rough, guttural words mixed with sharp laughter. Then came the smells of an unwashed bodies, rotting straw, and something metallic that made his nose wrinkle.
It was blood. Nathan's eyes cracked open, and immediately regretted it. Harsh sunlight stabbed into his vision, making him flinch. He tried to lift a hand to shield his face, but his arm jerked to a stop with a metallic rattle..
His heart kicked into overdrive as awareness flooded back. He was lying on hard stone, naked and cold.
Iron shackles bit into his wrists and ankles, connected to a central ring bolted into the ground. Around him, dozens of figures huddled in similar states of captivity, their faces hollow with fear and resignation.
Nathan's breath came faster now, panic clawing at his chest. Where was he? What happened? The fire, the girl, the voice—
"Your soul remembers the forest. Return, Elf King."
He looked down at himself and froze. His skin was wrong. It's too pale, almost luminescent in the afternoon light, with a faint silver undertone that seemed to shimmer when he moved. His hands were smaller than they should be, more delicate, with long fingers that tapered to a point.
And when he reached up, ignoring the bite of the chains, his fingertips brushed against the sides of his head.
His ears were pointed. Not just pointed. Elongated, sweeping back in an elegant curve that no human could ever possess.
Nathan's mind refused to process it at first. This had to be a dream, some dying hallucination as his brain shut down in the burning building. But the cold stone beneath him felt too real, the ache in his muscles too sharp, and the stench of the place too vivid.
"Fresh meat just woke up."
Nathan's head snapped toward the voice. A man stood outside the cage, human by the look of him, with a scarred face and cruel eyes. He wore leather armor and carried a short whip coiled at his belt.
"Pretty one too," the man continued, leaning closer to inspect Nathan through the bars. "Bet the nobles will fight over this one."
"Male Elf. Now that's a rare prize."
The words echoed in Nathan's skull as realization crashed over him like a wave. He wasn't on Earth anymore, and he wasn't human anymore. From the looks of the chains, the cage, and the hungry stares of the slavers outside, his new life had already begun in the worst possible way.
"What...?"