Endirth
Where am I?  I sit up and look around, seeing unicorns and flying horses.  I must be going crazy.  The last thing that I remember was being knocked out cold by a shoe store owner.  I get up, stretching my muscles but realizing that they aren’t sore at all.  Wouldn’t sleeping on the ground hurt?  I look down to see a thick layer of grass acting like a cushion to my body.
I look at the landscape for the first real time and gasp.  Massive oak trees are scattered around, with vividly green grass covering the rich, soft ground.  The sound of rushing water calms my fast heart.  I run over to a prominent waterfall, leaving the unicorns and pegasi alone to graze.
“Who are you?” A little hermit appears out of nowhere and stares at me accusingly.  His eyes are a deep shade of brown, and I flinch when I see his body.  He’s sporting a pair of dog ears, with the torso and legs of a kangaroo.  “You don’t look like you’re from around here.”
“Where am I?” I ask, looking around in wonder.
“You mean that you don’t know that you’re in the middle of Endirth?” he says skeptically, his ears flapping gently in the breeze.  “The land of all sacred horses?” he says as if I should know what he’s talking about.
I give him a blank stare and his expression changes.  “You really aren’t from around here…”  “Come quickly before they find you,” he whispers as he pulls me closer to the waterfall.
The pristine water glitters and I begin to wonder where he’s taking me.  Before I know it, the little thing hops into the waterfall with a quick, “Whipee!”
My instincts take over and I leap into the waterfall, appearing on the other side amazed that I’m not drenched.  I look left to right and see a vast amount of little animals walking around on two feet, their furry ears wagging like a dog’s.  I reach down to pet one, and am startled by a deep voice.  “What do you think you’re doing, trying to grab a Wencher like that?” says a gruff voice.
“Who was that?” I announce into the brightly lit cave.
“Me you dimwit,” the little animal says, staring at me with it’s brown eyes.
I run towards the hermit, remembering that he was taking me somewhere.  I awkwardly pat the dog thing on the head, and then sprint down the tunnel to the hermit.
I catch up to the hermit and we reach the end of the long tunnel.  We retreat into the last door and the hermit looks at me gravely.
“So you are the one that we’ve been waiting for for so long,” he says, curiously looking at me.  “Two thousand years ago the Wencher’s were given a message from Elia, predicting that in exactly 2000 years a young man would appear seemingly out of nowhere.  He was said to have golden eyes and messed up hair,” he points to my bedhead.  My hair probably does look like a rat’s nest...
“A hero was said to appear when Endirth is in the greatest peril it will ever face.”  He looks at me with a sad look in his puppy dog eyes. “The time has come.”
The small furry animal reaches upward towards a glass case.  I glance up and and confused when the hermit takes a sheath out of the case.  “This is the only object that you will receive for your quest.”
“What am I supposed to do with an empty sheath?”  A great amount of yelling then arises from the end of the corridor I came from.
“Come with me.” The hermit says frantically.  “I will show you the way out, but you must leave on your journey at once.”
The hermit touches the nose of a painting and I could hear it complain.  “Why don’t you ever poke Frank in the nose? Or even Henry.  Just not poor Charles…”
My eyebrow raises as we run down the staircase, narrowly avoiding the horde of soldiers.  I see armor and realize that they came heavily armed.
“This is the end.  You must leave me,” the hermit says glumly.
“What must I do?” I question.
“Go to the palace of Remin and tell the king, ‘The time has come.’ He will know at once who you are,” the hermit says, looking deep into my eyes.  “When you are in a time of dire need, hold the object I gave you and think of all you care about.”
I walk out of the tunnel and take a deep breath.  The cold air fills my lungs as I step slowly into the blinding sunlight.  The forest of trees in front of me seem to be welcoming me as I disappear into them.  The birds chirp and I hear their speech.  This is going to be a long journey...