“This is Captain Galan Oriwynn of the S.S. Grateful. It is the 6th of Highstar in the year 1587, six days after an attack on my dear ship by thugs sent us all tumbling down beneath the clouds and into the barren blanket-wastes.”
Galan’s head tipped up towards the sky, taking a quick pause to glance up solemnly at the thick, unending sheet of grey clouds coating it and blocking out so much of the sunlight he had quickly began to miss. He sighed, before giving his head a shake and pulling his portable audio recorder back toward his mouth, where he promptly resumed his murmuring.

“I’m running low on supplies - my bag is nearly empty of bread, though I have at least managed to top up my water bottle. I’m still unsure what is edible here… the trees are a strange hue, and the fruits are unrecognisable. I’ve yet to run into any animal I can catch - they all seem faster than they are back home. I--”

The creak of the trees caused Galan’s body to stiffen and his eyes darted up toward the thin canopy of the trees gently swaying around him, their huge leaves discoloured to almost look blue in the gloomy, clouded light. His antennae, the tips glowing as they sensed his surroundings, flicked to and fro as he tried to get a better idea of his surroundings, but as far as he could tell there was nothing around to be scared of. Nevertheless, he bit his lip and lowered his voice even more as he began to slowly make his way forward again, whispering.
“... I’ve yet to meet any intelligent life, at all, but... I did stumble across huts last night; dishevelled and falling apart, yes, but huts nonetheless. What caught me off guard about them, though, was their sheer--”

Again, Galan was interrupted when out of nowhere when a low moan reverberated through the trees, seemingly bouncing off every surface with its power and causing the small Edenian to quiver in his boots, the volume of the groan enough to rattle his bones silly. His slow, cautious pace quickly changed into a panicked scurry as his eyes, long ears and antennae darted every which way in a horrified attempt to locate the source of that strange grumble. Whatever had just made that noise… It sounded big. Way too big for Galan to be able to deal with - he had his sidearm, but he was not used to wielding it and didn’t trust its firepower in practice. They didn’t stop the bandits, after all.

The strange rumble didn’t sound again as Galan ran, but he didn’t let that calm him so easily. The forest around him was light on foliage - to an extent it was barely a forest at all - but nevertheless, the dark shadows the towering trees cast on him was enough to send his nerves into panic mode. He didn’t want to stop until he was back in open grassland, again.

Unfortunately, when he did find the grassland, what he found within it did not help his nerves. He staggered out in the open and before him, in the ever dimming light of day, was a herd of massive, shaggy beasts sleepily lumbering through the thick greenery. Their size made Galan’s jaw drop - they had to be the size of a house, at least! Covered in thick locks of mud-coloured hair, they looked almost like walking hay mounds, but with long snouts pointing out from among their coats. Galan squinted, trying to see better in the growing dusk. Not snouts - trunks! Short trunks and soft, intelligent looking eyes gazing out from beneath their thick strands and twinkling gently in what light was left. They plodded along on flat feet and gently shook the ground in their slow strides, some having let their bodies slowly drop to the ground as they prepared to rest for the night. Galan’s heart was still pounding, but he couldn’t help but be mesmerized by the sight of these magnificent creatures. Slowly he brought his recorder to his mouth. Quietly he murmured into it, his voice filled with astonishment.
“... Update: I believe I have discovered a herd of live mammoths.”
Looking around, he shuffled over to a nearby brush and knelt down behind it so he was out of sight, but he could still study the creatures eagerly with the little bit of light there still was.
“They have some differences from the descriptions in the books, though - their trunks are shorter, thicker, and I don’t see tusks on any of them. They’re also much more… pill-shaped than I thought they’d be. Perhaps these are a different type of mammoth? I should refer to them as something different for clarity’s sake… hm, I believe ‘shaggy mammoths’ should suffice for the time,” He chuckled softly to himself - the first time he’d done so since he’d crashed. It was a feeling of curiosity and elation he’d missed dearly. He almost managed to forget about his hunger.

A sudden thumping and shuffling beside him caused Galan to nearly jump the height of himself, his body whirling round to confront a long face staring back at him. The creature’s trunk raised a little and it let out a deep trump, taking a startled step back from Galan’s leap. Galan’s eyes grew wide - one of the mammoths had apparently taken notice of him - this one was significantly smaller, maybe a curious youngster, but still more than large enough to trample him if it so wished. He fell back and stared up at the creature, but when it didn’t charge him or bellow, he felt his body loosen just a little. The beast watched him, slowly plodding closer as its trunk reached out curiously. Slowly he rose to his feet, only to be tapped and prodded by said trunk as the youngster studied him. He couldn’t help but smile a little - it seemed the both of them were discovering something new!

Unfortunately the tender moment was cut short when another of those heart-pounding rumbles caused the air around them to quake and quiver. Immediately the shaggy mammoth’s trunk pulled away and with a toot of surprise it hurried back toward its herd, its parents ready to keep it safe from whatever made that noise. Galan figured the baby had the right idea and scurried away from his hiding spot, looking for a larger and more dense piece of shrubbery to hide within. Even as he got further away from the herd, however, he could feel the ground was shaking, and it wasn’t depreciating like it should have been - instead, the rhythmic shakes were getting stronger, and stronger… Galan’s heart leapt into his throat as the scared and confused Edenian desperately looked for somewhere adequate to hide. Within just a few heartbeats, the thumping was strong enough to knock Galan right off his feet and he tumbled face first into the dry dirt. He grumbled in pain and his first instinct was to get up, but then he heard that strange groan again - this time he could feel its power practically petrify him as it resounded from something that was uncomfortably close and uncomfortably large. It wasn’t the mammoths - this was different, this sounded… evil.

He didn’t get much time to consider it beyond that, though - just as he gained the strength and will to lift himself up, he heard the trees behind him groan and crunch as something pushed its way through them. Not knowing what else to do, he instantly went limp, hoping his small stature and the tall grass would conceal him from whatever was coming. His ear against the ground, the tremendous footsteps shook his brain in his skull and made him feel a little dizzy. He didn’t dare move as a shadow fell over him, less powerful but still noticeable groans and grunts rumbling high up above him. Suddenly, wind kicked up and blew hard against his face and caused the grass around him to flutter wildly, which was accompanied by a heavy slam as something crashed down in front of him.

A tree?

Galan’s eyes grew wide and his skin went deathly pale.

No… that was no tree. That was a foot. One big enough to crush a whole carriage beneath it in a single step, landing mere paces away from his hiding spot. His throat went dry as he tried to take it all in, and winced instinctively as the giant’s other foot swung over him and thumped down on his other side. He couldn’t see much detail apart from the dull green colour of the monster’s skin before it rose up and swung away from him, sending small rocks and chunks of earth careening through the earth as the massive creature strode away. Galan, despite his overwhelming terror, dared to turn his head to watch it make its way toward the herd - the huge beast looked to be humanoid, but it was vastly larger than any living creature he’d seen before - accompanied by its stature was massive, bulging muscles across its lumbering body and shoulders wide enough to harbor a whole street of homes upon them. Upon its head were short blunt horns lining its forehead like a crown and thick locks of hair running right down the middle of its scalp like a horse’s mane. Its scaly skin was coated with soil and dirt and protruding from its lower back was a thick, short tail, held perpendicular to its back. Seemingly for balance, Galan noted. It lumbered toward the mammoths, those of which only just surpassed its knees, and that was when Galan caught another stomping out from the trees much further to his right.

Just how many of these were coming? That thought jolted Galan’s mind into thinking about his survival once again, the small man forcing his attention away from the awe-filled spectacle of the giants. Orga, they were called back home. The mythical monsters of the world beneath the clouds. He knew they were big, but… none of the stories compared to what he was witnessing at that moment.

Galan, keeping as low as he could to avoid any chance of being spotted, began to crawl through the grass on his hands and knees. He knew getting up wouldn’t help much anyway - the shaking of the ground would likely just knock him right back down again. So he continued to worm his way along the ground, even circling right around the prints in the earth where the Orga had flattened the grass just to make sure he was never in any open spaces. As he moved he saw another follow the second Orga out of the trees, this one slightly smaller than the rest, but he didn’t focus on it for long as a fourth striding out of the trees to his left caused him to quickly curl up in a ball, not even looking this time as it strode right past. The group of them seemed to turn to each other and make those horrible deep groans at each other - almost as if that was how they talked. Galan raised his head up as the fourth stomped away and looked around. That seemed to be the last of them. With the ground feeling more stable and still again, he took this chance to stagger up onto his feet and bolt for the tree line. At this point, the sun had totally set, leaving the land in near total darkness thanks to the clouds. No stars or moon here… just a black void up above. He fled back into the safety of the canopy; even though he struggled to see where he was going, he figured it’d be better in there than out in the open. In his careless panic he tripped right over a thick root, once again hitting the ground with a grunt of pain. He felt a sharp fallen branch cut through his pants and scratch his knee, causing him to clench his teeth and hiss in pain. He leant onto the nearest trunk to help himself up, but upon contact he knew something felt off. It was only when he’d successfully made it back up onto his feet did he really think about it. This tree… did not feel like a tree. The bark wasn’t bark, it didn’t feel rough, it felt… too smooth. And scaly.