//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: A New Beginning in a New Land 
// by REDACTED99999 
//------------------------------//

	He woke up as from a nightmare. He was instantly wide awake, breathing heavily, sweat covering his body. Confusion overtook him as he looked around. He was laying in a small meadow, in something he presumed was a forest. He could hear a stream or small river nearby, and above him the stars were shinning much brighter and in much greater numbers than he was used to…
Wait... what? He did a double take, but it was true. These stars were very different from what he was used to, and he couldn’t find any constellations he knew...
He checked again.
And again.
And now he was freaking out. He started hyperventilating.
‘Okay Jax, calm the fuck down. What’s the last thing I remember?’ He thought, only to become more confused, as his hand sought out his right temple.
‘I was dead… I died. But why do I feel so alive? Is this… heaven?’ He wasn’t sure. A meadow in a forest wasn’t how he imagined heaven. Furthermore, he didn’t belong in heaven, if you had to follow the rules in the bible to get there. Then again, he was a decent guy, maybe God was merciful and let him in anyway.
He took a deep breath, only to flinch. If this really was heaven, then why was he hurting all over? Lying on the ground did not agree with his body in the slightest.
Suddenly a wolf cry echoed through the night. Jax heaved himself into standing position. ‘Wolves huh? I heard they aren’t as dangerous as people make them out to be. Then again, better safe than sorry’ He thought as he looked around for a weapon. A few minutes later he found a stick that felt like it belonged in his hands. He relaxed against a tree as he stared contemplating.
He hadn’t heard any wolf cry since the first one and it was bothering him. Didn’t they do that to communicate? What was the point if no one answered? Then again, his knowledge on wolves was limited. He was more interested in mythological beings, like dragons. Yeah… Dragons were cool.
While he was standing there like an idiot, the wolves had silently surrounded him. He didn’t notice until one of them let out a growl, and he nearly shat himself. In a semicircle around him were beings that looked like a bunch of branches had tried to morph into a wolf. It didn’t look much like the wolves Jax knew, but their glowing green eyes were enough to make him scared. That and the fact that he was surrounded by something that shouldn’t exist. Then again, he should be dead… what would happen if he died a second time?
He decided this was no time to be contemplating such things. Also, why would a bunch of branches want to eat meat? Did they even have stomachs?
He tried to snap out of it a second time, but this was all really confusing. One of the… branchwolves jumped at him, but he managed to swing his mighty stick at it, throwing it to the side.
Jax quickly took stock of the situation, suddenly completely focused: He was surrounded by four branchwolves, one of them still recovering from the blow he gave it. He had his back against a tree, so they couldn’t attack him from behind, but he couldn’t turn around and run… not that that would be a good idea anyway. Only one thing to do in this situation: He had to climb the tree and hope to hell and heaven that they couldn’t climb. 
He quickly wacked the next branchwolf that jumped at him, and quickly threw his stick at the third, before turning 90 degrees, jumping up to a branch and lifting himself up. At least he started to before the last branchwolf jumped at him, biting into his left leg.
Jax was now certain of two things: This wasn’t a dream, and it sure as hell wasn’t heaven. The pain was too real.
He was half-way up the branch, but the weight of the branchwolf was dragging him down. He started kicking it with his right foot, as the other branchwolves started jumping for him as well, but luckily couldn’t get hold of him. With one final kick he finally got the stupid thing off, and managed to get onto the branch without the others grabbing him. He adjusted himself, making sure he didn’t fall, so that he sat with his back against the trunk. There weren’t any branches lower than the one he was sitting on, so all the branch-motherfucking-wolves could do was to jump up and down.
He looked down at his calf. It was bleeding all over the branch he was occupying, even dripping down to the branchwolves. He hissed in pain as he tried to adjust his position to take a closer look. As far as he could tell it wasn't that bad, but he would have to do something about before he bled too much. The blood seemed to drive the beasts crazy.
He sighed. This was too much too sudden. Dying twice in a row? No way was he dying again, the first time had been bad enough. Jax was determined to stay alive in this weird new world he found himself in. Even if it was weird, and he was already fighting for his life. He sighed again. He needed to get to the stream he could still hear nearby, clean the wound, bandage it, and hope to whatever gods may be, that it didn’t get infected, ‘cause he didn’t know what to do with infected wounds, he just knew that it was bad. If he had some alcohol he could clean it… and he could honestly use a drink. 
Honestly, except the wound he had just acquired, he felt rather good. His memories were... blurry, but he still knew everything, and he kind of felt like he could take all of this change on. Yeah, he could do this. It was an alien feeling for him to feel so optimistic, but whatever. It felt good.
After a while the branchwolves realized that their prey was out of range, and decided to give up. Jax watched them leave, but waited some time to be sure. He didn’t know how much time, he wasn’t the type to wear a wrist watch, and the only belongings he had on him was his clothes. He cursed whatever being that transported him here that they didn’t bring his cigarettes with him. He had so many bad habits, and no way to obtain the fuel they required. Cold turkey was his style, but not all off them at once… He sighed again. This was not going to be easy. But a new beginning is a new beginning, and that he could use. He was going to miss his music the most...