"Hello..?, Hello..?" The voice echoed through Derek's skull. He couldn't remember anything, he had been having this strange dream, something about his duty what he had to do. Then that voice, it cut through everything like a knife and his mind was left reeling. He couldn't feel the soft padding of is bed, no, it felt like he was laying on his back on the ground, something pushing painfully into his back. Yet for all the pain, he just wanted to lay here, uncaring and unseeing and go back to sleep.
"I said hello! Can you hear me?" That damn voice again, it was so insistent. Feeling something prodding at his face, Derek slowly opened his eyes and light streamed in. His eye's were blurry and unfocused, but he could see a figure fluttering in front of his face coming into focus. But as the figure became more clear his mind raced, he was still dreaming! There was a tiny woman, and she looked around the same age as him, about sixteen. But she was flying, right in front of his face. She was maybe a foot tall and as she looked at him, her pretty blue eyes filled with concern, "Are you Ok? I thought you were hurt for sure." This couldn't be happening, just minutes ago he had lain down in his bed to go to sleep. Seeing his expression, her pretty little face screwed up in concern, brushing her silky platinum blond hair out of her eyes she continued, "Are you Okay human?" Derek could barely hear her, his mind was racing as his eyes took in more of the scene. He was in the forest, somewhere deep, there was moss everywhere and the trees where massive, stretching nearly out of sight, light trickling in anywhere it could through the canopy causing a patchwork of light across the forest floor.
Slowly Derek leaned forward, his mind starting to think rationally. "Where am I?" He managed to croak out, the faerie looked a little taken aback, "Why, you're in the Ingress Forest, this is a dangerous place for humans," Maybe this wasn't so bad, Derek's old life sucked, he was one of six kids in a family where nobody gave a damn about each other, in a city where nobody gave a damn about one another. Derek was from New York, and he had grown up uncared for. It had left him bitter and cruel, and he had been more than able to hold his own in a city full of rough and tumble people. But somewhere in Derek he felt the beginnings of a conscience, something telling him maybe it was time to turn over a new leaf. Then again, maybe it was time to really let loose, watching the tiny woman continue to chide him for his lack of care was starting to piss him off, and it was starting to give him an idea too. But another part of him was telling him she could help him, and besides, maybe it was time he started acting with a little compassion. Besides, he needed to figure out where he was and where he was going.