The Domination of the Lord, named Yasariah, had a task to complete.

With the divine powers that came from being a facet of the Lord, there was technically no need to waste time traveling. He simply had to will it, and he would be in any location that he wished. However, over the last two thousand years, the policy has been to be “hands-off”. He could only physically return to the mortal realm before Judgement Day has passed, and the Seven Seals have been removed. That did not, however, prevent him from simply viewing the entirety of the planet Earth, and narrowing down candidates for immigration.

It was easy to disregard the majority of the human race, as very few actually met all the prerequisites. The Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, had provided a list of traits necessary for the mortal to match the one he would be replacing, and so Yasariah narrowed it down. Firstly, they had to be young, no more than thirteen. Secondly, they had to be of positive karmic balance, though the esteemed emperor gave no mention as to what degree. Thirdly, they had to be seeking enlightenment, and lastly, they had to be alive. The trauma of death changes people, leaves a mark that stays until the soul is wholly washed clean and reborn into the world a blank slate, and Huangdi claimed that it was paramount that the candidate remains unblemished as much as possible.

It was as the angel was narrowing down the last few dozen candidates that he saw the source of a particularly vexing problem he had been investigating lately. A multidimensional predator that disguised itself as a heavy vehicle was adjusting its course to one of the more average candidates, a young boy that had already opened his third eye. His soul looked to be of positive balance, even if clouded by despair. The boy wasn’t the most advanced on the quest for enlightenment, the most upstanding, or even the best in any particular trait over any other candidate, so there was no real reason to pick him.

Yasariah shrugged.

“Two birds, one stone,” the angel said as he literally reached into the physical world and pulled the boy into the heavenly realm a split second before the illusion of the bus made contact with the boy and the invisible maw of the creature closed around where he used to be. Yasariah examined the now unconscious boy, whose face looked to be covered in cake and tears, and sighed. It was less than a breath to make the boy presentable, and then he teleported to his superior, the Throne. He presented the child to the burning, spinning wheels, and the boy’s backpack opened up as a small bundle wrapped in fig leaves floated into the air and was placed inside by an unseen force. After the bag was closed once more, the many-eyed, shifting being blinked, and the boy vanished.

Yasariah breathed a sigh of relief, glad that his superior was satisfied with his choice, and once given his leave, quickly ordered his own underlings to follow and eliminate the predator he had marked for death less than 10 seconds ago, and vanished on his hunt.

The Throne mourned, and so it sang the praises of the Most High, as it would until the end of time.

---

The first thing Colt noticed upon waking up was the horse, standing not three meters away. Granted, it had weird scales, a split horn, and was somewhat on fire, but it still looked mostly like a horse. Which was a problem, because horses didn't normally have traits like that. He jerked up from where he lay, a clearing in the middle of lush forest, and the beast began to approach him. Colt had always liked horses, ironically, but he hadn't even been near one since he was five, and now he could only stare confusedly as the creature bowed once, then twice, and then a third, final time. It held its head down long enough that Colt felt comfortable enough to pet it, marveling at the smoothness of its scales, and the fire that didn't seem to hurt. And then, the moment passed. The creature raised its head, turned from the boy, and began to gallop on the air, not even stepping onto a single blade of grass before it was gone.

Colt could only stand there dumbfounded, trying to comprehend the amount number of different stimuli he was subjected to and began to cry.

He was, after all, almost hit by a bus, then he woke up in a strange forest, with a dragon unicorn thing bowing to him and leaving him alone in the middle of nowhere. It's enough to drive anybody to tears.

After a solid five minutes of bawling his eyes out, he wiped his nose and swung his backpack around, to take inventory on his resources like a real adventurer would in one of his fantasy novels. He had his textbooks, all 5 of them, two binders filled with paper, a calculator, a mathematical compass, many varieties of pencils, pens, and markers, two bottles of apple juice (his favorite kind), three king-sized Snickers bars, a single stick of beef jerky, his Kindle, and…

"Are these fig leaves?" He asked himself, grabbing the bundle and unwrapping it. He knew he hadn't had this with him at school earlier. Inside, he found two of the plumpest, juiciest, most delicious looking fruits he'd ever seen. A bright, almost gleaming apple, the most beautiful he'd ever seen, and a ripe, plump fig, so full of juice he thought it might pop handling it wrong.

He scrunched his face up in disgust.

"I hate figs AND apples, this sucks."

Colt packed his stuff back up and looked around, trying to determine which direction to start walking. Suddenly, he grinned and snapped his fingers. "I'm a genius!" He exclaimed, before pulling a necklace from under his shirt and pulling it off. Letting it drop, he let the amethyst pendant he had painstakingly chipped and carved and consecrated sway from the silver chain, a gift from his father before he left and his mom remarried.

Pendulum divination, one of the oldest forms of divination, was most often used to locate mineral deposits or dowse for sources of water. By tapping into the Mind of the universe, a person can ask questions and the world would answer, moving the pendulum in the correct direction.

"All is Mind… mind is All," he murmured to himself before he breathed deeply, repeating his question to himself. "Which way is the nearest source of water?" Colt asked, throwing hesitation to the wind. Then, as if like magic, he felt the chain tug, and the pendulum rose, spinning unnaturally before pointing straight off to the left. Colt stared as if it was the first time it had actually worked.

"Well," he sighed, looking at the thick forest ahead of him, "Time to get walking."