With a lie.

Jack knew that even if he told this beautiful newcomer the truth she wouldn't believe a word of it and would probably dismiss him as some kind of idiot or lunatic. Instead he opted for a more intelligent approach and decided to flex his acting muscles.

"Ah, I just got lost on my way there, and it was such a nice day I had to lay down and enjoy it for a bit," Jack replied with a sheepish grin, rubbing the back of his head with his left hand and indicated the depression his body had formed in the plants near his feet with his right, "unfortunately, I dozed off and I just woke up. Could you perhaps point me in the direction of the school?"

The woman blinked in disbelief, and for a moment Jack could swear he saw her bright, emerald green eyes glowing with a hint of an unnatural light. As soon as he could blink however the glow was gone, leaving him to wonder if he had just been imagining things. She slowly walked closer to him, and held out a delicate, slender hand in greeting. Her lovely full lips curling up in the corner in a bit of a half smile, before she replied, "Gladly. I am uncertain as to how you could have lost a whole city but we aren't far and I was headed back at any rate. My name is Avendra Birdel, just follow closely behind me and I shall lead you back, it is not entirely safe for students in the woods alone."

It took Jack a moment to respond as her soft, almost ethereal voice drifted between his ears and left him a bit entranced. After an awkward moment he snapped back to reality as he realized she was waiting on him and he quickly grasped her hand a bit too firmly. "R-right, I'm Jack Valent, thanks for this," He replied hastily, chiding himself internally for turning into a mess at the sight of the first attractive female he met in an entirely new world. If Avendra had any thoughts on his embarrassing behavior she gave no indication, and quickly set off walking again in the direction she had been heading.

Jack hurried to follow behind her, stumbling slightly every now and then due to his strange physical changes, and trying desperately not to imagine what her almost assuredly perfect ass looked like under that dark robe. They had only been walking for a few minutes when Jack couldn't help but ask a question to try and get SOME information about his new world. "I was um... a bit sheltered when I was younger. Are you... Human?" He asked trying his hardest not to sound offending in any way.

Avendra let out a quiet laugh that reminded him a lot of the birdsound from when he was just waking up. "I am only human on my father's side of the family; My mother was an elf," She replied in an amused tone, turning her head a bit to peer at him over her shoulder, "You must really have been sheltered to have never seen a half-elf before. Let me guess, are you some sort of farm-boy? You have the... build... for it, and it would explain why you wouldn't know much of other races." Jack's ears turned a bit red when the sexy half-elf licked her luscious lips at the word 'build', and could only nod dimly in response.

"Well allow me to give you a short lesson," She smiled and turned back to look ahead of them, "on Altheria there are many races, however the only ones that are intelligent enough to be considered main races are the humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, orcs, demonkin, and taurens. Humans you are familiar with, they are the most versatile race but are the shortest lived. Elves are much like myself but much more slender and more attuned to nature. Dwarves are much shorter, stockier, and far tougher than humans, however they are more adept at forging and mining. Gnomes are smaller even than dwarves and have very vibrant colored hair and eyes, they also are very good in arcane magics. Orcs are roughly human-sized if much more muscular and often are varying shades of greens and blacks, they excell at battle magics as do Taurens. Demonkin are the descendants of demons form very long ago and as such are various hues of reds, purples, and blacks with curved horns and strange eyes, however, they are very like humans in all other reguards except they are much better at summoning than other races. Taurens are the biggest of the races, usually around seven to eight feet in height and well muscled, as I said before they are good with battle magic as well. This is just the most general outline, some have no magical apptitude and they become normal adventurers, and the races often mix."

So Altheria is the name of the continent... and there are some races I've heard of before in fantasy books... Jack thought quietly to himself after the half-elf had finished speaking, Well everything is as advertised so far... I guess I probably have some sort of aptitude for magic since I have a blessing of some kind. It suddenly struck him that he had no clue what the being who had sent him here was called or what it even was. However, before he had time to think on the subject much further Avendra chimed in playfully, "Were you even listening to all of that? I won't repeat myself twice you know."

Jack was about to respond, but just then the treeline broke ahead, and blindingly bright sunlight stole his vision for a moment. When he was able to open his eyes again his breath was also stolen from him. The pair stood at the top of a sheer cliff face in front of a massive stone bride that spanned a massive crevasse in the earth. The treeline ended suddenly here and just dropped off into an awe inspiring, craggy ravine, which Jack couldn't even hope to see the bottom of. The bridge was incredibly detailed and much nicer than any he could have compared it to on earth, and all along it at regular intervals were blue crystal orbs suspended in the air without touching the small iron cages they were inclosed in. The cages were hung on wooden support poles and the orbs' glow could only faintly be seen in the midday sun. The thing that stole Jacks breath however wasn't the crevasse that could have put the Grand Canyon to shame, but the view of what lay on the other side.