It was the sound of waves crashing against a shoreline that first crested the edge of his perception. Drearily awakening, Thaddeus groaned as he tried to move his sore and bruised body, his fingers digging into the sand beneath him.
‘Sand…?’ Thaddeus realized absentmindedly.
Slowly, Thaddeus lifted his head upwards and cracked open his eyes, sand falling from his face as he blearily gazed about. A beach, that’s what he first noticed, then came the heat of the Sun on his back, and the scratchy feeling of sand and salt sifted all throughout his clothing.
‘Anakin was right…’ Thaddeus mused angrily, trying to put some form of familiarity on where he was now.
His mind still felt like it was in a dream as he slowly stood up, first getting to his knees and then with a great heave, the soles of his feat. Every motion felt gross and uncomfortable from the grime of seaweed and sand that covered every inch of him.
“Why am I here?” Thaddeus asked aloud, but only with a soft whisper. He tried to think back, his mind attempting to create a chronology of the events that created his present situation.
He was… He was with his friend, David… They were stopped at a gas station on the edge of the city, prices were cheaper there. Then…
Words, someone was saying something in the inky dark, but Thaddeus couldn’t understand the words. It was like listening to a song in another language, he knew that it was clearly not just random sounds, but he had no idea what they meant.
Thaddeus took a breath as he sighed and gazed at the scratches on his hands, “Oh… fuck.”
Thaddeus tried to keep his breath steady, “Focus, focus, think clearly, and think fast. Where and why are you here?”
“You’re clearly in some coastal area, possibly an island, let’s not worry about the fact that last you checked Georgia didn’t look anything like this. Fuck, okay, so clearly David was in hot water with someone, or not..? This doesn’t make any sense, why take me here if David owed someone money, or maybe he just pissed off some thug or something. Still, why am I here, why didn’t they kill me, why didn’t they keep me prisoner?” Thaddeus tried to find the logic in anything, but came up short over and over again.
When he felt himself start to panic, Thaddeus shook his head, “No, keep eyes forward and mind in the present. The only thing I need to think about for the future is how fucking hard I’m going to shove my foot up David’s ass.”
Slowly, Thaddeus made his way down to the water and took off his shirt and shorts. Stepping into the waves with a hesitant peer into the clear waters, Thaddeus relaxed when he didn’t see any critters other than the occasional small bait fish. Gently washing the sand and detritus from his sunburnt body, Thaddeus wrang the water out of his clothes after trying to wash them at least a little bit in the salty lagoon.
Eyeing the exit to the lagoon, a high arch that connected to a tall stone archway roughly four hundred feet in the air like a gateway to the ocean, Thaddeus tried to see if he recognized it at all. As harrowing as his situation currently seemed, he could recognize that scenery as beautiful as this would certainly warrant some form of tourism. He couldn’t see far along the shoreline itself with the rolling hills and rocky outcroppings that dotted the sides of the beach.
Behind him, hidden by the veil of fog, Thaddeus could see the hints of a high mountain, and even a few smaller mountains in the distance behind it. Between the mountains and him laid what appeared to be a dense jungle, intermittently dotted with rolling hills and buttes of orange colored rock.
Gazing at one of the palm trees before him, Thaddeus clutched his head in worry, “This doesn’t look anything like an American coast, fuck this looks like Eastern Asia, maybe South-eastern Asia. Please not North Korea, please not North Korea.”
Stepping forward, Thaddeus felt a crunch under his foot, and he immediately jumped back in fear. Looking down, he saw that it was merely a piece of paper.
‘No…’ Thaddeus realized internally, ‘That’s not normal paper. there’s no chemical bleaching, the wood grains are still visible, what in the world?’
Picking it up, Thaddeus found the other side of the paper to be covered in ink symbols, ‘Oh uh… well, uh, I haven’t got a clue which one this is.’
Thaddeus knew that Korea, China, Japan, and he was pretty sure a couple other nations in the region, made use of a more nuanced symbol system for their language, rather than the roman alphabet that the Western world used.
The issue that Thaddeus found himself with was that he wasn’t certain which one the parchment before him was of. He knew that there was a whole lot of overlap due to regional closeness and the way that printing and writing had spread in the region, so he was already fighting an uphill battle.
‘I feel like such a racist.’ Thaddeus sighed internally, ‘But, I’m fucking innocent because my school didn’t offer mandarin, Japanese, or Korean because every moron wanted to learn French to impress their partners. Well, David was half-Korean, and this doesn’t look anything like what his mom wrote, so I guess I’m not in Korea. I honestly don’t even know if that’s a good thing or bad thing at this point.’
With a heaving sigh, Thaddeus tucked the paper into one of his pockets and looked around, trying to identify anything that might have shown where the paper came from.
“No dice.” Thaddeus complained as he tried to form a plan of action, “Alright, well park rangers always say to stay in put if you ever get lost, as moving is only going to get you more lost. On the other hand, I don’t exactly think the people that kidnapped me were park rangers. For fuck’s sake, David, what the fuck did you get us into?” Thaddeus placed his hands just above his hips as he heaved a sigh.
Idly, Thaddeus did consider that it was perfectly possible that this wasn’t related to David in the slightest, but when it came to his friend there was always some bullshit involved. Plus, he had a very strong gut feeling that David was involved.
Accepting that he probably wasn’t going to see his friend anytime soon, Thaddeus picked the nearest hilltop that seemed the easiest to climb. It was towards the right edge of the lagoon when facing the shoreline, and while there technically was a closer one directly perpendicular to the water, Thaddeus didn’t want anything to do with whatever snakes or spiders took residence in the jungle.
Trudging along tiredly, and on the edge of the tree line to harness the shade, Thaddeus made his way towards the hill.
Problems only arose from there when he realized that it must have rained recently as his feet sank and slid in the mud of the hill. What might on a sunny day be a gentle hike, turned into a difficult and exhausting journey up the incline as he used every muscle in his body to try not to slip and fall back down.
Eventually, the ground began to level out, and the added roots from the few trees on the top of the hill provided enough structure where the earth beneath his feet didn’t feel like it was going to give way at any moment.
Gasping for breath as he finally let his body relax, Thaddeus took a long look at his surroundings. Then, slowly, Thaddeus began to chuckle, a slow and broken thing as he pulled at his hair with his hands.
Endless jungle stretched outwards from where he was now. The shoreline continued on either side of the lagoon before fading into the horizon. There was absolutely nothing, no sign at all of where he was, “Fuck!”
His voice was a rough and growly mess, like scratching silver on porcelain. His throat ached at the shout from how dry it was.
“I’m going to die here, aren’t I?” Thaddeus quietly asked the open air.
Resting his back against a tree after checking to make sure there were no animals resting at its base or in its branches, Thaddeus gazed with half lidded eyes back towards the lagoon and the small boat nestled near the entrance.
Boat...
‘Boat!’ Thaddeus’ mind jumped with excitement. From his new elevation he could see it in the distance, the blurry shape of a boat shrouded by some of the trees that dipped into the water.
Thaddeus desperately wished that he had his glasses, but he had found no sight of them when he was searching the shoreline earlier. Then again, he was searching half blind, so they may well have been there.
At the moment, Thaddeus couldn’t tell if there was anyone on board the boat, or barely anything other than the fan like sails of the vessel.
With renewed vigor, Thaddeus began to make his way along the arms of the lagoon to reach the ship. Could they possibly be related to the people who took him here, sure, but Thaddeus trusted his luck with them as a hostage better than as a stranger in a jungle.
‘Actually…’ Thaddeus slowed to a stop as he realized why the ship looked familiar to him, ‘A Chinese Junk ship.’
No, he wasn’t saying that China’s ships were junk, but rather remarking on the specific type of ship in the distance, it was blurry, but the fan like sails were unmistakable. Technically, he could still be in Japan or Korea since the specific style of ship had spread throughout the region, but Thaddeus had more important things to consider. Most specifically the fact that the Chinese Junk had first emerged over two hundred years before the common era.
It had persisted a long while, sure, but not to the modern era.
‘Some historical reenactment?’ Thaddeus considered as he slowly began to walk once again.
It took him the better part of three hours to finally reach the ship, every so often he’d lose sight of it as the trees grew denser in some parts.
Finally though, Thaddeus stood on a slab of stone that sat just above the water line. From which, the ship had moored itself upon based on the lines that tied the ship to one part of the rock and to one of the trees. Thaddeus looked across the deck of the ship, finding various implements that he would guess belonged to a merchant vessel.
Part of him wanted to step on board to investigate, but the wise part of him knew that doing so with someone on board was a great way to antagonize someone into shooting you.
Building up the nerve, Thaddeus spoke, “Hello! Uh, Ni hao! Konichiwa! Or uhm, Xin chào!”
Thaddeus took a moment to try and remember the Filipino word for hello when the sound of movement below deck stopped him.
Putting his hands up before himself to show he was unarmed, Thaddeus watched as a hatch opened up and an older gentleman peeked out.
The man recoiled in slight surprise when he spotted him, then said something that Thaddeus had no idea about.
“English, uh, I do not speak your language.” Feeling silly, Thaddeus even did the hand signals to himself and the stranger as he spoke.
The man looked at him in befuddlement as he fully emerged from the lower deck and stood on his ship before Thaddeus. In his hands sat a sheathed sword, a little less than three feet in length, one which Thaddeus really didn’t want to find out if it was authentic.
The man wore a wrapped piece of cloth that covered his neck and ears from the sun, but left his faced tanned and wrinkled from what Thaddeus guessed was decades under the Sun. He wore cloth garments that seemed more focused on wrappings to hold itself up, rather than stitching to a match a person’s frame. The clothes were a deep sea green in color with some symbol that Thaddeus didn’t recognize dotted in the middle.
The man for his part looked to be roughly sixty, with gray hair that might have once been black that ended in a bun just before the tops of his shoulders.
The man called out to Thaddeus once more, which resulted in Thaddeus raising his hands higher and backing away slightly, “I’m sorry sir, I truly have no idea what you are saying.”
Eventually, the man seemed to grasp the language barrier and slowly pointed to himself, “Zheng Heung Lin.”
Smiling in relief, Thaddeus pointed to the man and agreed, “Zheng Heung Lin.” Then, Thaddeus pointed to himself, “Thaddeus Riley Upshaw.”
The man nodded vigorously and pointed to Thaddeus, “Thaddeus Riley Upshaw.”
Both of them had completely butchered the pronunciations of the other person’s name, but that didn’t matter at the moment.
The man on the boat pointed to Thaddeus and then gestured around them, as if to say, “Why are you here?”
Struggling to think on how to explain it, Thaddeus slowly grabbed a stick from the ground and began to try and draw in the sand that caked the top of the stone.
Slowly, the man on the boat came over, hopping onto the ledge with a spryness that didn’t match his age.
Thaddeus drew a stick figure and pointed to it and then back to himself, “Thaddeus.”
The man nodded and waved his hand for him to continue.
Thaddeus drew another stick figure, this time with an angry expression, and to make it more obvious, a couple of devil horns as well. Then, he gave the man a big stick, cause Thaddeus still didn’t know what he had been knocked out by.
Thaddeus then pointed to the stick and then to his head and then mimed passing out.
The man nodded in understanding, so Thaddeus continued and drew himself waking up and a palm tree above him. Then, he pointed back to the spot on the beach where he was first awoken.
The man seemed to get it, offering Thaddeus a nod of sympathy. The man then gestured to his mouth and throat and then as though something was coming out of it, but then stopped and showed an x with his hands.
He did it once more, and then pointed to Thaddeus. It took the stranded boy a moment to grasp that the man from the boat was asking why he didn’t speak the same language as him.
Nodding, Thaddeus gestured to the man and then the surroundings, indicating that this was the man’s home, then, Thaddeus pointed to himself and then threw his hand toward the horizon of the ocean repeatedly, as if to say very far away.
The man frowned, but then a flicker of curiosity and intrigue graced his features. The man, then gestured to Thaddeus, and then to his boat, before making a scooping motion with his hand towards his mouth.
Thaddeus nodded gratefully, and although he didn’t know if it was the right culture, Thaddeus still bowed at the waist slightly, “Thank you, thank you.”
The man said something else in his language before gesturing for Thaddeus to follow him.
The lower deck of the ship was just as traditional as the outside, with barrels and bags of grains and other various items stacked in corners. A few scrolls even sat in a case on a nearby table. The man gestured to one of the chairs at the table and Thaddeus gratefully took it as the man rummaged around briefly in the next room of the lower level before returning with room temperature white rice.
Thanking the man once more, the man waved him off and sat on the other side of the table with his own bowl of rice. Sat on the bowl were a pair of wooden chopsticks, though not the cheap kind in restaurants. These were lacquered and featured a couple of designs in red ink upon them.
Hesitantly, Thaddeus began to eat, making sure to follow Southern manners as he went about it. When the two finished, Thaddeus thanked the man again before gesturing to where they were, “Where are we?”
The man frowned in confusion, so Thaddeus stood up, and after spying a map on a nearby table, he slowly walked over to it. Reaching it and seeing that the man was next to him, Thaddeus pointed to himself and the man and then pointed to the map, “Where are we?”
A glimmer of understanding entered the man’s eyes as he stepped over and tapped a spot along a coastline on the map. As he did so, Thaddeus took in the map and the surrounding region. The lagoon appeared to be on the Eastern end of the map. As Thaddeus looked closer, he realized the scale of the map which showed an area a little bit larger than China.
However, the map looked nothing like mainland China, nor Japan, nor Korea, nor any continent or nation he could ever think of. The entire continent seemed to follow the shape of a mighty snake, like if Jormungandr had died and people had started living on the world snake of Norse legend.
Yet, as Thaddeus looked closer, he noticed that there were points on the body of the continent that looked like small legs and claws, a giant fan of land seemed to stretch out from the head of the ‘snake’.
It wasn’t a snake at all, it was a dragon, an Eastern lung dragon.
Part of Thaddeus wanted to shake his head and ask the man for the real map, but Thaddeus hesitated when he noticed the man pointing to him and then the map. Then the man echoed the hand signal that Thaddeus had done earlier to show that he was from far away.
Thaddeus shook his head at the man and pointed to the map and himself before making an ‘X’ symbol, “I am not from anywhere here.”
The man shook his head and pointed to Thaddeus and the map again.
Sighing, Thaddeus made a pen motion with his hand as though he was writing. The man nodded before quickly rummaging around in a nearby cupboard before sighing and shaking his head. The man gestured with his hand for Thaddeus to follow him, and he complied as the sailor led him into the other room which Thaddeus realized was a combination of a bedroom and a study.
The man gestured to a desk in the corner of the room upon which sat several pieces of yellow paper, a container of water, a brush, and a block of ink.
Sitting at it, Thaddeus took a moment to wet the ink and the man looked at him weirdly for a moment when Thaddeus put far too little water in the block and couldn’t get it to emulsify. Once Thaddeus finally had the right consistency, he carefully used the tip of the brush to begin to sketch.
When he was finished, Thaddeus had roughly drawn the seven continents of Earth. Then, with a gentle touch, he dotted a point in the Southern part of North America.
The man rubbed his chin in curiosity and fascination as he looked at the map.
The man gestured to Thaddeus to stand, and the man picked up the map that Thaddeus had drawn and carried it back over to the earlier map. Setting them next to one another, the man gestured for Thaddeus to take a look.
The man alternated which side that the map connected to and looked to Thaddeus in askance.
Thaddeus shook his head and after taking back the map he drew from the man, he wrapped it around itself in a loop.
The man didn’t seem to grasp that part and merely sighed and shook his head at Thaddeus.
Thaddeus for his part sank into the chair he had sit in earlier and held his head in his hands.
He spoke aloud, because he felt like he needed to, and the man clearly wouldn’t understand him, “Purgatory, a terrible dream, an acid trip, or is it exactly what I think it is…? It doesn’t matter that much for the moment, does it? Here I am, trapped in what I can only hope is just a weird Asia inspired ancient land and not some abstract divine test from God, who I don’t even believe in!”
Thaddeus had shouted that last part with venom as he stared into the sky above, daring it to answer.
Sighing, Thaddeus turned to the man, “I know you can’t understand me, but it’d be a great help if you could explain what was goin’ on.”
The man spoke, but Thaddeus couldn’t understand him. Never the less, the man walked over, map in hand, and pointed to where they were and then traced his fingers to a spot North of them.
The spot was labeled with what Thaddeus could only assume was the name of the city or village that existed there.
The implication was clear and Thaddeus nodded at the man. The man smiled before holding up a finger in a ‘one moment’ manner before he walked over to a tall closet in the corner of the room.
Opening it up revealed sharp spears which put Thaddeus on edge for a moment as he looked around for a weapon of his own.
The man retrieved two spears before closing it with a tap from his elbow and walking over to Thaddeus.
Still on edge, Thaddeus’ legs were tense in anticipation to jump aside, though it was unneeded as the man turned the spear till it lied parallel to the ground in his hand and proffered it to Thaddeus.
Hesitantly grabbing it, Thaddeus bowed his head in thanks once more. He didn’t know yet which part of Asia in particular this land was inspired by, but he was pretty sure that bowing was common in nearly all of them.
The man made a ‘come-along’ motion as he stepped over to the ladder and ascended back to the top of the deck.
Following along so as to not possibly lose the one human contact he had at the moment, Thaddeus watched as the man continued to move far too quickly for someone of his age.
The man’s skin was weathered and wrinkled, his hair grayed and thin, and yet he still walked with a jump in his step that Thaddeus struggled to emulate even at only twenty-one.
The man made sure Thaddeus was following behind before he began to pick up pace and jog up the sloping dirt and rock of the archway of the lagoon.
Thaddeus kept up at first thanks to the ground being more exposed to the Sun in this part and therefore less muddy. Still, after the first five minutes, Thaddeus got a stitch in his muscles just below his stomach and started to falter in his pace.
Thaddeus continued though, and as the man occasionally looked back, he looked almost impressed with Thaddeus’ efforts. Though the man still did need to pause every so often for Thaddeus to catch up.
At the moment, Thaddeus had considered that the man was clearly a hunter/fisherman of some kind and was most likely grabbing a last bit of game before he sailed back to port.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Further, the man obviously wouldn’t trust to leave Thaddeus on the boat without him there so had instead brought him along with him.
They eventually were nearing the crest of the arched entrance to the lagoon. At this point, Thaddeus’ breath came out in short bursts while the older man had not yet even begun to sweat.
The man suddenly stopped and turned to Thaddeus who gratefully took the moment to rest. The man held up a hand palm forward which Thaddeus took as the signal to stop.
The man then pointed to Thaddeus and then two fingers to his own eyes, then gestured to the horizons.
“Keeping a watch out, got it.” Thaddeus agreed out loud before nodding in response to the man and emulating the gesture and pointing to the trees and the horizon.
Smiling, the man turned and continued marching further up the archway.
The man was probably five hundred feet from Thaddeus when he finally finished his journey and settled down on a large stone that acted like a keystone to the archway.
Zheng, as Thaddeus considered he should probably start using the man’s name, was sitting with his feet perfectly overlapped over the opposite leg and his chest held upwards towards the heavens while his head stayed in perfect parallel with it.
‘Actually, his name may instead be Lin.’ Thaddeus considered when he remembered that some Eastern Asian nations put the family name first and given name last.
‘Then again, does anything I know even hold water anymore?’ Thaddeus asked his inner self as he contemplated the unfettered clusterfuck that was the situation before him.
As much as he wanted it to be otherwise, Thaddeus had to accept it, “I’m not in Kansas anymore.”
Thaddeus knew he was being a bit trigger happy when it came to jumping to that conclusion, but with everything he’d seen since he’d woken up, he was struggling to restrain himself from assuming the worst.
‘God, I don’t know if you are real, but if you are, you’d be doing me a big fucking solid if you could show me that I’m just having a bad acid trip at the moment man. Cause, if this is real, I think I’d rather have you just go ahead and smite me down instead of doing whatever purgatory, learn-my-lesson, foreign-exchange bullshi-“
CRRRACRAKACRASH!!!
Thaddeus jumped in pure fear as he fell over onto his side at the sound of the loudest lightning strike he’d ever heard.
“Fuck! God, you’re real! I believe you now! I was being sarcastic, fuck!” Thaddeus shouted to the heavens quickly.
CRACKLECRACK!
Thaddeus heart leapt into his throat once again before he slowly uncovered his face realizing he was still alive.
Looking around, Thaddeus winced and covered his face as another strike hit.
CRACKBOOM!!!
Moving his hand from his face for the second time, Thaddeus realized that despite the decibel level, the lightning had not been directly aimed at him like he initially thought, and instead was striking right at Zheng, or Lin…. Or maybe Heung.
Okay, Thaddeus still wasn’t certain about the name, but for now he considered the important thing to be the lighting strikes.
Thaddeus watched in horrified fascination as Zheng didn’t seem to react at all to the lightning around him and instead sat perfectly still, ‘Is he meditating?’
For a moment Thaddeus thought that maybe Zheng was already dead from the initial strike and that his body was just locked up by the electricity going through him, allowing his corpse to stay in the same position even after death.
Yet, finally a strike hit Lin himself, and while it clearly knocked his head to the side slightly, the man merely turned himself back to his original positioning.
Thaddeus had no idea what to do, so he did exactly what his lizard brain told him to and hunkered down against the earth in cowardice from the lightning.
Continuing to cower in fear, Thaddeus peaked upwards at the sudden noise.
“AGGHHH!”
Gazing over, Thaddeus watched as the thunderstorm dispersed and Zheng lay injured on the ground.
Cautiously, Thaddeus looked around, waiting for the thunderstorm to reappear. When nothing seemed to come, he slowly got up into a crouch. He didn’t even realize what he was doing until he was halfway there, but Thaddeus stopped his crouched movements towards Zheng’s body.
Hesitating, Thaddeus moved further towards the older man until he finally reached him. The older man was covered in spiderweb-like burns that crisscrossed his whole body with an angry red and black coloration. Reaching down, Thaddeus placed a hand against Zheng’s neck, from which he felt no pulse.
Kneeling down while push his hand harder to see if maybe it was just fainter, Thaddeus laid his head near Zheng’s lips to listen for his breath. When nothing was there as well, he moved his head down to the man’s chest and tried listening for a heartbeat there as well.
There was nothing.
“Shit shit shit!” Thaddeus swore as his one lifeline out of the wilderness lay lifeless before him.
‘Okay, remember the training.’ Thaddeus advised himself as he leaned forward and put his hands against Zheng’s chest.
“Ah, ah, ah, ah, stayin‘ alive, stayin’ alive. Ah, ah, ah, ah, stavin‘ alive, stayin’ alive.” Thaddeus sang aloud as he gave Lin chest compressions to the beat of the Bee Gees’ “Stayin’ Alive” like he had been taught in health class.
Then, Thaddeus reached forward and pinched Lin’s nose and pulled his head back before sending puffs of air into his mouth.
Finally, the process repeated.
What they don’t warn you about in training, or what Thaddeus might not have remembered from training, was how exhausting CPR was.
At ten minutes in, Thaddeus felt himself heaving for breath.
Thaddeus continued his efforts in desperation.
Press thirty times, two breaths, and then repeat.
Press thirty times, two breaths, and then repeat.
Press thirty times, three breaths, and then-
‘What?’ Thaddeus asked himself when he watched Zheng’s chest rise three times even though he’d only done breaths twice.
Then, it rose again.
Thaddeus held his breath in anticipation as Zheng began to breath on his own once more.
Falling onto his back, Thaddeus gave a sigh of relief as he realized that Zheng’s, and by association his, chances of survival had just dramatically increased.
Having spent fifteen more minutes resting there, Thaddeus noticed that the Sun was slowly starting to descend from its peak in the sky.
Still, he laid there, thinking.
‘Okay, Thaddeus, let’s work through this step by step and figure it out.’ Thaddeus guided himself mentally.
‘You are, beyond a shadow of a doubt, now trapped in another world beyond your own.’ The young man affirmed to himself, ‘Ergo, you need to play this smart. Number one, identify what type of world you are in. Number two, locate a safe place of operations based on your answer to number one. Number three, have an inefficient but necessary mental breakdown. Number four, calm the fuck down. Number five, make a plan of action.’
Sitting up, Thaddeus thought aloud over what he knew, “Okay me, so you’re on a continent shaped like an East Asian style dragon, you just watched this old guy climb up a mountain with ease, and then the sky opened up and pelted him with lightning. So, clearly this is some Cultivation, young-master slapping, defy the heavens bullshit.”
Thaddeus continued to think aloud as he shuffled over to Zheng and with a grunt of effort, hoisted the man over his left shoulder.
“Okay, so, what do I remember from like the two Cultivation novels that I started reading and then never finished. There’s ethereal energy in the natural world called Qi, Chi, Breath, or just plain Soul Energy. People that harness and train that energy are called cultivators which allow them to live longer, be stronger, and basically do magic. Finally, there’s Sects which are basically mercenary groups that answer only to themselves and have a bunch of cultivators with pills, techniques, magic items, and a bunch of other stuff.”
Thaddeus slowly trudged down the archway as he continued to think aloud, “So, what does that mean for me. Firstly, I’m in the wilderness, which means that there might be spirit beasts, demonic beasts, or whatever else this reality calls them. Secondly, this guy clearly just attempted a tribulation and either failed or got hurt while succeeding. Thirdly, I’m not part Asian, but David is, which means that this is still probably his fault.”
And so, Thaddeus reviewed his brief knowledge of Cultivation worlds the whole way down to the boat. Occasionally he’d stop to rest or to switch which shoulder he carried Zheng Heung Lin upon which meant it was just after sunset that he reached the boat.
The ladder was probably the hardest thing to navigate. Thaddeus ended up setting the older man down on the upper deck and then descending part of the way down the ladder before picking the man back up and ever so slowly stepping down into the lower deck. Once there, it was the final leg of the journey to the man’s bed that Thaddeus set him down upon.
Exhausted beyond repair, Thaddeus walked back to the table that he’d been eating at with the man earlier. Grabbing one of the chairs and dragging it over to the bed in the other room, Thaddeus collapsed into it as his emotionally and physically drained body succumbed to slumber.
…
His dream was odd.
Firstly, it was odd because he instinctually knew it was a dream the moment, he became conscious within it.
Secondly, even though he knew it was a dream, he didn’t immediately wake up in response.
Instead, Thaddeus found himself drifting between quasars, supernovas, stars, blackholes, nebulas, and more, all upon the backdrop of black space. There among the cosmos, Thaddeus felt surprisingly warm. Yet, every so often he’d feel a brush of cold, like a fish flittering by when a child stands in the ocean.
Looking around, Thaddeus wasn’t able to tell what it was until he realized that it was some of the stars themselves that would drift into him. Most felt warm, welcoming, but others felt cold, cautious, protective.
Despite the stars appearing that they were lightyears away based on their size, they still felt just as small as they look when their miniature forms collided with him in a lazy pattern.
“Hello?” Thaddeus asked, and shut his mouth immediately afterwards, shocked by the sound of his voice. For, it was only then that Thaddeus realized that the stars had been speaking as well, a great chorus of words that had melded into a choir of jumbled phrases that he couldn’t pick out individually.
The chorus hushed a little, many of the stars becoming quiet, seemingly waiting for Thaddeus to say something else. Others continued their chatter, some even reaching a fever pitch of speed and volume.
Thaddeus tried to think of what to say in this moment, a question to ask, a promise of something, anything at all to say.
“Help.” Thaddeus didn’t even realize what he was saying until the word had left his mouth, and yet despite that he felt that he couldn’t have chosen better. So, he doubled down, “Please, help me. I am ignorant, I am alone, and I am frightened. Please, I do not know what this is, I do not know who you are, I do not know where I am, and I do not know what to do, so please, help me.”
The stars grew quiet, even the supernovas hushed their violent explosions and tirades between one another.
Thaddeus suddenly felt his drifting slow, and his body become still.
“Thaddeus.” A voice said and Thaddeus turned to answer whichever star it was that had spoken to him, but he didn’t have the chance as he suddenly woke up.
“Thaddeus” The voice said again. Waking up slowly, and with an ache in his back, Thaddeus looked around the room.
He saw a room on what was clearly a ship and it took a moment for Thaddeus’ mind to catch up to the events before his slumber.
“Thaddeus, can you hear me, can you understand me?” The voice asked again.
Turning about, Thaddeus looked around the room. Zheng still laid sleeping on the bed and so Thaddeus felt his heart rate rise as he stood up and back into a corner so that nothing could come up behind him, “Who is there?”
“Thaddeus, peace my friend, my tribulation was a success, and I am now able to use Spiritual Communication to speak with you directly into your mental sky.”
Thaddeus paused at that and looked over towards the body on the bed, “Zheng, is that you?”
“Indeed, my friend.” Zheng said warmly into Thaddeus’ mind, “I hope you will forgive my rude intrusion without asking first, but this is my only way of communicating with you. Especially since I have been injured by the heavens in my tribulations.”
“R-right, so, are you unconscious right now or…?” Thaddeus inquired as he looked over Zheng’s body, seemingly waiting for him to twitch or open his eye.
“In a manner of speaking, yes.” Zheng answered succinctly before elaborating, “My dantian has been damaged, so while my soul is still thankfully tethered to my mortal body, my spiritual center needs time to recover until I can fully inhabit the physical world again.”
“So, if you aren’t in your body right now, then where are you?” Thaddeus asked, rolling with punches since he had at least given himself a little bit of heads up with his discerning the day before.
“I am currently hovering as a spirit before you now” Zheng explained, and Thaddeus could swear he almost saw a faint outline hovering directly above Zheng’s body for a brief moment.
“Okay, right sure.” Thaddeus agreed tiredly as he stood up and began to pace to try and use up some of the rampant energy in his mind from the many questions he had.
“You are far too distressed for someone so young.” Zheng called out.
“Am I? Oh, am I?” Thaddeus asked with a slight challenge before deflating in on himself and palming his head as he continued to pace, “Sorry. Look, I’m just, I’m not exactly feeling great at the moment with all… This going on.” Thaddeus gestured to Zheng’s body.
“Yes, well, I’m not feeling too great either.” Zheng pointed out.
Thaddeus couldn’t help but laugh at that, and he soon heard the man’s voice laughing in his mind as well.
“I have so many questions.” Thaddeus said with honest desperation.
“As do I.” Zheng acknowledged, “A question for a question then, my friend?”
Thaddeus nodded, “Okay, uh, you first, I guess.”
“And they say the youth has no manners.” Zheng remarked dryly, “Well, my friend, fate divines me to ask you this question first: Why did you save me?”
Thaddeus frowned at that, “Should I not have? Was this like some form of ritualistic honorable death for you or something?”
“No, I am old, but I am not looking to die quite yet. I want to know why you saved me.” Zheng repeated.
“Oh, I mean, there’s not much to it. You had given me food and had offered to help me out, so, I tried saving you. I mean, even if you hadn’t, it would’ve been terrible of me to just do nothing while you died.” Thaddeus explained.
“But I was dying, there was no around, there was no one to stop you.” Zheng pressed further, a bit of heat entering his confusion.
“Stop me from doing what?” Thaddeus asked worriedly, he didn’t like where this conversation was going.
“Taking my valuables, taking my ship, taking my dantian even. Please, do not misunderstand, I am not ungrateful for what you have done for me, but I do not grasp why you have done so.” Zheng explained.
“Why would I do that?” Thaddeus tried once more to get a solid answer out of the man.
“Because you could, because that is what demonic cultivators do, because no one would have been able to accuse you of the crime. Even if my wares were beneath your station, I do not see your goal in saving me. If you are looking for me to submit to you as a servant, I apologize, but I must inform you that my loyalty to my faction cannot be swayed.” Zheng said regrettably.
Thaddeus took a moment to process all of Zheng’s words, “Okay, I think you have a lot of misconstruction about me that we need to clear up before we go anywhere else. First of all, I’m not a demonic cultivator, I’m not even a cultivator at all, and I’m curious why you thought I was one. Second, I’m not some thief of bandit who looks for every opportunity to steal shit from people, I saved you cause you offered to help me and I had the ability to do so, that is all. Third and finally, I have a question of my own, what the fuck happens now?”
Zheng was silent for a time, and Thaddeus was starting to get worried that the man had fully died. Thankfully, a minute later he answered, “Yesterday, you drew of the demons who attacked you, so I thought you were a demonic cultivator who ended up in a fight above your ability and paid the price. Now you tell me you are not a cultivator at all. Ahh, I had thought you were wearing an artifact that hid your Qi from me, a rare treasure, but that you have none at all is equally as shocking. That you saved me though should be evidence enough that your words are true, you have my sincerest apologies.”
Thaddeus sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Look man, a lot of people in my situation would have some scheme about keeping things hidden until I know more. That being said, with the shit that has gone on in the brief period I’ve been here, and the fact that based on your words, you appear to be on the upper echelons of being a decent person, especially since I saved you. I’m just going to go ahead and put it all out there. I am Thaddeus Riley Upshaw, I do not know where I am but I know that I am not on my world, I no nothing of cultivation because it did not exist on my world. I did not choose to come here, and while I’m doubtful it’s possible, I’d like to find a way back home, can you help me?”
Thaddeus felt a flare of… energy, would be the best way to describe it. It seemed to coincide with Zheng’s sudden excitement, “A transmitigator, an otherworlder! What luck, what fortune! The heavens smile upon me!”
“So, you know what’s going on?” Thaddeus asked with hope.
“Yes, I will certainly help you, young master.” Zheng said with burgeoning enthusiasm.
“I don’t know why you’re calling me that, but I’ll take any help you can give.” Thaddeus said with relief.
“Young master, what is your quest?” Zheng inquired trepidly.
“My quest, what?” Thaddeus said in confusion as he tried piecing things together.
“You had a benefactor, yes? A great divine, an emissary of the heavens who brought you here and gave you your honorable task.” Zheng elaborated further.
Thaddeus went to say no but stopped when he remembered the voices he had heard before waking up on the beach, “There were people talking, but, they spoke in your language, I do not know what they said.”
”Great transmitigator, hero, tell me their words, I will translate them for you.” Zheng offered.
Nodding, Thaddeus thought back to what they said, it was blurry and harder to remember especially not knowing the language, but he was fairly confident that when he finished speaking that Zheng would be able to decipher them.
Zheng sighed, “Oh, I see.”
Thaddeus felt his heart sink, “What? What did they say?”
Zheng hesitated before speaking, “Why are there two of them?... You said to grab the one with curly hair, but they both had curly hair… I said the one who didn’t have a beard… What should I do with him?.. Toss him, he’s not needed.”
Thaddeus rubbed his beard, a few grains of salt and sand sitting between the fibers. Slowly, Thaddeus took in a breath, then exhaled.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Thaddeus gave a broken chuckle that slowly built into full-blown cackling laughter, “I’m fucked! Ahahaha! I’m so fucked!”
“My friend, do not yet despair.” Zheng said quickly, “Perhaps the situation is not as it seems. Even if it is that you were not intended as a hero of the heavens, those who cross the borders between worlds are blessed greatly with understanding of cultivation and their dao. Your potential could still be unmatched by the masses”
“So, what now then?” Thaddeus asked, hoping for guidance in this tumultuous period.
“Now, I must rest, but after we shall return to port, there I will show you the wonders of my world.” Zheng said with confidence.
Something prickled at the back of Thaddeus’ mind, ‘The parchment.’
With deft hands, Thaddeus removed the parchment from his pocket and held it aloft, “Can you read this?”
Zheng gave a hum and went silent for a few moments before he began to speak, “To the fortunate soul. Be thankful to your betters for this opportunity you are not worthy of. Due to my goodwill, I have decided to grace you with the chance to be something more than the insignificance you were destined to be. You have been brought to a world above your station, and you would be wise to not squander this. - The wise and venerable, Guo Li”
“The monarch.” Zheng said in shock.
Thaddeus didn’t know what he was going to do in the next minute, nor the next hour, or even within the next year. Yet, he did know one thing, he knew that he hated Guo Li, and that he was not going to forget this opportunity that was granted to him.