Up until yesterday, Mark would have been truthfully able to say that he never had been arrested, but sadly, today that statement would make him a liar. He wondered if an extra-terrestrial arrest would go his record, if he was ever able to go back home?

After all, not everyone could claim to have woken up in a whole new world. Panic was appropriate response to waking up in alien body, and he had ended up accosting a guard in a bid to get his bearings, which had predictably ended with him in a holding cell, apparently until the guy-in-charge came back from wherever he was.

He had calmed down enough to keep the panic internal by now, but his situation was not helping.

Mark had gone to sleep as a bog-standard human, thirty years of age. It had been an ordinary Thursday night, and Mark had been a boring Indian guy, brown eyes, black hair, slight paunch from a lack of exercise.

He certainly had not expected to wake up as a six-foot tool, orange skinned dude with a tail and wings of all things. The scream had been legendary. The crying and weeping was better left unmentioned.

He had woken up in a small village look-alike, the roads were paved in an oily-gray stone, and the buildings were all painted blue. Not a single one was more than three-storey tall. This was certainly not where he had gone sleep, and most certainly not his body. A bit of panicky running around had eventually lead him to a bakery, where he had gotten a large, fluffy bread-thing to eat, and found out that the place was called Maidenstone, on account of the statue of a maiden on a castle some distance away from the village.

He was eventually lead to the guardhouse - where having failed to produce proof of his residence, or his reason for being in the village - he was thrown in the jail-house to wait for the superintendant after screaming at the gate-guard that the did not know where he was or why he was red and orange.

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"Mark! Come lets get you out of here!"

"Coming!" Mark got up walked to the front of the cell, where he again saw the gate-guard unlatching his cell. "Viktor is back from wherever he was, walk quick, the sooner we find out why you are here, the better it will be for you.", said the gate guard.

Soon enough he was walked to Viktor, a tall brown man sitting and reading something on his desk.

"So, what is your name? Why are you here, in our small village, demon-forged?"

Demon-Forged? Must be whatever I am. Doesn't sound very comforting, to be honest, Mark thought to himself. Asking Viktor what a demon-forged was seemed like a bad idea, especially when it seemed like his being here was unexpected

"I am Mark, don't know why I am here but I woke up face down in the dirt a bit outside the village-bounds. Walked here to find out where I was, and get something to eat."

"Strange name for a demon-forged, Mark. Whatever it is, not my problem. We will get you the castle in the evening, and lord there will find out what a strange demon-forged is doing here in a system-less village."

"Why can I not be here? Look, Viktor, I was lost is all. Just wanted to get some food and a direction is all, I do not want to deal with any lords just yet!"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"And Why not? From what I know, she might be the only one able and willing to help your kind. Look Mark, we all know about what you all did for the empire in the war, and appreciate it, but Maidenstone is a small place, and people are unused to strange things. I don't want any panic, and you won't be able to get much help here. We will go to Maidenwatch castle in the evening, and there you can sort yourself out."

"I will be letting you out of the cell for now Mark, you've been nice and quiet. Go get something to eat and come back here. It will be a while before we can leave but I can't have you wandering about un-escorted too much, and there's only two of us here today"

Mark thought there wasn't much to say to that vaguely hostile rant, so he just nodded and agreed, at the very least he could take a walk and get a bite to eat while he came to terms with his new reality. Initial panic aside, it seemed like the demon-forged were a known entity here, and while guardsman Viktor seemed wary, he wasn't hostile.

He walked to the same bakery he already had, and got himself another loaf of bread, with what looked like some spiced meatballs. Whoever this guy had been before Mark woke up in his body, he seemed to have a some amout of coins in his cloth-pouch, and Mark figured 10 copper coins weren't really a big ask for a decent meal, not when he had plenty more with him.

The baker was a little apprehensive, and watched him all the while he ate, but Mark eventually learned that the man was called Elric, and that he was a hundred-and-two years old. It was a bit of a struggle to keep his expression steady after hearing that, especially when dear Mr. Elric looked no older than a crisp forty.

Mark quickly chowed his food down, wanting to not tick off the only person willing to talk to him for longer than a minute. While he walked back to the guardhouse, much calmer, he noticed that the sun was now properly out, and from its position in the sky it looked to be early morning, around ten in the morning, if head to compare to the skies back home. There was no guarantee that the day would be as long as it was back home, but it was a good bet, since everyone except him looked human, and not like a biblical freak-of-nature.

There was some traffic in the street, a couple of carts every now and then, but mostly people just walked around greeting each other, presumably getting ready for the day. Mark reached the guardhouse a bit later, it having been about an hour since he had left to eat, and greeted the gate-gaurd with a nod on his way in.

Viktor nodded towards him, and lead him back to the cell, where he was locked back in and told that it would be a while before they left for the castle, since it was only two hours away on horse.

It seemed a bit unfair to be have been locked in again for no fault of his but he was still settling his thoughts and did not want to make a fuss while he did not have a grip on the overall situation.

Viktor was done locking his cell, and told him to sit down, or take nap while he dealt with work. They would leave for Maidenwatch castle in the evening, and there, Mark would have his chance to clear stuff up with whoever the lady of the castle was.