I cannot believe this.
How can I be bored of this game after playing just for few hours?
Two years worth of anticipation and excitement for this to be released and when I finally get my hands on it, the excitement evaporates in few hours?
Maybe I shouldn’t have watched so many review videos. If I hadn’t known all the in game mechanisms, then perhaps the joy of discovering it all might have kept me hooked for days.
Looking at the calendar everyday for past 2 months used to give me small doses of joy as the date approached the release day.
I guess all things in life are like this. Most of the joy is in the journey to reach the goal. Once the goal is reached, things become completely predictable and boredom creeps in.
As these thoughts ran through Ashta’s mind, he rolled over from his chair onto his bed.
Throughout my school I used to be so happy when I could learn new things in theory classes and apply it in practical classes. Every week there was a journey towards learning and applying new things. Class clowns would pull out something funny and unpredictable almost everyday.
But now I need to graduate, get a job for my livelihood, where I need to do almost the same thing everyday. So many rules and protocols to make sure everything is predictable. More I specialize in my job, more predictable things get. No wonder most people miss their childhood.
I feel I will never get to apply hundreds of things I learnt with passion throughout my childhood. Even though they were out of exam syllabus, I used to learn it for the joy of it. Teachers kept telling me how I was doing an amazing job learning so many things while other kids were wasting time and how this would make me a great person in future.
Looking back I feel all my teachers lied to me. All the information is available on the internet. Even though I did enjoy learning, I am in no way valuable than any other human with access to internet.
I don’t know if I will ever find a job that I wouldn't get bored of and high paying at the same time.
Drowned in his thoughts, he slid into sleep.
An uncomfortable sensation all over his back pulled him out of his sleep.
As he woke up to investigate the prickly sensation, he realized he was sleeping on a haystack in a cow shed.
“What the heck? How did I get here?”
After taking some time to calm himself, he looked around and fallen snow caught his attention.
Snow? In my state? In the middle of summer? Last thing I remember is passing out on my soft bed in my room. Did I just travel thousands of kilometers in my sleep? Wait. This has to be a dream.
He pinched himself and felt the pain, but then started to question himself if the pinch test was even valid. Touched the snow and it felt its legitimate.
To get some closure on his situation, he decided to explore out of the cowshed and discovered the he was in a village.
These houses look like they are pulled out from medieval European TV show or something. Maybe there are villages in this day and age with medieval architecture in Europe.
Regardless I need to find someone to talk to before things gets even more confusing.
Remnants of primitive decorations were scattered around the village, hinting some sort of festive celebration took place a day before. There was no human in the vicinity.
As he walked further, he heard faint cries of pain from a house nearby. Approaching the door and knocking on it didn’t yield any outcome. The sounds increased in amplitude as he got closer.
As he pushed the unlocked door to quench his curiosity , he saw an old lady lying on a primitive bed right in the centre of a single room house. Her stuporous state, soft cries of pain and her rag covered body peaked his interest.
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Without a second thought he rushed to her and shook her softly so she would regain more consciousness. He then proceeded to ask her how she was feeling. The lady regained some consciousness and turned towards him.
“I feel very weak child. My stomach hurts. Anything I eat has been going out of my backside like a stream. I don’t even have the energy to go out and relive myself anymore.”
“The spirits are definitely angry for messing up the spirit festival this year.”
She replied in a faint voice.
“Isn’t anyone here to take care of you?”
“I live alone in this house child.”
This mostly looks like a case of diarrhoea. She doesn’t seem to have fever or vomiting, so the most feared complication to look out for would be dehydration I guess.
“What did you have for dinner yesterday ?” he asked.
“Yesterday I had dinner at the spirit festival feast, like every other villager of this village. Bread, fish and stew.”
“Okay, when did your loose stools start? Tell me whatever happened since you woke up today. I think I can help you.”
“After my stomach felt uneasy at dawn, I left to relive myself at the communal toilets. To my surprise there was a big line outside. As I couldn’t hold any longer I had to relive myself in my backyard manure pit. Again and again. Until I lost all energy.”
She badly needs ORS. I don’t think this villagers would even know what it is. I need to make it quickly with whatsoever is available here.
“Granny, I will be making some medicine for you from your kitchen alright?”
“Thanks for your concern my child. But this is something medicines can’t cure. This is the curse of the spirits. We have infuriated our ancestors by dishonoring the ceremony at yesterdays festival. My end is nearing anyway, so don’t bother child.”
“Don’t speak such words. You will be fine by tomorrow. Don’t worry.” Ashta replied and rushed to the corner where cooking utensils were piled up.
Oral re-hydration solution, a lifesaving remedy for dehydration. Specially in diarrhoea. It replaces electrolytes and glucose along with water, preventing fatal complications of dehydration.
This valuable information is taught in 7th grade in all schools and most kids forget about when they become adults.
All I need is 6 spoons of sugar, half spoon of salt in 1 litre of drinking water. Wait, I cant find sugar anywhere.
“Granny, where do you keep sugar? Also has this water been boiled?” asked Ashta.
“Yes, I had boiled that water yesterday. Sugar is too expensive for me child.”
What? That’s weird. Sugar was only somewhat of a luxury in medieval times. These days its almost a necessity.
No time to think. What can I substitute for sugar? Something very high in carbohydrates which is available in rural regions? Honey!
After finding some honey, Ashta prepared the solution and approached the old lady with a tumbler full of it. As he got closer and closer towards her, he started questioning himself regarding the reality of the situation.
He felt everything around him was too real to be a dream, but couldn’t find a logical explanation for it. Only convincing answer that kept popping in his head was that of fantasy novels and movies, where a character is teleported to another world.
“What happened child? You seem lost.”
“Ahh, nothing. I’ve got your medicine here. Sit up so you can drink this properly”
As she sat up and took a good look at Ashta’s face she was startled. As her pupils dialated, she uttered “ You have black hair!”
“And you have Grey hair. Now stop speaking nonsense and drink this quickly.” replied Ashta as he took the tumbler closer to her mouth.
“Stop right there!”, a thunderous manly voice came from the main door.
It was followed by a feminine voice, “Yes, that’s the mysterious stranger I complained about. I heard granny’s cry while I was passing by and I saw this strange man shaking her when I came by to check on her.”
As Ashta turned towards the door, he saw a blonde child with her finger pointed at him, standing next to a tall white man covered in metal armour holding a spear in his right hand.
“You’ve done a great job kid” congratulated the guard.
Turning towards Ashta, he commanded, “Now you there, step aside from the old lady.”
Ashta froze for few seconds. Lost in his attempts to comprehend everything. Full metal armour, guard, medieval weapon and Caucasians. Somehow language didn’t seem to be a problem.
Thoughts of supernatural forces and time travel had stared emerging as possible explanation. Faint memories of dimensional travel during his sleep stared creeping into his mind.
Pulling himself back into reality he replied, “Hold on a minute. Let me feed her this medicine and then you can interrogate me.”
“Oh! So the head of the village guards should take orders from a suspicious stranger? One more shred of resistance and you will regret stepping into this village.”
“Look, I mean no harm to anyone here. If she doesn’t drink this right now, she might probably lose her life” defended Ashta.
“You could be a foreign spy or a sorcerer for all I know. Never seen a black haired, brown skinned human in my life and I don’t plan on trusting one either. Your strange clothes aren’t helping your case either. Now step outside the house or I will gut you like a fish.”
Hesitantly, Ashta placed the tumbler down and followed the head guard’s orders.
Did I just have a flashback? More of a feeling than an exact event. I could remember feeling weightless and moving at light-speed in my sleep. My head hurts thinking about it.
Wait, whats with the threatening? Is he really serious? Maybe all people in this village are Caucasians who have never seen a person of my race. This might be some backward traditional village, so my choice of words were disrespectful I guess. I think if I speak to him nicely I will be fine.
As Ashta followed the head guard out of the house, there were two more white men in similar armour pointing their spears at him. They proceeded to back him against the outer wall of the house.
Standing face to face, the head guard uttered with a grin, “ The sun has just come up and your luck has just gone down. The village chief is feeling under the weather today which means your fate is in my hands stranger.”
Head guard’s words sparked paranoia in Ashta’s heart. His optimism started to dwindle away.
This isn’t a man of reason. He seems to enjoy hurting people. If I really travelled back in time, then I’m done for. This has to be a dream. But everything seems so real! Can I get out of this unharmed?
“Sigmun fetch me a table. I will be sculpting today”, ordered the head guard to the guard next to him as he dropped his spear and pulled out a dagger.
As soon as sigmun placed the stool in between Ashta and head guard, head guard grabbed Ashta’s left wrist with his off-hand and planted it on the table with Ashta’s palm facing the table surface.
Realizing the sheer difference in their physical power, Ashta stopped struggling to wiggle out of head guards hold. Ashta’s left hand was pinned to the table and immobilized by the head guard, while his body was held tightly by other two guards.
Ashta realized he was trapped like a lake between three mountains. Any possible escape plan would have to be of mental or emotional route.
The head guard raised his dagger hand up in the air like a cobra before striking and warned “For every suspicious thing that comes out of your mouth, you will lose a finger starting from your little finger.”
“Now bark, who are you and why did you come here?”
Is this real? What sins did I commit to face such an ordeal? Will I lose my fingers for ever? I don’t think they even have antiseptics here. I might even lose the entire arm to gangrene even if I survive here.
How do I say anything unsuspicious when I myself don’t know anything? In this foreign land of barbarians I can’t even wish for someone to save me.
My mind is going blank. Is this the end of me?
Thousands of miles away a Velina wakes up under a tree atop a grassy hill. She looks around bewildered.
“How did I get here?”