My feet were killing me. After more than half an hour of walking on every fallen branch or tree root, I was minutes away from asking for some of that magical ointment. However, I realized I had spells now. I said, "Mana Shield" with the intent in my mind and immediately felt my feet had some sort of cushion. And while they still hurt, it was way, way better.

After a few hours of checking traps and picking some strange herbs, we were on our way to a village. Contrasting the ease at which the conversation flowed when we met, she was very focused these past few hours, maybe trying to avoid further injury. We barely exchanged words. She clearly had set traps, maybe last night, and we were collecting the small rat-like animals that hopefully we wouldn’t have to eat. As the trees were getting noticeably rarer, she seemed to become more relaxed.

“Sorry for being so quiet, hearing trouble is very important, things here tend to be very stealthy,” the seriousness evaporating from her face. “Still I know you have more questions, so ask away until we reach the village. We’re almost out of the woods, and the village is close to the edge.”

“Well, tell me more about this Earth, stuff that should be obvious to others but not to me.”

“Don’t worry, you won’t be offending anyone as long as you don’t mention any gods by name in an impolite manner. Having people from different worlds pop up makes for a very forgiving population, but a short overview would be: Gods exist, they like other gods and hate other gods, skirmishes, and very rarely wars may come from that. Gods give blessings to Kings or Queens that rule over a land. Those lands may start skirmishes or, far more likely, wars with other lands to get power, money, approval, or more blessings from their gods. Of course, the losing side holds a grudge that leads to more wars and so on.” The sadness was visible in her expression.

“So business as usual, it’s nice to know the more things change, the more they stay the same.” I said.

“You are either very wise or that was a saying from your world.” Her smile broadened as she spoke.

“Why can’t it be both?” I added with fake hurt in my voice.

“You don’t have any shoes; how wise can you really be?” she deadpanned, increasing her walking speed just a little bit.

Recovering the distance, I retorted, “Words are like bullets... or…I guess arrows, you do have arrows here, right?”

Now laughing, she continued, “Are you a jester in your world?” I could feel a pinch of a serious tone despite the laughter.

“No,” I said, laughing, “Are people that serious here? A few jokes and I’m a jester?”

“Well, if the whole Mage thing doesn’t work out, at least you have something to fall back on.”

“I would be a terrible jester; in my world, half their jokes have some cultural component that wouldn’t be funny here.” I said.

“I never said you would be a great jester, but you won’t starve to death, and that’s something,” she was so serious it was somehow more amusing.

It seemed she wanted to say more, yet her attention was drawn to the side, where some black smoke could be seen after a hill. She started sprinting towards the smoke, and all I could do was follow. She was fast, even with her injured leg, there was no hope of matching her speed.

Arriving in the village with a minute or two behind, things were not looking good. A few houses were on fire, and there was a barricade between the villagers, and a band of soldiers assuming by the clothes. The barricade was built facing the open ground, with the forest blocking one side and a river the other two sides.

The soldiers had already broken through a portion of it, and a melee was in progress, and it was clear they were winning. They had armor and lightly glowing metal swords, and the villagers had nets and wooden spears. Never having been in an actual fight in my life, I was frozen with fear; people were actually dying. Until now It had all seemed like a big adventure, but now it was sickening.

A scream brought me out of my thoughts; a man had been wounded by two soldiers who were now advancing on a mother and child. She tried to throw a dagger, then a net, but the sword sliced easily through the net, and the dagger didn’t do much against the armor. I raised my hand, more through panic than anything, and a white arc struck the first soldier in the side, and he convulsed to the ground. The other soldier was quick to react and took the knife the woman used earlier against him and threw it at me with incredible speed and accuracy.

There was no time to dodge, and my only hope was that the Mana Shield could stop more than leaves. Luckily, it struck the mana shield above my heart and bounced back as if hitting a rubber foil. The soldier appeared just as surprised as I was, and it gave me the time to incapacitate him with another Bolt.

However the problems were just starting; our little skirmish had attracted attention, and five soldiers and a man dressed in a red robe approached me carefully. Clearly, the robe guy was dangerous, maybe a mage like me, so with not much time to think, I threw a Lightning Bolt at him. A red translucent shield appeared and blocked my spell, but only barely, as the shield seemed to fail, and he was thrown back by the small explosion.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Unfortunately, this gave time to the soldiers, and they were already near me, and the closest was swinging his sword my way. Instinctively, I raised my hand, and it hit me near the elbow, but the Mana Shield protected me, I was unable to counterattack as the others soon followed with hits. The shield seemed to hold, nonetheless panic started to overwhelm me, and all I could do is try to block the sword hits with my hands, even though a small part of my mind knew the Mana Shield would have worked either way.

Suddenly, one of the soldiers collapsed to the ground, and the rest were distracted momentarily as they turned their eyes to their fallen comrade. The small window of opportunity allowed me to strike a soldier with a Lightning Bolt, and he collapsed as well. Alira was already moving onto another soldier. With her by my side, my panic started to fade. Facing just two soldiers, it felt like the tide was finally turning. But then the man in the red robe reappeared, seemingly recovered, holding a child in one hand.

“Surrender, Mage, or would you rather destroy my new shield as well?” his side looked burned, and he was swaying to his right, clearly in pain.

His 'shield' was a boy no more than 10 years old, and again I hesitated. This guy was desperate and now injured, it was clear he was capable of anything.

Looking around, it seemed the villagers had gotten some renewed spirit as with our help the soldiers were being pushed back. But right now the fighting began to die down as if all eyes were upon us.

Surrender wasn’t an option. It came down to letting the kid die or trusting the limited practice I’d had with the spell to give him a chance. Hoping my control had improved enough, I cast the Bolt almost casually. As expected, it hit the boy, as my control was more about intensity than direction, but that had been the plan.

Because he was holding onto the boy, the current went in both, and they were both dazed. For a second, his hands dropped, and the boy collapsed; seeing my chance, I put all my anger into the next Lightning Bolt. While he recovered in time to form a new shield, it was either weaker or something because my Bolt tore through it and left a sizable charred tunic in its wake.

After a few seconds for people to get their barings the soldiers started retreating, and while the villagers gave chase, I rushed to the kid and checked for a pulse. Relief washed over me; I had saved a life yet taken another one as the leader was clearly dead with that massive chest wound. I felt sick, not two days, and I was a murderer, sure, it was in self-defense… words failed me as my knees gave out under me. I was shaking, maybe having a panic attack, I couldn’t be sure, as it never happened to me before. Ironically, this train of thought kept me from going deeper into a spiral, and when I came around, there were some villagers around me.

“Give him some space,” Alira shouted.

I looked for the boy, but he was gone; she must have seen my eyes searching for something and added, “He was fine, he’s gone to his parents.” She looked with concern at me. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I half shouted, “I just had the first panic attack in my life. Oh, and maybe you didn’t see, but I just killed a guy, if not more,” my voice was trembling.

“I suspected your world was different; you seemed too innocent somehow,” she said softly. “However take comfort, you helped save the village. They would have killed the men and sold the women and children to slavery.”

“I need some time alone, if you don’t mind,” I didn’t know what else to say.

“Of course, the night will be soon upon us. When you feel ready, come by the fire,” with that, she left for the fire that was made in the square from all the debris. I watched as one by one the villagers gathered around the fire; they were maybe one hundred. I guess they sought comfort as well.

I stood watching the sunset and then the rising stars, and I felt empty. I was the guy always with a smile on my face; would this change me, or in a few days, would it be like nothing had happened? I actually didn’t know which of the options was scarier. The stars were amazing, but they were the opposite of what I needed, so looking at the fire, it was clear those people had suffered much more than I did; they lost friends, maybe family.

Their strength gave me strength, so forcing myself to stand, I realized I was almost hypothermic. Guess my Mana Shield doesn’t protect me from the cold forever. Slowly, I reached the fire and searched for an open space. I sat down near the fire, and as I let my shield down, I felt the full radiating heat. Well, scratch that, it seems it was doing something.

The heat was easing my body, and the people hugging were easing my soul, as corny as it sounds. A blanket was put on my shoulders by Alira as she sat on my right, and an old man sat to my left.

“This is Arduin, he’s the leader of this village,” she gestured to him.

“Thank you for your help, Mr...?” His voice was calm and determined.

“Tiberius,” my voice was robot-like.

Maybe he wanted to make some small talk, but his next question surprised me.

“Does your name mean anything where you come from?”

I felt a little relieved, grateful for a more neutral subject.

“I think it means son of the river Tiber, which goes through a very famous city in my world,” my voice sounded more natural by the end.

“Tell me about your world,” Alira continued.

“It’s divided like here, lots of kingdoms, you could say. Even so after a few big wars, most have reached a truce, and for the last 3-4 generations, most of the world is at peace. It gave us time to grow to be better; we even put a man on the moon,” I said while pointing at it. They both looked like I was joking.

“Is that some sort of metaphor?” Alira finally asked.

“No, honest to god, they actually set foot on the moon, even brought back a few rocks.” Even with all our achievements, the moon landing was the most easy to comprehend.

“Then remember that desire to be better; it will help you when you feel overwhelmed.” I was actually moved by those words. Here, maybe I could make a difference, a real difference. I had to believe that; otherwise, all that remained was a life with murder for just surviving. It wasn’t much, but at least there was a light.

“Have you always been this wise, or is that a saying in this world?” I replied. I didn't actually a smile, but the tone was not as dire as before.

“Trust me, tomorrow will be a better day,” she said with warmth in her voice.