liquid touched my mouth I spluttered. My eyes shot open. I stared wildy around the room that I found myself in. A girl was standing over me a bowl and plate in her hand. An older lady marched forward.
“What did I say, Lula!” You can’t feed them while they’re conscious, That’s how people choke and die.
“I’m sorry,” she cried.
The older lady wiped away the spilled soup from my lips. “I am deeply sorry, great hero, my assistant meant no harm.”
The entrance to the room fluttered open. A tall muscular man entered. His smile was wide, and scars covered his half naked rippled body. A giant sword was strapped to his back.
“You have arrived at the perfect moment Gilgamesh!”
“Ohh!” He exclaimed upon seeing my face. “He bowed, it’s an honor meeting you, you honor us with your presence. Your aid will greatly be appreciated.”
“It’s alright,” i spluttered out. Seeing someone as confident and imposing as him bow down just made me uncomfortable.
Gilgamesh turned to the older woman.
“I came to check on our saviour, but also to inform you Brunhilde that the celebration is soon fully organised.”
He turned to me. “Of course you will also be taking part if only briefly,” he said with a smile.
“See you later hero!” said Gilgamesh with a flourish of his muscled arm before leaving.
It wasn’t long before he heard cheering and music playing. A woman swashed in clothes came in carrying a tray. She placed it down next to me before walking backwards and bowing before leaving quietly. The tray had a lid that I consequently removed. The wafting savory smell of grilled meat and vegetables engulfed my senses. I used the spoon they had given me to dig in. I started with the meat stew. It was savoury and melted in my mouth. I didn’t recognise the spices but whatever it was it was delicious. When I was finished eating the meat pieces I drank the broth. I sighed when I finished it smacking my lips. If I had had company I would have been more modest but here I was alone to enjoy my food. Warmth and strength seept into my bones.
As a side there was a salad and some pieces of some sort of blue root vegetable. The salad was surprisingly cold and a nice constrasat to the hot stew. If I closed my eyes and ignored its strange appearance the root vegetable taste resembled that of a potato. It was steamed and salted lightly. I’d have thought food from what was essentially the middle ages when considering the iron swords and shields, the heavy armour and lach of modern tech would have pretty bad food. This on the other hand was something I would pay for to eat in a restauraunt. When I was finished I neatly placed the plates and the spoon on the try before lying back against the headrest. I patted my satisfied food baby, I could get used to a life like this.
Gilgamesh burst through the room flaps. “Hello great saviour, the resistance would like to see you,” Rose colored his cheeks.
I could do that. I followed him out. Large tables were laid out and were decored with large trays of food and rows of people dancing and drinking. Dwarves were slumped their faces in wine. When they saw me they everyone cheered.
Gilgamesh led me to a platform.
“Victory is ours!” He roared raising my arm. You know I was beginning to wonder why everyone was so happy to see me. It was starting to get unusual.
After saying some greetings to people I excused myself and went back to my tent. It wasn’t long before I fell asleep.
Over the next several days I slowly recovered. I had been pretty close to the brink of death but my body wasn’t actually that injured. My magic had been used to shield me.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
I looked in the large silver mirror provided to me. Aside from some cuts and bruises everything seemed in order. I readjusted my green tunic. My clothes had been tattered and beyond repair no matter how much I begged the seamstress for it to be fixed. I would stand out if I wore it but even so I didn’t have to wear it, I would have liked to have a memento from my world as the idea of returning seemed to be going further and further away.
Lula was waiting for me outside my tent. She bowed when she say me.
“Please follow me.”
She led me past several tents an open field were plants were being harvested and through a gathering of trees. It opened into a large gravel field. People wrestled and fought with wooden swords. In the far side of the field wooden stumps had been set up. One figure raised a stick and fire darted out igniting the stump. Another person next to them pulled back a bow and fired into the stump next to it.
A short bespectacled man came excitedly up to me.
“Welcome Otherworlder we are most excited to have you here,” he said turning his hands upon themselves. “We have set up a special area for you a bit further away we don’t want to get anyone caught up in your incantations,”
We walked into an open area behind the house with a single metal target set up. It was significantly further away than the ones that had been in the yard.
“Fire away,” said the man beckoning to the target. I nodded. I raised my hand and concentrated. I imagined fire, white hot fire shooting from my palm. I opened my eyes to a very much still-there target.
“Uh …. Was there some type of issue ?” said the man.
“Hmmm….” I said. “I’ll try again,i don’t know what happened.”
I tried again but to my dismay nothing happened.
“Here,” said the man, giving me a wand. This is normally what we use but since heroes never use wands I assumed you didn’t need one.
I took it. I fired at the target, or rather I tried to. The crowd that had quietly began to gather had confused faces, some of them even looked annoyed.
I better get this working. I tightened my fist around the wand. Fire, fire, fire. I felt something a crackling energy. Yes! It’s happening.
A pathetic sparkle of fire squeezes out of my wand.
He scratched his beard. “Are you sure you’re an otherworlder.”
“Of course I am, This was working fine yesterday when-”
I fell to my knees. Shooting pain engulfed me. It felt like my whole body was splintering apart.
Lula rushed to my side. “What’s the matter.”
I couldn’t speak through my convulsions. “I’m taking him to Getric!” she said lifting me and supporting me with her shoulder.
—
“Well it appears you are suffering from a whole host of magical injuries.”
Gelric sat down. “First of all there are signs of magic residuals which could only have come from some insanely strong magic, although that’s not really an issue since it seems to have broken somehow. The real issue is all the scarring you have.”
“Scarring, I don’t have any scarring.”
“You do internally. You see magic is both physical and mental. “He poked at my heart, forehead, throat, solar plexis and navel. “These are magical channels within the body, when you use your mana the way you did you overloaded them causing great damage to your body, additionally the damage affects your magical output. It seems that based of off your damage you have about as much magical power as a black tailed bee.
There is actually very little physical scarring but your mana channels are absolutely cooked.”
“Is there anything I can do?”
“There is surprisingly little research on this topic, you should rest and recover for the time being and hopefully when the physical damage heals you’ll regain your mana. But honestly it isn’t looking good. It can take decades to regain your magic maybe a couple years if you’re lucky anything faster than that is unheard of”
“How long will it take to heal my physical injuries, a couple of weeks?”
“Oh, that can be done right now, I am quite proficient at recovery magic.”
“Excuse me, said the headmaster. “Does this mean he effectively has no magic, with little chance of recovery.”
“I’m afraid so,”
—-
1 week later
“Thank you!” I said taking the half-eaten fish. When the people found out that I had no powers they got really mad. I was their hope but now they couldn’t rely on me. I was nothing more than extra baggage to them now.
I heard cluttling footsteps. Children ran up to me. I caught a glimpse of something red. I felt a splatter on my left cheek. I wiped away the rotten tomato. One was crying.
“Go away!” They shouted in unison. Another splatter of rotten tomato hit my chest.
I leaned back against the support beam of my tattered tent.
Maybe I should just end it all.