"Cock-a-doodle-doo!!" He jerked awake at the first cry from one rooster, the rest following into one of the most irritating symphanies he had ever heard. His eyes blearily opened and he could only make out the darkness outside.

He moved his hands till they touched a small rock, which he picked up and threw in the direction the sound was coming from. Screeches and flapping wings, he smiled satisfied and turned around to go back to sleep.

Take that, chicken!

That is when it happened. The flapping of wings sounded much closer than it had a moment ago, and settled on his head. He shrieked, his hands flailing and head shaking, he jumped up from his bed on the hay as he tried to dislodge the unwanted chicken from his head.

The rooster did not move,merely moving from his face to his head.

Quin got up to his feet, flailing his arms as he ran around the small barn.

He rocked his head, and in a moment of unusual bravery even tried to hit the chicken off. That is when the pecking started.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Crying in pain, he took a hold of a small tub full of feed, picked it up and brought it down on his head.

Tingggg!

The metal contained emptied and fell on his head. His head was ringing, and the seeds were splattered in his long hair when he opened his eyes cautiously.

Carefully, he lifted the container.

No chicken.

A clacking sound directed him towards the bed of hay he had abandoned, where stood the rooster, triumphant.

Seeing that he had Quin's attention, he jumped up and down, clucking, and turned away from him. His back moved in a side to side motion, taunting the clearly unworthy opponent.

Quin grit his teeth.

'Let it go. It's only a chicken.' He took a deep breath, and shaking his head clear of the seeds looked mournfully at the single barred window to the dark sky outside. He scratched his itching face and arms- hay did not make for as comfortable a bed!- and went outside. That is when he became aware of the sounds coming from the house.

It was very likely someone had heard the fight inside.

Not willing to take a chance, he ran around to the back of the barn, and away from the house. Careful of the noise, he stealthily peered around to the front of the house and sure enough, there stood the large man, brandishing his trusty hammer.

Quin pulled his head back behind the wall.

He hoped that the man would go away, but it was not going to be so easy.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

He heard him move away from the house, and towards the barn, his steps not as stealthy as Quin's.

Probably because they didn't need to be if you looked like you could tear a tree in half!

Bending down, Quin slowly moved his head and peered to the house again. The shadow was much closer.

He carefully removed his shoes, and with his feet pressing into the loose dirt of the earth, padded away as the man neared the spot where he had been.

Going to the other side of the barn, he looked back and could just make out the make turning the corner to his previous hiding place.

Phew!

The much stronger man searched with his eyes, and Quin could swear they rested where he was longer than necessary, but the man didn't follow him.

He went back the way he had come, and stopped in front of the house, his axe in his hands.

Quin went around to the back, and still bent at the waist, he duck-walked his way to the small group of trees he could see nearby.

A little more...

And soon he was in the woods. Breathing a sigh of relief, he chanced a look back. There were no abnormally fit and envy-enducing humans to be found. He stood back up, stretching to open up his cramped spine.

A few more minutes of warming his body up, and he was good to go!

Quin wandered among the trees, looking at the greenery in the first light of the day. The dew on the leaves, the freshest air he had ever felt embalming his skin.

The world looked suspended in the minutes after twilight. The trees were softly moving, the birds were melodiously chirping.

The smallest of critters were just starting to move about, right after the nocturnal animals had gone back to their spots to hide and await the arrival of another night.

It was surreal, and the most beautiful thing the twenty-first century Quin had ever experienced. Of course, he could also hear the entirety of the village just a few yards behind him waking up, and he knew this was something they had the fortune of feeling everyday.

He was never leaving this place.

Fingers touching the low hanging plants, the grass dampening his footsteps. He walked without any real direction.

And that's when his stomach started to make itself known.

Grrrh

Right. On to less important matters now. Food.

After waking up yesterday afternoon, he had not had any food. Thinking back to Donna's stew, he regressed. Any fulfilling food.

Good thing he was in a forest!

'There!' He picked up one of the hanging apples, and after rubbing it clean on his tunic and checking for any furrowed creepy-crawlies, bit into it.

The juices released in his mouth, quenching his thirst alongside.

He kept walking with the apple in his hand, looking around for more things he could eat. And that's when he came across it.

An entire clearing with dense and large bushes of grapes.

He held in a yelp of delight as he rushed to the nearest bush, throwing his second gnawed apple core to the ground and plucking the juicy black fruit off the purplish branches and plopping it in his mouth.

He was right, they tasted delicious!

With a handful of grapes in his hand, he sat down right there in the clearing. After his very fulfilling meal of apples, they would go great as dessert. Sure, he would have loved to eat something like rice or bread, but this was the next best thing.

He slowly chewed them as he pondered.

'Do they even have rice here? They sure had oats...'

His one hand pressed on the cushy floor as the other he raised to his stomach, that had started feeling achingly full.

'Maybe I had too much?'

But it didn't stop there. His chest started feeling tight. He hurriedly put a hand over his mouth, barely aiming to the side in time.

The dizziness, the nausea, along with the fatigue that took over, Quin was quickly overwhelmed. The hand on the floor his lone tangible link to the real world.

He looked up, in a vain attempt to get more air in his lungs as he started sweating. The treetops swam in his vision, and soon he was toppling over on the forest floor.

Unconscious.