3. Clothings

It's ok.

Try to breathe deeply and be calm.

We have time.

Alex tried to do as the woman said. Or maybe a girl?

As he looked at her, he wasn't so sure.

She lay there in the grass, a couple of meters away, only wearing a green bikini and big sunglasses, head on a small brown backpack with green embroidery.

Alex was never good at judging age, but she looked more like a teenager.

She had long green hair, very pale skin, and astonishingly long legs. Her face was sharply angled and somewhat familiar. She lay there, as if the cold wind didn't disturb her at the least. He himself was a little chilly, even with the thick blanket tightly around him.

Stop staring, Alex reprimanded himself and tore his gaze from her to his surroundings.

He was in a wide grassland. Mostly flat with only small hills. The sun was standing low over a small grove of trees to his left. The trees were perhaps 50 meters away and not very tall.

In front of him was only grass and a wavey landscape of small hills. Far away, hiding in a mist, he could make out a low mountain range.

To his right, behind the grassland, there were real mountains. They seemed far, but massive and filling the whole horizon.

Behind himself there was just more grassland.

He looked at the girl. The pain was becoming more and more bearable, and he needed answers.

Where am I? Who are you? Is this real?

Well, yes, it's all real. You are not dreaming.

I can answer all your questions now. But do you want some clothes first? Might be better that way around.

Ok!

He answered quite fast. Hell, of course he wanted cloths.

The girl sat up and pointed to the backpack.

This is a spatial bag. Magical bag, you know?

By the way, magic is real. Yay!

Don't try to lift it. It's really heavey. Lot of space in it but the wight is still there.

And it's a lot in there now.

He slowly skidded to the backpack, trying not to lose the blanket.

It functions simply. Open it and put your hand in it.

If you think of nothing special, you get the last thing that was put in. But if you picture something, you get that. As long it's in there, I mean.

Try it. Picture the top or bottom I wear right now and try.

Alex opened the top of the bag, which was quite wide for a small backpack, and did as she asked, carefully.

And he found a green bikini bottom in his hand. The fabric was very smooth and silky. He looked at it stupefied.

Ta-dah!

Now put them on and get to the top.

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To stupefied to do other, he did.

Awkward, he tied the knots, wearing something like a bra for the first time.

He looked at her again and noticed that she now wore a knee-length garment, brown with embroidery of green leaves.

Now pull out this gambeson, and I show you the rest one after another.

Alex did so, happy to get something to protect him from the wind.

The gambeson was the same silky material as the bikini, or better to say, underwear. But, of course not thin. It was padded and peraps were one centimeter thick. With long sleeves and a little elastic, it fit snugly to Alex's new body. It didn't interfere with movements, because, from the hip downwards, there were multiple slits, which split the bottom into panels. A little like those leather things you think of in Roman legionaries.

Next were some knee-high boots. Again, brown with green and the same material. More like thick socks, but comfortable and warm.

The last article was a kind of thin mantle. Silky, brown with wide sleeves. Again, there was embroidery of green leaves on it, and on the back a big green tree.

Alex didn't like to look at it; it reminded him of too much of pain. He put it on quickly.

It was cut like a bathrobe with a hood and a belt to tie it shut. Or those things they wore in historical Japanese movies.

Whatever, Alex felt much better now, not just because he wasn't naked anymore, the headache was nearly gone to.

He really felt good! Even if he still had those foreign, or better to say, new, sensations going through his body.

Very good!

The girl said and clapped happily.

Now, weapons!

Like her clothes before, she pulled a leather belt out of nowhere. A belt with a sword, knife and small bag hanging from it.

Well, Alex really wanted to pull them out too and take a look. No point in lying, he always loved blades, but now that he was warm, he really needed some answers.

Wait, please!

It is nice that you are helping me.

But who are you? Where are we? Is this really real? What…. I mean….

I…. I have so many questions, I don't even know where to start.

As Alex stammers his bewilderment the girl just laughs and stops him by holding up her hand.

Don't worry, I will explain in a minute.

But please take the weapons out of the bag first.

It's not that we are in danger; there should be only normal animals around here, but better safe than sorry.

And there are a lot of bunnies in this plain.

Bunnies! Are you kidding me?

Yes Bunnies, they are vicious!

Now do you want to discuss wildlife, or do you get the stuff out so I can finally answer your questions?

Alex nearly got stubborn, but he really needed some answers.

That girl was his only hope of getting them, it seemed. So, with a last look at the belt of the girl he pulled the same item from the bag and put it around his hips. Of course, he immediately pulled the sword out of its dark brown wooden sheath.

It was not what he had expected.

It was a Chinese-style blade, a little over one meter long from the wooden hilt to the tip. That he had already seen before unsheathing it.

But the blade was not steel, or metal at all.

It was white with a sheen like porcelain, with a damast-like texture of deep crystaleen green.

Curious, he pulled the knife too.

That blade wasn't metal, too.Rather it seemed to be made from one piece of wood pommel, hilt, and blade.

It reminded him of a K-Bar, sharpened on both sides, with the lower two-thirds of the back cut like a saw. The pommel was formed like a closed blossom.

He stayed standing there for a moment, a sword in his right hand and a knife in the left, and just took in the feeling. It wasn't his first time holding a sword or knife. But this felt different.

They simply felt right in his hands, as if they were simply where they belonged.

All the new sensations and strangeness tried to conquer his thinking, and he shook his head and pushed everything down. Now was not the time to break down. He needed answers.

What was this strange material? Was it porcelain? No! There were things more important now.

He forced himself to not go down the way of just curiosity and put both back in their sheaths.

You are right, we still have a lot to do.

The girl said.

But don't worry, they are both better than steel and helllisch sharp.

Are you reading my mind?

That was not the first time she had answered a question, even if he had just thought about it.

Well kind of. The surface so to say.

I hear your inner monologue, but I can't look deeper.

But don't worry! I will explain everything while we find you a good place for a campsite.

Over there in the grove are some good ones, and on the other side of it is a small stream.

Everything you need is in the bag, but as it is now, it weighs more than 200 kilograms. It's better if you take something out first. You are quite a lot stronger now than you were before coming here, but that is quite a burden.

Alex looked at the small backpack.

Perhaps if we put it on the blanket and pull it together, we can get it there in one go.

Good idea! But there is a small problem with that. Let me show you.

With that, she came close and put her arm right through Alex's torso.

In shock, he tripped back and landed on his ass.

See! I'm not really here. I mean as having a real body and so on.

But your idea is still good. Come, I will show you what to get out of the bag until it is light enough for you alone to pull.

With that, she held her hand out to help him up. In his confused state, he tried to grip the hand automatically. Which gave him just air to hold on.

And the girl laughed hard.

Well good ideas, but not a fast learner. It could be worse.

As soon as he heard that, he laughed too. For the first time in this strange new world.

His laughing might be a bit hysterical, but it did him good after all the pain and confusion.