“Don’t let them Baker boys goad you into doing anything stupid!” is what your mom told you before you left the house.
And then what happens? You let the baker boys goad you into copying the key into Mr. Vorlds’ cave and to sneak in when he’s leaving town!
Why are you really doing this? Because despite what your mother and grandmother warned, you were always fascinated and curious about strange Mr. Vorlds.
He is the most unusual person in your dull village. Everyone is either a farmer, baker, miller, and your father the only blacksmith, but Mr. Vorlds is a scribe, the only one for leagues! It’s even said that he writes for the king!
Even his name is weird, “Worlds” foreign like the strange and exotic way he dresses. Grey clothes but always clean and always with some colorful jewels or hats.
Everything about Mr. Vorlds seems fascinating except his cave. His bland, dirty cave on the edge of the village. Filth and moss grow all over that side of the hill, but it’s even worse nearer his cave. Why does Mr. Vorlds live there? No one knows why one of the most famous people in the county lives in the most infamous place.
Which only makes him even more fascinating to you.
“Don’t go in there,” Your grandmother cautioned you years ago. “I’ve known plenty of good lads and lasses going there, never to be seen again, those who do come out came out… weird.”
You are 14 years old and old enough to know that kids shouldn’t go into the houses of creepy old men. But you’re not going in there while’s he’s there, are you?
“Are you sure you don’t want me to drop you all the way to the capital Mr. Vorlds?” the old wagon driver asked while you hid in the bushes.
“No, thank you, Mr. Wheeler, the cou- my employer is paying for a transportation from Eastport via a ship.”
“A ship?” Mr. Wheeler asked as he helped Mr. Vorlds get the rest of his stuff into the wagon. “Your employer seems eager to have at the capital.”
Mr. Vorlds sighed. “Indeed, they do, but be careful with this bag; it’s fragile.”
You remained quiet in the bushes the entire time, as the wagoner and Mr. Vorlds kept talking, but you ignore them as you try to steel your nerves by thumbing the key you have in your pocket.
You barely hear them over the sound of your own thoughts.
You are going to do it! You are going to sneak into the most infamous place in our village and maybe the entire county, the notorious cave of Mr. Vorlds! The Vorlds have always been a part of our village, but their cave has always been off-limits, a place only for the strange Mr. Vorlds and his strange foreign friends.
You gulp as the wagon drives away now, far enough now that you have no excuse not to do it.
You walk to the front door.
You really didn’t need the Baker boys’ goading. You always wanted to see what lies inside, always wanted to see what’s been forbidden.
You walk out of the bushes and look around nervously; no one was around except birds.
You steel your nerves again and move forward; the cave looked nothing special—the muddy road leading to it, trash and filth on the outside.
It had an old wall, dirty too. You start to have a second thought, could anything be worthwhile in this old disgusting, filthy place?
Well… one way to find out.
The key you copied in your father’s smithy feels heavy in your sweaty hands as you put into the keyhole. For a second, you’re uncertain; you’ve never copied a key before. What if you did it wrong? What if this wasn’t actually the key for the house? what if…
The door unlocks, and you step inside.
It was a room, a common room although filled with books. You are a bit disappointed as you expected something filthy and hoped for something magical. Yet, all you find was a regular house like your own.
It was less dark than you expected. Some magelight was lighting the house, nothing too powerful nor expensive; many homes in the village had stronger and more costly magelights, but it was the distribution of the mage light that made the house look… cozy.
You feel foolish for your previous cowardice and decide to explore the house a bit.
The pantry had preservation runes and so you find plenty of fresh foods and some strange drinks in transparent bottles. They had to be some sort of magical glass; it was much lighter than any glass you’ve ever seen, and it was even elastic!
“Woah!” you exclaim. If you only took this to your friends, they would know you went inside and be amazed. but they aren’t the children of a blacksmith. You doubt they would appreciate the strange material those bottles are made from.
There are plenty of bottles and it’s unlikely Mr. Vorlds would notice one or two missing. You unscrew one open it and take a sip.
This you realize now might have been stupid! because it could be a potion or some medicine or even a poison!
You wait for anything to happen, to you, but all you feel is a sweet taste and a funny fuzzy feeling on your tongue, you take another bigger sip and then burp, it seems that the drink had air in it!
You shake it gently and confirm.
You’re glad you brought your bag with you, you take a few bottles of the drinks with you they are in different colors and all had strange writings on them and drawings of fruits!
You now realize that what you drank what a mix of lemon and something else, some fruit you’ve never seen before.
“Lemons!” how exotic!
Even if the dumb baker boys didn’t appreciate the materials the bottles are made from, they will surely appreciate the sweet gassy drink!
You explore further, but don’t find anything as interesting as the stuff you found in the pantry. The
The furniture was simple but nice, some of the chairs had leather padding on them which seemed odd until you sit on them and see how comfortable they are.
There was a button on the side of the chair, you push, and the chair changes! The back reclines, and a part of it goes up and lifts your legs.
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There is even a holder for the drink on the chair arms!
This was the coolest thing here for sure!
You imagine yourself as Mr. Vorlds, sitting in his comfy chair, drinking his exotic drinks while probably reading a book or something.
There were plenty of books which isn’t surprising for a scribe’s house.
You know your basic letters and can spell out most words, mother made sure you do.
You get up and try to find a nice book, most are too weird with strange colors and images on the covers.
Some are leather-bound others were paper and some hard shiny materials like that of the bottles.
You ignore it all until you find a book that had a very realistic drawing on the cover. It was a picture of a strange city with tall steel and glass buildings!
You are no country bumpkin, you’ve been to the city before, but this, this was like no other city you’ve ever heard of.
You try to read the title
“The L*** and Turb**** of a Steel******” you can’t read most of the words but you understood “Steel” and so you decide to try and read the book, you can’t take it with you, it’s one thing to steal a few drinks but this book looks expensive and your father raised a smith, not a thief!
You make yourself comfortable on that amazing chair, putting your drink on the side table
and begin to read hoping to learn something about steel.
======================================================================
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James screams as he wakes up in a strange room in a strange bed, it takes him a moment then he remembers “no” he corrects himself, “my room, my bed, I am James, I am 8 years old and live in...
His father Tom burst into the door “WHAT FUCK IS GOING ON!?”
“Father!” This was his real father, not the blacksmith in the dream “I dreamt I was older in..”
He tries to recall but fails, something about magical drinks, soda! James now realizes. It was just soda and a book about skyscrapers like the ones downtown.
“You dumb fucking idiot!” His father shouts at him his words a bit slurred.
Oh no, he’s drunk James now realizes.
His father beats him with the belt that he was holding, his mother wakes up too late and pulls his father away.
“It’s your fault for letting him read all those stupid comics” he shouts at her and slaps her.
James starts crying and begs his father to stop.
When he finally stops his mother looks at him with her sad and malice in her eyes and says “You can’t go to school looking like this, I’ll call in and tell them you’re sick.” She will blame him for this.
James falls asleep crying, hoping he dreams about that magical place again.
===
As years passed and James grew he often dreamt about that other world and his life there, he was always a kid in that world playing with friends, his mother there was firm but kind, his father the village smith was gentle and always tried to make him laugh.
Was I a boy in that dream? he often asks himself and never found a good answer, sometimes he was a boy sometimes a girl, his real-life would sometimes seep into the dream. When it did it would turn into a nightmare as he realizes that his life in that the dream world is just that… a dream.
-----
James was a man now, he has a shitty life at the steel mill, his father wanted him to work with him at the liquor store but James wanted to live a life that somewhat resembled his dreams, there are no more blacksmiths in the real world. In the dreams, he’s a kid who wants to be a blacksmith like his father, but this was real life as his wife often tells him, she had sad but tired eyes like his mother’s. he hated her eyes.
He often looks up books and educational videos on ancient smithing, it always brings him joy. He
thought his job at the steel mill would give him some satisfaction but it was just a modern factory, there was no artistry there.
---
At 48 years old he was driving to a union meeting downtown, on the highway, he saw downtown from afar and remembered the first dream about a book, he was reading a book then with the picture of downtown, something about
Mr. Vo-….
he rammed the truck in front of him and died instantly.
=====================================
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You wake up with a start!
What the hell was that!
What!
You shout!
Is this a dream!
Was that a dream!?
WHAT!
Your body hurts!
And someone slaps you!
You look up and see the dark eyes of Mr. Vorlds
“What the hell did you do kid?” Mr. Vorlds asks you and looks at the book in your lap.
“I was someone else” you start crying, you’re a kid it’s ok for you to cry. The tears become tears of joy as you realize your old life was just a nightmare.
Mr. Vorlds looks horrified! “Where did you…”
“I was somewhere awful” you cry and laugh now hugging the old weirdo, you don’t care that he might be a pervert. “I am so glad you’re real!”
Mr. Vorlds pushes away looking less worried now.
“You read the book and had a horrible experience” Mr. Vorlds sighs, he pushes you away, takes the book, and puts it back in his library.
“I was an old man in some magicless world, I had a shitty family and shitty life” You realize that you’re cussing and stop “I mean… errr really bad”
Mr. Vorlds just smiles “You were very lucky!”
What!? You didn’t feel lucky!
Mr. Vorlds pulls a small chair and sits next to you.
“You know those people who leave my place weird and sometimes kill themselves?” He asks you and you realize this is the first time you've ever seen him sad.
“My grandmother told me people come out here weird” You somewhat understand now “Is it because of the nightmares?”
“No, the people who have a nightmare for the first time are the lucky ones,” he looks old now older than the 30-year-old man you’ve always known him as “The unlucky ones are the ones who have an amazing life in a book, a life much greater than the ones they have here. because when they wake up here, they always want to go back, they think this world” he gestured around the old beautiful apartment that you just realized was magical like a hobbit’s “Is the nightmare, and they either try to go back into that life but once they realize they can’t, they kill themselves”
“I can’t go back to that life?” You ask somewhat relieved, while you’re now certain that this here was the real world a part of your mind still worried that this was just another dream.
Mr. Vorlds shook his head sadly, “you can go back to that world, but the person you were there, died. If you go into the book again you will just be reborn in that world, in that era, but never as the same person”
You look at the book, you remember some people did have a nice life in that world. You consider it but only for a second, you miss your mother. Your real loving mother, and your blacksmith father.
Mr. Vorlds studies your face and then gets up.
“Come on kid, your parents are worried sick, you’ve been missing for days. “
“I have?” You pause, why not minutes, why not years?
“Yeah, time is weird” he shows you to the door. “Want my advice?”
You nod still fearing this is another dream and that you might wake up if you left the house.
“Don’t come back here” Mr. Vorlds says sadly “Take your win, I am pretty sure you learned some things there, some of it might be useful, borrow from the chaos but never let it consume you.”
Before you can ask Mr. Vorlds what he means he shuts his mossy door.
----
You walk to your house and hear your mother is crying to see you, your dad too. For a moment you’re worried they will beat you as the nightmare father did.
You open the door, they all shout in excitement and hug you. you break down crying, you missed them. You had no idea how much you missed them.
They ask you where you’ve been but you just cry “I am home now” You cry and kiss your baby sister “I am home now”
===
The entire town treats really nicely; they probably thought some gang kidnapped you. Your fathers want you to rest but you just want to work with him.
The entire village is magical, you never noticed it, but it was magical both literally and figuratively.
Everyone knew and cared for each other. It looked like a hobbit’s village from the old stories you read.
You work with your father again and remember his smithy lessons and start to forget that terrible
nightmarish world, most of it anyway.
You remember your few passions there, comics and smithy. But you were never good at telling stories, just reading them, smithing and steel though? That was always your passion.
You tell your dad about what you learned about smithing but you try to make it sound like they were your ideas.
“I was sad there and I thought about smithing a lot” you say which isn’t really a lie. “so I got a few ideas of my own” here was the lie.
Your dad indulges you and lets you experiment. He was patient and was happy to lose a few iron ores just to see you happy, but when finally sees the new hotter furnace that you made and the powerful and strong steel that this furnace can make, he is amazed.
-----
Years have passed since you’ve been into Mr. Vorlds cave, you’re now an industrialist, The Industrialist.
The richest man in the kingdom and maybe the continent. You’ve armed the kingdom and built wonders with your steel. You are married and living a wonderful life with your spouse. You achieved a great life beyond anything you’ve ever dreamed of.
Your old village has turned into a small town, you visit it every now and then, but you tend to avoid it since it reminds you of it... that mossy cave and the nightmares it held.
You don’t want to go back to that life but sometimes when it gets too hot and there is no AC when
there is no soda, you wonder but not truly miss. What you miss are the comics and fiction from that world, there are books here but none as great as the
comics and fantasy books you used to love there.
So now you’re 30 years old, and you find yourself in front of that mossy cave door with sweaty palms, you don't have a key this time so you knock.
A man opens up, he aged but not nearly as he should, he looks just a few years older than you.
“Mr. Vorlds I…”
“I told you not come back kid, you can still walk away” He smiles “It’s pronounced Mr. Worlds by the way”
So, do you come back?