“Okay, it's been about a minute. So I think I'm stuck here.”
I was just getting ready to leave for work, and BAM, I tripped on my doorway and got a face full of grass. Getting up, the first thing I noticed was the morning sun shining on a creek surrounded by small rocks. I was on a rocky hill with a dense forest surrounding me.
Oddly, I don't feel panicked, just surprised and calm. I should feel some panic in a situation like this: panic that I got kidnapped to a strange place, panic that there might be some wild animals like wolves or bears around, or, most pressingly, panic about being late for my job and getting fired, but I'm not…
This place is quite beautiful, and looking around on the top of this rocky hill there’s what looks like an appletree. Well, I did skip breakfast and yesterday's dinner and lunch, I kinda regret doing that now that I'm in the middle of nowhere but I wasn't hungry then, and I was going to get a chicken sandwich at work.
So apples for breakfast and my soda, good thing I at least brought one with me. While I walk to the apple tree I open my backpack grab it and notice that of all days to forget my phone, it's today. So I have my backpack and a soon-to-be empty soda can with a pack of gum and an LED flashlight. Oddly, the most useful thing I have now is this cheap LED flashlight, the damm gum was more expensive.
So grabbing my soda and reaching for one of the dozens of apples on this tree I sit down on the edge of a dirt cliff looking down at the creek and take a bite of this apple.
*CRUNCH*
“Dame good fruit” Best apple I have ever had hands down no contest. It feels like new life is being breathed into me every bite and there are not the puny small things you find in a store, I can just barely wrap my hands around it.
*Tisss*
“Damm good soda.” nice and cold.
Now all I have to do is figure out what the heck I'm going to do. From all my experience whenever I was at a creek there was always a guy making a fire, but they used lighters and they soaked all the firewood in gasoline, two things I'm lacking.
Gonna think hard about this… after I eat another one of these apples.
---cut scene time---
“Hello class, today we’re going to talk about natural treasures- and hello Chesent so happy that you could take the time and show up to my class”
“Sorry, I Forgot to clean my alarm enchantment and it leaked all the-.”
“Just sit down, and since you are late can stay after class and clean up the room’s heating enchantment”
Looks like he’s in a good mood, he typically kicks people out if they come in late.
“Okay as I was saying, Natural treasures most anything could be a natural treasure but can anyone name some of the rare and more useful ones, Chestent?”
“Well, my dad joined an expedition to the western wastes to harvest the leoleo ( le-o-le-o) fruit.”
“And what is a leoleo useful for and how would you spot it?”
“The leoleo can be eaten raw or made into dozens of elixirs. It has when ripe; a red color in the rough shape of a ball with juicy white flesh. It can strengthen a person's mana, sprite, and lifeforce which would also strengthen the soul.”
“Now what all of you may or may not know is the leoleo fruit is only a lesser treasure but what makes it so valuable is its shear size, fully grown it could reach just past my waist and would weigh half as much as I do”
---back to the mc---
Ok so finishing off the 2nd apple may not have been a good idea but at least I'm full now and I remembered something from YouTube that could help me with lighting a fire. Firstly though I need to get some kindling.
So hoping down the dirt cliff I noticed a cave in the dirt cliff, taking a look inside it looked nice, well as nice as a rocky dirt cave can be must have been a den for a bear or wolf. It's empty though so I guess this is my new home for now, Back to getting a fire set up.
Also, start picking up some of the driftwood that is along the creek. There's not a lot of dead stuff around here like leaves or dry grass to use, but I have some pocket lent so there's that.
Ok so I got an armful of sticks and some small twigs, going back to the cave/den I set up a fire pit with some large stones that are lying around.
Taking out one of the double a batteries from the flashlight and one of the five sticks of gum I ready myself to light the only bit of pocket lent I have. I take the gum and chew on that while I put the wrapper on the metal bits of the battery foil side down. That heats the wrapper causing it to catch fire, now carefully but quickly I bring the fire to the lent, and thankfully it catches fire immediately. Putting the lent in the fire pit I covered it in the smallest twigs I could find and set up a tipi with the smaller twigs at the center of the fire and the largest sticks on the outside.
“If my caveman ancestors could see me now I bet they would be so proud of me.”
Setting down to get rid of the chill that creeping up on me I just stared at it and poked at it with a long stick I found every now and then. Whale I'm just staring at the fire I start to see something odd with the sunrise, it came up and all that like it normally does but as it starts to rise in the sky I start to see another sun start to rise.
“Well, nuts”
Ok so I kinda knew I wasn't on Earth anymore but seeing two suns is kinda a deal breaker on the little self-delusion I had going on but it's cool I'm cool seeing two suns does not immediately change my situation that much. If this is a new world I'm in are there other people here?
I have not seen anything manmade so far, no roads or trash and I looked, while I was getting firewood I did not see any trash, no grocery bags no water bottles no cans of soda or beer. Heck, I didn't even see anything that could be a fire pit. So for now il just assume I am alone here and figure out how to get back to civilization later.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.
I get up and look at the cave that I will just refer to as my home from now on, it looks like what you would think of a small dirt cave, the best way I could describe it would be a long hallway with a small mouth.
I do not see any bugs but I know they are here, there's always a creepy somewhere, and the best defense is a good offense. So I head back out of the cave and start to gather all this long grass I can get my hands on and start to pile it up next to my fire, I also pick up some more wood while I'm at it…
---time skip to afternoon---
It took longer than I thought but I have a decent amount of firewood stocked up enough for a few days. At least there's plenty of wood around here.
So my master plan is to start another fire in the cave and throw all the grass and green wood I've gathered on it smoking out anything in there while also making a mud wall to seal it, hopefully. So I started to build a better firepit I'm my cave, How is it better you ask? Well, I found some large flat rocks so I set those up leaning on the wall so that they would absorb more of the heat and radiate the heat better. At least that's the plan, I'm still going to use this firepit after I fill this cave smoke so I might as well build it right the first time.
“Ok, it's all set up now to light it.” I grab a stick from the other fire and position it under the soon-to-be smoke stack. Blowing on it to help it grow quickly and it's already starting to smoke a bit. As the fire grows it gets to a point where I can't handle it anymore and have to head out.
Taking the larger sticks I start to build the mud wall, I get it as solid as I can with the sticks and start putting large handfuls of mud to seal the gaps. Now for the next step of my plan. A nap, I'm filled up on apples, got nothing to do while this fire burns and I barely got any sleep last night so it seems like now is as good a time for a nap as any.
As the suns rise higher it starts to warm up nicely, before I got kidnapped/moved into this world it was winter where I was, and I was dressed properly, in a thin hoody some underclothes, and a beanie. I know I should wear thicker clothing but my work is only an 8-minute bike ride and I didn't want to put on those thicker coats I had.
So I put on my hoodie, beanie, and underclothes in my backpack and use it as a pillow. Laying it down next to the outside fire and just enjoying the moment and start to nod off.
--- its cut scene time---
Starring out at the world for the bow of the ship just makes me think how small I am, how small we all are to the grand vastness that is this wild and beautiful world, with dangers and opportunity around every corner and crevices you would need to keep an eye out constantly.
“Hay Willo,” Dammit, it's Verren the captain's son; I don't even know why he keeps bothering me. Well, that's a lie I know exactly why he’s bothering me and if I could I would throw ’em over the railing and let him fall the thousand paces to the hard ground below i would.
“What is it Verren?” I know he knows that I hate him so why is he coming up to me? I better make a small enchantment on my shoes to keep me locked to the ground and stop him from pushing me over the edge, I bet he is doing something similar as we speak.
“Well the caption just told me that due to the fair weather, it's only going to be a little over a week till we reach the leoleo and start with the harvesting, and I was thinking that if it goes well we could look around and see if we could find anything else of value in this monster-infested place while we got a small army to watch our backs.”
This fucking guy. Is he dumb enough to think he could use the king's army as his bodyguards and just go stomping through the waste picking up treasures? I'm tempted to let him really, a quick way to get rid of the backstabber but that would reflect poorly on me and il be dammed if I let this walking pile of shit drag me down with’em.
“Let me get this right, you want to misuse your power to enrich yourself while endangering the men the king has sent with us for the sole purpose of guarding the ship. The ship that is worth a small fiefdom all on its own and the only way we have of getting back to civilization?”
As I keep going I can see the anger building inside of him, from the uncontrolled quiver of his whiskers to his tail that curling up. I won't lie to myself, I'm enjoying this.
Once I'm done outlining all the ways someone can be executed for sabotaging the king's army he makes up some nonsense excuse to leave.
And he calls himself a mouse-kin, more like a snake-ken more like it.
I'm waking up to ash and dust, I wipe my brow and I sweat my rust I'm breathing in the fricken smoke that's blowing right into my darn face. So as I get up from my little nap it looks like a lot more time has passed by than I wanted, it's too bad though strangely this was the best sleep of my life. I didn't think sleeping on the ground in the middle of the woods would be better than in my large soft bed.
And the night sky is just gorgeous, I see a sky filled with stars. I thought it would have been pitch black out at night but with the singular full moon and all the stars, it's just slightly dim.
A small spike of panic shoots through me as I quickly check my fire, as I don't see any flames from it anymore.
Ok so it's out but there are still some coals still going, so I throw on some more Tinder and watch as it slowly regains life. Checking up on the cave I tear down the crumbling mud wall and throw the sticks on the pile of firewood I have.
Just to be safe I will throw one of the thicker logs on the outside fire to keep it from going out.
Well other than the smell of smoke nothing else seems to be different about it, well since it's night and there's nothing to do I might as well relight the fire inside the cave, and take another nap, I don't feel tired but I just want to get some more sleep is all. After I eat of course, and for dinner I'm thinking apple with a side of apple juice.
---cut scene time---
The rear guard, the king's men, and the sword Of the king all mean different things and are different branches of the king's personal. But there is another name that we go by one hidden from all, even the king.
Babysitters for overdramatic mages
“his dumb fur, his dumb face, his crooked tail, his poor hygiene, his casual attempt to get me to commit treason, his small whiskers, his-”
“What was that about treason?” you zone out for just a second.
Honestly, Maples Kid seems a little too comfortable saying words that should not be spoken, especially to the Royal Guard.
“He wanted to use me, you and your people to scout around for more treasure that he would claim somehow, but I told ’em off you should have seen him. He was acting all cool but inside I bet he wanted to push me off the ship.”
… I don't even know what to say to that.
“ Willo, listen to me. I have known you since you were crawling on all fours, hell I took care of you like my own son when Maple was off on her jobs, but take this advice; do not get involved with goldblooded it never ends well for normal folk.”
It's like he wants to die for goodness sake, why is it the book types are the craziest ones on this ship? Just one more week, it's good fortune that we will get there the day after the full moon. It's an old superstition but I would strip naked and dance around a fire if I thought it would improve the chase of this expedition going smoothly by just a fraction of a fraction. I know the king thinks the same way too, why else send thirty guards, thirty support, and thirty specialists?
Things in three are meant to be and if it rhymes we’ll be back on time.
---cut scene end---
Ok, I might have been a bit more tired than I thought I was. But dang if I have ever been more relaxed than in this moment I would be a liar. Even the toothache that's been bothering me for months now is just gone.
I have never felt better than I have at this moment. Looking out I see that I might be noonish but really, does it matter? Just lying in this cave next to the remains of last night's fire I toss a few sticks on it and silently watch as it comes back to life.
I am getting thirsty though and should probably find a way to clean the river water, I'm not an idiot who would just drink it raw it could have all types of stuff in it.
I already have a plan on how I'm going to do it. I fill my soda can and leave It next to the fire to boil then I put it back into to river to cool down, I'm so freaking smart.
So after I hype myself up enough I head outside. I don't bother with the apple tree yet but with an empty can in hand, I make my way to the river. As soon as I left the cave I saw that the first fire I had set up was out, and cold… odd. Well, I don't need it anyway the one inside is good enough.
After getting my fill of water, and four whole cans; I started to move to the apple tree to get dinner, or would it be a late lunch?
“That doesn't look right.” the apple tree is a bit more barren than I remember.
Looking around it, I can't tell what else is different but the place just feels drier, Or barren. It just feels less than yesterday, I don't know how to describe it. But it didn't matter that much there were still apples and past the river there was a large blackberry patch, they were okay but not nearly as good as these apples so I didn't eat too many of them.
So I grab an apple, take a little bite; still as good as I remember, and head back to my little dirt cave. Right before I'm about to enter I see something odd. A little glitter on the ground that was not there yesterday. Picking it up I see that it's a tiny wine bottle, I can see a picture on the label but can't make out the words.
“Odd, very odd. Hello? Anybody out there?” the only thing I hear is silence.
Well, a good investigator would search the area for more clues, and leave a marking where they find them so I do just that. After ten minutes of looking around, I see a bit of cloth lying on the ground. And I know for a fact that I wasn't there yesterday. The closer I get to it the more I see that it's not just a piece of clothing but a little person in a long robe.
“Are you dead little guy?” I hold back the impulse to poker with my stick and just crouch down next to them. Flipping them over I see that this is some kind of rat person and that there still breathing. Hmmm, what should I do?