Adam flushed the toilet and closed the lid, proudly exercising the mannerism that evades so many of the worlds married men and simultaneously avoiding the waste particles that would otherwise spread out into the somewhat sterile atmosphere of his bathroom in one fell swoop. Adam then moved over to his sink and bent to wash his hands with the amber soap he kept on the left side of the porcelain counter. He then opened the draw underneath and grabbed a small towel to dry his hands with. Hands dry he zipped up his fly and fastened his belt over his slowly emerging belly (reminded that he should really start working out again as he did so) half humming along to a song that had been running through his mind that day.
Adam looked up into the mirror after hoisting his pants up a little and gave a small nod to himself. Business concluded it was time for Adam to leave and get on with his day. It was of course at this point that a resonant voice spoke deeply and strongly from within his brain.
[Hello Adam]
Adam looked at himself startled, eyes wide and eyebrows raised in shock.
[I have a job for you]
Adam screamed
----------------------------------------
An unknowable amount of time later for Adam (42 seconds precisely) the voice started speaking to him again through the clamor of his heavy breathing.
[I have chosen you for this mission. There is a necromancer of dark renown that must be stopped, cut off from the great and terrible power found within his creations. To do that you must go backwards in time and forwards in space and traverse all across the differing facets of reality to find and kill the necromancers servants while they still draw breath. With your power, the power that will be fostered and gifted to you, you must murder these beings while life still posses them and prevent their bodies from ever being raised again and manipulated. Your actions will prevent the rising of an even harsher reality, one where life is enslaved to a perversion of death]
’Ah-hadhaat’ Adam stuttered, enunciating nonsense to the empty air of his bathroom.
[This place will transport you, a vessel. This fortress will be your passage to where you are needed]
A flask appeared on Adam’s belt, neatly attached. His eyes were drawn to the new weight hanging off him, his eyes leaving the mirror and instead seeing some sort of ancient gourd tied securely to the leather, its shape a poorly formed oval a bit bigger than the size of his hand.
[This flask will help you in your journey. Its elixir will flow through you and its power will rejuvenate you from body to soul. It will heal you and grow you in almost equal terms. It is far beyond the scope of a simple healing potion and though endless, will not bestow effects completely static]
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Adams mouth flopped senselessly as he struggled to process the current events.
[It is time to go now Adam, the world is waiting for you]
Finally Adam’s spluttering became connected to the only incredulous but still functioning part of his brain, forming some sort of coherent exclamation of thought ‘You want me to murder someone! With, with a gourd! I mean murder is bad-not to say it’s good. I wouldn’t want to murder anyone at all, but a gourd?’ Adams mouth opened again as he tried to reason through the absurd situation he found himself in and implore the voice or his psychotic mind to provide some sort of coherent explanation of what was happening-but the voice spoke over him.
[It’s time to go now Adam, I have given you what help I can. You may find yourself not entirely unequipped to face the stranglelands]
’Where am I going? Where are you sending me? WHERE ARE YOU SENDING ME, WHAT IS HAPPENING?’ Adam’s body began to leave the bathroom, his harried cries not soliciting much of a response from the voice that spoke to him. He got the impression of lips being pressed together, as if the voice cut itself off from whatever it might of said, it’s mouth set in a grim line as it watched him march mechanically out of the bathroom.
The presence faded in Adam’s mind, his head becoming comfortingly empty as he stepped out onto the street beyond. His relief was momentary and shallow as the hold on his limbs was released and the thing in the noggin fled. The feeling was fleeting due to the fact that Adam had just stepped out onto a somewhat dusty street in the middle of a wooden village, and not into the hallway of his home.
Adam stumbled onto the main road of the towns thoroughfare, and the reality of the situation settled in. Adam wasn’t in the bathroom anymore, and he certainly wasn’t in the world it came from either. As Adam stood in the forested hamlet type dwelling he became aware of the people walking past him and the rough clothes and leather cuirasses and chain mail dotted throughout them. He he had no idea of what he just stepped into.
As he stood there dumbfounded and motionless, a shadow slipped from the nearby alley. It slinked over under Adam’s eye-line and weaved swiftly through the moving crowd around it. It drew nearer and closer to where Adam stood in his overwhelmed wonderings before darting out from the diverging flow of civilians around the tall pale dumbstruck human and snatching its hands into the man’s pockets. Quickly finding there to be nothing of value or reminiscent of the coins it sook it instead darted its hands toward his gourd- figuring it to be the only somewhat valuable thing on the man’s person. The crouched figure tugged at the belt forcefully as the aged leather stay stubbornly tied to his well made belt, the gourd fastened harshly instead of slipped in a loop like was the norm.
Adam’s hand slapped down across the thieves hands in surprise as he attempted to make off with Adam’s supposedly magically imbued ancient water bottle. His brow furrowing as he was shaken out of his building anxieties and straight into the turbulent present.
’My magical gourd!’ He shouted somewhat hysterically pulling it close to his belt and causing many others around him to look towards the commotion and the failed thievery.
In response to Adam’s anger and aghast bellowing the thieves beady eyes locked onto Adam’s and narrowed dangerously and unapologetically. Then the thief pulled out his dagger, and stabbed Adam in his slightly chubby belly.
For the second time that day Adam paused briefly before reacting to his situation. Then he screamed-again
The voice in his head sighed, although this time he did not hear it.