Ash had to rest for several weeks after the battle with the goo. During that time, he would wake up, wait for his caretaker to check up on him, and then go back to sleep. After week three, Ash had the mental capacity to notice a door in the back of his mind. At first, Ash just tried to find out where and what this door was. It didn’t feel like it was physically there, but also not as if he was only imagining it.

“The people around here feel like they are from Earth, yet something like this doesn’t exist on earth. Following that train of thought, I must be in some sort of simulation. Who created this simulation is another question entirely, but I’ll crack that secret as well. The door doesn’t feel threatening, quite the opposite. So the old hag didn’t want to poison me. I’ll have to apologize to her once I learn her language.”

Not only that, but it also was a replica of his teenage room door.

“Even the spots where I used to fire my softair at, seem identical. That must mean that either I unconsciously had a part in creating the door or an outside force can read my mind. Better not to think too much about that just yet.“

Human curiosity won out over caution, and he imagined himself entering the door. Suddenly, he found himself more aware of his body. He didn’t regain feeling in his body but could recreate it in his mental eye. Although it didn’t take up his vision, he could look at his body from all sides like he was using a 3d modeling program. After experimenting with the 3d model in his mind, Ash felt a bead of sweat run down his head. He could only endure about five minutes inside the door before he had to leave again.

When his vision changed to what now felt like a duller version of reality, rivers of sweat were running down his head. Worst of all was the pit that had formed in his stomach. Luckily, his caretaker had already returned from work and was watching him with worried eyes. Ash gave her a big smile and a “Ba” which relaxed her a little. Even after his usual “meal”, Ash still felt as hungry as before. He gave several “ba’s” to signal that he was still hungry.

His caretaker seemed to understand and asked: “Acrach?”

Ash immediately carved this important word into his memory and answered with an affirmative “ba”. His caretaker looked sunken into thought for several moments. Suddenly, she seemed to realize that Ash had just answered her question in a manner that was quite unusual for a toddler.

With squinted eyes, she said: “Is mise Catrìona”.

Ash hadn’t studied Linguistics, but he could recognize a name when he heard one. His caretaker, who was most likely named Catrìona, was most likely the only person he could rely on in this world. It would only be appropriate for her to know that he wasn’t the usual toddler. To signal that he had understood, he released a long “baaaaa”. She looked around as if to check no one was playing a prank on her.

Finally, she started knocking on his crib three times, while saying. “Aon dha trì”. Ash inwardly grinned and released three successive “ba”’s. Catriona’s eyes widened so much that Ash feared they would pop out of their sockets. Breathing rapidly, she repeated a more complicated drumming pattern. “ceithir, còig” Pause. ” sia” Pause. “seachd” Ash repeated the patterns with his “ba”’s. When she started motioning him to add up numbers, Ash realized that this had only agitated his caretaker. So, he just answered with a single “ba”. Just as he had suspected, Catrina sighed in relief when Ash was “unable” to complete the rest of the questions.

After that, she just sat near his crib and watched him for what felt like ages. Ash wanted to get back to the new realm that had opened in his mind as soon as possible, so he released a questioning “ba” which pulled Catriona out of her stupor. She had a confused, but proud smile on her lips as she turned away. After fifteen minutes, she had prepared a gooey liquid that barely resembled porridge. His caretaker gave him three spoons of the substance and then walked away as if to put the rest of the bowl away for tomorrow. Ash protested with several “ba”’s.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Man, I feel like a cuckoo bird, but I really need the nutrients.”

After some back and forth, Ash persuaded Catriona to feed him the entire bowl. With a refilled stomach and a smile, Ash dove back into the door in his mind.

After that, they settled into a sort of routine. Every day, he would spend longer and longer in the door in his mind. Every day, he ate more and learned more of the barbaric language. After two weeks, Ash was eating as much as Catriona. An interesting side effect of the door in his mind was that he had stopped shitting. Cathriona had been concerned for a few weeks but had just accepted it as one of his peculiarities after some time. He still occasionally pissed his pants like any normal newborn, but it seemed like his butthole was sewn shut. Worried by the consequences, Ash searched for any clues in the mental image of his body.

Until now, he had never thought of trying to manipulate the image as he had barely enough strength to just remain in the door. Just as he had feared: any manipulation of the mental image strained him as much as several minutes inside the dimension would. With determination, he started zooming into towards where his bowels must be located. Each step closer to his goal seemed to put another ton-heavy brick onto his small shoulders. Still, he pushed on. Ash couldn’t spare the time to look at the ghostly landscape filled with bones, tendons, and flesh as the energy cost of the warp hit him. Usually, he would return to normal vision, but he felt like something was just inside his grasp. With a desperate cry, Ash pushed through the pain and went beyond his limits. A bright light enveloped him and an explosion racked his body.

Ash awoke to the taste of blood in his mouth. When he opened his eyes, he saw Catriona watching him with tears in her eyes. He flinched when he remembered the sudden explosion. When Catriona saw he had awakened, she carefully grabbed him and lay him on the center table. When he caught sight of the blood-smeared crib, he shivered. Not because he couldn’t fathom that this body even had that much blood, but because there was something inside him that could do that to him. Catharina had fetched the water basin and started wiping off the blood.

With a concerned look on her face, she asked something containing the words “you” and “good”. Ash smiled at her and gave her a confident “ba”. It probably was the tension, but Catriona started chuckling and her tears finally stopped flowing. Ash couldn’t understand the rest of what she said, so he instead only opened his mouth, which had become a sign that he wanted food. His caretaker looked at him funny for several moments, then broke out into laughter. She rubbed his head affectionally and started making two portions of the gooey porridge.

After a day of recovery, Ash again dove into the door in his mind.

“To be honest, I think I might have gone mad already if not for that escape from this body.”

Instead of rushing towards his guts, Ash took a more careful approach. As soon as he would enter the mental manifestation of his body, he continued in a crawl. In his first attempts, he barely reached the first layers of his muscle, but his distance steadily improved. After a week of constant training, he had reached the Gastrointestinal tract. From it, emanated a pressure that only seemed to press down on his mind. When he looked around at the ghostly vision of flesh and sinews, Ash noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Only when he envisioned his body on the level of blood cells, did he notice tiny white particles all around him. Ash wanted to reach out but stopped himself.

“I know you are in infant’s body, but you know better than that.”, Ash lamented himself.

Instead, he just watched the particles as they aimlessly drifted in his spectral body. After a week of studying the particles, Ash decided to just finally touch one.

“Worst case, they explode once again, but I have already proven that I can survive it.”

He hesitantly stretched his arm out to one, and a surge of power suddenly coursed through him. Together with the particle itself, it was gone in an instant. Ash had never taken speed, but he was sure that must be how it would feel like. In that fraction of a second, he felt like he could actually fly like in the ridiculous red bull ads back on earth. Only the caution going into the experiment stopped him from going around and touching every one particle. Before he could do anything rash, Ash returned to hi usual vision.

Once outside, the feeling of pure desire faded away like a dream. He had already theorized that this was a simulation, but what he had just felt made him nearly certain.

“That must have been magic. It must be from the residues of the healing mushroom the old lady gave me.” The physics nerd in him awakened at the revelation. “Did the creator of this simulation give magic physical properties? Does it abide by the fundamental laws of physics? Are there other fundamental laws? So much to explore.“

He giggled when he thought about how he could combine his engineering and physics knowledge with the energy of this world.