Ash opened his eyes, and saw the sky, blue and cloudy which was unusual considering he’d ended the previous day in his bed, under his roof, in his house. He had crawled under the sheets after an evening of energy drinks and video games, taking in a deep breath he rubbed the sand from his eyes the pressure making red and yellow patterns on a black background in his vision. He opened his eyes to see the background lighten to a blue and the concentric shapes began to fade revealing a clear sky, this was definitely strange.
The heady haze began to ease as his eyes began to focus blurry shapes becoming far off trees, it took him a moment to realise that he was in fact lying in the middle of a field, which again was even odder as he lived in a city and hadn’t even seen a field in months.
‘What’s going on?’ he said to himself
He used his elbows to shimmy up to a sitting position and get a better look around, he was definitely in a field. He could feel the grass beneath his elbows, could feel the blades tickling him as they danced in a mild breeze.
The scent of grass and wildflowers on the wind filled his nostrils and gave his head a bit of a rush, the air was so clean. Looking down he saw he was garbed in a rough spun tunic, the fabric whilst rough only mildly scratched at his skin. Bottoms of the same material and what might pass for shoes, a leather like material held in place by straps and laces..
He ran his hand over his face and found his face smooth to the touch, ran his hand up and yet more smoothness followed following the curved shape of his bald skull.
‘What’s the hell is going on?’
A series of scenarios ran through his head,
‘Did I get black out drunk last night, get my head shaved and left out in a field?’ he wondered out loud.
No last night he was home playing his video games.
‘Where the bloody hell have I gotten myself now’ he said to no one in particular
A light ping echoed in his temples and in front of him hovered a transparent screen with one two words.
WELCOME TRAVELLER
‘Ok, what the hell is this?’
He shook his head around but the screen stayed still floating in mid-air in level with his face.
His hand rubbed vigorously over his head, palms flat and fingers outstretched trying to either wake himself up or at least warm up his brain.
‘Well it’s definitely not VR and it looks way too real anyway’
He then became very aware of his hands resting on the grass and the way it sensation it made between his fingers.
‘Everyone warned me about those energy drinks’
He raised a hand and poked an experimental finger into and through the screen, it rippled the words fading and being replaced by further text.
Hello Traveller,
Please be aware that interdimensional travel may result in a temporary loss of senses, loss of balance and loss of bowel control.
It is recommended that you remain stationary and allow your body to acclimatise to your new location.
Ash immediately tried to stand up but instantly a feeling of nausea hit him and he was quickly back on the floor. Slowly he looked down at his trousers and breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Two out of three isn’t bad’ he said ‘Although that depends on the two’
After a few deep breaths he looked back at the screen and the writing had changed again.
The screen continued to change the words dissolving in and out.
This is your Traveller Optimised Optical Lexicon or TOOL.
As a new resident of this world you have been gifted a TOOL system in order to greatly increase your chances of survival and learning to thrive in the surrounding lands.
‘Am I going mad?’ he asked himself
‘No, people who go mad don’t question if they are mad and people normally talk to themselves however they also don’t normally answer their own questions!’ he puzzled
Deciding that this line of thought is better saved for when he had time for an existential crisis he sighed.
‘Right, I need to focus on the priorities’
‘Where am I?‘ he said and as quick as the speed of thought the display dissolved to a mostly black screen with a white dot in the centre surrounded by a verdant shade of green, a couple of experimental paces forward and the white dot moved forward displaying more green.
‘Ah, your standard fog of war’ Ash remarked remembering old strategy games he used to play in his youth.
He tried to will it to zoom out however this didn’t seem to work and after swiping frantically decided that the screen was limited to the approximate area he had travelled, he was able to zoom in all the way to his white dot.
Whilst playing with the screen he moved around to uncover more area, the map didn’t show individual trees but would show a grouping of a few with a dark green tree symbol, rivers were blue with navy wavy lines.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
‘Nice and simple’ He muttered to himself ‘I wonder’
Ash climbed a nearby tree and as he had hoped the fog of war cleared as far as he could see, looking around he saw a nothing but fields and forest until a final turn something caught his eye, a small smoke column to the west of his current location if his maps directions could be trusted, the area on his map suddenly became a question mark where upon concentrating pulled up an additional screen.
Quest Screen
Quest – Where there’s smoke!
Objective - Investigate the source of the smoke.
Do you accept?
Yes No
‘Ah my first quest I guess’ he delayed his decision, should he find out more or lean into this madness.
Ash reached forward his finger pressing through the Yes option cautiously.
The screen minimised and the map screen came back to the forefront, he moved back to resecure his hold on a branch when a sudden a moment of terror gripped his body, in fact the issue ironically was he had not gripped anything at all, the young man fell, plummeting down to the ground his momentum only arrested brutally by the branches that had allowed him so easily to make his ascent.
After landing with a fierce stop Ash rolled himself onto his back and groaned, sat himself up against this traitorous perennial.
Once his vision came back to its normal singular state, he rubbed his back and looked up, the map still hovered but something different caught his eye.
A red dot, he attempted to focus on it and a side window opened and the so far helpful TOOL display showed a window title BEASTIARY and below.
Hostile enemy
Name ?
Level ?
Description ?
While gazing at the report something was pushing through the grass barely visible behind the floating screen and with a reflexive thought the image dissolved into thin air just in time to see a fluffy white bunny ambling towards him hoping deftly out between the blades of grass.
‘Aww hey little guy’ cooed Ash holding out a hand, the bunny slowly hopped closer and Ash could make out more features, the fluffy white fur, the loping ears flapping as it bound about, the blood red eyes and claws and teeth.
Ash barely got out a ‘What the…’ before the rabbit leapt upon him sinking its teeth into his wrist as he swung up his arm in defence, he grabbed the rabbits back leg pulling it away with a mouthful of skin and tossed it. The creature sailed through the air twisting and writhing to turn right way up in mid-air landing back amidst the grass with a squeal.
Ash gazed unblinking at the location the feral beast had disappeared, the grass shook and parted showing the rodents path moving around, when suddenly it burst through the foliage teeth bared and a high pitched growling noise for a battle cry.
Managing to bat it away swinging his good forearm into its side he looked around franticly his eyes landing on a reasonably sized rock, he quickly bent down to scoop it up holding it up in order to defend himself. Just a moment later the rabbit again came sailing at him through the air. Its mouth now soaked in blood from the now chewed portion of his wrist.
He brought the rock down crudely on the animal catching it on its hind leg, it let out a loud yet short squeak.
Ash hesitated as the noise that came from animal made him feel awful, like when you accidently stand on a beloved pet’s tail. His natural reaction was to comfort the creature and beg forgiveness, this however was short lived as the rabbit came back snarling and even more vicious and gnashing its pointed teeth, moving backwards Ash tripped over his own feet coming down to the floor with a crash.
The inevitable moment came when the rabbits form was gliding over him glaring down with an intensity that it didn’t have before.
He squeezed the rock in his hand only to realise he gripped fresh air for the second time, in his fall he had dropped it.
Mentally he cursed himself and decided if he were to survive this he would be sure to hold onto things better in future.
He blinked slowly and in his state of shock the animal seemed to move in slow motion, the beast was aiming for his throat. Ineffectually he was attempting to bring up his arms and closed his eyes bracing for the expectant agony.
Thunk!
There was no pain, no snarling or squealing but silence.
He slowly opened his eyes, relaxing his tensed muscles and slowly peering around when he saw the creature laying on the floor, a crude arrow sticking up out of its side, its mouth lay open still sodden from the vicious mauling it had given.
He swivelled his head to see where his mysterious saviour was when from the corner of his vision there was a blur and another thunk, deeper this time like the sound a large piece of wood coming into contact with a human skull would make.
Then darkness followed.
