[The United States]
I suppose this story should start where most of my weekends are. In the basement of one of our houses where we were in getup for our favorite board game. Three of us were sitting around the table while another was off to the side going through the downstairs pantry. On the table the game took up the majority of the space but there was still enough room for us to have our sheets for our miniature game characters, our snacks and for us to rest our elbows comfortably on the edges. Once all of us had agreed upon the rules and which characters we wanted to be, the lead player which would be myself while wearing black robes and was Maze Master as I'm called since the game is called "Monsters And Mazes" started reading out the lines so the quest for the other players could begin.
"Alarian, you have entered the great maze to the north." I started. "You are within a cold and damp room, you are alone with darkness all around you. The foul stench of mildew is coming from the wet dungeon walls." I said from under the black hood that covered my face except for my mouth.
"Hey where are the cheese curls?" asked one of my friends dressed as a knight while he went from cabinet to cabinet.
"They're right next to you." I replied.
"Hey, can I cast a spell?" asked another one of my friends dressed as a wizard.
Before the I could answer, I heard from the first player. "Hey where's the Mountain Dew?" he asked.
"In the fridge, duh!" shouted the girl at the table who was dressed as an elf, complete with pointy ears.
"Can I cast a spell?" the one dressed as a wizard asked again.
"Can I have a Mountain Dew?" he asked, interrupting a third time.
"Yes, you can have a Mountain Dew, just go get it!" I shouted.
My name is Theo. I'm the one who organized this get together which we kind of did every weekend. Under the robes I'm wearing regular jeans and a standard white tee shirt. I have sandy brown hair and hazel colored eyes with a green tinge which I wear behind a pair of glasses. My friend rummaging through the basement pantries is Todd. Todd was short and kind of chubby with brown hair and eyes. The guy seemed like he was always hungry and was rarely seen without a soda in one hand and a snack in the other. He was the one dressed as a knight with a blue coat of arms with crossed swords on the breast plate. My other two friends at the table with me are Dennis and Kim who were dressed as a wizard and an elf and Todd's companions.
Dennis is tall and lean unlike Todd and had blonde hair with blue eyes and freckles. He's wearing blue robes with a pointy hat to appear like a wizard for the quest. Kim was wearing a brown and green tunic and a makeshift quiver over her shoulders to resemble an archer and the pointy ears to look more like an elf. She was a ginger with flaming red curly hair that was tied back and the greenest eyes anyone had ever seen. This was what the four of us did every weekend. On the days we had off, we'd go over to one another's houses and play anything from video games to board games and we'd play for hours upon hours a day. It was all the standard nerd activity we did together which we always did as friends. Today, we were playing an old favorite, "Monsters And Mazes".
"I can cast any of these spells right? On the list?" Dennis asked me.
"Yeah any of the first level ones." I answered.
"I'm getting a soda does anyone want one? Hey Theo am I in the room?" Todd called over again.
"What room?" I asked back.
"I wanna cast Magic Missile." Dennis said before Todd then shouted.
"The room where he's casting all these spells from." said Todd.
"He hasn't cast anything yet." I said.
"I am though if you'd listen, I'm casting Magic Missile." Dennis told me.
"Why are you casting Magic Missile? There's literally nothing for you to attack." I explained.
"...I'm attacking the Darkness!" He replied which made us all laugh.
"Okay fine, fine." I said once I finished laughing. "You attacked the darkness. There's an Elf in front of you." I told him.
"Oh, that's me right?" asked Kim looking over to me.
"Yeah, she's wearing a brown and green tunic with a cloak draped over her shoulders. She has white hair and blue eyes." I explained.
"No I don't, I have amethyst eyes and my hair is platinum." she retorted.
"Let me see that sheet real quick." I said to her.
"Okay the sheet says I have white hair and blue eyes but I decided that I wanted platinum hair and amethyst eyes like a Targaryen." she explained.
"Whatever, you guys can talk to each other now if you want." I told them.
Dennis then looked over to Kim and she back at him. "Who goes there?" he asked her.
"I am Kilyn, Master Huntress of the Black Forest." she replied.
"And I am Alarian, the Sorcerer of Light." he declared.
Kim thought on that for a second and then smirked. "Sorcerer of light huh? Then how come you had to cast Magic Missile?" she asked him.
We all burst into laughter again before I finally spoke up. "You guys are under attack by the way." I told them.
"Oh, do I see that happening?" Todd asked while still getting snacks from the cabinet.
"No you haven't entered the Maze yet. You're still at the Tavern." I shouted back.
"Oh cool, I can just relax and get drunk." he said as he grabbed a bag of chips.
I let out a sigh at that before turning back to Dennis and Kim. "Okay, there are seven Ogres surrounding you guys." I told them.
"Wait a minute, how can they surround us? I had the Magical Faithful Watchdog Spell cast so they can't surround us." said Dennis.
"No you didn't." I replied.
"Hey Theo, roll the dice to see if I'm getting drunk." called Todd again.
I let out a sigh, rolled the dice and without even looking I replied with "Yeah you are."
"Do you think there are girls at the Tavern?" Todd asked from the other room.
"I totally did." said Dennis. "Before we started this quest you asked me if I wanted to bring along any additional equipment and I said no. But I did want additional mana points and a larger selection of spells at the beginning and one of those spells was the Magical Faithful Watchdog Spell." he told me.
"I remember that yes, but you never actually cast the spell." I explained.
"Are there girls at the Tavern?" Todd asked again.
"Yes!" shouted Kim.
"I totally did! When you asked me-" said Dennis before I cut him off again.
"No you didn't! You never actually said you were casting the damn spell so now you're surrounded by Ogres okay?!" I replied getting a little irritated.
"Ogres? I have an Ogre Slaying Knight who gets an automatic plus nine when he battles Ogres." said Todd who just took a seat with tons of snacks in his arms.
"But you're not in the Maze, you're still at the Tavern getting drunk!" I shouted, not believing I had to tell him this yet again.
"Okay, but if there are any girls there I wanna get laid." he replied.
The four of us would play for a few more hours together until it was nine pm. Then we decided that we would call it a day, leave the board the way it was and come back next Saturday and pick up where we left off. Dennis, Todd and I grabbed our jackets and said goodbye to Kim before we exited her front door.
"I think next time I should be Maze Master." said Dennis while we walked together.
"You're just angry because Kim was the one who was able to fend off all those ogres and you had to be healed by her over and over at the beginning of the quest." I replied.
"This wouldn't have happened if I had the Magical Faithful Watchdog Spell and if Todd wasn't still at the Tavern." he grumbled looking over to Todd. "Seriously dude, you were supposed to enter the Maze with us, not rummage through the cabinets." he told him.
"I had the munchies." he said in his defense.
"We'll finish the quest and then next time you can be Maze Master, does that sound fair?" I offered.
"Sure." replied Dennis.
"Good." I said back. "Anyhow, this is where we must part ways so I'll see you guys later." I told them.
"Later dude." said Dennis.
"Bye Theo." said Todd.
I guess I should tell you a little more about myself. My full name is Theodore Jacob Robinson and I live in South Portland Maine in the United States. I'm nineteen years old and currently a student at Southern Maine Community College. And as you can probably tell by who my friends are and what we do on our weekends, I'm a nerd. No real fashion sense, not super popular, small, scrawny and a straight A student in all my classes. I also major in computer science and hope to one day design video and computer games for a living. But for now, I'm gonna head home, feed my cat, probably have a bowl of instant ramen and a glass of milk, play a little Elf Quest II Return To Valhalla and then go to sleep and get ready for class tomorrow. Then it's five days of classes and work before I meet back up with Dennis, Todd and Kim again.
I was walking on the sidewalk along the right side of the road so any cars on my side would be coming from behind me. It was getting dark now and I noticed that people were turning their headlights on. Now anytime a car was coming up from behind me I'd see my shadow light up as things got real bright and then the car would pass going right back to dark again. That was when I heard the thunder rumble and I rolled my eyes at that. This was not what I needed right now. I was secretly praying to any god listening that it wouldn't rain until after I got back home. Naturally, any god listening has a grand sense of humor because it started trickling and then it started pouring. It went without saying I was pretty annoyed with that. The weather channel said it wasn't gonna rain this week.
That was when I noticed things getting bright again so I thought that another car was coming up from behind me. What I thought was weird was that I couldn't hear a car coming. Then it just got only brighter. My curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to turn and see why it was getting way brighter than headlights are supposed to. I had to squint because it was just too bright. Soon, I was covering my eyes with my arm out of fear that I was gonna go blind. Then the lights changed to a bright shade of blue and got brighter and brighter by the second. I had no idea what was going on and for some reason, I couldn't move. I felt myself stiff up like someone had frozen me on the spot. I clenched my eyes shut because the lights were just too bright to look at anymore and then suddenly, my world went black.
I didn't know how long I was out at first. But when I finally did, I woke from a sleep with a gasp as if I was trying to breath. I was breathing heavily and fell from my bed to the floor and held myself up by my elbows while I sweated. I had no idea what happened to me when I was headed home but I'm glad I'm home now. At least that's what I originally thought before I looked around and saw where I was. The room I was in was small, probably ten feet by ten feet. The floor was made of old wooden boards that had plenty of gaps and holes underneath. The walls looked like they were made up of stones crudely cut from larger boulders before being stacked up on top of one another like bricks with what I can only guess is some's attempt to create cement. I stood up to get a double take on the room.
I looked over to see the bed I was laying in not long ago. The wooden frame looked like it was made up of branches and wood cut from an ax all secured together with ropes and nails barely keeping it from falling apart. The mattress, if you could even call it such, was just a very large flat cloth bag filled with cotton with a rag blanket I was underneath not long ago and an old fashioned and dirty feather pillow for someone to lay their head down on. At the foot of the bed was a large clay bowl and I saw that it was filled with water and it was then I realized how thirsty I actually was. I walked over and started scooping handfuls of water to my lips and slurping it up. It didn't taste fresh but at least it was nice and cold. But after my third drink I gasped at what I saw looking right up at me from within the water.
I had to wipe my eyes just to be sure I was actually looking at my own reflection. I looked down to see someone who's acne cleared up completely which was something I was never able to do no matter how hard I tried. Now I had clear and healthy skin like the average person does once they've finally cleared up their problem with pimples. I brought my hands up as did my reflection to touch my face just to be sure it was real.
"This can't be mine." I said to myself. It was then I also realized that I wasn't wearing my glasses anymore but my vision was great. I had near sighted vision so I needed prescribed glasses to see properly. Yet as I looked around in the room I was in, I saw everything with crystal clear vision. "What in the world is going on?" I asked out loud. I looked down at myself and was surprised yet again by what I saw. My body had changed dramatically form what it used to be. Before I was short, only 162 cm. But I'm pretty sure I was now standing 177 cm. And I was not only taller, I was bigger. I used to be very thin and not very muscular. But now I had a more beefy looking body than before, like a well trained athlete with months or even years of working out with larger pecks and biceps.
"These aren't mine." I said to myself as I ran my hands all over my body. My pecks, abs, biceps and even my ass felt more muscular and firmer than they used to be. Now out of curiosity, I opened up the tan pair of trousers I was now wearing and took a quick look in my pants before my eyes grew. Whatever was between my legs certainly wasn't what I had before. It looked like the appendage you'd see on a porn star. "This definitely isn't mine but I'm not complaining." I said with a small grin at the size of my junk.
I jumped when I heard the sound of a door opening and turned to see an old looking door made of wood boards crudely put together with ropes and nails open up and in walk an old man. His face was weathered with grey eyes and his hair was white with full facial hair. He was wearing a dark brown pair of trousers and a yellow tan tunic which was really dirty from days or even weeks of working in harsh conditions and not being cleaned as often. He looked surprised to see me standing up like he wasn't expecting me to be up yet. But he did smile when he saw me standing in the middle of the room.
"Ah, I was worried that you weren't going to wake up." he said in an old raspy voice.
"Who are you?" I asked as I turned all the way around so I can face him. "Where am I and how did I get here?" I asked as well.
"My name is Jon." he replied, answering my first question. "As for where you are, you're in our house and we brought you here after we found you unconscious in the fields about a mile away." he told me. "Now, what's your name young man?" he asked me.
"My name is Theo." I answered.
"Theo, hm." he replied as if he was having to really think about it.
"Where did you say you found me again?" I asked him.
Jon brought me outside after he gave me some more articles of clothing other then the white cloth shirt and tan trousers I was already wearing. He gave me some very ugly yet surprisingly comfortable brown boots and a brown vest to wear over my tunic. He then took me outside where I saw the outside of the house for the first time. Wherever I was now, I sure as hell wasn't in Maine anymore. The rolling green fields and short stony walls I saw running along dirt paths made me think I was probably somewhere in Ireland. But how the hell did that happen? When did that happen? What was that strange bright light I saw the previous night? All these I wondered as I followed Jon out to the fields. He smiled and waved at one point off to the side and I turned to see a woman who I could only guess was his wife.
She looked to be as old as he was, middle aged with strands of grey hair and a face that had seen many winters. She was wearing a dark green dress with some mud clinging along the bottom. Out in the fields behind her I saw what looked like wheat growing and turning a nice shade of brownish gold which meant it was gonna need to be harvested very soon. I also saw a young boy out in the fields dressed in the same rags as Jon and the woman earlier. He was young. Probably about ten if I had to hazard a guess. He had shaggy brown hair from what I could tell and he was obviously a shepherd because of the staff in his hand and the sheep he was watching who were grazing the fields of lush green grass. About a mile of walking, we finally arrived at our destination and Jon started talking again.
"It was right here." he said, pointing to a smoldering crater. "There was a terrible storm with thunder and lightning. Kept our family up all night. Then we saw a clap of lightning strike right here. The next morning as I was heading out to the field to work, I found you laying there completely naked and out cold. So my son and I brought you back, laid you down in his bed and waited. That was five days ago now I think." he explained while scratching his chin.
I don't understand. Was he saying that I was brought here by a lightning strike? "What the fuck?! Did you say I was out for five days?!" I asked shocked.
"Oh yes." he answered. "My wife and I were pretty sure you were dead or gonna be dead soon. Clearly though we were wrong because here you are now, alive and kicking." he told me.
This was raising even more questions now. "Where the hell am I?" I asked him.
"On our family's farm obviously." he answered.
"Yeah I figured that much. I mean Where am I?" I asked, trying to get something specific.
"You don't know?" he asked to which I shook my head. "Well these lands belong to Lord Cuthbert Woolzy." he told me.
"Never heard of him." I replied. "And where is this now?" I asked.
"One of the three northern provinces of the Kingdom of Midland." he answered.
"What the shit? What does that even mean?" I asked barely able to comprehend what he was talking about. Lord Woolzy? Kingdom of Midland? Where the fuck am I?
"Well Midland is the largest and dominant Kingdom of the northern continent of Nordas." he explained.
"I have no idea what any of that means! Hell, what year is it?!" I asked him.
"Well let me think on that for a moment." he replied while scratching his chin again. "If my memory serves me right, then from what I last heard it's the year 1338 of the Demon Age." he answered.
"...B.C. or A.D.?" I asked.
"What are those?" he asked back.
I was at a complete and total loss for words now. I had no idea where I was or how I got here, but I was certain now that I was no longer in Maine or the planet Earth for that matter. "What...the...fuck?" I asked while still at a complete and total loss. It was then I became really dizzy and fell backwards landing on my backside.
"Are you alright Son?" Jon asked me.
"I'm sorry, I'm just...I'm having trouble coming to grips with all of this." I answered.
"It may also be hunger. You've been asleep for five days so you must be starving. Come back to the house with me and I'll have my wife make you a little something to eat." he offered.
It was then I felt my stomach growling. I hadn't actually realized how hungry I was until he brought it up. "That would be nice thank you." I said as I got back up and followed him.
Jon let me back into his house where I took a seat at his rough wooden table in his firm yet comfortable wooden chair. It was then I met his wife and son. "Theo, this is my wife Nyssa and my son Gryon." he said as I looked over to the woman and young boy.
Nyssa was middle aged like her husband with grey hair and a weathered face with soft brown eyes. She did have a very kind smile and spoke softly to me. Gryon looked to be ten with curly brown hair and brown eyes like his mother. Nyssa was at the fire place stirring a wooden spoon around in a mid sized cauldron that hung above a fire. I could smell what smelled like meat and vegetables cooking and I thought it smelled great. Once she had finished, she took out a wooden ladle and scooped some of the contents of the cauldron and poured it into a bowl before bringing it to me.
"Here Theo. I made a stew. I'm afraid it's not much but it's nice and hot." she said handing it to me with a kind smile.
"Thank you." I said smiling back. I took a scoop of it with the small wooden spoon and tasted it. The meat which I had to guess was some beef was well cooked, the vegetables were flavorful. The only thing I noticed was the lack of seasoning. I thought about asking for some but I'm guessing by their living conditions that they probably didn't have anything.
"Now, where are you from young man?" asked Nyssa. "You don't look like you're from around here." she observed.
"You could say that yeah." I replied. "If you must know I'm from Maine." I told her.
"My husband brought you to our house days ago and we were sure you were probably not gonna make it." she said as she took a seat between her husband and son at the table. "Where did you say you were from?" she asked.
"Maine. One of fifty states of the United States of America." I explained.
They all started at me like I just swallowed a dog. "I have no idea what any of that means." Jon finally replied.
"Look, I know this doesn't make any sense at all to you and you're probably gonna think I'm crazy, but I'm from another world." I said plainly, still finding it hard to believe that I was even saying such a thing.
"Then how did you get here?" Gryon who looked really interested.
"I don't know." I confessed. "One moment I was walking home from a friend's house and then came this really bright light that nearly blinded me, the next I wake up here and I have so many questions that I don't even know where to start." I explained to them.
I watched as Jon muttered something to Nyssa while I continued to eat. They probably think I am crazy and truth be told, I think they may be right. Maybe I've lost my marbles completely and was now living in a strange reality I've come up with in my head. What I can't get is how it feels so real.
"I don't know if what you're saying is true but you seem like a very nice young man." he said with a smile. "You're welcome to stay here on the land with us and I could use some help on the farm. Tomorrow I've got to finish the harvest and I could use another pair of hands." he told me.
I smiled at that. I had no clue still what I was gonna do at all but these people seemed very nice. This family found me out in the middle of nowhere, took me in and were now offering me some food. I may as well stay with them for a time before I figure out what I'm gonna do next.
"Thank you." I replied as I continued eating my stew.
[Next Morning]
I had a pretty hard time getting to sleep the previous night. It was probably due to the fact that I had already slept for five days but another reason was I had so much going through my mind. I still didn't know how I got here, why I'm here or how I'm even gonna get home. I also don't get why my body had changed so drastically. I mean, with this body I could sign up for my college's football team. I also didn't get a whole lot to eat either to be honest. A small bowl of stew was nice but that wasn't enough to satisfy my hunger. But I don't think they had a whole lot of food to share in the first place. Plus they were already being very kind and generous to me and they didn't need to be so I was glad for what I had. Still, my stomach was empty and my mind was full which makes it very difficult to sleep.
I did manage to get a few hours in though before I was gently shaken awake. I looked up to see Jon standing over me.
"Did you have a nice rest?" he asked me.
"Yeah I think so." I replied as I sat up, stretched and yawned.
"Good. The Sun is gonna be rising soon so we need to be out in the field and start working." he told me.
So I got up, got dressed and followed him out where I saw him grab a sickle before handing one to me too. He then led me out to the wheat fields where I assumed we were gonna start harvesting the grain. The field itself was huge. I'd guess that we'd be working several acres of land today and I wasn't really looking forward to it. I've never done farm work before and I can't say I like the idea of being out here all day with the sun bearing down on me. He showed me how to make a sheaf of wheat. We would cut several large handfuls of wheat and then tie them together tightly with some twine. I was surprised by how easy it was at first but after making ten of these things my hands were getting sore. By now the sun had risen pretty high so it was getting pretty damn hot too.
After making twenty I was sweating like a pig and by forty I thought I was gonna pass out. Luckily, Jon told me that it was time for a break.
"Here Son have a drink." he said handing me a leather sack of water.
I took it and took several large swigs of the cool liquid before handing it back. "Thanks." I told him.
"Of course." he said taking it back.
While we rested and looked over our work, I looked over to Jon. "Hey Jon can I ask you something?" I asked getting his attention.
"Of course Son." he replied.
"We've made about forty of these things but I don't see any storehouses. Where do you keep all your wheat?" I asked.
"It's not our wheat. It's Lord Woolzy's wheat. We're just harvesting and preparing it for his men to come and get it again in the next few days. Then he'll drop off some rations for our family which we'll need to make last us for the whole month." he explained.
"Oh." I said with wide eyes.
"Is there something wrong?" he asked.
"Uh no, nothing." I replied as we both got up to get back to work.
As I cut more wheat to make another sheaf, I remembered something like this in history class back in school. Serfdom was considered a kinder alternative to slavery even if they both involved treating other people as property. The difference between them was slaves could be bought, sold or traded either individually or in groups but not serfs. Lords and knights bought, sold and traded the lands that the serfs lived on so if you owned the land, you owned the serfs who lived on it. But it was hardly any better at all. Just like slaves, serfs had no rights at all and lived in the worst conditions with many of them starving. They were considered less than even the livestock that they tended because let's be honest, if food was scarce then you could at least eat the livestock. I had no idea I was living with a family of serfs.
Once we were done with making over a hundred sheaves of wheat and leaving them for the lord's collectors I helped out with feeding some of the animals and several other jobs around the farm. I even helped to chop some firewood for them which they were thankful for. I had an easier time chopping wood actually than anything else but after cutting through probably three dozen logs and splitting them into fours my hands were beginning to blister. I was glad though that Nyssa came out to invite me in for dinner again. I hadn't even realized that the sun was going down. I came in to see that they had already got a fire going with something cooking in a large pot over it. Jon was resting in his chair at the table while his son sat to his right. I took my seat at the other end of the table while Nyssa finished up.
"I must say, it's very nice having more people at the table for dinner." said Nyssa with a friendly smile. "It makes the house seem more lively like it used to be." she told me as she offered me a bowl of stew.
"Did you have a lot of visitors before me?" I asked her.
"Not visitors, family." she replied before fixing bowls for her husband and son. "Gryon isn't our first or only child. He's actually our fourth. Years ago we had two more sons and one daughter." she explained.
"I had no idea." I responded. Now that I thought about it, it did seem unusual that people as old as Jon and Nyssa would have only one child. "Where are they now?" I asked, hoping I wasn't crossing a line.
Nyssa looked over to her husband who gave a sigh and looked a little sad. "Our two oldest sons, Kryon and Taven were conscripted into the King's Army about ten years ago, shortly before Gryon was born." he began. "They were drafted to fight the Thirty Years War with the Terrogoths of the Frozen Wastes. We were informed shortly after the war that they had both died in battle." he explained sadly.
I felt really guilty bringing it up. "I'm very sorry to hear that. Please forgive me, I shouldn't have brought it up." I replied.
"It's alright. As sad as my wife and I are of losing them, we're proud that they served and did their part to protect the Kingdom and us all." he told me.
I could relate to a certain level. I had two brothers back home who were serving in the U.S. Armed Forces and though neither of them have died, I'm proud of them for their service to our nation. "And your daughter?" I asked.
"She's gone too." replied Nyssa who took her seat next to her husband.
"I'm very sorry. How did she die?" I asked.
"Die? Oh no." replied Jon. "She didn't die, she disappeared. She was only ten years old when one day she came home and started acting strange. She wouldn't tell us what was bothering her or what was wrong. She wouldn't eat and tried to avoid Nyssa and I every time we tried to talk with her. Then after a few nights of strange behavior she disappeared and we haven't seen her since." he explained.
"Is there anybody even looking for her?" I asked him.
"We're serfs." replied Jon with a shrug. "Not a lot of people are willing to go through the trouble of looking for lost or runaways. And even if they did they wouldn't know where to look. We don't know anyone outside of the lands we live and work so we wouldn't even know where to go." he told me.
"My husband and I hold out hopes all the time that she'll come home one day but it's been nearly a decade since she disappeared and with each day we lose hope that we'll see her again." said Nyssa.
"I'm very sorry." I replied finally. "I had no idea that your family have gone through so much." I said remorsefully.
"It's alright Son." said Jon with a warm smile. "You seem like a nice young man and I think we can trust you enough to share this with you." he told me.
[The Next Day]
I got dressed one last time in the extra set of clothes that Jon gave me. He and I were close to the same height so his cloths fit me quite comfortably. I was now wearing a yellow tan cloth tunic with long sleeves under a dark brown leather coat. It didn't have buttons but instead I tied it closed with six strings that knotted through loops on one side. I was also wearing a pair of red brown trousers and a pare of leather boots. They were ugly and misshapen but warm and comfortable. Lastly, I tied a leather belt around my waist with a knife in a scabbard at my left hip. I stepped out of the house where they were all waiting for me and Nyssa handed me a grey leather satchel.
"There's a blanket and pillow inside." she said with a smile. "It used to belong to one of my sons. I'm sure they would be fine giving it to you. There are also a couple of loaves of bread we can spare and some salted pork. It's not much I'm afraid but I think it'll do you until you reach the nearest town." she told me.
"Thank you very much." I replied, very grateful to these people for their help.
"Are you sure you don't wanna stay here with us Son?" asked Jon. "You're more than welcome to if you want." he told me.
"I appreciate the generous offer Jon. But I'm afraid that I can't." I answered. "I have a home and family of my own back in Maine. I don't know how I'm gonna get there, but I'm gonna figure it out." I said before I smiled. "But I won't forget your generous hospitality and kindness." I finished.
"Very well." Jon smiled back. "I don't really know if the Mage's at the capital will be able to help you or not, but if anyone knows anything at all about traveling between worlds it's them." he told me.
"It's certainly a start." I replied.
Jon then gave me a dark green cloak which I draped over my shoulders. I was now ready to begin my journey. "Two very important pieces of advice on your way to Falonshire." he started. "Travel only by day and stay on the road." he warned calmly but firmly.
"Sounds easy enough." I replied.
"If you're in need of food, there are laws about what you can and cannot eat in the forest." he continued. "You're free to eat any wild fruits or vegetables you find. But clean them first in fresh water if you can find it." he said before giving me a leather sack of water which I slung over my shoulder. "As for meat, bear in mind that the King has forbidden anyone from hunting big game like deer or wild boar. Big birds like geese, turkeys, ducks and swans are also off limits. But you can hunt and eat all the quails, pheasants, goats, hare and rabbits you want." he listed.
"Thank you." I replied one last time.
I then walked past them and headed down the dirt pathway leading from their house towards the woods. They told me that if I followed this pathway, I'd reach a road and I was to turn left. That was to lead me to Falonshire, the nearest town from here. From there, I could learn how to get to the capital and find the Mage's College. Hopefully, they're willing to help me find out how I got there and how to get home again. I looked back one last time and waved to them and they waved back to me before I entered the forest. I really hoped this wasn't gonna take me very long. Of course, little did I know that getting to Falonshire itself was gonna be a much bigger challenge than I originally thought. And I had no idea that this was the beginning of a journey that was gonna change me forever.
[With Jon, Nyssa And Gryon]
The young boy looked up at his parents after they watched their guest disappear into the woods. "Do you think he'll make it there?" he asked them.
"Who Theo?" asked Jon in return. "No not a chance. That forest is very dangerous." he told him.
"Very handsome and well built young man like him." said Nyssa. "First Monster he encounters will eat him alive." she said.
"Aright everyone, we've got a big day ahead of us." said Jon as he went to find his farming tools.
[Author's Notes] So it was only a matter of time before I was gonna do a story based on the Monster Girl Encyclopedia and here's the first chapter. I know that not a whole lot happens in it but bear with me, it will get better as the story progresses. Especially when you read which monster girls Theo meets on his journey. You should also know that this isn't the only one I plan on doing. I'm also gonna do two Monster Girl Encyclopedia Crossover stories. One with Naruto and for the first time ever, one with Bleach.
You should also know that this is the very first time I'm writing a story from a first person perspective so I hope you guys like it.
As always, thank you all so much for reading my stories. Please leave me a Review or a PM on what you think and if you have any ideas at all that you wanna share, lay em one me because I love hearing from my readers.
This is Dragon1990 signing out :-)
P.S. I would like to thank the readers Nexus Gem and Cybranify for pointing out the mistake I made when I put this together. This is based on the Monster Girl Encyclopedia and not on Monster Girl Quest. I just made the correction.
