《Four days at a Time》


 Chapter 1 - Bad sleep

    This is too soon, I know I went to sleep at around 3 in the morning but the sun came up way too fast. I know that I have to change my sleeping habits¡­ I can¡¯t keep this sleeping schedule forever.


    With the virus going around it¡¯s not like I have to wake up early anyways. And I really need to set some money aside to change that mattress, the springs are really digging in my back, more so than usual.


    I heard the rustling of leaves and snapped my eyes open, this was definitely not my bedroom. There were some trees and bushes around, I was laying on the ground, my blanket still covering me. Is this a dream? I think that I have experienced lucid dreaming before and it never felt like that. Everything feels so¡­ real. The roots in my back, the vibrant green of the leaves and grass, even the slight breeze of the wind feel so real. I have to stand up, figure out what¡¯s going on.


    I placed the blanket to my side and pinched my arm while standing up. The little bit of pain was uncharacteristic of a dream. So what, I was sleepwalking with my blanket and ended in a park somehow, even assuming that I sleepwalked here, I don¡¯t recall any park like that near my house. I quickly searched my pockets, a bit of hope flashing through my eyes. ¡°That would have been too easy, of course¡±. While stretching I observe my surroundings, it looks like some kind of plain, there are a few trees here and there. But mostly the ground is covered by rocks and grass with some bushes clustered next to the trees.


    ¡°Ok don¡¯t panic, I don¡¯t have my phone, I am wearing my pyjamas in the middle of God knows where. I have my blanket and my pillow so at least I won¡¯t freeze to death, not that it¡¯s cold right now.¡±


    I picked my blanket and wrapped it around my shoulders, guess I¡¯ll carry the pillow with me. I really hope that I won¡¯t have to sleep on the ground again tonight.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know where I am and all the survivalist training I have is from watching videos or documentaries online. I¡¯ll choose some direction and hope to find a river or something. There are usually towns or cities close to rivers.¡±


    The sun rises in the east I think, I¡¯ll just follow it until I find something. It¡¯s an easy to follow point of repair. I will be able to use it to backtrack if I need to. No point in waiting here, start to walk, figure things out after.


    Walking barefoot in the wilderness is about as comfortable as you would imagine,I can¡¯t stop stepping on rocks or branches emerging from the ground. The tedium of watching every step wouldn¡¯t be worth it, I don¡¯t know where I am better to keep an eye on the surroundings.


    The sun is steadily rising, it can¡¯t be earlier than 9 or ten, I have been walking almost nonstop for almost 3 hours now only stopping to take short pauses here and there. I examined some trees and I can say with absolute certainty that I have no idea what kind of tree they were. I also tried to look for a trail or a sign but my luck came short.


    This is not normal, there are no parks that big in the city. Did someone kidnap me and drop me here? But why, there are no cameras, none that I can see at least and I¡¯m certain that it wouldn¡¯t be legal to just kidnap someone. ¡°Hey if this is a hidden camera thing I don¡¯t want to participate.¡± Unsurprisingly no one answered, probably not a show then.


    Gotta keep walking, stay focused on moving forward. I¡¯ve been trying to stay calm, not to let my mind wander but there is absolutely nothing interesting to see around me. No distractions to keep my mind off of things.


    At some point I¡¯ll start to get hungry and thirsty, I¡¯ll have to do something soon. Sure there are some birds and other critters walking around but I wouldn¡¯t know how to catch them, or how to make a fire to cook them. I remember that you can start a fire with dry wood but it would take a lot of time and effort, tools would also be incredibly useful.


    I miss my phone, I¡¯m sure I could find an answer for everything if I had my phone. I could call for help and not need to worry about anything, that would certainly be even better. No point in keeping that line of thought, I have to keep walking, I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll find a road soon. I¡¯ll stop a car and get a ride home, just need to find someone now.


    It¡¯s official I¡¯m lost, the sun past his zenith a little while ago. I¡¯m pretty sure that I wasn¡¯t walking in a straight line, I¡¯ll just keep going in mostly the same direction.  I¡¯ve been walking almost without breaks since the morning and I¡¯m starting to feel hungry and thirsty and afraid¡­


    ¡°Don¡¯t panic, breath in¡­¡± 1,2,3,4,5, hold¡­ breath out 1,2,3,4,5.


    What if I¡¯m stuck here and no one finds me?Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    in¡­ 1,2,3,4,5, hold¡­ breath out 1,2,3,4,5.


    I have to rest a little bit, I laid the pillow on a tree and sat down with my back leaning on it. I¡¯ll just stop here for a few minutes, but I have to get moving soon. I don¡¯t want to be here when the night falls. I closed my eyes and focused on the sounds around me, not much going on.


    Forty minutes later I felt somewhat better, still thirsty and hungry but I can go on for a while. 3 minutes without oxygen 3 days without water and 3 weeks without food I think. If I don¡¯t find anything I¡¯ll have to start worrying about water tomorrow.


    ¡°Oh my God, finally. I really didn¡¯t want to spend the night outside¡± The sun was slowly setting behind me when I happened upon a road. Calling it a road was generous, it was more like a trail road packed by years of people walking on it. But it was a road nonetheless, and that meant that there were people nearby. I¡¯ve been walking east, or at least I tried to. The road followed my previous path more or less going a little bit to the south I think. I felt bad about going backward so I started walking in that direction.


    Walking on a road is without a doubt, much better than walking in the wilderness. My feet are scratched and certainly dirtier than they have been in years, should have slept with socks, not much protection but better than nothing.


    As the sun started to set I saw shapes further up the road. Finally, people, and it looks like they¡¯re getting closer. The slow walk between us was agonizing, time seemed to crawl to a stop.


    As they got close enough, something twisted in my guts, there was something wrong, there were many things wrong. I¡¯ve been feeling uneasy ever since I first saw them from afar, I thought it was just the situation making me paranoid but something keeps nagging at me.


    The group stopped about 3 meters in front of me, there were four of them. Three men and a woman all wearing the same type of clothes, woolen shirts and pants with some leather protecting their chest and legs. They all had a bow, a quiver and an assortment of knives hanging on their outfit. Some rabbits and other small animals were tied up at their belt or being held by one of the hunters.


    What the hell is going on??? Have I gone back in time, or maybe I¡¯m in another world. Sure that makes about as much sense as waking up in the middle of nowhere¡­


    One of the men said something while I was analysing them, I wasn¡¯t paying enough attention but I should probably say something.


    ¡°Hum sorry I didn¡¯t hear what you said, I woke up out there this morning I¡¯ve been walking all day, do you know where we are?¡±


    The man looked at me for a few seconds, as if trying to decipher my words, confusion written on his face, despite all that I still had the impression that he was gauging me. One of the hunters had his bow in his hands, the other had a hand on his belt, right next to a knife.


    The leader, I assume he is the leader then turned his head towards his companions and started talking to them. His body was still facing me, everyone in the group seemed wary but not tense.


    I am clearly unarmed, unless you expect me to beat someone to death with my pillow. I somehow doubt that my pillow fighting expertise would help me much here.


    That¡¯s not English, I don¡¯t recognize the language. How the Hell did I end up here overnight?


    The group argued for a few minutes while I just stood there waiting, I couldn¡¯t understand what they were saying, the language didn¡¯t even feel familiar. No way to guess where I could be.


    Everything felt surreal, I was in the middle of a mysterious land, transported by unknown means. Surrounded by people but as lost as I was before, they have knives and know how to use them. I felt panic settling over but didn¡¯t let it, somehow I remained calm, almost¡­ disconnected.


    The discussion quieted down drawing my attention back to the people in front of me. The female hunter took a few steps towards me, she tried to talk to me, it sounded as foreign as what the man said earlier. After a while she stopped trying and while pointing at herself said ¡°Anya¡± then pointed to me. That I can understand. Following suit I answered ¡°Josh..., nice to meet you Anya¡±, ¡°Josh¡± she repeated tryingly, she seemed relieved when I nodded. We could somewhat communicate with gestures it seemed.


    Anya started talking to me and gestured to follow her, ¡°understood¡±, I nodded and the group started walking back the way I came.


    Looks like I picked the wrong way, at least I met people, and they didn¡¯t shoot me with their bows. That must count as a win somehow.


    The group walked mostly in silence, I didn¡¯t know how to start a talk with them, wasn¡¯t even sure if I wanted to talk right now. The silence felt heavy nonetheless, it exacerbated the sounds of the night. The only source of light piercing the darkness was a torch, lit up by one of the hunters while they were talking. I couldn¡¯t see much further ahead, there was not much to see regardless probably more rocks and trees.


    The night was cool, but with a blanket wrapped around him, Josh would certainly not be cold anytime soon. By now they certainly had passed the point where he had found the road.


    After a bend in the path, Josh could see wooden walls, they stopped at a gate made of a mix between metal and wood aligned with the road. It wasn¡¯t far, they arrived at the foot of the gate after a dozen minutes. A guard up on an observation tower shouted at them, the guard was barely visible by the lights of the torch on the tower. He wasn¡¯t alone, the guards up there probably had bows to defend the town, or was it a village? The place didn¡¯t look that big from the road.


    The leader of the hunting party was shouting back and forth with the guard, I couldn¡¯t understand anything so I tuned them out and continued to observe my surroundings.


    I looked up at the sky and suddenly my feelings that something was wrong returned at full force, out there in the starry sky the moon shone its majestic brilliance upon the world. As the clouds parted revealing the full painting of the sky, my feeling of unease flared. The presence of a second smaller satellite sharing the sky with the rest of the celestial bodies shattered my hopes of returning home.

 Chapter 2 - The village

    Still dazed by the surreal sight, Josh followed the group through the gates, they had been opened just long enough for them to get inside before quickly being sealed. The realization that there was a second moon in the sky opened up a lot of questions.


    The second moon was there all along, if I had just looked up I could have seen it. For some reason it feels like that¡¯s why I didn¡¯t look up. Maybe it is really a dream. There¡¯s no other logical explanation, magic maybe? Maybe.


    The leader finished to talk with the guards, the group was starting to disperse but Anya was looking straight at me. She gestured to follow her, I had no better options so I walked after her into the village. This was clearly a village, and not a big one at that. There were some crops here and there, I couldn¡¯t see what they were growing but it didn¡¯t seem like there was a lot. The houses were made mostly of wood with some having some type of bricks. I could see a house with some glass windows, but most of them were just closed with a wooden window.


    The road was illuminated by torches placed along the way, the road itself was clean, it wasn¡¯t paved but it was mostly even.


    Anya stopped in front of a house, it was one of the better built in the village. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going to happen now but if they wanted to hurt me, they wouldn¡¯t have brought me to the village.


    She knocked on the door, as I got closer I could hear someone moving inside. The door was opened by a woman, she started to talk with Anya, we followed inside after she invited us. The house wasn¡¯t big, from what I could see we were in the living room. The kitchen, if we can call a table next to a chimney a kitchen, was next to the living room. There were also four closed doors that I could see. We sat down Anya now, mostly talking with the woman listening.


    The woman wasn¡¯t young, she wasn¡¯t particularly old either. She had brown hair going down her back not quite reaching her hips, her eyes were a dull green going brown in the center. She was a bit shorter than I was, her arms were visibly toned and her body looked athletic.


    I focused on the conversation when I heard Anya mention my name, she wasn¡¯t calling me but they were clearly talking about me. This went on for a few minutes, Anya explaining something with the woman probably asking questions here and there. It seemed that they were done when the woman turned to face me, ¡°Josh¡± she said, she continued speaking in that alien language before emphasising and repeating what I could only assume to be her name. Velara, for some reason I felt that the name fit her, I knew that Anya told her my name but I answered to be polite.


    Anya didn¡¯t stay long after that, no doubt helping me took quite some time, she probably wanted to go home now.


    Velara showed me the house, she explained where everything was. I couldn¡¯t understand of course but it was nice to be talked to.There was a bathroom, thank God, the room where I was going to spend the night wasn¡¯t big, there was a small bed and a chair in the corner. I dropped the blanket and pillow that I was still carrying. At some point I started repeating some words, Velara picked it up and patiently started to point at objects before slowly saying their names, waiting until I repeated before continuing.


    A man came out of one of the closed rooms, he was tall, maybe one head taller than me, with big muscles. He had scars on one of his arms and on his left cheek. Short black hair, neatly shaved facial hair, the man looked like a soldier.


    He talked shortly with Velara before moving to the kitchen, he started preparing dinner for tonight. I must admit that with everything going on I put my hunger in the back of my head. But now seeing and smelling food, it came back with a vengeance.


    Velara told me his name was Treg when I asked her, well when I pointed at Treg and she somehow understood.


    We continued our game of show and tell until Treg brought the food to the table. The food wasn¡¯t particularly good, barely if no spices in tonight¡¯s dinner. However I was hungry, besides complaining about free food is never a good idea, not that I could tell the chef what I thought.


    I went to sleep shortly after, I was exhausted after all that walking. The bed was hard but as a silver lining I was already in my pajamas. I snuggled into my blanket and fell asleep when my head hit the pillow.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    I woke up the next morning still tired, my body stiff from the hard bed. The sun had already risen, there were sounds from the other side of the door. The smell of breakfast was faint, but I could smell that something had been cooked recently.


    I had hoped that I would wake up in my bed, all events of yesterday nothing more than a dream. Like I would be so lucky, beats waking up outside, I¡¯m going to consider myself lucky that I found this place at all. Glass half full and such things.


    I stretched in my bed before getting up, my pyjamas looked dirty from the trek. I will try to ask Velara for a change of clothes, I can¡¯t stay in my pyjamas all day. I didn¡¯t have a choice yesterday but today I do.


    Velara was waiting in the adjacent room, she was sharpening a sword that wouldn¡¯t look out of place in a medieval fair. She looked up from her work then set sheathed her sword before gesturing toward the table.


    Looks like they left some breakfast for me. Velara is probably a guard judging by her outfit. She looks important, I wonder if she should waste her time taking care of me. Well we¡¯ll see what happens today, hopefully they¡¯ll know what happened to me.


    I followed Velara outside, she led me through the village. The villagers were busy working all over the place. Some were working the plots of land, others were repairing the different buildings in various states of disrepair. The guards were walking up and down the streets sometimes knocking on doors and entering houses. There was some tension weighing on everyone, the villagers watched me with mistrustful eyes quickly averting their gazes when I or Velara looked at them. They scurried away tending to whatever tasks they had for the day.


    Must not get a lot of new faces here.


    We reached our destination, a house like every other one around. Velara talked to a man for a short while before leaving me here. Gustav, I heard Velara call him that, did not look pleased. He looked me up and down before heading to his house. He was scowling all the while, I was clearly an imposition on this man.


    Hey that¡¯s not fair, I obviously couldn¡¯t wear Velara¡¯s clothes and Treg¡¯s were a bit too big. It¡¯s not my fault if I look like someone wearing his older brother¡¯s clothes.


    Gustav looked like a scholar, or a scribe perhaps. He was short with a little bit of fat, his ass belonged to a chair, he was no warrior. His house looked like Velara¡¯s smaller but with books and writing implements on a desk. It was a quill with some ink and parchments laying on the table. There were some decorations and items in the house with some of them looking like they could be expensive.


    You can say what you want about Gustav¡¯s character but he is a good teacher. Velara had apparently left me here to learn the language, after hours of learning with a short pause to eat in the middle, the numbers of words I knew grew rapidly. I even learned some letters. I¡¯m not usually good at languages but I feel like I¡¯m making some small progress. I guess that¡¯s what happens when you don¡¯t have a phone distracting you.


    As the sun set Gustav was talking in full sentences, nothing complicated mind you but sentences nonetheless. My repertoire of answers ranged from what I learned meant ¡®yes¡¯ and ¡®no¡¯. I could also roughly understand when someone was asking for my name, but the most important sentence I learned to say today was ¡®what is that called¡¯ or maybe it meant something similar. Anyhow now I don¡¯t have to awkwardly point at things and wait until someone understands what I want. Gustav was not as delighted as I was, now that I could speak I asked about everything. The words I learned stuck to my mind and I rarely had to ask more than three times before committing them to memory.


    Alas all fun must end, the sun had already set when Anya knocked at the door. I stepped outside after thanking Gustav, he merely hmmff and closed the door after me.


    I think that I¡¯m growing on him.


    Anya started talking to me as she walked, we were going in the direction of the central market. We passed it this morning but I didn¡¯t have time to properly observe it. It was deserted this late, the marketplace wasn¡¯t big, I didn¡¯t see many people in the village but they still had to trade food I suppose.


    Guards were patrolling the area.They were visible by the torches they carried, it was nice to know the village was safe during the night.


    The walk felt relaxing, we weren¡¯t walking hurryingly, I couldn¡¯t understand what Anya was saying but I picked up words here and there.  During a lull in the conversation I thanked her, that was one world that I did learn today, I¡¯m not sure about what she said after that. It¡¯s gonna take some time before I can freely talk to people again.


    I should try to thank the other hunters too. If not for escorting me here at least for not shooting me out there.


    It didn¡¯t take long to reach Velara¡¯s place, she wasn¡¯t inside but Treg was. There was some food in the kitchen.


    I ate quickly and went to bed, today was tiring too, not physically but mentally. I¡¯ll just have to stick with it until I can ask some questions¡­ and preferably when I can understand the answers too.

 Chapter 3 - Damn springs

    Velara wasn¡¯t here when I woke up this morning. Like yesterday food was ready in the kitchen. I grabbed a wooden bowl from the counter, the broth was kept warm over a fire in the kitchen chimney. It looked the same as the one from yesterday, vegetables floating in a sea of green liquid, pieces of meat isolated like islands lost at sea. A bowl of cereal and a mug of coffee would have been perfect.


    It was better than spending the day with an empty stomach, I went through the motions, cleaned up my plate, washed the few dirty dishes in the bassin placed there for this. I was done when Treg called my name, focusing on what he was telling me, I only understood the word Gustav, well granted that¡¯s a name but what did you expect after only one day of learning the language? With his speech done he left only to be replaced by another guard. He looked like one of the guards patrolling the street.


    The way to Gustav¡¯s was boring. The guard, a man no older than 17 had short hair, some facial hair was beginning to show on his otherwise neatly shaved face. He was completely silent, this suited me just fine as I had some thinking to do.


    By now I had come up with three theories as to what was happening to me.


    First I could be in a coma or a dream, a long weird dream more elaborate and complex than any dream was supposed to be. This would mean that everything was in my head, some amalgam of movies, series and books mixing to give me this world. But everything feels real, the dream, if it is a dream, is consistent and most importantly I don¡¯t understand the local language. Why would people speak another language if this was a dream, there¡¯s a clear structure when they talk, the worlds I learned are like nothing I¡¯ve heard before. It would be unlikely that my brain would go to the trouble of creating a brand new language and not give me the ability to speak it.


    That brings me to my second theory. Everything here could be virtual. Virtual reality technology has been available for a few years now, headsets aren¡¯t that expensive anymore. But, from what I know, the technology shouldn¡¯t be near to what I¡¯m experiencing. Besides why would they test it on me? All things said, this theory is highly improbable.


    The last possibility would be that I am in another world. Either through magic or by being transported by highly intelligent space aliens to another galaxy. This would be bad, returning home would become exponentially more difficult to impossible. Unfortunately after two days this theory was gaining more and more credit.


    The wisest course of action is to treat everything as if it was real, if this is another world I wouldn¡¯t want to die by doing something stupid.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    The next morning.


    Treg woke me up a few minutes ago, he seemed agitated. When I got out of my room, yesterday¡¯s guard had already replaced him. I ate quickly and soon I was out for another incredible day in the shoes of a 2nd grader.


    Learning a new language is hard, on the bright side I know all my letters by now. I don¡¯t think that Gustav intended to teach me how to read but after four years of college memorizing was one of my greatest assets.


    The lessons went otherwise without a hitch, Gustav seemed as happy about his new student as he was yesterday. Meaning he didn¡¯t want to do it but didn¡¯t have a choice. He did seem a bit more irritable today, it was hard to say I didn¡¯t know him enough.


    The village was silent when we were done, the sun was setting dying the blue sky a tint of red. One of the moons was peaking over the horizon, the early night blanketed the little valley. The air was crisp. A gentle wind blew from the south, rustling leaves and lifting sand. The last rays of light danced with the shadows on the ground, the wind directing the movements of the dancing picture.


    Villagers were rushing home, doors were closed, windows were shut. Walking in the middle of the road, a silent guardian to my right, the spectacle was breathtaking. The contrast between the beauty of this world and the hurried steps of the villagers was all the more blatant.


    Surprisingly the guard followed me inside my temporary home when we arrived. He sat down at the table and started to eat some bread and fruits left over there. The fire in the kitchen was dead, the pot was cold and empty. Looks like it¡¯s bread for tonight, I¡¯m not particularly hungry, they have provided enough food up until now.


    We ate in silence, each on us lost in their thoughts.


    Something was off today, I couldn¡¯t ask what was going on but it was obvious that this situation was not normal.


    A few minutes after we were done with our dinner, the guard pulled a flask from somewhere, he proceeded to take a few sips before passing it to me.


    I would love to say that, after years of partying in college and tempering my stomach with all sorts of alcohol, the drink passed smoothly and that I wiped my lips with a satisfied sigh after my first drink but that would be a lie.


    The alcohol was stronger than I expected, I couldn¡¯t stop coughing for a few seconds. My experience consisted mostly of beers, not whatever that drink was supposed to be.


    The guard seemed amused but didn¡¯t comment on it.


    We kept drinking into the night, passing the flask like a ping pong ball. Well like a ball that would stop for a few minutes on one side before I could take a couple of sips and pass it over.


    I was drunk when I stumbled onto my bed, the liquor was strong and my stomach unprepared. It didn¡¯t take long before sleep took me and my world was darkness again.


    Half asleep a thought passed through my mind, damn these springs are really digging into my back.