A New World

I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling for the seventh day in a row. Quarantine was certainly not what I thought it would be. I was losing track of the days and the projects that I wished I had more time for no longer interested me.

I requested to be furloughed from work under the impression that the free time would allow me to immerse myself in projects and self-improvement. Learn a new language; practice my art; learn to play a new song on my guitar; work on a game I was developing.

None of those things held interest. I had a backlog of ideas to draw and no motivation. My guitar continued to gather dust in the corner and the strings were rotting away. I was bored with trying to figure out the mechanics of my game and I simply couldn’t bring myself to study the conjugation of vowels or the grammatical differences between tenses of a foreign tongue.

While working at home I had lived for 5 o’clock to work on my projects. But every day was 5 o’clock.

The mundanity was becoming too much to bear. What day was it? Sunday, Tuesday, Friday? I’d completely lost track. Was it still March? How far into April are we now?

I pulled myself from my bed, though for what reason I was unsure. I walked through my house. I walked to the fridge. Am I hungry or bored?

I sat down at my computer. Even the wealth of the internet no longer held its appeal.

A few clicks of my mouse and I felt a strange feeling. I couldn’t entirely describe it but it felt… Different.

Before my very eyes, the world went dark before a blinding flare caught my attention and I was pulled into something unforgettable.

A portal opened up and I fell from this world to another.

I found myself in a field of waist-high grass blanketed by a pink and orange sky. I looked around and began to walk. I had no idea where I was an no particular destination. As I strode through the grass, I found a small clearing. A piled of leaves and dead grass lay on the soil.

Atop the pile was an egg like none other I’d ever seen. I looked around. I couldn’t see anyone, or anything, nearby. I cautiously approached the egg. I could feel it pulling at my soul, drawing me in.

I studied to egg as I crouched down to it. What could it be? It was too big to be a bird’s egg. Even an ostrich egg wasn’t that large, surely. I tried to compile a list of anything that lays eggs on the ground. Even the largest reptile egg wasn’t as large as an ostrich egg.

I looked back up to the pink sky. Perhaps, it wasn’t a creature I was familiar with. I wasn’t on earth anymore, that much I was certain of, so it could have been anything. I reach down to lay my hand on the egg. Why, I didn’t know. It wasn’t something I would have normally done. The mother surely wouldn’t be far and most definitely wouldn’t appreciate me handling the egg. It was as though I had no control over my own body.

As I lay my hand on it, I found it to be much softer than it appeared, with a leathery texture. Perhaps it would be some sort of reptilian egg.

The egg began to move under my palm and I jumped back slightly. I looked around frantically, hoping that whatever had laid the egg would not be too close. A distressed or aggressive mother could prove rather dangerous. But I couldn’t will my feet to run away.

The egg hatched. I saw a small, scaled nose poking out from a small hole in the cracked shell. Shortly a pair of hands with long curved talons. Slowly, a small lizard crawled from the egg. No. Not a lizard. I watched and the small creature stretched out and wings extended outwards from its shoulders.

I bent down again as the creature stared at me. My body once again acting on its own. The creature jumped at me and perched itself on my arm. It seemed as light as a feather as it sat on me.

With a flash and an explosion of smoke, I was no longer alone. Beside me stood on elderly man with a long white beard.

“Welcome adventurer! What is your name?” He asked me in a booming voice.

“Mia.” I replied. My voice was exceedingly calmer than it should have been.

“Mia, a wonderful name! and what might I ask is the name of your companion?” I looked at the you dragon still perched on my arm. I thought for a moment. I looked over the dragon. It was a burnt red colour with green eyes, small silver horns atop his head. I was horrible at deciding names on the spot. I spent a moment thinking about it but decided I couldn’t wait for an answer and went with the first name that came into my head.

“Kevin.” I said, my voice, again, failed to convey my confusion or surprise.

“Kevin, a fine name!” Really? “Now, Adventurer, take this scroll. People across this land will turn to you for help and you can log their requests on this scroll,” I took the scroll from the man, and placed it in a leather pouch that hung from my waist.

“And take this sword, this will help you on your way.” I stared at him. Or I would have, but I reached out my hand and took the sword.

“You should head to the town of Kinsha just over that hill,” The old man pointed off into the distance and a large golden arrow fell from the sky, spinning about what I imagine was the town.

“Farewell young adventurer. We will meet again soon.” And before I was able to get another word in or ask the hundreds of questions in my head, he vanished in another cloud of smoke and light.

I stood for a moment, unsure of what to do. The dragon on my shoulder took flight and started flying by my shoulder.

I thought it best to head to the town as suggested. I began to walk in the direction of the arrow, still floating in the sky. Instead of walking though, my legs took off running. I couldn’t seem to slow myself down. I was able to turn, run in a circle and basically had free reign over my directional movement but no control over my speed whatsoever.

I gave up trying to slow myself. It was apparently that I was either running or stood still. The dragon kept pace with me, flying at shoulder height and turning as I did, without any delay.

As I kept running towards the town, I was surprised to find that I wasn’t losing my breath or stamina. I kept going as though it was a leisurely walk.

As soon as I reached the town, the calm of the field turned into chaos. There were people shouting from multiple stalls set up along the road, each selling something different.

The first stall sold bread, milk, water, meats and a few vegetables; the second appeared to be a blacksmith; the third appeared to be selling horses and another appeared to be selling miscellaneous items.

I approached the first stall.

“You girl, you’d better keep that dragon healthy. Make sure you feed him lot of meat to keep his health in check! Now, what can I get for you?” I looked to the seller. Did I even have any money?

I looked into the leather bag hanging from my waist and from it pulled from it ten silver coins. I asked the price of the meat.

“Ten copper a piece” I bought five pieces of meat and handed him a silver coin. He provided me with 50 copper pieces and the requested meat.

I handed one of the pieces of meat to the dragon. He didn’t eat the meat, it simply vanished, but the dragon performed an aerial back-flip and looked quite content.

I browsed further stall but wasn’t happy to spend too much of my money at once. I wasn’t sure how much I would get in future and how I would obtain it.

As I walked through the town, I noticed a number of people with golden exclamation points above their heads.

I spoke to the first person I reached.

“Help adventurer! My family is desperate for food. Please, bring us 5 pieces of meat so that we may eat well tonight. We will offer you 50 copper in return.” I agreed to do this for them, but was unsure why they did not just pay for the meat themselves. They were offering me the same reward as the cost of the meat. “Thank you, kind traveller. There are wild boars to the east of our town in the forest. Please bring us their meat.”

I thought of what to do in my head. I didn’t know whether I should just go and buy the meat and get the money back as the reward or whether to go and try to find the wild boars that the gentleman was talking about.

I decided to just buy the meat.

I returned back to the store holder and purchased a further 5 meat. I returned to the man who has asked me to retrieve them.

“You have returned! Have you brought the meat for my family?” I held out the meat for the man. “Please, have you brought the boar meat?” I continued to hold it out in my hand. Dammit. They weren’t taking it.

I wasted another 50 copper on the meat. I guessed that they specifically wanted the boar meat.

I made my way east of the town and saw boars aplenty roaming the forest. I had no fighting ability whatsoever, as such I wasn’t sure how the attempt to kill a boar would play out. I approached a boar and it charged towards me. Without thinking I began to swing my sword and was able to kill the boar within moments. My dragon had helped by diving through the air and clawing or biting at the boar.

That left the confusing task of how to cut the meat. As I approached the boar, it disappeared and, on the floor, lay a chunk of meat and a rolled-up pelt. Simple enough. This world was bizarre.

I returned to the town and continued to complete weird tasks for the residents of the town. Delivering goods from one to another, finding specific flowers in the forest, hunting further unsuspecting animals.

I couldn’t understand why they were paying me to complete the tasks. It was obvious that none of them were in a position of wealth enough to pay for such services and could easily complete the tasks themselves. Nonetheless it was money in my pocket… or pouch.

The sun was beginning to set and I decided that it was time to call it a night.

I clicked escape on my keyboard and the game closed. Even with the quarantine continuing; it’s nice to know that I have a new game to play and that I can at least keep myself occupied for a day or two and lose myself in a new world, through the portal of my computer screen.