The sound of traffic faded, replaced by the quiet breeze. The sweet scent of flowers filled my nose. The faint sound of birds singing from their nests. The bright sun blinding me as I opened my eyes. Everything had changed. I was no longer in my cramped apartment room. Instead, I found myself sitting against a towering oak tree.
My surroundings were what you would expect for a fantasy world. The sky was clear, the sun bright, not even the faintest smell of rain. Fields were spread in every direction. The yellow corn clearly visible from even a mile away as it gleamed in the sunlight. A forest could be seen in the distance. Its tree stood tall as if reaching for the heavens.
And I sat on top of a hill, able to see every single bit. If heaven exists, this is what it would look like. I wanted to stay, continue looking at the beautiful sight in front of me. But also knew it wasn't the time to linger. If I wanted to continue seeing that sight, I would need more than just a few things. Information, food, water, shelter and that's just the top of the iceberg.
And to get these things I would first need to visit a town. The only question is, where would I find a city?
I quickly rose from my neither comfortable nor uncomfortable position, supporting my legs as I did. Well, if I want to find a city, all I need is to ask some locals. How hard can it be?
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You may be wonder how I'm taking this so well. But it is only fair, after all I have imagined scenarios like these hundreds if not thousands of times. Wanting to be ready if I ever got the chance. And now I finally did. I have no idea how though. But what does it matter? The importance is that it happened, I have no interest in how. All I wanted was to learn magic and live my life to its fullest. And to do that I needed to find a city. But what would you know even that seems difficult. It felt like I had walked for hours, though it had probably only been twenty minutes.
My legs buckled under me, sweat dripping into my eyes, stinging as I blinked. Maybe I should have worked out more before coming here? And the blazing sun certainly didn't help with my condition. Ohh, what I would do for some water right now.
I had thought it would be easy to find a local amongst the fields, but maybe it was a holiday, because not a soul could be seen. Along the way, I was lucky enough to find trail. It wasn't well maintained but it was something. But the problem was that it only went in two directions. One towards the mountains and the other towards the forest. I knew I didn't have the stamina to go through mountains, but a forest didn't sound too appealing either. Everyone knows that forest is the ideal place for monsters to lurk in the shadows. Even an amateur would know that. But at the same time, it was also an ideal place to gather food - if you know what is edible and what is not.
In the end it was a decision between collapsing from exhaustion in the mountains or maybe be ripped to pieces by monsters in the forest. It was a hard choice indeed. Or it would have if I hadn't immediately set off for the forest. In the end I guess I am no better than an amateur.
And who knows maybe monsters don't even exist in this world. But even to me that sounded absurd. Either way a forest is a must in a fantasy world.
So, I sat off to the forest. Totally thinking about the decision, I just made. But maybe looking back I would have preferred the mountains. At least they wouldn't be covered in the scent of blood.