All of Art's senses were in shambles. It took a couple painfully long moments for him to take in his surroundings. The first thing that he felt, was that the light drizzle and pleasantly cool air, was now replaced by scorching hot air. For a few moments he simply couldn't breath, due to the sudden change.
The hard tactile texture of asphalt that he expected to land on was also nowhere to be found. All Art felt was countless specs of searing white sand below his shoes. Losing his balance he landed head first into sand. Taking a moment to recuperate, he sat down.
Finally he could take a proper look at his surroundings.
Sand, there was nothing but sand. The only change in landscapes were the dunes of sand. Looking near himself, he realized that he was on top of a particularly large dune. A seed of despair had found its way into his heart. After all, he didn't know what was beyond the horizon. For all its worth, there was only sand.
But that wasn't what made him feel despair. Looking at the sky, he realized that something on a fundamental level was wrong.
There were two suns in the sky.
He was not on Earth.
Minutes passed, staring at the two celestial objects, he felt his hair going from soaking wet, to bone dry. His clothes that had drops of rain of them, were also dry. He suddenly felt the unfamiliar sensation of a sunburn appearing on his face. Snapping out from the pain that his eyes were in, he took off his jacket, and wrapped it around his head. Luckily, he was wearing long-sleeved shirt underneath it, so he didn't need to worry about sunburns on his arms.
'…This is wrong… This doesn't make any sense… I might have read plenty of novels, but I never expected in a scenario of one…'
There was no way of making sense of this situation. He clearly was not on Earth, since there was only one sun back on Earth. But even stranger, the atmosphere was close enough to Earth's for him to be able to breath. He felt as if the answer to what happened to him was right there, that it was just barely out of his reach.
After a brief moment he begun calming down. He couldn't make sense of the situation, but there was no point in trying to solve a puzzle, when you only have one piece out of several hundred needed. Shifting his thoughts to something more positive, he had an epiphany.
'If I am in another world, I probably have some overpowered ability! Maybe I can summon water or even teleport!'
Standing up, he confidently outstretched his arm, and yelled out loud:
"Open system!"
"Menu turn on!"
"Ability activate!"
If his face wasn't already red from the sunburn, he was sure that it was after that. He didn't know what was worse, that nothing happened, or that he actually said that out loud. Luckily no one was there to hear his little outburst.
At least he felt much calmer, so he could start focusing on what was actually important now.
'I don't see any scenario where I can get out of here. I should take look at the amount of provisions I have.'
Quickly sitting down, Art took off his bags and placed them on the sand. He had two bags with him. One was a classic backpack, that was filled to the brim with books, stationeries , and notebooks. The second one however was a duffle bag, where he kept a change of clothing, a couple dozen protein bars, and most importantly, there were two large water bottles, that were filled to the brim.
Without giving it a second thought, he quickly took one of the bottles out, and hungrily drank from it. Although it might have seemed strange, Art knew that portioning water was a fools errand. The only thing that it would bring him was a greater chance of passing out from dehydration.
Even though he was really hungry, he decided not to eat anything. If he were to eat a couple of his protein bars, he would lose a lot of water due to digestion. Especially because the only food he had were those protein bars, and they were packed to the brim with hard to digest nutrients.
'If I get back home somehow, I should probably buy coach something expensive… Who would have known that him not giving us a time to fill up water bottles, and taking our lunch periods, to train us, only giving us some protein bars to eat would increase my chances of survival in some deserted hellhole…'
Looking at the scorching sand around him, he started thinking of a plan.
'I should start exploring at night, to prevent pointless sweating. I wonder will I even be able to sweat at night. If the daytime is this hot, I am afraid of how cold the nights will be…'
Internally lamenting on the fact that he had never took time to learn how to survive a desert he groaned.
'And here I thought that I was some kind of mastermind, being ready for anything that world threw at me… I mean I probably would have been ready for anything that world decided to throw at me, but I guess this doesn't apply, now that I am not in my world anymore?'
Glancing at the sky, he noticed something strange. The stars that were previously right above him, were now much lower.
Looking in confusion a realization hit him.
'The days are much shorter here.'
Why wouldn't be days shorter here, after all the two stars probably would have some strange effect on the this planet! Which means that It will be night soon.
After contemplating this for a second, his mood soured.
'This isn't good.'
Although on the surface it seemed to benefit him, he realized something. With shorter days, the nights would be shorter too. Which means that he would spend more time getting cooked by this unbearable heat.
Cursing under his breath, he took off his shoes and socks. Taking out a pair of sneakers that he was practicing a couple hours ago in.
The material was much thinner, so at least he wouldn't get as much of a trench foot.
Being tired of just sitting around, he decided to lay down. Using his backpack he stared at the sky. There wasn't a single cloud as far as he could see. Trying to relax, he noticed a thing that started to bother him. It was too quiet here. He was used to not having a second of peace and quiet, while outside, due to how busy people usually were. It felt uncanny.
"... It is too peaceful here…"
The serenity was somewhat refreshing. In a way, he didn't have to worry about his usual concerns. Of course there was a chance that the whole planet was just a massive desert, and he would die a slow and miserable death. But by the fact that he could breath, he knew that there were some oxygen producing plant, or maybe an animal that can produce oxygen? After giving it a thought, he realized that he didn't see a single animal since he appeared here. He didn't actively seek them out of course, but he at least expected to see something like a bug.
Just as he got comfortable on his backpack, the dune he was lying on begun to rumble...