Chereads / Pickaxe and Table / Chapter 3 - First steps in an unknown place

Chapter 3 - First steps in an unknown place

A bird was flying over an island casually minding its own business yet those unsuspecting would never guess the thoughts of this bird. Today was the day that the bird finally lose its virginity, gone would be the days where it's friends would call it a beta-male and with it, its low self esteem. Not only would the bird lose its virginity, it would do the deed with the most beautiful bird it knew and he had a plan for it. Yesterday, the bird overheard a conversation about the beautiful bird's preferences it was a whispered conversation but it managed to hear that the beautiful bird liked loud screeches.

The bird could hear the call of its ancestors longing for their blood to be passed on. The bird would not dissapoint, with fierce flames in it's eyes it opened its mouth sucking in air towards its lungs. Holding the pressure inside it, the bird screamed in it's consciousness 'GO BEYOND! PLUS-'

*REEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!*

Meanwhile an unconscious John is awakened by the screeching of a desperate animal.

John slowly opens his eyes and notices that he is face down on a sandy beach. He quickly pushes himself upwards and notices that his legs were both wobbly and weak so he only managed to put himself in a sitting position.

Adjusting to his senses John felt a gust carressing his skin, The wind was breezy but along with it was warmth and smoothness. Behind john was an afternoon sun just five hours from setting casting a long shadow infront.

'huh? was the ground always this far?' He thought, his vision was blurry and his body felt unfamiliar to his memories. Brushing off the oddities he was feeling on his person, he tries to recall any reason why he was currently on a beach.

The last memory he had was about a prank email about accepting to go to to a different world. Logically and common reasoning did not allow John to accept that email, the parallel universe theory accepted that there was an observer/s watching over these bubble universes to finetune life. John thought that life was simple and in this simplicity do we live our lives, he thought that everyone was just lucky to exist and not for a reason.

Coming to a conclusion, there was no way he was actually in a different world, everything was confusing to the normal man named John it even scared him a bit. He didn't know why his kidnappers made it hard for themselves and design an elaborate(?) plan, instead of just outright kidnapping. Remembering the seminar he once attended, John must look around for landmarks and confirm his location.

Motivated he looks infront as his eyes focus, What he saw surprised him, A wall of black mist stretched on the horizon about two to three hundred meters away. Almost darker than moonless nights, The mist squirmed as if it was alive, dancing in a language that could only mean death.

Slowly John's optimism crumbled like the sand he stood on as small waves of water tickled his feet,

*REEEEE!!!* he heard the screech awoke him a while ago.

John looks up curious at the creature capable of making this sound. Shocked, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping at what he saw, It was a creature that couldn't exist on earth. It was not the size of the one meter bird that shocked John, nor was it the bright red color on its feathers, It was the fact that it had three sets of legs on its underbelly.

There was little doubt left in John's head, The unknown environment, Jet lag on his body, ominous black mist, and a redundantly evolved avian. John knew he was fucked.

_________________________________________________

(POV cube)

'inheritor has accepted reality, sending templates'

The cube bounced up and down slowly and rythmically as it observed John from the inside. It took a while for the cube to find an alternate reality to raise an inheritor.The planet called earth lacked mystical energies to properly raise one, it was a reality destined for scientific advancements, highly incompatible with the inheritance it made. It succesfully found multiple realities but chose one that is suitable for growth and from there began its plans.

First it would trap the inheritor in an unknown island so that he would have enough time to adjust to his body. When he is ready he would be allowed to leave the island.

The future was bright for the cube.

_________________________________________________

(present time, 3 minutes after John's realisation)

John was sitting on a rock eyes closed, trying to calm his nerves. It was shocking that he was experiencing the stuff of fairytales. The first birds on earth were flightless, they only later evolved to having wings with their front limbs. No current bird species had both wings and 4 legs, which lead him to believe that he was no longer on earth.

Confused and panicking, he was questioning everything; why was he there? who brought him there? where was he? dozens of unanswered questions filled his mind.

Not finding any answers he takes a deep breath and exhales shakily. Smiling wryly he opens his eyes and his expression completely freezes. On his left peripheral view was a transparent row of ten hearts. John recognized these hearts, like a drug addict rushing for a new fix, He ran towards the closest tree he could find.

A 6 meter tall violet leafed, palm tree stood tall infront of John. Praying to whatever divine being willing to listen, John clenched his fist and punched the trunk chipping a little piece from the bark. John paid no attention to the fallen bark, he was paying attention to the ethereal cracks on the spot he hit.

'yes yes yes!'

John kept hitting the tree with his heart beating faster with each punch, until he heard a crunch and pop sound. In his excitement he forgot that life wasn't like video games and physics actually work. The tree started falling away from John which greatly startled him. Realizing that the falling tree would not fall in his direction, he checked his peripherals and found exactly what he was looking for, a transparent box containing one wood.

As if by instinct, John could sense a space inside him. There were two kinds of spaces inside him, the first one was what is commonly known as the inventory and the second for armor and equipment. The inventory was wide and could fit multiple items into a stack of 64 similar items, while the armor space only had one for his head, chest, legs, and feet.

John felt motivated, even excited, yes he was trapped in an unknown island and yes he might die, but if he had what he thought he had things may not be as bad as they seem.

(Castle Bruxo)

The council was waiting for their oracle. Yesterday they were informed by the tower mages of a new revelation. The oracle screamed of a vision, a force of dark origins trapped beyond the mist. There was much doubt within the council, prediction and divination was a branch of statistical magic that had unsupported science behind it. Force of dark origins? they already had demons flocking around. Black mist? soot infused fog and burning wet wood produced the same results.

If it was any other day they would have ignored the oracle, but they recieved news of their neighboring kingdom's oracle having the same vision but interpreted in a different way. They speak of an abomination, a creature that wasn't supposed to exist living far away perhaps sleeping. A mysterious entity always struck fear to those who did not understand it, so the council asked the oracle if it posed any threat to their kingdom,

"what? are you stupid? I just to told you that it's trapped beyond the mist. haiyaa~ young people these days always skimming over details"

'why were you so scared then!?' they all thought in unison. The were thingking that this was just another coordinated shenanigan with their neighboring kingdom's oracle to garner attention. Even if it was true, the creature was trapped in some sort of black mist, it wouldn't be able to cause any harm if it can't get out.

Putting this nonsense behind their heads they resume their tasks completely ignoring the ramblings of their court oracle. Only the transcriber paid attention to the senile mage as he recorded word for word what the mage said on a crystal chip,

"....outh west."

"....temporary..."

"....nster of...."

*click* the transcriber stops the device as the oracle finally finished their monologue. Putting it in a container and labeling it for storage purposes.