Andrei lay on the grass, unconscious. He was wearing a camouflage jacket together with a white undershirt and ripped denim jeans and was gripping his cell phone. The man slowly opened his eyes, revealing black-colored irises. His face was worn out, and he had dark bags under his eyes.
As he opened his eyes he saw that the sun was shining directly at him. However, the breeze was cold, and the green pasture on which he lay on felt great. He thought at first that he was dreaming and that someone had opened the window curtains in his room.
"Brix, close the curtains, asshole. Who do you think is paying the electric bills here," he said, sleepily, then closed his eyes again. "I have to merge the codes later, after-all." He felt suddenly irritated, as sunlight for programmers is the archenemy, especially in near-deadline situations. However, no one closed the curtains he was complaining about.
"Wait, where the hell am I?" The dream felt so real, he could feel the scenery he was looking upon - the fresh breeze, the sunlight that is not so hot, and the grass he was touching.
He pinched himself. "I have to wake-up, or my manager will kill me." He pinched himself again strongly, but it didn't work, he was still within this strange dream.
"I've been reading too many Isekai novels, and now I'm actually trapped in one of my dreams. How do I wake up?" He pulled his phone from his pocket and looked at it. There was no signal or wifi. "I guess I'll just enjoy the fresh scenery here until someone wakes me up."
Knowing that he had nowhere to go, he decided to laze around while looking at the scenery before him. From where he sat he could see forests, majestic looking waterfalls, rivers, and lakes. It was something he never got sick of, he just enjoyed the scene as he leaned back on a nearby tree until night time came.
"Where the hell am I?" he asked as he looked at the sky, and saw two moons alongside each other, one larger than the other, and that the stars shone so brightly.
Andrei was from a bustling city where too much light pollution dimmed the light of the stars, but here he could see millions of them populate the sky, forming such beautiful scenery.
"There are two possibilities, first I may have been transferred to a parallel world, or second, this is a prank, using the latest 3D tech the developer community has," and he looked at his body, feeling it from all corners. "But this feels way too realistic." He touched the grass, smelled his hand; everything felt so real. While doing this, he could see lamp lights as he looked eastward, a few kilometers from where he was standing.
"Let's try talking to locals; an AI wouldn't be able to talk like a real person. If I meet some of the people there, I might know what's going on," he said. But within him, he hoped that he had been really transferred to another world, that there may be something for him here, unlike his mundane daily lifestyle.
After a few hours of walking while appreciating the surrounding scenery, Andrei felt tired and thirsty. "Hah….hah….hah, I guess… it's.. Hard.. for a… city person… like me… to… walk… 30 kilometers… on this… kind of… terrain." He gasped for air and cursed as he walked on a road-like path where the grasses weren't growing, following it to the town.
"I took part in marathons when I was younger, but those marathons had water stops, ahh I give up!" Without water, he lost hope and sat on the ground panting.
"There's no water…" he looked down, tired, with sweat dripping from his hair, and body, then suddenly heard a sound like a faulty bike coming in his direction. He looked further down the road he was following and saw an old-fashioned carriage coming towards him.
"Maybe I can ask for water!" He came back to life hoping that, finally, his thirst would be quenched.
But as it came closer, he saw something strange. The carriages' coachman was sleeping, and blood was spilling out of his gut as the horse ran at full speed.
It wasn't the first time for Andrei to have seen a dead or wounded person, so he immediately thought of a way to retrieve the man and seek help from the townspeople while giving first-aid, but, being a city boy, he didn't know how to stop the horses.
"Throw a stone? No, that would just make it run faster. What should I do?" He put his hand on his chin.
Being a closet K-Drama fan, he remembered a historical drama he'd watched, and how they'd stopped their horses. Without even verifying whether the method was correct, as it had only been shown on TV, he tried to imitate it as soon as the carriage was near him.
"Better to do something than nothing," he thought to himself.
"Hoooaaah, hoaaah" he shouted. "Damn, this is embarrassing. Will this even work?" Contrary to what he expected, it did work, and the horses that ran at a high speed, gradually lowered their speed and started walking towards him.
When the carriage was near him he quickly went up to the coachman and laid him on the ground. He then quickly checked the man's vitals and found out that the man was dead already. Normal people would have been creeped out, but for Andrei, it was a normal occurrence. Back in the day when he was younger, he went with his father to hospitals, where his father would give awards to injured soldiers.
"I was too late, huh," Andrei stared at the coachman. The coachman wore weird clothes that one could see in history books, a dark waistcoat, and breeches, the overall attire made him seem like a butler from the movies.
He knocked on the carriage, but no one answered."I have to look inside the carriage, maybe there are still people I can save… and maybe water." He quickly opened the door and was surprised by what he found, an unconscious woman of his age.
He couldn't clearly identify her features because of the darkness, but luckily this time there was no bleeding anywhere visible; still, he had to check her vital signs. "Okay, she has a pulse, and she's still breathing," he stroked the back of her head, and looked at his palms to see if there was blood or not. He made a sigh of relief when there wasn't any. "Okay no head injuries either." While he was doing this, he heard crazy screams from the direction of where the carriage had come from.
"Kill the witch! HAHAHAHA! Burn her at the stake," shouted crazed men who rode horses, wore bronze helmets and carried shields and torches. Andrei was startled, however, hearing their screams, he had a hunch of what was happening and was smart enough to cope up the situation.
"Apparently, they are calling this girl a witch, and are coming here to kill her, and maybe... " He looked at the dead coachman, "Were they the ones who killed him? This dream is scary, the world is clearly not the one I am familiar with, where even farmers had guns, while these crazy men have those crude weapons." He was starting to panic, but as the moon shone on her beautiful face, he inhaled deeply and made his decision. "But first thing first... I have to get her out of here," he said to himself as he looked at the coachman lying dead on the ground while putting the girl in his arms.
"I'm sorry, man, but yes, I'll help you smuggle this woman to safety. If you died protecting her, I will make sure your sacrifice was not in vain. If not, then at least I'll be doing this for my own conscience. Can't have a beautiful lady being burned here."
He took a look at his surroundings to find a hiding place for both of them, but the land was a plain. "Shit! What should I do?" the men were only a few yards from them, then just like lightning he remembered that he was wearing a camo-colored jacket, and found a way to take advantage of it.
"Okay, let's do this."
He hurriedly put the coachman's body inside the carriage and carried the girl in his arms. He had no time to look at her face again. He immediately searched even for a slight deformation on the ground.
"There, found it." He threw a rock at the horses which startled them and made them run. The terrain was plain. Making use of deformations and the fact that the pursuers didn't have flashlights, he ran towards his chosen deformation, took off his jacket and laid her flatly on the ground. He covered the upper half of her body with his jacket, but noticed that the girl had a white complexion and her legs might draw attention.
"There's no choice then," he placed his body on top of the girl so that his black-colored jeans would also cover her legs.
"If she was awake she would really mistake me for the attacker or a pervert, and if she was literally a witch, I'm quite afraid that she would really kill me." Andrei couldn't stop these thoughts from coming and sighed, as they were really in an awkward do-or-die situation in a very unfamiliar environment.
The horsemen finally caught up to their position, but the carriage horses had already left at the last minute.
"Yeah. Yeah, go away, just like that!" Andrei wished from his heart, but it didn't go well as he expected. One of the horsemen stopped and searched the area near them.
"The carriage stopped here. If they escaped at these parts, we will be able to find them," the man said in a mocking tone, as if he was thirsty for something.
"Don't sweat it, this place is plain. If they escaped we would have already seen them here, see?" Another soldier replied while riding his horse. He then lit extra torches and threw two torches randomly.
"See? Nothing, We need to hurry up and catch-up to the carriage instead, you dumbass! If they escape, your head alone wouldn't suffice for it!" The man who replied in a commanding tone was definitely their leader.
"Eeeeeeeeeehhhhh!!! Yes, sir!" The underling, scared of his boss, rode his horse again and tried to catch up to his comrades that had ridden farther than him.
"My Call of Duty knowledge worked, HAHA!" Andrei thought proudly. He removed himself from the girl and sat on the grass. He looked at the sky and realized that dawn had already arrived and the lights on the nearby town had died already.
He looked at the girl and saw that she was still sleeping. Now that he could finally see her clearly, he observed her carefully; she had blonde hair, and white complexion, she wore a white long sleeve accompanied by a golden breastplate, kneepads and a skirt. It looked like this girl was a warrior from a fantasy manga Andrei had read before. For him, it was undeniable that she was truly beautiful.
"Seriously, why do they want to kill an innocent-looking girl like her?" He looked closely at her sleeping face. She was still half-covered with his camo jacket and thought that she was cute.
"But it wouldn't be really cute if she really was a witch and ate me for breakfast, right?" he asked himself, but his vision started getting blurry, and he instinctively held his head and realized he was on full adrenaline and had forgotten to drink any fluids. Andrei felt dizzy and fainted with severe dehydration.