He stumbled drunk through the corridors of the sports hall.
The ceiling lights were off, they shone too brightly,stinging in his eyes.
So he shone his way with a flashlight, which he had prepared purely for this purpose.
Its spot of light swung back and forth, shone briefly on a pommel horse then back on a mat while he made his way to his sleeping place.
It was nothing new for him, automatically he headed for the changing room further back in the gym.
Swaying, he reached his destination.
Again and again he lost his balance as he tried to get out his keys and open the cabin door. For a long time he was unable to insert the key into the keyhole. Irritated, he grunted when he finally succeeded: "Ya'see, wasn't that difficult after all."
Satisfied, he now wanted to open the door, but before he could do so, it was slammed shut.
He flinched, and despite his drunkenness, a cold shiver ran down his spine and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Slowly he turned his head around.
"Y-you, you!"
The words were stuck in his throat.
His cries of pain echoed through the abandoned gym for quite a while.
-
"This is your driver."
Januar opened his eyes to an unknown environment.
The sudden cold wind made his eyes water and the stench hanging in the air gave him the impulse to cough.
His eyes scurried back and forth in an attempt to ascertain his surroundings.
In front of him stood a somewhat small, thin man dressed in a gray suit with half-long, grayish hair, he couldn't see the man's face because his back was turned towards him.
Next to the man in the suit was another middle-aged man, but he was wearing a white (or was it silvery?) tracksuit with a red embroidered logo, unfamiliar to Januar. This man's hair was a warm, dark brown color, shoulder-length and curly, his eyes were bright blue. He was very tall, at least one head taller than him, so Januar had to look up to him, above his mouth, which was curled in slight annoyance, a dark moustache grew.
Januar froze, what was this fashion style? He had never seen anything like it before, nobody would dare touch it in his world and the hairstyle was quite... special?
He was sure now, this must be the 'Realm' of his Frog Prince card!
But wasn't the Frog Prince originally a fairy tale? Where were the princesses and castles?
While Januar was still busy thinking about the lost princess, the man in the tracksuit hit him.
"Are you mute? Or do you not want to tell me your name?"
It took a short moment for Januar to understand what the man meant, just as he opened his mouth, the little man in the suit interrupted him.
" Many apologies, Joachim, but you are free to call him Jan, is still relatively new in the business. He has not yet had the honor of driving such famous personages such as you, he is also a great fan of yours, Mr. Nowak..."
The tall man snorted, turned around and walked towards the door of a long, big car (?).
"Well, move it!" the thin man had an angry expression on his face, and gave Januar, or now more accurately Joachim, a slight blow to the back of the head, telling him to move toward the long car as well.
In shock, rubbing the back of his head, Joachim hurried to get through the door of the car, Mr. Nowak, as the thin man had called him before, was already waiting impatiently for him. With a short gesture and a still annoyed look he pointed to the seat with the steering wheel and many buttons and levers.
"Sit down and drive, we're already extremely behind schedule."
Intimidated by the expression on the face of this Mr. Nowak, Joachim hurried to the seat and sat down. Only when he saw the steering wheel and the various levers clearly, did he realise the dilemma in front of him.
He did not know how to drive such a thing!
He had raced in virtual car races together with his siblings, sometimes even with pre-apocalyptic cars, but he had never seen a car with so many buttons and levers!
"What are you waiting for? Drive!"
The loud call of the tall man, with the fashion sense that takes some time to get used to, startled Joachim and automatically made him twist the ignition key, immediately the car came buzzing to life.
" There you go!" The man snorted one more time.
Joachim clasped the steering wheel in front of him so tightly, his knuckles turned white, his heartbeat accelerating. Why did this vehicle have to be so incredibly loud and shaky?!
He now reached out a trembling hand to one of the levers, carefully pushing it towards the ground, the car began to roll backwards instantaneously.
Shocked, Joachim stepped on one of the pedals, the car leapt forward, a short thump could be heard before he hastily pulled his foot off the pedal and pushed the pedal in the middle. His upper body was pushed forward, another rumble could be heard. Joachim sighed with relief, now he was happy to have put on that safety loop of that time.
"Are you kidding me?! Where the hell did you get your driver's license?!"
Joachim flinched hard and pulled his shoulders up in anticipation of another blow to the back of his head.
The lanky man had fallen from his seat during his sudden maneuver, and before he could sit down properly again, he fell to the ground a second time. There was a red spot on the middle of his forehead that was still swelling up. His mouth was twisted in anger, paired with his untamed mane and beard he looked like an angry lion.
Joachim quickly began to stammer an apology, but the man held on to his anger: " Save your pathetic excuses, when we get back from this trip I will personally see to it that you are fired! Unbelievable what they still hire as bus drivers today, and then for something as important as the trip of the national athletics team!"
Joachim lowered his head in shame, now he had ruined everything from the first moment on. The 'Quest' had demanded nothing else from him but to bring this vehicle to the right place, and what did he do? Would he now be stuck in this world forever and ever?
He could feel a deep panic and at the same time a strange satisfaction swelling up in him, like violent waves that were out to drown him.
"Oh, Mr. Nowak, don't be like that. You have heard that he is still relatively new. Besides, he is also a fan of yours. Of course, he'll be a bit nervous then."