"Wha...what the real fuck?"
Dan muttered. His hands hadn't moved, his feet hadn't moved, his body hadn't moved and his facial muscles hadn't moved either still keeping the same panicked expression on them. His mouth quickly opened and closed several times. He didn't move even a single inch. He was just frozen in place of shock.
Birds chirped and insects sang. Meanwhile, Dan had his feet rooted to the ground. His mouth moving like a fish.
"No way... What..."
The grass reached his knees and rustled in the wind. The sun hardly shined through what opening the tall trees allowed. Dan finally started moving, he raised his arms over his head and-
Fainted. He plopped down on the ground. A hawk's shriek was heard over the busy woods.
×-×-×-×-×-×-×
"Gwaarsgh... Gwareh..."
"Gowwgyub..."
"Gor..."
Something strange was happening over a random clearing in the woods. Three little goblins were squatting around a tall young man, who was sleeping weirdly sound over the thorny grass. The goblins were confused, they had never seen a creature like this in their life. They poked the young man's body with their stick, seemingly to get a reaction but up to no avail.
One of the goblins scratched his head, that's what he did when he couldn't figure out anything and was thinking intensely. But alas, he hadn't managed to figure out anything ever since he first opened his eyes so that action wasn't of much relevance. The other goblins also tried many things to wake the man up. They danced around him in their unique style they were so praised for in their village, they sang loudly for him in their beautiful language which filthy Orcs could never understand. They even sang and danced simultaneously, just to see if that would do anything, but all that ended up with was that they were out of breath.
But what? It seemed to have miraculously worked. Dan, disturbed by the commotion around him, slowly opened his eyes and put his hands over his eyes to stop the sunlight which coincidentally seemed to fall directly on his face. He finally uttered his first coherent sentence in this weird place he had weirdly transported to.
"What the fuck? So damn ugly!"
He shouted as he quickly sprang back on his feet and took a distance. All the strange encounters he had today temporarily quickened his decision making. His head had become completely blank and he was concentrating all his attention on the present as some sort of a Tibetan monk.
His eyes scanned his surroundings, darting around from tree to tree and from goblin to goblin. He counted-
"One, two, three..."
And he sprinted towards them and tackled them with his body.
"Gwaarghh?!...Gwa-"
"Gwaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
"Gwabbbala?!"
The goblin, now even more confused over the strange creature which was now standing on two feet like them and was moving his hands around like the insects they liked to eat so much. Their brains had short-circuited and their reaction speeds intended towards zero. And as such, they were taken by surprise by the same creature they were so curious about.
Dan snatched a club from one of the goblins closest to him, the goblins' frail arms and small body couldn't withstand it and he quickly let go of the only weapon he had. With weapon in hand, Dan didn't waste any more time, speedily lifted the club over his head and swung it at the goblin's head. The unlucky goblin, who was hit by his weapon lost consciousness and plopped down on the ground, sinking into the grass.
The other goblins had now come to their senses, they growled and snarled and quickly readied their weapons but alas it was too late. Dan had already approached them enough of a distance to him them with his club. He swung his club at one of the two goblin's heads while swatting the other one around with his arms. The goblin didn't weigh much, at most 40 kilograms and as such was easily thrown around. The goblin which was hit by club also lost consciousness like his predecessor which Dan as though he didn't even want to give any time to the goblin he has swatted to the ground, smashed his head with his club, ending the battle.
Dan breathed heavily and lied down on the ground himself. His mind was still a blank, all he could think of a moment ago was swinging the club but now all he could think of was breathing. As he laid there, memories slowly came to him of the previous events.
I was smoking crack... Wait, no! I was- I was trying to get out of the house!
He held his head and tore his hair as he hastily tried to recall everything.
"Why is it... After I opened that door...?"
He didn't understand how he ended up at a place like this...
"No... Those things! The hell are they?!"
He got up on his feet again and took a distance from the goblins, who laid there unconscious on the grassy ground. One of them was bleeding profusely, green blood seeping out of a wound on his head. Dan was grossed out by the scene and couldn't help making a face of disgust.
"They aren't human... No way... What is happening?"
He cautiously approached one of the goblins, the one which looked the most harmless and the dumbest of the bunch and-
He swung the club he held twice on its head.
"Just to make sure it doesn't wake up anytime soon...", he muttered, nodding to himself.
He held the goblin by its arm and dragged it a small distance to a shade under a tree. He grabbed some of the grass and tightly tied the goblin with it. He proceeded to do the same with the other two of the bunch.
One of the goblins had been bleeding and so Dan abstained himself from hitting his head twice, instead, he hit him only once. Once he had tied them down to his satisfaction. He sat down next to them.
His memories had almost already started to become clear, the ominous heaviness he felt in his home, how to he darted towards the door and how he woke up here. He didn't understand the reason behind any of it but one thing he was sure of was that one didn't simply teleport to the wilderness by opening their front door.
"No, am I even on Earth...?"
He gazed at the creatures he couldn't identify from any of his real-life experiences. The only memory he had of them was from movies, books and video games!
"Goblins? They look completely like goblins... This isn't a cosplay..."
He poked them with his club looking for a reaction. One could see that the positions of the goblins and Dan were now completely reversed.
The food chain was a cruel thing...
"Shit...", he murmured, unable to accept his fate.
"I didn't even use the new PlayStation I bought earlier...", he muttered again, now losing his grasp on reality and the bigger problems in life.
His head spun and he stopped thinking again. He took a few minutes off to calm himself down. He really couldn't understand the current situation and especially not what to do next.
He didn't want to stroll around the unknown. If something like goblins existed then what else could not?
He went into deep thought. For his first course of action, he decided to wait for the goblins to wake up if they ever did... At all. They probably couldn't have a conversation with him but he was sure they could help somehow if he threatened them enough.
Next, he decided to think. More and even more over his circumstances. He had opened a gate to another world, he thought, looking at the goblins with a slight nod of approval to himself. Like Narnia, he thought.
... Except it was his front door instead of a closet... No, it's more like Monster's Inc...
He unconsciously rubbed his head. Internally, he understood that the cause has got something to do with the weird heaviness he felt before teleporting(?). Maybe opening the door just triggered it somehow? He concluded with doubt.
"Shit... There's no way I could go back now, could I?"
He looked around the place with more attention. There were trees everywhere he looked, long thorny grass decorated the ground where there weren't any trees. The woods weren't quiet. They were loud.
The birds chirped while what he hoped were hawks, shrieked. The gentle wind flew, rustling through the long grass. He occasionally heard the growling of wild animals(?) which made him anxious.
"This isn't Earth...", Dan confirmed to himself.
Several hours passed, he spent his time huddled under the tree with his goblin companions. The tall grass hid him perfectly so he didn't feel the need to camouflage himself further. He was still thinking about what his parents or friends would think when the goblins showed signs of waking up.
"Gwagh... Gawgh...", growled one of them.
Dan held tightly on his club and approached him cautiously. He looked him up and down and decided to him up to sit on the ground.
"You...", he said pointing his fingers at the goblin while squatting in front of him. "Me...", he continued, pointing his fingers at himself this time.
"Mwegh...", said the goblin in a low scowl.
"Yes. Me.", grinned Dan pointing his finger at himself. He knew he probably wasn't making any sense to the goblin but he was delighted that the goblin was taking an interest. Maybe, he would be able to get something out of him... I give enough time.
He continued to point at things and name them to make the goblin familiar with his language. Meanwhile, the second goblin also woke up. So he did the same with him. He wanted to wait for the third goblin to wake up as well but he didn't wake up even into another two hours.
Dan had been worried about something but he didn't want to confirm it. His anxiety grew further on his face as another hour passed. He stared deeply at the third goblin and then at the other two goblins, who also seemed to be gazing serenely at their unconscious... companion. Their eyes were different from before, almost human.
Dan instinctively averted his eyes. Things were happening too quickly, he thought. What am I even doing here? He thought. What is he going to do next? He thought. A few more minutes passed. The wind now carried with it the stench of rot. Dan knew it. He steeled himself and finally decided that he couldn't help it.
"Great..."
"Greg..."
The other two goblins let out a soft growl as they saw Dan approach their companion. Dan touched the third goblin's neck with his fingers and almost-
Fainted.
"W-What the hell? What have I done?!", he stuttered, gazing back and forth between the bleeding goblin and his other two companions.
The third goblin was dead. He had bled out and died. A goblin's constitution was fairly weak but of course, Dan didn't know that.
Dan sat down on the ground shaken. He hadn't killed anyone, no, anything in his entire life. And now, he had just done and did it. He had killed a living creature!
"Fuck...fuck...", he cursed himself.
He couldn't lift his gaze. He didn't want to face the other two goblins. Many hours passed Luke this and the sun was already down. Dan had at last broken out of his stupor. He finally faced the other two goblins who seemed to be sleeping. Then he looked at the corpse of the third goblin which was already giving out a stench.
He held his nausea and dragged the third goblin further away from the tree into the open. He was worried that the smell of a dead body could attract other wild animals, and it was even the night time, he couldn't bury the dead goblin in time so he had to least move it's corpse away from their hiding place. When he could ever come to terms with the other goblin, they could help him dig a grave to bury the third goblin. That's the last thing he could do for a life he had taken. He dragged the corpse away quite a distance and quickly said a prayer before moving back to the tree he was huddled under.
His stomach churned as he hadn't eaten anything today. It was a night in his world when he was transported and he had just been preparing to go to sleep. So in a way, he hadn't slept at all either. He was also thirsty. He was at his worst. He sighed, finally accepting his fate.
He has to survive somehow. He wanted to survive. He wanted to survive.
But first, of it all, he wanted to sleep. The next day would be his first proper day in an odd new world.