Nighttime. A field at the edge of a lush green forest. It was
illuminated by fain by the pale moonlight. It was not quiet
though. Chirping sounds could be heard, most probably of
nocturnal insects. If anyone looked into the impenetrable
darkness of the forest, they would've surely seen a pair or two
of eyes glistening in the dark.
A figure could be seen lying on the moist soil, spread eagled.
Upon closer inspection, it appeared that the person was
drenched completely. An average face, or rather a face which
would be described as 'soft'. The eyes, which
were closed tightly till now, started twitching.
In an instant, the
figure opened their eyelids and sprang up.
Sitting in an upright position, they started clenching and
unclenching their fists and moving their body parts to check if
their body was functioning properly or not.
After a few minutes,
the figure looked satisfied and stopped. Then that figure put
their hands on the ground, pushed and used the recoil to stand
up.
"Ah...my body's in tatters..." muttered Mino, who couldn't keep a
straight face due to his body which was racking in pain. His feet
were wobbly, and it seemed like he would faint any moment.
Opening his eyes wide, he took in the scenery around him, and
was left even more confused.
"Where am I...? How the hell did I end up in a forest? And
where was I before?" Mino's heart was beating roughly, he was
quite scared, the forest just near him looked extremely
threatening.
However, the pale moonlight and the sound of
chirping insects created an ambience which helped Mino calm himself
down.
"Now, I urgently need to make sense of the situation. Where's
my cellphone..." putting his hands in his pocket, he searched for something and soon found the thing he was searching for.
Alongwith that, he also found something which he forgot he had with him. He made up his mind to check that thing later.
Unlocking his cellphone, he instantly switched on the mobile
data. But disappointment greeted him when he found out that
there was no signal, not even the feeblest of radio waves were
reaching him. He felt as if he was stranded in an uninhabited
island alone.
Speaking the truth, he was stranded, but the place
wasn't uninhabited.
Switching his phone off to conserve the battery, he pocketed it
and turned his attention to the second thing. It was a thin strip of
cloth, and it looked very familiar.
A fresh breeze blew, making Mino relax a bit. The moment he
did, memories flowed into his head like crazy!
"W-wait! T-this cloth... It was actually used to tie that weird
scroll!" he exclaimed in shock.
After taking another look at the strip of cloth in his hand, Mino
breathed in deeply and tried to make sense of the situation. The
words of wanderer1 echoed in his mind.
"This scroll is basically a gateway to our world..."
Then he remembered another useful piece of information. Ashu
had thrown the scroll... as a last ditch attempt to protect
themselves from the beam of fire. The scroll created a cicrle of
swirling colours... and they were sucked right into it before
losing consciousness.
He sat down again, this time crossing his legs. The cold feeling
due to his wet clothes was disrupting his concentration, he was shivering. But it didn't take him much time to cook up a
hypothesis.
"Maybe that scroll needed some sorta energy to activate... and
it got that from the fire beam... then it opened a portal and
dragged us to this world..."
It sounded very convincing. So much so that tears welled up in
his eyes.
"W-wait... M-mom... D-dad... m-my home..."
The
memory of the destructive rain resurfaced in his mind, giving
him the sensation of an invisible hand clutching his heart tightly. There was a huge possibility that his parent were already....dead.
He realised he was completely helpless in this strange world he
had never set foot upon before.
[D-damn... after this realisation I am feeling even more c-cold...]
Mino hugged himself as he got up again. A bit of the pain had
subsided and his stamina was recovering bit by bit.
"Now... first things first... I need to gather info."
Even though
Mino was extremely nervous and scared, he decided that he
needed to do something. Any person with a sane mind would
want to walk away from danger.
Mino was one too. So he set off
in the direction opposite to the thick forest, since the forest sent chills
down his spine. He didn't even need to imagine, he knew he
would be dead without even knowing what killed him.
Mino's shivering intensified, his teeth clattering. He was aware of his plight. If he did
not find a heat source soon, he would die of hypothermia.
Unbuttoning his shirt, he tied it around his waist. Keeping the
heavy and wet shirt on him was doing more harm than good.
But there also remained the question of, "Where the fuck can I
find dry leaves and rugged rocks!"
In order to warm his body up even at the cost of expending his
precious stamina, he started running, searching for rocks. Surely, wasting his precious energy was a foolish mistake on his part.
The dim light of the moon didn't make his search any easier.
"Haaah....haaaaahhhh...haaaaahuuuuu...."
Panting wildy, Mino
stopped near a big black rock. It had a oily sheen which could be observed if seen closely.
Mino had a piece of rock in his hand, which he had picked
up earlier. Gripping the stone strongly, he put its tip on the rock
and dragged it along the surface with grate force.
*Scraaaatch!!*
Mino eyes lit up brightly. [Lady luck hasn't left my side yet!!]
The moment the stone rubbed against the surface of the rock, a few sparks
flew out. He put his hands on the rock to feel its texture. Then
he decided to try something out. He scratched on it again, this
time with his nail. He immediately regretted doing that though.
As the sparks flew out, he was rewarded with a blackened
fingernail, and a burning sensation spread out from that area.
The dark rock strangely resembled ferrocerium, the stuff which
produces sparks in lighters. Mino wanted to break some of it
and take it along, but knew it wasn't the time.
He still had to find another thing, fuel.
"I'm sure dry leaves are there. I just have to find them. Why dry
leaves, anything which burns is okay."
Mino stood up and resumed his search for fuel, while silently hoping in
his mind that he would not meet any dangers.