Al woke up with a minor headache.
His bed was just as soft as he remembered.
However, the area around him proved to be much rougher.
And was it him or was it really hot this morning-
Sweat pouring and in buckets too-
'Dream?'
He'd heard of lucid dreams before.
Dreams where one would have consciousness, be able to do anything they want, feel things…
But-
So bright, he had to cover his eyes with his hands- painfully bright…
Why was he dreaming of barren lands?
Why were…
Scaled penguins charming at him and-
"Monsters!" Al hurried to take out his sword but-
There was no sword.
Tch!
He grabbed his pillow- and used it to cushion the incoming charge-
The penguins were cat sized with claws and horns and teeth… kind of cute but definitely deadly.
Al stared around-
His bed was here, and so was his tea table-
And a letter on that table along with a butter knife.
Thud! One crashed onto the pillow- the others on the way-
"Fuck you!" Al cursed, grabbing the knife- impaling the penguin-
One down- bout fifteen more to go-
With one of them down however, the rest were quite suspicious-
And-
They slowly backed off-
Al panted, falling to his butt- resting his head on the bed's edge… 'What the fuck…'
Judging by the sun it was early morning.
However-
There was nothing here.
No plants-
No water-
No nothing.
Just distant dead trees, those penguin like monsters and…
This letter.
He recognized the writing and the seal; his father's.
"Dear Alfred,
I know you must be confused. I know you must be tired… I know you must be frustrated. However-" He didn't read the rest.
He threw it away instead.
Who cared about what that crappy father of his said?
'SO, he knew…' A snort. Alfred pulled out the knife from the dead penguin and gutted it.
There was no way of knowing whether he'd find food later or not.
Al checked his bed, his pillows, everything.
There wasn't anything here.
And he didn't have anything on his body either.
Pajamas, a shirt and that was about it.
No water, no weapons, and no money.
A shrug-
His plans were a bit delayed, yes.
However-
"Let's see how long you can keep that charade up."
Al was in fine health; the environment wasn't the best but-
But it was what it was.
'But where is this place?'
If he remembered correctly there shouldn't have been any barren lands in a 100-kilometer radius of his place.
So-
What?
If he was outside of that place, he just had to get back.
He just had to get back and restart everything.
Dethrone his father, take over his position and influence, and-
A big wide grin.
But before all that- first things first-
"Let's find water!"
***
Hours-
He'd been walking for hours-
Yet, all he found was nothing. Nothing useful that was.
He found trees but they were nothing but dead twigs.
He found animals but those were nothing but monsters.
He even found people-
Or rather, the remains of people. Assuming those humanoid shaped skeletons could he even called people.
So far, no water or shelter.
Maybe leaving the comfort of his bed wasn't such a great idea?
He could have always just used the shade from the bed and…
No-
That was going to get him nowhere.
And there wasn't any guarantee, he'd survive this heat, even in shade without water.
After all, despite it being at least five or so hours, the sun was still rising and hadn't even risen to the middle- and with it increased the temperature.
He was sweating a lot before but now… mouth dry as hell- he could barely breathe.
And no- it wasn't even midday yet…
Well, that didn't matter anymore though.
After all-
There was no water-
Not a fucking drop-
The earth was barren and even had cracks as wide as human heads-
His feet often almost went in, so he had to be careful- and of course that wasn't enough; there were some birds flying above his head- ready for him to drop dead.
Vultures.
Just waiting.
And sometimes pooping almost on him-
He had to play dance just to avoid those fuck-
Ahem… he did try to drink a bit of the penquin's remaining blood but one, it was salty and two, he knew it was going to kill himself for doing so, so he stopped.
Anyway- with all that over- Al did come to one particular conclusion.
Wherever this was-
This wasn't his country- and certainly not even his continent.
Why?
Cause he never heard there were walking lizards in his continent….
Lizards wearing something to hide their crotch, heading this way with spears.
"Hello~!" Al yelled. Finally, people. Lizards, but still people! And people meant water!
Shwing!
A spear flew across the space, inches away from Al's head.
Not friendly lizards…
'Well, that's nice…' A minor sigh, Al backstepped, picked up a spear- swirling it around like a master spearmancer.
Another spear headed for him but he intercepted the trajectory, effortlessly changing it and grabbing the second spear- as his second weapon.
He didn't throw any-
After all, there were half a dozen of them and he didn't want to antagonize them in his miserable dehydrated state.
"Hooman-" One of the lizardman spoke- "What buis- you- here?"
Bright white in color, red eyes, no scales-
They were humanoid in shape but-
But their faces were that of an aligator's.
"Lost-"
They spoke among themselves-
A different language.
"Com… hooman."
They didn't let their spears down but-
But Al didn't see any other way but to go with them.
After all, he still needed water.
And he still needed… some rest.
And he still-
Needed-
To get the fuck out of here.