I sat at my worn-out, cheaply-made school desk, tracing the lines that the students before me had carved into the wood.

I only half-listened to my math teacher, who was rambling on about rationalizing denominators, as the carved lines seemed far more interesting than math.

The desk had been inscribed with a massive hexagon, and a bunch of triangles connecting to its edges, making it look like a star. The rest of it was filled with meaningless scribbles and the occasional heart with two sets of initials in it.

My mind began wandering, flitting between ideas like a lost butterfly.

My eyes sightlessly gazed out the window as my hand continued to trace those graffitied lines and my mind ran wild.

"Anthony." I was brought back into reality by my math teacher's wooden ruler snapping against the back of my hand. "Is you aren't going to pay attention to class, why don't you show me you don't need to?"

I glanced at the board, relieved it was a problem I could solve, and quickly solved it before returning to my seat in the back row.

"I suppose you win...For today." My math teacher said, scouring my work for any detail he could nitpick.

I unfocused once more, my mind dreaming about anything that seemed even remotely interesting.

Eventually, the bell rang, signifying lunch, and I was mobbed by my friend and a few people I didn't know.

"Wow, Anthony, I thought you sucked at math." One of the newcomers said. "What gives?"

I recognized the newcomer. His name was Matthias. I didn't know him, exactly, but I had heard of his poor reputation.

"I just don't act like you do around women." I responded easily, satisfied by his face contorting in anger.

"Oh yeah? Well-" He was cut off by my good friend Mark.

"That's enough. If you have nothing constructive to say, shut up and leave." Mark waved him off.

"I'm Martha." The other newcomer introduced herself. "Could you help me with this class?"

I shrugged and decided it couldn't hurt to help her. I nodded and we slipped into mindless conversation.

As we chatted, enjoying our lunch together, Martha began acting strangely.

"What do you think about my figure?" She asked, looking at me hopefully.

I was at a loss for words. Why did my opinion matter? Was she asking because she liked me?

"It's very...Alluring." I couldn't think of anything else to say, but gauging her reaction, she didn't think it was enough.

I couldn't think of anything else that was remotely school-appropriate to say to her about her figure, so I remained silent, eating my lukewarm soup from my thermos.

She pouted, but didn't press me.

After school, Martha tagged along during my walk home, insisting that I continue to tutor her in math.

I finally relented in the face of her endless onslaught of questions.

I brought her into my home, and had to face another endless barrage of questions from my mother about why I brought a girl home and if it would interfere with my studies.

After tutoring her for most of the day, she left. I was utterly exhausted by her endless inquisitiveness that forced me to reevaluate my comprehension of the subject.

I was so tired I fell asleep dreaming about what it would be like to be transported into another world.

After who knows how long, I was awoken by a cold bucket of water.

I was immediately awake, but I had been woken by my mother like this numerous times when I was late for school, so I wasn't particularly surprised.

Until I opened my eyes, that is.

Standing above me was a woman who was wearing what looked to be a red-trimmed cloak that stereotypical mages wore, and holding an empty wooden pail.

I abruptly got up.

"Where am I?" I demanded, realizing there were more people in the room.

"Welcome, o hero." Said a voice behind me.

I turned and saw a elderly man sitting on a jewel-encrusted golden throne.

'That's...Extra.' I thought to myself, examining both the invaluable throne and the king that sat in an equally expensive robe.

"Bow before the king!" The woman who had so rudely awoken me shouted at me.

"No." I laughed, hating this world already. "He's not MY king."

A small group of guards surrounded me.

"You WILL bow before the king, or you will die." One of the guards said.

My mind shifted into high gear as I slowly examined each of the guard's postures and stances, picking out the weakest link so I could take them out.

I planned on using the wet marble floors to my advantage, along with the element of surprise.

I had been trained with the staff since I was young, and I figured I would be forced into some sort of bullshit contract or something if I didn't fight.

"I can't bow if your spears are so close to me, now can I?" I asked, hoping to open up some space for movement.

They obliged, now each with their spear tip an arm's length away.

Every guard had stepped in the puddle that encircled me, and I was going to use that to my advantage.

I abruptly pulled as hard as I could at one of the guard's spears, while simultaneously lowering my center of gravity.

The poor guard slid without resistance towards me.

He relinquished his weapon and readied a fist, but I swung the butt of the spear into his chin.

One down.

The guards began closing in. If I were to live I needed to break the encirclement.

I took a step and dove forward, twisting so I would slide on my back.

The startled guards failed to stab downwards in time and I collided with one guard's legs, sending him crashing down on top of me.

Perfect.

I sprang up and began sprinting towards the opulent doors as fast as my wet feet would allow, away from that king and his bullshit.

The two guards at the door readied their spears to intercept me, but I wasn't playing by their rules. I jumped through the stained glass windows flanking the door instead.

I didn't expect there to be nothing but air beneath the windows, but at least there was a pillar I could use my still-wet body to slide down at a rate I wouldn't break my legs.

Now, from what I could see from the bottom of the pillar, I needed to escape the entrapment of the walls.

I sprinted towards a guard tower embedded in the walls so I could climb the rough outer stone and bypass the guards likely stationed in it.

Arriving there, I made the split-second decision to slide the spear through by back belt loops on my jeans so I could take it with me.

I scaled the wall like a spider, not stopping even when the guards gathered beneath me and shouted for me to stop.

"Stop climbing and come back down unless you want to be turned into a pincushion!" A guard shouted at me.

"Are you insane?" The man I could only assume was the guard captain shouted at his subordinate. "We need him ALIVE!"

So they needed me, huh? I was going to use that to my advantage. They would regret summoning me.

I neared the top of the guard tower and began to go around it, rather than reach the top. My clothes dried rapidly in the afternoon sun as well, which warmed me up pleasantly.

I figured there would be guards waiting for me at the top, so I circled the outside and began climbing down.

I saw they had encircled the area below me before I had begun to climb down, so I looked for other options.

To my left was a plaza bustling with people and filled with colourful tents and goods, behind me was fields of...grey? Why were the plants grey? I pushed the question from my mind and looked to my right where  the gates and more guards were.

I chose to jump onto a tent and prayed it would hold me.

"HOLY FUCK HE JUMPED" I heard a shocked soldier exclaim as I fell.

I spread my legs and arms to reduce my speed and hit the red tent I aimed for.

Upon impact I heard the tent begin to shred and I desperately held onto the frame, stopping it from being ripped entirely. Instead, the fabric was dangling, held together by a small amount of fabric that I hoped would make it easier to repair.

I pulled out my spear from its home in my belt loops and used it to help absorb impact from the fifteen foot drop I was going to take.

After that I took off running once more, giving up the idea of parkouring because I didn't see a single hard building. I guiltily threw an apology over my shoulder at the stunned shopkeeper as I ran.

I rapidly navigated the crowd, heading towards another guardhouse to repeat my last escape strategy.

I looked behind me briefly and saw a large company of soldiers shouldering their way through the crowds with their eyes firmly fixed upon me.

I reached the guardhouse, before realize something was wrong. The mage lady was there.

I immediately pivoted and ran towards the gate.

It was strange how I never got tired, but I chalked that off as adrenaline and pushed the thought out of my mind.

I decided I was going to try and break through the gate.

I reached it and grinned. I was lucky I was fast.

There were only four guards out and several I could see in the guardhouse nearby. I needed to be fast if this was going to work.

The guards were clearly not paying attention, especially considering that most of their gazes were firmly affixed to some noble's bosom.

I sprinted behind one of the guards and body-slammed another one, stumbling as I continued to run.

It was easy to outpace the guards sent after me after that, especially considering they ran in full plate-armour.

I ran with only one idea in mind: escape.

How I was going to escape was simple. I had planned this out.

I was going to outrun them in the forest, then return to the path at some point to put distance between us.

As I sprinted through the unfamiliar forest, I suddenly felt like I wasn't running as fast as I felt I could.

I increased my pace easily, finding I could go much faster than I could have previously, but it was that much harder to keep up mentally with my actions.

I reduced my pace so it was just past my comfortable threshold because I wanted to avoid tripping.

I continued running, but after a while I saw the lady who had awoken me standing there.

I didn't alter my course, hoping to get her to flee.

Instead, she extended a hand and I suddenly felt excruciating pain for a moment that was gone the next.

I stumbled, but managed to stay up, my adrenaline surging.

"Oh? You're still able to move?" She asked, surprised. "Even after all that pain? Wouldn't it be less painful if you gave up?"

"Pain is what you make it." I growled, increasing my pace as much as I could, rapidly accelerating until I collided with her.

She had a look of shock on her face when I suddenly closed the distance in a split second and collided with her.

I lost my spear in the collision, but I did not slow, desperately fleeing from her.

I didn't spare a single glance behind myself as I continued deeper into the forest, changing my path so it was more difficult to track me.

The pain of the collision came later, as a dull but persistent ache in my shoulder and ribs.

I pressed on, however, fearful of recapture.

I only slowed when the sun was half-hidden behind the horizon.

I slumped down, feeling my legs were sore, but oddly enough I still didn't feel out of breath.

I knew a bit about wilderness survival, but I had no idea how to hunt.

'Guess I'm going hungry tonight.' I thought to myself, climbing a sturdy tree that closely resembled an oak.

I had trouble falling asleep, but that was to be expected. I literally escaped from a city, right out from beneath the king's nose.

I felt slightly smug at that, but quickly wiped the smug grin that formed on my face. I wasn't out of the woods yet. No pun intended.

I slept sporadically, throughout the night I was constantly jerking awake and looking around for fear of being found.

The next morning I was tired, but not unbearably so.

I began running once more, initially for the main road, but I realized that the king had probably blocked off the roads, so I turned back and began running alongside it.

While I ran, my mind was slowly able to keep up with the ever-increasing speed at which I ran. It felt good to slowly adapt to faster and faster speeds.

As I ran, I thought about the summoning ritual they had clearly completed. It occurred to me how fucked up it was to pluck some random citizen out of their own world, without their consent I might add, and plunk them into some random fantasy realm of which they had no knowledge of. Couple that with no way back and you have yourself a recipe for depression and perhaps even suicide.

Now, out of spite, I was going to do everything in my power to depose the rat bastard that summoned me here.