While traveling down the road, which fortunately did look like an
actual road, as opposed to the dirt path I had managed to loose a few
days before, I came across a farmer, whose cart had broken down.
Clean break at the axle and it was obvious that he wasn’t going
anywhere any time soon. Now, being the good Samaritan I was, I
stopped and asked if I could help. As it turned out, I could. I don’t
think I mentioned this before, although it should have been apparent
after the events in the last town, but I was not just more adept at
fighting than I ever was, this body of mine was also a lot stronger
than the dad bod I had back home. I put the broken off wheel on the
back of the cart, picked up the cart at the axle and together with
the farmer who was pulling it, we managed to get the cart back to his
small homestead. I remember considering to ask him, why he didn’t
use an ox or horse to pull his cart, but decided against it. After
being bombarded with different animal names I had never heard of
before, I didn’t want to out myself as completely clueless.
As
it turned out, that wasn’t even necessary, because once we parked
the cart, the farmer introduced me to his wife as ‘the friendly
champion who helped him bring the broken down cart back’.
“Excuse
me,” I asked, “but how do you know I’m a champion? I mean, just
about everyone seems to know, but I don’t know how they know.”
The
farmer raised an eyebrow and said, “Ah, you must be from that town
where they pull the champions from the other worlds, aren’t you?”
I
nodded in agreement, figuring that this kind of practice must be
rather well known.
“I heard that the otherworld champions were
all a bunch of douches, but it seems like I was wrong. Goes to show
that you shouldn’t listen to hearsay,” the farmer proclaimed,
while his wife brought a tablet with fresh bread and a few goblets
crudely carved from wood and filled with milk.
Upon the sight,
my stomach growled audibly and while I looked down in embarrassment,
the farmer burst out into laughter, while his wife smiled mildly.
While
eating, the friendly pair asked me all kinds of questions about the
world where I came from and listened in awe, as I told them about
cars that moved without horses, metal birds that soared through the
sky and machines, that could do more calculations in a split second
than a man in his entire lifetime.
As I told them about the
family I was dragged away from, the woman asked, “You miss them,
don’t you?”
“Yes,” I replied, staring off towards the
distance to hide the tears swelling up in my eyes, “Yes, I do. I
mean, I’m still hoping to wake up in my bed and laugh about getting
so worked up in a dream, but it’s been weeks since I’ve come here
now. I know that time works differently in a dream and that in
reality, it could just have been mere minutes or even less having
passed, but still...”
The woman smiled at me and said, “You
know, if I were you, I would go back the way you came and tell that
stupid jerk you pulled you away from your life and your family to
take you back immediately.”
I
laughed at the notion, but when I thought about it, the idea of just
demanding to be sent back hadn’t crossed my mind until then. In the
beginning, I of course thought it was just a dream and that I would
wake up eventually, which is why I just rolled with the script, doing
what was expected from me, but at that point? At that point I began
wondering, if that was such a good idea. Still, it was a long way
back there, I had no idea where that town was, where I was at that
point and where I’d even get there. I couldn’t very well just
backtrack either, even if I had that kind of sense of orientation,
because of my little mishap with the river leading into the cave.
And, due to my...’problematic’ departure from the last town, I
couldn’t very well go back there either.
In the end, I stayed
with the friendly pair for a week or two, tilling the fields, pulling
out weeds and removing rocks, so the farmer could bring out the
seeds. In exchange, I was given food, drink, shelter, a bit of local
money and, maybe most important, information about the world they
were living in and picked up some skills that would still prove to be
useful down the road.
But, as
it were, happiness like that never lasts. Nothing ever does. After a
while, a bunch of armored guards came by the farm, looking for me. I
saw them from afar and instinctively hid in the barn before they
spotted me.
After they had left, the farmer called me to him and
put the wanted poster on the table, asking, “They claimed, that
some sort of ‘monster man’ demolished the hall of justice. Do you
happen to know anything about this?”
I took a sharp and deep
breath, looking back and forth between the farmer and his wife. There
was a pang of fear in her eyes and worry in his. Not that I can blame
in.
I exhaled and then explained, how that came to be, ending
with the words, “But I swear to God, that I did not set the hall on
fire. I just panicked and ran. Did...anyone get hurt?”
“I
don’t know anything about that. Still, they must want you really
bad, for them to come out all this way. I...I am afraid I cannot let
you stay here any longer. If they come back and find you here, if
they learn that we have shielded you…”
The farmer left the
sentence incomplete, but I could imagine all too well what he meant
to say. There was no way I could do this to them either. Not after
all the kindness they had shown to me. And that is also the reason
why I am not stating their names in this paper, nor where their farm
is located. To this day, there are many who wish for my demise. If
they were to learn who aided me, I dread what they might do to them
in their blind fury.
After saying my goodbyes to the friendly farmers, who even shared a little care package for the way with me, I returned to the road towards the capital, hoping that by going there, I might find a way to return home. That day, my journey to glory had ended and my long way home had begun.
Comments (2)
See all