The Accidental Archmage by Edmund Batara (read out loud books .TXT) 📕

the vacuum seals of the few biscuit packs though the product

cartons were soddened. Naked, he slipped inside the emergency blanket and promptly

fell asleep.

When Tyler woke up, it was early evening. He felt better, only a bit of numbness

remained and the pain was starting to recede. The fire had almost burned out so he

had to feed it again. His jeans, underwear and short sleeve shirt were already dry so he

put them on. He left his socks and sneakers as they were still wet.

After checking his surroundings for any unwelcome visitors, he sat by the fire and tried

to collect his thoughts on his predicament.

How did I get here? Where’s here? How to get home?

The barrage of questions passing through his mind threatened him with a headache.

Fear again started to begin its steady march from his guts and added impending nausea

to the mix. Closing his eyes, he started to take deep breaths and forced himself to settle down, pushing all questions out of his mind.

The eighteen months since he found himself as an orphan had forced him to a focused

and goal-oriented frame of mind. Along the way, he discovered that meditation had

proven to be of great help. Lessening his anxieties and directing his mind to calm and

practical assessments of problems and possible solutions. As a result, he always tried to

start the day with a few minutes of meditation, his day playing out before him. With his

new sense of self, he discovered prepping. It appealed to his survival mode mindset. He

had begun building up his survival kit, basing it on the CDC list published on the web.

His financial constraints did limit what he could buy. Guns and high-value items were

definitely out of his reach.

Looking up at the night sky, he tried to find the usual constellations. He could see the

moon and the stars but nothing familiar. The moon looked a lot bigger though. And a

full moon at that, though he could have sworn it should be a half moon. He then

observed the night sky, trying to find a friendly star. And then he saw a second moon,

smaller than the first, but a moon nonetheless. With a third moon in the background,

the size of an orange to his eyes.

He couldn’t breathe. He could feel his heart racing. The alarming realization surprised

his already tired and overloaded senses, shocking him to panic mode. He lowered his

head and again forced himself to breathe slow and deep. After a while, he went back to

his tent and laid his body down. He closed his eyes and tried to calm himself, deep

breathing all the while. Despite everything, he could feel the onset of a massive

headache. Thankfully, his body told him to sleep again.

The following morning was a strange one for Tyler. The warring concerns of the need

to survive and the comprehension of not being on Earth anymore made him act like an

automaton. Putting on his socks and sneakers, eating biscuits, drinking from the lake,

and gathering more dry wood. Most of the time he was staring at the blue expanse of

the lake, trying to make sense of it all.

“I drowned,” thought Tyler, “I should be dead.”

He looked at the grass where he found himself yesterday. The green grass was pristine.

He didn’t crawl from the lake, that he was sure about. No telltale marks of crawling

were visible, the turf was undisturbed. Looking again at the distant cliffs, he gave

fervent thanks to God that he didn’t fall into those jagged solid rocks. That would have

been a painful way to die. More so with the towering trees of the forest. If he fell into

those, he may have survived the fall. But broken bones and bloody wounds would have

resulted in a more painful demise. It would have taken him some hours to bleed to

death amid excruciating pain.

He idly noted that the lake itself was odd, the blue of the water reaching up to the shore. Examining the phenomenon, he found that the water didn’t provide the usual

visibility of the lake bed near the shoreline. It was deep blue through and through.

There was no possibility of determining the depth of the water by sight alone. As he

watched the water and the surrounding forest, he noticed his vision was unnaturally

clear. Colors leaped from the grass and vegetation. It was like watching ultra-high

definition scenes on television. He could also see for a great distance as the details of

the nearest cliffs on the opposite shore were quite distinct. A good one to two miles in

his estimation.

“Definitely weird,” he thought, “but I am alive and unhurt. That’s what counts as of

now.”

As he walked along the bank trying to find a clear part of the water, he suddenly felt as

if somebody was watching him. He stopped and looked around but the feeling

disappeared as quickly as it came. Quickly walking backed to his campsite, he felt a bit

apprehensive, the feeling of being watched making him edgy. He continued to the edge

of the forest and dug a small hole. It was a bit difficult, with his hands and the small

branches he could use. For his toilet needs, it would have to suffice. He placed some

leaves beside the hole and a small rock on top. As organic toilet paper, it would have to

do.

His call of nature done, he sat beside the tent and looked at the lake again. The turmoil

in his mind feeding his anxiety. The pain, numbness and the coldness he felt when he

first woke up precluded the situation as being a dream or hallucination. The consistency

and continuity of the experience added to his dismissal of the possibility that the entire

situation is a delusion. His mind frantically ran across possible scenarios, his science

fiction and fantasy bent adding to the mounting confusion.

An RPG simulation? A god-like being summoning him? Mister Mxyzptlk? Is he a

protagonist in somebody’s story? Magic? A break in time? Or a break in reality?

He had read alleged accounts of people disappearing in front of everybody. His copious

indulgence in science fiction and fantasy literature even treated him to storylines

making use of such mystery occurrences.

Going over the possibilities, he discounted the RPG, Mister Mxyzptlk