//------------------------------// // The man of the castle // Story: The man from the woods // by Jimbob //------------------------------// "This is the worst idea I've had all day." Then again it was still early and so far this day is just promising to be filled with mis-fortune. I looked down at my splayed out hand, and the rock in my other hand, the theory was that the pain of me smashing the rock into my hand would finally wake me up and get me out of crazy land. I closed my eyes and raised the rock up. "Ok here we go. 3,2 and 1" I slammed the rock onto the back of my hand. "OWW!" I let go of the rock and pulled my hand back towards me rubbing it slowly. I cracked open my eyes "No, nononononono." I was still here, the bed was just as dusty , the walls still wrinkled by time, and the windows still glaring with sunlight. Which means. "It can't be real! It's not! I refuse to believe it!" How could a place like this be real? It's impossible! Horses don't talk, wolves aren't made out of wood, and i can't be here! I wrapped my hands around my head. "Please no, oh god please." I want to go home. I have friends, I have a family, and a job. Please god send me home. I slowly wrapped myself into a ball, silently begging anything that would listen to send me back home. Tears began to run down my face as reality slowly sank in. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX I don't know how long I stayed like that. The sun had all but set when my stomach made itself known. I couldn't recall the last time I had actually eaten something, probably at the bar before it happened. I slowly made my way to my feet, I felt different like empty different if that made sense. I had no one and had been tossed out of my world for reasons unknown to me. Was I some game to the gods? A universal mistake? Had I drunk myself to death and this was god's twisted afterlife? I didn't know and I didn't care, whatever had happened it must be reversible, it has to be. I would get home if it killed me, I don't care what it takes I will get home. But if I want to get home then I need to stay alive and to do that I need food. But go out into the woods at night would be suicide if last night was anything to judge by. So I guess that leaves trying to scrounge things from around the castle, I doubted anything was here but I was determined to find something. Wandering the castles in the dark was no different tonight than it had been last night, lots of stumbling and cursing. The castle's layout was strange and even I could see that it had very little in the way of tactical checkpoints, mostly just winding hallways with dilapidated beams half-fallen through the roof. Staggering around the castle proved to be quite annoying, as just about every door I found was either locked or blocked by rubble. Grumbling to myself I came to a large set of bronze color doors. I pressed my shoulder into the door and felt it give ever so slightly. "Come on you bitch." I gave a massive shove and the door finally gave into the pressure and creaked open. A fleeting moment of satisfaction flew through me before quickly being snuffed by the memories of where I was. I entered the room and saw what appeared to be the main entrance to the castle. In the center of the room was a pedestal with several spheres made of rocks on it. Oh what scratch that spheres of rocks with carvings of gems on them. "Useless hunk of rock" I glowered at the spheres before moving towards a stairway nearly hidden by rubble. I crawled through a small opening at near the top of the rubble and made my way up the staircase. I didn't know where I was going I was just hoping to find something edible. I came out in a huge room, the room may have been grandiose at one point but years of neglect had left it in a state of ruin. The back half of the roof had been torn away, the windows all shattered, a half decayed carpet leading the way to a small uprising of stairs. 'Maybe this was the throne room?' it seemed logical, the long walk to the end of the room would be perfect for the king to stare down his nose at his subjects. Ignoring the very empty and useless room I turned to the windows to see if I was surrounded by the woods or if I had some grassland nearby. A quick peek outside told me that I was in fact surrounded by wood, but something was wrong with the trees they were all in.... A line? 'Trees don't grow in lines unless they're planted, and most people plant trees for...' I looked into the branches of the trees and saw the glistening skin of a blood red apple shining in the moonlight. I quickly began to brush the glass out of the window pane wanting to waste no time trying to find a door to the outside in this maze of a castle. A quick hop through and I was in a rather large garden. I scanned the area for more of those wooden beasts and slowly made my way to the tree, a quick jump and scamper later I was sitting rather comfortably in one of the higher branches of the tree. I quickly grabbed one of the apples and tore into it like a starving man. Several apples later my hunger had ebbed away to a dull throb. I could live with this and there appear to be some other edible fruits in the nearby area. Wanting to get a better look of the area I slowly lowered myself down and began to move around the gardens. I spotted several different plants I could use; tomatoes, pears, apples, and some carrots I think. I was about to move back into the castle when a reflection of light caught my eye. I turned quickly thinking I had seen the reflection of light on something's eyes, when I saw a small hut nestled nearly against the castle. I slowly began to slink towards it attempting to stay low in the grass, the hut in question was covered in a tangle of vines and grass. After a few minutes of searching I found a small door covered in vines, a quick shove later and I found myself in a small cramped room. Many different kinds of tools lay in there most covered in a heavy layer of rust and grime. I quickly began to sort through the tools looking for anything that could help me survive or at least offer some protection from the wildlife. A ray of moonlight caught on a small patch of dull metal. I carefully pushed several rusted tools off the metal and soon found something that would not only protect me from wildlife but also prove an invaluable tool. For the first time that day a small ghost of a smile found its way to my face. I grabbed the tool and made my way back to the castle stopping only once to face the dark woods and offer a warning "Look out wolvies, get too close and I may just go Gordon Freeman on your ass." Special Thanks to chaos_trotter and Lego2112 for Prereading/Editing!