Chapter 10:

Out in the wild

My first life was a bore, so now I got another 7?!


My first reaction upon hearing the sound was, of course, looking around hastily, thinking of several animals that could have produced this sound. After having closely looked at the area nearby my gaze shifted further and further away, until I almost had reached the horizon. The sun was still burning and the heat haze made it even more difficult to spot something the more far it was away. Also there was no way to know if whatever I would find, would actually come out of the suspected direction. The wind had stopped and with it I lost the sound, that had indicated that something was moving somewhere in the distance.

The sun had already passed its highest point and the wind had come out of this direction. I didn’t know if this world would work the same, but I decided to call the direction the sound must have come from west, simply assuming that the movement of the sun worked like in my own world.

I decided that it wouldn’t be of great use to me to leave the road to find something I couldn’t be sure in to even find it. But maybe I would find out what it was later on. I was reminded of my encounter with the wannabe pirates for a moment, but decided to push these thoughts away. It wouldn’t be of great use either to cling to the thought of my previous deaths. That was easier said than done of course. Dying is something you can’t just get used to, since every cell of your body and every instinct tries to prevent it from happening. One could even say that death was highly unnatural for a living being.

I continued to walk. These thoughts got way too philosophical for me right now.

Also, I had another problem to worry about. I had tried to ignore the fact but now that I stood still it became painfully obvious. After I died, I took all the things with me, which I had on my body, but I left all the rest behind. Meaning my inventory now looked like this: Kimono (top), Hakama, Socks (dirty), old matches (one).

When I had entered the mansion, I had taken off my shoes. And I officially never left the mansion. Meaning two things: first, my shoes were still in the mansion, second, I was walking in socks over burning hot sand.

I was able to ignore it as long as I had been walking, but standing still had really started to bake my feet.

My current objective was clear. Getting out of the sun and producing something that could somehow be considered a shoe. Also there was the problem of getting some water, but this started to feel secondary at this very moment.

While I was walking, I continued to distract myself by looking for the source of the sound I had heard while not thinking about my feet. Luckily the Hakama was long enough to hide my feet to some extend. If I met people like this, they would think I was crazy. I needed a good story for this case of events.

The easiest Story would likely be a robbery. It would not only explain why I had no shoes, but also no money or other goods of any worth with me. And I was pretty sure that there would exist bandits in some form in every world these voices could pick for me.

“If only they hadn’t taken my shoes.”, I said to myself while suppressing a laughter due to the ridiculousness of the situation. If I would have went back in time, let’s say a week ago, and would have told this whole story to myself, I wouldn’t have believed it at all.

The sun shone mercilessly on the area around me and I carefully put one foot in front of each other, losing more and more of my strength and will to walk on with every new step. The shoe-situation became gradually less important compared to my need of finally having some water.

Sweat was running down my face and all my body and made my clothes stick to my skin. At least the hakama provided some kind of air supply but even so the air it supplied was as hot as one might expect.

“Why again did I like these cowboy movies back then?”, I asked myself as I started to regret being here without a horse or anything. If everything continued at this rate, my fourth life would be over before it had started. Then again, so were the last two. I seemed to have a talent for dying. Or at least not a talent for surviving.

 “Why did it have to be the middle of a desert? I expected nothing from the one of you but the other at least could have tried to plant a city somewhere into the area. I mean what is this even? Not even the weeds feel a wish to grow at this place. Even they think it is too hot.”, I started mumbling while slowly getting more and more outraged by the situation and especially, the heat.

“Also you guys are able to resurrect people and send them to other worlds but giving me shoes is beyond your abilities?”, I now shouted at the sky.

As if the voices wanted to respond to my accusations, I recognized something lying shortly besides the track.

It was almost comical. There lay the remains of a dead person. To put it more directly: a white skeleton, wearing a typical cowboy hat, a shirt, vest, pants and boots.

“Well, thank you!”, I shouted at the sky.

I didn’t show much hesitation as I took the boots. I carefully held them beneath my nose for a moment but except for the slight smell of old sweat there was nothing special about them. I tried to put them on. They were slightly larger than I would have liked them, but it was better than having no shoes.

The same could be said about the hat. Now I truly felt like a wild genre-mix.

I searched the pockets for any valuable things, but could only find a set of playing cards.

I took them as well. There was no use in leaving them behind and maybe I could find somebody who liked to gamble a bit. On the other hand I didn’t have anything to wager with. Maybe I could at least sell them.

The person had left no weapons or anything. Probably he died of thirst. At least I couldn’t see any signs of violence.

I hoped that, whoever he had been, his next life would serve him better. If I had the time and the tools, I would have buried him, but staying here for too long would only cause two skeletons to lie here.

That brought me to an interesting thought. Did I leave a body every time I died? For a moment I thought about all the things that could happen to a dead body, and then tried to think about something else, for I didn’t like the results of my thoughts.

I threw one last gaze at the skeleton and then continued my way. I felt a little guilty for robbing a dead person, but it had been a necessary evil to protect myself from the heat and possible other problems like poisonous animals.

After I had continued my way for another few minutes the rattling round appeared again. First it was just another faint sound carried towards me by an occasional breeze, but then the sound remained audible after the breeze had ended.

Shortly after I could hear frequent steps that were previously covered by the rattling. A horse? It certainly sounded like a trotting horse. If the second sound was a horse, then the rattling could be…. a carriage.

A carriage could save me from dying in this desert. Then I remembered the last time I was hoping for help after getting spawned in the middle of nowhere.

But what were my chances? Maybe I could reach the next city by myself, but I couldn’t tell the chances of this happening. The ground was slightly hilly, blocking the sight in most directions just enough to walk past a city without even recognizing it. Or I could ask for help, maybe getting killed as a result just another time.

In worst case I would end up dead anyways.

Dying because of the heat or dying because I still didn’t learn my lesson? Both didn’t seem appealing the slightest.

Trying to get help from the people on the carriage might increase my chances, but by now I really didn’t feel like trusting strangers anymore in these worlds.

I decided that it would be useful for my decision to walk up onto the highest nearby hill and see if I maybe can deal with the situation myself.

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