Chapter 4b: Another Chance at life

Monowi wakes up at the sound of chirping birds flying out of their nests at the break of dawn, while sunlight is filling his face up completely. He sits with his legs spread forward, and takes a long stretch as to to ease the stiffness and shake off the laziness in his body.

Rubbing his eyes, he glances around, his thoughts from the night before still hazy. After taking a look at his surroundings, it took him some minutes to realize that he was in laying on a grass and there were other animals and birds at far distance, while he was able to see them clearly.

The animals and birds although some looked same, but some looked way different than his wilder imaginations. At some distance there seemed to be a road, and behind that road there was supposedly a big enough facility. But that looked like it was an archaeological site, as it had ramparts made of huge stones and some guards in old era clothing guarding them. There were even fences with spikes surrounding the walls to keep the intruders out.

After taking his time to settle for where he was now and catering through the shock of how he reached some place like that in the first place, he stood up and decided to walk towards those guards.

As he made his way along the road toward the station where they were posted, he suddenly heard the sound of wheels, just like the night before. A carriage came rushing past, nearly colliding with him, before lurching to a stop just in front of him.

There was a man sitting on it with a huge crystal fitted on some kind of wooden frame in front of his seat like a steering wheel but in the middle, and definitely didn’t look like a steering wheel but more like a crystal stuck on a wooden structure, fashioned in such a way that it seemed to guide the carriage’s movement.

The man driving the carriage was speaking some gibberish, or rather some unknown language that wasn’t understandable to Monowi. Unsure of what to do, Monowi lowered his head with his hands clasped together in front of him as if asking for forgiveness.

The driver didn’t want to waste his time, so he waved at Monowi with same frustrated expression to get off the road. After Monowi went off the road, he saw how the carriage was drove without any animal.

The man murmured some gibberish again, suddenly the big crystal in front of him started glowing and the wheels of the carriage starting rotating from the thud.

This was something new for Monowi, as seeing a crystal as a power source to move a carriage. Monowi knew he ended up in some unknown civilization, still undiscovered from the people in the world.

This place has unknown creatures, environment settings like those depicted in history books and now the technology which seems far from the normal understanding and even the comprehension of it for normal human mind was impossible.

This was the sound of the carriage he heard last night, he knew he had not been hallucinating that time. But still the sound of no hoofs or footsteps, confused him whether it was reality or was happening to him due to his hunger and restlessness. It was all real with the light from the crystal as the proof.

Monowi shook his head, as if trying to shake off what he had just witnessed, and once again began moving toward the stationed guards.

As he approached the guards, he asked them about his current location, aware of the fact that they might not understand him. As expected, his doubts turned out to be true, the guards were also using the same language as the man before on the carriage.

At that moment, he knew he was doomed for sure. He was stuck on an unidentifiable place with the people speaking unknown language. He wished desperately for some way to return to where he had come from.

As soon as the thought of going home occurred to him, he started checking his battered clothes and probably pockets. He was checking whether he had anything, from before he was thrown in this unknown place.

There was nothing, no currency, no cell phone and not even an identification to prove his identity. Seeing Monowi frantically checking his clothes, the guards grew suspicious. They approached him and spoke something again in their language.

It didn’t take long for them to realize he couldn’t understand a word. Soon after, they apprehended him, suspecting him of something he himself couldn’t even guess because of the language barrier between them.

But Monowi couldn’t do anything, at least tried to pull free from their grip, but his resistance only enraged the guards. But this made the guards more ruthless, and they started hitting him with the sticks, kicks and punches. He stumbled, fought to stay on his feet, then collapsed under the relentless assault. After struggling for a while, he finally gave up, letting them do as they pleased. Only then did the beating stop, satisfied that he had been beaten into submission.

A person came out from the tent, judging from his looks, he was supposedly some high official. He came outside after hearing the sound of rambling. He walked towards the guards, and they briefed him.

The officer gave Monowi a quick a glance, said something to his men and then left. Without a word, one of the guards stepped forward and struck Monowi with the hilt of his sword, knocking him out.