Getting Out of There (II)

I wasn’t a street thug, but I knew better than to stick around if I was in a bad area. Times like those were proof enough that I needed to run as fast and as far as I could. How could I avoid the idiot cultists otherwise?

Still, I followed the path as best I could, though I only figured that the cultists were behind me once the moonlight came out. How come the world was conspiring against me at this point? I needed to get out of there.

In the distance behind me, I could faintly hear alarms going off. This was bad. I mean, this was extremely bad. How was I supposed to get out of this okay? I needed to run as far as I could now.

Wait, why were they setting off their alarms, anyway? Was I the reason?

#

“Our Demon King is missing!”

“Where could he have gone? Her Majesty will be furious with us over not keeping a better eye on him.”

“You mean pissed, right? That’s the only word for this mess.”

“Whatever we do, we must not let him meet with the Reborn Goddess! She’ll erase his soul from existence should they meet!”

#

Maybe it was my imagination.

Instead of focusing on the idiocy of that (meaning the alarms going off), I ran to the end of the path before I found myself at a fork in the road. Well, I didn’t know what else to do, other than find a way out of there. I looked for a sign by the road to see how far in what direction it would be to get away from there. In effect, if I knew how many cubits it took to equal—wait, how do I know what a cubit is? Which cubit was I even talking about?

As I thought about that, I found a sign, one which had a single arrow pointing to the left. Under the arrow, the sign said:

City of Lifheimr, 60,000 cubits

Thank you, school bag and supplies, for staying with me. I took out a measuring stick, one that had Imperial and Metric Measurements on it, and placed it on the sign. After that, I lined the stick to one edge of the sign, before I moved it to the other edge. When I stopped it, I found that the measurement was 18 inches in the Imperial method. That might be the most accurate measurement of a cubit I’ve ever had to do—wait, not again!

I pulled out a calculator and did the math, based on the Imperial measurements. So, if a cubit was 18 inches, then I was looking at a little over 17 miles to go from here to the closest city. I sincerely hope there’s a place for me to rest along the way.

With that, I started running to my left. I had to see what was along the way, to know if I was going to be okay in this world. Now, could I survive the run? That was a major question, one I needed to answer.

#

“Lord Manuel, there was a young man who left earlier, since he didn’t know this place was already inhabited.”

“What are you talking about, Anton? Who let an outsider into the compound?”

“That’s what I wanted to find out. Almost four cubits tall, golden blond hair, ocean blue eyes, and a strange garb that didn’t belong in this land. Do you recognize anyone with that physical description?”

“No, as a matter of fact, I don’t. Where was this young man when you saw him?”

“Almost at the front door. Then again, he had a strange aura around him, as if he has the power to command demons to do his bidding that he’s trying to suppress.”

“A strange… you let Lord Abitor leave in an imperfect host body?”

“That was Lord Abitor’s host body? Then where did his appropriate clothes go?”

“It matters not. We will bring him back here, then transfer him to his correct host body.”

#

It took me until sunrise to figure out how close I was to civilization, also known as the nearest city. In all my running, I hadn’t even seen any houses on the outskirts of Lifheimr, not until I nearly passed out from the run. My mouth felt like I was in a desert, and I didn’t see any sign of water in the woods. What gives?

Still, I saw there was one house in a clearing that looked to be a good place for me to rest, though I didn’t want to impose on the owners. I knew I needed to work for the right to stay there, and I was willing to. Therefore, I painfully walked over to the front door.

Before I reached the front door, however, I saw a well that was on the property. It certainly looked sanitary, but I couldn’t be sure, even if I was especially thirsty from running all night long. What I needed to do was drink some water, then drench myself in the water of the well, though I didn’t know if I had the right to do so.

At that point, I saw a cup that could be used to scoop water out from the bucket in the well. The cup was made out of clay, which meant I couldn’t afford to break it. With that in mind, I checked on the bucket in the well, and I saw it was down at the bottom.

Drat. That was another problem I needed to work on. I needed to get the water in the bucket out of the well but with a limited amount of muscle power from all the running. It sucked in more ways than one.

With that, I saw the crank needed to pull the water out. Perfect. This would get me the water without pulling on the rope.

I wound the crank in one direction, only for it to do nothing. Oh, that was the wrong way. I wound the crank in the opposite direction. This time, I got the bucket in the well to come up out of the bottom. Seems like this was my lucky day, after all —

“Excuse me, sir, but what are you doing on my property, and at my well?”

— Oh, great. I’m in trouble now. Just my stupid, rotten luck.