1 Fields of Gold, What if I Ran?

"Sigh! There is nothing good to view today too, huh? Why is it that the good stuff takes much longer to get done while the awful ones appear at the speed of lightning?" A youthful yet tired voice said with a sigh.

This belonged to a young man that had short black hair that had several bangs over his forehead, his dark blue eyes were listless as if they had no life in them as he fell backward on his large bed and let the phone in his hands roll off his hands right next to him.

Even with the dull look in his eyes, there was no denying that he was a handsome fellow, and coupled with his well-built physique that showed one that he was an athlete, of course not the average jock, as can be seen by his room that was full of books hanging on the shelves.

The various genre could be seen in them, that included both fictional and non-fictional works. From comics to encyclopedias, to other materials of both leisure and academic.

By the desk was a laptop that sat open and near it was a game console, a bit further back in a corner were some sports equipment that included a few barbells stacked nicely on top of each other, next to them were a few bandages, and lastly a pair of running shoes placed neatly in the corner away from the rest of the shoes.

All these added to his charm of being strong in both mind and body, not like it was known very well by many if at all a lot.

This was the reason for the dull look in his eyes, for he was simply bored.

The youth seeing that there was nothing much to do anyway started to feel drowsy, perhaps due to the boredom, he reasoned as he felt fatigued as it slowly came over him.

Though for some reason he had been very sleepy as of late, for someone healthy and young like him it didn't make sense, after all, he hadn't had sex in a long time, not after his 10th girlfriend left because of his… well, perception on the concept of love.

They all concluded that he was a little too intense, played a little rough, and was a little too caring that they felt that he was always around the corner in the dark watching them.

Well enough about them, after all, all he did was ensure that they were safe, as an expert in various combat techniques both armed and unarmed, he was confident in keeping them save both next to them and well 'a little far' from them, not like he planned on having them fuse their hearts and blood so they become one, right?

Okay, perhaps the thought did cross his mind once… everyday…

But that was when he thought they were worthy of his love, but it has been almost a year and a half and he vowed that humans were just strange.

Going off track there, but since it was not the first time he felt like this, especially when he had nothing to do, his body would behave as if it was storing energy and would shut down, however, should there be an emergency he would be off like a bullet, he once joked to himself one day that he was akin to a dragon going into hibernation or was perhaps a robot in standby mode a proper analogy?

"Am going to take a small nap then and go for a run once I wake up, I think I will need to be up within one or two hours." He calculated as he reached for his smartphone which he turned on the screen to check the current time.

As strange as it might seem, he had always had this way of setting his biological clock at will. It was nothing special as some people could make their bodies get used to it, while he could set his like an alarm and just wake up at that time no matter how tired he was prior to going to sleep.

15:40

The digital clock on the screen indicated and with a tired sigh once more a sigh he turned the screen black with a press of a button as he flopped it once more on the bed, and not bothering to get under the covers or even change, he just laid there as he closed his eyes and let his brain run around for minutes on end as it didn't want to shut down even if the body demanded rest.

Thoughts, ideas, and memories ran like they always did as it was hard to really ignore the brain once it was just the two of you.

Not bothering to check on them as he let them be, he was deep into his sleep.

His brain replays the memories of what he had just recently seen along with what he thinks and understands about them into dreams.

Soon enough they all suddenly felt like distant whispers as a deep sleep-like state that he always liked came over him, as he knew they brought the best rest.

What felt like a long time in his sleep but a short time in reality passed as his body started to exit the deep sleep-like state thanks to his internal clock that he subconsciously or somewhat consciously adjusted woke him and he knew that unless he sets it again he won't go back in that state again.

Not like the youth wanted that anyway as he was feeling refreshed already, however, he didn't open his eyes instantly, instead, he kept them closed to enjoy the lingering feeling of his rest.

His mind felt fresh as it was currently running at its slow and relaxed speed, a symbol that made him think of a computer's rebooting.

But there was something strange here for a moment, with eyes closed and the mind at a near calm level, his sense of hearing and touch was heightened. Making him aware of his surroundings very easily, this was one of the reasons why his friends never got the jump on him and prank him as he would enter a light sleep state just after the first deep one.

Anyway, at this moment normally he would feel that chill in the air from the evening atmosphere. Sure he didn't turn the AC on and he was above the covers, but there was one thing, he had not closed his windows!

And he had set his body to go to sleep for 3 hours, and in his residential area, the sun would set around 17:00, meaning it would get colder by 18:00.

But where was the chilly breeze?

Had he woken up earlier? But that was impossible, for he had done so many experiments on his strange biological clock adjustment and all concluded that he really could manipulate his body to wake up at any time and even place, why he even slept at…

But just as these thoughts raced across his mind he instantly felt a sudden soft brush against his arm.

This halted his thoughts and made him snap his eyes open instantly, there his mind went blank as he beheld the strangest scene in his entire life.

The sky was bright, but not the same as he knew it should be when it was bright.

Instead, it had a twilight tone, that pinkish color that was filled with orange, red, purple, or blue hues. Of course, the time and moment of twilight would often be dark, as the sun had gone down but still gave light, yet this sky had these colors and it was bright like the sun was at noon!

And get this, there was no sun in the sky at all!

"What a beautiful sky." Muttered the youth as he quickly got out of his daze with deep appreciation at the view in his sights.

His hand then reached for what was brushing his arm a while ago and felt soft and smoothness that was comparable to nothing in his life, yet this fluffiness between his fingers was not fragile as it felt.

Lifting himself to sit up straight, he took a look at this soft material. Which turned out to be blades of grass, golden brown grass and it was not only next to him but it was everywhere!

"Not only is the sky beautiful, but even the field here is marvelous. Seems like fur instead of grass though." Pondered the youth with a perplexed expression while one hand rubbed his chin and the other continued to fiddle with the fur-like grass.

He then stopped as he just sat there watching the fur sway gently in the non-existent wind.

"So death has finally claimed me, huh?" He calmly analyzed with a shrug as he stood up.

He first looked at his attire which consisted of nothing but a short-sleeved white shirt and pants. His feet were bare as they felt the soft fur between his toes. It was not that tall either, just short of reaching his knees, while his height was a reasonable 180cm.

"Mmm, not bad." He hummed as he nodded at his get up." Might as well take a stroll then." He muttered to himself as he chose a direction randomly, putting his hands in his pockets.

One would wonder, how could he be so calm and indifferent to everything?

Well, his first response to that would be that freaking out would not get shit done, what's the use of going mental over something that had already happened?

Not that he had anyone else to mourn for him, he was sure that although his boys would be upset, they would move on. As for his folks, they had long since left him for more than a decade and a half.

There were no other relationships that he had, as he was a little intense with his love life, the women that he had so far were often a little intimidated by his perspective and show of love and he will leave it at that.

So he gave up on finding any, he had flings here and there as he opted to enjoy life while waiting for death.

And the sneaky thing took him in his sleep too, shame. He would have loved to stare at her lovely eyes as he let her take him.

This thought made him pause a little bit as he shook his head.

"Yeah, that must be the crushes I still have on the two embodiments of the concept of death from Marvel and DC." He muttered as he continued his track.

He let his thoughts wander as he carried on his walk, after an hour or so he paused and set down again and viewed the marvelous sky, taking a closer look he realized that the different shades of color in the bright twilight sky would at times shift and move. But it was very slow that it took a good 10 minutes for him to notice anything.

He then got up again and carried on walking, a thought came to him that he couldn't help but speak out loud,

"What would happen if I ran?"