Chapter II - Grass (part 2)

I fell on my butt. Or maybe someone else's butt? But this is my butt, and at the same time, it's not?

Whatever. I sat down using gravity. At least I know that much.

I looked at my attires, and they are the exact same clothes that I wore before I died. Only that it's not torn out or covered in blood, which was how it should have been. 

I'm pretty sure that evil ghoul cut my body in half and even slashed my legs off. I could go on and on about how he killed me.

So, how come my black jacket and my t-shirt are not sliced in half? My jeans too. It's still intact, both my legs and the jeans. 

Of course, I'm bare footed. I don't have the luxury of time to wear shoes or sandals while running away from a ghoul and my neck was dripping blood.

As I was looking at my attire, my eyes landed on a perfect spot. My upper body, specifically my chest.

Slowly, my hands are being lifted. It arrives at the level of my armpits, and it shivers heavily simply by the thought of landing them on my body.

But I wasted no more seconds, and I placed my hands on my chest.

...

"Ha... hahah..."

Surprisingly, that felt funny.

I stopped touching it quickly and cleared my mind off any pointless thoughts. I immediately stood up, and did what I'm best at. Thinking.

Think! How did all of this happen?

I met a ghoul with the hands of a skeleton, and he killed me after toying with me. He was dangerous, not to mention the supernatural abilities he used to kill me.

Why was he after me? Or rather, he wasn't after me, but he was going after his girlfriend. 

He chased me outside. Is my family okay? Oh god, were they okay?

As much as I want to do that, I shouldn't worry about them while I don't even know where I am. Worrying about stuff like that won't do anything, I have to keep moving forward.

I do remember something. As I was losing consciousness, I saw a lady. She was wearing a white robe, so she must be someone the ghoul was looking for. Based on what I remembered before I died, she came during sunrise, which is around... 5:30? And I died around 4:45? Which means, she was actually nearby when I died. She probably knew I was getting killed, but since she couldn't do anything, she left me to die.

There has to be a reason for why she just left me to die. There has to. Otherwise I would have died for nothing. But hey, she is kind of pretty.

'I'm sorry…'

Her words played once more inside my head, and this time, I couldn't have the same mindset as when I was dying previously.

She definitely was close to the location. There is also a chance that she knows I am being harmed by the demon, and there is also a probability that she simply allows the demon to kill me while she hides herself.

If that was indeed the case… can I truly forgive her?

For now, it doesn't matter. I need to figure out what is going on with me, and what I need to do from now on.

I thought for sure I had died. But now I'm… here? In a female body?

My hand moved on reflex and slapped my face really hard. I can feel the burning feeling from being smacked on the face, so I can't help but notice this isn't a dream. So I could only let out a sigh and looked around.

Where is 'here' anyways? Are there other people here?

The only thing I can do now is observe, study, and research. Find out everything about this place as much as I can, and survive.

I do not wish to die again. I don't wish to go through that event again. Just remembering how cold and silent the dark place was makes me shivering, I don't want to go back to that place.

After deducting what has happened, I decided to start moving. The road right under the hill leads to the castle's large gate, and the other side leads to the forest. It's clear which one I will choose. The giant ass city castle walls.

The walk will take a while, since I am nowhere near close to the said castle walls. And as I walk, I realize how weak the body is. Back then, I was practically considered athletic enough. I woke up in the morning every Sunday and jogged around my whole house's complex. Thanks to that, I'm strong as heck.

And now look at me. Just a simple walk and I'm already so tired...

I let myself have a little rest, on the sides of the road. How much further is the castle gate? How far did I just walk? Half way?

Yep, nearly half of the path was walked by me in this weak girl body. Hooray.

As I sat down, I started recalling a lot of 'other world' stories from movies. Jumanji, Alice in Wonderland, Narnia...

Damn, Narnia was good. I wonder when was the last time I saw the last movie.

As I thought about movies and catching my breath, I began to hear the sound of a horse.

This sound… a horse?

From far away, coming from the path I just came from, is a horse carrying a carriage. The carriage is made out of wood, and covered in a dirty yellow cloth on the outside. It looks so traditional, that it made me brush my eyes a couple times until I truly believe that it is a traditional horse carriage.

D-Damn… that is so medieval.

As the cart approaches, the man who is controlling the horse is getting clearer. From the looks of it, the man also noticed my presence, and the carriage began to slow down.

The horse slows down as it stops the carriage right in front of me. Looks like I'm about to make friends.

The carriage finally stopped right in front of me, and I was able to see the carriage driver clearly.

The old man sitting on the driver's seat looks like a country bumpkin side character from any fantasy movie. His attires look yellow and dirty, and he is wearing a thin cloth on top of his head to wipe off his sweat. Aside from that, he has blue eyes, which completely took me by surprise since I have never seen such blue eyes before.

The old man was already looking at me before the carriage stopped, and he finally talked after stopping the horse.

"Hey young lady! What are you doing here! The kingdom is that way!"

The old man spoke from the top of the carriage cheerfully, and I was very shocked by the way he spoke.

Not only do I fully understand him, but his way of speaking was not of any accent that I recognized.

At the very least, this means communication is not that big of a problem. For sure I thought I landed in some alien country where I will have to learn their language, but it looks like I'm still in my country.

"Just taking a breather... I will get to the castle soon."

I said as I stood up from the spot, looking at the man. From the looks of it, he doesn't seem to be suspicious of me in the slightest, which made me even more suspicious of him.

"Oh, is that so? Then, want to come with us? We can drop you by the gate."

"H-Huh? Oh, I'm okay. It's fine, I can walk."

"Come on, don't be shy!"

Another voice came from the back. It sounds like it came from a young girl, which gets me very confused.

She then pops her head out from a small window of the cloth, and that successfully surprised me. 

She looks a little younger than my sister. 10? 11?

"You aren't from around here, are you, young lady?"

The old man asked again. Just by distinguishing my attires and his, anyone certainly can tell I'm from some other planet.

What he wore shouldn't exist at this time. Those are the clothes everyone wore during the 10th century or something. The old dusty clothes from the ages of the old European kingdom. 

Judging by his attire, it doesn't look like he is from a wealthy one. And his cart too, they do have 'few' flaws, as if a single big bump can break everything. I'm surprised this thing is still holding up okay despite the horse being quite rough when moving.

"Yeah, I came from the... Emm..."

What to answer…? I have to give this man something, or else he will be able to figure out I'm not from this place.

"I uh… came from a country far-far away from here. I got lost, hehe."

I said while laughing a little. That was obviously a lie, but thankfully it worked.

"Oh, then you must be coming from the kingdom in the east!" 

The old man said while pointing in the direction with his finger, and I gazed towards that direction while pondering.

What's in the east?

Screw it.

"Yeah, I think it's in the east. I'm not too sure about directions anymore."

"Oh, that's too bad. Do you have an identification card?"

The... What?

Fuck man, I don't even have clues about where I am. But I can't just say that to him, so I will have to play along.

"Eh, I don't..."

"Ah… Come with us then. We can get you signed up into the city. You can't get into the city without an identification card."

I see. So, some sort of ID card is required to enter the kingdom gates. Kind of like a citizen membership card. That would definitely be a problem if I were to come alone, so it should be nice to have some company.

"Oh..."

I gave it a long thought, but as I was thinking, another voice came from the back of the carriage.

"Come on, don't be shy!"

This time, it's a boy. Seems like the little girl's older brother, the son of the driver. He shouted from behind the cart also, right next to his younger sister.

"We have bread!"

As soon as he said that, I could feel my stomach's hungry feeling. If I don't eat right now, I could probably go insane.

All right… let's do this.

There's children on the carriage. The old man wouldn't do anything bad to me as long as there's children, right?

"Eh... In that case, will you help me go inside the gate?"

"Sure thing! We can help you get to the gate's checking."

Ah… here we go. 

I just trusted a stranger.