You know the thing with life; It starts with one thing and then it starts to spiral out of proportions before you can get a grasp on things. Like how slipping by a banana can lead to you fighting a war against an invasive elf-like species led by your childhood friend, in another world.
To start the story, we have to go back to 13th December of the year 2037, one day before my 20th birthday. I went for my usual walk in the park, near my house. As I was leaving the park, a dog suddenly slipped by between my legs, dragging its owner by the collar, making me lose my balance. I staggered but still found my footing. As I turned to leave the park, I tripped. Straight into oblivion. Literally, like my vision was obscured with darkness and all sound became void, only the sense of falling. But it did not last long.
Soon, I found myself in a new space, suddenly flashed with light and feeling cool breeze around my body. As my vision adjusted, I realized that I was still falling. I was greeted with a beautiful view of a clear night sky, with a clean stretch of stars. The problem was, I was now falling from the sky towards the ground headfirst. I started flailing my arms like wings. Yeah, it didn't do much help and I fell screaming my lungs out. As I fell on to the ground and the dust and dirt settled around me, I noticed pillars of rocks littered around me. I noticed, that I was not harmed weirdly enough. But, before I could gather my thoughts, I was surrounded by people in armor, holding their spears aimed at me. I did not understand what they were speaking but I raised my arms over my head, in surrender.
Soon enough, I was detained and taken to a huge gate. The walls of the gate stretched for as long as the eyes could see. As the carriage in which I was detained moved through the opened gate, a city, illuminated by moonlight and lanterns greeted me buzzing with a festive atmosphere. As the cart moved ahead, I noticed something obvious, all my surroundings indicated it. I was in a Chinese city from the ancient times. As soon as we reached the palace, I was taken and thrown into a separate cell in what looked like an underground prison. It seems that they would deal with me the next day.
It worked fine actually by allowing me to gather my thoughts. I started by pinching my thighs. It, for sure, hurt as hell. Thus, I began piecing all the events from the morning, there was nothing of note. Even if I went two days back in time, there wasn't anything weird that happened. It was simply maddening to be in an unknown place without any idea of what happened. I sighed. Then went to sleep in the cold floor, as there was not much I could do anyway.
The guards woke me up and began escorting to the court room as soon as dawn broke. Everyone was seated, as I entered the place with my hands cuffed. Soon, the discussions slowly began. After about a 15 mins, they gestured me to speak. I started to speak but, as expected, none of them understood. Then, I tried to gesture but, soon realized, like what or how will I explain my situation. Hence, I decided to stay silent. Soon, the emperor spoke and my restraints was removed to my surprise. After this, I was led outside towards a hut in the nearby bamboo woods surrounding the manor.
After a few weeks, I had become quite adjusted to the whole situation, except for the gnawing sensation of what those close to me were doing. Anyway slowly, I have gotten to understand the situation of my situation. It seems these people have mistaken to be hero sent from heavens to face the prophesied disaster to befall in a year. That explained why they had treated me with utmost care and respect from the beginning.
And so, my days went with sword practice and learning of the language for the few more weeks, until one day I was called in by the royal court. It seemed my time to act on my role had come. I was sent to the northern forest to address the increasing appearance of monsters.
Monsters. Native to this world, similar to the weirdest monster designs you might find in Earth. Like, there was floating whales, flies, in the size of your fist, having shells and the weirdest one I heard, the Floating Eye. The Floating Eye is said to be a creature present from the ancient times, in the west end of the continent, beyond the sea that just stares menacing in the horizon.
The continent I was in consisted of the Xuanlom in the center, the place I have stayed, the empire in the west, the barbarians in the south and barren desert of the east with a few nomad groups. Other important places are the Northern Forest I have set to go, the Gleif Lake of the Empire said to house their guardian dragon and Undead River that separates the barren lands and the south Barbarians which brings forth periodical undead down the stream, whose source is still yet to be discovered.
As I set to leave, I went through the map, to check the route again. Why I am going along with the 'Hero' thing? I don't have much choice, either do it or run away and get yourself killed. I also had another reason of going to the north to find The TreeHouse Sage, a person revered for his wisdom, one who might help me. Thus, I left with a sword in my waist and a few coins in my pocket.
After travelling for three days, I faced the first problem - bandits. Each one of them was armored to teeth just like me. It would be more appropriate to call them militants rather than bandits. Anyway, I took care of them. I wouldn't say it was that easy, but a lucky landslide took care of them before even I could face them. Anyway, continuing, I faced two more groups but before I could do anything, they were taken care. The first one got turned into food for passing by flying dinosaur-like creatures, while the latter was struck by a meteor from the sky. But as always, I got unscathed out of it all.