Chapter XI: Baking bread

I said goodbye to Unicorn Phantom and continued my path to Willie. When I arrived at Willie’s I already saw Willie standing outside. He was cutting wheat, with a scythe, and making bunches of it. He told me that we would need them later for the bread. I offered him my helping hand, but he said he was fine. I washed myself and when I was done I helped Willie with carrying the bunches of wheat inside, to the mill. We putted the wheat between the millstones and then we took breakfast. Willie told me that it could take a while before the bunches where moulded enough. As Willie seems to do every day; we ate baguette, or like he calls it, bread.

After we were finished eating I went to see to the wheat and I saw that it was moulded into floor. We took out the floor and putted it into a bucket. Willie told me the next step was to mingle it with water. The mixed water and floor, dough, was what we needed to bake. We took the lumps of dough and putted them in the oven and after twenty minutes the baguettes where ready.

I thanked Willie for teaching me how to bake bread and he gave me two to take home with me. I told him I was sleeping at Obi’s and eh told me that there were no houses for sale on this island. I informed more to the island, and he told me this island was called Rookgaard. He also told me that if I became strong enough I could go to the big island with many cities, and he said the real adventure started there. I asked him how I knew I was strong enough and he said I would notice, I asked him where I had to go when I was strong enough and he told me to get back to him about that question when I was in the need to know it. I wondered why he was still on Rookgaard, and he told me he was cursed to stay there because of past misbehaviour.

Chapter X: Unicorn Phantom

I threw away my jacket since it took a lot of space in my bag, and since I had a doublet now anyway. After I went back to Obi and asked if I could sleep there again. He told me I could stay there as long as I wanted. I went back upstairs and folded open my bed. I laid myself down and pulled the sheet over me. It just came to my attention that I still didn’t had fifteen golden coins for a shield. I decided to do that the next day, after I went to Willie to learn baking bread. I closed my eyes and felt asleep.

Suddenly everywhere was fire. All around me. There seemed to be no escape so I climbed up the ladder to the roof. For a while I felt safe, but then the roof started burning too. I felt trough it and broke my leg. I caught fire and... Suddenly I woke up. I had a terrible nightmare I preferred not to experience in real, as far as that world was real of course. I left Obi’s show with destination Willie’s mill.

On the way to Willie I met Unicorn Phantom, a strange guy looking like a mummy. He said ‘boooooo’ and I ran away. He ran behind me and yelled that it was okay, that he was just joking. I stood ground and asked me how it came that he looked like a mummy and he told me that the Halloween hare did. I looked to him with eyes that clearly expressed how confused I was, and he started explaining that the Halloween hare was a rabbit appearing around Halloween morphing people into witches, ghosts, vampires, skeletons or mummies. I did not really believe what he said, but I couldn’t find another reason for his extraordinary appearance.

Chapter IX: Doublet

Later that day I went back to the city and wandered around a little. I was thinking about what could possibly have happened to me but I didn’t remember anything of what happened after I felt asleep. I decided to put those thoughts aside for a while and since I didn’t felt like going back into the sewers I explore the city some more. I came across Tom, a creepy person buying rat corpses. He paid two gold coins for every rat corpse you brought to him. I wondered why someone needed rat corpses and so I asked him. He told me he was the local tanner, making leather clothes from dead rats. I found this a strange profession, but everyone has to do where he is good in, right? I told him I would bring him dead rats when I would go to the sewers again.

I continued my path to the north and went into some kind of deserted stable. I saw a ladder to go down, but I didn’t want to face another miserable rat. I putted my head trough the hole to see what was down there. I only saw one small rat, so I went down and killed it. I saw a note pinned on the wall with the words “IRKM DESMET DAEM”. I had no idea what these words mentioned. Anyway I took the rat corpse so I could sell it to Tom as I promised before. Tom paid me the two golden coins as he promised and told me that I could hunt something bigger at the cellar of the stable. He also told me that some adventurer used to store his loot under a loose board close to a strange note on the wall, and that he could have forgotten something.

Could this be the note I saw? I decided to go back to the stable and to look underneath the boards. I tried to lift the board next to the strange note, as Tom said, but it didn’t move. Maybe it was the floor board underneath the note? I tried there and it indeed was a loose floor board. I lifted it and laid it down next to me. I saw something red sitting between the wooden boards. I took it out and it was some kind of jacket. I went to Tom to inform what it was and he told me it was called a doublet. I liked it and turned it on, instead of my jacket.

Chapter VIII: Train accident

Outside I went to sit on the grass between the chickens. I loved animals, but the chicken did not seem to love me. It ran away when it saw me. I was following the chicken with my eyes and then I saw a guy who killed the chicken. As I loved animals I did not found this suiting behaviour and I told that to the guy. The guy took tree chicken feather out of his bag and told me that he needed them. I asked him why and he explained me that if he had a legion helmet, one hundred chicken feathers and fifty honey combs he could get a feather hat. He ran behind another chicken and slayed it. He told me that it had no feather in it, and I thought that he was somewhat possessed by the feathers.

I asked for his name and he replied to me ‘if you tell me who you are, I tell you who I am’. I told him who I was, how I came there and that I was from Belgium. He started telling how he came there too. He told me his name was Thomas Blinx. When he went to a pub with his friends, one of them was drunk and he didn’t felt very well. Even then this friend wanted to drive, but on his way he had to vomit. He stopped in the middle of the train rails and ran outside to the bushes to do what was needed.

Thomas Blinx started to yell to his friend that he was standing on the rails, but his friend didn’t listen. The friend felt in the grass and another one of Thomas his friend went outside the car to help him up. Not even a minute later, they heard the sound of a train. Thomas tried to get out of the car in time, but he wasn’t fast enough and the train drove against him and the car. After that Thomas couldn’t remember a single thing of what happened. I asked him when it happened and he said two days ago. I suddenly thought to the news I saw on the TV of the train accident, and about the boy getting into coma. That must be him! But if he was in coma in his real life, then was I in coma too? Did we have to stay here until we woke up from our deep sleep? My head was filled with questions again.

Chapter VII: Big rat

I was finished washing myself and wanted to go away, but Willie yelled at me asking me if I wanted some bread. Normally I didn’t like bread, but that time I would love to taste bread again because all I ate the day before was cheese and one apple. I was starving, and so I told him that I would love some bread. He gave me bread, but it wasn’t regular bread, it was a baguette. I loved baguette, and he told me I could eat as mush as I wanted. I hated bread, but I did like baguette and rolls. The baguettes weren’t as big as the baguettes I knew, but they were very tasty. I ate 3 of them, and thanked Willie for it. Willie asked me if I wanted to learn how to bake this bread, and I told him I would like that very much. He said that he didn’t had time that day, and that I had to come back tomorrow.

I walked back to the city and purchased a new torch at Obi’s. My torch was almost completely burned, and I threw it in the dustbin. I went to the sewer grate and lighted my torch. I climbed down and went to the rats once more. I saw other people skinning rats so I went more to the east of the cave. I saw a hole to go down and so I did. I climbed down the hole and downstairs there was a rat. A short fight followed, which I won of course. I walked further into the cave and then I suddenly saw a big angry rat.



The rat looked a lot stronger then the rats I was used and I was hoping it didn’t saw me, but it was staring at me, so that was just wishful thinking. It also was a lot bigger then the usual rats. Was it mutated? It faced me and we started to fight. It bate me in my leg and I was hurt badly. I ran away, but I couldn’t run fast with my leg. The giant rat followed me slumbering around trough the sewer. I tried to avoid its attack, but most of the time I couldn’t. I ran like I was half lame, but finally I saw the ladder to go up. I climbed up, and the rat did not follow me. I was happy that also in this world rats weren’t able to climb ladders. I went to the closest stairs and went out of that cave. I did never want to go to that angry rat again.

Chapter VI: Willie

When I woke up the next morning it was cold in the room. I went out of my bed and went downstairs. Obi seemed to be working already. I asked him if I could take a shower, and he asked me what a shower was. I explained him that it was a thing that you could hold in your hands and that there was water coming out of it. He laughed with me, and told me such things didn’t exist. I explained me that they washed themselves at troughs. When asking him where I could find one, he told me there was one at Willie’s mill.

And so I went to Willie’s mill. I saw a trough and a well. I filled a bucket with water and poured it into the trough. The water didn’t seem very clear, but it would be suiting. I started washing myself with the water. I was half way done when I heard noise coming out of the mill. A few seconds later I saw an angry person running outside of the building holding a rake.


He ran to me and threw the rake. I avoided the rake, but it was very close of hitting me. I yelled to him “Are you crazy?” but he did not reply. When he reached me pushed me on the floor and grumbled to me that I had to stay away from his yard. I explained him the situation, and told him that Obi told me to come and wash myself here. He helped me to stand up and told me I should have asked him first, and I told him I was sorry. Willie went back inside and I continued washing myself.

Chapter V: Wooden Shield

I went down into the cities sewers once more, lighted my torch and slayed another rat. A few more rats gave their live, and I felt that I was getting skilled at this. Some rats didn’t drop anything, but some rats dropped gold. I collected all the gold and cheese in my bag. I also ate a cheese, because hunting rats made me hungry. Those slaying started to become easy, but the problem was that the rats could bite me pretty hard.

I remembered what someone ever told to me about equipment, and I thought maybe if I have some more equipment, I would get less hitted. Thinking what would be the most useful I concluded that I needed a shield. A shield would allow me to block the attacks of these creatures, and it would reduce the damage rats do to me, and so also my pain. I went up to the city again, and went to Obi, the shopkeeper. I asked him for shields and he told me he was selling several shields from several price classes. I told him I needed it for rats, and he told me the cheapest shield, a wooden shield, would be serving. I informed for the price, and it was fifteen golden coins, but the problem was that I only had 13.

I needed 2 more golden coins, and I asked Obi if I could pay them later, but he told me about him getting thieved and so he didn’t want to give me this credit. He told me he once allowed someone to pay over 100 golden coins, and that he never saw him again. I understood his distrust in humans, after all it was the same in my world. The only thing I could do to collect the gold was skinning one or two more rats, but that wouldn’t be for now since I was too tired.

I asked Obi if I could sleep somewhere, and he told me there were two beds upstairs in his store, and that I was free to use one. I went upstairs to the room with the beds and they looked pretty comfortable, much more comfortable then I expected. I ate my last cheese and went to bed. Maybe when I woke up again I would be back at my home? Maybe not? Maybe I was at some other place again? It where all questions that I wanted to think about, but after all the hashing from today I was tired, even too tired to think about those questions. I would see tomorrow where I was, after today I couldn’t be surprised anymore.

Chapter IV: My first money

I also asked them why and how I needed to collect money, and why I need equipment for. An entire story about creatures trying to kill you, such as trolls, followed. The people said that equipment helps you to protect yourself against these creatures. Good and strong equipment would mean that the monsters will deal less damage. As for the money; it was needed to buy food, drinks, equipment and a lot of other stuff. It could be earned by slaying beasts, like rats. They also told me that the rats could be found under the city, in the sewers.

I decided to give it a try to slay a rat. I went down trough a sewer gate to kill one of them. I thought that it couldn’t be too hard to kill one since I was about 1.60 meters and a rat about 0.10 meters, but there I was wrong. When I just climbed off the ladder I already saw a rat. I felt lucky that I didn’t threw away my club, like I did with my torch. The torch would have been very handy now, since the sewers were dark. I folded my hands around the club and started using it to hit the rat. On the first rat I faced I already got damaged pretty hard, and it took me a few hits to successfully kill it.

When the rat died I opened it and I found a cheese inside and 2 golden coins. I putted all my earnings in my bag and walked climbed back up. I was too scared in the dark to continue my path there. I felt hungry from killing that rat, so I ate my cheese. I went to a bench and sat down for a while. I felt my energy growing again, and was ready to kill some more rats so I could collect money for equipments, but first of all I needed a torch.

I asked someone where I could buy a torch and he showed me where it was. The salesman was called Obi. When I came in his shop I remembered that I had been there before. I greeted Obi and he asked me where he could help me with. I explained him that I needed a torch, and he sold me one for just 2 golden coins. I was broke again now, so I needed to kill more rats.

Chapter III: My first steps

I asked him how I came there and what I had to do to get away from that place. All he said to that question was that I had to collect gold and buy better equipment. Of course I understood nothing of this. Where did I have to collect gold? Why do I need equipment? What was that place?

I walked outside the temple and noticed that I was in a town. Many people where walking around there and I asked some how I came there and what I had to do to get out of there. They told me that they didn’t knew how I and they came there neither, and that they thought there was no way out. I was hoping that they weren’t right, since I didn’t felt comfortable at this place, and I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. I kept asking people, but they all went to bed and ended up there. Some of them spoke foreign languages which I didn’t understood.

My mother language was Dutch, but I almost spoke English fluently. Not many people seemed to know Dutch, but most of them understood English. Did this mean I wasn’t in Belgium anymore? Where was I? Was there a connection with Belgium? According to some, this was a virtual world. I didn’t believe in virtual worlds, but this situation made me think about it.

Chapter II: The awakening

When I woke up it looked like I was in some kind of temple. There was no bed, I was standing there. I couldn’t remember anything from what happened, and how I could possibly get into this temple. All my memories told me that I just went to bed. I thought I was dreaming, but this all seemed too real to be a dream. It was real, but what happened? Why was I in that temple and not at home sleeping in my bed?

I looked around, and saw four marble pillars and 3 coal basins. Further I also saw several gaps in the walls. Those gaps where like windows, but then without glass. The cold from outside came in trough them. The only living being I could see was a monk named Cipfried. I wanted to get out of there and I thought that if I could get there I could get back too, but I didn’t see a door or something. There seemed to be no escape from that place, but I had to see it from the bright side, my headache was gone.

At the back of the temple there was a jacket lying on the floor, the same jacket then I was wearing. I was also holding a bag containing an apple and a torch. I threw away the torch, since I thought I would never use it. In my hand I had a club. Again I thought it was useless, but I kept it since it looked cool. I greeted the monk, Cipfried, and he welcomed me and told me that I could ask him for help if I needed. I asked him where I was and he said that the gods had chosen that island as the point of arrival for the newborn souls. I had no idea what that meant, but Cipfried seemed to love to talk in riddles.

Chapter I: Headache

It was Saturday 7 October, another rainy day here at Belgium. I did not go to school because I was ill. During the day I have been reading for a while, but I couldn't really keep my attention with it. I had fever and a headache. It was dinner time, but I wasn’t hungry. I was just sitting and staring at my dish filled with fresh potatoes and a large steak. My mother asked me if I didn’t like the food, but "yes I do like it" was my reply.

And so I started eating. When I was half way done, I really had enough and stopped eating. I turned on the TV and watched to the news. A train accident happened today. A car was parked on the rails and a train drove against it. One of the passengers was badly hurt and was in coma. The doctors couldn’t tell more about his condition at this time, but they thought he would make it.

After the news I switched off the news again and went to bed. It was just 8 o'clock PM but I felt too sick to stay awake any longer. The light was shining, trough my window, on the floor next to me. After some time it started to get darker and darker. Slowly but surely I fell asleep, into a long deep sleep...