Chapter 1: Chapter 1

• 3^rd Person POV

Darkness…

That’s the only thing that this man can see when he finally conscious enough to grasp his situation. As if he’s woken up from an afternoon nap, he’s a bit dazzled.

Through the pitch-black darkness of his vision, he felt something different even though he couldn’t open his eyes fully. A breeze of hot & dry air constantly hit his face annoyed him enough to rouse him from slumber.

(“Where am I?”)

That is the thought that lingers inside this man as he opened his eyes, the feeling of that dry air isn’t familiar at all in his memory. His vision moves… scouring & investigating what kind of situation he’s in.

In his view, he sees a bright blazing sun that occasionally blinds his vision and clear blue expanse greeted him whenever he moved his gaze. Although he can only see the skies until he tries to move his head.

(“I’m currently laying down”)

He commented to himself as he channelled enough strength on his limbs to move but he felt like his limb is passing through some sort of resistance. Its fluid yet grainy in structure, accompanied by that feeling there’s also a heavy pressure on his whole body as if buried in something.

(“Sand?”)

No doubt that’s the conclusion he has made upon feeling it. Though he is still calm after realizing this, knowing that he is able to breathe evenly and the pressure on his chest isn’t something that would alarm him.

After few seconds, he lifted his right hand trying to reach the blue sky. There he sees it, his palms carry sands and in doing so, focuses his gaze on it. He can see a lump of golden coloured sands atop his palm as each grains slips through the gaps between his fingers and falls down.

Directing more strength to his lower body and back, he tries to fight off the pressure atop his chest. Until finally he’s lifted from his sleeping position.

In doing so, sands begun to shave off from his body as he feel a slight heaviness at the back of his head & brushing feeling upon waking up.

(“What’s this?”)

A simple feeling of curiosity fleeting in his heart as he turned his head, he can see several strands of straight black hair undamaged from being buried in the sands as he tugged on it. Simultaneously, he felt his head being pulled, meaning that its indeed his hair.

(“I know I have long hair, but I don’t think it’s this long”)

He calmly muses while focusing on the strands of hair within his palms, it reaches deep beneath the sands so he can’t figure out how long is it. While doing so, he contemplates in his memory trying to dig as far as he can about what happened before he ended up here.

(“I remember that I fall asleep on my bed at home after being exhausted from work.”)

Though… he can’t remember more about that, it must have been too tiring day at work for him that he suddenly fell asleep so quickly. Changing his train of thought, he looks up seeing the blue skies that constantly watches him & bright shining sun.

The only thing he sees in his surrounding are vast expanses of golden sands & dried up bushes. There’s not even birds soaring through the skies with the sun is at its peak, not even a cloud is in sight.

After getting nowhere, he finally stands up with sands shaving off from his lower body. Patting his hand to his body, he clears away any sands while noticing what kind of clothing he wore.

(“A white cotton pyjamas and barefooted. Exactly like what I usually wore to sleep. But then why I’m in the middle of the desert? …Maybe I’m dreaming?”)

It is something that makes sense in his mind as he moved his hand towards his left arm and using his right thumb & index finger, he pinches his skin.

(“Ah!”)

The ache spreads like wildfires from the point to his arm yet he didn’t wake up. Only leaving behind the aching…

(“It’s not a dream then… t-this is real!?”)

He startled himself at that thought for a while until a realization hit in his mind. A desert is categorized as a harsh place, without necessary survival skills & resources one would ended up dead in no time.

(“What should I do? Where should I go? What time is this? Do I have water? Do I have food?”)

Several questions entered his train of thoughts almost completely overwhelming any other as it comes into repetition. His hands began to search every nook & crannies in his pyjamas searching for his phone though he doesn’t find anything with his search comes up in vain.

In doing so, his breathing began to be shortened while he erratically looking around searching for any kind oases or sources of food in this vast expanse of desert until a sharp sensation hit on his head.

As if he’s submerged into a refreshingly cool pond. His way of thinking slowed down enough for him to remain calm instead of being in panic and risk making foolish decisions. He wondered about that phenomenon for few seconds before opting to ignored it, knowing there are more important things to consider.

(“Alright… alright… calm down me, let’s answer these questions one by one”)

That man begin to talk to himself as he sorted out his train of thought.

(“For time, the answer would be mid-day. Judging from the placement of the sun & the shadow below me”)

(“For location, I’m currently in a desert with no living being in sight”)

(“For now, I don’t know where to go since I never left my city.”)

(“At the moment, I don’t have water & food”)

(“What should I do? From these points, I should prioritize finding food & water as it’s the basic survival need” )

That man began to lift his feet, he walked just few steps as he felt tugging from the back of his head intensified while he moved. Wondering what’s that is, he turned around & saw the exact length of his hair. It reaches to the ground and extend more than that.

He pulled the hair from the sands as if pulling out carrots. The length of that hair is almost twice the size of his height after everything being pulled out from the sands.

(“That explains the weight on my head. This kind of long hair would needed years to grow and I’m sure it’s not a wig. What has just happened to me?”)

Another question propped in his mind, but he opted to ignore it at the moment focusing on the moment at hand. He remembered in his adolescent past searching through the internet and get information regarding survival tips.

(“The rule of 3, you can survive 3 minutes without air, 3 hours in harsh place, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food”)

(“I’m an in a desert which is a harsh place without food & water”)

He reached a conclusion after few seconds of thinking. That he needed to find an oasis, there’s bound to be one if he keeps going somewhere.

Looking up, he sees the sun moved a little bit to the west indicating its past mid-day.

(“Now I can see the direction, if that’s west then the opposite would be east. That means in front of me would be north. I’ve decided I’ll go that way first”)

While thinking that, he begun coiling his hair into several loops before distributing its weight evenly through his shoulder. Akin to a scarf but it is made from his own hair, surprisingly its texture are silky smooth and not even a grain of sand managed to stick to the strands.

(“Odd… but oh well”)

He decided as he stepped in front. Swishing away sands left & right as he moved.

*SRS *SRS *SRS

(“Huh…”)

That man keep looking down to his feet and began to ponder.

(“Desert at this day would be extremely hot right? But why I didn’t feel too hot or sweating at all. Just a comfortable warmth on my feet, skin, and a bit ticklish too from the sands hitting my bare skin.”)

Certainly in the middle of the desert at early past mid-day no less. It would be extremely hot yet what he’s experiencing & felt is just comfortable warm temperature.

(“What kind of desert is this?”)

He continues to wander around as he ponder that question while continue walking forward. While he’s walking, he’s searching if there’s any living being, birds, or any sort of remnant from a civilization.

(“I can follow them since they would lead to a water source or shelter at least”)

That’s his conclusion while he still observing and moving. Time has passed that makes him begin to question himself as he looked up to where the sun is. The skies have turned orange with the sun already on its way down.

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(“It’s already sunset, yet I didn’t feel any ounce of thirst or hunger. Is there something wrong with my body?”)

He looked at himself, as far as he remembering the past. He just fell asleep after an exhausting work, then the next he woke up partially buried in the sands. Racking his brain further, he couldn’t find anything that relates to the situation he’s in.

Even some ridiculous thought such as ‘Wrong sleeping position’ ‘Incredible exhaustion after work’ ‘Powerful lucid dreaming’ or ‘Kidnapped’ as he shakes his head thinking of those things.

(“Though… being kidnapped does make sense, but who wanted to just kidnap and put me in a desert? My life is just work, eat, games, shower, and sleep. I’ve never interacted with shady organizations or powerful people. Or did I? Hmmm… I don’t think I talked to anyone when I finished work to go home”)

Just questioning his circumstances doesn’t bring any answer rather more & more questions coming up from it as he sighed.

The temperature has dropped to slightly cold but its within his comfortable range as he wonders about that too.

(“Why though… its comfortable at night & day. I definitely knew that desert supposed to be extreme hot & cold. Maybe the information on the internet was wrong? No way, right?”)

He looked up where the skies have turned dark. Complete with twinkling stars adorning it resembling glittering diamonds.

(“I admit the natural view is nice”)

Beside those twinkling diamond-like stars. He can see the beautiful milky way unpolluted by light complementing the entire sight.

(“Wah… its pretty, the moons too.”)

His gaze landed on the moons as He raised his brows upon catching himself saying that.

(“Moons? Plural?”)

He looked down & up and rubbing his eyes for good one or two seconds in between.

Yet, the image doesn’t change. Right in his vision, he sees two moons.

The first moon is larger as it dwarfed the other moon, the smaller moon have bluish colouration, contrary to the larger moon that’s pearly white.

Though that man didn’t care much about the colour rather that it’s definitely two moon right on the sky.

(“Hold up, hold on a minute… Two moons? This isn’t earth!?”)

His mind goes leap & bounds upon seeing the two pearl like moons staring right at him. In the earth that he remembered, there’s only one moon and this revelation in front of him just break that belief.

(“Am I in another world?”)

That question or now an answer suddenly clicked in his mind, it makes sense to what’s happening to him at the moment. Waking up in a desert wearing his normal pyjamas. It’s basically confirmed with the appearance of the two moons in the sky.

(“Then where should I go? If this isn’t the earth I know. Does that mean the sun didn’t set on the west? If the rules of earth did not apply here... then…”)

He’s swarmed with thoughts while continuing his walk through the night-time desert then accompanied by it… the cold refreshing feeling appeared again giving him the calmness he needed.

He stopped his footsteps shrouded by the twinkling stars and illuminated by the two moons.

(“Nevertheless, the basic needs supersede other questions.”)

He shakes his head as he continue walking again and climbed a steep mound of sand in front of him until he reaches the top.

(“Hmm…? What’s that?”)

He squinted his eyes as he sees something from afar. He can see a speck of glowing silver white glinting on his eyes contrasting the grey & dark colours at night that caught his attention.

Getting more and more curious, he slides down from the sand dune then increasing his pace of walking toward that speck of silvery white.

Approaching further, he finds a crumbled ruin of a white pillar.

(“What’s this? It appeared to be man-made. That means... there was once a civilization here? … good!!”)

His heart bubbled in happiness for a bit, as this would mean he could find shelter approximately near here. Wanting to know more, he comes closer to the pillar. In doing so, there’s something different in his eyes when he gazes to that structure.

At first, he certainly believes he saw a crumbled pillar but when he came closer, there’s an overlapping imagery of not just one pillar rather two & they are intact not the crumbled form he had just seen.

(“Eh?”)

That man  stopped in his pursuit as he look from side to side to that white pillar.

(“Is this a desert mirage?”)

That’s what he thinks after scrubbing his eyes again, but he still sees an overlapping image of a whole intact pillar.

Cautiously, he slowly stepped back as the imagery fades leaving behind just the crumbled pillar. This piques his interest as he changed direction & stepped forward instead.

(“Desert mirage wouldn’t be this advanced right? Maybe it’s different since it’s not earth?”)

The overlapping image become more solidified showing him two intact pillars seemingly supporting & revealing an archway which surprises him even further. He peered into the archway and sees only vast expanse of sand luminated by moonlight.

He didn’t pass the archway rather he touched the right pillar that he originally seen as crumbled. Its surface is smooth, solid, and have been cooled down. As if he’s touching a marble pillar, he also explored the parts where its already crumbled and felt the same.

(“So it’s real… not an imagery”)

Proven that he could touch it directly and feel it. The overlapping image seemed to be real and the crumbled pillar look would be the illusion.

After confirming that, he looked around the area. There’s only that two-white marble pillar supporting a beautiful archway in this wide field of sand.

Until he noticed something on the archway. Some kind of etchings are written on top, its exquisitely carved & highlighted showing the expert craftmanship to create one.

(“A writing I see… though… I can’t read it”)

(“Huh? Wait…”)

Just as soon as he glances at those etchings, the etchings began to move themselves within his gaze. His eyes widened before blinking few times to confirm what he’s seeing is true.

(“It is! The writings moved by itself, wha?”)

Though it doesn’t pose any harm and just perplexes him, after a while the constant changes stopped, leaving behind a sentence that he could now read as he mutters it.

(“De… Profundis… ad… Astra. Is it in Latin?)

This person doesn’t speak latin or even understood those language but strangely, it seems that he knew the meaning at the back of his mind.

The words etched on the wall are saying ‘From the depths to the stars’

(“AH!”)

A spark of realization hit his head as he found an answer about this place. Not noticing on how he can understand the meaning of those words due to his jubilation.

(“This place must be an academy! I see…”)

His lips begin to curved upward, happy with the development. Since that means, there’s a chance that there are a building somewhere for him to take shelter & possibly find water and food.

[Authors Note: Hello Readers! This is my new and improved version of my previous novel. Anyway… I hope you guys going to enjoy it. I’ll take this one nice & slow including several proof reads here and there to make the story flows unlike what I used to do]

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