Chapter 1: 01 – Start at the Beginning

Slightly squinting at the sunrise as it painted the endless horizon with beautiful colors, my heart was full of gratitude. I felt lucky to be enjoying the comfortable swaying feeling of a horse beneath me while listening as the cattle lowed against the backdrop of nature's sounds, and the sun warmed my body. I hadn't been doing it for long, but life working as a cowboy fit me like a glove.

I became a cowboy, even though it supposedly was a career with no future because I'd always loved nothing more than being outdoors. If I had lived closer to the ocean, I might have become a fisherman. Or maybe even a fur trapper if I lived further north. At any rate, I couldn't imagine myself living a city life, stuck inside some stuffy building all day. Given the part of America where I was born, I thought this was the best life I could choose to live for myself.

I suppose most city folks might have had a hard time understanding why I'd choose a dead-end job working out in the middle of nowhere in this day and age, but this type of work just felt right to me. Punching cattle while escorting tourist city-slickers on vacation wasn't exactly true to the roots of the job, but a person like me only had so many options in this modern world, especially at my age. If it wasn't for the boss being a good friend of my late father, I doubt I could have gotten the job right out of high school anyway. But I wasn't worried about my future. The career advice I got from my dad before he passed on was "pick something you would enjoy doing, even if you didn't get paid for it."

Even so, sitting in the saddle all day made a body tired, especially the guests who came for a week at a time to enjoy an authentic cattle drive experience. So, we'd set up camp and enjoy dinner and a talk around the campfire. I wasn't really an anti-social guy, but at night I often liked to slip away from the others who gathered around the campfire to look up at the stars alone. This view couldn't exist in a city. The light pollution of modern society ruined the spectacular night sky. Even in a small town, like where I was born, it was muted and dull, pierced by only the brightest stars. Out here, it was a completely different experience, both humbling and inspiring at the same time.

Tonight, I heard the occasional bark of a coyote to remind me that I wasn't alone out there, but I had my gun with me, so there wasn't any real danger. After lying down to look up at the majestic view for a while, I became strangely tired. I knew this wasn't the right place to fall asleep, but my ability to think quickly faded. And just before I was fully asleep, I could have sworn I heard a strange low rhythmic humming noise accompanied by an intense light that shined red through my closed eyelids. But even that wasn't enough to stop me from descending into sleep.

"Huh?!"

I jerked awake with a start. Looking around, I found myself lying on a hard metallic, but oddly enough, slightly warm floor. My surroundings were unfamiliar to me. I was in something like a metal room, but everything had a weirdly rounded, almost organic feeling. I couldn't even see anything that looked familiar except my gun and clothes, which were on something that I figured looked like a metal table across the room. Instead, I was wearing a skin-tight suit. Not spandex, it somehow felt thicker and more protective. Still, it felt comfortable enough, but it was definitely not my style, and I also didn't remember putting it on. That got me to thinking that someone else had undressed and then dressed me in this outfit and afterward dropped me off in this strange place.

Those thoughts started a brush fire of panic racing across my mind, but just as quickly as it burned, I shoved it back down into the dark depths. I was responsible for myself, legally an adult now. And I would handle myself like a man, no matter the situation, so my late parent's souls could rest at ease.

Taking a deep breath and standing up, I moved around, intending to investigate my surroundings, but I almost immediately bumped up against an invisible surface. It felt like glass, but I couldn't see any reflection. Again, the panic rose briefly, and again I stuffed it down. Just as I was considering the possibility of trying to break this barrier, a stranger entered the room.

"Greetings, warrior candidate 00976. The scan of your memories reveals that you are named William. However, you prefer to be called Bill. Is this correct?"

The person talking to me was an impossibly pretty gal, several inches taller than me, with long golden hair and creamy white skin. Her appearance was almost angelic and, while she spoke in a business-like manner, her voice was mesmerizing too. But I still had difficulty concentrating on what she was saying because something felt very off in my head. I couldn't help but be distracted by the sudden appearance of weird computer-looking graphics floating in front of me with information about both me and this woman. It was disorienting, and I had difficulty responding to her because I had a hard time processing everything coming at me at once.

"What in the world's going on? I gotta be dreaming..."

"My designation is Gilda. I can assure you this is not a dream. You may indeed have difficulty accepting the reality of the things you are currently experiencing, but it is imperative that you focus on me for now."

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"I'll try, mam. Yeah, Bill is what I usually go by, but the guys at work call me Willie, so that's OK too."

"Very well, in the spirit of establishing friendly working relations, I shall call you Willie as well."

The way she ignored all the weirdness of the situation made it clear that this person was one of those who marched to her own beat. I really didn't care what name she called me. That was the least of my worries at this point.

"Right. OK. So, uh... can you tell me where I am and why I'm here?"

"Naturally. I was tasked with bringing a selected warrior candidate to the council. As for where you are, you are aboard my vessel. As you might call it, a spaceship."

"Wait, huh?! I'm on a spaceship. Do you mean like with little grey aliens and stuff? Now that's just impossible."

"Yes. Except, instead of little grey aliens, as you put it, I abducted you from your planet. It is within my expectations that you find this situation shocking. After all, magical warriors can only come from lower technology civilizations. For sentients from worlds like yours, interstellar contact would likely be exceedingly rare."

The panic was back, but this time combined with heat rising to my head. But even as I felt myself getting heated, one particular word this Gilda gal had said jumped out at me.

"You abducted me? That's a fucking crime, lady! And why the hell do you keep saying that I'm a warrior? I'm a cowboy!"

Even though I'd started cursing and yelling, she only showed the slightest tilt of her head and scrunch of her eyebrows as she replied.

"Because you are a candidate to become a magical warrior on behalf of your world. We need such magical warriors to fight because our technology alone is largely ineffective against the magic of the Demon Lord Empire, which is attacking most of the rest of the galaxy."

I felt dizzy. That was too much. Spaceships, magic, warriors, and a demon lord? Just what in the hell is going on here?!

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