My feet were absolutely killing me. After more than half an hour of walking—stepping on every fallen branch, jagged rock, and gnarly tree root in sight—I was minutes away from begging for some of that magical ointment. But then it hit me: I had spells now. If Mana Shield could protect me from claws and lightning-fast bird attacks, surely it could do something about my aching feet.

  I focused, and almost instantly, I felt a subtle cushioning sensation beneath my soles. It wasn’t perfect—my feet still throbbed—but the relief was immediate and undeniable. Magic, it seemed, had its perks.

  After a few hours of checking traps and picking some strange herbs, we were on our way to a village. Contrasting the ease at which the conversation flowed when we met, she was very focused these past few hours, maybe trying to avoid further injury. We barely exchanged words. She clearly had set traps, maybe last night, and we were collecting the small rat-like animals that hopefully we wouldn’t have to eat. As the trees were getting noticeably rarer, she seemed to become more relaxed.

  “Sorry for being so quiet. Hearing trouble is very important, things here tend to be very stealthy,” the seriousness evaporating from her face. “Still, I know you have more questions, so ask away until we reach the village. We’re almost out of the woods, and the village is close to the edge.”

  “Well, tell me more about this Earth, stuff that should be obvious to others, but not to me.”

  “Don’t worry, you won’t be offending anyone as long as you don’t mention any gods by name in an impolite manner. Having people from different worlds pop up makes for a very forgiving population, but a short overview would be: Gods exist, they like other gods and hate other gods, skirmishes, and very rarely wars may come from that. Gods give blessings to Kings or Queens that rule over a land. Those lands may start skirmishes or, far more likely, wars with other lands to get power, gold, approval, or more blessings from their gods. Of course, the losing side holds a grudge that leads to more wars and so on.”

  The sadness was visible in her expression. “So business as usual, it’s nice to know the more things change, the more they stay the same,” I said.

  “You are either very wise or that was a saying from your world.” Her smile broadened as she spoke.

  “Why can’t it be both?” I added with fake hurt in my voice.

  “You don’t have any shoes, how wise can you really be?” she deadpanned, increasing her walking speed a bit.

  Recovering the distance, I retorted, “Words are like bullets... or… I guess arrows. You do have arrows here, right?”

  Now laughing, she continued, “Are you a jester in your world?” I could feel a pinch of a serious tone despite the laughter.

  Laughing, I said, “No, are people really that serious here? A few jokes and I’m already a jester?”

  She shrugged. “Well, if the whole Mage thing doesn’t work out, at least you have something to fall back on.”

  "I'd be a terrible jester," I replied. "In my world, half their jokes have cultural components that wouldn't make sense here."

  Her tone stayed serious, but her words made me chuckle. "I never said you'd be a great jester, but at least you won’t starve. That’s something."

  It seemed she wanted to say more, yet her attention was drawn to the side, where some black smoke could be seen after a hill. She started sprinting towards the smoke, and all I could do was follow. She was fast, even with her injured leg, there was no hope of matching her speed.

  Arriving in the village with a minute or two behind, things were not looking good. A few houses were on fire, and there was a barricade between the villagers, and a band of soldiers assuming by the clothes. The barricade was constructed facing the open ground, with the forest covering one side and a river bordering the other two.

  The soldiers had already broken through a portion of it, and a melee was in progress, and it was clear they were winning. They had armor and lightly glowing metal swords, and the villagers had nets and wooden spears. Never having been in an actual fight in my life, I was frozen with fear; people were actually dying. Until now, it had all seemed like a big adventure, but now it was sickening.

  A scream brought me out of my thoughts; a man had been wounded by two soldiers who were now advancing on a mother and child. She tried to throw a dagger, then a net, but the sword sliced easily through the net, and the dagger didn’t do much against the armor. I raised my hand, more through panic than anything, and a white arc struck the first soldier in the side, and he convulsed to the ground. The other soldier was quick to react and took the knife the woman used earlier against him and threw it at me with incredible speed and accuracy.

  There was no time to dodge, and my only hope was that the Mana Shield could stop more than leaves. Luckily, it struck the mana shield above my heart and bounced back as if hitting a rubber foil. The soldier appeared just as surprised as I was, and it gave me the time to incapacitate him with another Bolt.

  However, the problems were just starting; our little skirmish had attracted attention, and five soldiers and a man dressed in a red robe approached me carefully. Clearly, the robe guy was dangerous, maybe a mage like me, so with not much time to think, I threw a Lightning Bolt at him. A red translucent shield appeared and blocked my spell, but only barely, as the shield seemed to fail, and he was thrown back by the small explosion.

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  It didn’t take long for that familiar feeling to creep back in—the same one I’d had when the birds relentlessly battered the shield. If I kept this up, it wouldn’t hold much longer. Panic started to overwhelm me, and all I could do is try to block the sword hits with my hands, even though a small part of my mind knew the Mana Shield would have worked either way.

  Suddenly, one of the soldiers collapsed to the ground, and the rest were distracted momentarily as they turned their eyes to their fallen comrade. The small window of opportunity allowed me to strike a soldier with a Lightning Bolt, and he collapsed as well. Alira was already moving onto another soldier. With her by my side, my panic started to fade. Facing just two soldiers, it felt like the tide was finally turning. But then the man in the red robe reappeared, seemingly recovered, holding a child in one hand.

  “Surrender, Mage, or would you rather destroy my new shield as well?” his side looked burned, and he was swaying to his right, clearly in pain.

  His ‘shield’ was a boy no more than 10 years old, and again I hesitated. This guy was desperate and now injured. It was clear he was capable of anything.

  Looking around, it seemed the villagers had gotten some renewed spirit, as with our help, the soldiers were being pushed back. But right now, the fighting began to die down as if all eyes were upon us.

  Surrender wasn’t an option. It came down to letting the kid die or trusting the limited practice I’d had with the spell to give him a chance. Hoping my control had improved enough, I cast the Bolt almost casually. As expected, it hit the boy, as my control was more about intensity than direction, but that had been the plan.

  Because he was holding onto the boy, the current went in both, and they were both dazed. For a second, his hands dropped, and the boy collapsed; seeing my chance, I put all my anger into the next Lightning Bolt. While he recovered in time to form a new shield, it was either weaker or something because my Bolt tore through it and left a sizable charred tunic in its wake.

  After a few seconds for people to get their bearings, the soldiers started retreating, and while the villagers gave chase, I rushed to the kid and checked for a pulse. Relief washed over me.

  I had saved a life yet taken another one as the leader was clearly dead with that massive chest wound. I felt sick, not one day, and I was a murderer. Sure, it was in self-defense… words failed me as my knees gave out under me. I was shaking, possibly having a panic attack. I couldn’t be certain, as it had never happened to me before, but it felt like what people often described. Ironically, this train of thought kept me from going deeper into a spiral, and when I came around, there were some villagers around me.

  “Give him some space,” Alira shouted.

  I looked for the boy, but he was gone; she must have seen my eyes searching for something and added, “He was fine, he’s gone to his parents.” She looked with concern at me. “Are you okay?”

  “No,” I half shouted, “I just had the first panic attack in my life. Oh, and maybe you didn’t see, but I just killed a guy, if not more,” my voice was trembling.

  “I suspected your world was different; you seemed too innocent somehow,” she said softly. “However, take comfort, you helped save the village. They would have killed the men and sold the women and children to slavery.”

  I didn’t know what else to say. “I need some time alone, if you don’t mind.”

  “Of course, the night will be soon upon us. When you feel ready, come by the fire.” with that, she left for the fire that was made in the square from all the debris. I watched as one by one the villagers gathered around the fire; they were maybe one hundred. I guess they sought comfort as well.

  I stood watching the sunset and then the rising stars, and I felt empty. I was the guy always with a smile on my face; would this change me, or in a few days, would it be like nothing had happened? I actually didn’t know which of the options was scarier.

  As the chaos of thoughts swirled in my mind, I anchored myself to a memory, one that wasn’t exactly happy but had always helped me push past difficult times.

  Most people have a cheerful memory they draw on for strength, but mine was somewhat different. My childhood was fine, mom was amazing, loved me unconditionally, but dad... well, let’s just say he was strict to a fault. Add to that the fact I was painfully skinny in school, which, as anyone knows, doesn’t end well in the hands of cruel classmates. Home wasn’t easy, school wasn’t easy, and I felt stuck in a kind of hopelessness. Not depressed exactly, I didn’t even know what that word meant back then, but definitely weighed down.

  The memory came from one of those random moments in life. I was sitting in front of the TV as my mom watched a show about families reconnecting after years of separation. It wasn’t my kind of thing, but we only had one TV, so I didn’t have much choice. One story hit me hard: a mother who thought she’d lost her son forever reunited with him after thirty long years. Thirty years. No phone number, no address, nothing for decades. And then, somehow, there they were, embracing like no time had passed.

  It struck me, my problems, as heavy as they felt, weren’t the end of the world. Compared to losing someone like that, maybe my challenges were survivable. It’s a little dark, I know, taking comfort in others having it worse, but it shifted something in me. Life wasn’t fair, but it could always be harder. That thought, strange as it was, made things feel manageable.

  Looking at the fire, it was clear those people had suffered much more than I did. They had lost friends, maybe even family. And what had I lost? My innocence? That felt like a small price to pay, especially compared to what others here had endured.

  Forcing myself upright, I made my way to the fire easing myself down, and as I let my shield fade, the warmth of the flames began to seep into me. A blanket was put on my shoulders by Alira as she sat near me.

  She hesitated, her eyes searching mine as if unsure how to proceed. Finally, she broke the silence. “Tell me about your world,” she said softly.

  I could tell she was trying to steer my thoughts toward home, maybe hoping it would bring up better memories than this place. Part of me wanted to brush it off, but she’d been nothing but kind, and ignoring her felt needlessly cruel.

  “It’s divided like here, lots of kingdoms, you could say. Even so, after a few big wars, almost all of them reached a truce, and for the last three or so generations, most of the world is at peace. It gave us time to grow to be better, we even put a man on the moon,” I said while pointing at it.

  She looked like I was joking. “Is that some sort of metaphor?” she finally asked.

  “No, honest to god, they actually set foot on the moon, even brought back a few rocks.” Even with all our achievements, the moon landing was the most easy to comprehend.

  “Hold on to that desire to be better,” she said, her voice tinged with a hint of sadness. “This world could use more good people.”

  She was right. My knowledge, my powers, they could be put to use here. Maybe, just maybe, I could make a real difference here. Maybe the hard choices I’d have to face would actually matter, and it wouldn’t all be for nothing.

  “Trust me, tomorrow will be a better day,” she said with warmth in her voice.

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