Ch1: Awakening

(I do apologize for the delay of the chapter. My grandfather has sadly passed away on Nov 1st, 2023, and I been cooped up at his house for a week and two selling his stuff at a garage sale, as well as going to his funeral. I had been bummed out after his ****, so again, I apologize for the delay. I hope you enjoy this chapter.)

Echoing…darkness…paralyzed…

John couldn’t feel anything, or even move. Is he dead? Did he die from whoever the hooded figure is? He couldn’t move, or do anything, all he can hear is the echoing of the 45 Cal the hooded figure shot. Maybe a Colt 1911 perhaps. Darkness still covering his surroundings. A dark void as if John is in some dark land.

Suddenly, John sees a source of light in the distance. He can’t see what’s on the other side of the light, but he can feel himself coming towards the light, like it’s sucking him into it.

As John gets closer to the light, brightening his eyes as he couldn’t see anything as the source of light sucks him in, and everything around him flashes.

“Wake…”

…………….

John then slowly opens his eyes, as he does, he can see the blue cloudy sky above him. As John sits up, he sees he is in the…middle of nowhere. All around him is just trees, he could be in some wilderness but the last place he remembers was in some dark alley near a metro station. Though John’s mind is a bit blurry, he couldn’t remember.

"Guess I'm not dead..." John says to himself.

John then sits up, as he does, he then realizes that he is naked, but at least he has his boxers on. He looks around to see if his stuff is nearby and somehow, his stuff was standing next to a tree. Did the hooded figures put it there? Or somebody else?

John then gets up from the grass ground. Heading over to his stuff next to the tree, and kneels down to make sure everything is there. So far, everything he had with him is there, his backpack, his phone, charger, some snacks and water bottles, as well as his combat knife that his brothers gave to him when John was little, with a knife holster too. And of course, a Glock 17 with two mags on the side of it that John…took.

He sees his clothes, as well as his sneakers which he then puts on. He’ll wear a white t-shirt, as well as simple jeans, and some socks and his sneakers.

After putting his clothes on, John gets his stuff from the ground, grabbing out his knife holster from his backpack and putting in on the back of his jeans. John then pulls out his combat knife out of his bag, and puts it in the knife holster. After which, John then zips up his bag, puts it over behind him, and for which…John has no idea where he is at.

“Okay…where the hell am I at…” John asks himself, as he looks around his surroundings.

John sees a nearby lake, useful for water source at least, or hopefully there are fishes over there. Across from the lake, he can see some smoke in the air, could be some cabin someone is living. Maybe they can help John out, which John hopes they could.

John thinks for a moment, and decides to head on over to the cabin across the lake. As he is about to, taking one footstep, he hears a stick that just snap on the ground behind him. John glances behind him. And is surprised to see three men wearing some sort of medieval clothes. One is carrying a knife, another is carrying a bow and arrows behind his back, and the last guy is carrying a small sword.

“Well well, what do we have here? An adventure perhaps?” Says the man with the small sword, which the two men chuckle. “Of course.” John thoughts to himself, these guys must be thugs.

“What do you want?” John bluntly asks.

“Oh nothing really, we just want..your gold is all. If you don’t..then we may as well take whatever you have.” The man says, as the guy that is carrying a bow, brings an arrow out from behind and is readying to aim it at John.

“Gold?” John confusingly asks. “I don’t have gold. And I’m lost, so if you three tell me where the hell I am at, I’ll be on my way.” John says, as he slowly reaches behind him his knife.

“I’m afraid that’s not how this works bud. But since you don’t have gold..we may as well take whatever stuff you have off your corpse.” The man says, as he and the guy with the knife starts walking towards John, which John pulls out his knife, and gets in defensive position.

“Back off..or I will have **** but to use lethal action if I have to.” John warns, which the three thugs laugh. “I think not.” Says the man with the sword as he starts to raise his sword and goes for a swing at John.

“Should of walked away when you had the chance.” John bluntly says as he quickly dodges the sword and brings his combat knife right at the thug’s hip and stabs right through it, making the thug “argh” and takes a few steps back away from John as the thug holds his would on his hip.

The thug with the bow aims on his sights on John, and let’s go of the string of the arrow. The other thug with the knife charges at John.

“Amateurs.” John says to himself, as he jumps to his left as the arrow goes pasts him. As the thug with the knife charges at John and lurches forward his knife towards John’s face, John quickly grabs the thug’s wrist, where the thug is holding his knife at, immediately disarming the knife from the thug after John uses his knife to stab at his hand, which the Thug screams in pain, then John gives him a jab in the face, causing the Thug to fall down onto the ground.

John the starts to approach the Thug with the bow and the Thug, seeing how his friend that was stabbed and jabbed in the face, he panics and getting his arrow behind him, trying to aim at John and quickly let's go of the string, but his aim was terrible as his shot missed poorly at John, which John wasn't amused at. He immediately drops his bow and puts his hands up in surrender.

"I give up, I yiel-" As the thug surrenders, John then goes for a hard punch right at his nose, which caused the Thug to collapse on the ground as John starts to beat the living hell out of the Thug on the ground, repeatly punching him with his left hand.

John stops punching the thug, his face is bloodied up pretty bad, as well as a broken nose, the man is..unreconizable. though the man breathes. John then gets up from him and turns to see the Thug with the long sword and approaches him. The thug winces in pain as he tries to flee from John, but Immediately John grabs the Thug from behind and pushes him from a tree. The Thug turns to John, all he sees is a man carrying a knife, a man that hurted his friends. A man that's known to be...feared.

"Pl-Please...don't k-kill me..I-"

"Tell me where the hell am I at or I'll slit your throat out." John interruptly threatens. Which makes the Thug even scared from John.

"Y-your in the S-Southern Realm. Where your at right now is...the Fertile Forest.." The thug says.

"Is there a nearby town?" John asks.

"Y-yes, just about..northwest from here, I think northwest. Is a town called "Bromwich." The thug says.

"You have a map?" John asks, which of course he is gonna take it off from this Thug. Which the thug quickly goes through his satchel and brings out a map which he gives to John. "Just take it and let us leave..." The thug says, which John grabs him from the throat, and giving him a **** stare.

"If I see you and your two thug friends...out in these woods again...I will take that long sword of yours, and cut off all three of your heads.." John threatenly warns, which the thug nods in fear, as John lets him go, and the Thug in pain, rushes to his friends, as he helps them up, and immediately the three injured thugs leave the area.

John takes a breath as he then sits his ass down right by the tree he pushed the Thug in. "Fuck...me..." John says to himself. He literally was about to kill those thugs, even though John isn't no killer, he thinks that...it feels right to kill those thugs. They wanted to rob him, so they should be punished to ****. However, John isn't a monster, he knows what's right and wrong, and killing them isn't worth it. He just hopes they learned their lessons, or else he might as well kill them.

John then gets up from the tree, and decides to walk towards the lake where he can see the smoked cabin across from it, which John then decides to head on over to the smoked cabin, seeing if anyone, or someone, can help him.
As John is closer to the lake, he then takes a step towards the water, which the water looks so fresh, the atmosphere is and feels..amazing. Feeling the wetness from his shoes as he walks among the lake. John then was able to cross the lake and heads towards the smoked cabin.

...............................................

After what feels like an half an hour of walking, John arrives at the cabin. The front of the cabin looks old, as well as the nature that has set in on the rooftop. Perhaps the person living here is a lumberjack? John does see an axe on a log stump.

John then walks towards the door, which he can see it's all wooden. As he was about to knock, he then feels a rope grabbing his legs, and John was then grabbed from above, and hanging upside down on from the rope. "Shit!" John shouts, as this was a trap he didn't realize. He then grabs his knife out of his knife holster to cut off the rope, and then he can hear what sounds like a string of a bow being arrowed, which he turns to the sound of it, and out of nowhere, John sees a woman figure, aiming a bow right at John.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here?" The woman says, which John can see from upside down of the woman that she's...a elf?

To be continued...

(If anyone can give me tips on writing detailed dialogues and background, I appreciate it.)