Well, so long as I'm dreaming, I might as well explore.

That was the thought in Zach's mind as he started walking. Even though the landscape looked like it belonged in Colorado, he couldn't see any mountains to orientate himself. Like many Coloradans, Zach relied on the Rocky Mountains to tell which direction was which, and he could get disoriented anywhere the mountains couldn't be seen.

He shrugged and started towards the big white wall. He figured that it would eventually lead him to other people. But that gave rise to a new problem: dream or not, Zach was naked and he didn't feel comfortable baring it all to strangers. Also, the morning chill was rather unpleasant in its own right. He needed to find some clothes, and fast.

Maybe I should start working out, even if it's just to be more confident while naked, he thought, as if real-life fitness could grant him dream confidence.

After just a few minutes' walk, Zach spotted a farmhouse in the distance. It had a wooden shingled roof, a small fenced-in garden, and most importantly, a clothesline with some clothes out to dry. "Lucky!" he whispered to himself, unable to contain his reaction.

Since it was still morning, the clothes had likely either been hung up recently or had been left out all night, so Zach was fully expecting them to be wet. But wet clothes were still better than nothing.

He jogged up to the little house while trying to stay out of sight whenever possible, then crouched behind a pile of loose flagstone. The flat, slabs of red sandstone were useful for constructing walkways and were a common sight all around Denver. If Zach remembered correctly, which he always did when economics were involved, most of the stone was sourced from Lyons, Colorado and provided a huge portion of the mountain town's economy.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. But that isn't important right now. I need clothes. He sized up the plain clothes hanging on the clothesline. There were several pairs of pants and three shirts, along with a few pairs of socks. There was also one set of boxer-style briefs and what appeared to be some very unflattering women's panties. Every single article was a boring brown or white without any logos at all.

From the clothes' sizes, Zach guessed that three people lived there: an older man and woman, and their teenage son. The boy's clothes looked like Zach's best bet. He targeted one article of each type, then once he was sure no one was around, he darted out into the open to grab them off the line. With an armful of ill-gotten clothes, he sprinted back behind the stone pile to get dressed.

The clothes were surprisingly dry and his sizing estimations were right on the mark. The boy's clothes fit pretty well, but the underwear must have belonged to the boy's father: they were much larger than the pants. Zach thought about skipping them, but the rough burlap-like material the pants were made from convinced him otherwise.

With his ill-fitting boxers in place, along with the rest his stolen clothes, he moved to the next step of his plan: the apology. Whether or not this crazy situation was a dream, he wanted to do the right thing. In the grass up against the house he found a large wooden shingle that had fallen from the roof, and it even had a nail still stuck in it. He worked the nail back and forth until he could pull it free, being very careful to not stab himself on it.

Can you get tetanus in a dream? he wondered absently.

With his improvised pen and paper, Zach scratched out an apology and a promise into the wood square: "Sorry for taking your clothes. I promise to pay you back with interest." The end result wasn't pretty, but the message was clear.

He clipped the shingle onto the clothesline with one of the conspicuously empty clothespins, then ran away as fast as he could. Promising to pay someone back was one thing, but confronting them face-to-face was not something Zach wanted to risk right now. Once he was far out of sight of the little house, he slowed to a walk to catch his breath.

When he slowed down and looked around, the countryside was really quite beautiful. Green leafy trees were scattered over the low rolling hills, with strings of them indicating where creeks ran. The occasional wild evergreen stood tall by itself, and lines of planted pines acted as windbreaks for farmhouses. A narrow dirt road wound from house to house without much structure, a huge departure from the straight-line roads Zach was used to.

Now that he was clothed and far from the scene of his crime, it was probably best to stick to the road. Especially since it seemed to be heading toward the giant wall.

Before long, Zach's sturdy woolen socks were wearing through and his feet were getting sore. He added shoes to his mental list of goals, right under food and fresh water, and above repaying the owner of the clothes. He was in the middle of debating whether to take the socks off when he heard a sound coming from the direction of the wall: hoofsteps.

Zach was torn between running into the bushes to hide or greeting the person heading his way. The decision was made for him when the rapidly approaching cart rounded the corner and its rider saw him. Thankfully, the person seemed friendly by the way they waved.

"Hello!" called the traveler, an older woman by the looks of it. She had sandy blonde hair, round rosy cheeks, and wore a simple cotton dress just as plain and utilitarian as Zach's stolen clothes. She sat on a wooden cart with reins in her hand. The other end of the reins were attached to a surprisingly massive black horse. Zach had seen some draft horses before, and this would be among the biggest.

"Uh, hello," Zach called back, visibly distracted by the giant animal. It was easily a foot taller than Zach, and it was total overkill for the little cart it was pulling.

"Oh, don't worry about Jennie," the woman said as her cart came to a stop. "She may look big and scary, but she's just the gentlest thing. Most ex-Rider horses are. Say what you will about Riders, they do take good care of their beasts."

"Oh, good to know," Zach said. He had no idea what say or do in this situation. This dream was really strange, but he couldn't tell exactly why. The other times he'd dreamed of a medieval world, it had never felt quite like this.

"Heading to market?" the woman asked. "I just came from there myself."

Zach assumed that the mentioned market was either on the way to the wall or just beyond it, so he nodded and said, "Yeah." Right after that, his stomach grumbled loudly. All that running and stealing really worked up an appetite.

"Ahh." The woman smiled knowingly. "Gonna get brunch? Well, I'll warn you, the whole market area is busier than normal today." She shook her head disapprovingly. "It's all those outlanders in town for the celebration. Hopefully now that it's over, they'll go back home and the prices will drop back down. Can you believe that the fruit seller wanted a Crown for a bushel of apples? I haggled it down to half that, but still."

The mention of a price got Zach's mind going. For an economics nerd like him, even a dream-kingdom's economy was exciting to learn about. While Zach tried to remember how many apples were in a standard bushel, the woman continued her rather one-sided conversation.

"Oh, what a terrible person I am, going on and on about apples while you're hungry and in for a long wait for brunch. Here, take an apple on me. I'm no profiteer, and they should only cost a Chip anyway." With that, she tossed a yellow and red apple Zach's way.

Zach was thinking, 40 pounds, or about 120 medium apples. That's a bushel, at least in the US. So a Crown is worth more than 120 Chips, possibly even twice as— Zach managed to pull himself from his thoughts just in time to catch the flying apple.

He smiled up at the woman and said, "Thank you. Well, I'll be on my way now."

"Of course, I wouldn't want to hold you any longer. May mana protect you on this day."

"Uh, and you too," Zach hastily replied. Apparently they worship mana here? Or a god named Mana?

The woman flicked her reins and her cart loaded with apples and other supplies rumbled off toward the houses Zach had passed. In fact, she eventually pulled up to the very house Zach had visited, though she didn't find his apologetic note until a few hours later.