Authors Corner

(Edited)

To those of you out there who think my writing, characters, plot, background or face are terrible...you're not alone. I agree with you.

But when you don't comment, you miss the opportunity for you and me to trade notes and have a laugh together.

Life is full of missed opportunities, but this one is too good to pass up.

Jokes aside, if you have criticisms or maybe just don't like the genre, feel free to say it in the comments section below, or in any of the following chapters.

I read every comment.

Sincerely,

Triter.

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Solitude & Solace

Part 1

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Chapter 1 – Don't call me Bubbles

A man in a forest

I'm sitting here in a new world and I'm in despair.

A part of my life has been redacted, I know this because I can't really remember who I am.

I can barely remember my conversation with whatever being put me here. It more or less went something like this.

Me: I want to be amazing!

Being: *Laughter*

And here I am. The Bastard. He didn't even properly respond.

Although a chunk of my memories are gone, I clearly remember wanting to be a wizard, as it was my only dream. Flinging magic from the rooftops, exploring mystical lands and building a really amazing wizards tower, the crookedly ominous kind. It's truly a mans romance.

I was obsessed with wizardly endeavors in my last ... life? world? Bah, whatever. I remember being so excited at my chance to become a wizard, that in front of that all powerful being it's understandable I said something stupid. It was literally a chance of a lifetime, and a high pressure situation. Who wouldn't screw that up? I didn't even say anything that crazy, 'I want to be amazing' should be a pretty decent request in the first place.

Instead, what I got wasn't magic at all. That bastard omniscient being left my desire to be a wizard as one of the remaining memories in my mind, just to taunt me I'm sure. I barely want to call that being a deity, but bastard god has such a nice ring to it. Bastard god.

...

What was that!?!? Wow, that's scary, was that rustling nearby? Is that being watching me? I feel like pointing some rude gestures skywards. I won't though because I'm not a crazy person. Okay, that was a lie, I'm furiously throwing gestures out right now.

Back to my current situation though, I'm in despair. Despite asking to be amazing, and despite desiring to be a wizard from deep in my soul, what I received is terrible. How do I know? I'm trying it right now, it really has no discernible use.

It looks like my power is a bubble.

Don't laugh, it hurts too much. This is a wound to my very soul.

It makes me want to cry, but I don't feel anything like mana, and thus I'm almost certain that this isn't magic I'm doing. It's just so pathetic. To activate it at first I just thought 'Come my Power!' embarrassingly, thinking I was in for a spectacular show. Then this bubble showed up. It's not a cool mana bubble shield thing, you can easily swing your hand through it. It just sort of looks like a mirage in the air. What combat use does this have? None.

I play with it some more. It looks like I can change the size, sort of? It seems I can make more than one. That's cool I guess, but it has the kind of feeling of multiplying by zero. Whatever size it is, however many I can make, garbage is garbage.

I want go home.

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A nearby Wolf's perspective (roughly translated from Wolfen)

I came across a human.

It shouldn't be here, I didn't smell it come. Why is it here? Are there more?

I decide to watch this human and wait. My pack is not far and I can call them in case of trouble, but I don't want to share.

There shouldn't be humans here, at least not if we didn't smell them come in.

This is our forest. They don't belong.

What is that human doing now? It's making so much noise, and flailing it's arms.

Seems like a trap.

Humans have strange packs, I can't understand it. They hunt by themselves sometimes, but most of the time they rely on unnatural fangs made of rocks and trees.

This one has no fangs and no hard coat like the others, I can almost taste it it looks so easy to kill.

I'm impatient, so when it stops and stupidly looks at the sky, I get ready to make my move.

…

It must have heard me, how? Humans have dull ears. Is this one an alpha?

Now it's thrashing at the sky. Truly bizarre. Maybe it's sick?

I feel anger rise, I have wasted time I could have been hunting on this sick human. It probably has bad meat.

I know that's not true because I can smell it, and the meat smells delicious.

Oh, now the human is … is that human bringing That from Within? There are strange things in the air which feel like That. The pack leader told us never to mimic humans that do this because it makes us become like the Dark Ones. The Packless.

The pack leader also said that the humans that can do this taste the best and that we must absolutely bring their flesh to him.

I don't care now if this human is mad, sick or stupid. I don't care if this is a trap. I don't want to share.

I have waited long enough.

Time to eat.

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A man in a forest, once again.

AHHHGHGHHhhhhhh!

Phew, where did that wolf come from? I can only think it must have been sent by that bastard, we're in the middle of nowhere, so I can't see a reason for a wolf to be hanging out. I don't even seen any other animals.

It chased me for what felt like forever. The sun is lower in the sky. Well I'm not sure if the bright star above me is even the sun, but for the time being I'll go with it.

I think I'm near the edge of this forest now, because the trees have started to thin.

Was that wolf just helping me out? What a nice guy.

Or not, I mean of course a wolf isn't guiding me out of the forest. It looked pretty pissed for some reason. It sounds ridiculous but I feel as though it had a grudge against me. It doesn't make sense, but it's what I felt.

The shocking thing I'm just now realizing is that I was able to outrun the wolf. I'm not even sweating.

Scary.

I don't feel like I was a particularly fit individual in my previous life. I probably tended more towards a downright slob if I take into account my general apathy right now.

How was I able to run then? I have a hunch, but let's do an experiment, I see a nice rock right over there.

I'm able to easily lift it, this rock which is the size of my head. With one hand. It feels like a pebble.

That settles it, that bastard is seriously screwing with me. I don't want to be a bodybuilder. This is too much power for a wizard. Isn't it a guarantee that since my body is like this, my magical aptitude or whatever it's called is likely to be zero?

My dream was to be studying serenely in my wonderful wizard tower day after day. I can feel this dream fading away at this very moment.

I'll be surrounded by muscle brained idiots in a sweaty tavern the rest of my life, I can see it now.

Perhaps my strength isn't that absurd though. I can only hope. In a world with magic, it would make sense that warriors had at least this amount of strength. How else would the strongest of them slay dragons? If they exist, both warriors or dragons, that is.

Anyways, now that Mr. Wolf was so kind as to show me the exit, I'll make my way towards civilization, I see some smoke sun-wards, or West as it would be called if this was Earth. It might well be Earth for all I know, although I've never seen a wolf 2m tall before, nor have I seen a mottled brown-gray robe with shifting colors, such as the one I'm currently wearing.

That brief run-in with the wolf was exactly what I needed to make me relax a bit, up until this moment I feel like I've been in shock. Who wouldn't be after they got plopped into a different world? The trees looked a lot different with their purple leaves, the sky is a bit too teal, and the sun looks like it's pulsing. Things were overwhelmingly strange when I showed up.

That wolf, aside from it's size, was normal looking though. It's nice to see a familiar face, even if that face is frothing, mad and trying to eat you.

Most importantly, after that run-in I now know I'm in okay shape in this world. A wild animal that would have easily killed me on Earth wasn't able to even make me lose my breath.

This gives me a lot of hope for the future. I feel like now, somehow, if I'm somewhat careful and don't get too ahead of myself, I might be able to survive in this wild new world I've been thrown into.

So I'm going to set out now. My only motivation to continue on, despite my fears and general confusion, is to think of this as an adventure, the end of which I can't even guess at, good or bad. These steps towards civilization with my phenomenal body and awful bubble powers might be the start of a life that I don't mind living, one that is at least one way or another better than the past.

Now that I've sorted out my feelings a bit, I just need to think of a name. I don't have my old one. That bastard snatched it away along with other things I have a vague feeling would have been useful. So what should it be? John? No. Tim? Pass. Fred? Boring. Zeke...? Freakish.

It can wait, I suppose. I don't have to come up with one right at this moment. I don't want anything flashy that will stand out, so perhaps I should just wait until I meet other people and get a feeling for a good one.

I just pray someone else doesn't name me. Not praying to that bastard of course, because what I fear will certainly come to pass. I'm praying to some god up above of a less vicious variety.

Please, please, please; I'm praying thrice, don't call me Bubbles.

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