Sunlight shined through the sliver of a gap in the curtains, hitting my face and slowly pulling me out of my sleep. I heard the sound of birds chirping outside, and my eyes slowly opened.

I was lying in a comfortable bed with a soft pillow under my head and a thick blanket over my body. I lazily rolled around in my blankets, away from the blinding light. The room was of an unfamiliar scent and the bed an unfamiliar feeling, but I didn't notice it and let myself sink into the cushions to try to fall back into the sweet dream I was having.

However, just as I was about to fall asleep again, the light shined back through my eyelids. I rolled around, moaning, then jolted awake after feeling the sharp blades of grass pierce my skin. I wasn't in my soft, comfortable bed anymore. I was lying on the hard, damp ground.

Sitting up, I stretched as a long yawn came out, but I was forced to wake completely when a large hand slapped my face hard. I let out a loud "Ow" and looked up to see who it was, caressing my now sensitive right cheek in its after-pain.

A large man was kneeling in front of me. After we locked eyes, he stood up, towering above me. I stood up too, but I still felt tiny compared to his gargantuan stature. The man was wearing a bluish-green camo shirt and pants. He crossed his large, bulky arms.

"DAMIEN! PLEASE DO EXPLAIN YOUR BEHAVIOR THIS MORNING!!"

I stood there, confused. I was just sleeping a few minutes ago, and now I was in the middle of this field of trimmed grass, with a military drill sergeant in front of me? I rubbed my eyes. Wait. Where were my old room and daily breakfast? Did I have school today? And more importantly, who exactly was this person?

I peeked at my surroundings through my squinting eyes. Enclosing the small empty field was a forest. The sun shone from a cloudless sky, making my back burn. Slowly I began to remember that I had already left my home behind. After escaping from a group of shooters, I arrived here yesterday… Then I met this woman, and talked with her… it all started to come back to me…

"Irnoma? Is that you?" I asked, looking up at the drill sergeant.

The man smiled and shifted to a softer voice. "Getting used to my shifting, I see," he said, then went back to yelling at the top of his lungs, "now, MY QUESTION! DAMIEN!"

That made me quickly stand up straight. "I-I just wanted a bit more sleep," I answered nervously, "I hadn't had a very good rest the night before…"

"THAT IS BESIDE THE POINT! Now, I do understand after hearing your entire story yesterday, but I DO BELIEVE YOU HAVE ALREADY REPLENISHED YOUR STRENGTH AFTER SLEEPING FOR EIGHTEEN HOURS STRAIGHT! FROM TODAY ON YOU WILL NEVER HAVE ANOTHER WELL RESTED NIGHT, YOU HEAR?!"

I nodded instinctively but realized it just a moment later. "Wait what? What the hell are you putting me through here?"

"OKAY, NO COMMENTS OR CONCERNS?! LET US MOVE ON THEN! 100 SQUATS! GO!!"

"Wa-wait a moment, Irnoma. Weren't you going to teach me to time… uh... to time walk? Now, what've my legs got to do with that?!"

"Ah, good point. Now I do realize going to 100 from the get-go is a bit too harsh. Then 50 SQUATS! NOW! GO!!"

Irnoma ignored what I said and glared at me menacingly. It didn't take much to tell that those eyes could kill.

I immediately started doing my 50 squats. All the way down, and all the way up. After I finished, I dropped to the ground, amazed at what I accomplished but then regretted it after realizing I couldn't feel my legs anymore.

"Well done, Damien!" Irnoma congratulated me in a cheerful tone and clasped his hands together. "Now about your question before. Skills in time would be useless without physical ability. For one, stamina is an important factor in exercising time walking. And for another, you wouldn't be able to beat someone else in a fight through temporal strength alone. Now, break time's over." With a wave of his hand, a large, elaborate gym station appeared on the grass. "50 LEG PRESSES! GO!!"

Irnoma continued to train my legs to death. The sun heated my skin as sweat seeped out my pores. It was an endless cycle of repeating movements and then resting for less than twenty seconds. Irnoma continued to create different gym stations out of thin air and destroy them instantly afterward.

I had already stopped counting when my stomach growled. I already knew I was hungry, but I hadn't dared to tell Irnoma of it. I feared he would take it as an excuse to stop this deadly boot camp.

But when he heard the loud growl from my abdomen, he immediately called for a stop. "WE SHOULD STOP OUR TRAINING FOR NOW," he told me, then turned back to a calm tone. "Replenishing your nutrients is just as important as training your muscles. They go hand in hand."

He waved his hand again, and the gym station I was sitting on disappeared, and I started falling to the ground. I instinctively put a leg back to prevent my fall, but my now useless muscles gave way, and I crashed down, twisting my ankle in the process.

Irnoma, ignoring me as I hugged my legs in pain, made a basket appear on the ground beside me. "THIS CONTAINS YOUR BREAKFAST! EAT UP! WE WILL BEGIN TRAINING AGAIN IN AN HOUR! And don't forget to give yourself half an hour to rest. It isn't good to exercise on a full stomach."

I slowly sat up and tried stretching my legs as I opened the basket, revealing slices of bread, a bundle of berries, and an egg still in its shell. It wasn't much and surprisingly plain, but I didn't talk back to Irnoma. I was already thankful that he still had enough sympathy to give me food.

I took out a slice of bread, folded it in half, and chowed down the entire thing in one quick motion. Then I took out the egg, and, hoping it was boiled, I cracked it open on the basket. No fluid came out, so I sighed in relief.

In just ten minutes, I finished everything in the basket and laid down on the grass. I didn't want to stand up as my legs were still sore. I rested there on the ground for ten minutes before noticing the intense heat falling onto my face. I wiped off the sweat flowing down my face, producing a hand that looked like it was just dipped in a bucket of water. Sitting back up, I noticed that Irnoma was gone. Did he go somewhere in the forest while I was eating?

I kneeled onto one knee and lifted myself up slowly. I clenched my teeth as my sore legs told me to sit back down, but I tried to ignore them as I walked to the forest. Hopefully, if I got there, the trees would block the blazing sunlight and help me cool off.

When I eventually got to a tree, feeling as if I had just run a marathon, I fell down and leaned into the trunk, thankful to finally be in the shadows. Would I really have to be living this type of life every day from now on? Just for how long would Irnoma push me to the brink of death before teaching me to time travel?

My thoughts were cut off when I noticed a squirrel on a tree not too far from me. Upon further inspection, I realized that this was no ordinary squirrel. On its head grew two antlers that belonged on a deer. It was munching on something in its hands, its puffy cheeks moving in and out as it chewed. What was this animal? It didn't exist back in my world, so was it unique to this world?

Slowly and quietly, I crawled towards the squirrel, ignoring my sore legs. With some effort, I was able to get close enough to jump and maybe touch it. But that was when I noticed what it was eating.

In the squirrel-deer's hands was a reddish-pink object. When a drop of red liquid fell from its arms, I knew exactly what it was: fresh meat. I fell back and let out a short but loud shriek. The squirrel, startled by my sudden movement so close to it, turned to face me and opened its mouth, showing a set of large fangs. It let out its own high pitched shriek, but no cuteness accompanied it.

The piece of meat dropped from the squirrel's hands, and it started to trot in my direction. Was I going to be eaten by a squirrel now? Was this really how I would die?

But the situation became even worse. Further back behind the squirrel, I noticed a movement. Another squirrel, also with antlers, poked its head out of a bush. Then, one by one, to my left and right, more of the angry little critters came out from behind branches and from small holes in the ground I hadn't noticed before.

I immediately stood up, turned around, and ran. The pain in my legs felt like nothing now compared to the fear in my mind. I should be able to run away easily from those small squirrels. They wouldn't be able to run as fast as me, who was twenty times their size, right? I turned my head around to verify my reasoning, only to see ten, no, twenty squirrels jumping from tree to tree, just barely keeping up with my pace.

When I turned my head back around to face forward, I ran straight into Irnoma's large body. He turned around in surprise. "Woah! Damien! You already ready to continue your training?"

I looked up at him and looked back, seeing the swarm of now thirty squirrels coming at me. I immediately continued my run, ignoring Irnoma as he called after me.

"Hey! Damien! Seriously, what did you do to the kirrels to make them so mad!"

Suddenly there was a swoosh to my right, and Irnoma was running beside me. "Stop! Don't worry! I already took care of them!" He yelled at me.

I looked back, and indeed those squirrels were gone. The fear escaped from me, and I relaxed. That didn't go well, as my sore legs immediately got the better of me, making me trip and fall face-first to the ground. But before my nose was broken, my fall was broken. My body was motionless, hovering in the air for a moment before Irnoma pushed me back to my feet.

"You okay, big man?" He said to me in a gruff voice, though I could hear his worry through his tone. "Those kirrels shouldn't get that angry as long as you don't get too close to them. What exactly did you do?"

"…kirrels…?" Was that what those nightmarish creatures were called? "I just… I thought it was friendly… and cute... so I went in to get a closer look…"

Irnoma sighed. "You stupid humans always checking on stuff you don't need to. Either way, it looks like you're already pretty warmed up." Suddenly, the scene around us changed and we were back in the original grass area we had started in.

"50 SQUATS WITH THESE DUMBBELLS! TAKE THEM AND GET STARTED!"