The bald guard took me outside next to the guard station where there was a small outdoor bar. It gave off the feel of a fantasy tavern in a way, people drinking and having a good day, lots of stories and chat. I guess any bar can have that, but this one had a lot of guards off duty and a few other fantasy-esque people.

Smelling all the food I realize, I'm extremely hungry. That’s probably the reason the guy brought me here. He’s probably hungry too. He gestures for me to sit down at one of the tables while he goes over to the bar to probably get some food.

He seems to be talking to the bartender about something, which after a minute the bartender seems surprised and also fairly happy. I don’t know why. Is he talking about me? There’s no way to know. If it is, why would he be so happy? I wish I knew what they were saying.

The bald man comes up to the table I chose and sits down with me, looking at me, he points to himself.

“My name is Bromlan”

I don’t really understand what he is saying, though I can assume it's his name, since he is pointing to himself. His name is Bromlan, probably. Which reminds me, what should my name be? I'm no longer Marcus, I feel weird to call myself the same name in a new body. He seems to be waiting for a response, but I don't really have one.

Name choosing… It was never my strong suit, I was never able to name any of my pets very well. Now that I think about it, Miko was the name of my pet lizard as a kid…. I miss him. Being like this, I'm reminded of him, so why not go with that?

“Miko.”

The other words he said were too hard to pronounce for now. I gotta learn the language somewhat eventually though. Bromlan laughs a little, does Miko mean something odd in their language? I hope not, but regardless I'm settled. He gives me a thumbs up, It mustn’t be terrible then.

A waitress comes by our table while we make our exchange and drops of two bowls of soup and some bread. My god it smells so good. It's been two days since ive had food so I'm starving, but because I absolutely don’t wanna make a scene, I eat it properly with a spoon. It tastes just as good as it looks. If I was in that desert for any longer I’d be crying of joy right now.

I can see why the guards like this place, cheap and good food, or at least I hope it’s cheap. I have a good feeling Bromlan is going to be a huge help for the next while. He seems to be enjoying the meal as well.

I wonder if he was tasked with taking care of me by the officer while the doc was checking me, they were talking a lot about something. It doesn't matter too much but it would be nice. If I stay here for a while and learn some language I could get a job and get money. I'd be able to live relatively normally.

To my own surprise, I finished up my soup long before I thought I would, I guess I was super hungry. How am I supposed to learn this language? He doesn’t know mine so the start is going to be painfully hard.

I remember hearing a story about a lady who got trapped in Turkey and had to learn the language with some people who couldn't speak her language. I'm in an almost identical situation.

It seems he’s taking me around town now, or somewhere, I'm not entirely sure. This town is far larger than I thought, it's well built and bustling with people. As he took me around town he tapped me on my shoulder, pointing at a building that appeared to be a pub of some sort, and said what I believe is the name of it. I repeated the word back to him and pointed to the sign with the writing on it in the pub, Brom nodded.

This would be a good start, to understand the names of places here. It would help a lot if I needed something but didn’t know where to go. He takes me around another block repeating the process with every shop looking place in town. I'm starting to get the feeling that things are going to work out, they did in what I believe is my previous life, why not now?