After running for half an hour, Edward went back to walking. He didn’t know this world and it was dangerous to run in the unknown, by now he estimated that he was far away from the wolf corpse to be relatively safe. He didn’t know how many beasts were roaming the woods. At least at the moment, the sun was fully up, if he encountered another beast he would have better visibility.

Ok, now what to do. I should be safe for now, but there might be other beasts nearby. I need to find a shelter before the night, he thought.

His stomach grumbled.

“Well food would be nice too,” he said.

He looked around, he didn’t see anything that looked particularly edible.

Even if I found berries or something like that, I won’t even know if there are consumables. The plants look the same but they are completely different species than on Earth. If I eat something not edible I will have diarrhea at best, at worst I could die I suppose…Sounds great…

Ok, so the plants are off-limits until I learn more. Otherwise, there is meat, but I don’t have any knife nor fire.

Edward imagined himself trying to remove barehanded the meat from the wolf he had slain. He shook his head, no, not happening, that’s just gross.

Thinking about the fire he stopped and tried to look into the sky. He couldn’t see much of it with all the trees, at least some parts of it were still visible, and the trees weren’t too close to each others.

Fire yes, if there are people here, they will need to use fire. I don’t have any visibilities down here, but if I climb a tree I should be able to see far away. I can’t continue to walk blindly who knows where in the forest, especially without the ability to gather food. I need to find help or at least to know where I’m going. I don’t even know how big this forest is.

Edward went near a tree, some branches were low enough, so he was able to grab them to start his climb. While he was getting higher in the tree, the branches were thinning and the tree was moving slightly in the wind. Edward close his eyes for an instant, don’t get vertigo now, he told himself.

He was now high enough to have a clear view around him. And then he saw it, there was smoke in the distance. “YES”, he shouted while pumping a fist. I’m not alone, there are people, Edward you won’t die from starvation. His stomach seems to approve of the thought and answered by a low grumble.

The smoke was coming from what seemed to be a village, it was situated in what Edward thought was the south. He didn’t have to go back on his steps to go to this village but he would have to change his direction from almost nighty degrees to the right. He was glad he had the idea to stop and climb a tree to look around. If he had just continued to walk he could have passed the village and he didn’t know if there was another one further away. He would have missed his chance and after some time probably died from starvation or been eaten by some beast.

From the tree, Edward also looked behind him. His breath got caught in his chest. He couldn’t see the end of the forest, it just went on and on until the end of the horizon. He was lucky that he appeared in the peripheral part of the forest and not in the middle. The trees also seem to be denser in some areas of the forest compare to the relatively large spacing of the trees where he was.

Edward appreciated the view for a few minutes before climbing down. He started to walk in the direction of the village.

After strolling for a dozen minutes he finally came out of the forest. He immediately felt better. He usually liked forests, they made him feel more relaxed and it was a nice change from the city. However, after having a close encounter with death in the first forest he encountered in this world his perspective wasn’t the same. He felt a slight sense of oppression from the woods of this world, if there were ferocious wolves and other savage beasts in each forest it certainly wasn’t a place to leisurely stroll but rather a place to fight for your life.

Without the trees the column of smoke was clearly visible in the distance, on his right a few hundred meters away he even saw a road made by the passing of pedestrians and carts.

He walked over to this road, calling it a road was maybe a bit much, it was just a trail of dirt where no plants were growing. At least it showed there was some passage, even though there was no one on it for the moment.

Edward was glad it wasn’t raining walking through the mud would have been unpleasant. He continued to walk while lost in thoughts.

There are so many things I don’t know about this world. I need to stay in this village, as I am now, I would die in a few days in the wild. I don’t even know if they will accept me, I will be a strange foreigner without a coin for them.

I wonder if there are others like me, arriving into this world from Earth. If I ever meet one I should ask for information, I don’t know anything and I don’t want to die because I blurted something I shouldn’t.

What should I say to the villagers? Sorry, I’m a lost dimension traveler that stumbled into your world, could you let me in? It would be the best way to end on a pyre as a demon.

I don’t know if there is magic in this world. It would be cool if I could become a wizard, Edward the wizard, that sounds nice.

After an hour or two of hiking, Edward finally arrived in front of the village. There was a four meters tall wood wall circling the village. There were even small trenches in front of the wall, even though there was no water inside. There were two watch-towers, one from each side of the door, there weren’t the only ones either. There were several other towers at regular intervals all along the walls. There were no front trenches in front of the entrance, the village probably didn’t have the means to install a drawbridge. That didn’t prevent them, however, from heavily guarding the entrance, in addition to the guards in the watch-towers, there were also three guards defending the doors.

Edward was impressed, is there a war or something he thought. That’s some pretty impressive defenses for a village.

The front guard was a man in his thirties, he was wearing a leather Armor and had a sword resting on his left side. His two acolytes behind him were having spears and were wearing the same leather Armor. The front guard looked at him up and down; Edward was having strange clothes covered in blood and dirt.

“Who are you and what’s your business?” he asked aggressively while looking at Edward warily.

“Uhh… my name is Edward, I’m a simple traveler and I got lost in the woods. I had to flee from some wolves and lost all of my belongings. Could you let me stay in your village? I don’t want to be eaten by wild beasts”. Edward answered

“Please?” he added with a forced smile.

The front guard looked at this poor sod not knowing if he should laugh or cry. He didn’t look dangerous and the guard couldn’t sense any aura from him. From the state he was in he definitely needed some help. Still, the guard had to ask more questions he couldn’t let him in just yet.

“You were traveling alone? In the woods? You don’t seem to be a warrior, I can’t sense an aura from you.” The guard asked.

Edward was stumped by this question.

“An aura what is that?” Edward asked.

The guard looked surprised “You don’t know what an aura is? Where are you from?”

“It’s a bit difficult to explain, I’m from a faraway land” Edward explained while rubbing the back of his head.

The guard watched him perplexed before a look of illumination appeared on his face.

“Are you coming from another world perhaps?” He asked.

Edward tensed “Is that a problem?” he asked ready to run away.

“Well that explained a lot of things” the guard mumbled. “No that won’t be a problem, you are not the first one and you don’t look dangerous. People coming from other worlds are not unheard of, although they are unusual.” He finally answered. “My name is Balin by the way, he pointed behind him, and those are Adrien and Bertrand.” He added. “Welcome to Agripin, it’s just a village but you will be safe and you will find everything you need. Bertrand accompany him to the guard station, the guard captain will want to listen to his story.” He ordered.

Bertrand brought Edward to the village, and then to the guard station. On the way, Edward was looking at the different buildings. Most of them were made of wood, they were plain building without a second level. There was no glass for the windows, the windows consisted of only a square hole in the walls with two binds on each side that could be close for the night.

The road was still made of dirt but it was quite large, two carriages could cross each other without getting stuck. People were wandering to their different activities.

When they were near the guard station, Edward saw that this building was made of stone and was having a second level, which made it quite distinct from the other buildings. From the state of the village, Edward could see that security was one of their main concerns. Bertrand left him in the station with others guards and told him the captain would come soon. He then went back to his post at the entrance of the village.

After a few minutes, the captain came in, he was a man in his forties with a beard and some impressive scars. He was wearing a chain mail and had a sword by his side.

“Good morning, you must be Edward, I’m Caspian the captain of this guard. I heard you were a realm traveler. Please tell me your story and how you ended up in our village.” He demanded.

“Good morning, well I don’t know much about realm travel. I was having this weird dream about a door every night. One night I managed to open it and arrived in a forest. I was almost killed by a wolf, then I saw the smoke of your village from afar and here I am.” Edward explained.

“Hmm I see, I haven’t personally met people like you coming from other worlds so I don’t know if what you experienced was the same as them. By the way, this world is named Gifi, if you ever find yourself lost in another world again at least you will know the name of this one. Most people haven’t even left this village, and this guy just came directly from another world…” He complained after a short pause.

“You have blood on you but you don’t seem injured, could you describe that wolf to me?” He asked a peculiar glint in his eyes.

“It was a black wolf, It-”

“A black wolf, and you came back alive. I must say I’m impressed and surprised. Was it alone?” Caspian interrupted him.

“Yes, it was alone and injured. I heard the roar of something else… I think that’s what injured it.” Edward answered a little displeased.

“You managed to kill it?” Caspian asked.

“Yes, one of his legs was hurt, I managed to circle it and kill it,” Edward said.

“Good, you were quite lucky, usually black wolves travel in packs, they would have eaten you for breakfast. We may have a use for you since you managed to kill one. What do you think about working for the guard?” Caspian said.

I need to stay here, I won’t survive outside right now. I need information about this world.

“Ok, as long as you answer my questions and give me information about this world,” Edward answered.

“Good, then welcome in the guard Edward,” Caspian announced with a smile.