The Slums

From nothingness, pieces of my consciousness started gathering again, and as soon as they did, coldness pervaded my whole being.

Immediately after, I attempted to breathe, but as soon as I did, I choked. I instinctively tried to swim but realized I wasn't immersed in water but soft mud.

I used my arms to push myself up, but they kept sinking. I barely managed to lift my head above the mud.

Gasping for air, I inhaled deeply, only to be assaulted by a putrid stench that overwhelmed my senses. While struggling to breathe, I managed to free one arm and used it to wipe my eyes, desperate to make sense of my situation.

It was incredibly dark, but a dim light helped me make out my surroundings. I was lying in a small ditch in a cramped alleyway.

Coldness made way to pain. My stomach cramped, and I started puking out whatever was in my stomach, which wasn't much. I didn't need a doctor to realize I needed to get out and do it quickly.

I thought about asking for help, but despite my condition, that word couldn't find its way out of my mouth. My stubbornness would one day kill me.

My wheelchair wasn't anywhere in sight. I collected some of my remaining willpower and crawled out of the ditch toward the alleyway's entrance.

My eyes were wide open. I probably also had a funny look on my face, but a mirror was a luxury I didn't have at the moment. I was sitting at an intersection between a bigger unpaved street and the muddy hellhole I had just dragged myself out of.

The people walking around were covered from head to toe in grey rags. Only a slit in the cloth confirmed that I was looking at humans and not some weird specters. Red wooden buildings were crowded together without any semblance of order besides leaving space for the street.

Lifting my eyes to the sky helped me confirm that I wasn't on earth. There were no stars or moon, just darkness.

The light instead came from an enormous lighthouse, if I could call it that. It more closely resembled the bell tower of a church, but instead of the bell, it had a huge sphere of bright white fire.

Memories of what happened before I passed out resurfaced in my mind: the embarrassing encounter, the stele, and then the fissures that opened in the space around me.

"Not where I intended to be today."

A couple of curses escaped my lips.

Now what? I honestly had no clue. I found myself in a foreign world with no explanation and with my cursed body. No deity had taken pity on me. Instead of a guardian angel, I probably had some abomination looking out for me.

I knew that I needed to do something. Even though my mind had just cleared up a second ago, it felt somewhat clouded.

The street wasn't crowded. There were just a few people, so I reached out to the nearest individual for help.

"Excuse me, could I …."

Before I finished, the person I had tried talking to had already passed by and completely ignored my voice.

Undeterred, I attempted to get someone's attention until everyone started keeping some distance from me. The only response I got was a wary look.

I was already freezing, but a different kind of coldness made its way into my heart. The harshness of this new place quickly showed its fangs.

I stopped calling out and looked down at myself. I was utterly filthy, covered in mud and other weird substances.

I wanted to lift my face and keep asking for information, but the logical part of my brain told me that it would be useless. I started down at the ground, where a piece of rock poked out from the muddy terrain.

Time passed, and my condition only worsened. While gritting my teeth, I kept thinking, desperate to find anything to help me, until something caught my attention.

Strange letters, or better-called runes, kept rearranging themselves in my sight. I waited until they finished sorting. On top of the stone, a word that I had never seen but could understand its meaning stood.

[Rock]

I was stupefied. I thought that I was hallucinating, but my instincts told me otherwise. I had no choice but to believe that something strange was happening and that it could serve as a solution to my problem.

I bit the inner side of my cheek, drawing some blood to clear up my mind.

I closed my eyes and realized that I could no longer see the word, but I could still remember the runes and their pronunciation. I muttered its name, but nothing happened.

I looked back at the rock, and the runes, this time without the need to reorganize themselves, reappeared in front of me.

[Rock]

I kept staring at it until my eyes hurt. Something new now stood under its name.

[Rock]

[Aspects: Hardness]

A breath escaped my mouth. I looked to my right, where a couple of rotten wooden boards lay on the side of the road.

[Wood]

[Aspects: Rotten, fragile]

Eureka! I could see the name and relative characteristics of something I focused on. A little uncertain, I stared down at my own body.

[Name: Asher Creed]

[Human]

[Aspects: Cripple, weakness, sharp mind]

Just as I thought, now, the only thing that remains is to use this new ability to improve my situation. The runes gave me two crucial pieces of information: understanding how to write in this new weird script, which I had never learned, and how to pronounce the words.

Since I had crossed into a new world, I wouldn't be surprised by the existence of magic, so why not try everything? I grabbed one of the wooden planks and, while staring at it, spoke;

[Wood--aspect--hardness]

I immediately felt something draining from my body, accompanied by a rise in my body temperature.

While looking at the object on my lap, I felt ecstatic.

[wood]

[Aspects: Rotten, hardness]

It had changed. It really had. I could distinctly feel the difference by touching it. If I applied some pressure, it no longer gave way but felt more solid—not like a new plank, but also different from something that had been left out in the wet mud.

I understood how to use my new gift? Ability? I had no clue what it was or if I was the only one who could use it in this new world, but now I had a way out.

I was unsure how many times I could modify the characteristics of objects, but I knew it wasn't many. I had distinctively felt something flow out of my body before; doing this had a price, so I needed to take more risks.

I grabbed another plank of wood and repeated the same action.

[wood--aspect--hardness]

After that, it was time to do something foolish. I looked down at my biggest stumbling block: my legs. I focused intently on them until it appeared.

[Asher creed's legs]

[Aspects: crippled]

I took a deep breath and spoke.

[Asher creed's legs--hardness]

I immediately felt some mild discomfort and could clearly sense something changing. My legs were stiff as a board. The first step of my plan had been done. Only one thing remained: to get back up on my feet and use the wooden planks as makeshift crutches.

 I used my hands to grab into the cracks between the wooden boards of the wall I was leaning on. After some struggle, I managed to stand upright on my rigid legs. I slid the planks under my armpits.

A smug grin made its way onto my face. I no longer had to crawl in the mud.

I looked around. Nothing had changed. People came and went. The distant bell tower still illuminated the city with dim light. Standing upright, I could now make out some new things.

I was on the outskirts of an enormous medieval city. The light source was behind some of the tallest city walls I had ever seen, at least forty meters high. From them, red wooden shacks stretched to the farthest point where the light reached.

I wanted to stop and rest but knew I couldn't stay still. Here, no one was willing to give answers to some mud-covered creature. I had two options: go toward the pitch-black abyss or make my way into the city through the gates.

Honestly, I had only one option. The first one was probably the quickest way to die in this place. I started stumbling my way deeper into the city.

I couldn't distinguish how much distance I had covered, but I was out of breath, my arms were aching, and I couldn't go on much longer. I was feeling feverish. The people walking around became fewer the closer I came to my destination.

Now, I could see the city gates, but that didn't give me hope. They were closed, and no one was standing near them.

After taking in all the air I could, I gritted my teeth and continued until...I heard the loud sound of rubbing metal. The gates were being lowered.

A muffled scream rang out from the nearest stranger.

"Hunters!"

My short-lived happiness gave way to wariness. The last few people walking around started running, but not toward the inner city. Instead, they quickly left the main road for the darker alleyways, disappearing into them.

I understood that whatever was happening wasn't good for me. I tried to follow the path that others had fled into, but I realized that I couldn't be quicker than the danger was approaching.

The loud thud of the gate hitting the ground rang out. The thundering sound of hooves hitting the road became louder and louder. I turned around.

A small cavalry brigade was rushing into the tiny alleyways, searching for something. I quickly realized what.

They were looking for humans. One of these figures stood before me in bright silver armor on his tall horse. Before I could even make a sound, his hand reached down and grabbed me by the neck. I was lifted up, and my feet dangled in the air.

I let go of my crutches and used my hands to try and free myself from the iron claw that was strangling me. I was brought closer to his helmet until I could see his bright gold eyes shine through. He chuckled.

"Oh, it seems I was lucky this time! This foolish cripple was dumb enough to loiter around the gates. With you, my quota for the month is done."

His voice sounded way younger than it should have been. I had made a grave mistake.

A chain unwound itself from the saddle and, on its own, slithered around my body until I was tied up and completely unable to move. I couldn't even talk. I wasn't the only one able to use magic in this world.

"Why are you so damn filthy!"

He grumbled a little and then put me in front of him, face down, and turned his horse around to return to the city.

After passing through the heavy stone gate, a colleague standing on guard greeted him.

"Oh, David! How come? Have you already grabbed a slum rat?"

After a quick laugh, my captor replied.

"I indeed did, Gales! I was lucky this time. A dumb one was loitering a few hundred meters from the gate. However, this one is crippled and smells foul. I won't get much out of him from the priestess."

"But it doesn't matter. At least with him, I am done for the month."

"Lucky you, David. I'll have to stand on guard until all the hunters return."

After a few more exchanges, my captor spurred his horse and left.

I looked around and realized how much nicer the inner city was. The roads were paved, and most of the buildings were made from stone. Sometimes, you could spot some wooden homes, but they were in the minority.

The people who made way for the knight were still covered with a tunic, but they had three main differences from the ones outside. Their face and hair were left uncovered. Their clothes were nicer, with no patches, and I could see a few dressed in different colors. The most striking thing was their eyes. All their pupils were pale gold.

As I was watching my surroundings, I heard the hunter's voice.

"I forgot! I should've covered your head before passing the gates. I can't let your filthy eyes stain the city. Well, I've got a quicker solution."

As he finished speaking, his heavy silver gauntlet struck my head. Blood started trickling down my face. The throbbing pain made me struggle, but as soon as I did, a second strike made me blank out.