A Summer Day

William was as an average young man as one could be. Bleak and without any remarkable features in appearance or personality. He didn't do particularly well on his studies for his university nor was he popular among his peers. He had a normal life growing up, in school he wasn't popular but neither suffer any bullying, and his best friend from that time had long lost contact with him.

About his appearance, one could say that he was average: dark-haired, brown eyes, tall and skinny. He didn't have a single muscle showing on his body due to his notoriously sedentary life of sitting down in front of a computer either watching useless videos online or playing video games.

As for his personality, he was the typical geek: not very social but also not particularly shy. He had many acquaintances and colleagues but no real friend to have fun or rely on. All of this didn't bother him, though. He wasn't a sad person while he wasn't the happy type either. You could say that he lived on.

He hated summers. To be sweaty all the time was really uncomfortable for him. This was one of those hot summer days that he had to walk to class. After his bicycle was stolen on campus he had to walk everywhere and he didn't have any spare money. He finally arrived at his medieval history class slightly late after miscalculating the travel time by foot, he was sweaty and possibly smelly and a few students stared at him, the professor that had just started his class didn't bother, though. After taking his seat he could finally relax a little and enjoy the air-conditioning and take a few sips from his water bottle.

The professor was talking about a book from some French historian about medieval economy - a book that William should have read. [Damn it!] He thought, as he remembered that he forgot again about his assignment. Just as he got his notebook out of his backpack he heard a noise followed by a couple of giggles from people near to him, he looked front and saw this girl by the door with a bunch of books by her feet. She quickly began to pick them up and went to a seat with an embarrassed look on her face. She was Vanessa, a girl who William would usually stare at a bit like a creep. He would occasionally speak to her and she was always cordial, but he couldn't start a friendship with her, much less ask her out. Today, even though she was also sweaty from all that summer heat from outside she still looked gorgeous with her short black hair and her bangs held backwards - she had changed her hairstyle since the beginning of the summer, although she didn't seem like the type who worried too much about looks -. She was quite the nerdy type too, but in a completely different way from William; she actually was dedicated to her studies and would be often seen carrying a bunch of books around and was always with friends. William felt like she was exactly his type at the same time that he felt that she was out of his league.

"Hey. What about all the books?" William actually gathered some courage to talk to her after class was over. "Didn't the professor send the PDF files online?".

She looked down at the books she was holding and giggled a little. "Actually I forgot to read the texts the professor assigned to us" She lifted the books a bit so that could see the titles, they were all fiction literature books. That surprised William as he always thought of her as the very studious type.

"Wow!" He lifted his eyebrows. "Those are all nice books, but I can't see how they'll help you with medieval history", he faked a laughter.

"Well...", she paused for a second. "Most of these books are actually about medieval fantasy, so... maybe it could help", she giggled again and pulled her short hair to behind her ear. "I can't really finish a book without starting another. So my plan is to sit in the shade later today and read my books. I want to enjoy some of the summer heat".

[She must be mad!] He tought. After all, how could anyone withstand this heat, even enjoy it?! He tried to make a joke that didn't work, said goodbye and left a bit embarrassed. He still had another class today before he could go back to his dormitory with a broken AC and lay on his bed with a fan directly on his face to try to diminish some of his suffering.

He eventually got back to his dorm. His roommate wasn't there. [Good], he thought. [Peace and quiet]. He opened his notebook and started playing some World War 2 "grand strategy" game. He was quite invested in it and didn't notice the passing of time and before he had the chance to turn it off he ended up falling asleep.

It was surprisingly cold when he woke up feeling back pain. He yawned and opened his eyes. [Oh! A lucid dream!] He was lying naked on some hard and cold stone ground with the clear sky above him. William felt a sudden rush of pain on his back as if he had slept too much [What happened?! This isn't a dream!]. He got up from his back to sit laboriously and looked around with confusion and embarrassment from his nakedness. Was it possible that he got drunk last night and forgotten how he got here? He didn't have a typical hangover headache, but a mind-boggling back pain.

It was obviously outside as the clear blue sky indicated. He was sitting on a mossy stone flor, there were no walls around him, but a few pillars that constituted the edge of some sort of round platform where he was laying. He got up and saw that he was on some kind of stone tower covered by moss and vines. Being more specific it was a ruin. Around the round top there were pillars, some broken in half and others missing completely. It seemed like it should have a roof but this was also absent.

After getting up with great difficulty he looked around and gazed in awe with the scenery: there were plains all around covered in tall grass, beyond the plains on one side it descended slightly until trees start to appear becoming more dense and forming a forest on the horizon and to the other side some naked rolling hills were in the distance becoming more wavy like a sea of green surrounding two thirds of the horizon. The air felt clean and pure and the wind was blowing softly on William's naked body which gave him chills.

Looking out of the edge searching for a way down he found some protruding stones spiraling down the short tower forming a dangerous-looking stair. He wanted to go down but got vertigo immediately after peeking out of the edge.

"Hello! Is there anybody out here?" He screamed. "It isn't funny!" Without answers he started his way down leaning on the outside wall of the tower. Some of the steps were cracked or broken down making the descend especially difficult and frightening. The last five or so steps were completely missing and he had to jump down to the ground below.

The grass was as tall as his waist and because of this he had to slowly walk downhill. Looking back at that ancient-looking tower he now noticed it sat on the very top of some small hill and its base was wider than its top making it look rather rudimentary. He was now looking for some road or any kind of path that would take him back to civilization, as it was clear that he was in some unknown place in the wild. He didn't have a good knowledge about the geography outside the city where his university was so he had no idea where to go. William ended up deciding simply on going downward towards the trees.

He kept going and going... those trees didn't seem as far as they actually were. His feet started to become sore and sun was over his head now. As he walked he tried to recollect the events of last night, but it seemed he had completely forgot. His main theory now was that he was kidnapped on some sort of university prank of extreme bad taste. [Did they give me some "roofie" of just got me drunk?]. He didn't care anymore, he was tired and angry. [I'm definitely going to find out who did this to me and I'm calling the police! They went too far and I'll not forgive it!]

He stopped many times before reaching the first trees and the edge of the forest. William was extremely tired and the sun was almost set behind him and his shadow extended itself in front of him. At this point he was afraid of spending the night in the wild and also afraid of wandering into the forest, so he decided to turn left and start walking alongside of the edge of the woods. He'd watched enough survival reality shows a few years back to know how easily he could start to walk in circles without a point of reference, so use the border of the forest as a sort of road working as a small guarantee that he would not end up in the same place. The inclination of the terrain under his feet also gave him a sense of direction.

Remembering all the survival tips he heard on the TV he knew he should have built some sort of shelter for the night, but the sky was clear and he wanted to find a road as fast as possible so he kept walking with hopes of finding asphalt under his feet.

As the sun went down the shadows started to creep in longer and longer. The cool breeze from a few hours ago became a howling cold wind sending shivers down William's spine, unusual for a summer evening. The starry moonless sky started to show a few clouds coming in slowly with the wind. The forest to his right started to produce curious sounds; from the rustling of the tree tops to some weird animal sounds.

Although the stars in the sky provided some light the ground was irregular and it was hard to see too far ahead. After about an hour of slowly walking in the dark William decided to stop to rest and wait for dawn, since it was summer it shouldn't take too long. He sat leaning his back against a tree and started to contemplate his desperate situation: lost, naked, hungry, thirsty and exposed to mosquitos and wild animals. He wanted to see the people responsible for his condition behind bars.

It didn't take too long for the cold to settle in. [What the hell?!] Yesterday was one of the hottest days of the year, but now the wind was blowing strong and the temperature was dropping fast. Last evening was still quite hot, so how was that possible? He didn't hear any news a cold front forecast.

He couldn't sleep there. He was too worried and too afraid. While he was shivering sitting there on the cold dirt ground, he stared at the stars to try get a sense of direction, the absence of city lights made them extremely bright and the firmament was covered in a million tiny magical light dots - he wasn't particularly keen on astronomy but at least knew which stars to look for to find directions - but he couldn't find any recognizable constellation. He got a sense of foreboding that gave him the chills. Maybe they were hiding behind the moving clouds. He gazed for hours trying not to blink between each passing cloud. But those stars were foreign to him. Was he in a different hemisphere?! Couldn't be. But it didn't matter, he couldn't find neither the northern star Polaris nor the Southern Cross. He shivered and gave in to his tiredness.

William didn't sleep a whole lot as a howl in the distance woke him up.