Lost and Found

If he didn't want to die, he had no choice but to keep walking.

That was the life-or-death decision he made.

...

Now, it was the morning of the third day since Damien had started walking.

The small 500ml bottle of water he happened to have with him had kept him hydrated until last night, he drinking it slowly to ration it. The nights in this forest were terrifying, as the darkness was so complete that he couldn't even see his own hand in front of him, and he feared wild animals might appear.

But somehow, he had survived another night.

Damien could no longer felt hunger—his stomach had been empty for so long that the sensation had faded. The air was cool enough that he wasn't sweating, so he figured he could keep walking today.

Truthfully, he wasn't even sure if he was walking in a straight line anymore. He recalled hearing that when people get lost in forests or mountains, they often end up walking in circles until they collapse from exhaustion. That thought sent a chill down his spine.

Shaking his head to rid himself of the unsettling thoughts, he stood up and continued walking in what he believed was the right direction.

...

It was now the fourth day since Damien had begun walking.

Or at least, he thought it was the fourth day. He wasn't entirely sure. Since he hadn't slept since the morning of the third day, it didn't quite feel like a new day had started. There should have been another night, but he had no memory of it.

His legs ached, feeling stiff like wooden poles, and his mind was foggy, making him feel light-headed. More than once, he thought about lying down to rest, but something inside him told him that if he did, he might never get back up.

It was as if he was running on pure stubbornness at this point. "If I'm going to die, I'll die moving forward!" he thought to himself. Whose words were those again?

His thoughts had become so muddled that he couldn't even remember what he was thinking anymore. He just kept moving, putting one foot in front of the other, heading in the direction he believed was forward.

...

How many days had passed since he started walking? Damien had lost track.

Was it still the fourth day? Or was it the fifth? Maybe he had been walking for an entire month. No, that couldn't be right.

As he entertained these ridiculous thoughts, something changed.

The forest, which had stretched on endlessly, thick with trees that seemed like they would go on forever, finally opened up.

"...So, I really did get transported to another world, huh?" Damien muttered to himself.

Beyond the break in the forest, Damien Crowell found something he had certainly never seen near his neighborhood—or anywhere in modern earth for that matter: it was a towering castle, surrounded by stone walls in a distinctly Western style.

"...Wait, is that... the Cinderella Castle?" he muttered to himself in disbelief.