As I came to, I felt my brain screaming in pain. The headache was unbearable and even trying to think was too much. Time passed, I couldn't tell how much. I repeatedly fell unconscious and woke up in a feverish state. But finally, at some point in time, the pain started to feel a bit more bearable and I started to question what was happening.

I was lying on the ground and looking up I could see the sun as well as tree branches, it seems I was surrounded by trees.

'Am I at Hideaway Park?'

I thought.

I looked all around me and noticed there were too many trees for it to be Hideaway Park. There was also someone laying on my side.

She had blond hair and was wearing jeans jacket and skirt, she seemed to be in pain since she was gritting her teeth and had her eyes shut tight. I was quite sure I didn't know her, but her hair felt familiar.

I tried to recall why I ended up here. The last thing I remembered was me hanging out with Mark and Sophie at a cafe........ then we ended up in a fight with a bunch of kids and then........ I couldn't remember anything else. Did we get drunk? This would explain the headache, but why were I in a bloody forest?

I looked again at the girl and I finally recognized her.

'She is the girl I took as a hostage during the quarrel, why is she laying next to me? Maybe she knows where we are, she seems in pain though, maybe she has this headache too.'

I shook her to wake her up and questioned her.

“Hey, are you all right? Do you know where we are?”

“Harry my head hurts.”

'Who's harry?'

“I'm not Harry.”

“What?”

She looked at me. Then started to scream.

“AAAAAAAH”

She got up and then started to run away from me but fell right away. It seems she too still hasn't regained her strength.

I got up and sat with my back on a tree; in the meanwhile, the girl was trying to get up again.

“P-please don't kill me....... I didn't touch that boy....... I-I told them to stop.”

'You didn't seem very displeased either though. Well, I guess it's not my problem anymore.'

“Don't worry, I wasn't going to hurt you any more than that, it was a bluff. Anyway, do you know where is this? Or where everyone is?”

“I-I don't know, s-so you didn't want to kill me?”

“Yea......., I poked you so I could scare your friends but I think I put a little too much force into it. Sorry about that”

“I-I see.”

She checked her wound with her hand, when she retracted it there was no fresh blood on it.

“You see? It's already closing.”

“Yea but it hurt, you know? I mean, why did you have to go that far?”

She seemed angry but I wasn't in the condition nor in the mood for that bullshit.

“Do you remember the condition that boy was in? Advice: he was faring worse than you.”

“I.....I.....”

She didn't know how to reply.

“Never mind, let's forget about it, now let's just try to understand the situation we are in.”

“R-right”

“So you've got this headache too, right?”

“Yes but it's a little milder now ”

“The last thing you remember is us having that fight, right?”

“Yes, wait no...... after that I think I talked with someone, I remember someone's voice but I can't recall what it said.”

'Brave £&%$/ /?%& £&)(% $£ %£ peril, £$ (/$ seek $£/ ?!$£/ /% restore £$/?% $&%$ to £!/ £$?%&$£ (/ $&% north, please £%/$ (%'

Suddenly the memory of someone's voice resurfaced in my mind, I couldn't remember most of what it said though.

“Yes me too now”

I said.

I tried harder to remember and even if couldn't remember the rest of the phrase, the image of a circle with strange symbols followed by a flash of light came to my mind.

'I think I saw it on the ground while I was holding that girl as a hostage.'

Strange thoughts about a certain anime genre started to fill my mind. I started imagining myself as a famous adventurer, slaughtering monsters, unlocking new powers, teaming up with beautiful girls, no beautiful girls with animal ears, no beautiful girls with cat ears and maid outfits, and then …..then.........

'Nonononono, it's impossible, stop having delusions, such thing is impossible, this is the real world and you are gonna go to university, find a job and then................then.................and then?'

I suddenly felt kind of disheartened.

I sighed.

'Anyway it's not the moment for this either, right now I have to understand what is happening.'

“Now I'm gonna call my friends to see if they know something. You do the same.”

I said.

I checked my phone and noticed there wasn't signal.

“Damn, my phone is out of reach.”

I said.

“Mine too.”

“All right, for now, let's try moving, hopefully, we will find a path. If we don't, when the headache goes away, I'll try climbing one of these trees to look for any buildings.”

'Damn it, don't make me do this, I never climbed a tree, I don't even know if I'm strong enough.'

The thought of falling off a tree in front of a girl made me a little nervous, the fact that she was quite pretty didn't help.

'Fuck, why have I to be so on edge? couldn't it be a boy instead?'

Being with a girl always made me nervous, I was hating this.

The best I could do about it was try acting confident.

“By the way, my name is Jane.”

The girl said.

“Oh right, I'm David.”

We were so caught up in this that we forgot about presentations until now.

“All right, let's go now.”

We got up and started walking through the forest.

We walked for almost an hour straight without passing by a single road or sign of civilization. As we went on walking I felt uncertainty creeping up on me more and more.

Even if the headache was disappearing I suddenly started to feel very sluggish and felt the urge to just sleep right there, I looked at Jane behind me and noticed her eyes were half-closed.

She looked at me and said:

“Hey David, I'm very tired, can we rest up a bit?”

I was very tempted to accept but I knew that if we stopped ourselves here we would fall asleep here in the wild.

“I'm tired too but we have to hang in there until we find a safe place or we might get attacked in our sleep.”

“I'll try.”

Walking in the forest was more difficult than I thought, we had to make our way through bushes and trees while constantly tripping because of the roots and small plants. Finally, half an hour of stumbling later we found a pond and with it a small trail departing from it.

“Finally, let's hope we will meet someone, I want to sleep, I really want to sleep.”

“Yes, let's go.”

I couldn't wait to get out of this situation and just go home already.

We followed the trail for a while, I couldn't tell exactly how much though. I was feeling incredibly tired, my mind was numb, my body felt itchy all over and Jane seemed sick too.

At some point I decided we were in no condition to keep on; I was about to propose to stop right there when I heard some noise coming from a bush in front of me. Then, a figure similar to that of a child emerged from it, except that it wasn't a child. It was no taller than a metre with green skin and a tree branch in his hand, it was what is commonly referred to as a goblin, except that goblins aren't real. It had a long nose, little tusks, and nails similar to claws. It was exactly what one imagine when thinking of a goblin; goblins don't exist though.

I thought my mind was pulling a prank on me, it felt like I was in a dream.

I looked at it.

It looked at me.

“Guga”

' Ah, it spoke.'

“Guga” I replied.

“Goga” He replied back.

“Gaga” I continued.

“............”

“............”

He looked me in the eyes.

I looked back at it.

I guess we were kind of exchanging information, I'm not sure what kind of information it was though.

“What the hell are you doing? A-and what's that thing?”

Jane asked me.

“Uh............ don't know”

I tried to focus, it was difficult to concentrate but I needed to understand what was happening.

The creature was wary of us it was keeping its distance and was gripping its tree branch tightly.

' Ok, what to do? Do we run, do we try to scare it away or do we try to talk? No, There's no way talking will be useful, it's better to treat it like a wild animal.'

“Let's retreat slowly without turning our back to it, if it follows us let's try to scare it away.”

We backed away but it kept following us from the distance. In the meanwhile my sickness was rapidly getting worse my sight started to get hazy and my body was heavy.

“Tump.”

I looked back and saw Jane on the ground, panting heavily.

I looked ahead again and saw the thing getting closer.

'Damn it.'

I flapped my arms around while holding the pocket knife, trying to look intimidating. I also tried to launch a war cry.

“AAAAAaaaaaaaah”

But actually, it seemed more like a moan.

The creature stopped itself though so it seemed to be working.

But the creature wasn't going away and Jane didn't seem able to get up.

I considered my options: I could either run away on my own, sacrificing Jane to gain time, or fight and try to kill that thing. Both were viable options. Option one was safer but since I was losing strength by the minute, I could end up in the same state as Jane while having no one to watch over me; option two was riskier, but, since I regained some strength because of the excitement and being much bigger than it, I had a chance to win.

I tried to decide while the thing was getting closer.

Option one was very tempting, it was the safer option, everyone would choose it but..........

a part of me wanted to defeat that thin- no, that goblin. I didn't like the idea of Jane being killed but I didn't care too much either; what I wanted was killing that fucking goblin, it was trying to kill me, it was an enemy and that really irritated me. Also if all this situation is what I think it is, I could gain something else from it.

I really could die though.

The realization froze me for a moment, but only for that much; I didn't like the idea to die but it didn't scare me either. For some reason, for a while now, my survival instinct has been a bit broken. I didn't know if it was because I had nothing to live for or because I just had a lot of self control. I didn't actually care about it. The fear of death is a liability so it's good to not have it, even more so in the current situation.

My eyes got cold, my mind became a bit clearer, excitement filled my body and a smile came up on my face.

What was standing in front of me was an enemy. And enemies have to be eliminated.

I launched myself forward, catching the goblin off guard. He raised his branch over his head but then I grabbed both his hands with my left hand, stopping him. Then I stabbed him on his left flank, where, in humans, would have been present the liver. While the goblin was stunned by the pain, I let go of his hands and grabbed his neck, trying to strangle him. The knife was stuck between his ribs and while I was trying to pull it out, he tried to bite me and scratched my arms with his nails, mad for the pain. I pulled the knife out with a strong pull and then pushed him away. Unable to find balance, he fell to the ground. I got upon him in a second and then while keeping his head still with my left hand, I stabbed him in his right eye, then I pressed with all my strength, until the knife got to the brain, killing my enemy.

I stayed still for a bit.

'I did it uh.'

I suddenly felt a strange sensation, like energy entering my body.

'Could it be?'

The tiredness I suppressed until now came upon me all at once.

I moved beside the dead goblin and was about to let my consciousness go when I heard a sound coming from my right.

“Gaaaaaaaaaaa.”

I looked at where it was coming from and saw three goblins running towards me.

'Oh give me a break.'

I tried to get up but I found myself incapable to move.

'Fuck, is this the end?'

Then I saw the goblins' heads suddenly taking fly, aiming for the sky; and then falling to the ground.

'Wait, what?'

Suddenly a girl with a sword and a young man in a robe were near the goblins' corpses.

The girl looked at me and said:

“Phew, you have done well killing that goblin Mr. hero. Now please leave everything else to us.”

The last thing I thought before blacking out was:

'I knew it, I really ended up in another world, damn, that's troublesome.'