The wind blew strongly across the green plain.
Occasionally it rustled through the leaves of the trees that stood tall on the plain.
And a young man lay sprawled on the short grass.
The cold wind and the rough feel of the grass beneath him slowly brought him back to consciousness.
Ugh, why does it feel so cold and what kind of itchy feeling is this?
Slowly, his tired eyes opened slightly and absorbed the light, revealing what was in front of his face.
"Grass? But I'm on a mattress..."
In a semi-conscious state, his hands tried to feel for support, but instead of the usual softness, he now felt a rough texture and scattered soil mixed with grass.
"This is a bad time to have a dream or a strange experience..."
He blinked several times, trying to get rid of the traces of unsatisfactory sleep, while rubbing his eyes with his hands even though he had already felt the ground.
"Ugh, what kind of thief moved me from my house..."
Generally, people would be confused and panic when they woke up from sleep in a strange situation.
But not for him. He thought that knowing what was happening was the solution to calming down and adapting. Or so he thought.
A vast expanse of grass stretched out before him when I got up.
The ground was straight and block-like in some areas.
Several trees were symmetrical and branched almost equally. The leaves, which should have been unique, were united, forming a square.
Now I felt a little panicked and uneasy.
"What the... What kind of weird experiment am I into?"
Once again, he tried to make sense of this situation by turning around and looking in all directions. And sure enough, the result was the same and there was no change.
The sunlight shines brightly as if it were daytime, so at least that's not confusing. But shouldn't he have woken up in the morning?
"Well, let's try something else," he thought innocently, hoping that at least something about him would change.
He tried pinching his cheek and both ears because he read that people can wake up from dreams, but all he felt was a momentary pain and sting.
Or should he try the most depressing method, the call of nature from within the body that women usually refer to as picking flowers?
But he thought, how could humans do that manually if it wasn't time yet...
"So this isn't a dream... but it's beyond reason."
Maybe he is dead and this is another realm?
But he doesn't think so. His instinct told him so.
And then the worst possible simple idea he can ever think of at this time comes rushing like a truck.
"Should I kill myself to make sure?"
Calm down. Calm down, Rain.
The past is the past. Do not indulge your mind into a mess.
His self-hypnosis at least can clear that stupid idea.
It's weird. Those are weird.
Everything is weird. Maybe everyone is weird.
Am I becoming weird too?
"Anyway, what can I do now? I'm totally nowhere here. Maybe I'm in Greenland?"
This expanse of grass feels familiar and also foreign.
The trees are also different from the trees he know.
Maybe he should go check it out for now.
The closer he got to the tree, the more he could see the characteristics of this silent creature.
"Well, it looks familiar. Is this an oak tree, the kind that was planted in the park?"
The wood grain pattern that spread upward from the roots to the top of the trunk reminded him of trees in the real world.
Basically, he don't know much about the classification of oak trees.
But this one has the same thickness from the bottom to the trunk.
The longer he looked at the leaves, the more surreal it felt.
Suddenly, a piece of information, or rather a memory, about how humans in ancient times used wood as a tool and basic material until modern times came to his mind.
But he thought this was strange, why did he suddenly think of this?
And he also felt naive for not checking his body condition earlier.
The clothes he is wearing now are one of the daily outfits he often wear, but earlier he was wearing pajamas, so this is really strange.
And he feels different, as if his body is full of energy that should be tired from last night's activities.
Last night's activities? What did he do last night?
Wait a minute… am I forgetting things?
"Rain, are you this forgetful? I should only forget people's faces, not the things I've done."
Let's redo last night's activities.
He came home from school, worked part-time, did his homework, slept.
I didn't forget a single thing. How forgetful of me.
Once again, he looked at this tree from bottom to top.
Unlike the real world, I admit that this may not be the real world where I was born. This tree does not show its roots from the ground, there are none at all.
Should he check by digging the ground, but he thinks it's a waste of energy with his empty hands.
But his feels that trees are one of the answers to this.
His instinct told him so!
But how do you even cut a tree?
With my bare hands? You gotta be kidding me, I'm not that strong.
"Should I try punching it to test?"
And so he did.
It hurts. A lot.
He landed a few punches and it made my hand reddish.
The outer layer is kinda thick.
He is at least need to find other things to use, something weird that's hard enough to cut a piece of wood.
"Staying here won't give me any answers, I have to find out more about this place."
Maybe it's time for him to start a very own adventure.
He doesn't know which way the wind is blowing and he doesn't know how to find out.
But he decide to go in the direction the wind is blowing from my side.
It always feels nice to have a cool breeze, reminding him of the feeling in the countryside.
He walked as if not caring about anything behind him.
Sometimes the ground surface had to climb steeply. This was because the land was connected in squares.
When he realized it, he had measured its height to be almost equal to the entire length of my arm. As far as he remembers, it was equal to a meter.
At least it cost him to jump for every kind of different height surface.
He walked, walked, and kept walking.
This is surely terrain classified as plains.
The flatland with few trees growing.
Once again, he noticed a new familiar thing in front.
A river. A flowing river.
When he went near it, the water was surely different from the real world.
The water from the river was so clear that it revealed what was underneath.
He could see a few things down there: sea grass, mud, and pebbles?
Once again, he was transfixed by this amazing sight, looking through the crystal clear water of the river. The objects looked enclosed as if in a square field and were not mixed with each other.
Maybe there was something hard buried under the pile of objects?
Looking around, he couldn't find any signs that this place had ever been visited by humans or other modern influences.
Come to think of it, he hadn't seen a single animal roaming around either.
Or am he is too dumb to notice one of them?
Anyway, maybe the last option for now is really to try to check under the river.
After quite a long walk, he feels sweaty and itchy. Should he goes take a dip with his clothes on?
Maybe the clear water can wash away my sweat and stuff from my body.
But he feels kinda bad for doing this in this kind of environment.
Alright, let's just do this.
He takes a few steps back and starts running without knowing the reason for doing so.
Passing the stones and pebbles in the riverbed, he immediately jump into the water.
*splash*
With a loud splash, he starts swimming to the bottom into a place that looks like a mix of pebbles and small stones.
He assumes it's called gravel.
With one eye open, even though he doesn't know the technique to see properly underwater, he still does his best to navigate with both hands while digging inside the gravel.
Thankfully, he found something sharp after a while and started to grab it and swim faster to the surface of the river.
When he reached the top, he immediately pulled the object out and immediately recognized something familiar from the past.
"Oh, a flint huh. It reminds me of my childhood adventures."
A flint is something like a black sharp stone, usually found it too in the river on the countryside in the past.
"I guess, I am quite lucky? Now maybe I can use this to try it on the tree."
As he lifted his body towards the edge, the wet and heavy conditions instantly turned into a feeling of lightness.
He felt like he could do anything even though he only found something this simple.
With that enthusiasm, he immediately looked for a tree standing tall in the middle of this grassy field.
After looking at it again, this tree was so strange and unique. It was as if this tree was made of something artificial.
But he didn't think about it too much.
Because it is time to see if he could do something with wood!