Chapter 3: First Night

I once again appeared in a different place.

I looked down to see my own two familiar hands. Thin, scarred, and rough. It seemed I had the same body I did before I died. I lifted my shirt and saw no wound where the bullet had hit me minutes before. It seemed God got rid of that. Why? I couldn't know.

Looking further I appeared to be wearing some very shabby clothes by even my standards. Although they seemed clean the fabric of the shirt was rough and abrasive against my skin. My pants were tight and I didn't appear to have any underwear. Both pieces of clothing were beige and smelled of hay.

"Perhaps this is a farmers outfit of this world" I thought.

On my waist was a simple belt and there seemed to be two things attached. One was a bag with 5 quarter sized pieces of silver and 10 dime sized pieces of copper all marked with an "E" that seemed to be written in calligraphy. I could only assume this was the currency of this world but I had no way to know how much this really was. next to it was a dark grey iron plate with the same "E" emblem on one side and a roughly written name on the other side "Ray". If this is an ID card I couldn't image this world was technologically advanced. Then again God did say something about this world being like the ones I liked reading in novels so the technology level would match in that case.

The second thing attached to my waist was a knife. It had a rough wooden handle and the blade was about 7 inches long. The blade didn't seem especially sharp but this would indeed be helpful as an all around tool.

I stood up from the stone I was sitting on and looked around to see and found that I was in a small clearing of a forest. The trees looked like the Evergreens of earth covered in moss and the forest floor was relatively barren besides the odd bush or ivy patch. From what I could hear water must've been nearby as a waterfall could be heard crashing in the background.

I took in a deep breath. The air smelled better than any I had inhaled on earth and for the first time I started to process where I was and what had just happened to me.

"Holy shit. I died, met God, got reincarnated, and was granted immortality." I thought.

It was like all the suspended disbelief I had put away in order to talk with God had all hit me at once. It was a sort of self pride that came with dealing with an unfortunate situation and coming out ahead. What a lucky guy I was! I can live how I wish!

I quickly calmed myself however as I knew the situation I found myself in wasn't quite ideal. Although I had an immortal body the pains of hunger still seemed to affect me as my stomach growled. Since I could still feel hunger, although I probably won't die, I could probably feel unimaginable pain if I didn't feed myself often. Water was also a large issue at hand so I decided to go in the direction of the waterfall I had heard earlier. Maybe there was a river I could follow to civilization.

As I walked I noticed I seemed lighter. Maybe it's just the joy of freedom propelling me forward. I walked about 100 feet before it came into view. A cliff face more than 50 feet tall hidden behind the trees, with jagged rocks and vines competing to cover it. The water made a beautifully arc as it fell to the stream below. The volume of water was not enormous but the sound it made as it landed roared.

Maybe the people of this world didn't dump their waste into rivers or maybe I was near the source but the water was crystal clear. I could see straight to the bottom and it must've been ten feet deep.

The mist from the waterfall formed a small rainbow as the sun shines upon it and countless fish could be seen swimming.

I was entranced by the serene beauty of the place but quickly decided I should focus on survival before admiring my surroundings. I now had a source of water and although God said I would be immune to diseases, boiling it seemed like the right thing to do. Since I could see fish, even if it would take a while to catch one, food could also be found pretty easy so making a fire was my first priority.

I gathered all the sticks I could find in my general area and broke it up into campfire sized chunks. I took the driest piece I had and broke it up into wood chip sized chunks with my knife. Then I scoured the forest floor for two flat pieces of wood, two long stiff sticks, and some dry grass to use to make a fire using a method I had read about called the "bow drill" method.

Once I had those materials the sun seemed to be about 3/4 of the way through it's daily journey. Now that I think about it is it called the sun here? Are the days longer? Shorter? I don't know maybe I'll ask someone when I eventually find civilization.

I first set up my fire board by making a small depression with my knife near the edge so the kindling could catch any embers I rubbed into exsistance. Then I took a long thin strip of my shirt off with great difficulty. I then used one of the two long sticks I had gathered and tied each side to one another using my shirt strip to make what looked like a primitive bow. I then cut a depression similar to the one in the fire board but in the middle of the other flat board. With this I was ready. I took my "bow" and wrapped the other stick in it, put one end into the fire board, and applied pressure on top of the stick with my socket board. I then grabbed my bow and moved it back and forth to spin the stick to create an ember and carefully blow and bam! Fire!

But this isn't a perfect world. Being as I'd never gone camping or ever started a fire without matches period, my execution was sloppy. The socket and fire board holes were nowhere near smooth enough to allow the stick to move freely and little lumps in the stick kept getting stuck to my shoddy string. I expected this much however. No one's perfect I'll just readjust the holes and shave down the friction stick.

Trial and error trial and error. This went on for hours. The sun had almost gone down and the prospect of not having fire to scare off any creatures that could come out at night became a looming fear that I tried my best to push away. I just kept going but the frustration and stress just kept building.

Then my shoddy little string snapped and with it, I did too.

"WHAT THE FUCK??!" I screeched in anger. "DOES THIS WORLD NOT HAVE FRICTION OR SOME SHIT?!! GOD SAID HE'D MAKE THIS LIFE BETTER BUT LOOK WHAT IM FUCKING DOING!!!! IM JUST GONNA FUCKING DIE ON THE FIRST NIGHT BEFORE IMMORTALITY MEANS JACK SHIT!!! WHAT THE FUCK IS SO GOD DAMN HARD ABOUT STARTING A SMALL LITTLE FIRE!!!"

I then heard a "fwoon" in front of me and saw something that startled me. It was my kindling. It had caught fire.

I didn't question it at first and in a rush, I moved over to the small fire pit I had prepared with small sticks and soon enough, it was a sizable fire. I breathed a sigh of relief and wiped away my tears of frustration. Although it was already too dark to catch fish, I could at least have warmth and protection.

Then I thought about how the kindling could have possibly caught fire. My initial thought was just that a gust of wind had caught an ember I didn't see but that was unlikely. I wouldn't miss even a wisp of smoke but I never even got that. my thoughts raced until I remembered that god said there was magic in this world. Could it be? Was it magic? Could I be a fire mage like a cool confident protagonist? That's awesome! I'm gonna do it again!

"Fire!" I shouted.

Nothing.

"Flame!" I screamed.

Still nothing.

If that was magic how the hell did I do that?

Wait. God said something about advanced science seeming like magic. Did some science bullshit that the school never bothered to teach us occur? Was it something unique to this world?

"Why am I even asking these questions," I thought as I calmed down a bit. "I can't figure anything like that out yet. Best to just thank God for it and be done."

I pushed my questions to the back of my mind and went to the river to grab some water to boil. I ended up drinking straight from the stream after cursing my shoddy string for my lack of a fire proof container. So much for doing what feels right.

After I had my fill I stayed up for a bit just out of paranoia that the strange mythical creatures that lurk in the forest could kill me if I wasn't ready. After a while though my stomach was growling and my eyes were heavy. So by promising myself I'd get food first thing in the morning I fell asleep with the campfire's heat hitting my back.

My last thought before slumber was "God I hope I don't get eaten."