I didn’t even make it outside before I used the chopsticks to try a bite of the pork. I wasn’t super good at using them, but I could at least feed myself. The rice would be harder than the rolled pieces of meat, but the rice seemed to be the same sort of sticky rice they used for sushi, so maybe it’d be easier. It also explained the vinegar taste. I knew that sushi rice used rice wine vinegar and man; I had always loved that stuff.

  When I approached the fire, I saw that the small group of people had dispersed and I frowned a little. While I didn’t want a large group like the one inside, the small group of people who were out here before would have been nice. It would have let me get to know more of the people in FantasyLand and maybe I could have learned a little more of this new world and the Empire I found myself in.

  I went and sat on one of the tree stumps and set the mug of ale between my feet. I didn’t notice the lone figure still there until I worked on eating the rice with my utensils. He sat on the ground with his head lowered, the conical farmer’s straw hat covering his face. He wore tattered dark blue robes that looked like they were once nicer than the simple poor farmer robe. There was also a hint of an orange inner robe. There was also a scythe propped against the tree trunk next to where he sat.

  I gave a blink but didn’t think too much about it. The guy was obviously a farmer, and this was probably the tool he used to work his crop. No big deal. This fella certainly wasn’t Death like we had back home.

  “New around here, huh?” the stranger said. He didn’t look up when he talked and his voice was raspy and on top of that, it seemed to not come from him. His words seemed to come to me from across the wind, which gave them like a far away property to it.

  I gulped. Maybe this was Death? I stared at him and nodded my head after I grabbed my mug and took another pull from it. “Yeah, new here from the islands to the west.” I nodded my head.

  “Ha, yeah….” he gave a dry laugh that didn’t show any mirth to it. “Think you’re from a little further than that, friend.”

  I frowned and shrugged before I set the mug down and ate more of the pork. “Well, whatever you want to believe,” I said with a mouth full of the pork that melted in my mouth.

  He gave a deep sigh. “You know you’d be good as one of my cultivators, the way you’re always traveling. Works well with the wind. Think you even have a manual in your cart there that would show you the path. Think it’s called The Wandering Dragon, but I’m not sure what it is exactly.”

  I cocked a brow and looked at the figure. “One of your cultivators? What are you a sect head or something?”

  Another one of those hollow laughs before he lifted his head, and I saw the flames from the fire dance over his skull. Literally, the guy was a skeleton. I blinked and dropped my bowl of rice and pork.

  “It’d probably be simpler if I was,” the skeleton said plainly. “Instead, I have to deal with the entire world, and shit isn’t quite right at the moment.”

  I, well, I didn’t know what to say or do so I just sat there with my eyes wide open and my jaw hanging open like some sort of slack jawed idiot. The skeleton just nodded his head in understanding of my being a dumbfounded idiot.

  “I’m sorry you’re here, by the way. One of my brother’s is…” the skeleton paused and stared at me. “Well, he’s having a rough go of it, as you’d say where you’re from.”

  I blinked, and it took me a minute to puzzle out the question, but before I could ask it.

  “I’m a simple servant of the world, Michael. I do as the mortals bid of me and try to keep a balance. While I don’t really have dominion or power over your world, I have a sister who keeps me up to date on things,” he shrugged. “My brother shouldn’t have been able to do what he did, but you’re here now. Side effect is that you were given a core and a rather strong, albeit odd, spirit.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “So, about getting back…” I started, but was interrupted by a raised skeleton hand.

  “First, thank you for joining the conversation. Second,” he paused and gave another hollow sigh. “I don’t know if you can go home. Is that something you’d want?”

  “Well, of co…” but I paused now and looked down at my spilled bowl of food.

  Did I want to go home? I blinked and looked back at the skeletal god.

  “Well, it might not matter if you want to, anyway. My sister Teru is powerful, but I don’t know if she’s that powerful. Kentaro may have brought you here somehow, but I doubt he could take you back in one of his lightning storms. What happened anyway?” The skeleton asked me.

  “I uh, well, there was a snowstorm. Or well, I thought it was a snowstorm, a blizzard. There was lightning though, not something we normally see in a blizzard,” I told my story while the skeleton nodded its head and listened.

  “The truck I was driving, that’s what I did. I was a truck driver. I went over a bridge and was going to die when one of the lightning strikes blasted my truck,” I explained and looked up at the stars reliving that moment of defeat. My acceptance of everything that was happening and my death.

  The skeleton nodded once more before it spoke. “That was a mana storm. Various types of aura make up all things in the universe, no matter the planet. When that aura gets strong enough, it becomes mana.” He held out his hand, and the wind picked up around it, swirling around the camp area.

  “That’s what cultivators do here. They train and cultivate aura and turn it into mana. The mana allows them to control the aura of the world. The lightning was from Kentaro, the lightning kami and god of honor and combat,” he said as he lowered his arm and the wind stilled once more.

  I nodded my head and looked to the ground once more before the kami stood and grabbed his scythe. “Well, look. I’m only here because I wanted to explain some things to you.” Then he gave one of those deep, hollow breaths and then looked at me.

  “You came at what might be a rough time, but progress down this path of yours,” he said and gave what resembled a smirk. “A path of transporting and transportation.” He said it more to himself and he sounded like he himself didn’t believe it.

  A shake of his head before he looked back at me as I stared at him, still slack-jawed. “I guess I’ve seen weirder things. Or well, Teru has told me about weirder things in different worlds. Just do your own thing until you get the lay of the land. Might be hard to find someone to teach you to cultivate since your path isn’t going to be like anyone else’s, but that might be a good thing. Most of these mortals don’t know shit.”

  With that, the skeleton man walked away from the campfire and into the night. I looked down at my dropped bowl and ruined food with a sigh.

  I was hungry. I thought sourly and shook my head before I bent over to pick up the bowl and chopsticks. Now I was, I wasn’t sure. The hunger had left my body with all this news I just received. I was still hungry. It’s just that it was the furthest thing from my mind.

  It was a bittersweet feeling, knowing how, and why I got to this world. Knowing it was a god gone crazy was a little worrying. I’d just do like the skeleton said, stick to my own path. Now, maybe it worked differently here in this world, but usually in my stories, cultivators had powers over elements. There was that one, though, probably my favorite series based in Cradle.

  Hm, maybe this world is more like that? I don’t wanna go around slapping people in the stomach, though.

  I shook my head and finally stood to go back inside the inn and return the bowl and chopsticks. I left the food that spilled out, figuring some wildlife might come and enjoy the food. It only took a few minutes for me to say thanks once more to the owner and return my stuff. He was too busy to talk anymore, so I just headed out back to the barn.

  The boy from before had my wagon turned back around and Betsy was back in her yoke, waiting for me. I smiled and walked up to Betsy, patting her softly on the side.

  “He take care of you, girl?” I asked her and got a soft bellow in response.

  “She ate a bit, but I saw you head back inside, so I figured you’d be ready to go.”

  I nodded at him and climbed up to the driver’s bench. “Yeah, like you said, the inn doesn’t have any rooms and it seems like I lost all my money in an accident I had earlier. So we’ll go find somewhere decent to park it.”

  The boy frowned at me. “You don’t have any money?”

  I blinked. “Uh…”

  He shook his head and just walked away from the wagon, back towards the barn.

  I tried to call back after him, tell him sorry, but I stopped myself. There wasn’t a point. At least if the roles were reversed, I’d give a ‘yeah, okay, whatever man’ and go about my business. I shook my head.

  I’m a heel.

  “Alright, come on Betsy. Let’s get out of here,” I called and before I could whip the reins, she plodded down the road.

  Fuck, I didn’t get directions, god dammit.

  As of this posting there's 21 chapters and bonus stuff on the

  Hiroshi, Tale of a Sumotori

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  There's also a to help me get Hiroshi self-published and we've hit most of my stretch goals already. :D