I looked down at myself, I looked around the patch of scrubby, overgrown wilderness I had dropped into, I looked over what appeared to be a stat page for a character, I looked at the incongruous bed sitting here atop a bunch of bushes and other plants with nothing else around as far as I could see.

  Something strange was going on here, and I had no idea what. Memories of where I had been before this would have helped, but every last shred of them was fading away, like grasping at a dream after waking up, but for everything that may have happened to me before this moment. I had no idea who I was, where I was, what my name was even, and the info box I could summon into view with a thought didn’t help with that one. It didn’t help with much at all, really. Those numbers looked very low. Level 1 at least made sense as to why I was newly figuring things out with nothing to my name, such as it was, but surely I’d had a life before now? I must’ve existed in some form, certainly I knew and understood things that a newborn wouldn’t. If I knew what a bed was, as weird as it was to find one here, I must’ve seen one before.

  And what the heck was a Hearth Mage, that was something I’d never heard of before, that much I was certain on.

  Regardless of all these mysteries, there was a rather more pressing and immediate concern. All that falling through the sky with wind in my face had left me rather thirsty, my throat dry until it felt like it could crack, like desert sand should be trickling down my throat. I needed to find water somewhere, in this wilderness. For a moment, that seemed hopeless, but then I thought, maybe if I just look around, some will pop into existence right at the point where I need it. No such luck this time.

  I walked a short distance, picking a route that took me through some of the lower, softer parts of the overgrown plantlife, feeling the leaves and stems brushing against my hem as it dragged over them, and against my bare ankles and toes. After a moment, I stopped and looked back. The bed was still sitting there, looking just as out of place, clean and fresh, if a bit messed up from having me fall atop it and then roll off. For a moment I had wondered if it would follow me, or disappear as I stepped out of range, but no, it looked like it was there to stay.

  I had no idea what I was looking for in terms of drinkable water in a place like this. I tried to bring back a memory of what I had seen as I fell, I remembered the outline of a winding blue river, but surely that was some miles off, I couldn’t trek that far, especially not without shoes. I resisted the temptation to look down, certain my feet would be filthy already. Even just thinking about how much of a state they would be was unpleasant. But, current annoyances aside, I was thankful that whatever force had conjured one item for me here, it was the one thing that kept me from splattering over the landscape. The rest could wait, now that I was at least still alive.

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  Forcing my mind off the subject of my muddy feet, I renewed my focus on seeking out a water source, striding purposefully over the gently rising and falling landscape until the bed was barely still in sight in the distance.

  When I first stepped into the small, muddy trickle of water in the lowest part of this undulating landscape, I gave a most undignified yelp, ready to unleash my frustration at yet another inconvenience of being wet as well as everything else, before I caught myself.

  Stepping back, I crouched down, regardless of how my already dirty and torn dress now splashed into what barely passed as a stream, scooped up some of the wonderful, life giving water and swallowed it down. If I hadn’t been so desperately thirsty, I would’ve spat it all back out right away. It tasted as dirty as it looked, swirls of brown and green flowing through it, grit and sand ground between my teeth. I forced myself to swallow it down, coughing and spluttering at the awful taste. But at least my throat felt better, once I got that nasty grit out of it, and I was no longer at risk of dying of thirst in this wasteland. Food was another matter to deal with. Surely some of these plants were edible, but I had no idea what any of them were, and wasn’t about to take that risk.

  I made my way back toward the bed, the only familiar landmark here, and sat down on it to think. Some time had passed since I dropped here. I looked up at the sun to judge how long, it had moved, perhaps. I couldn’t remember which direction. Regardless, there had been no sign of anyone else around the whole time, no sounds of people in the distance, no litter blowing in the breeze. The only person here was me. And this bed, that had appeared right where I needed it, at that moment. Surely, I had caused it into existence, somehow. My stat sheet listed mana points, I knew enough to know that meant I could do something magical. How did I know that but not know my own name, or where I was yesterday?

  Jumping up off the bed, I stepped away from it a short distance and made some gestures, trying to will something else into creation. I wasn’t sure what. I pictured a table, with a big plate of food in the middle of it. I pointed, I gestured, I called out loud for it to appear, I tried to use my force of will to summon it from nothing until spots appeared at the edges of my vision, but nothing. I tried again with something else, maybe a wash basin, nothing there either. Maybe a chair, or just a glass to put the water in, nothing happened.

  Arms spread wide, I gestured to an empty patch of landscape and tried to will another bed into existence. It appeared, instantly, effortlessly. I almost stumbled back as though I had been bracing myself against the amount of force and effort I thought it would take to summon such a thing. But blink and there it was, pillows back in place, no mud streaks on the covers, frame not buckled and bent where someone slammed into it from a great height. I turned to compare it to the previous bed, but it was gone. Only slightly bent plantlife where it had once rested. Amazing, I could create a nice bed anywhere I wanted, even if only the one.