My eye lids swung open suddenly.
I jolted off the bed I lay on in shock, breathing heavily and my heart, beating rapidly.
My face was covered in sweat, and I could feel the temperature of my body slowly rising again.
I looked around in confusion, wondering where I had gotten myself to while I was unconscious; now, it seemed to be a norm that I would find myself in a different place every time I closed my eyes.
My breaths and heart beat slowed down and became lighter as I found that I was in no danger at all, but my temperature wouldn’t budge.
It seemed I had a fever; after everything I’d been through since I left the eastern city of Andreia, it was expected that I would get sick eventually.
“Who was she, who was that person I met in the forest of the damned, and why does she keep repeating the same thing to me?
did I do anything wrong by choosing life over death?
Have I wrong anyone by choosing to live?” I muttered to myself, burying my face between my knees.
The corners of my eyes filled with tears, and they dripped onto the sheets I sat on as I closed my eyes.
“What did I ever do to deserve all of this?
Tell me Moon goddess, is this really your way of punishing me for pretending to be the sent maiden?” I asked, not hoping for any answer at all.
The moon goddess never answered anyone.
The only person she spoke to was the priestess.
The priestess always told us that we could pray to the goddess whenever we needed her help, but I stopped believing her the very day my father died.
When my father grew sick, I prayed day and night for the goddess to heal him, but she remained silent.
As he got worse, my faith in her slowly wanned, and the day he died, I lost faith completely.
This was why I had the audacity to do what I did during Sylvania’s wedding.
My tears continued to drip on the bed until I noticed my hair fall over my shoulder.
My eyes opened and widened as I found that I was no longer in the farmer clothes given to me by the moonstone around my neck.
I was now only in the white dress I woke up with in the cottage.
She wore dark brown commoner clothes that looked like those of farmers, and had long dark brown hair.
Her eyes were a dark crimson, and the smile on her face was the most welcoming.
In her palms, she carried a tray with a bowl of stew; I knew from the scent that suddenly radiated through the atmosphere in the room.
“Oh, you’re awake, I didn’t mean to barge in like that.” The words left her mouth as her lips slowly parted.
“Oh, it’s… fine… it’s fine.” I replied with a stammer as I stared at her.
“Wow, that’s quite the feminine voice for a man such as yourself,” she said, her expression slightly shifting in surprise.
“A man?” I asked, puzzled by her statement.
I turned to where the moonstone rested on my neck, and found that it was missing; this got me even more confused.
The moonstone was supposed to make me look and sound like a male, but even with the necklace gone, I still looked like a male, but my male voice was almost completely gone.
Maybe the effects of the necklace wore off really slowly.
“Oh, are you looking for this?” She asked, pulling the necklace from a pocket in the skirt she wore.
“This necklace is really, beautiful.
Was it given to you by one of the maidens in the fifth Argaria?” She asked, handing the necklace to me.
I collected it from her, stared at the stone for a moment and turned back to her.
“The fifth Argaria?
Where even am I?” I asked.
“Oh, you’re in the seventh Argaria.
Your clothes looked like those of farmers from the fifth Argaria, so we assumed you were from there.
The fifth and sixth are very close by so you can begin your journey back home when you’re done eating and well rested,” she explained, placing the tray on the ground beside the bed I sat on.
The moment my eyes met with the reddish-brown colour of the stew; my stomach churned again.
“Oh, you must be very hungry,” she said, letting out a soft giggle.
“I’ll leave you to enjoy your meal then,” she continued, stood up straight and walked toward the exit.
As she approached the curtains, she turned around.
Your clothes are over there in case you’re looking for them,” she said, pointing to a corner in the room where my clothes hung.
The moment she left the room, I lifted a spoonful of stew from the bowl and threw it in my mouth without considering how hot it was.
I kept the stew in my mouth for a few seconds, throwing it over and below my tongue to properly savour the taste.
Afterwards, I spit everything out, my brows furrowing in utter shock and disgust.
“No taste?” I asked softly, staring at the bowl of stew, puzzled.
I picked up another spoon and placed it between my lips.
The moment it touched my tongue, tears fell from my eyes.
Of all the things I had tasted in my life, this was by far the worst.
I could feel the liquid moving around my mouth, but its taste was nowhere to be found.
Instead, it had a sandy taste that almost made it seem like mud.
I spat out the stew again and searched the bowl for some meat; even if the stew was bad, the meat couldn’t be.
Even raw meat had much better to offer that this bowl of red mud.
I found large chunks of meat hidden at the bottom of the bowl and used the spoon to pull them out.
I lifted one of them up with my right thumb and index finger, and gently took a bite, hoping the mud taste didn’t get into it too.
My eyes widened as the flavour spread around my mouth.
This wasn’t the taste I had expected at all; this was much better.
It was almost as if the meat in the stew had claimed all the taste for itself.
I had never tasted something so delicious in my entire life.
I devoured all the meat in the stew in a matter of seconds, and got up from the mattress afterwards.
Now energized, I put on my farmer clothes and cloak and walked out of the room I was in to see what kind of world I had ended up in this time.