The next morning my back hurt like hell. Sleeping on the ground is not comfortable. The meat from the night before was next to the burnt-out fire and had dried out like jerky. I grabbed a slab and took a bite out of it.

It was awful, the flavor I knew from the night before was gone. As if turning it to jerky, even on accident made it lose all of its flavor. Were the juices the only good thing about this meat? I wondered but I couldn’t care less. It was food and I needed it… no matter how disgusting it was. I ate as much as I could before stuffing some into my pockets. The pain-relieving berries stayed in a separate pocket, safe from being crushed.

My wings were still sore so I continued walking beside the stream and away from the castle. I realized based on where the sun set the night before and where it rose this morning I was heading east. Of course, this was another world so the rotation might be a lot different from Earth’s. I kept having to remind myself of this as I walked.

I used the rock I had from before to grind down my left horn after eating some berries, although I couldn’t see it my head felt weird. Like having only one horn stuck out more than having two. I couldn’t even tell that I had a right horn when I rubbed it. Although touching it hurt like a fresh cut that was still tender.

Eventually, the noise of my horn grinding was inaudible, due to me getting used to the sound. Although, I didn’t think about it last night but the sound I was making was probably why I didn’t see any creatures until that giant dear. Once I got a closer inspection of the creature I realized it had no ears. Which meant it couldn’t hear me grinding away. I sure am getting lucky out here.

After a couple of hours, I had filed down the left horn in the same fashion as the other and I was tired. My legs felt as sore as my wings did. Probably because the berries were starting to wear off. I sat down against a rock to rest and choke down some of the jerky. It was incredibly relaxing despite being a rock. Just being able to sit down and enjoy the sounds of nature was enough to let me rest.

And then the silence was disturbed by SOME ASSHOLE IN A CART! Wait… a cart. That means there's a path. I sprung up and ran towards the sound of the cart, making sure that my wings were tucked under my robe as I ran. Through a couple of trees I saw the cart, and pulling it was an animal that I had never seen before. It resembled a porcupine but was at least ten times the size. Instead of quills, it had feathers that were the colors of emeralds and it had snake-like eyes. Its snout which was tied with reigns was elongated like a horse and it gave me a look that said stay back.

I ran in front of the cart and the creature pulling it, yelling “Please stop”. The cart did stop and the man in the front of it gave me a strange glare. He was a short and stout man with some obvious muscles, probably in his early thirties. His face was clean shaven and he wore a straw hat. The clothes he wore looked like work clothes but I didn’t see a stain on them.

“What do you want? You're not trying to rob me are you?” he asked in a suspicious manner.

“No, I am not robbing you. I have been wandering in these woods for a couple of days and needed some help.”

“Were you robbed or just lost?”

“I don’t know. I don’t know where I am and what I did before three days ago.” I lied.

“Either that is the worst lie I have ever heard or you're telling the truth.”

“Could you at least give me directions or tell me where I am?”

He cocked his eyebrow up in suspicion and sighed. “You’re half a day's walk from the Demonkin border and a few hours from the nearest village by cart. If you follow this path in the same direction I’m going you’ll get to the village.”

“Thank you, and if I may ask? What animal is this? I have never seen one before.”

“It’s a Dorunail. A subspecies of the Dorun. You’ll see Dorun’s everywhere but Dorunail are rare.”

“Then how did you get one?”

“My grandfather won a bet and raised it. That was thirty years ago and Dorunail live a good hundred years so this one is quite young.”

“Wow. Thank you for the directions umm…”

“Delviner, Delviner Tilmann,”

“Thank you Delviner, I am Legion.”

The man sighed and shook his head again. “Hop on, I’ll give you a ride. I am already heading in that direction.”

“But I have no way to pay you.”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t have coin. I do this because you seem like a good kid and if you still want to pay me for it. You could give me something you found in the forest. It could be anything.”

I hopped on board the cart beside him and with a snap of the reigns the Dorunail slowly took off. “Well then, I have some berries,” I said holding out some of the pain-relieving berries from my pocket.

Delviner’s eyes shot open. “Are those Naran berries?”

“I don’t know. I found them in the forest and grabbed as many as could to eat. I found out they work great as a pain reliever.”

“Then they are Naran berries. Naran berries are the main ingredient in high-T healing potions and are extremely rare. They’ll fetch you a good amount of coins.”

“How much?”

“For one you could get around forty hard learins”

“I don’t know how much that is.”

“Man, you really did lose a lot of memory. The coin's worth goes from smallest to largest in this order: soft learin, hard learin, half queen, queen, and torin. You could buy a meal for a few soft learin and you could buy a house for a few Torin.”

“Okay, that makes sense.”

“I have been meaning to ask you but are you a mage?”

“Why do you ask?”

“Your robes are that of a mage. Most humans have trouble with magecraft compared to the other races so I wondered if I was speaking to a rarity.”

“I can do magecraft but I am no mage.”

“I see so you aren’t with the guild.”

“Guild?”

“You don’t know about the Guild’s?”

“No, I don’t.”

“So when you become an adult you join a Guild of your choosing that gives you an I.D. that allows you to travel freely. Each Guild specializes in a different thing. For example, I am in the Merchants Guild and I am a low-level traveling merchant. If you wanted to be a mage that is recognized you would join the mage Guild while if you wanted to be a knight the knight’s Guild would be a good choice.”

“I see. Where can I find these Guilds?”

“Each town has a Guild representative that represents all the Guilds as a whole and helps people join Guilds. Each city has a Guild house for each Guild where they can gather and learn.”

“And how does the ranking work? You said you were low-level.”

“Each Guild is different but ranks are determined by your competency as a Guild member. If you bring in lots of money into the Guild you go up in rank. Most people don’t get above the first few levels before they die.”

“Why is that?”

“Most people die by the time their kids are grown. We just don’t live long even if we live safely.”

“I see.” Well, that's a lot of info. This guy is definitely saving me a lot of trouble. It’s sad though that humans don’t live very long in this world. Maybe I could change that? Using magic I could recreate things from my old world here. That’s a great idea, me. If only I knew how most of the machines from my world worked. Shit. I guess I am not doing that. Maybe I should join a guild.

“Hey, could you introduce me to the guild representative at this next town?”

“Of course, but there is a fee. Do you have the coin?”

“No, I don’t.”

He thought for a moment then looked back at me and asked. “What if I buy the Naran berries from you for a reduced price? Then you can have some coins and I get some cheap merchandise. We both win.”

“That would be perfect but I wish to keep a few berries for myself.”

“I would too if I just happened upon something like that. By the way how many do you have.”

“I don’t know,” I said, pulling all the berries from my pocket and counting them. After a moment I held them out and said.” thirty-six and I will sell you thirty of them.”

“Sounds good to me. How does thirty hard learins per berry sound? That’s nine hundred hard learins or four half queens and a hundred hard learins.”

“Well then, it has been good doing business with you,” I said, shaking his hand.