Universal Merlin

1.020

Merlin found himself to be on his hands and knees, he moved his head and looked around to see his new surroundings, but nothing stood out except for maybe that he appeared to be in a forest no it was not quite as the foliage looked wrong, it looks more like he was in a field, a field of grapes plotted in rows upon rows. He was surrounded by them for what seemed like miles forever an eternity, they were all unkept and tangles in giant messes. No that was going a bit too far we'll just stick with the smiles part, so it seems like it went on for miles.

Merlin saw the trail after a moment or two it was a dirt path it looked to be well worn in the dirt. He took to the path walking away from where he was he continued on that path on and on for a long distance. Merlin encountered nothing except more grape plants until the field ended outside of an old shabby looking shack?

The shack, if you could call it that, was the spitting image of an old fashioned hut made of wood with a thatched roof. It had no glass windows, only cloth covering the door even. It looked to be old very very old, as if it may collapse soon old.

Merlin went inside to find it empty, nothing and no one, no one and nothing. He looked up at the ceiling which was not much higher than the door, there were no lights either just an old abandoned lantern hanging from the middle of the room. From the dust on the floor, he could tell that no one had been in here a long time as well.

Talking to no one, "Hey, I guess that I could live here and no one would notice anything."

For him to live here things would have to change a bit, Merlin thought as he brushed his hand against the wall. He decided that he would come back tomorrow with supplies to make the hut livable.

The sun had moved a little from when he first arrived but Merlin could have sworn that he had been here where ever here was for most of a day. He walked back along the path to the black stone and stepped through it at if he were walking through a door. Though that thought process of his was not wrong as it let him into another place, it was not quite a door at all as it had no handle.

Merlin appeared in the woods at the same moment that he left it. It was as if time flowed differently in the other place. Taking advantage of this he decided to take the quickest path back to the orphanage. He would grab a bag, a blanket, and sleeping gear, along with food, books, a knife to cut the plants with, a bottle, and last but not least matches.

He wandered around the old dying building hardly able to find any of the things he would need, instead he gave up looking for the rest and took what he had money-wise.

Merlin went to the school next to get old abandoned books, in the back of the dim and forsaken library, covered in layers of dust. It was not like the school of tiny backwater town would miss them. He promised himself that he would eventually bring them back and stole the books in his bag.

Merlin had only left to gather were the matches and the knife, to get those as he could not find them anywhere he went to a drug store on the way from the school.

Merlin went into the store and the door alerted the owner that a person had entered. He walked over to the different shelves to get a cheap knife and some matches. He found a pocket knife cheap but it did not have any tools attached to it. It would just have to do, then he got a whole box of matches and walked over to the checkout counter.

Merlin waited there for the old man to come and check out the items for him. While he was waiting Merlin looked outside the store window to see more clouds in the sky, he would have to hurry to the black stone to get to that shack.

He ran along the road leading to the orphanage and ran through the park, he had to slow down to get through the forest. Merlin got to the black stone and managed to get through it before the first drop of rain landed on him.

Merlin was running again as he landed beyond the black stone, running through the grape fields and to the shack. He stopped running, kicking up a dirt cloud, as he entered the shack. He pulled off his pack and emptied it. Using a match to light the lantern, Merlin went out and cut some of the grapes off of the vine to eat for dinner and he put it next to his sleeping bag. The vines were rather supple so turned it into a hunting trap that he remembered reading about and took it into the nearby forest in the hopes that he could get something.

Merlin ate the grapes then curled up in the sleeping bag and fell asleep, dreaming of odd things that he forgot when he woke up.