The next morning, I woke up stiff. The leaves had done little to offer comfort. I was really starting to miss home. I missed my bed, the feeling of hot showers, the smell of breakfast in the morning. But most of all, I was missing the friends I had made. Sure, I had Taylor with me, but it was so strange not to see the others.

By the time Taylor had finally woke up, I had already found some wood to make a little fire. There wasn’t really much in the way of food, but I found an apple tree, so at least we wouldn’t be starving. I tossed Taylor an apple as I sat on the log closest to me.

“I miss cooking. Eating an apple isn’t going to be that filling,” Taylor said as she looked at the apple. I knew that she was right, but we didn’t really have a choice. It wasn’t like an animal was jumping out of the woods saying, hey, eat me. Now that would be a funny sight.

Once I was fully awake, I led Taylor to the river I had found last night. It was so clear and beautiful; it was almost a shame that we would be putting our dirty bodies in it. We both undressed quickly because it was still quite nippy. After a few seconds of wondering what I was doing, I ran into the river. If I had walked, I would have chickened out. The water was so cold that we washed as quick as we could.

Once back at the campsite, we sat by the fire to warm up, I felt wrong sitting in the open naked like this, but our clothes were still drying. It didn’t make any sense to wash up if our clothes were still dirty. Luckily, it would start to warm up, and eventually, we would continue our journey.

If I had to guess the time, it was about eleven by the time we could dress. I put out the fire as we got ready to travel again. I hoped that we would find a village soon. Perhaps we could find a way to make some currency to buy some things that we needed. If this world was anything like the early days, it was either coin or trade.

We had been walking for a while when we came across the next town on the map. It was a little bigger than the one we started out in. I swear, the more we traveled, the more it felt like we were in a videogame. The nostalgia was invigorating. As we came close to the town gate, we were stopped by two guards.

“Halt, who are you, and where are you from?” one of the guards asked. He didn’t seem happy with us here. We had to be careful so that we didn’t give him any reason to use his sword. I really wasn’t in the mood for a fight.

“My name is Angel, and this is my girlfriend Taylor,” I said. The man looked at me curiously as if I said something he didn’t understand.

“I’m sorry, what do you mean, girlfriend. Is she a girl who is your friend?” the guard asked as he scratched his brown hair. He looked back at his partner and shrugged.

“No, she is the girl who I am in love with,” I corrected. This seemed to shock him even more. Did they not have lesbians? I understood that lesbians had been around just as long as gay men.

“You mean you don’t have husbands?” the other guard asked. He was eyeing Taylor pretty severely. I could practically see the lust in his eyes.

“Why would I have a husband when I am in love with her?” Taylor said, her tail swaying back and forth wildly. It was one of her tell-tales that she was getting annoyed. Both men stared at one another. Then they both looked at us.

“It is unwise to walk unaccompanied by a man in these parts. Some folks might get the wrong idea,” the first guard said. He was staring at me as he said it. I wondered if he was warning us about others we might meet on the road or if he meant them.

“I am quite capable of taking care of myself, as well as my woman. I wouldn’t advise anyone to try anything,” I said, materializing my wings and pulling a feather from them. Both guards doubled over and scrambled to get up and run away. I didn’t like that I scared them, but I wasn’t going to have anyone threatening my girlfriend or me. Looking over at Taylor, there was a sadistic smile on her face. I wondered if she was starting to like my more violent side.

Entering the town, I was amazed at just how beautiful it was. I know that these houses aren’t modern, but the craftsmanship that went into making them was something to behold. I was starting to wish I was born in this place rather than the technological era we were in back home. Most people would say I was crazy for saying that I would gladly give up all electronics to live in a place like this.

As we walked around, we watched as kids were playing. There was no worry of cars running kids over, now smoking to harm their lungs. At least none that I could see. I knew that they used to smoke pipes way back when, but it was nothing like smoking in our world today.

As Taylor and I continued, there was a guy that was walking towards us. I thought that maybe he could help us figure out where to find supplies so that we couldn’t travel naked so-to-speak.

“Excuse me, sir, do you know where we could get some supplies. My friend and I are traveling quite a ways, and we don’t really have anything for sleeping or cooking.” I said. The man stopped and looked at us, then studied our clothes, then scratched his head.

“Well, I was bout to go to me shop if ye wanna follow me,” he said. We nodded and followed him. It was only a little bit back from where we came from. He opened the door and let us in. “Don’t have much, but ye could put sommin together if ye got the coin.

“I’m sorry, we don’t have any coin. Is there any other way that we could get the supplies?” Taylor said. The man looked as if he was going to blow a gasket. I knew what was coming next.

“What you playin at. Do ya thin ya can get me stuff for free? Do I look like a dummy?” he said as he slammed his fist on the counter. Why did everyone have to be so aggressive? Couldn’t they understand what it was like being poor?

“We could work for it, maybe help you around the shop? Or perhaps you have other things you need to be done that we could take care of,” I said quickly. I could see Taylor starting to back away, trying to hide.

The man scratched his chin for a few minutes, probably thinking. Then he smiled. “Tell ye what. Ye help me for the day, an I’ll get ye the supplies. But I don want any funny binuss,” he said. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do, but we really needed those supplies so that we weren’t sleeping on the ground. Plus, working for him would allow us to talk to the locals and see if the man who looks like my dad and Maddison came through here.

“Do we really have to work for this guy? He frightens me,” Taylor said. I reached over and hugged her tightly against me.

“Don’t worry. I will protect you,” I said. I could feel Taylor’s smile against my cheek. Then I let her go and waited for the man to tell us what we would be doing. It was really starting to feel like a video game, and I had just accepted a quest.