The Void.
Whether it was day time or night time, in a place like this there was absolutely no way and no how to know that.
A very old and tiny tavern stood mounted in nothing, like it was floating in the middle of nowhere. No road led to it and none led you out of it.
The wooden tavern creaked here and there as someone walked around inside it.
It was Wesley Brown, who looked like an old time bartender on brown sack shirt and pants to fit. He was sized like he was still in his twenties but had a beard as thick and long as a sage twenty years away from biting the dust.
He had been in this tavern not too long but long enough to know that he was stuck in it and in void—nowhere.
He was from earth, then he died of exhaustion and woke up here.
Wesley was confused, no doubt. But with plenty of hours stuck in a creaky place with no one to talk to but himself, yeah there wasn't much of choice other than accepting the fact that he's nowhere near home.
He didn't do much. He just looked around the tavern which had almost nothing inside it and then took a good look at himself through a bowl of water.
He looked like a mythical god if not for the fact that he looked kind of dirty to be one.
He had eyes that were of two different colours. The left one was a bit golden to be called an eye and the right was an icy white color. If only he could take the golden one out an trade it for a door so he could leave this place! Definitely that eye would worth something!
Asides from the fact that there was almost nothing in the tavern, there was just one window which he could see through that he was in nowhere.
And then there was also a big book, two hands long and four fingers thick.
Wesley had easily turned it into a stool chair to sit as there wasn't any in the tavern. Also because he had tried to flip it open but it didn't. The pages looked glued together having stayed for God knows how long.
With time, the book had began to emit heat.
Wesley wasn't sure if it was because he had over sat on it or because he had farted on it like six times in a row, but he definitely didn't care about a heating book. He sat still on it nonetheless.
What he didn't notice was that a spiralling air like magic, in a straight line came out of the book and with speed as lightening, circled it's way to his chest and struck it's way in!
"ACK- HAUGHK- AUCKH- ACAUGH- KKH- KACK- KACKH," Wesley suddenly began to cough, hitting his chest with his hand.
He only felt the effect. Like he had just swallowed a whole lot of dust.
He got up from the book, looking around for water. "Where did I see it?"
It was in a barrel. He scooped from it with a very old wooden cup and drank it all. He felt extremely better. Better than usual and more accepting.
By the time he had turned back to where he was seated before, he noticed that the book had opened. Wesley was stunned.
More shocking was that the book looked fresh. As fine as new.
Wasn't this a glued old book that wouldn't open? How did it suddenly become a fresh looking book and opened?
After a long time, Wesley Brown bent down and picked up the book. The moment he touched it, he felt his chest pound slower than natural before returning back to normal.
The book had a thick brown cover, but slim and light book pages. Meaning, there'd probably be over a thousand pages in it. But that wasn't the shocking thing about this book. What was shocking was, open the first page opened and the other pages couldn't be opened.
Wesley gently closed the book and tried opening it again. It did open yeah, but it opened to the first page alone. Like the other pages were locked or something.
This was quite something.
But what was the use of a book? Not like it could make a door, or a chair. Or provide food. Or make this tavern into a place worth staying in. Right? Right!
That first page had just two sentences.
The first was: "The God of Beer & Immorality Was Here!"
The second was: "This Ledger belongs to the descendants of the Tavern Gods. Keep the Tavern going and do not let it be Destroyed! Or brought down! YOU SHALL DIE IF YOU DO!"
"..."
Wesley Brown quickly closed the book, feeling threatened in his heart.
What kind of nonsense was this, Wesley couldn't fathom.
But it was really interesting and worth wasting time on, especially as he had a lot of time to spare. A whole life time of time. He curious as to what next.
"Maybe I should fart on it again?"
His chest suddenly burned, making Wesley fall in his knees, holding his chest as the book rolled out of his hand. "It hurts."
Wesley Brown couldn't help but tear his shirt. His chest burned like it was both internally and EXTERNALLY set on fire. His eyes bulged when he saw freshly hot stamped symbol on his chest.
The symbol, similar to the symbol of an eye covered in a vortex, on the book cover was hot stamped on his chest.
Wesley's pale face was weirdly full of intrigue.
He was in a fantasy world now! Not earth! And it felt amazing to experience magic. Because what was this if it wasn't magic?
Wesley laughed, still clutching his chest in pain.
But that excitement didn't last. His smile vanished when out of his chest, a visible smoke rose from his skin pores and dangerously attacked his eyes. Both.
An instant pain spread around his body, from his brain down to the sole of his feet!
This pain rendered him speechless. His throat and whole body was drying up. He couldn't even shout! It felt like his eyes were being poured hot liquid like molten lava and then that heat was slowly going into the whole of his body and burning everything!
But soon it ended. It stopped and Wesley was left breathing hard while the heat cool off while lying down. When it totally cooled off Wesley felt light and fresh. His eyes felt sharp, like myopic eyes being worn medicated glasses.
By the time he had calmed down for a long time he could estimate to be an hour, Wesley turned to the book that was a small distance away from him. It was open, revealing another fresh page.
He quickly grabbed it.
This book was the reason why what happened to him happened to him. This book definitely had great origin.
When Wesley held it he saw that all the pages were now unlocked. It was all opened. "That easy?" He scoffed. He was expecting it'd be a page by page reveal. But waa it all just opened after a few minutes of torturing him~
Wesley's face soon fell when he flipped the pages and saw that it was just a recipe book.
He felt like crying.
All those torture, for just recipes?