Chapter 3

Caden thought about all that has happened so far. He was driving back from the airport after spending a week with his daughter, Sandy. He had finally scrounged up enough money for a visit to Austin by working whatever job he could find. A decade in the military, that at the end just kicked him out, with menial retirement support had a cherry on top of a combat injury that left his right hand with only a thumb and an index and middle finger, the middle finger half cut. Finding a job was a nightmare. Apart from getting a graveyard shift security job, which paid measly, Caden was washing dishes and sometimes fixing cars. His high school girlfriend and later wife, Natalie, didn’t want the future she saw if she stayed with Caden. Not for their newborn daughter. She filed for separation and flew to her parent’s house in Austin, telling Caden that she loved him but can’t accept the life she and Sandy would be relegated to if stayed with Caden. Barely four months had gone by when she filed for divorce and asked for nothing. She allowed Caden unlimited visits for their daughter, but kept the stipulation that Sandy will stay with her and Caden must come to Austin if he wishes to visit Sandy. He would be allowed to take Sandy out to anywhere within Austin, and can even keep her with him in his hotel room till he had to go back.

Caden wanted to move to Austin to be closer to his daughter. He loved Natalie but was heartbroken when she said about wanting a better future. He wanted her to be happy and so he agreed to the divorce. However, it killed him when he received an invitation to Natalie’s wedding, with a man who owned several businesses in Austin, and a note saying that he was still welcome in Sandy’s life and that he would still forever be her father. Caden’s latest visit was to meet his daughter and to find a job. Finding one as a construction worker, he went back to LA to pack his stuff for moving. He was on his way from the airport to his apartment to get started on the move when an SUV rammed into him from the side. Caden was already driving over 130kph and the momentum of his car kept it going until it crashed into the side rails, breaking them as it pierced his chest and finally crashing onto the eighteen-wheeler in the opposite lane. And then he woke up and found himself in heaven, yet it felt more as if he time traveled. How did he really get here? He remembered the feeling of being in darkness before being pulled and then washing up here. Caden wondered where he really was. Probably Europe since all that he has seen so far looked like the Roman Republic but mixed with the early medieval era. He needed to know where he is, and when he is.

Caden had to find a way to get money, that much was clear. He had already told the owner of the bar he’d pay him twenty copper coins and needed to find a way to get them before tomorrow. Deciding that this was a more important matter than wondering how he got here, at least for now, he got up and locked the door before heading downstairs. He found Gaius working the bar and now there were some empty seats available. He sat on one and Gaius said with a grunt “Dinner won’t be till sun down.” While he wiped the bar top. “I know. Tell me, where can I get some job or work around here?” Caden replied. The bartender stopped wiping, glared at Caden, and asked “Ye have money for tomorrow’s payment, right?”. Caden started back and said “You’ll get your twenty coppers tomorrow.” Gaius grunted before he resumed wiping “Listen kid, ya say ya can pay, then I’ll wait till tomorrow. Now, don’t know nothing about jobs available but right there” pointing at the section of a bar where there were parchments stuck too the wall with nails “ya’ll find work the locals need done. Now personally, I need more meat because the hunter, Bruce, was supposed to deliver yesterday but told me he found another client. Ya get a bull for me and I’ll pay ya ten coppers, what ya say.” Caden knew it was half of what he needed to pay but it was a start. He just hoped hunting meat wouldn’t waste too much time. He wanted to stay here for a couple of days, preferably without getting in trouble for not paying his dues. “Alright, I’ll get you your meat. Know where I can get some hunting equipment? I’d need a sword, bow, some arrows, and a hunting knife.” “Ya telling me ya don’t even have a sword! Gods!” Gaius sol his head in disappointment “Ya can have my bow and sword but I want it back cleaned. Can’t do anything about arrows or the knife. But ya can get them from the blacksmith down the street. Wait here, I’ll get my sword and bow.” and he left to the back room.

Caden didn’t have to wait long as the bartender came out and handed Caden the sword and the bow. The sword wasn’t like anything he handled before. This one had a poorly designed handle, the blade had some rolling on it, and there were early signs of rust on it. Gaius saw Caden looking at the poor condition of the sword and said “It’s the cheaper one that I can spare. Ya didn’t think I’d give my personal one, did ya?” The bow looked fine, though the drawstring could use some tightening. However, it could only launch arrows a short distance. The weapons were still something better than nothing, considering his situation. Caden took the bow and wore it across his back and shoulders. He gripped the sword in his hand since he didn’t have a holster and thanked the bartender with a promise to bring them back. Before he could leave, Gaius said “Ya can find the bulls on the grassland next to farmer Kentus’ potato field. And if ya find Bruce, tell em Gaius said to fuck off and die.”

Caden finally found farmer Kentus’ potato fields. It took him some asking to get here and he could already see some cows and bulls in the distance grazing on the grassland. The dirt road on the edge of the potato field and the grassland was connected to the dirt road on the other side via a small arched bridge made of neatly cut rocks. Caden didn’t have the money for arrows so he had to make do with his sword. Using his covert operations training, he sneaked up to a bull but went prone and still within the tall grass when the bull looked back. Once it was satisfied, the bull resumed grazing and that was when Caden lurched forward and drove his sword from below and into the torso of the bull, piercing its heart. The bull kicked and ran five meters before it collapsed, rapidly bleeding out. Caden was waiting for it to bleed out so that he could drag it back to the bar when another bull came running at him with its horns pointed at Caden. He barely dodged it by rolling when the bull was turning around for a second attempt. Then another bull joined and Caden knew he had to take them down or they won’t stop till they were sure that Caden was dead. He dodged and ran, and made cuts whenever he could but the sword had too much rolling and was ineffective for defending.

The bulls had managed to corner Caden, who was a bit worked up but still calm and calculating his opportunities, under the small arched bridge where the stream of water was running through. Caden quickly picked up pebbles and tiny rocks from the bank of the stream and threw them at the bulls like a slingshot. One of the bulls backed up while the other rushed forward to attack. Luckily, this time the sword managed to cut the major artery in the bull’s neck and that bull too kicked for a few moments before it collapsed from the rapid blood loss. Caden continued to throw rocks at the other bull that soon ran away back to the grassland. Mildly tired from the dodging and running, Caden sat by the stream and looked at the eyes of the dead bull. After his breathing returned to normal, he got up to the dead bull and decided to drag this one back to the bar. Caden grabbed the front legs of the bull, and with all his might and strength, he dragged the bull a few meters away from the bank before he relaxed to gather his strength again. Caden had barely dragged it away from the underside of the bridge when he fell back due to the side of the bull having stuck on something. He turned the bull to the other side and pulled again, leaving a trail in the grass and soil. He relaxed again to gather his strength but this time, he caught something barely glinting from within the trail where the bull got stuck.

Caden squatted down and took a couple of deep breaths. He wasn’t exhausted by a long shot, what with his now younger and more strengthened body, but he didn’t want to tire himself since he knew he had to find another quick job before tomorrow. A few moments later, he got up and crouched next to the trail where he saw a glint and thought it was probably a knife. He grabbed the blade of his sword and shoveled the soil to the side. It certainly wasn’t a knife since he had to keep on shoveling the soil to the side. Slowly the object started to become visible enough for Caden to realize that it was a chest. It had gold on the edges. The top was flat, as were all other sides. However, the top had what seemed to be an ornament made of gold. It looked like an angel holding a flower. The flower seemed to be made of a strange kind of metal. It shined and reflected like a clear diamond yet it was completely opaque. The flower resembled a black rose and so it was carved out of something black yet it shined just like a diamond. The chest had no front. It was covered in weird symbols within a circular carving with weird lines around the chest. The same thing repeated on both of the longer sides. It was as if someone wrote a logogram. The logograms and the symbols were both in gold. But the circular carving seemed to be filled with the same material that the flower was made of. Caden could see that the sides of the chest had rectangular carvings about three centimeters deep on each side. There were no hinges and no identifiable lock. Caden thought about using his sword as a lever but he didn’t want to risk damaging the chest.