Chapter 1

Mathias awoke to the sounds of horses and dogs. At first he thought he was on someone's ranch or farm but when he sat up and looked around, that thought was dashed.

"Oh shit," was Mathias' reaction to what he saw. He was looking out across a wide expanse and couldn't see much in the way of anything. It was just flat. He stood and looked around.

Mathias found himself standing at the entrance to a small box canyon that wasn't more then 300ft deep and barely 100ft wide at its widest. The entrance where Mathias stood was only about 40ft wide. The entrance was blocked by a wagon made of metal. Mathias thought it was Titanium but couldn't be sure.

It was 20ft long and 7ft wide with 4 wheels, a hinged back and sides measuring 3ft in height. The seat at the front would comfortably seat 4 and brakes were of the block design that Mathias had seen on several of the ranches he had worked at. It had some sort of frame on its back that rose 6ft above the sides of the wagon and extended out far enough to cover the seat. The tongue on the wagon was large enough for 4 big horses.

From where he stood, Mathias could see into the canyon and was again surprised at what he saw. It was filled with horses, at least 40 of them. Most were white or grey but there were several blacks of varying sizes and even 4 Palominos. He thought about going to look them over when he realised that he was feeling the slight breeze that was coming off the plain, all over his body. Looking down, he realised he was naked, or thought he was.

The body didn't look like his. It was too young, well defined and unmarred from any scars or injuries, unlike what he remembered his body to be. And his penis was bigger, he added as an afterthought. He set the thought aside until he found something to wear. By chance, he looked in the wagon and saw several chests of various sizes along each side of the wagon, with piles of saddles and tack in between; the rear 6ft was empty. He went to the back, opened it up and he climbed in.

The first chest measured 3ft wide, 2ft long and 2ft deep and had a curved lid. On this lid was a sheet of paper. Mathias went over and knelt before the chest and read the paper.

Mathias was unsure of what to do but looking down at himself, he was reminded of his nakedness and so moved the paper aside and opened the chest.

The chest was filled with clothes, 2 pairs of boots and even a genuine Australia Driza-Bone. Sorting through the pile, he extracted a shirt and skin pants and quickly put them on, with a simple leather belt to hold the pants up. There was a belt attached to the inside lid of the chest but it had several clips on it and Mathias didn't like it because of them. Next, he selected a pair of boots with a slight heel on them as he felt he would be doing a bit of riding, given the horses and saddles. They were tight enough to stay on but the tops were loose enough to let him slip his foot out easily if he needed to.

The last item that Mathias put on resembled a black, sleeveless trench coat but it was lighter and had slits up its sides and back to his waist. Mathias didn't know why he liked it but he did and so put it on. With this last article, Mathias closed the clothes chest and turned his attention to the other chests.

They weren't chests but stacked boxes, each box being 4ft long, 1ft wide and about 4 inches high. The piles were stacked 8 high. The one on the top of the stack next to his clothes chest was decorated compared to the plain boxes of the others. He lifted it off the stack and set it on the lid of the clothes chest.