Taro walked to his apartment door and opened it after struggling. His bag weighed him down, and he was too tired to do anything. It was a miracle he didn't fall and doze off on the train when he was coming home from work. He removed his shoes at the front of the door after coming in and quickly removed his jacket, throwing it on the chair near the couch. He went to the fridge to grab a bottle of water after throwing his briefcase on the couch. Opening the fridge, it did not light up.
"Damn it! I forgot that they cut my lights. I forgot to pay for them again, and it's been two days already. How else would I remember anyway when I'm not usually at home?" he grumbled
He peered into the fridge looking for something that he could eat before he went to bed. He didn't eat much and just drank the office coffee, which was quickly depleting since all his colleagues lived on that these days. The company's financial status wasn't the brightest ever since the market crashed, and they had to improvise and change their strategies. They had started client hunting in a whole new field, which most of them were not familiar with, and they were forced to at least learn about it and bring results that could save them from bankruptcy. Taro himself had only studied economics and accountancy, not entirely to the liking of his parents, and now he was busy with marketing and designing, client hunting. With some luck, one of his colleagues managed to fish out a big-shot businessman who decided to work with them, and they had been working nonstop since it was a tight schedule. He hadn't had much sleep lately because of that.
He grabbed a small container that had some leftover pork cutlets and fish fingers. He grabbed the rice cooker, and there was some leftover rice. He couldn't reheat it since the electricity was out. He quickly ate and got ready for bed. He only had three more hours till he had to wake up again and go to work.
He went to his room and almost fell tripping over a pile of clothes near his door. It didn't help his situation with the darkness of the house and a little light from his phone. Overtime at work made him neglect his living conditions. He could not wait till this was over, and he could only wish to get over it.
At dawn, his alarm woke him up, and he felt like he had only closed his eyes for ten minutes. Deep down, he knew that wasn't the case, but he only had to get up and go to work. He jumped in the shower and quickly washed up. He went to the closet to pick an outfit, but there were none on the hangers.
"Right, I didn't wash any of the fits." He grumbled
He bent down to pick from a small pile on the closet floor. He intensely looked at the clothes that had stains from the time he went to a diner with some friends who forced him when he didn't want to. He had spilled some food on himself. He couldn't wear that, he thought. He straightened and looked at the chair on his study table. There were a few clothes there which seemed decent enough. He grabbed an outfit. He had only worn it the day before yesterday, and it was not that dirty. He sprayed a little cologne to mask the scent of already-worn clothes and grabbed his bag on the way out. It was still pretty early at six since he had to hurry to the subway to catch the train. The train departs pretty early because of the morning rush hour.
After getting off the train, he walked to the office building and found some of his colleagues still there, having not changed their clothes or even left the place. It was a common thing when there was overtime. Yesterday, he managed to ask to leave before the others so that he could at least change. He had slept at the office the last two days, and he did not want to stay another day because he might as well become unpleasant. He knew very well that today he would stay at the office overnight again because he had gone home.
It wasn't something that he agreed with when it came to cooperate jobs, but it was never addressed and people got accustomed to it.
Two days in, and he was still working. He stayed overnight at the office, and it was taking a toll on him. There were piles of work documents on his desk that hadn't been completed yet but were already due. He definitely couldn't take a break, and the boss wasn't letting him off. It was already one in the morning, and he was still typing some quotation.
The screen glared at him brightly, and the letter on the screen seemed to be dancing. He rubbed his eyes, and this didn't stop. His head was too heavy. He felt as if his head was dunked in water upside down. He grabbed the cup of coffee on his desk and took a sip, only to spit it out.
"Cold!" he exclaimed with a hoarse voice
"Ah, ah," he said, his voice still hoarse
Maybe he was too tired, he thought. He decided to take a nap. He got comfortable on the chair and dozed off. He fell into a deep slumber, which little did he know he might never wake up to…
Windy but hot, that was his first thought when he came to.
'Why was the ground so itchy, too? Wait, why would I be on the ground?' he thought and started panicking
He opened his eyes in haste and quickly closed them because of two glaring suns that shone on his face.
'Wait, two?!' he slowly opened his eyes again, shading them from the sun with his arm.
He sat back down and looked around. He was in a field, and it was so bright. He tried to look at the sun carefully, and yes, just as he thought, there were two suns.
"Where am I?" he asked himself
He stood up and stretched his limbs. His mouth was dry, and he wanted water. He felt like he had been sleeping for too long. A screech bellowed from above, and he alarmingly looked up only to see a dinosaur bird flying in the sky above him. It was greenish-grey in colour, and it had a long tail. It was as big as three men. This was new. The only way he could describe it was as those wyverns he had read about in manga. What was this place? If anything, he was sure he wasn't in Japan at all.
Suddenly, things stopped moving. Even the wind seemed to stop. This took him by surprise, and he looked around, wondering what was happening. Is he perhaps dreaming and still at the office? How long has he been sleeping to start lucid dreaming? His surroundings shifted to a cloudy white space. In front of him appeared a humanoid being. It was a man dressed in some fancy Greek-like clothes, and he had on a flowery crown.
"…"