The summer sun lost its harsh grip on the town as the day ascended towards the later hours. It slowly sank in the horizon, behind the short mountain, dense with trees. A couple of squirrels were harassing one another somewhere within the mountain.
With temperatures rising up to 42°C/107.6°F just three hours ago, the dirt path Victor walked on was still warm.
August was a prime month for people to stay home, as the heat insisted so, but nevertheless, some people went out, either out of necessity, or for fun.
After working a horrendous fifty hour, six day work week as a Video Editor, Victor felt that he was going to go insane. Working from home was not as glamorous as people maintained it was, and after spending a couple of years grinding through this job, he knew every strand of its bad sides.
Much like the strands of hair that fell from his head a little bit at a time, revealing a massive forehead centimeter by centimeter, his rapid physical decay was a stamp of why this job wasn't worth it. A twenty-four year old man shouldn't look like he was surviving the aftermath of a nuclear war.
Nevertheless, he insisted on having some time to himself on his day off. Otherwise he'd go insane cooped up in his family townhouse.
The heat didn't bother him. With his fishing gear stashed in his backpack, he hiked through the dirt path adjacent to the stretching mountainside, and headed towards his favorite fishing spot. The trees surrounding the path provided plenty of shade, and although the high humidity dehydrated him rather quickly, he was prepared. He had brought two big bottles of water with him.
As he got close to the spot, he couldn't help chuckling.
The towering mountain in front of him, its exterior adjacent to the river, mainly consisted of light brown stone. Large pieces of stone were either shaved off by the passing river eons ago, or were pulled down by the pressure of gravity, from all the way up to the top. Shaved off.
The dirt path pierced between it and the river, leading towards the front tail of another mountain rich in greenery, but he didn't want to go deep into the wilderness. Not while night time was less than three hours away, and besides, his favorite fishing spot was just a few more feet away.
"Arse-crack of the Mountain, hehehe," he kept chuckling to himself.
The tall stone exterior, facing towards the river, did look like a 'hole' so to speak. A gaping depth descended to the bottom part of the mountain, like a burrow, and he chuckled every time he looked at it.
Locally, it was known as the Raven's Peak. Big Ravens with a wingspan stretching up to three feet usually glided above the mountain, but he didn't care about them. He was here to fish on his one day off.
Anyway, he slipped through the border of the river, directly in front of the bud-end of the mountain, and carefully walked over a large, smooth, but slightly narrow boulder that had crashed down from the mountain years ago, a few feet past the river's border. This was his favorite fishing spot.
At the opposite side of the river, there was a pocket of calm waters, where fat Carps fed at the bottom of it. He had bought an extra-long, 5 meter/16.4 foot fishing rod a few weeks ago, just for the occasion. He didn't want the harsh stream of the river, directly under his feet, dragging his line away whenever he casted it.
As he prepared his gear, a herd of cows poked their noses a few meters away from him. The back-part of the herd was hidden by the thick vegetation that climbed over the tall trees, followed by a sharp right turn that avoided the tail of the next mountain.
The cows then walked past him, and despite the fact that their cow bells rang, he didn't hear them. He was too close to the river, its harsh side, even, where the river's path made a sharp turn eastward. The river whooshed as if it was aware of its power, deafening him.
Two Herdsmen walked behind the cows, chatting it up, the bald heads hidden below their old hats silently hinting that the Herdsman were past retirement. Cows were their livelihood, but as for today, it was time for them to go home.
One of the Herdsmen, his beard stub ascending in length, leading to a luscious, white mustache, noticed Victor, squatting on the big boulder, hooking a worm, and preparing to cast his line.
Almost immediately he got pissed off, and said to his friend, "How many times do I have to tell that boy to be careful?"
Victor prepared his rod, and was ready to cast his line.
At that moment, he felt a firm grip on his shoulder.
Spooked, he cast his line forward clumsily. His lead sinker landed on the other side of the river, beached, on a layer of dry rocks that poked out of the vegetation, right in front of the line of trees.
A raven cawed in the distance, as if it mocked his epic flop.
"God fucking damn it," he grunted, and turned around.
His gaze dotted on the Herdsman's Adam's Apple, along with the strap of a rifle chaffing his neck. Victor had to look up, as he was shorter by nearly a foot in comparison.
"Don't fish here, go up the river, it's safer." the Herdsman said, "One slip here, and I'd have to drag you home with broken legs. Hell, you'd even be lucky if someone saw you fall in."
"I guess you're right," he sighed.
Afterwards, he faced the river, and started reeling in his line. This was when he discovered that the hook was snagged.
The Herdsman held on to him, as he was albeit paranoid, and didn't want to see the young man fall in.
Victor tightened his muscles as he tried to free the hook, but it was no use. Precision was not his specialty when it came to fishing, so he decided to just give his rod one quick pull, so the line would snap. He could always tie another hook and sinker on his line.
To his surprise, that one quick tug actually freed the hook. He could see the lead sinker flying up, and it was about to hit the water.
At that very moment, he heard a feminine voice chirping in his ear, right before the heavy, lead sinker landed in the water!
[Hello!]
[I would like to introduce you to the Multiversal Fishing System.]
[If you're interested, please refrain from throwing your hook in the water first...]
Before this odd voice in his head could even finish her sentence, the sinker splashed into the river. The hook spun clockwise in a snug spiral, and sank in the water a short moment later.
"Oh… shit?" he held his breath, not knowing what to expect.
A short second later, his long rod snapped in half, and started to disintegrate!
Before the rod could've withered away into nothingness, it somehow glitched out of existence, and was swapped with another rod! Fatter, shorter, bronze in color instead of the standard blue he was used to.
His eyes dotted up and down as he tried to fully comprehend what was going on, but he could hardly believe his eyes!
As he held onto this new rod tightly, the world around him suddenly wrinkled in layers of a green, static-blur, as if reality itself was swirling, bending its own rules, glitching!
Victor blinked once to shake the blur away, and when he opened his eyes again, he was on the other side of the river somehow, looking at a tree!
The blinding, and equally sudden appearance of snow that followed, burned his pupils, and afflicted a sharp pain in his cortisol-wrinkled forehead.
"What the fuck!" he looked up at the sky, snow flakes landing, and melting away on his lightly sun-kissed face. "No!"
"Interesting…" the Herdsman spoke behind him, his voice low.
Then, he pulled his hands away from Victor's shoulders.