"Uhh-" Dreja yawned out, stretching his arms over his head. "What are you doing, not getting up?" he directed towards Zach.
Zach, wanting to get some sleep, ignored the old man and tried to close his eyes once more.
"Hey! You'll be late, and they'll cut your portion of tea," Dreja warned.
"Huh?" What now? Zach bitterly thought.
"We've got work, or have you forgotten?" Dreja said, his tone sarcastic, which Zach did not appreciate since he was in the worst of moods.
"What's happening?" Zach, arising from his position, asked groggily. "What work?"
"The Ziesman's factory, it's a good thing that they expanded. Otherwise, I wouldn't know what I would have done," Dreja said, something in his tone sombre as if deep in thought.
"Umm, okay, so what type of work is required of me?" Zach asked, wanting to clear the air and at least feel better about his new life and its prospects.
"I suppose I can do it if it is some type of bookkeeping or assisting in the offices, or is it in sales or marketing?" Zach rambled on, talking without a pause.
Dreja didn't answer but laughed out loud from his belly. "Boy, who do you think you are?" Dreja said, looking at Zach as if he had grown two heads.
"Ye'll be stackin' and loadin' shit, and then after all that, ye'll do some more stackin' and loadin' up into the crates. Bookkeepin', my ass!" Dreja hooted out a laughter he could not contain, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.
"You mean manual work?" Zach asked, dreading the truth.
"What else?!" Dreja blurted. "What do you expect from nobodies like you and me?" He said more so as a statement rather than a question, almost like this was common knowledge.
"Now you better start gettin' dressed, or you'll be late!" Dreja said as he finished putting on the last article of clothing and tucking his shirt in.
Zach went over to the basin and looked at the olive-coloured bar of soap. He wet it, lathered it to a foam, and washed his face. His new face.
He looked at the person in front of him, a complete stranger. Dark hair that was unkept and covering his face. His skin was tanned, probably from being outside for far too long; it was freckled with many brown spots. Straight and dark eyebrows frame a set of storm-coloured eyes. He had a straight, almost feminine nose that curved slightly upwards, and even his lips had a pouty fullness.
Underneath all the grime, Zach could tell that he was the type of boy whose features turned from cute and lovely to handsome and dashing. Someone Zach definitely would have envied back home. If I'm stuck here forever, then at least that's something to look forward to, he thought to himself.
The ashy grey pupils weren't Zach's; they were whoever this boy was. The boy was young for sure, but his eyes reflected sadness in them, worth years of life and a hard life. Something Zach hadn't experienced himself. It was disarming to look into your own features and not feel and know them as your own.
Zach exhaled a long breath and nodded to his own reflection.
"I've got this!" he whispered to himself as a form of encouragement or, perhaps more realistically, a hopeful wish.
As he buttoned his pants up and put his thin jacket over his work shirt, he cringed at the smell. There's no point being a looker if you smell like shit. He noted that an immediate laundry day was in place.
Zach was glad to find a new pair of socks in a small box by the end of his bed. It was this boy's belongings. He would have to search through it when he got back to give some clues as to why Zach had ended up in his body.
Dreja was bending down by his bed to put on old-looking metal-capped work boots. So Zach looked around for his pair and instead found a clog-looking pair made with worn-out leather and a thin-plated wooden sole. They were definitely not work-safe or anywhere-safe. Zach wanted to let out a loud lament, but there was no other pair, so it could only mean these were it.
Zach was surprised that they were much more comfortable than they looked. It was a tad too big for his feet, and the toe areas were filled with some woollen fluff, adding some much-needed padding.
When they were both ready, Zach let Dreja lead him out the door. Zach was almost reluctant to follow since he didn't know what was out there, and being ignorant of it all felt safer, maybe even better. Something in Zach told him that once he left these four walls, everything he dreads to be true will come true.
Still, he followed. This boy, whose body he now occupied, seemed to have braved far greater and scarier things than facing what was out there. If a grown man like Zach can't even try to face the world, then can he expect to survive life here?
When Zach followed Dreja out of the room, he was surprised by the decrepit state of their housing. There was a long hallway plastered with black mould, chipping paint, and yellow stains that marked the ceiling and trickled down in splashes along the walls and even the floor.
Yikes, I need to leave this place and find a new place ASAP! Zach noted mentally.
As they walked on, Zach noticed the many bustling people in the building. He assumed that there would be morning workers, but he had underestimated the number, for they all seemed to be up and ready.
Some left their doors wide open as they walked out, leaving their rooms exposed. Zach couldn't help but be curious about the lives of the people here. Some were in decent shape, others not so much. It seemed that Zach had been lucky to share his room with only Dreja; others weren't as lucky.
Some didn't even have the makeshift bed Zach complained about and instead slept on the thin mattress, splayed on the floor, a dirty floor.
Zach quickly realised that the more he looked, the more depressing his situation got. He had no clue who the kid he had replaced was and absolutely no idea what type of world he had been shifted to; all that he knew was that whoever this kid was, he lived in a world of poverty and hardship.
Both Dreja and Zach had walked three floors before they reached the bottom, and there was a large and rounded man who had a tin can by the exit. As people exited, they dropped their payments, like toll passes.
He had a moustache that twirled at the ends, a beady set of eyes and a smile full of teeth, a typical landlord delighted by the sight of money, Zach assumed without context.
Shit, Zach almost panicked as he felt around his pockets and found nothing in them and was relieved when he discovered a very small hidden pocket inside his jacket.
Ah, what a smart kid, Zach deduced as he nodded, feeling for some change.
He dropped a square copper coin and made the curtsey head gesture he had seen the other men do as they walked off.
"Oi, you little bugger!" the man yanked at Zach's collar, stopping him from leaving the building.
"What the f-" Zach started to say, but stopped himself mid-sentence and instead asked, "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong is you're tryin' to rob me", the toll man spoke, his voice a pitchy scratchy sound and held much malice.
"I thought that was all I had to pay. I saw the others paying only that much!" Zach exclaimed, perplexed by the man's explosive and physical reaction.
"In fact, I don't even know what I'm paying you for!" Zach defensively accused the man.
"Well, don't you see that the 'others' are sharing their rooms with four others, and you with only one! And you knew the rules, daily charge or no stay. I don't run a brothel here. I ain't housing you for free." The landlord sneered at Zach as he looked down at him.
It seemed like a brothel with that daily charge, Zach almost said, but he bit his tongue when he felt Dreja's hand touch his shoulder, and he nodded for him to pay up.
"How much do I owe you?" Zach muttered, trying for a polite tone through gritted teeth but failing.
"Another one!" the man said this time with a fake hospitable smile, not noticing Zach's tensed composure, or that he had purposely ignored it.
Zach looked to Dreja for confirmation, and when the older man nodded, he gave in. It wasn't that he trusted the man. It was that he had no choice but to do so.
Surely there are better options out here, kid, right? Zach asked mentally, but got no answer. Figures!
He waited for Dreja to pay for his night. Before verifying something, "That was quite the fee, wasn't it? A daily charge," Zach tried to sound casual. He wanted to confirm that this was the norm.
"Well, yeah, but you know there's hardly any space here in Solaria, so you're lucky to find one with a roof, ya know," Dreja answered absentmindedly.
Zach didn't know but replied anyway, "Right, but two of those coins!" Zach tried, but now he only had six more in his secret pocket and a ring of some sort, which he decided he would look at when he had time. He assumed that their accommodation must be dear if someone had to give such a large share of what he guessed was this kid's only fortune.
"Like the man said, ye did pick a private room and all, and those, they run quite a big", Dreja explained.
Huh, so this kid likes to live big. Zach was happy about that fact, though, since he really appreciated privacy.
"You said private, but why do I have to share the room with you?" Zach asked, his tone rather neutral.
Dreja stopped in his tracks and looked at him as if deciding whether to be offended or not. After a few moments, he must have decided not to, since he had given an answer to Zach.
"Well, did ya like the runnin' water and basin?" This time, it was Dreja who asked Zach a question.
"Umm, I guess it was useful when we were getting ready," Zach replied, confused at where the conversation had headed.
"And do you guess it's better than doing that? Not every room has runnin' water so ye'll pay extra for hogging it to yerself." Dreja solemnly explained. He pointed towards a group of people lining up at a water fountain, and beside the line of people was also an outhouse that filled the air with human stench and other odours Zach would rather not identify.
Grossss, Zach almost said out loud. There was also a suspicious brown goo that spilled from the small wooden shack.
"Ugh, I see-" Zach almost gagged at both the sight and smell.
"Riiight", Zach said, nodding his head while he pinched his nose shut and tried to hold his breath for at least another block. What medieval setting is this?