The Nowhere Man: Book One

Chapter Two: Wayfaring Stranger

The stranger and Courage travel towards Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, hoping to find answers and hoping to find the mysterious "Sorceress." A chance encounter sheds some light on the world that the stranger has woken up and found himself in.

Despite walking for an entire day, it felt as though they had made no progress through the unchanging wasteland whatsoever. The stranger wondered over and over again if, perhaps, it were indeed infinite. He wondered if this was all there was to the world, just a big and empty and untamed frontier. He was quite thankful that he had taken the hat, as it had worked wonders to shield against the unforgiving rays of the desert sun. Courage was doing fine, and seemed to rather enjoy the long walk they'd embarked on thus far. The stranger figured he was just happy to have someone around after spending so long alone.

Last night, just as the sun was setting, they had come upon a well by chance and had their fill of water. Sam bathed, as there was no telling how long he had been laying there before Courage found him, collecting filth. They drank with reckless abandon, like Olympian gods to wine. They had set up camp right next to the well as that had seemed as good a place as any, and in the morning they drank as much as they could once again. As hot as the day was though, the thirst had begun to circle once more like a patient, waiting vulture.

"How did you do that?" Courage piped up at some random point.

"Do what?" the man asked.

"You know, fight like that against those ladies back at the farmhouse. You took care of all three of them like it was nothing. That wasn't just simple, dumb luck. You've had practice."

"I wouldn't know if I had. I still can't remember. I just shut my brain off, let my reflexes carry me through, and everything turned out fine on the other side."

"I guess that makes sense. About as much sense as it can make right now. Hm."

"Speaking of, I've been meaning to ask. Why would those ladies be after you? They seemed pretty hell-bent on getting their hands on you."

Courage shrugged behind the stranger, keeping pace.

"I don't know. I've never seen them before and I don't know who they are. They didn't seem like a pleasant group though."

"Well somebody wants to get a hold of you. Somebody with some serious pull. Somebody who made that merc too scared to talk, even while she was looking down the barrel of a loaded gun."

"I'm not so sure I ever want to meet whoever that is," Courage remarked.

"I can say with absolute certainty, you do not," the man said, matter-of-factly. "I have an idea of why they might be after you though."

"Why's that?"

"Back at the house, when your smart-ass computer brought up what was on the drive, it came up with that list. The Scribe, the Sorceress, the Ronin, the Berserker, the Bounty Hunter, and the Guardian. The directions were to look for the Sorceress, because according to that drive, I already have the Scribe. Something tells me I wasn't just randomly laying out there where you stumbled across me by chance. You were meant to find me."

The man could practically hear the gears turning slowly but surely in the dog's head as he pieced together what he was saying.

"Somebody put you out there. Somebody wanted me to find you."

"Mhm."

"Okay, that doesn't make sense though. Why? And what would I be the Scribe of?"

The man chuckled in his hoarse and raspy tone. "If I knew the answer to that, I'd tell you. Right now, Foster's Figments of Imagination–"