"Don't get me wrong, I'm not offering out of pity or anything like that," Asbel replied. "And you won't have to repay me. I'd just like to help you, that's all. I mean, it's not every day that you wind up on another world, right?"

Or maybe it was. He supposed when he got right down to it, he didn't know much about this man's circumstances. Anything, really.

"Though I guess it is pretty weird for a stranger to be saying things like this."