Thank you all for your support and comments. I am happy you are enjoying it so far. Here is the next chapter, but first a couple of notes.
This chapter is also dry and does not contain any scenes for reasons outlined in the chapter. At this point, the story has taken on a life of it's own and the first scene will not be until Chapter 4 for world building and plot purposes. As I've said previously, I wish to write a good story, not just another "Dick Biggins fucks everyone from paragraph two on."
All opinions and views expressed in the story are the opinions and views of the characters, respectfully, and do not reflect the views of the author.
All person(s) engaging in, witnessing, or interacting with any content of a sexual nature are over the age of 18.
A big shout out and thank you to the editor of the first two chapters, KenjiSato, for his amazing work. That man loves his commas.
Without further ado:
Chapter 2
An Eccentric Fae
Zeke could feel himself floating in the darkness. Sulena had been right, this was, indeed, like a dreamless sleep, but the fact that he was conscious of it must have meant that he was waking up. He thought about his experiences with the gods, and their words to him. Sulena's words, in particular, had resonated with him, and he felt some relief from the memories of his past life.
Well, seems like it's time to start my new life in this world... what was it called again? Krakennassy? Calabrese?
He strained his mind to remember the last words of the god, but he had been so sleepy then that it had been hard to focus. Eventually, he gave up and figured he would probably hear it again someday, and moved on to other thoughts.
I wonder what my parents'll be like?
he mused. Then, a thought suddenly occurred to him. He couldn't remember his childhood. Not the one from his past life, but from this one. Sulena had said that his old memories wouldn't return until his body was old enough to handle them, but did that mean that he would forget all of his new life's memories? Was this new body just on autopilot until then?
As his senses started to return slowly, he began to feel his body once again.
Something was wrong. There was a heavy weight on him, and he struggled to breathe. His right shoulder and the back of his head had a numbing ache, and he could smell a sharp scent in the air around him. He recognized it immediately.
It was smoke. Specifically, the smell of burning wood, but mixed with another, more terrifying, smell he knew. Burning flesh. He struggled for a moment, trying to move his body, but there was something hard and jagged pressing into his back, sending pain up his spine. He slowly opened his eyes and allowed them to adjust.
The first thing he noticed was, it was dark and he had what appeared to be a strange Heads-Up Display over his vision. There were faint lines of information, semi-transparent, so as not to cloud his peripheral vision, and they occupied the corners of wherever he looked. There was even a faint cross-hair that followed the direction of his focus. But, the second thing he saw sent horror piercing through his heart.
All around, bodies were lying on the ground and fire was raging in the trees, basking the scene in an eerie orange glow. Two of the bodies to his left were on fire, sending thick black smoke into the sky above them. There had obviously been a fierce battle and whoever these people were... had lost.
On top of him, covering his body, was a woman with blonde hair, wearing an odd-looking pink dress with frills. There were numerous arrow shafts protruding from her back and her body was cold and stiff. Zeke knew, immediately, she was dead.
As he looked around the scene of chaos before him, he saw next to them lay the body of a man, face-down, with dark brown hair, similar to what he had chosen in the character creation. He was wearing a blue coat with gold trim and shoulder pads. He wasn't moving, and Zeke could see blood pooled beneath him.
Behind him, the wreckage of what appeared to be a horse-drawn carriage, towered over his head. He was sitting in an upright position against the rear wheel, with the axle against his back. The horses had long since run away, probably when the fight had broken out.
Fear and adrenaline surged within him, and he had to fight to keep his panic at bay. Thanks to his training, he went into work mode and, calming himself, tried to assess his situation and what he should do next. First, he needed to get out from under the woman, who, based on her position, had died trying to shield him.
She must have been my mom
, Zeke thought, with sadness and pity.
Guess I won't know what she was like now.
As he tried to lift and scramble out from under her body, he felt a sharp pain on his right side. He had noticed the pain before, but was too shocked by the scene he witnessed after waking up. He turned his head to look, and sticking out of his shoulder was the shaft of an arrow. The wound was no longer bleeding, and he surmised that it was shallow, but he knew better than to try and pull it out, as doing so would probably cause even more damage, especially if it were barbed.
As he examined his wound, the pain in the back of his head increased and, freeing his left arm, he brought his hand to the spot where it hurt and pulled it back in front of him. It was covered in thick, dark blood. It was obvious that he had been unconscious for a while and explained why whoever had attacked them had left him behind. They probably thought he was dead, as well.
He slid his legs free and made an effort to try to stand without placing weight on his right arm, but his legs were asleep and he collapsed a few times. Finally, after kicking his legs while lying down for a minute, he managed to get the feeling back to them and was able to get up. He looked over the body he created, checking for more damage. He was clearly an adult, with his body being somewhere between the ages of eighteen and twenty, but he felt weaker than he should have been, based on what he had created with Ignaxi.
He walked, unsteadily, over to the man in the blue coat to try to find a pulse, but the instant he touched him, he knew that it was too late. He was cold and stiff, as well. Zeke crouched over him for a moment before lifting his head up to examine the other bodies surrounding him. Some were wearing armor and had swords lying near them; a couple had arrows peppering them; the rest had deep gashes across their chests, or were missing their heads altogether.
A few were wearing black cloaks with strange designs on them instead of armor, their faces obscured by hoods. Only the two nearest him were dressed differently, and he surmised that the man with the blue coat must have been his father.
"What kind of shit is this?" he cursed out loud. "I just get here and already someone is tryin' to kill me? Oohh... I'm gonna give that god an earful when I see him again."
The smoke from the burning trees started to choke the area around him, and he knew he had to get away from it. The fire was starting to spread, albeit slowly, but still put him in an even more dangerous situation if he stayed. He looked around him to gain his bearings, and try to find anything he could use.
To his right was the forest, with flames licking at the trees, and to his left was what appeared to be the face of a steep cliff wall, jutting up into the sky. It was too dark to see how high up it went, so he decided that, when he was ready, he would follow it closely, away from the fire. That way, at least, he would know what was on one side of him.
He glanced over at the carriage and saw a tattered piece of cloth hanging from the open door that had once covered the broken window. Using his weight as leverage, and being careful not to injure himself further, he tore it off the rings that held it in place. With his teeth and good arm, he ripped a section off into a ribbon and, sitting down in order to use both hands, without moving his right arm too much, he fashioned a crude sling.
Using the same method as before, he tore another two ribbons and carefully wadded one up to place on the back of his head and used the other to wrap around and keep it in place, tucking in the end since he couldn't use both hands to tie it. He knew it wouldn't hold long, but he was running out of time.
He then put his head and neck through the sling he had made, and painfully placed his right arm, which had grown stiff, into it and pinned it against his torso. Gathering his strength, he stood up again and walked over to one of the bodies wearing armor. He looked upon the man, sighed, and picked up the sword on the ground next to the corpse. It was heavy, but since he had no idea what had happened, he figured it would be better than nothing if he were to be attacked again. He could also use it as a makeshift walking stick to help stay steady on his feet. The last thing he picked up was a burning piece of wood that had broken off the carriage to use for light.
With one last look around, Zeke's eyes filled with tears of pity and sorrow at not being able to help these people, or to even bury them. He could only leave them there and hope someone else would come along, or that the fire would cremate the remains. He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and left the scene of his awakening, keeping the cliff wall on his right and using the sword to keep balance, while trying to hold the dim torch in the same hand in front of him.
He walked for what felt like about thirty minutes, far enough for the light of the burning forest to disappear behind him. It was hard to hold both the torch and the sword with one hand, so progress was slow. He looked up into the sky to try to find some stars to navigate with for a moment, before he realized that it wouldn't work. He was not on Earth anymore. The stars here were probably all different than the ones he knew, but it didn't matter anyway, because the sky was dark and there were none to be seen. It was then when he remembered the HUD that was inside of his cone of vision.
He had been too focused on surviving to give it much thought before, but here as he walked, he decided to pay it more attention. He found that if he concentrated on it without turning his head, he could look at it and read the information. There was some writing at the top and, below it, were four bars. The writing read the term 'Lv. 12' in a white font. The bars were colored and labeled; a red one on top, the classic Health Points gauge; a blue one beneath it, which he assumed was his mana as it read 'MP'; a third green bar below that, which was his stamina, labeled as 'STA'; the last bar, however, was clear except for a golden outline that was sectioned into four parts. The letters next to it read 'SP'.
The mana bar was full, but the HP bar was below three-quarters depleted and the stamina bar was decreasing slightly with every step. If he paused for a moment, it would slowly fill back up until he took another step.
A warm breeze suddenly hit his face and snapped him back to the world around him. Since he was dressed so lightly, wearing only a blue shirt and matching pants, and it wasn't cold outside, he guessed that it must be summer wherever he was. The breeze felt nice circling his body, and he was starting to relax when he felt a drop of liquid hit his face. Dropping the sword, but still holding the, by then, burnt-out torch, he carefully used his hand to wipe the droplet from his face and brought it close to examine it. To his immediate relief, it was just water. He picked the sword back up and kept walking.
This brought about another problem, it was starting to rain. Zeke knew he needed to find shelter because even if it was warm, if he were to get soaked he could still succumb to hypothermia. That would not be good, since he had no idea how long it would be until daylight, or even how long a day was. If nothing else though, this would help to control the fire before it spread too far and became an inferno, burning down the forest.
Trade one problem for another, I suppose,
