I don't remember much after it happened. I blacked out before the ambulance arrived and only briefly regained consciousness before the end. I knew my family were there, my mother and my sister, they held my hands as the machine beeped and they cried when it flatlined. I heard a doctor say something about time and then I was gone. It wasn't the way I wanted to go, in my sleep at 150 with a fulfilling life and grandchildren surrounding me but at least my family were there at the end.

What happened afterwards was unexpected.

I had been an atheist before so I had been anticipating oblivion with the little conscious thought I had but when my mind grew less foggy rather than simply vanishing it was alarming. I panicked that I had been wrong and that I would now spend eternity in hell, I had always thought I'd have some strong words for god if I ever met them but when that could have actually happened I had been ready to throw myself at his mercy.

That didn't happen though, obviously, this would have been a very different story if it had. No, instead I found myself falling, a powerful pulling force dragged me downwards until I slammed down at enormous speed, coming to a complete stop instantaneously and yet not feeling any pain.

I was blind and deaf for a while, I had freaked out that this would be my entire world now but thankfully that was not the case. I could suddenly sense an enormous eye right in front of me. I won't lie it scared the life out of me, the eye must have been the size of a small microwave and it looked human. Wrinkled and a cool grey it peered at me, blinking and then suddenly it was gone.

"Good potential but weak, not really worthy of a divine creature, Avorius send this one to Malik maybe he can use it for something. A monster or something, maybe let a mage summon it? That would be interesting, do that." The voice was old and weary but with it a power like none other I had ever experienced washed over me and it was almost enough to wipe away what was left of me.

I felt like I was moving but that was all and then I lost consciousness.

"beothachadh!"

Again I felt the unsettling sensation of having no sight and suddenly gaining it. I was a glass orb, about 5cm in diameter and I was sat on a table full of other glass orbs. My vision of the table was astounding, I could see the most minute imperfections, it was such remarkable clarity that I almost missed the man that was standing on the table. My extremely acute vision seemed to end at about 3 feet away from my orb but I could see normally past that.

The man was in his mid-thirties with a face full of laughter lines, his eyes were an emerald green, his hair a deep chestnut brown. A slim nose pointed towards a pair of small lips that were pressed into a thin line, his brow furrowed in consternation. The majority of his body was hidden by a set of heavy black robes, he looked like something out of a fantasy novel. Now that I was actually given time to ponder my surroundings I began to get an inkling as to what was happening, I had read enough novels to recognise a scene like this. A summoned hero, a tale of reincarnation and growth to be the guardian of this world or something like that.

So when the man reached out to me I thought this would be it, the start of my adventure. Then he grabbed the orb about 3 down from me and inspected it.

"Perfect! It only took 2 tries for this stupid spell to work, I was expecting at least 4 or 5 tries before I got one." His voiced wavered with excitement. Then with a wave of his arm, I was sent flying out of the door with the other glass orbs and landed in a pile. We had been in a small hut in a large garden, it had a gentle slope down into a meandering river, it was a beautiful scene. An enormous house was perched at the top of the garden, about a hundred meters from the hut I was now sitting outside.

I was feeling quite wronged here, the lovely garden doing little to lighten my spirits, I had just been thrown out with the rubbish! That was not how this goes, I mentally ran my hands over my face, a gesture I always did in stressful timesback when I had a body. Now, things had been fairly eventful so far, which is why I wasn't even surprised when I started rolling off the pile. I had been a little surprised when I rolled all the way down the hill and if I had a face I would have been scowling when I slipped into the water and drifted down river. At least I floated.

I'm now bobbing along down a stream, no idea where I'm going and this just popped up in my eyes.