There I was, in my room. I had just finished playing Final Fantasy XV, the latest installment in the series. I ejected the disc out of the console and put it in the case. I put the case on my bookshelf, together with all the other games I’ve completed. It’s what filled the rather large, oak shelf.

I stood there for a few minutes, looking proudly at it. I get that if anyone else were to look at it, knowing what it represented, they’d pitty me, think I’m some sort of loser. But I didn’t care. I’ve loved gaming my entire life and this shelf not only shows that, but also shows my accomplishments.

Still, I definitely needed a new shelf. I wasn’t going to quite there. Hell no, I’m going to fill as many as I can! I had gotten pretty good at gaming over these years. I bet that it would only take me 8 years to fill another one like this.

Even though I knew this day would come for a while now, I hadn’t prepared. I was too enamored with the game to actually get off my ass and look for one. Well, whatever. It was still bright outside, so it shouldn’t matter anyway. I went out, wincing as the sun almost scorched me. Summer has never been kind to me, but this years’ summer was especially bad.

I walked the couple of miles to the furniture store. I didn’t have a car, nor was there any public transport going there. I tried to distract myself from my blazing misery by thinking about FF’s lore, but it was to no avail. It didn’t matter. I was getting close to my destination. I can just chill out there, under an airco.

As I approached the store, I noticed it was closed. I started looking around the door for any sign to explain this oddity. That’s when I noticed the giant for sale sign on top. “What?!”, I loudly exclaimed. I almost fell to my knees from the heat and disappointment combo.

As I started thinking where to get a new shelf from, I looked around. In the distance, I found the culprit behind this store’s closure. A giant Ikea could be seen in the distance. I wanted to be angry, but I didn’t have the energy for that. I just gave it up and started to move again. Might as well check out their killer.

On my way there, I passed the local gamestop. Without even thinking, I entered. My body just went into autopilot and brought me there. It took me a while to figure out what had happened. After the initial surprise, I decided to look around anyway. I needed a new game to play, right?

I started looking through all of the available games. Most I had already played, though. I was about to give up on searching, when I saw Monster Hunter: World. I had been wanting to play that for a while. I even heard it had the Behemoth from FFXV. I got really excited about it.

I stayed a bit longer in the store. I needed to recover from the heat outside. I looked around a bit more, though I wasn’t really planning on buying anything else. My eyes fell on the shelf stocked with different card games. I thought about it for a second, but decided against it.

Me and my friends are really nerdy, but none of us play those types of games. We mostly just play video games. The only thing we play outside of that are our monthly Dungeon and Dragons sessions. Having cooled off a bit, I continued my journey. I paid for the game and left.

As I walked out, I could hear a familiar voice say: “So you’ve got some money on you”. I turned around to find Randy standing in front of me. He’s been bullying me since middle school. Even after we finished high school, he still appears out of nowhere every now and then. I thought I’d gotten rid of him when I heard he dropped out of college in the first semester, but he still pesters me when he can.

“If you’ve got money to spend on those games of yours, you’ve got money to lend to your best pal, don’t ya?”, he said in a threatening manner. I quickly glanced around for an escape route. That’s when I saw the police station. Randy might be an idiot, but he won’t do anything to rash in front of the cops. I turned around and walked towards the station.

The game was slapped out of my hands, as I heard Randy laughing his ass off. The game was about to fall into a gutter, when I quickly ducked to stop it. I sighed in relief when I stopped it just in time. It’s then that I felt a kick to my butt. I fell over on the street, my head hitting the pavement hard. I turned my head to a sound coming from behind me and saw the wheels of a car, just before everything blacked out.

I sat there in darkness for a while. Then I started to hear noises. It sounded like voices, but I didn’t recognize them. They were muffled, so I couldn’t make out what they were saying. One of them sounded in distress, screaming every now and then. What’s going on? Is this how people react to a dead body?

At least, I think I’m dead. Surely I wouldn’t have survived that hit. Maybe I did? How else can I explain still being able to hear things. Maybe this is what the afterlife is like. Well, I’d certainly classify this as Hell. Then again, I didn’t do much evil in life, just like I didn’t do much good either. Maybe this is just a shitty purgatory.

Well, if this is what the afterlife’s like for me, I at least hope it’s far worse for that douchebag. I actually hope I’m not dead. It can’t end like this. I just completed that shelf. Can’t I enjoy that for a little longer? I never did anything to deserve such an end.

I should just calm myself down. The fact that I can still hear, means that I’m alive, just barely conscious. The sounds are becoming louder and clearer, bit by bit. I think I’m regaining consciousness, though I can hear a loud cracking noise that’s unsettling me. Once I wake up, I’ll tell them who did this to me. I’m afraid of what he’ll do once he finds out, but if I don’t, then he’ll just keep getting worse anyway.

Icy air touches my skin as a final crack sounds. The light burns my eyes, causing tears to stream out immediately. I can feel something stuck in my throat, allowing me to barely breath. Instinctively, I begin to cry. I don’t no why, but it seems to help with the blockage, so I just keep doing it. As I focus on what they’re saying, I realise that I can’t understand a word.

They’re speaking another language than me. Was my injury so bad that I had to be transported overseas? I can still hear cracking, but it’s not as loud anymore. It seems to surround me though. Where did I end up? Another loud crack, followed by crying. I slowly opened my eyes to see what the fuck’s going on.

The first thing I saw were giant dinosaurs. I backed off almost immediately, but hit something behind me after only a centimeter. I turned around to see eggs almost the same size as me. The crying noise is coming from another, smaller dinosaur. It looks like it just hatched out of its egg.

The voices started speaking again. I turned around to see them come from the dinos. They looked at me curiously. One of them came to me, put their hand on my head and started rubbing it. They said something. The word “othokentir” kept being repeated. More of the eggs hatched, with more crying lizards coming out of them.

I took in my surroundings a bit more. I noticed a broken egg shell unaccounted for. As I studied it, the same dino said something to me in a calming voice. I put my hand on my chin, noticing the strange texture. I looked at my hand to see green, leathery scales with large claws.

The dino next to me patted me on the back, hitting what felt like a bulge. They said something with an expression of pride and amazement. The others didn’t seem to share the same feelings. I tried feeling what’s on my back as well, but couldn’t reach.

I finally put two and two together. I’m one of them. But how? Did I reincarnate? I guess I did. What am I exactly then? I look like a dino or dragon, but also a bit humanoid. After a bit of thinking I came to the realisation that I’m a kobold. I’ve seen them in games as low level monsters you kill at the start, before they become a nuisance at later levels. They appear in D&D as low level monster or a horde of nightmares, depending on the DM.

So this is my fate. I died early because of a jackass, only to be reincarnated as a little monster that won’t survive long before an adventurer “saves” someone from me. Whatever, I guess. I’ll probably just be reincarnated again afterwards. Maybe next time I’ll be a goblin. I lightly chuckled to myself. I just hope my parents were reincarnated into a good life when they died. They cared so much for me. They deserve it.

I looked up to see the others staring at me intently. They seemed curious and shocked. The other hatchlings had stopped crying. Most of them went to what seems like our mother, the kobold with the calming voice. One remained, having walked its way to me. It seemed happy. Guess we’re siblings now.

I looked at our mother, who was surrounded by the rest of them. She gestured to me to come as she said “othokentir” again. That must be my name now. “Othokentir”, I wonder what it means. I joined the group, sitting around her like a bunch of students during gym class. She began pointing at each of them while saying a word. They all seemed to be confused, but kept repeating their word, trying to pronounce it like her.

I wonder what this life will bring me. It sure as hell won’t be video games, but I guess I’ll just have to get used to that. Wait….I never got to play Monster Hunter….fuck!