Gelvian is his name and as he lays still on the ground with slow and heavy breath, he forces himself to stay awake. In the distance, the sound of battle and the ringing of blades echoes around the plains. The sounds of hoofs occasionally shaking the ground. The sun is setting. Dawn has arrived.

His blood pooling around him slowly but surely drenching the ground in his lifeblood.

“The plants will love it.” The dying Druid thought out loud. How long was he in this world?

40? 30 Years? He can’t think, can't grasp his thoughts anymore. His friends... former friends called him Traitor. Coward. Liar. Villain!

Gelvian smiles at the memory of the small boy shouting at him. His apprentice. So young and so headstrong... at the same time so blind.

Why? They asked. I can't tell he had answered, while driving his dagger deeper into the heart of one of the chosen heroes.

Why?! They again cried out. I can't tell he had answered but this time he couldn’t kill another. He was forced to flee and after a while, he ended up here. On the ground bleeding like a pig.

Gelvian groaned in pain and laughed. His family was safe. All the people he cared about were safe. If he hadn't done that, they wouldn’t be in this situation. His eyes felt heavy like a massive animal was pulling them down. While he was happy that his family is saved. He wants to relish it with his family... not end up as plant fertilizer.

“No offense plants.” Weakly he spat. “How did I even end up here again?” he groaned and thought back to when all this started back when he still was in the middle of his first life.

In his first life, he was Robert and died to no one's surprise. He was going on his routine in the barracks until he saw that big fat bomb drop like a stone, a radioactive one. A bloody nuke. He only saw it for a moment. He got a good look at it, also the bomb must have malfunction because it hit the ground instead of exploding high up in the air.

So, in his mid-twenties, the last thing Robert saw in his life was a dose of instant sunshine. No more career soldier, no more husband to a loving wife, no more being a father to a baby who rips years of his life with midnight crying and gifting it back the same day with soul-cleansing giggles.

No more me. Just a swoosh and ding. Dying to what was most likely a preemptive nuclear attack.

Robert thought about what the afterlife would bring him... does he goes to heaven? He thinks he wasn’t an overly evil man, sure sometimes he was being a dick and pranked his brothers and sisters in arms but nothing too extreme. Who was he kidding? He served a regime that genocided a large portion of the population in the name of safety and order but he didn’t serve the regime to press down on the oppressed.

Robert served so he and his wife would have a good future. Even if it is on a mountain of countless innocents. Better them than me. He always thought. When his children were born all changed and he began acting on his rebellious thoughts to right the wrong in the World. Though it was too late and the world didn’t care as it was plunged into a nuclear firestorm of hate and regret.

It seems the Hindus were right. Reincarnation but not in the way that they thought Robert mused. More the Japanese style. He laughed. Fewer trucks running over people, more total nuclear Armageddon but even that isn't correct. The religious texts must have meant peaceful deaths, not such violent ones.

Robert opened his eyes to a new world hearing shouts and crying but these are not his own. There was someone else with him. A baby but the baby looked huge, as large as an adult.

No, he pauses and looks up to a giant brown-haired beauty smiling down at him. Even with all the sweat and obvious exertion of giving birth, she looked nearly pristine. That’s when he noticed his hands are small, really small. He was a baby too! As he stares back at his twin, Robert realizes they are just babies, regular-sized ones. Everything just looks so huge from their perspective.

Back to his new and beautiful mother. She spoke in a language he couldn't understand but it was in a soft and soothing tone.

“Gelvian-” she kissed Robert's forehead “Levia.” she kissed her second baby's forehead.

Gelvian heard a loud thump next to them and turned his head with great effort to see a muscular man on the ground, 3 women tending to him. Midwives, Gelvian guesses. His father, he assumes, fainted. He would have called him a weakling as to mock him but that would be hypocritical of him as he also fainted at his first child's birth.

Now thinking about that. Why can't he remember his children's names? Or his wife's name? Or his? Gelvian thinks to himself. … His memories are there but their names are as if they had been erased. In the place where the names should be there is just... Blank. This is very concerning for him ... then he felt sudden fatigue overcome him; I go to sleep now he thought and so he falls asleep.

2 years have passed when Gelvian regained full consciousness. He wasn’t unconscious he was more in a thick haze clouding his senses. One surprising fact Gelvian found out that his new family are very likely elves. Like full-on elves, he laughs to himself. He thought his parents were like hardcore cosplayers but after trying to yank the non-existing prosthetics off his father's ears, Gelvian was surprised to feel warmth at the ear tips. His Father was less pleased with these attempts to rip the ears of his skull that were attached to his head and handed Gelvian back to his mother after that. To be more correct they traded Levia and Gelvian between each other.

They spoke in soft and loving tones to them and each other... He sometimes could guess what they are talking about. Gelvian thinks it’s a weird version of multiple languages, as weird as it sounds and an even weirder grammar style. Each day he learns new words and new verbs but dares not speak them out loud because he doesn’t want to upset his parents in any way as he has no idea when the standard age of elven toddlers should be able to form sentences. That is why his twin sister Levia serves as Gelvian's conversation partner. He tests her reaction to the words and sentences that our parents say and sees if she can already talk like him but only a few years after birth. He may expected too much of his sister. It isn't like she was also reincarnated.

One thing Gelvian noticed next to language and ears. He could see better and sharper, pinpoint sounds even better compared to memories of his old life.

Their mother is a beautiful brown-haired woman and young too but that could mean nothing as she is an elf. His father... well he is pretty much good-looking if one needed to describe it in a single term. Strong Jawline, muscular build, blond hair, and like his mother both have green eyes. He seems to be a soldier of the sort. The way he walks and looks around the area. He must have already seen battle. Gelvian sees him often leave the house in thick Lamellar armor and a poleaxe. It seems that today being interested in medieval equipment in his past life paid its dues or started too at least.

Gelvians mother placed her children one day in front of a mirror and his sister got the blond hair and he’s got the brown one. They both have green eyes so pretty much the family is green in the eyes department.

A few months pass and it is now Year 2, month six of Gelvian's new life as an Elf baby or toddler. The food is still his “mommy milk” as awkwardly as it sounds. She doesn’t breastfeed us thank god or the gods? That would be awkward. No, she uses little bottles. Those she prepares beforehand.

Gelvian can slowly but surely explore the inside of their home. The home is made of wood and stone which isn't unusual but it broke his stereotype of the forest-dwelling elves.

Considering that the village he lives in is on a mountain shattering his expectations completely. It reminds him of the mountains and valleys inside the neutral nations back in his past life. The air seems to be thinner here too.

He can oversee a big part of the village and see wooden walls with towers placed at regular intervals. The streets also look well maintained. He can also spot a forest a bit further away. He saw horses pass by and a few large lizards which did draw a massive carriage which shocked him because they look like upscaled Komodo dragon but slimmer and with less droopy skin, streamlined if you will. They look weirdly huggable. Gelvian thought.

Their parents saw him looking outside and took Levia and Gelvian to visit their also Elven neighbors who also had a child but he was 4 years already so the twins couldn't keep up with the neighbor's hyper energy.

Two more years passed and Gelvian could confidently say that he can hold a conversation in this elven language. Seeing that they had books. He one day went straight towards his mother and asked her to teach him how to read. Gelvian wished he could have had her reaction on camera, he never saw a woman jump so high and shriek like her. The Father being the badass that he is, rushed in with a skinning knife in hand. After calming down his parents, they were overjoyed that he talked this well this early. That Gelvian asked to be taught to read was a surprise but a welcome one for his mother. They were eager to teach him of course. He also knew their names by now.

Darius Dainson and Elisia Sunleaf are Gelvian and Levia's parent's names. Gelvian Dainsleaf is his. It is an elven custom that the children of new families take a combination of the parents' surnames as their family name. The first book he was taught to read was a little legend about Legasa the Elven Priest who travels the world to heal the wounds of the Vesta event. The Vesta event.

A meteorite crashed on this world but all magical creatures united to stop most of the destruction. Two hundred years have passed since that event. When his mother reached the passage of magic being weaker, he asked what that meant.

“It means my little Gelvian that being and becoming a mage is a rarity these days. A powerful ritual was used to protect us all which weakened all the magic in the world. Powerful earth mages who once could move mountains are now limited, to throwing boulders. Fire Mages who could bend a volcano to their will can only throw fireballs now.”

“How do you know all these things, mother?” Gelvian asked curiosity sparking in his soul.

“I used to be one of those mages in the book who helped cast the ritual, my dear but Gelvian that doesn’t mean you need to reach my level of understanding of magic to cast any magic.” She looked around for a minute thinking, what to say next. What she has said implies that Gelvians young-looking mother is over 200 years old!

Just imagine reaching 200 years! This is insane. What skincare routine does she have?! Gelvian thought.

Seeing the confusion on Gelvian face Elisia grinned and picked him up, went outside with him.

“You see the sky? Imagine you need to reach that to move mountains but now the sky got lowered. Now you also can reach it but I can also reach the sky but I know where the old sky was and if it gets raised, I will be able to touch it while you maybe not. I know what the old sky was and can do, you may not my dear. This doesn't bar you from learning and trying to reach it. We have time on our side after all.”

“So, I can never be good in magic as you will be?” Gelvian was confused by the explanation.

“No, it just means you can't stretch your magical ‘muscle’ to see if you can already reach the old sky but worry about that when you are ten. When you are ten, all the children including you little mouse” she squeezes Gelvian lovingly “will be tested for potential talents” She smiles walking back inside with Gelvian in her arms.

“But what If I don’t have any?” Gelvian is alarmed by this revelation about this test for potential? What does it mean if you don’t have any, is it normal to have some? Or none at all?

Noticing her sons' apparent distress, she calmly states "Just four years old and already worrying about the future..., if you are without the talent to wield magic, well you will learn a trade as all the other children will do. In your case a mighty Warrior like your meathead father.” She laughs.

“Heard that!” came from the open front door. Darius, Galvian's Father in full warrior galore steps inside already loosening the belts of his armor and placing the poleaxe in a secure chamber where it can't fall out even if opened on accident. Childproof. Gelvian approves.

“Who are you calling meathead you empty airheaded seductress.” Darius teasingly smiled.

“Says the one who sneaked in my tent to just learn about potion which helps with ‘muscle building’.” She snarked back with a low purr.

God, you have children in here, get a room! Gelvian thought.

“Hey at that time I didn’t know okay! I was too...” before he could finish Elisia said, “too distracted with your muscles.” She focuses on Darius with longing in her eyes.

A short silence fell before they embraced each other with the little boy being squeezed in between.

“Wonderkid is here, where is Levia my little Leaf?” Darius looked around half shouting still brimming with energy.

“Upstairs in her bed, asleep you dummy.” Elisia shushed him but to no avail as Levia started crying being awoken by the last sentence from Darius. He threw a very sheepish look at his wife before being handed Gelvian so she could go upstairs and calm Levia down. Who most likely woke up from a nightmare?

“So, my boy. Up for some training?” Truly a meathead Gelvian thought.