I wouldn't exactly say I awoke to this situation as I hadn't been asleep. Or at least I don't think I had been. One moment I was just there, wide awake. I wasn't sure what was going on. My mind was still hazy and I couldn't think. My vision didn't seem to work well either.

After a moment of confusion I came to my senses and noticed that all around me were floating balls of blue… flame? Flame wasn't quite the right word for it as they were round and didn't have the same shape as a flame should. One thing I soon found out for certain was that anything they touched turned into the normal orange and yellow of the familiar fire I was used to seeing.

As I watched the blue flames my mind became more clear, and I noticed that there were smaller blue flames on the surrounding ground. Some too close for comfort. I also noticed that I was in the center of a jagged circle of flames.

Unsure of what happened, I decided that it would be a good idea to get out of the middle of a bunch of fire. At that moment I realized that I had been sitting. I also realized that I was naked. I still could not remember what had happened right before I had gotten here, but I knew one thing. Something was wrong.

I quickly confirmed this thought when I tried to stand. As soon as I stood I wobbled and fell over, almost landing on a nearby line of fire. It was this that made me realize something even more startling than the strange scene around me. I had shrunk. Actually, from what I could tell I had gotten much, much younger and was now a toddler or somewhere around that age. From what I could tell, I would be at the age where I was just learning to walk.

I had never been athletic, I would not let this slow me down. So I tried again. My stubbly baby legs did their best but my baby body just didn't have the strength nor the stability for proper walking. It was time to show my body who was boss. I had done tons of walking, my mind knew how to do it. I could do this.

With more care than last time I stood up as carefully as I could. I was still really wobbly and fell again, but I immediately tried again. This time I stood. It was all I could do to keep standing, so I let my body get used to it. The flames also didn't appear to be spreading towards me so I didn't feel I needed to hurry at the moment until I saw some fires near the edge of the surrounding circle were getting bigger. If worse came to worse, it would surround me.

So after one minute I decided that I had given myself enough time and took a step forward. I fell on my face. If I had a normal baby, I would have cried by now. Maybe I should. It might help. No, it probably wouldn't. I didn't feel like crying, anyway. Becoming a baby meant that I was young again and had held off old age just that much longer. Sure, I couldn't walk at the moment, but I'd get over that. Hopefully soon, because while I didn't have to worry about dying of old age soon I did not want to die by fire. Getting burned didn't feel good. Though old age was probably just all the pain just over a few years instead of a few moments.

And I had gotten lost in thought again. What was I doing? Oh yeah, walking. I needed to get out of here before the fire got too bad. Or maybe, just maybe it would be safer to stay where I was. There didn't appear to be much of anything that would burn nearby and the strange blue flames had gotten smaller so maybe instead of trying to outrun flames in this body it would be better to just stay put?

Some fires were large now and were spreading. If I would go, I wouldn't have long to do it. I had to decide quickly. So, standing again, I decided I would let my body decide. If I fell on my face again I would stay, and if I walked I would go.

I fell again. My leg just wobbled and then I fell. I obviously wouldn't be able to make it far with how well I was doing, so I would have to take the chance and hope the fires would go away from me and I wouldn't die from smoke inhalation.

Admitting defeat, I thought about my situation. What had happened to me? I couldn't even remember what I had been doing before whatever had happened to me. I also didn't know what would have caused these blue flames. I had heard of things like ball lightning and Will 'O Wisps and other such things so maybe these were one of these things.

Since I had no idea how I had gotten here, I guess I should try to figure out where I was. I was in the middle of the forest. The trees around me kind of gave that away…

As I sat there, I noticed something else about my body. It had gone white. It was not the white of an albino because they still had a pink coloration from blood, but my skin was just white. Even my hair had turned white.

I heard a noise. It was faint and over the crackling of the surrounding fire; I had barely heard whatever it was. I hoped it wasn't a wild animal. If it was maybe I could cry at it like a normal baby and it would get annoyed by it and go away. It worked on me, why not something else? Ah, who was I kidding a wild animal would just think of it as a dinner bell… Whatever the noise was I would sit tight and see what happened.

A few minutes passed, and I heard the noise a few more times. I still couldn't quite tell what I was hearing yet, but if I had to guess it was coming from a human. If it was, it was a great thing or a terrible thing. Well, I guess it depended on what country I was in at the moment. Wait, why would I be in a different country?

I was optimistic for a moment and decided that if I was hearing someone coming; it was a good thing. No matter who it was, it was better than staying here.

The fire was getting bad now. In a few more minutes, I would be surrounded and stuck. Maybe I should shout and get their attention?

"Waaaaah" came out a weak and emotionless cry. I had forgotten how quiet of a person I was. Yelling wasn't something I did. I tried again anyway but got the same results.

I tried standing up again. I succeeded.

Now, I would not try walking again, but I knew they could see me better if I was standing. I would have jumped up and down too but I could see myself doing another face plant into the dirt if I tried so I just waved my arms.

In a few more minutes I could hear the voices of men. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but they sounded… worried? Probably. Who wouldn't be worried about a fire? I just hope I didn't get in trouble for causing it. If it was me that caused it. Hopefully, I could figure that one out.

So… I waited. I was getting bored. I hated just being able to sit and do nothing. Sure the fire was getting bigger, and sure I could die. I didn't care about that. I just hated the fact that I was stuck here… oh… I had forgotten about something so simple. I felt stupid. I knew I couldn't walk, but I had forgotten about how babies normally got around. Crawling.

I didn't want to do it. It just felt like if I crawled I would turn into a baby. I didn't want to be a baby. Being a baby was so inconvenient. I don't know how I had managed the first time.

The smoke was also getting thick and my throat and eyes were burning.

Shouting brought me back to the world around me. The men were now somewhere outside the growing ring of fire. What were they going to do? Was it too big for them to put out? Would they see me in here and rescue me?

"Waaah…" I cried again. This time it was a little louder… hey, wait! Why was I trying to cry like a baby when I should shout "HELP! I was turned into a baby and am now trapped in a ring of fire!"

I tried it but sounds vaguely sounding like words came out. I was stumped. Why wouldn't I be able to speak properly? Was it something I ate? Maybe flying blue flame was bad on the throat and that was why?

I think the men heard me. Soon after my garbled sentence I could hear one of them shout orders. It was in a language I wasn't familiar with. Where was I?

I could now see them through the flames in some weaker areas and soon I saw one rush to the thinnest place in the growing flames and throw dirt on it with a shovel. Another soon joined him and soon enough they had put out enough of the flames to get through to me the first man ran to me and picked me up before running back through the hole.

He didn't run far. When we were a safe distance from the fire, he sat me down and ran back. He soon came back with four other men. I did not understand what they were thinking as I looked at me, but I did know one thing. They didn't look like any race of people I had seen before. Sure their brown hair and eyes were not anything special, but the shape of their face and their arms and legs that seemed too long and frail.

None of them spoke to me as they took me to wherever we were going, though from what I could hear when they spoke to each other I knew now that I had never heard a language like theirs.

Another thing I found curious was their clothing and tools. Their clothes reminded me of stuff I saw people wearing in pictures depicting peasants in some ancient country I couldn't remember the name of. They were made of well-worn crude fabric. Their tools also reminded me of something I would see in a history book. The shovels were wood and everything else they carried, which wasn't much, also seemed like it would be something I would see in a history book.

Now that I'd had a good look at these me I had come to two conclusions. I was in the middle of a historical reenactment or I had gone back in time. Well… maybe I was just in some poor country somewhere, not Africa, since their skin wasn't dark, or jungly since this wasn't a rain forest.

Another thing I noticed while I was being carried was that we were on a mountain and a fairly tall one at that. Fortunately, the part we were on wasn't too steep despite being far up from what I could tell.

After what seemed like too long I saw a village through the trees. It turned out to be a small village and was very dirty. I hoped I wouldn't have to stay here long. I didn't want to stay at a place like this. I wanted a bath just looking at the place. I wanted some clothes too. Just not something as filthy as what I saw most of the villagers wearing.

I soon found myself in what appeared to be the biggest building in the village. I guessed it was the house of whoever was in charge or where the town meetings took place, maybe both.

Inside I found myself finally within the middle of a circle of older men. As they stared at me, I stared back. And stared, and stared… Finally, they spoke to me. I couldn't understand a thing. Seeing this, the eldest stopped the others. He then motioned to himself and said something, then did the same for each of the other men before motioning to me and making a gesture that probably meant he wanted to know my name.

I only looked at him. When he saw this he tried again before giving up. The men then quietly talked amongst themselves before calling the man that rescued me. The older men exchanged a few words with him before he turned to me and picked me up. Giving me a look of uncertainty, he took me out of the building.

I soon found myself inside a small house near the edge of town. Inside the man talked to a young woman holding a baby not much younger than me. There was an older child too, a boy.

I soon realized that this would be my family. And it was.