《Re: Death's Melancholy》Chapter 1 - Awakening
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I opened my eyes. I was in an abandoned room that was in shambles, light could be seen shedding through the walls breaking the darkness that enveloped me.
Then before another thought passed me . I realized that I was alive. Alive. Something that shouldn't be so for a man who could still remember the shudder of death. Quick and easy yet above all helplessness. To be able to do nothing to stop death is not an ordinary kind of terror. It makes insanity seem like child's play. A mind such as mine snapping back into sanity at its revelation.
My last moments had been with friends. Comrades that held the respect of each other. We all held the same trade and it would have been difficult to be calm around any others. I trusted them. And that had become my mistake.
"So this is how I die."
Those had been my last words.
I had said them somberly. I knew it was true before the last word had even left my mouth. No one else in that life had given me more trust.
But now I was alive again. Reborn. But why? My last life had been a graveyard filled with bones of my enemies and some friends.
A splotch of water caught me on the forehead snapping back to my current state.
A single tattered black blanket covered my body. It had a curious symbol upon the the front in white. Similar to a to sliver of a moon yet teeth like a lion jagged from the inner edge. Almost like a half smile. Directly above this was the image of a broken dagger. It pointed towards me, the edge with a reminding red color.
"Blood" I said aloud.
Yet, I only heard the high pitched tone of a young child. I flinched at the echo in my mind. Desperate pleas and cries of those I dispatched in the past. But this time I heard the voice come from myself. I looked to my body and saw a tragedy.
I was a child again. Not even past the age of two. This was a cruel but appropriate fate for one such as myself. To be reborn alone completely helpless without even the pity of another.
"Ha, hahahahaha!!!"
Momentarily, I snapped into a craze. After all I was experiencing a situation beyond human understanding.Surely if anyone had happened upon me at that moment they would have been deeply disturbed. Children do not laugh as I just did.
But it didn't last for long. I steeled myself. I would not let this situation beat me.
"I would not let any situation beat me every again" I thought determinedly.
Taking my time I crawled from the bed and attempted to get to the door. I saw the bed as my first obstacle it was high off the floor for my small body. Double my height. So I needed to carefully buckle my knees upon landing. But first, I tried to stand. I needed to know the capabilities of my small body.
I stood for 2 or so seconds to only to fall to my ass. I tried again. And again but the same continued to occur. It was infuriating. I who had had perfect motor skills in the last life could not even stand. So I was determined to try again. But this time I fell forward falling to my belly.
"GoryHell!!!" I cursed my pipsqueak like voice.
"If I could not stand I will crawl gracefully." I thought determined.
I took the cover that had been wrapped around me and painstakingly curled it into a ball. Kneeling down to the edge of the bed and let the blanket fall to the floor.
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It was still held close together so I considered this my first success. Allowing my knees to hang from the edge directly above the blanket, I fell onto the padded ground. It was hard but not enough to bruise me.
Right before I made the long crawl to the door. I looked back at the tattered blanket. I had grown attached to it for some reason or another. Perhaps because I was a child attachments were very easy to develop. Whatever the case, I carried it along with me.
Now I needed to reach the door. There was no floor panels or concrete just cold hard and slightly muddy dirt. My hands and feet would sink into the ground at some places as I crawled to the door.
Reaching the door wasn't actually difficult. I had a meter or so to get to the door but out of the corner of my eye I noticed a faint reflection of light in my eyes. I turned to look at the obstruction and it made me feel faint.
I saw a baby around the age of two or three with blond hair that swirled beautifully on the top of its head and the eyes were a deep depth of blue that seemed to almost be black. But the oddest part of the babies appearance was the same mark on the blanket was directly upon the corner of his forehead.
The child was bewitching.
The strangest realization was it was myself. In my past life my appearance was strongly suited to be easily forgotten. A mob character appearance that blended into any situation my trade needed me for. It would be difficult to follow the same path as my last life since this was the case. But at the sight of the mark questions were forming. Where was I?
Casting my self away from the mirror. I hurried myself to the door with blanket in tow. I could hear talking and the hustle and bustle of a city square. But the language I was hearing was odd. I could pick bits and pieces from the languages I knew in my last life but none of them were dead on. Laughing was prominent. Also crying and jeering could be heard.
I tried to push upon the door but it wouldn't give no matter how hard I tried. It would not move. But just as I was about to give up. I felt the door give way slightly. But then it was pushed open from a force that could not have been mine. I turned around but nothing was there. Shaking my head I face back towards the open door and crawled my way through.
I looked in disbelief.
Men, beasts, inhuman creatures were everywhere. I rubbed my eyes over and over again. But the images did not change. A human man holding the hand of some cat like female? Ears that spouted through the hair. Another man behind a stall was holding a leash of a weird monster like a pet for sale. It was a baby reptile with the body of a dog.
At every shift of my head I saw things that made me baffled. Men with faces of lions. Beasts in human form. Elves even littered the square.
The people displayed a type of social order that gave me a headache. Almost at all hips and backs were swords and bows, Knives and staves. Armor of sorts that could only be attributed to some fantasy novel that my last life had created.
"Adventures?" I guessed.
Some held the look of beginners and others like hardened veterans. A few even had guards at all sides walking through the throng of people.
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"Nobles?" I thought.
Within one such circle was a female that made me gasp. I could see the back of her body. She wore a gathered skirt of a some obviously high grade metal armor that covered her thighs loosely sparkling blue and gold with each glare of the sun. Her upper body was not covered so thoroughly.A bra like armor covered her breast still a shroud like cloth covered the the whole of her upper body. Not so much that you couldn't see the marble skin underneath just enough room for the imagination. Her golden hair flew wildly behind her. Her feet had padded sandals closely resembling ones that the Romans wore in my last life.
Her body suddenly turned towards me as if noticing my attention. At first her eyes were fierce. Shining a gold that would stun all,but settled into a warm amber color. Her face had a confusing smile on it almost as if in confusion. She had noticed me. No one else had even glanced in my direction. She turned and whispered a few words to her guards.
They moved behind her now as she approached me. I could now tell that the women before me was a goddess. Her beauty made many men other than myself follow her every movement.
She stopped a few feet away from me and crouched low. The guards had made a perimeter around the women and I. The crowd of people were beginning to notice what was happening. It was like someone flipped a switch that said off. The noise around us had stopped almost instantly. I didn't know what was happening.
I heard a few sentence's from the crowd that I could slightly understand.
"Isn't that?!!!' one hushed whisper said.
"Who's that child?"Another voice said lowly.
"Look at its forehead." Gasps could be heard from different places around the crowd.
The goddess before me. Turned her head and looked at the crowd and they once again shut up.
She began to place her hands out towards me. I looked at her curiously. I knew the way the crowd treated her and the fact the guards followed her orders. But who was she.
As if she could hear my thoughts.
"Angeline" she said pointing towards herself.
I shook my head. I could tell by her body language that she meant me no harm. So I crawled towards her. I had no other options. Wherever I was to go from here. The safest bet was with this beautiful women. She picked me up.The blanket left at the ground below.
Then she began to tickle me and say odd noises here and there. Resembling much the adage of "guchi guchi goo" women and men alike would do in my previous world.
An to my horror I giggled. One such as myself has to much pride to giggle. My mental age was somewhere around 30 and this woman made me giggle. It would be years before I would live this down.
"The shame..." I thought trying to cover my face.
Angeline picked up the blanket on the ground, eyes narrowing at the symbol before wrapping my body into it. I could now see the the crown that was neatly wrapped in her silky golden hair. A tiara of silver with a large ruby in the center.
I was coming to realize this woman wasn't just any noble.
She motioned one of the guards forward. Most likely the leader. He had full body chain-mail on, just as the other 5. A helmet covered the his face so I couldn't describe him other than having a rough voice.
The conversation consisted of something about a castle and safety and something about whether this was wise.Honestly though, the conversation was far too advanced for me to understand what the meanings of their words were. If what the people in the crowd had said was commoner than this was another language altogether almost.
The man backed away and bowed as did the other guards. They barked a few more orders to the crowd and they backed away accordingly.
Angeline pulled me into her arms closely and two wings of white spread from her back as if from nowhere at all. I cannot say why or how this occurred but it was far far away the most extraordinary thing that I have ever seen in this life or the previous.
They could only be described as the wings of an angel.
I heard many people clapping and cheering. As if they themselves had never seen this spectacle before. I was once again reminded that I was in the presence of a very important person in this world.
Angeline gave me a tight squeeze and threw a glance to her backside. The guards and most of the gathered crowd all bowed before her majesty.
We lifted into the air. I looked the crowd below and saw the crowd go about their previous business with no glance or thought about what had just occurred. I saw that the area that I had been in was far larger than what I had imagined before. It was beyond the scope of just a large settlement.
Just from the small we had climbed into the air so far, I could tell the marketplace itself was as large as 5 acres of land by itself. In the distance I could see large structures and buildings that looked like residential dwellings. I decided then that I would explore this city in the fullest one day when my body had grew large enough.
"Look" Angeline whispered into my ear as we were flying higher and higher into the air. I could see as we peaked through the clouds we were coming upon something even more stunning than the wings Angeline flew with.
A large Palace was in our view. It was sitting mid air upon clouds as if rooted into the air. A stunning structure of marble like building material shown with a gold sheen from the sun. There were two separate entrances into the palace. Large doors of a type of wood that I had never seen that rose 5 or so stories into the even larger structure. The smaller door was one of simpler design with just uniquely carved stone. I could not describe the image as it was nothing I was familiar with a circle of similar to the sun with strange letters that I assume are this worlds language all around it.
Angeline approached the larger door. I saw from the corner of her eye that she was smiling. Almost glaring at the door. I didn't understand why.
Without even a word the door began to open.
'Why is she taking me to this place?" I thought.
As the door open I saw the beginnings of a courtyard. It was nothing unique or special. Just a courtyard that screamed to me a familiar feeling. But I could not place it.
While this feelings began to settle into me. I understood at the words that rung through my ears.
"What in the Damn hell was that, shit stain one? You give it your all to the moment you see him lose his advantage like that but no you felt sorry for him."
The man was being extremely dramatic almost as if he had noticed Angeline.
The same man then went to kick both children in the guts till they puked blood.
Then he called next.
Even if the children did well it was the same display. Beating the absolute shit out of them. This same was happening all around us. Multiple teachers doing the same to their own group of 8 to 10 children.
I could say it was evil but I chose to ignore it. This was outside me. I could do nothing of now. There was strange tension in the air as Angeline began to approach a man in the back of the court yard. The man was dressed in an outfit of mourning . He he had neither a smile nor a frown on his face. I could say this man had seen almost as much of death as myself just based on the vibe he let off. But it was a bystanders kind of vibe. A witness of death but never a practitioner. I hated him almost instantaneously because of it.
He took one look at me and his eyes spread wide.
Shocked could be the word but I believe fear described the action better. Honestly, I began to enjoy this reaction people had towards me. It would eventually make this world a very easy place to live in. But something gave me the feeling this world played by a whole new set of rules than my last.
" This child is marked," He said to Angeline "still I cannot say by whom."
I could hear the word 'perhaps' come to his lips but he just shook his head dismissing the thought.
She looked down at me. And then back at the man, handing me to him. I was still wrapped in the blanket from earlier. But he started to scowl as I squirmed in his arms.
"You know the fee will be quadrupled because of what he is correct?" He said greedily.
"Raise him" She said firmly.
I could feel myself become increasingly sad as the moments passed but I was still alive. I did not want to become separated from this woman.
" It is not up to us if he survives it is his own will that will allow it." He said.
She merely shook her head. And began to leave.
"Angeline" I called out.
She stopped and turned. The rest of the courtyard had quieted to a whisper. She turned and saw me wave with my tiny hands from the arms of that man.
"Sun. Call him Sun. If he survives." I could see the hint of a motherly smile upon her face and then it was gone.
"Very well" the man said to the back of the fleeting women.
Angeline walks away and whispers to herself.
"Survive my little one and grow strong."
A this same moment the man looked at me and said words that would shape my future beyond his own reasoning.
" I'll call you death since that will be your imminent future."
He said as he carried me into a dark corridor. I could feel a dark smile cover the mans face. At that time I could not understand why.
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