When my consciousness started to come back to me, there was nothing, no sight, sound, taste, pain there was nothing, but there was something different, it was not the void like place from before. I could sense some sort of energy all around me, I started to concentrate on that energy as it was the only thing there.

It was like nothing I had ever encountered, it was indescribable but as it was the only thing that I could even sense I concentrated on it. It was constantly shifting in one spot constantly changing, then it started a slight itching all over me almost at the exact same moment the energy started to become even more erratic.

The itching sensation started to gradually get worse and worse I tried to move but could not and it carried on for what felt like hours, if it did not stop I knew I would go crazy. Then out of the blue suddenly I could taste.

It is the strangest sensation tasting your own mouth after what felt like an eternity of nothing, as I got my taste back the pain I felt from the itching sensation started to die down rapidly and very soon after I could smell again.

This did not surprise me as because I remembered reading somewhere that taste and smell are very closely linked.

But my joy of getting my senses gradually back suddenly ended as I could smell a very strong odour of burning wood I started to get agitated as I could not tell where it was coming from and if it was dangerous, and then suddenly as it to add to my worries I could hear again.

The sound of burning all around me and to top it all off I could start to feel the heat as well, I started to panic as I still could not move then suddenly the goddess’s words came to mind ‘you will be born from fire’ this calmed me slightly but I was still on edge.

My perception of time was a lot better now as I had the majority of my senses back but I still could not move and I could still hear a roaring fire all around me gradually the itching faded away completely and when it had completely vanished I could suddenly move, and I realised why I could not see was I had my eyes closed. I knew this as I had instinctively opened my eyes and virtually been blinded.

Imagine being in a pitch black room for hours after hours and then suddenly you look directly into the sun like I just had, all I can say is it was very painful. I started rolling round holding my face in pain, while whimpering. After the pain had died down I rolled to the side so I would not be looking directly into the sun, and started to open my eyes again. It was still very bright but after about five minutes of opening and closing my eyes finally adjusted, they were still a little sour but I dealt with it.

As I looked around I realised I was in a forest, it was very beautiful and peaceful place, I was lying in a clearing, I could hear running water not far away from me and I could occasionally see wildlife moving around, mainly birds and small rodents but there was this one larger creature that was akin to a badger, the main difference being, instead of being black and white like the ones on earth, it was green and brown and looked like vegetation was growing from it. Soon after looking me in the eye it retreated and disappeared.

After taking in my surroundings I realised that all of the forest floor around where I am sitting is burnt like a fire had recently been raging some parts where still smoking. Anyway the next thing was to inspect my new body, first major thing I noticed was I was not an adult anymore, I was a baby. Judging from how bad my movements are I would guess I looked around 6-9 months old in human standards.

Now I say 6-9 months because I do have some control over my body, for instance I can sit up and look around, I can crawl and have reasonable motor control over my extremities. I attempted to stand up but ended up falling on my arse. My body looked like the infant version of the one Athreal showed me, feeling my head I could feel a small amount of hair but I had no idea what colour it was. Anyway moving on the next thing to try is speech.

“Gaaaa eera ell”

And nope not quite there, what I attempted to say was ‘Athreal’ but it did not really work. I guess and infant’s vocal cords need time to develop.

“Grrrroooowl”

And that was my stomach, I just realised I am really hungry, well not surprising really I was just born, this is a problem I really need help, usually new-borns are fed on their mother’s milk but as I have no mother I am on my own. I start to look around to see if there is anything that I could maybe eat.

Looking around I soon realise there is not much of anything that looks like it is edible, the only thing I spot are some weird looking mushroom like things, so I crawl over to investigate. Arriving under the tree where they are located I inspect them. They have a long stem which is a plain brownish grey colour the cap is inverted compared to a normal mushroom, the cap is very brightly coloured with yellows and blues all over the cap. This worried me slightly as somewhere in my memory I remembered something about bright colours meaning danger.

I decided to leave the mushroom and continued to look around the clearing but found nothing, I crawled back to where I was ‘born’ and started to think, although that was getting hard now as I was really getting hungry.

By my guess it has been around 1-2 hours since I was effectively ‘born’ and the light was clearly getting dimmer, it must be some time in the afternoon maybe 5 o’clock. It was also starting to get a bit cold and all I was wearing was my birthday suit, I was starting to get a bit worried, I was hungry, naked and getting cold. Didn’t the goddess say she was going to give me a family? Something must have gone wrong.

‘Crack’

Suddenly I hear a noise, it was a stick being trodden on, and then it walked out a dear like creature the main difference being that its antlers were a crystal like substance of which it had three one at each side and one in the middle. Compared to a normal sized dear it might be a bit smaller but it was hard to tell as I was infant sized so everything was out of proportion.

As it moved through the grove it stopped and looked at me, it showed no fear in its eyes only curiosity. It then obviously decided that I was not dangerous and proceeded to ignore me, and carried on grazing in the clearing.

Unsure how to react to this I decided to ignore the deer like creature like it was doing with me, and carry on trying to solve the problem of my growling stomach.

‘Whoosh…..thump’

Suddenly I hear a whooshing noise followed by the sound of something falling over, looking up I saw the dear lying on its side with an arrow in its chest dead. I froze at the sight, then there was a noise of something walking through thick bushes. Someone had just killed the dear and was nearby I felt excited and slightly worried at the same time, but before I could move myself a man came out of the bush.

He was tall with short dirty blonde hair, and a well-kept short beard, he was the ruggedly handsome type. He was equipped with a short sword and dagger on his belt and carried a bow. On his back was a quiver with some arrows in it, he wore what looked like leather armour which was under a sleeveless jacket.

He had not seen me yet and moved over to inspect his kill, as he moved I saw his ears which were pointed, but not massively so a bit more than mine but less than I would expect and elf to have, he must be a half elf of some sort especially with that beard, as elves don’t grow facial hair, well from my knowledge they don’t.

As he knelt down by his kill he finally noticed me, and we stared at each other for a few seconds and then the hunter started to look at the burned ground where I was sitting, a look of confusion appeared on his face.

“??? ?????? ???????”

Crap that is not English, looks like I am going to have to learn a new language.

******

(POV: Hunter)

The Dilk I have been stalking for the last few miles finally is in sight, in a clearing about 30m ahead of me, I nock my arrow and draw my bow, slow my breathing, exhaling and then I released. The arrow flies true and kills the creature almost instantly as the arrow imbeds itself in the dilks heart.

I am grateful to my elven heritage which gives me high affinity with ranged weapons like bows as it make my hunting trips much easier. This dilk will provide a decent amount of meat which my daughter and I can live off for the next few weeks the hide I can tan myself and then sell the leather to the blacksmith, and the antlers are a sort after alchemist ingredient I can sell to the traders for about 15 silver each.

I was very lucky with this kill as dilk are usually very alert and very fast, very difficult to successfully hunt, but this one seem distracted my something.

As I knelt down to retrieve my arrow I saw what had distracted the dilk, a very young child completely naked and covered in dirt. He looked to be about a year old, he had pointed ears along with strange fire like markings all over his body. And his eyes were the strangest, they seemed to be changing colour almost constantly, it was strangely enchanting. I managed to tear myself away from looking at his eyes and looked at his surroundings.

Where the child was sitting looked like a fire had burnt all the surroundings with the boy in the middle it was very strange.

“So what do we have here?”

I spoke while looking at the child, then as if answering me.

‘GROWL!!!’

Suddenly the child’s stomach growled, to which the kid looked embarrassed as his cheeks reddened and his eyes started to turn pink as well, this really shocked me. Opening my bag I pulled out a banana and peeled it for him while walking over.

The kid looked longingly at the banana but didn’t move a muscle, I broke of a small amount and handed him a bit. Quick as lightning he snatched it and shoved it in his mouth and looked at me expectantly. I proceeded to feed him the rest of the fruit and then took out a blanket from my bag and made a sling around my neck. I then picked him up and placed him in the sling and made sure he wouldn’t fall out. I then picked up the dilk and put it over my shoulders and then proceeded to head home.

“Right then kid, let head back and fine out who you are.”

******

Hey guys sorry for the long wait I had exams and the such you all know the drill anyway I will try and speed up my posting of mew chapters.

Have a good one.

Peace