So to those who still follow this story, I'm sorry I've been lazy the two weeks before, this is the last week, I'll be proofreading and editing this chapter and doing the next one, I'm also changing the post "State of the story" and I'll be making it a ToC where you can see my next chapter's progress with a nice and neat table, for those who wish to know why I didn't write you can read about it in my rant bellow, the rest can go and enjoy the story right now.
Spoiler :
Well, all the excuses I'll be saying nest can be summed up into; "I haven't got enough willpower" and "I'm lazy", as a fellow reader, I'd hate an author like myself, but because of that I'm never gonna drop this story, not unless I finish the first book, and that's the same reason I won't be writing anything else, but going to the excuses... well, a friend of mine has asked me to play Terraria with him almost daily for about five hours each time, I've accumulated 23 hours in the last two weeks.
Next thing, I've been having internet trouble.
I'm lazy.
I've been reading manga & light novels.
I've been editing the first chapter over and over again.
But over all, I've been lazy, though I've done tons of things, for you it's me being lazy, so I've got no excuse, sorry, I'd want you to put up with me but well, it's up to you, I promise one more chapter this week, depending on when I release it I may be able to get another one out, don't quote me on that, please comment if you wanna make me feel more motivated, I don't know if it'll help me release faster, but there's no pain in trying, I may start writing earlier, who knows.
Chapter 2; A Fated Meeting
I could see the green colored light that slipped through the leaves, I was in a forest, an unknown place, a place I shouldn't be, but that was something I didn’t want to think about, not because I knew or had a hunch as to how I got here, but, though it was also a hunch, I didn't want to know how or what happened before I got here, nor did I want to know who I was, but those questions pestered me unceasingly in my pursue of my well-deserved rest.
I didn't know why was I tired but my mind was collapsing. A few words came to my mind after analyzing my own state; post traumatic disorder and amnesia. It basically meant that I had lost my memories because of a traumatic experience. What was the traumatic experience? If I knew, then, I wouldn't have amnesia, but I had a hunch that came from the bottom of my memories, that is, that I shouldn't be here, that I shouldn't be conscious, alive, if you can call it so, but I couldn't confirm it; it would be too dangerous, and I didn’t want to know either.
But trying to not think of something is really difficult, because you become conscious of it and because it is in your mind, like a song it sticks to it and everything makes you remember it. So I tried to concentrate on something else, the trees, huge trees, I could barely see the top, and it was a species whose name I couldn't recall, no, it was connected to my past, I just didn't want to recall it either.
Right now that doesn't matter; I need some rest, and something else to think about, even better, something to make me unable to think about anything else. Hell I'd even take drugs right now... no, I'm not that desperate, but this isn't taking me anywhere, I really need something to do.
There was nothing to do. At first I could just look around, but everything brought back memories, just this time I hoped I hadn't done or known as much as I did, else looking around might've been enough to pass the time. Instead I had to concentrate on my breathing, slowly letting myself drift away from my body and melt into my surroundings.
I don't know how much time passed, but when I opened my eyes again I was hungry, really hungry. I could only think about food, so I got up and searched for it, or should've, because I couldn't: My body was too heavy, I couldn't lift my head, don't even ask about trying to lift myself up. I looked at my hands, there was no way I was this weak, it's true that I don't exercise too much but I am a man and I do have some strength, even if it isn't much.
That's when it hit me, this wasn't my body, my hands were really small and plump, looking down at my chest what bothered me the most wasn't that I didn't have any body hair nor that I was naked, but the actual proportions of my body, my head was about a third of it, only babies have these proportions.
This was familiar, I knew it from somewhere, this situation, I hadn't been in it myself, that's for sure, but I knew about it.
Same as with everything, I didn't want to remember, so I endured the hunger and cried out, maybe someone will come... such naïve thoughts, I cried until my voice was hoarse, until I couldn't cry anymore, I'm going to die, I will die, I'm dying... please no, not again... again? What? No, why?
Who am I?
Really, who?
I... what have I done? Right now I really need to access my memories; if I don't then I won’t have any way to live. I need some hope at least, I want to know I died trying, I want to know that I did what I could, I want to live!
Do I?
I have already died once; do I really want to live again? Will this life be painful? Am I brave enough? Do I want to gamble? I know that I'm insecure, I don't want to know what happened to me, but I also know that I'm no coward, that I can't just do nothing, I can't sit while I'm dying. In the end, I know that I want to die knowing who I am.
I breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled; opening my eyes, I was ready. I closed my eyes to recall; My name is Jahan, age 23, I was just about to start my last year at the university, one of the best students of the whole school, I was a mathematician, not a genius but a really good one, I had won a few prizes when I was at school, I also liked machines so that brought me into the world of mechanical engineering, my chosen carrier.
My family was composed of my parents and sister; I had a few friends and an ex-girlfriend. Those where my human relationships. Hobbies: reading, making machines and sleeping, of course, while reading, I found the Japanese culture, having read manga and other things I was knowledgeable about reincarnations, I knew a lot about it, because it was a trending theme and personally, I liked it.
How I died... it was stupid, had I done nothing no one would’ve gotten hurt, probably. Sadly I can't do anything but expect the worst outcome, I'm no clairvoyant nor am I a time traveler, I have no way of knowing the future even if I'm good with mathematics there was no way to replicate what was done in “Foundation”, so there's no way to know what I should do, what I could do.
But I still consider the other possible outcomes that come to my mind; I still think there’s no right answer, life decisions are mostly like that, some are better, some are worse; some are the same, which one is better? Well, I don't know, I'm just a university student, how can I answer such a deep question about life? But I know that I don't regret doing what I did, every other outcome, even if I ended up alive seems worse. I say that because I had no way to win that fight without dying, that's what I think, but...
This isn't going anywhere, I'm starving right now, I'm in real life-threatening danger, I really shouldn't get carried away, usually the main character would either be a prince, a villager or a monster, but not an abandoned baby in the middle of the forest, this is really telling you to die, there's no way a baby can make it alive, and I already confirmed that unless there's a species of monsters that look like humans, I am a human; I have round ears and I'm male, so no discussion on that, I can't confirm my eye or hair color, if I have hair, but my skin is normal.
There's nothing that can tell me otherwise, for now, I shall refer to myself a human and shall act as one unless I'm proven wrong and manage to live, which right now isn't really probable. Nonetheless, I have to think positively, I've been suppressing my emotions because of the situation but I really want to cry; I died, a human should just disappear or have their memories erased, that's why ghosts are scary; they become crazy with the pain.
Still, I see no way to retain my sanity, right now; I have no one to rely on. I really hoped my death could've been peaceful, I didn't want my sister to cry so I forced myself to smile, but it hurts, it hurts so much, she still cried, I didn't what to see her like that, she should've just been cheerful, but she had to rely on me, like always, I'm the one shouldering her problems, now there's no one left, even if this is 'earth' I'm still going to die.
NO! Stop thinking about that! I need my memories, first cut off all the memories of myself and my life, the planet, friends, family and death. Place them in a folder, at the back of my brain, only to be opened in the presence of a person I trust and love from the bottom of my heart.
Even if I didn’t know how I was doing it, somehow, I was able to manipulate my memories. It might’ve been because of the stressful situation that I was going through, or because of a limit breaking when I died, neither of those I thought probable, I supported another idea, one that involved magic…
How I was manipulating magic, that, was a true mystery, but I think that under enough pressure a human can do anything, if dying once isn’t enough pressure, then the fear of dying twice must be more than enough. But before I delve too deep into magic I must first organize my memories, to do so I’ll make ‘folders’, each of them will contain memories that will be further classified in ‘sub-folders’. Something like this:
[AN: You can skip this, no problem, but the one who complains... let's say I've got a few knives that are dying to be tested]
• Food
> Gathering
> Cooking
• Technology
> Minerals
-> Metals
--> Extracting
--> Refining
--> Uses
-> Crystals
--> Extracting
--> Refining
--> Uses
-> Ceramics
--> Extracting
--> Refining
--> Uses
> Electricity
-> Information Management
-> Computers
--> Phones
--> Calculators
> Movement
-> Controlled
--> Vehicles
---> Airborne
---> Land
---> Water
-> Automated
--> Robots
--> Other Appliances
• Fighting
> Weapons
-> Blades
--> Manufacture Methods
--> Using Techniques
-> Ranged
--> Bows and Crossbows
---> Projectiles
---> Manufacture Methods
---> Using Techniques
--> Fire powered
---> Projectiles
---> Manufacture Methods
---> Using Techniques
-> Hand to Hand Combat
--> Blocking
--> Attacking
--> Counter-Attacking
-> Armor
--> Blade-proof
---> Manufacture Methods
--> Arrow-proof
---> Manufacture Methods
--> Bulletproof
---> Manufacture Methods
-> Tactics
--> Troop Control
--> Leadership
--> Charisma
--> The Art Of War
--> Terrain and Weather Knowledge
--> Ambushes
• Management
> Personnel
> Military
> Working force
> Populace
> Finances
> Politics
• Common Sense
> Etiquette
> Law and Order
> Clothing
• Languages
> Spanish
> English
> German
> French
> Japanese
I slowly took out all the information from my memories selecting it and placing it on different folders, I also codded a pseudo program for an Artificial Intelligence to classify my memories so I didn't have to do it myself, my mind was getting tired, the human mind wasn't made to retain memories after dying, it was something no human should experience.
After a while I was better and ready to start thinking about something else, fist I looked at the folder containing information about reincarnations, this was made by the A.I., after all, there's just so much a human can think about by himself, only computers can go over all the information stored inside their system.
The A.I. itself was simple; using my knowledge it classified every word in every language I knew, into four basic categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, other, then it defined every word by its own meaning, once this was done it searched for the words that talked about language (ex, adverbs, connectors, etc.) and classified the words further into more specific categories until the 'other' folder was empty, then it continued into other languages by doing the same.
Trying to remember what I learned in language class was bothersome so I let it do it for me, else I could've made it faster by adding all the options myself, I had no energy for that, though. Once the A.I. finished classifying all words and defining them by their meaning it continued by looking for words whose meaning was able to classify my memories, and then it made a folder with them inside and named it by the same word it used to select it.
This way I was able to classify all the information in my head, but I had made the A.I. so it didn't touch any information regarding how I lived in my past life, I buried all those memories deep inside my mind, so they only would come back once I was with someone I trusted from the bottom of my heart, someone I could regard as my family.
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All the information that was classified had to be cut off from all and any connection to my life, I just let myself be aware of two things, because it was the first prime number, and the only even prime number (and I didn't need to know any more things than that); I wasn't from this world, I shouldn't be in it, and, whoever I was before did not matter, I was alive, and I would stay alive for as long as my body allowed it.
What I was about to do was something that could pretty much kill my memories from the past. I was going to isolate the neurons in which I had stored my past life's memories, leaving the information about my family and friends inaccessible by no other way but magic, I wasn't sure if it was magic, but what I had been using for sure wasn't in the normal body functions of a human, and after revising all the information from my memories I could conclude that seemingly, a parallel world of swords and magic, had a pretty big chance of someone reincarnating in it.
People usually recited pi, as a mechanical engineer I knew about it; 3,141592, that was as much as I remembered, I didn't like it so much, what I liked a lot where prime numbers and powers of two, but to calm me down the best was the Fibonacci sequence; I liked to start from zero but starting from one would work as well.
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233...
Once I was sure that I wouldn't regret my decision I cut off all the connections and made myself faint, if I was a computer then I would've told you this message once I finished reciting numbers: “Please restart the machine to apply the changes.” sadly, restarting one's brain wasn't something you could do being conscious.
---
[AN: I use this divisor line to show that the person talking changed, you’ll have to figure out who is talking yourselves though.]
I don't know what to do, right now I think there's nothing left for me to do, this scenery is getting monotonous, I could at most stay for a decade, I can't go back north, and the south is boring, Everything else is water, there's nowhere left to go, I guess having a long lifespan makes this world too small, maybe I should just stop living, nothing is fun anymore.
Right now anything that surprised me would be welcome; sadly I doubt there’s anything left to do. This forest goes as far as the eye can see, in front of myself lays the mountain range, the biggest one in this continent, even with my great eyesight I can barely see the coast on both my left side and right side, turning around I can see some of the grasslands and human cities in the distance.
But to me, those only look as small stones. Flying above this great forest makes me feel big, here everything I see is small, but even I can't see the end of the world, no one has been able to see it, no one alive I think. I feel lazy, flying is boring, I don't feel like moving, living is boring... I don't feel like being alive.
Maybe this night's rest will be eternal... I feel tempted to sleep, forever. Who knows, maybe being dead is more interesting than being alive.
I slowly beat my wings. Mostly gliding I set course to one of the many caves in the mountain range. While I flew there I wasn't really seeing nor listening though my eyes where open and my ears functioned perfectly I was daydreaming, I felt I was in another imaginary world; magic power flowed in butterfly patterns and islands soared in the sky.
But as a proud predator I can say that no matter what the situation was, I would never let my guard down, and this was the only reason I could feel how magic was being performed in the forest. Usually it wouldn't be anything strange for it to happen, but the only people who ventured this deep into the forest where the humans from the nearby villages, and I hadn't seen any games there, such a manipulation of magic could only be accomplished by them, so it piqued my interest and I dove down looking for the interesting one.
---
As I woke up from my slumber my mind was foggy, because of this I tried to remember what made me feel like this, but all I could remember was that this wasn't my original world, and my objective was to stay alive, no matter who I was before, nor what my past was, this was imprinted in my mind, engraved, burned.
I tried to remember anything about myself, there was nothing, it was like I wasn't alive at all before now, but I did have memories about other things, I could identify the trees before me, the flowers and insects before me. The only thing that proved that this world wasn't the same as the one in my memories was the beast that appeared in front of me, more than a beast it was a monster.
With the face from a dinosaur a long neck and powerful long forelegs with clawed paws, a slim aerodynamic body could be seen, slightly shorted hind-legs but equally or more powerful could be seen and after it a long slim tail ended it body figure. If it was the size of a normal lizard then it wouldn't be so strange, I'm no lizard specialist, but even this large clearing could barely contain its big body.
Even more surprising was its color, lizards normally have a green/brown color, even if it was white, albinism can happen in almost all species, I'm afraid to say all because I'm not knowledgeable on the subject, and it depends in the size of the organism, a bacteria shouldn't be able to be albino, but I'm not sure about that either.
Contrary to the normal colors it should have, it was completely and entirely covered in big coppery scales, these scales weren't normal, fish or lizard scales, they looked more like turtle-shell scales, like a sword would bounce off them without even leaving a scratch. But the most eye-catching feature, the one I've been avoiding because it tells me that this is not earth, not my home, were its wings.
I was somewhere between amazed and lonely, before me lay a dragon, a big imposing dragon, one like the ones I dreamt about, I was a dragon lover, for sure, because the knowledge I had accumulated about dragons was vast, huge, and now it lays before me, it was like nothing I could imagine, but it also represented the connection, or should I say; the disconnection, between this world and mine.
Now there's no one that knows me, my past doesn't exist, right now; I'm a baby with knowledge from another world. This could make me a great person, or a really bad person, but my future doesn't matter much if this dragon is hungry, I don't think I can resist being eaten, either way, I can't see my parents so they probably ran away, even if this dragon doesn't find me appetizing I'd die from hunger.
Whether I live or die will all be decided by the one in front of me, so I looked straight into its eyes, big yellow eyes with a slit-like iris. It was looking at me, observing me, but more like being interested in myself, it was more like searching for something in me, it wasn’t looking at me like food at least, but man
I'm hungry, if I was it then I would've eaten myself four times already.
Humans have a strange condition, this condition manifests when one is hungry and it causes a strange, unavoidable, phenomena, I'm referring to the one called stomach rumbling... I really didn't want for it to rumble before the dragon but... well, my body is that of a baby, I'm sure that if I blame my body it'll go unnoticed... maybe...
I guess it was either a really strong sound, or the dragon had some really good ears, maybe both, probably both, but it stopped scanning me and instead started thinking, or at least that's what it seemed because it was looking at the sky without actually paying attention, suddenly it flew up and away.
Maybe he thought I was too thin, well, it seems I'm dying of hunger after all. I breathe in slowly filling my lung, then I let my breath go, it almost seemed like a sigh. I look up to the sky, the atmosphere shouldn't be too much different from earth's, else the sky wouldn't be blue, there would either be too much or too little particle density to produce Rayleigh scattering, the size, even the color of the sun isn't much different from earth's.
I'd need more time to experiment and find out this planet's size and curvature, distance from the sun, I'd like to see it's moons, if it has one two or more, or none at all, I move my eyes toward the trees, there's nothing to do, I may even start to count the leaves... no way, that'd be too much.
...
2584... isn't that a Fibonacci number? Let's see... 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, and 2584. It is, and it's the nineteenth, the last prime number before 20, I'm just trying to find connections to something, waiting for your death isn't fun at all.
Growl.
My stomach doesn't like it either... maybe if I cry someone will come to help me, but if something that wants to eat me came... a dragon already came by, who knows what the next beast will be. I really don't want to know, but life really is unfair, to think that the moment I came to a fantasy world I'm not only unable to interact with the dragons I admire so much, even my time here seems like it'll be cut short.
Sigh.
I feel tired; maybe I'm just going to die like this... I close my eyes, and delve deep into my memories searching for anything useful; I found quite a bit, but two things made me unable to save myself; everything needed me to be able to walk and digest, none of which could be done with a newborn's body. But I did find something else, hope.
In this hopeless situation I found hope in stupidity, I stupidly and blindly will believe until the moment I die, that I'll live forever, and every day will be the day I die, so I'll plan today like I'll be gone tomorrow, and live like I'll never die. So in this time I'll do everything I can like there's no tomorrow, but I won’t lose hope, because I believe I'll live forever. Now I felt prepared to fight against this world, my eyes can now be opened.
---
At first I thought the baby before me wasn't the one who used the magic, but there wasn't anyone near, no humans, nor beasts, nothing, unless it was teleportation magic I doubt anyone would've been able to outrun me. It took me a few second s to realize that the baby in front of me was the one who had used magic; I don't know how, but he did.
It might've been innocence that made him able to look straight into my eyes, but he wasn't scared, I doubt any other humanoid creature would be able to do the same, most would run away, the others would be too afraid to move, most beasts would've already resign their lives once they sensed my presence.
Something about him intrigues me, something about him isn't normal, there's something in his eyes, some kind of wisdom that most don't have. His body doesn't match his eyes... I take that back, a hungry human will always be a hungry human, no matter what the situation, but how anticlimactic, I seriously thought he wasn't normal.
But who knows, maybe he'll be interesting anyway, I glanced at him. Something was bothering him and he was thinking really hard while looking at me. Yeah, he'll be interesting for sure, but if he dies before I get bored I would feel bad, so I got to get him some food first... what did humans eat? Meat? No, I'm sure babies ate something else.
A mother knows, that's what I was told once, there's a village nearby, I'm sure someone in there knows how to feed a baby. But I don't want to cause a commotion... I should stealthily approach a woman and take her away making sure no one sees me, yep, then I'll return her, it's not like I must kill her, I'm not hungry yet, and humans taste bad anyway.
So I flew away, maybe I should've told the baby I was going to get some food... no, I doubt it would change anything anyway, I'm sure baby humans don't understand anyway. But this really is slow, taking care to be unnoticed is really hard, I would've gotten there and back already if I wasn't trying to beat my wings slowly so they don't hear.
And hiding my presence makes me feel like I'm caged; maybe I should just go in and scared them a bit then take a woman in the midst of chaos, why should I care about so petite humans anyway? But they will call adventurers to deal with me; I don't want to hurt the baby by accident... in the end I'll have to be stealthy, right?
Oh! Lucky! I've already found a woman, and she has a baby in her arms too, lucky! Really lucky! I didn't even have to search around, but if I take her now the baby would scream... I have to wait till she puts him down... how unfortunate. Am I lucky or unlucky? But she is putting the baby down right now, so I must be really lucky!
I wait till she moves away from him and then I grab her shoulders and fly away before she screams, if people come then it won't be stealthy at all. And why did I use my front paws? Now I won't be able to cover my horns when she screams... so unlucky! It hurts! {Fact: Dragon horns act as ears when they vibrate; they are very sensitive to close by sounds so screaming is really annoying for them... not}
...
Actually it doesn't but it is annoying anyway, I hope she would use up her breath already... I heard that human women can scream up to ten times as much as men {Lie... though, is it really? My sister screams a lot, like; kya kya! & How Cute!}, maybe I should’ve gotten a man. What's done is done; I should finish this as fast as possible.
So I disregard my stealth and fly into the sunset... though its midday...
Author's Notes: The "{" "}", where my own comment's to the ones who didn't notice, think of it as little things to break the depressing aura this story has at the moment.