Rhodney tried to pace, but fell over. He tried to pace again, and found the same result.

Damn hooves.

Regardless, his new body had been better than he'd expected. The changes threw him off in multiple ways, but it was still a major improvement on his feeble body in his prior life despite its apparent youth. It was at first terrifying waking up in The Cradle. The sight of the nineteen red babies with horns almost made him scream the moment he’d awoken. Until he realized that he was also one of those children. Sitting in the group of five against the wall. Apparently the body before he took occupancy had defaulted to following the others of his kind. The dull memories of feeling fear towards the raw intensity of the center of imps, and of making his way to where it was more mellow, still stuck in his mind.

He was unsure if the guardian had stolen this body from a child or he just only gained awareness after his body had reached a certain level of growth. He hoped for the latter, but if it was the former he felt a little bad. The mind was only about a week old and had only opened its eyes for one day.

Just crawling in the dark, occasionally bumping other children. Waiting and looking for things to chew on or kill. It didn’t seem like there was enough of a person that he could feel guilty for.

But Still…

It felt wrong to just walk without acknowledging that he may have stolen someone else's chance…

Life was precious.

So, he got into a criss cross position. Clasping his hands and saying a silent prayer. Thanking the guardian for bringing him here. Hoping that any soul that brought him here has a good journey. Promising himself that he would live his new life honestly.

Blessing of knowledge huh…

He did feel as though his mind moved much smoother than it did back in his original life. Like finally swimming in water after being born in a lake of honey. Recalling past information and recognizing patterns was a breeze.

…

Little good it does him in here. He looked over and saw that the little pink children next to him were just babbling or sleeping. Baby was sort of misleading. Despite being a week old, the pink children were already toddler size. And the red ones, about 20 pounds bigger, but around the same. Horns, just starting to poke through their heads. He even could feel his, right above his ears.

They wouldn’t be children for long. And he didn’t have much time. Rhodney couldn’t walk yet, but he thought as he crawled around the perimeter . The body he had been given was almost everything he could’ve asked for. Relatively humanoid. Magical, and in a community of others that had it to boot.

He had even seen other Imps learn how to do it almost intuitively. Launching smoke and fire out their mouth and hands, giggling at the new part of their body they discovered. But not all had been able to do it.

He got halfway around the perimeter and had to move around a bigger red imp. It’s body was almost double the size of rhodney’s. It clutched a rock and smiled to itself devilishly. It’s body is slightly darker red than most others. And an almost unnoticeable tattoo sat on its neck. Oh, the rockless one won. Cool. He moved around it, not wanting to be the center of its attention.

He’d beaten that other Imp to a crying mess.

He made it back to his pink group and thought. How would magic be triggered? Would “Lesser’s” have a harder time tapping into it? That Shoji guy seemed really concerned about his little group of pinkies. Well… only one way to find out.

Rhodney got back into his crisscross formation, sinking into a deep focus with his eyes closed. In a deep focus with his eyes closed. He held his right hand palm up on his thigh, not wanting to accidently blow off his junk. The idea of exploring a magic system made him a bit excited. While he had “Moments of adreneline,” he’d never been able to properly use his abilities in any kind of reasonable way. He was always too lethargic. Too sleepy.

The doctors said that tired feeling was normal with his condition, but Rhodney now knew that that's not what was going on. Past age eight through nine, he always had that feeling.

That bloated feeling.

Like he’d had a giant sunday dinner and could never quite digest the food. Like he needed to burp but never had a mechanism.

So he reached for that, his belly.

It felt warm.

Hot.

Burning.

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He zeroed in on that feeling, and using his blessing, zeroed in on that night with the window. His emotions of anger and sadness. That feeling of being left alone. Left to die. His head felt hot. His heart began to beat louder, and louder. That burning freeze returned to his veins, it-

Wait–

Too much!

Rhodney grabbed his wrist and lifted his hand. It glowed so bright that it had everyone's attention. Glowed an almost radioactive green and pierced the room. He lifted it all the way up to the ceiling!

VOOOM!!!

A torrent of green fire ripped from his hands. The pillar of fire was leagues bigger than his entire body. It shot with insane force and sent a terrible recoil down onto his body. He dug his now enhanced hand into the soft dirt trying to keep himself steady. His knees hurt from the strain. His arm forced his body down like a hazardous waste compactor.

This was bad! His arm hurt from the weight. He looked behind him and saw three of the pink imps scramble away in fear. Many of the smart reds did the same. Squealing as the fire rocketed, full vertical.

Rhodney struggled to keep his eyes open as energy was sucked out of his body. Wires of yellow light twirling around the yellow fire.

The tired lesser rubbed its eyes. Apparently the sound didn’t do it, but the light did. After opening his eyes, they immediately widened. Watching his pen mates display nuclear fire. And looking back to see his peers shaking against the back wall. He waddled over to Rhodney with concern in his eyes. Apparently, he already knew how to walk.

Rhodney desperately wanted to tell him to get back, but struggled to even talk. The fire put so much pressure on his body that it made it so he couldn't even play charades with the kid. He was straining on all fours except for the elbow holding up his hand like a torch. Rhodney did not need this thing hitting all of the children. Damnit. He swore internally.

The child walked forward with wonder in their eyes. Walking closer and closer to the fire. Reaching their hands out to the torrent. Rhodney was surprised when the embers weren’t even making the child wince…

Were they… fireproof?

He felt his eyelids get heavier and heavier as he lost more and more energy.

Close. Please… Close.

He tried to will his body to close the floodgates. Trying to stop the power from leaking out.

Close, Close, close, Close. His begging almost turned manic as he felt his lifeforce dripping away.

If he released everything, he didn’t know if he would survive. Especially this young. Hope got dim as he felt his body not listen to him. His veins had swelled to a terrible degree. And his elbow felt like it was teetering on breaking.

Then, a hand.

He looked over and saw the child put its hand on his shoulder, youthful face glowing bright green from the residual flame. A determined look on its face. Two horns stuck up from above his eye brows. He smiled. Putting his hands on my back, and like turning a faucet.

Fwosh!

It was off, as fast as it had come. And Rhodney immediately fell over in exacerbation. “THANK, GOD!” Rhodney yelled!

He was alive.

He was…

He put his arm over his eyes and silently weeped under it. He didn’t like crying in front of people. Not even people this young.

He wasn’t dead… He was still here…

He wasn’t going to die a second time…

He was ok.

He comforted himself as he always did. Reminding himself that he was here, and he was OK. Rhodney used to tell himself that people loved him… but he had lost that part of his chant.

The new Imp had a long cry, thinking about the past few days and steadied himself. This was spent. All that fire had been too much. His arms hurt. His entire body had hurt. This was too much.

He was in a new world.

He was a monster.

He had met a god.

And he now wielded terrifying powers beyond his understanding.

After crying, he actually began laughing. A jovial laugh with his new raspy imp voice. His vocal chords seemed to have sped up in their growth after his outburst. His face was covered in drying tears.

Honestly, an 8/10.

“He-ey.” He looked over to the other imp who sat next to him. His voice was like sandpaper, and didn’t feel like his old one. He wasn’t even sure if the imp could even understand him. Rhodney was sure the language leaving his lips wasn’t any from earth. Definitely not english. But his body seemed to default to speaking this one for some reason. So why fight it?

“You helped me. You closed my magical gate… or whatever… right?” He asked haltingly.

The child nodded. Good.

“Let's be friends.” It felt very preschool, just going up to someone and saying that. But he would need allies. And he hadn’t had a friend his age in… A very long time. So getting a friend early seemed like it could be fun. Especially one with magic.

The other little imp thought for a bit, then nodded.

It seemed to want to talk, but only wheezing sounds made it out. And he shook its head.

“You don’t have to push yourself, just let it come.” Rhodney said softly.

It nodded.

The two sat down in the pen for a little bit after that. Rhodney almost immediately passed out, but before he did,

“Hey… friend…” His eyelids were getting heavy.

“Make-make… sure…”

“Make sure all of US… make it out of here… I have a feeling we’ll need each other…”

Rhodney emphasized the US part. He didn’t say it outright, but the kid was smart. He’d get it. Rhodney was lying down, so he couldn’t see the other kid's response.

That shoji guy seemed like bad news, and Rhodney didn’t know how safe they were. So he asked his fellow lesser a favor.

It felt unfair.

The Imp was a child.

But Rhodney had a small feeling that he could rely on him.

So he did, Drifting to sleep.