It felt like I was floating, swayed by gentle soothing waves in the darkness.

My mind was numb, the same as my senses but I couldn’t find in myself an iota of care. I knew that I should’ve been worried, or at least a little scared of not knowing what was happening. However, I could only get a feeling of all-encompassing peace. That everything was going to be fine.

I didn’t know how long I’ve been in this state but at some point, something changed and sensations started coming back. As if I was waking from the most marvellous rest ever and for a moment I wanted to rebel, to go back to that state without worries, without the uncertainty and anxiety of life and the future, but it slipped from my grasp  and slowly consciousness came back.

And I realized that something was wrong.

It took me a moment to recognize that the hard mattress on my back and the rough bed sheet over my chest weren’t mine. I tensed, or at least tried to, and a muffled pained groan left my mouth without prompting as my whole body found itself locked from how stiff it was. 

Going from a sense of being weightless to feel that every part of me was made of lead was a jarring experience. Fortunately, feeling was trickling back, really slowly, but it was coming. Just a few seconds since waking and I could twitch some fingers. So, progress!

Knowing that a quick escape was out of the equation, I decided that more information was needed so I opened my eyes a little, just what I considered enough to get a look while still giving the appearance of being close, and immediately felt my stomach drop at the corroboration that it was, indeed, not my bedroom.

Various shelves were placed along the walls, each one with an assortment of herbs, pots and even what looked like animal parts floating inside glass jars. On the other side of the room was a lit fireplace, the logs gently crackling under a big cauldron which expelled soft fumes that permeated the surroundings. A pungent smell that now that I realized was there made me frown and huff. There was also other furniture; a table with some instruments I couldn’t recognize and a couple of chairs, some windows and more importantly, two doors. Both were made of wood and could use some maintenance but while from the cracks of one I could see the light of the exterior, the other let out none, making me assume that it went deeper into the place.

A solitary place as my eyes swept the room two more times as I sharpened my hearing, not finding anything beyond the flames in the fireplace or the breeze coming from the windows, letting me relax a bit since apparently, wherever I was, was not in immediate danger. However, it also left me confused and more concerned than before.

“Where… am I?” I said in an attempt to ground myself while fully opening my eyes. My voice was rough and parched from disuse, which made no sense since I couldn’t be asleep that long, right? Fear and anxiety were creeping up with every moment as I tried to make sense of what was happening.

As I thought, I was lying down on a bed on one side of the wall, right under an open window that let inside the light from the outside. From my position I could see the blue sky, bereft of clouds, letting me know that it was likely to be between morning and after midday. ‘Not much to go by, but at least it’s not dark’. I looked down to myself, my neck protesting the movement, to the coarse bed sheet covering the rest of my body. I could not see anything beyond the general shape but it didn’t appear as if something was missing.

Still, there was the nagging feeling that I was missing something and again I tried to move, this time with greater success as my limbs trembled in place while the pain only made me clench my teeth and squeeze my eyes shut in an attempt to make no sound.

However, I had to stop after a moment, unable and unwilling to keep going due to fear of hurting something and the pain being too much. Taking deep breaths, I tried to relax, already feeling sweat pouring out from the effort. Far and away were the instances where I had ever felt pain of any similar magnitude; some hits and cuts with the worst having been a dislocated arm while at high school and even then, only for a moment before I fainted, so by experience I knew that I didn’t handle it well.

It took time but eventually the pain dulled enough for me to be able to regain enough will to open my eyes again, but as I found no change, I just let my vision get lost while my mind wandered.

‘Was I kidnapped? The place looks very old fashioned with no modern appliances so maybe I am in the countryside? Maybe I was taken by one of those paramilitary groups?’ That made no sense though. I was just a regular office worker, an average person from an average family without an ounce of political capital. A nobody. Even my work wasn’t anything truly important to be worthy of ransom or blackmail.

I felt my guts twist and my breathing become rapid and shallower. If I was not a target of importance, then more likely one of convenience. Possibilities flashed in my head, each one worse than the other. I’ve heard and seen many stories of people being taken in the middle of the night while taking a stroll to be sold into slavery, never to be seen again. Of being drugged to wake up in some dingy room without memory and with some part of your body missing. Or just to be made into an example, to be battered before some cameras for this or that transgression, which had nothing to do with you, only to have ended up with a bullet on the head. ‘But that couldn’t be me, right?’ Drops of cold sweat were running down my brow as panic started to settle. ‘That couldn’t possibly be happening to me, right?!’

I needed to get out.

Once more I tried to move and, as before, a pained grunt arose from my lips, this time louder as desperation started to fuel my movements to no avail as my body refused to comply beyond some shakes that only fed into my distress.

Something caught my attention and my eyes darted from one place to the other but my focus was wavering, my vision blurring against the dread pooling on my soul. The shadows all around the room were darkening, creeping from every crevice of the room like amorphous beasts waiting to pounce. With each breath I took the pungent smell became nauseating and made my head spin and lose sense of my surroundings. The creaking of wood, a hammer on my ears that made my heart beat with such a force that I didn’t know how it didn’t just explode out of my chest. 

I needed to get out of there, so I kept trying once and again and again but my body just wouldn’t react how I wanted to. And it hurt. It hurt so much and I knew I was whimpering but I couldn’t care less. I couldn’t think straight. I didn’t want to die.

That’s when I felt my forehead being touched and a sense of peace and tiredness spread from it, quickly encompassing me completely from head to toes and making me sigh in relief. The feeling was reminiscent of having been submerged into a hot bath and, in the same way that the waters would soothe the body, my panic was smothered until it died a quiet death.

I made an effort to look for what made me so sleepy, however my eyes grew heavier by the second and only managed to catch the blurry image of a person next to me before consciousness slipped away and darkness greeted me once more. 

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

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The next time I woke up the sky was painted with an orange hue, a few stars already visible  and merrily blinking so at least a few hours have passed since my episode without any apparent change in my accommodations. I was still lying down and covered. Surprisingly, I couldn’t feel any of the previous strain and a little experimental wiggling proved no problem, as if there never was something wrong.

I knew different, though. It was impossible that it had been a figment of my imagination or a feverish dream with how vivid it has been and yet I could only breathe out in contentment at not having to suffer the pain anymore. 

The weirdness of the situation was enough that my mind was taking its time to decide how it should react, so I took my grace period without complaining to look around. And promptly froze when my eyes met a woman’s stern face at the side of the bed.

She was wearing a simple dress in earthy tones reminiscent of what one would find on films set in the medieval era if not for how immaculate it was. Similarly, her fair-skinned face, absent of any mark or blemish beyond little laugh lines around her silver eyes. The same colour as her hair styled in a bun with an almost metallic lustre. All the features that added to the pair of long and pointed ears at the sides of her face, made my mind come to a screeching halt in utter incomprehension because sitting on a wooden chair was an honest-to-God fantasy elf.

Now, of course, my first reaction was to rebuke that silly thought. Obviously, she couldn’t be an elf. They didn’t exist beyond fantasy literature; so clearly it must have been some very elaborate costume… Except it wasn’t.

I didn’t know how I knew it, but I did. It was just that everything about her was so real. I’d seen others dressing-up as something else and no matter how good their make-up, how well made it was done you could always find some telling on them, no matter how small, that the person was human. This woman had none that I felt could recognize and it made me stare in silence with a dumbfounded expression.

And for too long, apparently, if her raised eyebrow was anything to go by.

“How are you feeling, boy?” Her voice was soft but firm; tone even in a no-nonsense kind of way while her daintily hands rested over her skirt.

“Huh?” Was my incredibly intelligent response at the same time I blinked in an effort to bring my focus to the fore.

The woman though looked mildly annoyed by the fine creases forming on her forehead, even if her voice kept being the same. “Are you feeling unwell? Does anything keep hurting?”.

“Ah⎯Oh! N-no, no, I feel… fine, I guess? I mean…!” I nervously licked my lips before swallowing as her eyes grew sharp with my words and started to inspect me in more detail; it felt uncomfortable to be scrutinized under her intense gaze. As if those silver eyes could take me apart, piece by piece, and maybe they could. I didn’t know. So, I tried to hurry up as I also realized that I needed to gather information “Ehm, excuse me but… where am I and who are you?”.

The woman’s gaze turned to my own, startling me for an instant “You are in the outskirts of Ederveil” A moment of silence passed before she continued “North of Silvervale, close to the Hollowed Mountains” I could only stare without change on my face, trying and failing to make sense of any of the names mentioned “As for my name, you may call me Oshanna”.

At that I simply nodded slowly, my vision slipping to the side and losing focus as my full attention moved to the jumbled mess that were my thoughts.

A dark and heavy idea was starting to sink in my mind. Details that I hadn’t taken into account now at stark attention. The leaves of some potted plants shine gently with bizarre patterns in the light of sundown. Animal parts that were many times bigger than they should. All of this added to what I had experienced since first waking-up made one terrible thought come screaming to the surface… I really wasn’t home anymore. 

The realization brought a feeling of deep sadness and confusion. A small part of myself was ‘elated’, in a way, about the fact that if elves were a thing, then probably many other fantasy-related things were also real. Some idle lines of thinking wandering and wondering about what life could be in a place like that. The biggest part of me was more focused on all that was left behind, family and friends, and what it meant for me. But above all, why. Why was I uprooted from everything that I ever knew? Why was I here? Why did this happen?

I was lost and didn’t know what to do.

“You don’t know where you are, do you?” Oshanna’s soft voice echoed my thoughts and brought my attention back to her. Something changed while I was inside my head and her eyes now held some softness in them “Do you know how you got here?” I shook my head “I need you to use your words, boy” She demanded, not unkindly.

“No…” I said in a low voice while she gave a little nod.

“Do you remember how you were hurt before coming here?” That made me frown.

“I was…?” I asked, confused. I guess that explained what I was doing on a bed in what appeared to be some kind of healer or witch doctor’s cabin; even so⎯ “I can’t remember getting hurt, but my head is foggy so… I don’t know?” And it was the truth. Now that I was actively trying to remember without being under a panic attack, I realized that my last memories were missing. And I could tell it was a chunk of them.

Did I die saving a child? Was I run over by a truck? Maybe an accident of some kind? I couldn’t recall. Weirdly enough, I wasn’t too affected by it. As if, in some way, I knew that I was better not knowing.

Now then, according to many media from home, it is common practice in this type of situation to keep almost all relevant or damning information to yourself; to lie about anything suspicious and weave your responses in the most beneficial way without giving even a hint of your true nature. And I would call bullshit on that because I certainly couldn’t do that after all the stress and dread I went through in such a short time. My mental capabilities just weren’t full-on engaged at the moment.

Besides, I never liked lying. One had to be on their toes all the time and it was too consuming. Too exhausting. So, I very much prefer to be as honest as I can.

“Do you know your name?” She asked with her own frown.

“Yes” I said and after a moment of silence she once again raised an eyebrow and I realized she wanted for me to continue “Ah, sorry, is Leonardo Valiente”.

She blinked before she gave a low hum while tilting her head; the curious move gave me the sense that I said something weird, but I couldn’t guess what.

“I see… And do you have anyone who you want to make contact with? Family or friends, maybe?” The question sent my thoughts back to the people I would, more than likely, never see again; I could feel my eyes getting a little wet so I took a deep breath to stop the urge to cry.

“No” I croaked “No one”.

Oshanna nodded and stayed quiet, giving me a much-appreciated moment to gather my bearings before she stood up and smoothed some non-existing wrinkles on her skirt “I think that’s enough for now. You went through many things and are still recovering from the ordeal so you must stay put. Understand?” Her gaze became stern again and I promptly nodded.

“Yes madam” Her eyes narrowed and I felt a trickle of sweat running down my temple.

“I will come back later and we’ll keep talking” She then turned to the door leading to the outside, opened it and walked out while closing it behind her. For an instant I thought I saw the silhouette of another person but it was out of sight too quickly for me to be sure.

I waited without moving, hearing the sound of soft footsteps on the ground until they disappeared, and then waited some more until I felt sure I was alone and could let out a sigh.

“So apparently reincarnation, transmigration or whatever this crap is about is real” I whispered to myself “Great. Wonderful even! Man, what am I going to do? I just want to be home” Sadly, I didn’t believe that was going to be possible in the immediate future. The only option I had that I could foresee was going forward. To live and survive “Who knows? Maybe things wouldn’t be so bad” Another sigh escaped me and went to take the bed sheet off so I could sit on the side of the bed.

Looking down I could see clean bandages wrapped around my broad chest and some over my thick arms⎯’wait, that isn’t right’ I should be thinner, not in an unhealthy way but I definitely wasn’t a barrel with feet. 

My mouth went dry with a sudden realization but I refused to even entertain the thought before I found confirmation.

A small jump got my feet planted on the floor and I could see that the bed was higher than it should; however, watching the rest of the place in detail revealed that the chair, the tables, the windows and shelves⎯even the doors, everything was made for taller people. A different kind of worry was closing upon me as I took unsteady steps over to the table, which was at chest-level with me, and with trembling, wider than they should, hands searched for anything that could help.

Between the assortment of instruments were things like chopping knives, ceramic bowls, pestle and mortar, scales and some other weird contraptions that I didn’t recognize but I ended up finding a mirror. It wasn’t a gaudy thing, more practical than anything consisting of a circular glass mirror with a wooden frame without a handle.

I took a deep steadying breath before lifting up the mirror with trembling hands. What greeted me was the reflection of a man with messy shoulder-length brown hair and familiar hazel eyes. I could recognize my face, but at the same time there were various differences from what I remembered. The eyebrows were bushier, the nose was a little bigger and the short but full beard shouldn’t be a thing.

The worst, I think, was the uncanny feeling that I got from seeing my face. The same kind that I got when talking with Oshanna, that this wasn’t the face of a human. And with that it finally clicked. 

“Damn it, I am a Dwarf!”