A blinding flash of light, followed by a sickening lurch, and the screech of metal against asphalt... wait, that wasn't quite right was it?
Amelia blinked, her vision swimming, and for a moment, she thought she saw a man made entirely out of stars sitting at the wheel of a truck with a tankard of beer resting on the hood of the machine...
'Am I going crazy?'
Had days of non-stop overtime finally come to bite her in the arse? Or did she just lag out of reality for good?
Groaning, she sat up and observed the sterile white walls all around her. She had grown sick of the color, well, at least the roof wasn't white,
'On that note, where is the roof?'
Overhead, the walls gave way to a night sky full of stars blazing in the distance... the sky was a bit too clear to be real,
'So I finally kicked the bucket huh?'
And to think she would have such strange hallucinations when she died instead of her life flashing before her eyes. She must be going senile, and in her later 20s at that.
Suddenly, a chorus of voices filled the air, each one impossibly sweet, beautiful, and otherworldly... except that illusion was broken when she finally made sense of what they were saying,
"Another one?"
"This is the third time this Age..."
"Ugh, a woman..."
"That truck is a bad influence on our father..."
"Maybe we should just..."
"Look, she has come to..."
"SILENCE!!!"
One voice boomed above all else, and the crowd quietened down like a classroom of naughty children,
"Our... sincerest apology, young one,"
'...I'm sorry what?'
Why was that particularly large pieces of moving sky apologizing to her!?
What for?
"Our father creator, that is Eru Ilúvatar, in his revelry... may have gotten a little festive and caused some minor inconvenience in the cycle of rebirth."
Amelia stared, mouth agape. As a woman of culture, she had forced herself to read 'The Silmarillion' no matter how much of a mush her brain turned into... and she liked it. It was nice.
But to think the 'One' could be in a DUI incident... either she was high on devil's lettuce or had drunk too much coffee again.
Another voice, calmer and more feminine, cut through her thoughts,
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"Please, do not be alarmed child. We are the Ainur. What you may call 'Gods.' Unfortunately, you were implicated in our father's merry-making."
This was insane, she was definitely high on something that's for sure. But there was also no way that her brain could think up something this strange... but there was this nagging sensation in the back of her mind...
A heavy sigh, one that seemed to stretch across days and months echoed in her mind, and by the time it ended, she felt her ears ring like doorbells,
"A most unfortunate incident,"
Said the third voice admittedly,
"But it has been such since our Father took up with that wretch, Truck!"
There was a murmur of acknowledgment and several other voices echoed his lament,
"As recompense, we offer you a chance to live again, along with a gift and your knowledge intact."
Amelia just wanted the dream to end, maybe her co-workers managed to get her to the hospital in time. Otherwise, she was pretty sure the overdose might kill her,
'Sure, whatever you say.'
She murmured, her eyes dull from thinking about what would happen to her cat when she died. The poor kitty was quite old and truth be told, it was not likely to survive if she didn't get her monthly visits to the vet.
"VERY WELL THEN!"
The first voice boomed and a blinding flash of light erupted from underneath her, and the world all around her faded into nothingness.
...
..
.
"So that's dealt with, who is going to get Father out of jail this time?"
Asked the third voice.
"Ulmo?"
Asked the first voice.
Ulmo growled,
"I did it the last time..."
"Mandos?"
Mandos disappeared from the hall.
"...Yavanna?"
The second voice sighed,
"It is spring, High-King."
"Very well then, Aulë shall go."
Aulë offered no protest and followed the commands of Manwë.
***
Amelia, meanwhile, found herself lying on a ragged old cot that stank of stale blankets and hay. She stared at the ceiling, it was made of tightly fitted timber coated with a mixture of hay and clay to harden from the inside. She raised her hand and reached out for the sunlight filtering through the gaps in the window... she felt younger, lighter, sturdier, and for some reason... a whole lot dirtier.
*SIGH*
'Where am I?'
If she didn't believe the words of those entities before, she did now... with great reluctance she did. There was no other explanation for what she was feeling at that moment, she felt... stupid for thinking she was under some sort of influence while having an audience with literal gods...
"Bloody hell..."
"Watch yer' tongue lass!"
Scolded a giant figure standing by the door. The man was easily above six feet and built like a bear, his dark eyes glared at her from under long unkempt hair.
'Great, now who is this guy?'
The man suddenly chuckled,
"Up ye get, girl! Sun's been high these two hours, and yer mum could use a hand, wouldn't ye say?"
Well, that changed quickly...
With an effort, she pushed herself off the cot and sat upright. Her face darkened as she heard the creaking sound coming from the so-called 'Bed,'
[You have slept in a bed. HP & MP are fully restored.]
"What in the..."
"Yer tone, lass!"
Shouted the burly man from across the house, for a giant, he had surprisingly good hearing.
Amelia stared at the screen floating in front of her, wondering what to make of it. Suddenly, the screen expanded, covering a significant portion of her vision with a bluish box,
[Name: Amelia]
[Job: None]
[Gender: Female]
[Level: 3] [Next LV: 60%]
[Title: Village Hunter's Daughter]
[Age: 15]
[Species: Human(Dúnedain/Númenórean)]
[HP: 360/360]
[MP: 300/300]
STR: 10
VIT: 12
DEX: 15
INT: 10
WIS: 10
LUK: 15
|Free Points: 0|
|Money: GC0/SC0/CP0|
'...What?'
Suddenly, memories came flooding down her brain, she was Amelia Calvindotr... the surname meant 'Daughter of Calvin.'
'That's not important!'
Calvin was the village hunter and she was his daughter, their family also had a son who got mauled by a boar a couple of years back, and a second daughter died of infection a month after her birth. Her mother, Hallbera, was the village butcher... their family was pretty darn important,
'Not that either!!!'
Right, she was reborn as the eldest daughter of a village hunter in a village settled at the foot of misty mountains across the river Glanduin...
"Damn..."
"YER! TONGUE! LASS! ARE! YE! DEAF!"