Ch. 1 Grand Destiny
Brrriiinnnggg … Brrriiinnnggg … Brrriiinnnggg … Smack!
I looked at the digital alarm clock that had awoken me from a dream that involved me and multiple females working up quite a sweat. I looked at the time to see that it was 7:00 A.M. and that I had already forgotten the faces and looks of the other inhabitants of the dream save for one.
I sat up and looked around the bedroom of my apartment and started thinking that today was the day I was going to do it. After getting up I looked in the mirror of my dresser and the image of a brown haired, semi-handsome, slightly built lean 27 year old stared back. I put on some running clothes and walked to the main area of my upper middle class city apartment that was located nearby the local park. I poured a bowl of cereal for breakfast and looked at all the memories of my life.
The first memento that brought back memories was the certificate I got from completing sniper school. When I graduated college I had decided to join the army. Since I was a naturally gifted marksman since birth, as were a few others in my family tree, it was only about a month in that I was trained to be an even deadlier killer as a sniper. After completing sniper school I was sent to be part of a NATO anti-terrorist team. I kept looking along my “Wall of Accolades” and my gaze stopped on the picture of the NATO squad I had been part of for 2 years. All the threats against the world stopped all the people I had killed. After that I worked as a hacker for the NSA for another 2 years.
Pretty heroic life right? Psych, all that has left me a burnt out fully funded retiree at the age of 26. I’ve spent the last year doing nothing but hanging out and jogging in the local park. This reminds me that it’s time for me to go and try to change up my life.
I leave my apartment at 7:50 A.M. and jog to the park. Today is the day I finally muster up the courage to ask out Alex. Alex is a woman around my age who jogs with her sheltie husky Prissy (http://files.dogster.com/pix/dogs/82/1135282/1135282_1274222790.jpg) every morning around 8. I’ve been talking with her during our workouts for a while now and I’m finally going to ask the Australian born Indian girl out.
We had first run into each other after a workout about 3 months ago. I noticed her dog was part sheltie, which reminded of the sheltie I had as a kid and who was very close to me. I had asked her about her dog and if I could pet her without really getting a good look at the owner. I was informed by the female owner that I was welcome to try, but that her dog Prissy hadn’t met a male she had liked and that she might bite me. I informed the owner that I had owned a sheltie growing up and that her dog looked like it was a sheltie mix as I offered the back of my hand for the dog to sniff. She told me that Prissy was a sheltie husky mix as I finally looked up at the owner and was instantly attracted to her. She had dark skin, short black hair and beautiful green eyes and stood about 5’8” to my 6ft self. As I felt my face heat up from what was most likely a blush, she giggled at my change in color. She then changed to a look of surprise as I felt a furry head rubbing up against my palm. I looked back down to see that Prissy had put her head under my hand to show she wanted me to pet her which I happily obliged. We then exchanged names and she informed me she often took her dog out on a jog and that she would be bumping into me again.
Once I got to the park at 8 I stretched and started my jog, hoping to run into Alex like I usually did. As I was rounding a turn that was near the street I saw Prissy running towards the street after a squirrel and without Alex. Since Prissy had gotten to know me after the last 3 months of meetings and chats I knew she wouldn’t bite if I grabbed her or her leash. Unfortunately I didn’t make it quick enough to grab the leash she was dragging and instead had to run into the street to pick the dog up. The moment I bent over to pick Prissy up was the same moment a taxi driver decided to not be paying attention and hit me as I was bent over.
I was sent barreling forward and rolled along the ground a few times when I came to a stop on my back. I was snapped out of my daze from the immense pain I was feeling in my chest by getting licked on the face by a perfectly fine Prissy.
The driver quickly came to help me up and said he was incredibly sorry. I told him to call an ambulance and stay there while I went to look for the owner of the dog I had saved since odds are she might need help too. I also thanked him for not going at a speed that would have instantly killed me as I hobbled off in the direction I had seen Prissy running from. I checked my sports watch to see that It was 8:20.
With the help of Prissy guiding me back to her owner, it didn’t take long for me to find Alex lying unconscious in a small grove of trees. With the help from Prissy giving Alex “kisses” on the face and me gently shaking her, Alex groggily started to regain consciousness. As she started to wake up I looked around the small clearing to bizarrely see a coconut wrapped in some string on the ground near where Alex was. After I helped her up, we walked to a nearby bench to wait for the ambulance to arrive and so she could tell me how she had ended up how I had found her.
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At about 8:15, she had been jogging with Prissy and hoping to run into me since the last time we met I had asked if she was going to the park today. About that time Prissy veered off the pat and started sniffing the grass to go to the bathroom. While Prissy was watering the grass, Alex was looking around when she saw what looked like some African Swallows around a non-flying object. She dismissed it and looked back down to see that Prissy was just finishing up her business when she felt something nick her head before everything went black.
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After she had finished her brief story, I told her about the coconut I had found near her and that I had something to say before I chickened out. I had never been good with girls and even though I could take a man’s life as if it were nothing, asking a girl out was downright terrifying. I then asked her if she would go on a date with me and hoped for the best. She said yes and gave me a light kiss on the cheek saying she had been interested in me as long as I had been with her, and was just about to ask me out since she could tell I was quite awkward when it came to girls. We started to hear the sirens from the approaching ambulance that the cab driver had called when my adrenaline finally ran out.
It took about 2 seconds before I was almost convulsing with pain, had convolutions not been even more painful. As I felt the pain in my left side where I had been hit I realized I could feel it in my heart, and that it might have been punctured. I decided to take off the dog tags I always wore and give them to Alex, and let her know if I didn’t make it, then those dog tags would be able to take care of her for the rest of her life and not to lose them. I also told her to only give them back should we break up, or should we get married as I gave a slight laugh and blacked out to the sound of her crying and calling the paramedic over to us as best she could.
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When I was finally able to open my eyes I was in what looked like a white room with a desk stacked with papers and folders on it. As I was looking around a female voice called me over to the desk. As I got closer I was finally able to see the woman who wouldn’t look out of place as a “sexy female boss” in a certain genre of porn. She looked up at me when I got close to the desk and started to talk to me.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
???: “Well it’s finally good to meet you in person Cameron.”
Cameron: “Well since I never met you or been here before, am I dead?”
???: “Yes you are, and I have much to talk to you about all of that.”
I interrupted her with my hand and asked if Alex had kept my dog tags. After the mysterious woman told me she had and that Alex had gotten the other gift that came with the dog tags.
I heaved a sigh of relief since in my will, whoever I had gifted my dog tags to, when I died they would become the inheritor of my small fortune and would never need to work again.
Cameron: “Sorry about interrupting you, but I just had to know she was going to be taken care of. Could you please continue what you were saying please?”
???: “It’s alright, that caring personality of yours is one of the reasons you were destined to be my Hero of the Apocalypse. Let me introduce myself, I’m the god, or in my case goddess, of Chaotic Good, one of the 9 gods of alignment.”
Cameron: “Wait, Chaotic Good like the alignment type in D & D?”
CG God: “Where do you think they came up with the idea? We had a hand in giving the creators of the game the idea for alignments.” I shook my head in acknowledgment.
Cameron: “You said I was your Hero of the Apocalypse, so does that mean you’re going to send me back or to another reality to fight in the Apocalypse?”
CG God: “Well before I answer that, how about I explain what was supposed to happen with the Apocalypse. The 9 gods of alignment each selected a human the moment they were born and granted them a Grand Destiny, which means that while they might have less free will than others in the beginning of their lives, they will end their lives as the greatest of heroes on their planet and possibly beyond. The true neutral god got to pick a set of brothers who were going to eventually be forced to fight each other to the death to start the Apocalypse and you were supposed to witness the beginning of the Apocalypse during your 3rd mission with your NATO unit. The Apocalypse was also going to bring magic back to your universe and you and the 8 other remaining Heroes would have been granted more power from the magic than anyone else. At that point demons, heavenly beings, monsters and pretty much every kind of creature from every human religion and mythology would be unleashed upon your world. You and the other heroes would gain more power the more of the mythological beings you fought and become nearly as powerful as gods while also extending your life-spans. Eventually you marry the hero of neutral good; who you happened to ask out just before you died, while also being forced to kill all but her and the hero of lawful neutral (he got killed by the chaotic evil hero) because they go mad with power. After you two are the last remaining heroes you refuse to become rulers of anything, especially since you two would have near infinite life-spans. You and Alex eventually become space travelling heroes who fight the evils of the universe and help form a universal alliance of many different species. Since we could only see 1 million years into the future all I can tell is that you 2 had tons of kids and a hell of a lot of descendents of many different cross-species and are still being the greatest heroes in the entire universe.”
Cameron: “If I was supposed to do all of that, then why did I just die trying to ask out my true soul mate and the woman I’m supposed to love for literal eternity?”
CG god: “Well since the brothers that the god of true neutral found a way to avert their fate and cancel the Apocalypse. Due to the Apocalypse, your destiny was not going to end so badly you were going to commit suicide at age 33. So to prevent the massive waste of power I used to give you your destiny in the first place and the massive amount of pain and sadness door number 2 offered, the 9 gods decided to cause your death so you could be reincarnated in another universe to do whatever you please. Also because it is our faults that the brothers could cancel the Apocalypse at all since its one of the events were never able to foresee clearly. With that being said, it’s time to see what species most suited for your personality and knowledge.”
Cameron:” So I don’t get to pick for myself what I get to be?”
CG god:”You will if you get multiple possibilities, but we do this since it will be the species that you will adapt the easiest to, both bodily and society wise. Since you’re also the freedom loving hero of good I’m sure you will get something really good. Ah here are your results now, interesting. Well good news you have 2 options, a Feral Wolf or Raptor beast-man. Now in this world all beast-man species are anthropomorphic, so all of them look human with animal characteristics. Also species classified as Feral are only because they look slightly more animalistic and are also used to describe all of the species that aren’t currently domesticated mammals on your world. So which one would you like to be reborn as?”
Cameron:”Two things I need to know first. Number one is said Raptor as in the dinosaur, and number two is what the species are like?”
CG god: “Well Feral Wolf is tied for first in the Mammal kingdom for highest combat ability, and they make up most of the higher ranks of the army and royal guard. Raptors are also tied at first in combat ability of all species in the Reptile kingdom, and they tend to be nobility, or high ranking military leaders. They tend to be quite intelligent and noble, but are humble and more like knights of old than selfish nobles. So which one do you want to pick?”
Cameron: “You know what; just give me one of them at random. I always thought I was pretty lucky, and since both are good choices, I’ll just go with whatever I get.”
CG god: “You keep making me glad I picked you as my hero Cameron. I might contact you during your next life, but now I hope you enjoy getting to see and remember your birth. Oh and all beast people species give live birth.”
She snapped her fingers and instantly everything went pitch black I fell asleep.
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When I regained consciousness everything was still dark but it was warm and wet. I started to hear yelling as I saw some light.
???: “YOU DID THIS TO ME YOU SON OF A BITCH! NOW GET IT OUT OF MEEEEE!”
I quickly came out and looked up at my new father …
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Authors note: I know that I have another FF that I just recently started, but I was having some writers block because this story kept coming to mind so I decided to write it too. I will be working on both series, but probably won’t have regular releases as I’m also busy with college. Hope you enjoy. Also named it Imperator of Beasts since the original title was going to be King of Beasts but Prince of Beasts was released while I was writing this so I changed the title to be different and more badass.