“”

I am left at a park / plaza just outside a massive wooden pavilion, it looks like a giant shell jutting out of the hill supported by a grid of pillars and beams, the highest point in the curved ceiling being 15 or so meters off the ground.

Peeking in, there’s a congregation far inside the building, thick paper panels hiding a big congregation of lights and people under one of the more open areas the pillars sectioned off. I see Gaviel making his way to a gap in the wall of portable panels.

So I guess I'll just… sit here… and wait, alone with my thoughts.

*sigh* I exhale tiredly, laying down on the soft grass by the small river that streamed across the area. ‘...What now?’

‘It has been just one thing after the other these days…’

‘“Survive.” That was all that populated my mind at first. My past, my self, my future, cast away into the abyss to never come back. The main and only priority being living another day and seeing what happens.’

My hand instinctively goes to grab the stick I carried all this time, a simple, trusty tool I used for all sorts of things to avoid getting my hands dirty and bleeding. Actually, where did it go? I look around me searching. I don’t remember where I left it and I definitely wasn’t holding the cumbersome thing around at the baths or that apothecary.

Something pointy slides across the back of my ankle, and I see the bloody-stained thing being held firmly by my tail.

‘Oh.’

I snort. ‘I didn’t know it could do that. Well, at least the thing is useful for something beyond getting in the way of clothes and giving me trouble when sitting.’ I hadn’t even realized how I was utilizing my tail so naturally, it’s a little unsettling, how naturally it comes to me.

A thought crosses my mind, I take the opportunity to wash the detritus and …fluids? It accumulated throughout the time. ‘I hope no-one minds…’ I think as my eyes trail the thick black stuff running down the stream of clear water just as I dunk the tip of it on the river. If I was filthy before getting a bath… then this stick is at a level of absolutely foul contamination beyond me.

‘Then… I find hope, I find someone to attach to and give everything to, for the sake of a purpose beyond seeing the sky go by, for the sake of filling my greedy little heart.’

I look up, gazing at the sky beyond the window of the forest. ‘I was never an outdoor person… I still very much prefer the comfort of a small room. The time I spent here beat that out of me whether I liked it or not, I guess.’

‘...I’m tired.’ I let out a long sigh again.

‘I just want to lay down and sleep for days…’ I awkwardly blink my dry eyes, trying to dissipate the dull ache on my head.

‘... in fact I think I’ll do just that.’

I fiddle around with my footwear for a bit until I finally manage to untie the unnecessarily complicated knots, and dip my feet in the cool water flowing beneath me.

Laying down, I close my eyes, dampen my hearing, and try to think about nothing.

And I drift to sleep just like that.

I just don’t notice the eyes that were observing me not far away.

——— –– –– -- - -

*poke.*

“...mmn”

*poke!*

“nhmnya…”

*...poke?*

“Hghnrr…”

*pull~*

*gack!* “Hm?!— GAH!”

I wake up to a deeply uncomfortable feeling in my scalp, like someone pulling out a loose tooth if said tooth was on top of my head instead.

Startled, I look around me only to find a bunch of… kids?

Elf kids.

Elf kids. Way too many Elven kids. That are surrounding me with much too curious gazes and too fucking close for comfort; One of them is frozen in a stupid pose still holding a pointed finger that is poking my tail.

“I… U-um… H-hi?” I wave a hand sheepishly. ‘Crap, I was never good with kids.’

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They all share a look. Before backing away and huddling in a hushed conversation.

I hastily stood up. ‘Oh no what now? Where’s Gaviel? I’m not prepared for this, I'm most definitely not prepared for this or to be treated like a fellow whatever-years-old like these kids are.’ I take a glance at the open hall, they don’t look like they will be finishing, whatever they are doing over there, any time soon.

One of the older ones, at least I think she’s older I can’t tell with the general facial features the elves have… a girl with a bob cut hair with a braid that circled behind her head. She walks up to me and offers her hand in a bold fashion, like she’s expecting something.

Behind her, the kiddy band has a bunch of varied expressions and reactions. The littlest one is bouncing up and down in excitement? ‘What’s up with them? What do they want? What do I do!?’

‘I can’t exactly just run away… that’d be… embarrassing, and probably rude. And I don’t have any idea of where I could hide…’ Resigning myself to their whims. I take her hand with a confused face.

She beams with a smile of a thousand suns. Shouting something to the other kids and telling me something, to which I respond with even more confusion while she giggles away as she drags me.

‘If there is any god out there… please have mercy upon my soul.’ I quietly sob.

——— –– –– -- - -

‘If there is any god out there… thank fuck children’s games are the same across worlds.’

I ended up having to follow them, or more like dragged along by hand, to a more open area on the fields. I shook, there are even more kids waiting here for us. They were smart enough to understand the language barrier, but not to understand how I felt very much like I don’t want to be here and pleaseleavemealone.

They frolicked and chatted amongst themselves around me, which I assume something along the lines of “the new kid in town” that they decided to bother the moment there wasn’t an adult looming over them.

‘There are only so many words I know and they aren’t enough to describe how much I want to jump in the river and drown.’

They were looking at me with expectant gazes full of wonder and curiosity, taking my silence for granted and messing with my horns and tail, running around…

I just don’t know how to deal with this. ‘What do they want? Am I supposed to just stand here? Go somewhere else? Beat them up?’

This went on for a while. And I resigned myself to just stay in place and let the currents of fate drag me.

After a while, said flock of “currents of fate” started playing some sort of mimicking game– or not? They are also drawing things on the ground. There's a pointedly obvious caricature of me, depicted by the protruding tail and pointed horns, surrounded by the kids and doing something, there are other drawings with arrows pointed to them.

‘...Damn, kid’s got talent.’ For scribbles on the dirt they are remarkably good.

After some back and forth with me just blankly staring at them I realized they were proposing a simple game of… tag? Hide and seek? Dodgeball without a ball?

From what I think I understood? There are these three “zones” which will be marked by these sticks they planted on the ground, where the top one and bottom one are smaller “safe” areas. In the middle area there will be someone responsible for “tagging” the others, which will then have to join their team, their team aren’t allowed to cross into the “safe” zones.

The objective of the game is to cross from one side to another without being caught as many times as possible, the game getting progressively harder as more people are tagged and end up having to switch sides.

After a round of waving hands around and speaking the universal language of barks and nods we came to a consensus that yes, that’s what was going to happen, and that I was enlisted to join their shenanigans.

‘*sigh* well… this beats being bored doing nothing and being left alone with my thoughts, I guess.’

The first match starts.

At first I opted to just stand in the far corner and watch what they do. Hoping they don’t notice me… foolish me. With nowhere to hide, and nowhere to run, they noticed, and they ganged up on me to push me towards the action.

The moment I stepped inside the “danger zone” the 5 or so kids that were tagged zeroed on me with blood on their eyes and way too big smiles.

I tried to run.

The pricks constantly cut off my escape routes and ended up surrounding me by all sides before I could try and go another direction. And so I lost before I could even notice.

Under the eyes of the 20 or so kids, I went along with it and joined the fray of screams and laughter as they ran at each other trying to “capture” as many people as possible. I ended up using a bit too much force when tagging someone that they face-planted into the grass, hard, right before they could cross to the safe zone.

I stopped and froze in panic. ‘Oh my shit— are you ok!? I am so sorry! Please don’t be angry! Please don’t cry!’ I stood there doing nothing but looking at the splayed figure on the ground for a while, cold sweat.

The kid just got up, spewed out some grass that got into his mouth, and laughed it off.

I released the breath I had been holding, much to my relief, the children of the forest are hardier than they look. There was a pat on my back, the girl that had dragged me here offered a thumbs up with a grin that told me things were, probably, okay.

…We ended up doing three rounds of the game.

——— –– –– -- - -

After a good hour or two, the pack of elves with way too much energy split off into various groups, some going away somewhere, others going to play more or practice, some have little interesting bits and baubles they are showing off to each other, some can even play instruments and handle bows much to my surprise.

The ones I ended up with, decided to weave things out of the wild grass and flowers around while gathered near a pond that is surrounded by flower patches and a tall, wide tree that some of the kids were climbing on and doing parkour over the mass of protruding roots.

Aside from one or two kids, most of this group are made up of girls that were masterfully weaving flower crowns with all sorts of decorations, one even made a full blown helmet!

Being saddled with the girl that dared to approach me in the beginning, I kind of just sat there awkwardly without doing much of anything aside watching, I don’t know why these kids are so skilled in these things, I guess I don’t really have a valid point of comparison though, they don’t have the abyss of the internet to fall into so they developed way different.

She is talking to me in that language I don't speak. Or more like talking to herself while keeping me company? I don’t pay much attention to her but rather try to understand how the hell that guy is making a sword out of floppy grass now.

While I'm distracted, I don’t notice her approaching me from behind, there’s a weight put on my head.

Looking back I see the girl standing over me with a smile, she is sporting a crown of white and yellow flowers decorated with stalks of a plant with little bulbous endings to tie everything together.

I peer into my reflection in the water of the pond, a similar one to what she is wearing resting a bit awkwardly on my head due to the horns, the flowers are mostly orange with the rest of the crown having a focus more on green plantlife due to a single large green flower that overshadowed the rest.

I feel pretty. My heart flutters.

And I feel so, so awkward.

One, definitely not a feeling I appreciate, but one I begrudgingly end up enjoying.

Two, as a man in a previous world– life, compliments and the like are as rare as having lightning fall on you. Touch-starved and a crippled self-esteem… My cheeks flush and my face contorts in a grimace of embarrassment as I try to suppress the impending grin.

‘I guess, this isn’t so bad after all… I wonder what the future holds.’

For the first time in a long, long time. I think about what I will do tomorrow, what will be the plans for the future. I wonder about where to explore, about learning new languages and new skills, about these people.

‘I was worried about being treated as a guest, a passing, fleeting visitor they troubled themselves with. Still do… in a way. I don’t think they would be so heartless… but I don’t want to go back outside, not now, not anytime soon. They seem like good folks.’

I wonder about this place… if it can be called home…

. . .

Hold on a goddamn second.

I peer into my reflection in the water again—

I double take. There. On top of my head, there’s a green stalk embedded directly into my skull with a healthy looking, vibrant yellow flower. Swaying left and right as I tilt my head. I check, and it’s certainly not part of the woven crown I'm wearing.

‘Is that a fucking FLOWER growing out of my head?!?!’

——— –– –– -- - -