The world forest was dim, shrouded in the slowly retreating darkness of night, as the gentle morning sun of early autumn slowly drove it back. The soft, golden light pouring through the canopy, bringing the trees to life as their beautiful red leaves shone with morning dew. As the quiet ambiance of distant birdsong synchronized with the muted gurgle of a nearby creek, and flowing wind, composing a delicate and relaxed atmosphere, as within the beautiful clearing lay a tall, beautiful yet handsome man, resting upon a soft bed of freshly fallen leaves. His body so still and perfect, you would be forgiven to mistake him for the magnum opus of a master sculptor, were it not for the gentle rise and fall of his chest.

He lay there peacefully, undisturbed by the world around him, as his long, immaculate white hair like that of freshly fallen snow, brightest on the outside and progressively darkening as it moved in, creating a masterpiece of light anchor gray. Pooled gently behind his head. His skin, like that of marble, shone in the sun, highlighting his flawless form, as if even the slightest bit more beauty would have turned his form uncanny. As he slept

a small white fox lept from a bush, landing softly on the ground, as the leaves below it fluttered slightly, the few below its paws releasing a quite crunch, as it slowly began to pad its way over to the man, sniffing curiously at his sleeping form, it approached carefully, curious of the new animal sleeping by its water source, it stopped a meter from his sleeping form, circling silently, gauging the threat of this curious creature. A few minutes of observation later, its curiosity got the better of it, as it slowly approached, stalking silently, and swatted at the man's exposed fingers lightly before sprinting back to the treeline, and waited. 

After minutes of no reaction, the fox returned to the man’s side, emboldened by his lack of reaction, it prodded him with its paws, before eventually climbing onto his chest, and sniffing his face, simply staring for a while, before overcome by curiosity it licked his face, and instantly ran as the man stirred. Groaning slightly as he rolled to the side, his actions radiating the feeling of annoyance and lethargy so common with those woken to early from their sleep, before his eyes snapped open, revealing a pair of sharp, translucent silver eyes, his Iris’s seemingly made of dense clear ice, shining with various gold and silver lights, like that of stars. His eyes themselves exuding a feeling of calm confusion, slowly replaced by a calculating clarity, as he pulled himself into a seated position.

(Mc Pov)

I groaned as I rolled to the side, annoyed to have been awoken by the rough wet feeling of an animal's tongue, as I briefly wondered if the hospital cat had wandered into my ward again, before my mind was taken over by confusion. The hazy thoughts and chronic pains I had grown so used to over my long battle with brain cancer, suspiciously absent, as my mind ran with a clarity I had long since forgotten, and then some.

My eyes snapped open as the familiar give of the mattress I had been confined to for so long replaced by the soft crunch of leaves, dampness of earth, and tug of grass, as memories of long past returned to me in such perfect clarity it felt more like I was reexperiencing the past rather than recalling a distant memory.

I found myself laying in a beautiful forest, surrounded by the soothing ambiance of life, as my entire life ran by me in an instant, as if downloading the files to a new computer, as I only just realized how strange it was that I had awoken with no memories, only remembering the hospital and nothing else.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Finally, I remembered what had happened.

It seems I had died.

I had fallen asleep like usual, the required cocktail of tranquilizers to force my failing mind to rest taken as usual, I had fallen into a fitful sleep, and when I awoke again, I found myself standing upon a vast plane of black, interrupted by a variety of white outlines, there were no solid shapes there, only thin white outlines denoting objects, as before me floated a strange, constantly shifting shape, its form never constant, one moment a single 1 dimensional point, the next a mind warping construct of infinite dimensions that i'm sure my biological mind would have never understood, yet made perfect sense to my then incorporeal soul.

It had told me I was dead, my tumor having taken me in my sleep. And that it was the manifestation of the concept of rebirth. An entity charged with the reincarnation of mortal souls, it had grown bored, and decided to see what would happen if he sent someone with all of earth's knowledge to a world of magic, simply for the fun of it. And had chosen me simply because of my constant drive to improve. A habit I had developed as a way to stave off boredom, after all, I had long since lost my ability to feel emotions, and was left with nothing but an unending desire to be better.

And so here I was, deposited into a new world, supposedly one of magic and monsters, and lacking in the technology of my homeworld, with no responsibilities, as the entity had specifically made clear It did not care what I did. Granted the collective scientific knowledge of an entire species, given a perfect body and mind with no other benefits, and told to survive.

I once again took in my surroundings, noting the sun's position in the sky, and the color of the forest around me, so long as this worlds seasons work similar to those of my own planet, winter must be coming soon, and while I knew not how strong that got here, it seemed I needed to get to work.

(Unknown pov)

*Huff Huff Huff*

The sound of pained breathing filled the air, spreading far across the otherwise silent forest, illuminated only by the shining aurora’s covering the winter night sky, the sky clear after the recent storm, leaving behind 30 cm of snow, as a weary figure stumbled through the snow, its immaculate white color ruined by dots of red left in the figures wake, as they wandered aimlessly through the empty forest.

Shrouded by a thick coat, they suddenly heard a strange noise in the distance. Low and constant, it sounded like nothing they had ever heard before, a low consistent whir, the desperate figure felt the slightest fire of hope rekindle in their chest, as they turned and waded in the direction of the noise. 

They knew not for how long they walked. Minutes? Hours? It mattered little, as in the distance, above the treeline, they saw a strange structure, thin and made of metal, it looked like a central tube surrounded by metal scaffolding, as the central spire turned quickly within the scaffolding.

The sheer amount of metal in the structure confused them, after all, why make a structure out of metal when wood was cheaper and more plentiful? Its size itself was also strange, after all, it was very hard to make large structures out of metal, as even the best blacksmith would have to slowly make the entire structure piece by piece before forming them together to make any object of significant length, and yet this structure seemed to be made of incredibly long solid metal.

Approaching closer, eventually they saw the lights, artificial light was a good sign, as it meant civilisation, and they began to run with renewed hope, but fell in their hurry, crumpling down into the snow, their entire body wracked with pain, they tried and failed to push to their feet. Before trying to call out for help in a panic, hoping they were close enough to the settlement for someone to hear, yet all that left their lungs was a painful cough, as they lay their in the snow, so close to shelter, unable to make the final stretch, as their eyes grew heavy, darkness creeping in at the edge’s of their sight, as they fought desperately to stay awake, they only barely heard the sound of crunching snow, and felt someone pull them from its cold embrace, when their mind fell dark.