It was the fourth revision that it really started to sink in.

Not in the world shattering way as before. No, my heart, my mind was steeled for it now. Be it from numbness or divine intervention or running out of tears to shed, I felt the weight of it settle on in on me. Lead balloons, crushing and uplifiting all at once seeming to fill my chest.

Hands played along the screens, fingers tapping out what was imagined. Dreamed. Lost and wanted. Good, bad, the lot of it chosen. No more choosing what I felt was the Correct option to Win at life. Too many options were there, and I didn't even know what I wanted.

Gods. I don't even know what I want...

So I just... picked. Picking what felt right. What I wanted. What I dreamed of. What I could imagine and smiled at.

Imagine that. Smiling at the end of the world.

The fear, sure. It stirred. It threatened. A constant worry that I'd pick wrong, that I'd damn myself before I began.

Now at least... If I was to be damned, I'd be damned but happy.

I'd be... me. As I choose.

The fourth revision is also the one I sent back over. Back to the antlered man to read. To Review.

Do you know what Divine Judgement looks like? I do now. And honestly.... I expected more. More than a passive interest as they flipped through what I wanted. A twitch of his brow, a ghost of a smile, a slight frown...

There was not the drama of life or death. Just... the appraisal of someone who'd seen a thousand times before.

Finally though, he spoke.

"Sounds solid enough. Enough spice to make it interesting at least. Though..." He looked back over, a twist of that brow of his, "I am surprised. Most want the world and more. This...?"

"I.... Just wanted a second chance." Unbidden words rose. "I didn't... aim high. I got what I wanted at home. And it worked and I just felt.... Missing?"

His smirk rose again, dispelling his gaze with a nod. "Then you shall have it. Find what was missing then. Another failure would not do you well now, would it?"

I wanted to speak. I don't know if it was something that he said there but.... I hadn't failed! I'd had a good life! A comfortable life!

But. I couldn't.

Physically, I felt locked in place. Rigid and unmoving, not even my lips would answer me to move as the world turned on it's head.

Light swam from the walls, that faint nothingness int he furthest corners growing... darker. Brighter all at once as it pooled. Vision swiming back to a critical, final point, even the Antlered God nothing but a murky smear of light lost in that dazzling infinite point of light. The rest of the room was dark. Darker and darrker still, the very light stolen back to that point. To that potential. To that

Future.

I reached for it.

The light shifted. It dimmed. Faded back to a soft muted nothing. Warming. Distorted. Something I knew but couldn't place. But...

I wanted.

I wanted that potential. Those options. The chance to make something of myself. To push and... be something. Be someone this time. Even if it was stupid, it was something I wanted.

I reached out again.

And felt something.

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Thick and heavy, resisting that push. Resisting and clawing and cloying at me. Begging me to stop as it felt... strange. And a stiffness beyond. The numbness that I reached out with touching upon something anything but numb.

Warm. Comforting. And firm.

Was that supposed to happen? Was this normal? Well, no. None of this was normal. None of it was supposed to happen. This was a cosmic accident on a scale I still can't even imagine.

But I pushed anyway. Hoping it was right. Or if it was wrong, I would find out soon.

The light shifted again. Spreading now. No more a myriad of half remembered colors, but a single color. Cracking, splintering in a dozen different directions now. Cracks in the darkness. Fragments of something beyond almost heard. Almost felt. Almost seen.

I would see it. No matter how strange it felt, I pushed now. Both hands reaching, pressing on into that splintering spiderweb of cracks. The light faded where my hands fell, but I pushed as it heaved. As it struggled, the world turning a muted shade in that light.

And it fell. That barrier. It fell, and so did I.

That was the first thing I really felt. The fragments of something dull beneath my arms, a muted everything around as new eyes blinked at the dim light. At the warmth. Eyes struggled to piece together what I saw.

It was.... knit. Dense and the colors bled into each other. Fabric? Y-yes. No. Not quite. Dense like reeds knit together, it was... a mat? Fabric? It was round.. Round and round and round it went, Thick and rough, a smattering of fragments of that dull... something before my eyes. And in the center.... A spindle of soft red light. Pulsing, glowing with the gentles, softest warmth I could imagine.

I reached for it, but... couldn't. My arm moved, but wouldn't move me. It wouldn't as I strained to have it reach out and pull me with it...

There was a wet crackling sound, a few more of those amber brown shards scattered around as I felt myself lurch forward, falling now to my belly. Hand outstretched... and I just looked.

I.... There were several options the Horned God had explained. To simply drop me into the world, fully formed and let the world take it from there. Good, bad, the situation was up to me. I could take the body of one who had died. Replacing them, a life lived before that I might know. I might know. Both options given. I could also... I could be reincarnated.

I knew what I had chosen after all. I would be reincarnated into this world. Born a child just like any other, save the gifts of the gods. But as I looked at my hand before me it finally hit me. It had actually... happened. Not some fanciful dream conjured in the late night hours. But...

After all, my arm was coated in scales. Thin and small, shifting as I twisted it before me. Fingers flexed, capped with small little claws sharp as a cat's, and even on my palm scales were seen. Thinner. Smaller, shifting and flexing and moving.

A shard seen just beside that red pulsing spindle of light. Fingers worked, struggling for a moment as I watched them. Strain, stretch, and move as I reached, holding that shard. A fragment. Of an Egg.

My egg.

Moving.... Moving was hard.

I couldn't really. Limbs would move sure. Arms reach and spread that gunk along the mat, shell, shards, and that strange red light spindle, rolling it along and to the ground. Legs would flex and bend on behind me, toes wriggling under the dim light. And.... something more? Between my legs, behind me, drifting. A tail, shifting, brushing shards of egg aside as I struggled to move, grunting faintly.

It would seem though, it wasn't in vain.

No, I heard.... something? Rustling on a ways ahead, where the light was faintest. A gasp and then it faded again. I hadn't even moved my head up to look by the time it vanished!

But, I wasn't alone at least. That alone did wonders as I struggled on the mat. Struggling to look around. To make sense of this.... This?

What even is this?

Dark, the dim light of that faded red glow all that I could see by. And even then, it painted a confusing picture. A murky reddish brown light cast on the walls that spread on up and around me. And they were.... lumpy? Rough and not.... smooth. The walls themselves. The ceiling too I could figure out, struggling enough to flop onto my back.

Just what was this? Some sort of cave? I mean, it might make a bit of sense, but it felt so.... big?

Whatever I was going to think or look over though, it was cut off. Another soft gasp, and then the rustling shifting sound again. On near one end, the wall there looking far smoother when I'd checked...

But now it was parted and open.

And not just that, there was... someone there?

She moved on down and knelt beside me.... and good lord! She was huge! Er... Tall! Eyes big as billiards looked back down to me over, the scales about her maw creasing in a soft smile. She spook cooing words that tickled the back of my brain in a way I couldn't put into words. "Oh honey, you're beautiful~"

... Me? I might have got to choose what I should look like in the broad strokes not but an hour ago, but as a baby? I craned my head for a moment, a small squeak pulled free as I did so, trying to look on at-

Well that didn't matter much now did it? Hands as large as I was in full scooped me up, holding me with a gentleness that felt all but... no, it did feel... maternal. So too did the too-rough pat down that followed, a scrubbing brush of some fabric she gripped. Where she kept it, I hardly knew. The world was too much and fresh, and now I was being rubbed down on all sides and...

Cleaned?

Right, Egg and...

It wasn't too long long then under the lady's strong grip and aggressive towel before I was freed. At least, from the evil of the towel. She still held me close, though the room itself had changed. Or, we moved?

More likely that. Yeah, if I look on over, can still see the shards of my egg, that reddish glow too.

"Heh, you are a curious one, aren't you?" Oh, right. Being held. Wriggling on back to look to the speaker, I actually got a good look over her. And she? She was....

Calming? It eased me just.... looking back to her. The deep golden yellow eyes didn't stir in me alarm, despite their fierce appearance. On to either side by her cheekbones low horns of a burnt black curled about, another pair just above sloping on up and behind her. Her blunt snout coated in the finest scales, her colors splitting at that jawline. Above, a warm, charcoal, fading to near black about her orns. On down her neck, a far softer, almost golden cream color, stretching on down and past to her chest.

Further probably, but held on against her, I couldn't see much more. And she seemed intent to draw my attention back to her with a small tap to my own snout.

Goodness... I.... I have a snout. How... did I not see that before?

"Yes~ Hiya there, hello...~" Her smooth, rattling sing-songy voice rolled as I focused on her face again. Sharp teeth preened as she spoke and all but purred back. "Hiya there! Yes, hello there hun. It's me...~ Your Mom. Oh, aren't you just.... precious?"

She cocked her head, a warm smile given back as she looked to me.

Looking back, she probably expected me to burble something. Or squeak. Or just smile back.

Not to blink and say ".... Mmmmmmaaaaah?"