A muffled schwick, followed by a rather painful sting in his heart caused him to stir in his sleep.

Still enamored with the comfort of rest, he idly scratched his chest, “Emilia... just leave me alone. I’ll be up... in a minute.”

But just a few seconds later, it happened again. A muffled explosion, followed by a throbbing burn, this time all over his body.

Starting to get annoyed, he raised his voice, “Emilia! Stop that already! Just let me slee--”

Unfortunately, he didn’t get to finish as unbearable pain ruptured through his body. Far more effective than a bucket of cold water, it forced him awake.

His eyes flashed open, but the only thing he could focus on was that there was no Emilia. There was no one wielding a pillow, staring at him with that annoying smirk he hated so much.

No, there was only…

Pain.

Heart stabbing, talon digging pain. Skin melting, flesh sizzling pain. Hopelessness, despair, and shattered dreams.

As the combination of physical and mental agony sent him reeling, from some mysterious and intangible part of himself, something else rose. It was a pair of bright lights, rapidly growing closer and brighter, bringing him even more...

Pain!

Blood splattering, bone breaking, head crunching pain. Regret, grief, and heart-aching pain.

The intensity of this two-pronged torture made his mind blank.

Delirious, he reached out with a shivering hand, as he called out to someone he shouldn’t have known, “I-Isabelle, I didn’t get to explain. I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

Even as he said it, he realized no one would be there to grab his hand, no lap to rest his head upon, not like last time.

But who was this Isabelle? Why, why did his heart ache with such sadness? He didn’t remember...

The pain shifted.

His body no longer hurt, but something inside of him, something that was not tangible, hurt instead.

A mind-numbing headache split through his head, as strange memories started to stir in their rest.

Memories of a different world, with no magic, with steel monsters and skyscrapers, where science ruled the world. A completely different life, with friends, family, and dare he say... happiness?

Clutching his head, amid gasps of pain, “W-Who? Connor? Leo? What? Who am I--”

He was forced to swallow his words with a groan.

Whatever that intangible thing was, it now felt like a burning lump of metal, melting, smoldering, perhaps even changing.

In the end, whatever was happening, to him it was…

Pain!

Three heads of drooling fangs, feeding on him, on his soul. Nibbling on the edges, leaving him barely alive, merciful.

Pain!

A dark figure, hooded, guzzling on his blood. With hands of red, it sucked everything, until there was nothing left, merciless.

PAIN!

And when there was nothing left, the insatiable blood hands moved onto his soul and continued guzzling.

He screamed, no longer able to remain silent, no longer able to hold the lid keeping back the pain.

It hurt, it hurt from the depths of his very essence. It was as if he had lava and ice running inside his body, both at the same time. It was as if two opposing forces were fighting a war, a battle to the death, with him caught in the crossfire.

In fact, he could almost see it; a blazing wolf of vitality and strength bashing it out against a freezing shadow of lifeless death, his body their battleground.

He could barely keep himself sane. He was about to be ripped apart. Torn in two, from the inside.

No man should’ve been able to survive such pain. Physically or mentally. But miraculously, he did.

Somehow, something kept him alive. Long enough until something could change.

The two lives, those of Connor and Leo, two different yet strangely similar people, started to settle within the two warring forces, bringing peace and establishing a subtle balance.

Each of them had had a choice. To choose the fire or the ice. The wolf or the shadow.

But neither chose either. Both chose both.

It wasn’t wrong to say that these two lives were a perfectly balanced fulcrum, balancing the two enemy forces and preventing the tipping over to either side.

Had they not chosen as they did, one could only wonder about the repercussions...

No longer in conflict, the wolf and the shadow began to rumble through his body. They hissed at each other on occasion, but never went out of control.

Slowly, he was changing, one might even say evolving. But he didn’t know, for he had already fainted.

* * *

Pain.

That was the first thing he felt as he came to.

Thankfully, it was nothing he couldn’t handle, and there was nothing unusual or intangible about it.

On the contrary, it was quite ordinary.

He just felt hungry, extremely hungry, to the point that he could eat a bear or a horse. Some might even call it starving, but it was nothing unusual.

Additionally, his throat was parched and dry like never before, in desperate need of something to drink.

But still, he knew it was nothing unusual.

Hoping to find something to sate his appetite, he opened his eyes.

“F*ck!” he couldn’t help but curse, reflexively reaching for his left eye. Due to the sudden movement, the burn wound which was no longer bandaged for some reason, had flared up.

Just barely stopping his hand from touching the burned skin, he heaved an annoyed sigh.

Right now, there was nothing he could do that wouldn’t make it worse. He had no choice but to grit through the pain, and focus on finding his bearings.

Besides, it wasn’t all bad. At the very least, the pain proved that he wasn’t dead. Yes, it wasn’t all bad.

Confident in his conclusion, he looked around.

It appeared that he was in a rather archaic and circular room, his back propped up against a stone wall. There was a large space in the wall, presumably a window, letting a cold biting wind blow into the room.

The outside was far too foggy to provide much in the way of light, but without the window, the room would’ve been pitch black.

In hindsight, he should’ve felt something; stone bricks jabbing into his back, the cold of the stone and the wind, pain from resting against a stone wall for so long, a hint of fear about waking up in a mysterious dark room, something.

But he didn’t seem to feel or mind any of it, neither the cold, the pain, nor the dark.

Perhaps he might’ve noticed that something was off after a while, had it not been for the sudden onset of a mind-numbing headache.

No longer in the mood to focus on anything else, he massaged his temples attempting to sooth the pain.

It didn’t help.

His head throbbed painfully, swimming with confusing memories and thoughts; strange, unpredictable, some even downright impossible, but all of them, familiar.

All these memories, they had a strange property of duality, as if there was twice of what should’ve been.

He even had doubts about who he was. Following that same sense of duality, he could be one of two people, perhaps even both?

Forcing a smirk, he wondered aloud, “Is it possible that I have multiple personalities? Damn, now that would be a real headache.”

‘But no. This is different. I know it.’

No longer joking, he promptly raised his hands to eye-level and simply looked.

It was such a simple action, but it provided his muddled mind with a much-needed anchor, allowing him to clear his head and just think.

His complete attention was on the hands, both eyes, burned and healthy, going over every nook and cranny of them.

The small scars received from disassembling mana artifacts having failed to properly disable the failsafes, the light burns and injuries from his first attempts at alchemy, plus the small crown-shaped birthmark on his right hand.

Besides being paler than usual, which he chalked up to the low lighting, these were his hands. Leo’s, to be specific.

But at the same time, something seemed off about them, as if they were only half correct.

The reason for this was actually quite simple.

There was another pair of hands he was used to. Connor’s hands. Slightly rough, but unblemished for the most part. He could remember using those hands to flip pages, to write, to shake hands, to hug, to press buttons and keys, to drive… a metal carriage, a car?

So yes, it was simple. Simple in its complexity.

The worst part was, this was not only in regard to his hands.

This double recollection, this sense of duality, was currently happening to literally everything he could remember.

Imagine remembering two widely different things every time you think of something.

Well, he knew, and it was quite annoying to say the least.

And as much as he hated to admit to it, the killer headache currently raging through his head was not unwarranted in its presence.

The only cure he could think of was to make sense of this confusion. In fact, he felt that he needed it to make sense, to find a logical explanation if he wished to stay sane.

The hands before him slowly curled into fists.

He knew the solution. As if some wise philosopher had whispered it in his ear, he knew; the answers he sought were within himself.

He didn’t know how he knew, he just did.

It seemed that it was time for some introspection.

Unsure where to begin, he decided to start at the beginning, with the oldest memory he could find.

Almost instinctively, he knew that Connor came first, chronologically speaking. But the task he had set himself upon, just wasn’t doable.

No matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t peg anything as the “oldest memory”.

Every time he thought he did, some other memory took its place. There was simply too much.

So he embraced it all.

Memories of playing around with his beloved siblings and that one childhood friend. Immature squabbles that seemed so important then. The occasional accident, often leading to injury, subsequently being coddled and shouted at by his worried mother. Happy meals with the family, some that were not as happy. His parents’ proud gazes as he showed off some achievement, their not so proud gazes as he messed up somehow. Fighting and arguing, only to make up later.

His childhood may not have been ideal, but nothing ever was.

In the end, despite everything, he missed it, he missed them.

He had known from the very beginning, that he wouldn’t be able to see any of them again. But it was only now, that he felt it become reality.

He felt regret, lots of it.

‘Why or why, did I not feel this when I could’ve done something? When I had the chance?’

But by now, it was too late.

The only thing he could do was treasure these memories. They were all that was left.

With a quick wipe of his eyes, he pushed through and continued.

What followed was life as an adult. Leaving for university, studying fascinating subjects, working on projects, breezing through most of them to do fun stuff instead, hanging out with his friends, ultimately... ending with his death.

‘My death.’

It seemed unusual to even be thinking of it, while he was still very much alive. It felt like such an external point of view, especially when he could remember how he died; the clever(bad) joke, the speeding truck, how he regretted some of his decisions, and the warmth of her lap, of… Isabelle.

That single name struck him with the strongest pang of regret yet, but he pushed it away with even stronger intensity.

The memories that came next were even more unusual than those of his death.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

They were from a completely different life. A far less fortunate, a far less blessed one, but a life nonetheless.

It was life as the orphan Leo, growing up in the Filament’s Hearth Orphanage with six other children, two of whom left as they grew older. Officially, both Sister Gillian and Father Augustine were their guardians, but with one sentenced to perpetual self-isolation in his mysterious study, it was up to the Sister to play the role of both parents. Which, she actually did quite well, with her iron grip of strict love.

Honestly, it could’ve been considered an okay childhood given the circumstances, had it not been for his inability to cast magic.

Being unable to do something that literally everyone else could, especially when it played such an important part in deciding his future, was devastating.

Thus, most of Leo’s life was spent in attempts to change this, fighting against a system that didn’t even intend to give him a chance. He stuck it through the insults and the nay-sayers…

Until he actually succeeded!

A truly great achievement, except for the part where it ended in a three-way assault, stabbed in his heart, pierced by talons, and burned.

‘Jeez, how the hell am I still alive? Actually, am I even alive? Or did I die for a second time?’

Leaving that headache-inducing question for the moment, he carried on. It was obvious that the life of Leo was a far greater tragedy than that of Connor’s. His life was snuffed out, the moment he gained a semblance of hope.

But surprisingly, he didn’t feel any regret, at least not like before.

At the very least, Leo had tried his best, his utter best to succeed. If it hadn’t been for mysterious circumstances outside of his control, he could very well have achieved what he sought.

And the most important part was that he could still carry on! He might’ve maybe died, in a horrible three-way, but he wasn’t out of the game just yet.

He was still here, changed, but still here.

The fists before his eyes opened.

‘At first, I was confused. They were two different yet strangely similar people, Connor and Leo. But now, I believe I understand.

To quote an old classic; He’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are one and the same.’

Eyes shining with a sense of clarity that had not been there before, he gazed at the familiar palms, his palms.

“Before, I was Connor. But in this life, right now, I am Leo.”

A short pause.

He started to chuckle, “F*cking horse b*lls! I wish it was that easy! Just a trip down memory lane and a book quote can’t make all of this,” he gestured wildly, “make sense! I mean, it makes kind of sense, but this,” he gestured wildly once more, “all of this, is f*cking crazy!”

Sure, he understood that he was Leo, he had the memories to prove it. Sure, he understood that he was Connor as well, he had the memories to prove it too. Part of him even believed that the two of them were the same person, the same reincarnated soul, but he just couldn’t wrap his head around it.

At least, not in a few sh*tty minutes!

‘I mean, how is all this even possible? Is this truly what awaits everyone post-death? Then if I die one more time, I’ll just be born again? Or will I not? And why the hell do I even remember my past life? Surely there would be chaos if people could remember their old life? Having lived as Leo, I know for a fact this is not the norm. So why me, specifically?’

He shook his head in disbelief, ‘Am I seriously in a literal f*cking isekai?’

Pushing himself off the stone floor in a huff, he trudged over to the open window. Despite being stabbed, mauled, and burned alive, he was surprisingly in good health, aside from the extreme hunger and thirst of course.

The cold wind brushed against his body, but he didn’t feel the least bit uncomfortable. The view from the window was blurred by the fog, but he could see perfectly clearly.

He could see ruins attached to and spreading below the tower he was on. Beyond it was a forest of gnarled and leafless trees that lay still amidst the eerie fog.

He was just about to start pouring through Leo’s memories to figure out where he was, when it hit him.

His breathing grew heavy, and his hands shivered. Intense fear burst through his entire being, as he forced his eyes away.

He was inside Forsaken Forest, and he had just stared right at it!

* * *

‘Oh god, oh god! By the holy hearth, by the white tree, F*CK! I don’t wanna die again!’

Gasping, he looked at himself expecting the worst, expecting to see himself being forced to commit something atrocious.

He shouldn’t have wasted his breath or time being worried.

All he could see was Leo’s body, shivering, but already starting to calm down.

A confused pause.

‘Wait, what? Wasn’t I exposed to the forest? That was direct eye contact! Where’s the fearsome thrall? Why didn’t I go crazy?’

He was tempted to spare another glance, just to test if he was now immune to the thrall for some reason, but immediately thought better of it.

The Forsaken Forest was no joke. For all he knew, it might’ve been an isolated incident. It was best to let sleeping dogs lie.

Besides, something else had grabbed his attention, and he was quite interested in moving past his apparently unnecessary over-reaction.

Looking at himself again, he could see a long-sleeved green shirt and a black pair of pants on him. They seemed old and used, but most importantly, they were definitely not what Leo was wearing before the explosion.

‘What does this mean? How the hell did these clothes appear?

They say that the most obvious explanation is the most plausible. In which case, someone gave me these. They must’ve exchanged whatever was left of Leo’s-- my clothes, after that explosion, for these.’

But that only gave way to even more questions.

He heaved a sigh as he pushed the entire matter into a remote corner of his mind. It was something for the future Conno-- Leo-- no, the future him, to worry about. There was already too much on his plate.

As if in reply, his stomach started to rumble, to roar in hunger.

He forced a relaxed grin as he patted the growling beast, “Speaking of plates, it’s time I put some food inside of me. I’m sure that whoever gave me these clothes can give me something to eat as well. Let’s just hope it’s not something too weird…”

Looking around, he noticed a small circular opening on the ground. It gave way to a spiral stairway that seemed to descend to a lower floor.

‘Huh. Didn’t see it before. Must’ve missed it.’

Slightly wary, but mostly just hungry, he started to climb down the roughly carved and rather steep, stone stairs.

If he had been just a bit warier, he might’ve noticed a small crack on the stone ceiling. Perhaps, he might’ve even noticed the dark figure, a familiar horned helmet of gold upon its head, watching silently, possibly been watching the entire time...

Too bad he didn’t.

Unaware of the mysterious observer, he was in a pretty good mood. He was unexpectedly pleased with the fact that stone stairs could not creak like those at the orphanage. But for some strange reason, he realized that he also kind of missed it.

Shaking his head, he shifted his attention to the new floor. It was even more sparse than the one above, and there definitely was no one there.

He should’ve started to worry, but he didn’t really care anymore. He hadn’t even finished climbing down the stairs, but was already mesmerized.

His eyes were drawn to a large space in the wall, just a few steps after the stairs. This couldn’t be a window as it was far larger than the one above, and most importantly, just a step after was solid ground, meaning that it was a doorway.

As interesting as doorways can be, it was not that which had captured his attention. No, it was what lay beyond it.

The outside was still quite foggy, but he could see clear as day.

A white rabbit, small, adorable, and alive.

His throat felt dry, so thirsty he would kill for a glass of water. He could almost feel it, the cool liquid flowing down his throat.

Above the innocent red eyes of the white rabbit, he could make out two beautiful and equally red spots.

His stomach growled again, so hungry he would do anything for one of Sister Gillian’s horribly cooked steaks. He could almost feel it, his teeth biting into the warm, burned meat.

The rabbit was nibbling on something he didn’t quite care to focus on, it’s mouth moving up and down in an adorable manner.

Once upon a time, he might’ve found the sight before him heartwarming, perhaps even adorable.

Now, he found it mouthwatering.

Thirsty. So thirsty…

Unknown to him, his canines grew out, his mouth drooling in expectation of a satisfying drink.

‘N-no, it’s nothing unusual. I’m just a bit hungry. It’s nothing unusual, I’m sure--’

He wiped the drool away in disgust, but his eyes remained glued to the rabbit.

His vision shifted, and he could no longer see the rabbit. As if his eyes were tinted with blood, all he could see was a world of red. And at the very center of his focus was a small rabbit-shaped lump. Red veins all over the body, its little heart beat calmly.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. He could no longer think straight.

With supernatural power, his legs launched him off the stairs, sending him dashing forward.

The rabbit reacted quickly.

He could see the little heart starting to beat faster, and the lump starting to hop away.

He was just as quick.

In a fraction of a second, he made it to the doorway and took a step forward outside...

PAIN!

Unbearable pain.

He screamed, falling down as he reached for his leg.

It felt as if his leg had fallen into a pool of bubbling lava. A quick glance revealed that it didn’t look much different; it was brown, red, smoking, and blistering.

He stared at the outside in fear, his eyes focusing on the faint sunlight barely visible through the fog.

Groaning in pain and fright he struggled on the stone floor, searching for something to help, to ease the pain, but couldn’t.

‘What was I even going to do to that rabbit? Eat it? Raw? And why? Why is my leg burning?’

For a single moment, his eyes gazed through the doorway, piercing through the fog.

Almost in slow motion, he could spot the rabbit-shaped lump hopping a few hundred meters away. Even for a rabbit, that was way too fast...

He felt like a failure, incomplete, as if a part of him was being taken along with the rabbit.

His priorities shifted completely. That unnatural hunger and thirst, even the pain in his leg, was no longer as important. From the depths of his heart, he simply felt ashamed, for letting his quarry escape.

The red world was no longer visible. He could easily make out the rabbit’s furry little tail bobbing to-and-fro, almost as if it was making fun of his failure, for failing the hunt.

He could hear something, calling him to hunt, calling him to try again.

In an instant, his teeth grew sharper, his nails longer and sharper, his body just a bit hairier, and his face just a touch sharper and fearsome.

But he didn’t notice or see any of that.

Instead, he could feel. He could feel, his heart beating and his blood pumping. He could feel the cold of the biting wind on his skin, which he hadn’t even noticed before. He could sense the strength and the vigor boiling in his veins.

The outside and the sunlight no longer felt fearsome. It felt like home.

He could even smell the rabbit and hear its soft feet hitting the ground.

Sure, before he could see and feel just as well, but now he just felt more alive.

Confidence restored and the quarry back in his sight, he launched himself off the floor with bestial strength.

Instinct taking the wheel, he fell on all fours like a beast and dashed forward even faster than before. This time easily making it through the doorway, the sunlight failing to stop him.

The leg that had been literally burned just a few seconds ago no longer hurt, and hit the rock-solid ground comfortably.

The wind buffeted in his face, as he traveled at an unbelievable speed.

Unfortunately, he quickly realized that the rabbit was even faster. He might’ve been able to capture it earlier with that head start, but without it, he would fail the hunt. Through the fog, he could see that the rabbit had almost reached the edge of the ruins, and would escape into the forest soon enough.

He felt empty and dispirited. No matter what, he didn’t want to fail the hunt.

For a split second, his vision shifted. The world of red reappeared, and what was escaping him was once more a lump with a beating heart and veins.

He felt hungry and thirsty, ravenous and angry.

Something inside of him reached out, reached out to the rabbit several hundreds of meters away. His eyes flashed with crimson red light, vanishing almost as soon as it appeared.

Instantly the rabbit froze, collapsing in a heap of limbs, momentum carrying it a few meters further as it crashed onto the ground.

It wasn’t that the rabbit was paralyzed or had lost control of its motor functions. No, he could clearly see that the rabbit was mostly fine; its heart was beating loud and fast, its eyes were swiveling around in fear and terror, and its ears and tail were shuddering in horror. The problem was that its limbs refused to move, almost as if they had been frozen, from the inside.

Mewling in pain, the rabbit started to crawl along the ground. And that was when it happened.

The two red spots above its eyes blinked open, revealing a fresh pair of eyes. The new eyes started to bleed, to cry tears of blood. A strange red glow appeared over the rabbit’s body and as if empowered it started to crawl much faster than before.

Too bad for the rabbit, crawling was still crawling. As fast as it was, it was only delaying the inevitable.

Under normal circumstances, he would’ve been shocked by what had just happened. Perhaps even intrigued and interested. But right now, he didn’t care. Not about the mystical red glow over the rabbit or why it had even fallen in the first place. All he cared about was succeeding in the hunt and sating his hunger.

A predatory grin crept onto his face, seeing the creature’s pathetic excuse for a final struggle.

In a single bound he reached the four-eyed rabbit, his hands or more accurately claws reaching for the warm flesh.

Merciless, he sunk his claws through the red glow and into the struggling rabbit, eliciting a pained cry.

Grabbing onto its ribs by instinct, he pulled them aside, tearing the rabbit ajar, as if opening a clam or an oyster to get to the meat inside.

Except, what he had his eyes on was the still-beating heart.

Blood splattered all over his body and the ground, but he didn’t mind. Actually, he relished it.

He didn’t even blink at the sight of life leaving the rabbit’s four eyes and the dissipating of the strange red glow. All he did was lick his lips and reach for the delicious smell of the rabbit heart.

In a single slash, he ripped the heart out and stuffed his face. Blood trickled down his mouth, the mind-blowing taste exploding on his taste buds.

He couldn’t help but close his eyes as he chewed, savoring the wonderful taste. He felt at peace, he felt stronger and better, than ever before. It was as if his soul was celebrating.

Well, at least until he finished eating and reality struck him.

Eyes opening wide, he stared speechless at his blood-bathed body.

Shocked gasps and pained yelps escaped his mouth, as his eyes alternated between the sight of the mauled rabbit corpse and the hands that had killed it.

These were Leo’s hands, but he was the one that had pulled a heart out and stuffed his mouth with it.

He started to mutter, “No… no... no, no, no!” ending with a pained cry, not so much different from that of the rabbit.

He pulled at his hair in desperation, unknowingly colouring it red with blood.

“That wasn’t me, it wasn’t, i-it couldn’t be…”

He wanted to throw up, he wanted to puke or feel sick, he wanted something to show he was appalled with what he had done, but he just couldn’t.

He could feel it. Some twisted part of himself, a part that was a monster, was more than satisfied with the meal. And the worst part was, he was looking forward to more.

He dropped his bloodied hands, his eyes broken and listless.

‘ I-- I suppose it makes sense. I’m in the Forsaken Forest, and I-- I’m a monster. A monster that just made this rabbit into monster chow and gorged on its raw heart. I’m just another monster in the forest...’

He was on the verge of losing all hope, on the edge of the cliff that was his sanity, when he noticed it. A single strand of sunlight on his leg, and the warmth of the sun on his back.

Now that he thought about it, it was truly intriguing how the sunlight could melt his foot on one occasion, but was simply warm and comfortable on another, just like right now.

Intrigued, he raised his head and turned around.

His eyes widened, a hint of light returning. He could see a sight that he hadn’t seen before, a sight he had failed to notice. While the Forsaken Forest was behind him, before him was something else entirely.

It was the sea, the ocean, wide in its expanse, and consistent in its waves. The sunlight reflected off of the blue water, sending pearl-like spray bursting into the sky.

The sun, a large ball of fire, shone down on him from the sky, giving warmth to his cold and broken self.

A lone tree, lush and vibrant, rustled its shimmering leaves in the gentle sea breeze.

It was… beautiful, beautiful and heartwarming.

Despite being in a different world, the sea and the sun had not changed. Despite being inside the Forsaken Forest, a single tree could survive.

As Connor, he would’ve dismissed all of this as ordinary and nothing special. As Leo, he would’ve been too caught up in his problems to notice. But the him right now, the him who felt appalled, broken, and confused, he noticed. To him, it wasn’t just a simple view. It was a helping hand.

As baseless as it might sound, this breathtaking view gave him the strength to calm down, and come to terms with what was staring at him right in the face.

Part of himself had been skeptical about the whole rebirth thing. He hadn’t wanted to believe it. But with the memory of what had just happened fresh in his mind, he didn’t doubt it any longer. He couldn't.

He forced a smile, a sad smile, and spoke to no one in particular, “Toto, it looks like we’re not in Kansas anymore. And the worst part is... I’m definitely not Dorothy.”

But what does one do when no one in particular talks back?

*Ribbit*

Confused, he turned towards the sound.

There was nothing?

He blinked.

There was something.

It appeared that no one in particular was... a frog? A very unusual light brown frog, with thick hair on its two sides, and two small horns on its head. He felt he was familiar with the species of this particular frog, but couldn’t quite recall.

Still, he decided to play along and smiled, “Hey there little guy--”

He didn’t get to finish. Without warning, the frog pounced towards his face with incredible speed.

“F*cking frog legs!” he cursed, reacting just as fast, clawing at the frog in mid-air.

He was confident that he would hit it, but his hands only hit the air.

‘What? I missed?’

He quickly checked his body, to see if the frog had somehow made it past his hand. But no.

The only difference was a vague taste of something slimy in his mouth, and other than that, there was nothing on him.

Even more confused than before, he turned around to find that same frog on the ground, behind him.

‘What?! How? Did it just phase through me or am I crazy?’

The frog licked its lips as if it was savoring something.

Soon after, it smiled, “Hey you, you’re finally awake.”