“Am I … still here? I don’t see anything or feel anything” I begin to think again after what felt like an eternity spent in complete darkness. “Is this not the end?”. I tried to move or look around but I had no body to do so. I was just a consciousness floating through nothingness.

Words that were spoken before, rang through everything and nothing once more “SECOND CHANCE”. After the sound began to fade after an indeterminable amount of time. I saw something in the darkness, it started out tiny and unperceivable, but it grew with time. A spot of light, is this heaven? I had never believed in much of an afterlife during my life, mainly because I didn’t have the time to think about such things.

Light grew until it began to take priority over the darkness, and slowly it began to fill my vision. At the same point where the light had originated I began to see colors. Green, brown, blue, and others that I hadn't seen in as long as I could remember. The colors of my life past seemed to all be dark and pale, nothing like the ones I was seeing now. Somehow they were akin to the feelings I would get when I was embraced by my loving parents as a child, back before all the struggles began.

These colors grew just like the light, they began to form into an image. It now felt like I was looking through a window to another world. A tingling sensation began around what should have been my eyes, but it didn't hurt so much as it shocked me after an uncountable time in nothingness. This feeling continued to spread across my consciousness, shocking me less as time went on. This continued until it enveloped me entirely, and by that point it just felt warm and comforting. Then the feeling began to fade slowly, until I was left with a body once again. Restored, I could smell, feel, taste, and move once again. My body felt different from before, but I couldn't place my finger on what the difference was. I didn’t have time to think further about it because I had begun to fall. The forces of the world were back and affecting me. The image I was seeing before became my whole vision and I was back. Back in the world. Back alive. A second chance.

Just moments ago I would have felt annoyed at the thought of something like this happening, but something about the colors and the experience I had right before I died caused me to feel excited and relieved that I was back. I then realize that the ground is approaching very fast, and I don't even have time to scream before my body crashes through a tree that partially breaks my fall before I land on the ground below it. Having landed on my back, I laid there for a moment in shock before I passed out. “Am I really alive?” I think before losing consciousness entirely.

I woke up some time later but I couldn't tell how long it had been. I stared at the blue sky for a moment watching the wispy clouds pass by overhead before trying to sit up. As I move to place my hand behind my back to push myself into a seated position my shoulder screams out with pain.

“Ow!” I yelled, my voice felt like sandpaper and my throat was dry as if it had been unused for years. My shoulder was dislocated. Luckily I knew how dislocations worked and had gone through a fair few in my time. I was able to fix it myself but not without great effort. “I Don't have a sling to put my arm in. I guess I'll just have to try not to move it for now.”

I was standing up now and looking around to take in my surroundings for the first time. There was a moderately traveled trail that went very far into the west. Farther down it was running along a forest to the north side of it. There were some mid-sized mountains to the south with this strip of grassland continuing on east for a long way. I can tell it ends somewhere down there, but it's too far to make out what exactly it leads into down there. If I had to guess what it leads to I would say it looked like a settlement of some sort. The tree I woke up under was right next to the path.

The wind blows past bringing the smells of an unfamiliar world. birds fly up and over me toward the forest to the north. I observed the open plain in front of me. There was a group of people that seemed to be struggling against something In the field. “Swinging… sticks? What are they…”

My thoughts were interrupted by a plume of fire that seemed to come out of nowhere. I was far away, and barely heard the puff of its ignition but nothing else. I was intrigued now so I went to move closer. While starting to move I realized that my body seemed to be much shorter than before. It seemed like I had the body of a child again, A bit younger than when I first began to work. “What’s going on?” I mutter. “First I die, then I fall from the sky and dislocate my shoulder. There are some weird people in this field with an explosion of fire from seemingly nowhere, and now I'm SHORT?!” Very confused over this whole situation I just try to take it in stride and continue on towards the people in the field.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

While approaching, a familiar smell began to fill the air, but I couldn't remember what it was. It was beginning to make me feel more uneasy with every step forward. Then It came to me, where I had smelt this before, it was the same smell that was at the scene where my sisters were killed. The smell of blood was filling the air. This realization sent me reeling, and I tripped over my own feet while trying to run away. I caught myself with my hands partially as I landed on my stomach, but I forgot that my arm was just recently relocated. I tried not to make noise from the pain of landing on my arm. I was close enough to the group now that they could have heard the noise that my fall made. Laying there frozen and in pain, I tried to listen for their footsteps.

One pair of footsteps appeared and gradually came closer, until finally a mid ranged male voice called out. “Um, Kid? You ok there?” I looked up to see a guy appearing to be around 16 or 17 leaning over to look at me. He was a bit taller then me with brown hair and a concerned look on his face.

“Yeah I just tripped” I responded while grimacing slightly.

“You need help?” He followed up. “You know where you are right, it’s not safe to wander around here unprotected”

I stopped for a second, and thought that I should probably not disclose too much about myself because I don’t know what these guys really want. Lying was definitely not out of the question, although it would be best to sprinkle in some truth. “I got separated from my parents and I don’t know where I am” I say while getting into a seated position. In reality I did get seperated from my parents on the way to the afterlife.

“What are you like 13? You're still a bit too young to be out here on your own. Your mana control can't be that good yet so why don’t you stay with us, and we can see if we can find your parents.” He said while looking around to some other people, who had approached while we were talking.

There was a girl who looked a bit older than the guy I had been talking to. She had a short sword on her waist and some plated leather armor on. Her hair was blond and looked a bit taller than the first guy. As I looked at the rest of them, certain things became apparent. There was a very big bulky guy with black hair wielding a Greataxe. A girl slightly taller than the sword user who had black hair with hints of purple when the sun shone on it. She used daggers and looked thin, lean and fast. Then one smaller guy, around my height I think? Maybe smaller? Who had dirty blond hair and no weapon. The first guy that I talked to had some knuckles as well. They all had some variation of either plated or normal leather armor.

“This is a fantasy world isn't it? He mentioned mana too didn't he? Is this a roleplay event? What was the smell of blood from? Did they kill someone? Are they gonna kill me?” My thoughts were running at a thousand miles per hour as my brain tried to make sense of the situation I found myself in.

The guy that looked a bit smaller than me looked pretty timid and unsure of the situation. But despite this fact he perked up with “You look hurt, do you want me to help?”. He looked proud to have gotten the question out.

“Do you know First aid?” I said instinctively but immediately doubted myself because who knows if they would call it “first aid”. Unless this really is a roleplay event, but honestly I doubt that with all that's happened.

“First aid? No but I can do some healing magic.” He said bluntly and sounded a little confused.

“Um… ” Magic? He mentioned mana before. Are they serious? “Yeah, give it a go.” I said after a pause, I decided to run with it for a bit. He looked happy and came over to help me. He kneeled next to me and placed his hands over my recently dislocated shoulder. As he began to focus, my entire body beginning with around where he had his hands, felt warm and at ease. It was as if all the damage this new body had endured from that abrupt fall was lifted. Bruises were healing and scrapes closing. There was a shine of green coming from his hands and a light blanket of that same green enveloped me. It felt like nothing could hurt me anymore.

“Are you feeling better now?” He asked, smiling brightly with anticipation.

“Yeah, thanks so much,” I said, stunned. “I cant believe how good that felt”.

“First time being healed through magic? Yeah, the first time is always amazing” he said, getting excited. I could tell he genuinely loved healing people, and from his demeanor to his reactions, I couldn't help but think "Maybe these people don't want to kill me.".

“How does that work?” I asked, trying to get any information about magic since it had just been confirmed to be real.

“Not now, more of them are approaching.” The black and purple haired girl interjected. "More of who?" I thought.

“Which direction and how far?” Brown haired knuckle guy asked quickly.

“Coming from the south, they should be here in 5 to 7 minutes. Problem is there are too many of them for us to protect him at the same time” She stated Grimly.

"This is it, there's no reason for them to risk this for me." This was the only line of thinking I could see at the moment.