When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in a dungeon. In fact, I had no skudding idea where I was.
"What's a baby doing out here?" a gruff voice said.
Baby? Which baby? I tried to get up, but my body wouldn't cooperate. Skud. Was I paralyzed?
A shadow moved into my field of vision. A giant man with messy black hair and an even messier beard stared down at me, his expression a mix of confusion and mild concern. I found it impressive how he managed to make beard as short as his appear messy. He wore leather, with his muscular physique rather obvious.
"Hey there, kid. Where are your parents?"
Parents? I blinked, and a horrible thought struck me. Slowly, I lifted my hands. The tiny, pudgy hands that waved back at me were not my own. No. No, no, no! My expression contorted to that of absolute horror. These were baby hands-my baby hands.
I tried to scream, to let out a string of curses, but all that came out was a pathetic "Aaauuggh!"
"Alright, you little brat," the man said, sighing. "Guess I'll take you too."
He scooped me up, not at all gently, and slung me into his arms as if I wasn't a fragile skudding baby. I wanted to scream at him for his rough handling, but it wouldn't do any good. My baby mouth refused to cooperate. Damn it all.
As he walked, humming to himself, I took stock of my situation. First, I was a skudding baby. Again. Second, I was abandoned. Again. And third, this grumpy giant had apparently decided I was worth lugging around, for god knows what reason. Hell, I might even be an offering for some cult.
"Looks like Will's going to have a twin sibling," he muttered to himself.
Will? Was this one of the "seven others" the dungeon man mentioned? If so, where were the other six? And sibling? So I wasn't going to be sacrificed? Wonderful news.
The man's humming grew louder, and I remembered the other part of the dungeon man's instructions. "Close your eyes for 20 seconds." Might as well see what happens.
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
I squeezed my eyes shut and started counting.
========================================
INFORMATION
========================================
Name: Unassigned
Age: <1
Occupation: Thief (Unawakened)
Affinity: Lightning (Unawakened)
Achievements: None
========================================
What the skud? Information my ass-I didn't know what half of it meant. Before I could dwell on it further, the man's voice pulled me back to reality.
"We're here," he said, stopping in front of a small wooden cabin. The smell of roasted meat from inside drew my attention, and my baby stomach growled loudly.
The door swung open, revealing a woman with dark brown hair and a kind smile. She looked too pretty-and too pleasant-to be stuck with Mr. Grumpy.
"Galt! You're back!" she said, pulling him into a hug. "Will's been missing you."
Her eyes fell on me, and she gasped. "Oh! Who's this?"
"Found the brat abandoned in the fields," Galt grunted. "Figured I'd bring him along."
Her hand flew to her mouth. "How terrible! The poor thing! Come, the child must be starving!"
You're skudding right I was. The smell of meat had made me realize how starved this body of mine was.
She snatched me out of Galt's arms, cradling me with surprising gentleness while fussing over how dirty I was. Her warmth felt so alien, it almost made me forget my predicament. Almost.
From the corner of my eye, I spotted Galt in a chair, holding another baby. Was that Will? The kid had his fist shoved in his mouth, drooling all over himself like a regular baby. Was he pretending? Or was he actually normal?
I stared at him, with many important questions popping into my mind. Where was I? Who was I? What was I? And most importantly, what the skud was I supposed to do about my predicament.