The cave was damp, rocky, and uncomfortable, and I was fed up of it. Not that I could do anything about it. Worse still was that the air was musty and had a horrid clammy feel. It felt even worse than the damp, rocky feel of stone digging into my body.

It wasn't really somewhere where I should be stuck in.

Wasn’t really somewhere where I wanted to be stuck in.

Yet I was stuck in it all because the cave was small. Too small for me to really be inside, yet somehow I ended up trapped down here. From the way I was laying it seemed someone had stuffed me into this cave. In fact, maybe it shouldn't really be called a cave, but a depression. Whatever it was, laying here with my body pressing down upon my neck and head, with my whole body really being unable to move, was excruciatingly painful.

More painful than the time when I needed a tooth removed because the cavity in my teeth was so big it reached the roots. So painful that I couldn't get to sleep.

Yeah, maybe instead of a depression or a cave, this hole should be called a cavity.

I didn't care. I just wanted out and I couldn't force my body to do anything other than maybe move my arms and legs. And blink. But that didn't stop the damn pain of my body pushing me down onto the rocky surface of this cavity, bending my neck.

It was lucky that I hadn't died.

Or maybe this body had previously died. If it had done so, it would make sense why it had been stuffed into this cavity. That, and that would be why branches were placed over the entrance of this cavity. Branches that I could just see if I strained my eyes to look out of their corners.

Maybe this body's previous inhabitant had something of import to do. If so, I had been brought back to fulfil it. But in that case, who had killed this body? Was there a reason I had been stuffed into this cavity?

Maybe... Who knew, other than the one who had killed this body and stuffed it into this cavity?

Still, as long as I wasn’t going to be killed again , I would not complain. I’d been given a whole new life to make something of it, and I will take as many freedoms as I could get. Well, I guess that also depended upon whatever freedoms I could get away with, whilst still having to toe the line of following the faith of the world I was stuck in.

I still hated that second admin. Why call someone like me to this world if all they were going to do was punish me? I also wondered how many others like me had fallen into the trap of this world.

I tried shifting myself again. Either trying to get more comfortable, or, at best, moving so I could push myself out. Neither happened. Instead, things got worse as the branches that had been laying on top of the entrance to the cavity had fallen in to join me.

Not only that they had fallen in such a way a particularly leafy bit of the branch landed on my face. Worse still, those leaves, small delicate ones, seemed to want to invade my mouth and get intimate with my eyes.

After failing to remove the small delicate leaves from my eyes and mouth, I settled down once more. With the rustling of leaves gone, I could hear a voice was calling out my name: Second Child.

Seriously, did they really call me that? There wasn't a nickname, a pet name, or something more caring that they could call me?

When another voice called out my name, I realised there were multiple adult voices shouting my name.

Were my parents out there calling for me? I hoped so. I really needed to feel some loving kindness, even if it wasn’t fully earned, yet.

With those delicate leaves wanting to invade my mouth and not being able to get enough breath into my lungs because of the way my head was angled, I couldn't shout in response. Nor could I move my body in any helpful way to somehow let them know where I was. Unless I did something with the branch.

The voices were getting closer. Instead of struggling now, I should wait a while. I listened as one voice, I couldn’t tell if it was male or female, got closer. When that one voice was close, I made my move.

I wiggled my body as hard as I could, knocking into the branch. I heard it move, then heard it crack.

That sexless voice nearby stopped shouting.

No. Despair filled the void the budding hope, which I’d not realised I had, left behind as it vanished.

The branch under me moved slightly. That sexless voice shouted something different: Found him

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Things then moved quickly from there. Lots of shouting, lots of movements in the wood. And a careful removal of the branch that had snapped beneath me. In time, both longer and shorter than I could count, powerful hands gripped my ankles and started pulling me up. They hurt almost as much as my neck did now that it was free to straighten.

Careful hands, not loving, impassionate like a historian touching a priceless piece of archaeology, carefully guided me out of the cavity I had been in.

The blue of the sky—masked by many leaves, branches, and trees—was a richer blue than I could ever remember seeing on Earth. And the smells. Rich earthy smells, welcoming, not off-putting. After living my life surrounded by the grey of the city, the smog and pollution of the city, and always being around people. This gentle forest felt oddly welcoming.

Never, in my previous life, had I even thought about escaping to the country on a day off, or for a short break. Normally, I traded one city for another.

But being here, surrounded by only a few people, all of whom were fussing over me, I realised I had missed much by never wanting to be surrounded by true life—even if it had been tamed somewhat. Not the fake life that was forced into its unnatural shapes just because it was surrounded by concrete and glass.

I took a deep breath, letting the fresh air fill my lungs. The warmth of the sun was welcome after being trapped in that dark, damp cavity.

‘Master,’ one person near me said carefully, still treating me as if I was a fragile bit of archaeology. ‘Do we have your permission to take you back to your parents and brother?’

It sounded like a question, but the way the person—I couldn’t quite tell if it was a male or a female—framed the question, I guessed they expected me to give a single answer of a single word.

‘Yes.’ I said.

Saying nothing else, another person—this one was a man, I think, picked me up in a princess-style carry. From my new vantage point, I looked around at the handful of people who were surrounding me.

All of them, even the two I had interacted with, were wearing the same clothes. Some type of long and narrow midnight blue robes which made their movement through the forest I found myself in difficult. It was a strangely sexless outfit. On the few obvious men, it seemed like a robe. For the few obvious females, it seemed more of a dress. But there was no actual difference in the clothing, other than my own biases. All of them had narrow, arm-fitting sleeves which were tied to the robes at the shoulder. They all had the same style of closely cropped dark-brown short hair, not much more than a simple buzz cut.

After they started to move, I had to readjust who I believed was male or female. Because other than some bulges in the chest, facial features, and voices, it was hard to identify their sex.

It even went beyond clothing and hairstyle. Even their facial features and height were also similar to each other.

It seemed that these people had been chosen because of their uniformity in appearance.

And for a trip into a forest they were wearing impractical clothing. Those long and narrow robes might be okay in a building where the floor was even and flat. In the forest, though, the lack of freedom for their legs meant that I often saw people trip and slip. Some ended up with torn or muddy clothes.

But even with the troubles they were suffering, or must be suffering, their facial expressions were still all wooden and unmoving. Something like a supposed, true stiff-upper-lipped Britain. But these went beyond that. Even after falling and hurting themselves, their facial expression never changed, not even a twinge that I could notice.

Either they were that good at schooling their emotions, or something else was at play.

The forest just ended. One moment it was tall trees and undergrowth. Then it was a paved path with a central totally smooth, and cambered, road in the middle. A large, ornate carriage pulled by six horses sat in the middle of the road.

A carriage which was far larger than any other carriages I’d ever seen before on TV or in films. At the back of the carriage, was a small section of exposed seats which had no covering on them. Already sat on the seats were a few people wearing the narrow midnight blue robes. Most of those who had been with me shuffled off towards those seats.

Only the man who was carrying me shuffled towards the door. He placed me down next to the door and shuffled off, leaving me all alone.

I looked behind the carriage. Far in the distance was a queue of crude farm carts, some of which had been piled high with hay. They were waiting patiently.

‘Are you going to keep us any longer, Second Child,’ a firm authoritative voice called from inside the carriage.

‘Yes, Elder Child,’ a younger voice said, in a haughty tone, ‘you will make us late for our own Trait Unlocking and Entrusting Ceremony.’

I wave of happiness washed through me. Maybe I would be lucky and get a choice of traits I could choose. Then I stamped down upon my happiness. I don’t think I would be that lucky.

With a heavy feeling in my chest, I opened the door and climbed into an unimaginable luxurious room holding just four people. Someone whom I guessed was my old Father and young Mother. Both healthy and regal looking, sitting far apart from each other doing their own thing.

There was also a young male child who must be about the same age as this body I found myself in. The look on his face filled with an intense mix of emotions, which included fear, hatred, and anger. It was a look that no child of his—our?—age should ever have.

It was then I realised who had killed this body and who had stuffed it into that cavity.