Twenty-six years of life led to a single mistake.

A mistake that cost me everything.

Normally, that would be it.

In all seriousness I should've been laying in a ditch, battered and blooded by the accident, and being crushed by my motorbike.

As of this moment, I was indeed laying in a ditch. And I was battered and blooded. But the injuries I was suffering were, umm, somewhat different.

Instead of the legs torn by contact with the tarmac and multiple shattered bones I was laying there with a large nasty gash across my chest. Instead of being broken my arm was missing. And all over my body scratches from the panicked flight through the frozen forest.

This was no longer my body, yet at the same time, was my body.

I could feel the terror of the body's old host as they ran away from a creature that had never existed on earth. Though I didn’t know much about life on earth I was pretty sure that there was no short, stubby legged horse-like creature with claws. Especially one which had a mane of blazing fire and ate flesh...

I was getting used to the pain and the gurgling coming from my lips when the pain ceased.

Floating above me was a glorious vision.

An honest-to-god goddess.

It was easy to tell as she was glowing with a power I struggled to comprehend. That incomprehensible glow hindered my ability to actually see her.

Stolen story; please report.

'Before you arrived, I granted the previous owner of that body a choice.'

The words were spoken into my mind. Yet I still heard them as a sweet voice, one which matched the young woman who was coming clearer the more time I spent in her presence.

'That owner desired to move on. I still have need of a champion. Will you, visitor from afar, become my champion in their stead.'

As I grew used to her glow I came to see her more clearly. It seemed as if she looked no older than my younger sister. Maybe it was something to do with the power flowing from her messing with me. Or maybe my regrets from that single mistake, but she did look somewhat like my awkward younger sister.

She wasn't my sister, that much I knew. In that moment, I saw past the power and the glory. I simply saw a young woman desperately searching for something.

There was more than what she was telling me.

But it didn't matter.

I saw the loneliness and the desire for something more: the same pain I saw in my sister's eyes as she held her newborn child that last time. Just before she placed it in the arms of the nurse who then placed it into the care of the funeral home who had looked after our parent's.

With a smile, I tried to reach up to her, but my arms wouldn't move.

Yet I still felt the smooth skin of her cheek as I wiped away the tears I imagined there.

'I will be there for you, whenever you need me, whatever you need me to do.' I foolishly swore.

As I did so, a sense of peace flowed through her and into me.

There was a small, but natural, smile on her face. A beautiful smile, not cute or sexy, just a smile full of natural feelings.

Her glorious presence faded away, as it did some of her power descended upon my lips gentle as a kiss. Warmth filled me, fighting the previous frozen state of my body.

As I watched, my arm grew the missing part.

The large gash on my chest healed itself.

Finally, I took a breath in this new body of mine.