Being reincarnated doesn’t hurt one bit, as it turns out. There’s a weird feeling of being pulled inside out, and then another even weirder feeling of being pushed into a mold, but then I wake up.

The first thing I do, even before I open my eyes, is draw a deep breath. The smell of evergreen woods and moss fills my nostrils, and I almost start crying right there. I haven’t smelled anything but antiseptic and other hospital smells in weeks, and the change is so wonderful it overwhelms me. There’s a gentle smell of long-dead wood and fresh grown leaves that makes me feel peaceful and safe.There’s another scent, something else that I can’t place. It smells like… meat, but neither raw nor cooked. I’m not sure what it is, so I open my eyes to see.

The first thing I see is the sky, bright blue patches of it, between the branches of pine trees that rise up high. I turn my head one way and see that I’m lying beside a fallen log. It has a giant shelf of fungus growing on it that looks like something out of a storybook. I turn my head the other way and instantly see what I’d been smelling that had me confused.

A deer, bigger than any I’d ever seen before, stands within ten feet of me. It’s frozen, like the way people say deer in headlights freeze. Something had scared it; probably me. The meat scent is coming from it, and the reason it smells neither raw nor cooked was because it was alive. Why could I smell animals like that? Why did they smell so… delicious?

I lift my head and the deer bolts, leaping away from me and disappearing into the forest. I smile and feel something odd in my mouth. Do I have something in my teeth?

The ground is mossy and soft, and honestly I could have laid there all day. But I’ve had enough laying around, and now I want to get up. True to his word, the body Jinx gave me feels amazing! Nothing hurts and it feels like I’m at the peak of health. My breath comes easily and my stomach isn’t twisted into painful knots. I decide to get up, and that’s when things get weird.

First of all, when I roll over and stand, I’m much taller than I was. It seems like Jinx took my request to be ‘big and strong’ literally; I feel about eight feet tall. I also feel breezy, and so I look down, and then the second shock hits me.

I’m naked, but there’s something much worse. I know, what could be worse than being a naked girl in a forest? Well, I’ll tell you: being covered in green skin and scales that look like pine bark! At first I think there must be some mistake, but when I touch my legs I see that hands and arms too are covered in the same coarse, barklike texture. My fingers are long and end in what can only be described as talons! I need a manicure in the worst way!

“Jinx! What the heck is this!” I yell into the sky. My voice sounds frightening, even to me. It sounds like a rockslide arguing with the world’s biggest wasp nest. And I’m not speaking English! How is that possible?

A voice whispers in my ear. “Ellie, I gave you your wish, didn’t I? A body that’s strong and healthy and never gets sick! Now, you didn’t specify it had to be a human body, did you?”

“No, but it was implied! Strongly! And you never gave me a chance to make it clear!”

Jinx laughs, and it sounds like tiny glass bells. “Ah, my dear, did you forget what God I am? Besides, making a human body that fit your specifications would have cost so much power! Much easier to put you in the body of a forest troll. Now you’re strong and very, very hard to kill. Very strong resistance to poisons and diseases, too!”

“But I’m…” I wave my hands down my body. “I’m this!”

The laughter comes again, this time in my other ear. “Good luck, Ellie! Make me proud!” The voice fades away and I am left alone with myself.

“Jinx! JINX!!!” My shouts get no response. I clench my fists, which is a mistake. My talons dig into my palm and cut, deeply. It hurts! I flex my hands open and wave them about, but almost immediately the pain goes away. I look at my palm and get two surprises. First, the cuts I opened up with my talons are healing so fast they disappear before I can get a good look. Second, my blood—which is a beautiful, if unsettling, shade of green—has glowing letters floating over it where it’s pooling in my palms. The feeling of something flexing in my head flickers and then fades.

Forest Troll Blood - Healing

What the heck? For a second I assume I’m hallucinating, but then, this whole thing would qualify as a hallucination. Instead of freaking out even further I sit back down on the forest floor and think. What do I know so far?

First, I’m a troll. A forest troll, to be specific. This implies there are other kinds of trolls, but that’s not important right now. Second, I can see information about my blood, and that information seems to relate to the qualities of being a forest troll. I watched my hand regenerate, and the blood said the same thing. I put two and two together and come up with an answer.

“Is this like an Appraisal skill?” I say to nobody in particular. An owl answers me with an indignant hoot.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

I hope not. I know it’s the stereotypical skill for reincarnations to get in fantasy worlds but I’m not smart enough to make my way in the world with just Appraisal. It would be just like Jinx to give me a skill that is technically useful but requires way too much thought.

I look at myself, my hands specifically, and try to activate whatever skill made the info show up. Nothing happens. Same thing when I look at a tree. But when I look at the fungus growing on the rotting log, I get something new. The same flexing in my head happens, and the glowing letters appear again.

Giant Torpor Fungus - Dreamless Sleep

Something is definitely up with my eyes, or my head, or both. I reach out to the fungus and something scrapes my scale-covered chest. I look down and see that I’m not completely naked after all. Two straps crisscross my chest, which, by the way, is devoid of any kind of bosom at all. In fact I have no obvious sexual characteristics whatsoever. I have mixed feelings about that, but I put them aside. The straps are some kind of leather. One of them has a bag on it, and the other has one, two, three… ten small loops, like a bandolier. I stare at them, and the flexing thing happens in my head again.

Alchemist’s Pouch - Infinite capacity for alchemical ingredients

Alchemist’s Bandolier - Vials in bandolier cannot be broken

Everything clicks. The skill I have isn’t Appraisal. It’s something to do with Alchemy! I’m an alchemist! Or, well, a trollchemist.

Let’s test the pouch out. I reach for the fungus and gently use my talon to remove a part of it. After making sure it still reacts to what I’ve decided to call my Eyes of Alchemy, I put it in the pouch. It falls from my talons and disappears, but instantly something in my head tingles. I know, in the way I know how many fingers I have, that the pouch contains enough Giant Torpor Fungus to make a single Dreamless Sleep potion. I add some more, and the knowledge updates to tell me I can now make two potions.

I smile again and feel that strange sensation of something caught in my teeth, but I ignore it. What about my blood! But my blood doesn’t show up to my Eyes of Alchemy any more. Maybe it got stale or something. I know what I have to do, and I do it with a wince. My talon opens up my palm again and I quickly stick my hand in the pouch. Before the wound closes I get enough Forest Troll Blood to make two potions.

Great work, me! All I have to do now is… figure out how to make potions. I close my eyes and think, trying to get that feeling of flexing in my head again, because surely that’s related to my skill. When it comes, it turns out to be as easy as breathing. It’s a simple matter of thinking about the ingredients I have, and then something guides me to just speak it out loud.

“Create a potion of Healing.”

With a tinkle, a glass vial falls into my hand. It’s filled with an emerald liquid that clings to the sides of the vial, and sealed with a waxed cork.

Potion of Healing - Weak

I slip it into my bandolier, and then gingerly tap it with my claw. At first I’m gentle, but then I start really trying to break it. Not even a scratch!

“Woo!” I shout to the forest. Animals startle and flee from my outburst. My bandolier performs as advertised and my pouch does indeed seem to hold materials well. The blood from my hand shows no sign of leaking out through the seams at least. The fact that I am a troll is something that I am not ready to think about, so instead I get up and start walking through the forest.

I want to find more alchemy ingredients, because while a potion of healing would be useful for a regular human girl, a troll doesn’t need it. Maybe something to change my shape! In my head I am still a young woman, after all! Whatever I come across is fine. Maybe more alchemy ingredients. Maybe a road or a river. Maybe people!

I do find some more Giant Torpor Fungus, and I take enough to have a good supply in my bag. Other than that though there seems to be little in the way of ingredients in the forest. I suppose that’s a good thing; if potions were common then I’d be out of a job before I even found one.

I walk through the forest until the sun is low in the sky. It gets dark quickly, but for some reason my eyes don’t seem bothered. Perhaps trolls can see in the dark? I don’t know anything about trolls. I don’t feel tired yet, so I keep walking. My senses are sharper overall; I hear animals fleeing from my advance. I guess a forest troll is not a friend to animals. As well I can smell things, and I let my nose lead me around a bit. That lasts until I smell a rotting carcass of something dead, and it takes me some time to move out from being downwind of it. Both my human and troll sensibilities agree; this is gross. I feel nauseous at the smell. I am somewhat glad to learn that apparently trolls don’t like rotting meat either.

It is fully dark when I smell something delectable: food cooking. Actual, human food, with spices! I smell pepper and some other scents. It is delicious, and my stomach growls at me. I have not eaten all day. In a way, I have not eaten in my entire life; after all this body is new to me. I follow the smell, and listen to the animals advance ahead of me. I’m not sure what I will do when I get there, but I hope I can trade a potion or two for a meal. I haven’t seen my own face yet; hopefully I am not too threatening.

Then I smell something else.

This is a rancid smell, and I instinctively have an image in my head of the owner. Something larger than a human, but smaller than me. Green skin covered in warts, and a piggish face with lust-filled, avaricious eyes. I would call it an orc in my old life. How do I know what it looks like? Troll instinct, I suppose.

I hear the humans long before I see them. They are shouting and there is sounds of fighting. Howling cries of bestial anger also mix in, and I think they are the orcs. Did I drive the orcs ahead of me into the human camp, or did the orcs plan on attacking anyway? Just in case it is my fault, I charge ahead. If I made things hard for these people I should help. I don’t care about the noise. Maybe I will scare away the orcs.

I see flickering firelight through the trees when I close in. The humans are backed up against a large tree with a fire between them and the orcs. I smell fear and anger on the wind, along with the stink of orcs filled with bloodlust. For some reason I’m not afraid. A young woman in a forest without a weapon should be terrified of orcs, but I am not that woman anymore. Without regard for my safety or appearance I advance the last distance and burst into the campsite. Shouts of terror and despair meet me, and the orcs turn to face me. With a grin I hope is terrifying, I charge them with my claws extended.