A pair of dark lavender eyes split open as a young man startles awake with a gasp of frigid air entering his lungs. His body is aching and burning as if he has been running for miles without rest. "Where am I?" the man rasps out in between a huge gulp of air. He looks to his surroundings and sees the shadows cast by the morning light spreading over the many bodies littering the ground around him. "Oh, right," the man exclaims out loud with a dull undertone as his breathing settles. "I'm in a pit. Of rotting corpses. I don't think I'll ever get used to waking up here of all places," the man states plainly as if he is, in fact, used to it.

-PAUSE-

Lets stop here for a second and explain some things.

Now, you may think that I should have been more concerned when waking up to death surrounding me. Let's just say that I have experienced far worse things throughout my life. I was certainly more hysterical the first time this happened to me. My name is Prince Roland Lucious Maxwell, Second Prince of the Drezterran Empire, and I have just been murdered on my 18th birthday by my foolish younger brother Aaran. At least, I would have been murdered if not for the fact that I am an immortal time traveler. Sort of.

You see, I have lived for a very, very, VERY long time, and not in the past. As it turns out, a special ability manifested in me at the moment of my death. Shortly after I died my power took root and the first awakening took place. I no longer age. If I happen to die, I wake up exactly to the time when I first obtained my powers, no matter what damage I have wrought upon myself. I have been frozen on the surface of other planets, melted in the cores of stars, vaporized by gamma rays in the void of space. This most recent restart marks my 5,000th anniversary of waking up to this same forsaken cesspool of a pit.

It is currently the year 300 of the Drezt Calendar. The current era of the Drezterran Empire can relate in technological advances to that of the late 15th century of your history. With great advances in art, architecture, science, and literature, the Drezterran Empire is going through something of its own Renaissance. Of course, I will help speed that along soon enough into an industrial revolution. Waiting for technology to develop is probably one of the worst things about this power of mine.

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

Previous to awakening, my life was rather unflattering. I was raised exactly as you would imagine a Prince of an empire would be. Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Commerce without morality. I had access to anything that my depraved, unintelligent mind could think to have. My father, King Charles Edward Maxwell, proclaimed that I was to be next in line to the throne and would succeed him upon my 18th birthday. I was a spoiled and entitled brat.

Fortunately my reign as King never had a chance to begin. At the stroke of midnight on the eve of my 18th, an assassin hired by my jealous brother struck me down as I was endulging myself in nightly pleasures with one of our maids. I've still never figured out how that man smuggled two adult bodies out of the castle without being caught. Well, no matter. He has paid in flesh many times over for killing me. Even if I probably deserved it.

The assassin dumped my body, along with the maid, in a pit of recently executed criminals to the south, outside of the City of Clearwater. The castle lies within the very heart of the city. With Clearwater covering a 400 square mile stretch of land, with a massive river running through it, and with over 200,000 residents, it is quite an impressive feat to stay hidden with such a burden. Unfortunately for him, all of his hard work went to waste the moment that I opened up my eyes the next morning.

The first time I woke up, I had no idea that I was supposed to have been dead. I didn't know what was happening or where I was. When I saw the bodies around me, I screamed loudly enough that I think a few of them even moved. I scrambled over the deceased and up the side of the pit only to be met face to face with a very heavily clad guard. I think the poor guard was as frightened as I was at the would-be zombie lumbering out of the pit of death at him. That was my shortest lived restart as the guard bludgeoned me repeatedly with his cudgel...

Lets take a look at a few more of my memories and see if the next few lives turned out any better.