5 Volume 1 - Chapter 4

At this point I was taking the lead. I was dragging Vyth through the forest. The view was amazing. I never cared much for the outside when I was human, but staying in a cave for all day half a year can change you.

The dense forest not too far from our nest provided enough shade for us to freely move through. After hearing Vyth of all people describe the pain caused by direct sunlight, I'm afraid of standing in it.

Though my mind has remained the same, I have a different body now. I never really paid attention to it, but now that I think about it, there are no torches or any other light sources in our nest. I guess we have night vision, but with the trade off of not being able to live in the light.

We got to the edge of the forest before stopping. It was on a hill. From there, we looked down on a small village. The inhabitants appeared to be human. It was a typical medieval village. Shabby houses, farmland close by, a tavern and what looked like a church.

That church looked different from normal, though. I suppose they've never heard of Christianity, but practice another religion instead. The building was tall, taller than the other buildings at least. It was mainly made of stone, with a wooden roof. It was the only stone building in the village.

I could see a small, round window on the top of the building. After looking at it a bit closer, I could see a child staring back at me. They had blond hair in a bowl cut and big blue eyes. I couldn't tell their age exactly, but it seemed like they were younger than the age of puberty.

The religious building looked plain for the rest of it. It did seem narrow, which is why I guessed it was a religious building in the first place. I turned to Vyth to see his expression. It seemed that he was both amazed and puzzled.

Amazed? Sure, our nest wasn't exactly beautiful, but this village wasn't any better than it. Maybe it's just me being used to this type of architecture. I played a ton of RPGs and the starting villages in them looked leagues better than this. It was kinda disappointing.

The village was small. Really small. I could only see a few houses and other buildings. Maybe 12 families lived there, far less than the usual hundreds of people in a typical village. It's odd. Maybe it's a new one, built by a few travellers or pilgrims.

"What are those creatures, brother?", Vyth asked.

I nearly burst out laughing at his serious tone. Our teacher once told us about other species, such as humans. But a quick talk about it was all the info we got, so I guess Vyth couldn't recognise them.

"Those are humans".

"They are what our teacher talked about?".

"Yeah, they are".

"Something has been bothering me for a while now, brother".

"What is it?".

"How do you know so much? I always thought you were just born smarter than me, just as I was born stronger. Mother once told me about the time we hatched out our eggs. You quickly stopped crying and observed your surroundings, while I clung on to you. I thought you were just smarter, but you seem to know stuff you can't have known".

I was speechless. I should've seen it coming, though. It was my fault. I thought that I could just act however. No one would think about me being a reincarnation of someone else. That would be a ludicrous claim. I never even thought that people might get just suspicious, even if they didn't think of that possibility.

"Well? How do you know so much? You've never seen humans before, yet you could identify them. We only got a brief explanation, barely anything on what they looked like. No one had seen the beast that attacked us before, yet you could gauge its strength. So, tell me. How do you know so much? Is the gap between us truly that large or is there something else at play here?".

I remained silent. I diverted my eyes from his piercing gaze, looking back at the village. I could tell him. I have no qualms about him knowing the truth. But will he believe me? Kobolds have their own religion, in which they also believe in reincarnation. But, just telling him I was a human won't cut it.

He'll notice my lack of knowledge on many things in this world and start questioning whether or not I actually told the truth. The same goes for any knowledge about things unknown to anyone in this world I might let slip out on accident.

"Well,...you see…", I began, "I have seen it all before".

"When? There's no way you have. You're only 8 months old, so how could you have seen it before?".

8 months? I guess time went by quickly the first 2 months, before training. I spent all that time eating, thinking and lots of sleeping. I guess I never accounted for that.

"Why won't you just tell me? I'm your brother, am I not? We've been together all this time, so why won't you be honest with me?".

That little remark caught me off guard. I guess this must hurt him. I've known a life before this, so I never got that attached to anyone here, but that's not the case for him. He only knows this life. He only knows a life with me at his side.

"Well, to hear the truth you must promise me something first".

"What?".

"You can't just go around telling everyone about this. I don't know what the effect will be, so it's best to keep it quiet".

"I'm fine with that. I wasn't planning on doing that anyway".

"I might have only been alive for 8 months,...but this isn't...my first life".

It was quiet again. I was probably only a few seconds, but it felt like hours, as this life flashed by me. The more I remembered, the worse the feeling of unease became.

"What do you mean?".

"You know how we were taught about Kurtulmak granting reincarnation to reward good kobolds and punish bad ones?".

"Yeah, I remember. Are you telling me you were reincarnated?

"Well,...yeah".

"Then tell me something. How do you still known so much about your previous life and I don't? How does no one know what their last life was like, but you do?".

"I...don't know. But, I do know reincarnation isn't granted by Kurtulmak".

"Then who is it granted by?".

"Again. I don't know. I used to live in a completely different world".

"A different world?".

"Yeah. I was human. My world didn't have magic or monsters. There were no kobolds or any of the other species. There were only humans".

"Did the humans wipe all the rest out".

Vyth looked scared. He looked back at the village, as if they were ravenous beasts ready to kill him. It was funny, seeing him over react like that. It put me back at ease. I sat down and looked out over the plains beyond the hill we were on, as I continued my story.

I explained how things like us are nothing but fantasy in my previous world. How I learned a lot by playing games about those fantasy world. I talked about what my world was like and how awesome it was. I was starting to really miss it, but at least I now had Vyth.

I had friends back then, but no one I was really close with. I would speak to those friends at college and maybe once a week online, but that's it. I was usually all by my lonesome. I guess I got used to it, as I never exactly complained about it. But now that I have someone beside me, those memories feel empty.