1 A Fresh Start

The break of dawn.

Sunlight breached the horizon, casting a warm glow across the land. Mountains, rivers, plains, and everything in between began to awaken. A new day was starting, a fresh beginning after a long night.

In the light of the morning sun, hidden in a remote corner of the world, stretched a sea of trees. Smack dab in the middle of those trees, a mighty mountain stood overlooking the land. The peak of the mountain disappeared beyond the clouds, making one feel as if it was holding up the very sky, and the rest of the mountain was covered snow. As the morning sun reflected off its surface, it looked like a majestic multicolored gem.

At the mountain's base, like a sleeping giant, stood a proud ancient tree. Like the mountain behind it, the tree stretched towards the sky. Its vast branches were as plentiful as the stars in the night. From its trunk, a near infinite mass of fog expanded outward.

From the sky, a beam of sunlight pierced its way through the fog, falling upon the roots of the giant tree. The roots of the tree were heavily blackened, unknown if it was due to age or the weather. Like its branches, the roots stretched out over the ground, covering the land around it like a colossal array. There was something almost magical about their appearance. As if they were beckoning one to walk among them.

Hidden among those roots was a small pit. Like the roots that were protecting it, the pit was blackened and scorched, some of the ground around it even glassy in appearance. Inside of the pit, littered around the bottom, were a bunch of crushed eggs. Whatever had caused the damage to the pit had destroyed them as well. But, in the far corner, partially covered in dirt, one egg managed to remain intact.

As the sunlight made its way through the fog above, it lit up the hole, erasing some of its gloom. In response to the warm morning light, the lone surviving egg started to move. Like a spotlight, the sunlight turned into a beam and zeroed in on the shaking egg. And almost joyfully, the egg started to move even faster. But the egg seemed to be struggling because as time passed, its movements became more and more sluggish.

However, the sun's light strengthened, practically begging for the little egg not to give up.

Yet the egg slowly came to a still.

As if in mourning, the sunlight as well started to dim. But then, the faintest sound rang out. A soft thump, a small heartbeat. After that thump, another soon followed. Then another! Like the beating on a drum, the thumps became faster and faster, and louder and louder. Then…

Crack!

Against the odds, the egg's shell finally fractured.

From the horizon, a hearty laugh shook the land, "My child, this is the only thing I can do for you. Take it, and live yourself a grand life!"

Another hearty chuckle echoed, and the sunlight in the sky began to gather and condense, forming into a small golden droplet. Once the droplet was formed, it shot across the sky before shooting into the pit and slamming into the egg. A crisp ding resounded as the droplet merged with the egg momentarily turning it a brilliant gold.

As the golden radiance on the surface faded, the crack on the egg expanded. From within a gleaming light still flickers. And from that light, a small snout covered in scales appeared. It paused for a moment before pushing itself completely free. The crack widened again and the full head emerged.

It was a pale green snakehead, rounded and small like the little snakes often found in gardens. As the snake opened its eyes, a brilliant pair of large golden orbs could be seen, split down the middle by white pupils. Between the eyes, in the middle of its forehead, lay a circular golden scale that sparkled like the sun. A striking sight among the rest of its pale scales.

'I'm alive?' Looking around itself, the little snake blinked in confusion.

Before emerging from the egg, Jasper has been floating silently in the darkness. He arrived in the darkness after his boat was swallowed by the sea during a sudden storm. That day, lightning had rained from the sky with an untold fury. Striking his boat and sending it to a watery grave.

As he had sunk into oblivion surrounded by the wreckage, he knew he wouldn't survive, and had accepted it. He'd lived a long life. As a graying old man, he knew his time was running low, but that couldn't keep him from the sea. It was his only love, and as he continued to sink, he found it only fitting that it claimed his life.

So imagine his surprise as a beam of light tore through the darkness. Though he'd accepted death, it wasn't like he'd ignore a chance for survival. So with all his might, he tried to swim towards the light. His lungs burned from the lack of oxygen, as the feeling in his arms and legs slowly faded away.

As liquid flowed into his nose filling his lungs, and his consciousness began to fade, he gave one final struggle, letting his face just barely touching the surface. But that move took all his remaining energy. Feeling the darkness closing in, he prayed that someone might reach out to save him.

Answering his prayer, from the light, a golden warmth appeared and warped him within. It filled his body with energy and with it he managed to breach the surface of the water.

Or well he thought he did. What he'd thought was the ocean's surface turned out to be the shell of an egg. Which just made him even more confused. Frowning he tried to piece his thoughts together, but he was soon hit with a splitting headache.

Closing his eyes in pain, he gave a slight hiss. Within his head, another set of blurry memories appeared. But unlike his own memories, these new ones were vague and gave him a weird feeling. There was no emotion in these memories, instead, they seemed more like pure information.

As he searched through them he was stunned. According to these new thoughts, he was now some kind of snake. Not human. Unwilling to believe it he opened his eyes and looked down, only to discover a small belly covered in scales.

The memories were right, he was human no longer. Sighing he decided to just go with it, it was better than being dead after all. Focusing his attention back to the other memories he searched them for more information.

Consistent with the memories, his body was small, thin, and a pale green color. However, that was where the normality of these memories stopped. In the information was a method to make clouds with his breath and a way to float, as well as some nonsense about being able to create illusions with fog.

'What type of fantasy gibberish is this?' He thought as the memories only continued to get more wild by the moment. But as he tried to dig deeper into them, his headache got worse. Shaking his head, he did his best to clear his mind. It appeared that he could only access a few of the memories at the moment.

With that in mind, he turned his attention to his surroundings. Half of his body was still in the egg as he looked around. There were around eight other eggs in his line of sight. However, they were all shattered and blackened, showing no signs of life. His pupils constricted at the sight. Quickly turning his head he looked at his own egg.

He broke out into a cold sweat as he discovered traces of scorch marks on his egg as well. Imagining just how close he came to not being reborn was chilling. While he was pondering his mortality, a loud thud captured his attention. Turning his attention back to the area in front of him, he noticed there was now a deep purple sphere laying wobbly on the ground. He tilted his head and frowned, it hadn't been there a moment ago. As he looked at the newcomer, to his surprise, it began to glow. Slowly, a hazy white light covered the sphere's surface.