1 Death

[It's....Warm.]

Everyone expects that death feels cold and scary, but it felt oddly warm and familiar. Almost as if I was comfortably laying under the my bed sheets at home, curled up and enjoying a nice holiday. Unfortunately, I was currently laying in the middle of the street after getting hit by a truck.

Now that I think about it, it's interesting how I am not panicking right now. Maybe it is because I lived a good life, although a little short, but all in all, I think I did what I wanted to do while I was alive. If there was something I had as a regret, was not finding someone to love, but I'm sure that they would've been very sad if I left them behind, so it's for the best.

As consciousness started to left my mind, I felt as if something was pulling me from my body. It was a...Strange feeling, but it was comfortable and gentle. I guessed it was death, taking my life after my body failed to keep going, so I closed my eyes and let go of life.

And so, I died.

After I left my body, my consciousness remained awake for a few moments. I couldn't open my eyes, but I heard and felt that I was somehow travelling at high speeds, being held by a giant's hand, with a warm and gentle touch. Suddenly, we stopped and I was lowered somewhere.

I fell asleep once more, and after that everything went dark.

Waking up, I found myself inside a cave of sorts. It still had remnants of that warmth that I felt before, but I knew it wouldn't last much, mainly because I was already starting to feel a cold breeze gently entering the area, slowly replacing the previous warm aura.

I stood up, nothing hurt, rather, I felt incredibly healthy and sturdy. I couldn't really comprehend the situation so I decided to follow the cold breeze, hoping to find the exit of this strange cave.

A few minutes of walking later and there it was, the exit. Once I stepped outside it felt as if I had been transported to a completely different world. Two moons were traversing the sky as the night went on, a marvelous spectacle to see really.

Now that I noticed the fact that I was probably not at home anymore, I looked at my own body. It was rather...Well endowed if I say so myself. It was nothing like the small and slender one that I managed to keep in my past life, rather, I could swear it was almost twice as tall, with two...Mountains rising in my chest. I also noticed that I had a much more sturdy constitution, and I could tell that I was way stronger than I was before.

Well, I really didn't understood anything until now. I knew I had died, but I didn't expect to be reborn into another world, but knowing I had another chance meant that I could take this with calm and plan ahead for future events.

For now, my main objective was finding a refuge and food, since I was not sure of how this world works, I decided to try and explore the surroundings of the cave, since it was the closer thing to a refuge that I knew of at the moment.

Right in front of me laid a forest of giant trees that were almost able to block out the sky, but since the treeline ended a few hundred meters away, I could still see the moons above me. I turned around and noticed that the cave I had woken up inside was part of a massive mountain, so high that I couldn't see the top from my position.

The uppermost part was covered in layers of what I believed to be some kind of snow since it had a white tint over the usual gray and brown. Noticing a small path that went around the cave and upwards on the skrit of the mountain, I thought that I could get a better view of what was across that ocean of massive trees.

And so I started to walk my way up. I was currently naked so it felt a little awkward, but I cannot say that I could do anything about it right now. The air started to feel colder and colder as I went up, but at the same time the massive trees started to get lower and lower until the point I could finally look past them.

And there it was, in the middle of the forest was some kind of....Fortress. Abandoned and half destroyed as far as I could see. It was truly beautiful, even in its ruined state. Luckily, it was halfway into the forest and in a straight line from the cave, so it wasn't difficult to get a mental trajectory towards it.

I walked the stairs once more, this time, my objective being getting on the ground in order to begin my small journey towards the Fortress I had seen before. Certainly it was a long walk, around 40 minutes of walking on grass barefoot. Again, it felt incredibly awkward to be naked, but again, I had barely any knowledge on survival so there wasn't anything I could think about to do about it since the bushes I was seeing had leaves far too small to cover myself with.

[Certainly, at this moment, being too big might be a curse rather than a blessing.]

I chuckled at my own commentary. Since I saw no one else around, I assumed I would be alone for a while, so getting used to talk to myself would probably help me adapt to the loneliness I would feel from then on.

Finally I arrived at the Fortress. It was...Smaller than I thought it would be, its walls were already broken and destroyed, grass grew between the rocks that once had formed its defenses, alongside the ground I could see many fallen warriors. Or well, their skeletons and rusted equipment.

They were seemingly far ahead in their process of decomposition, so much that it really didn't smelled all that bad, just....Strangely sweet. Almost like marmalade being made in the distance. A faint yet noticeable smell of suger and fruits.

It was kind of odd to smell that in what once seemed to ahve been a field of battle, but I managed to take my mind off of it once I entered through the already worn down and also destroyed main gate. Inside laid a few more warriors, not as many as those outside. I assumed the main fight happened at the walls, so this meant that either few of them managed to get inside, or too many of them did so the defenders retreated inside.

It was fun imagining the battle. But a weird thought invaded my mind as well.

[Wait, I'm not a psycho. I just really like History.]

Well, I can't say that I am not thrilled to see for myself the full story of this battle or the origin of this Fortress. I really loved travelling in my past life, which was one of the many reasons why I never could find someone I could stay with for long periods of time.

I shrugged. There was nothing I could do about it now, except trying really hard to contain my curious nature. As I stepped inside the proper main building, skeletons of warriors wielding their weapons and of many other humans laid across the floor. They were rotten, and I could tell that there wasn't anything even a rat could munch on.

I continued my walk, strangely enough I didn't felt scared at all, maybe because I was enthralled too much into the many interesting things I was able to notice around me. I didn't paid much mind to those feelings, as I ran across a certain room that seemed to still be somewhat well presserved.

I oppened the old door and it creaked, almost falling down from the years and maybe decades of rust built into the hinges. It was a rather fancy bedroom, with a single king sized bed, giant windows and what I assumed to be a bathtub of sorts.

There was also a closet. With curiosity, I approached it and oppened it. Maybe I could find something to cover myself with in here? And to my surprise, there was a single dress that was rather...Revealing, but that could indeed cover myself from the time being.

I decided to try it on, since it didn't seem all that worn off like the rest of the Fortress. It strangely fit my figure quite well, and something felt oddly familiar about it. I couldn't really tell why it was so well kept, but I decided to keep it on for the time being.

Having a refuge and a bed seemed like a blessing right now, and thus I closed the door behind me. A lock was put in place on the inside of the room, probably to keep anyone from oppening the door from the other side.

I proceeded to lock the door before approaching the bed. It took a while to shake off all the dust that it had gathered, but at the end, I could finally lay on top of it, cover myself in some old bed sheets, and finally fall asleep.

It felt weird to sleep in this place, but there weren't many other options, and I certainly didn't wanted to sleep on the floor in the middle of the forest. And thus, I fell asleep calmly.