Home?

...

It's a beautiful new day. Eager rays of sunshine burst through the forest canopy, revealing to the world the beautiful mess below. A horned rabbit leaps from within the murky underbrush, initiating a mad sprint.. but from what?

Silent as a fallen leaf, swift as the wind, prowling unseen, what appeared to be a wolf draped in the very darkness that shy from the light. The grim specter is not alone, for a wolf always has it's pack.

It cannot get away.

"Crrk!"

Evidently, it did not.

A familiar sight, the carefully crafter equilibrium that is nature. It's almost normal really, but it clearly isn't. This is but the normal state of affairs in a very secluded forest in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere, as divine and serene as it looked.

Today however, the forest has a new resident.

....

"Hmm! Hmm! hm!" Jolly humming could be heard in the distance, like chimes in the morning breeze, dancing gracefully and with fervor.

"Okay, maybe I am not exactly qualified to compliment my own voice.."

Alright, now that I've shown the real and true camera that's filming me that I am in fact self aware, and therefore completely devoid of any blame for my ego.

We can now move on to real business.

I've been busy, and by that I mean I've kind of been just wandering this whole time, while at the same time being too paranoid of leaving the lake's general perimeter. However, I have made some interesting discoveries!

First of all, after a quick soar, I discovered that I 'spawned' in an unbelievably dense forest. Oh man, this place is huge! Like those enchanted, mystical forests in the video games!

Mountain to the left, to the right... a mountain range? Probably. Am I gonna check? Haha no, I don't trust myself to remember directions.

Huh? How'd I get reincarnated and still be stupid? That's none of your business, and If I got reincarnated and you didn't.. maybe there's a difference here you haven't exactly 'unearthed' yet.

Anyway, I've located and followed every river system that stems from my lake.. to a certain degree. I figured that any humanoid people or creatures might want to settle next to one, but I found nothing so far.

Maybe everyone's nomadic? That would imply the existence of evidence... yeah, none of that either.

So either this place is isolated and hasn't been discovered...

or I'm completely alone here.

Both are sad, really. Doesn't matter that much to me though..

No humans means no pollution.. and whatever other kind of worldly malady they unknowingly inflict onto the Earth and literally everything else including themselves. Don't worry, I can say that because I am not in fact human. Wait, is it acceptable the other way around? But self awareness about our harmful practices doesn't actually solve anything...

Did I mention I'm a hypocrite as well?

Reflect on that, person at home! Haha, you thought you could escape reality by diving into the world of fantasy! Jokes on you!

Of course, this all means that for now.. It's just me, and the animals.

Magical beasts? They exist, I checked. You got the classics, the horned rabbit, the giant frog, the Earth bear, glowing mushrooms, carnivorous flora, the shadow wolves. And you have others, I found elks that looked like they were made of silver and gleamed in the light, Owls with 3 completely blank white eyes, like little sages that have been stun locked their whole life, we got feathered flying serpents... and speaking of serpents..

I found an obsidian black snake with... five heads? It was a teeny one, but it certainly didn't act like it! The thing glared at me like my existence was made solely to sabotage them!

'Moving on! I've named each of these... uhm, let me check my notes real quick.' I think as I hold up my list. It was just a piece of fallen bark I fashioned into a tablet I could carve on.

'So! We have the Jackalopes, the Titan Bullfrogs, the Earth Ursa... uhm, bloop bloops, and the next ones I'll modify to Venus Jacktraps, can you guess why? Then we have the Phantom Wolves... and moving on to the relatively unique ones, I got Lunar Moon Elks, Redeemer Owls because they look the type to lead someone on a quest to redemption, Quetzalcothons because pythons and serpent diety, and I'll call that one...

Yeah, I'm not naming that mutated snake.' It's like a revamped ecosystem really,

the only major difference is really how they hunt and defend themselves. That, and the clearly supernatural abilities they possess, which I don't think even qualifies as out of the ordinary as... this is literally the ordinary here.

Now! I'm not saying I've been watching these discount pocket monsters slinging full-on spells at each other! It's more like they are emboldened by a particular element or trait, It's not magic, it's magical evolution.

On the subject of evolution, I plan to expand my Bestiary as time goes on, because.. I'm bored.

And to do that, I'm currently gathering some wood the old fashioned way some ways away from the lake.

Hey, who doesn't want to make an encyclopedia about fantastic beasts and how to avoid the hell out of them! It's a childhood dream come true, because I'm technically a pioneer now!

'I'm Christopher Colonimbus! Haha, get it? Because nimbus is a...

Listen, I know he's a terrible example but I couldn't find anything else that worked!'

"Heup!" I exclaim outwardly as I hop onto the closest branch, this body is really emotive huh? Let the kids have their fun, that's what I say!

Turns out, gliding through trees like they don't exist is as easy as breathing for me, quite literally. I'm lighter than a feather, and can disperse into a morning breeze at will!

In just a moment, I arrived back at the lake, It's like I just flew here! I did, I totally cheated.

Moving on! Now that we are back home, I have to show off my residence to no one in particular.

...

Okay, I didn't actually build anything. I just found the biggest and wisest, most mystical-looking tree and set up shop.

But it's home, no? And the most important part of that is that you don't let anyone else say otherwise. I am very sorry to any house-deniers that may be in telepathic range.

Whatever you found in there, It's entirely your fault.

"Plonk! Pluk! Donk!" Several thumps and bumps rang as the wood I gathered hit the ground, right next to the base of the tree.

"Well, that's that!" A pat on the back for all the work I did.

Why didn't I just cut down some branches? You think an elemental spirit is gonna destroy nature for their own agenda? That is absolutely preposterous and bonkers, really. For obvious reasons, an extension of nature cannot commit such heresy.

'Gaea would not be pleased, not at all!'

Okay, now that I don't need to clock in for work for the rest of time..

'It's time to do something I actually enjoy!' I exclaim to myself as I plop down on a sizable root, as I fashion one of my fingers into one of Zephyr's unofficially patented wind blades!

Time to get to work!

...

--To Be Continued--

(I can sense it, you are concerned about how slow this is moving. Do not fret, for I promise the story will finally arrive soon! And if you are doubtful, yes there will be fights.. I myself cannot function without the sheer dopamine things trying to kill each other give me.

Remember to support the novel if you like it. Power stones, comments, reviews especially, anything is appreciated! See ya!)