The shrill, high-pitched wail of a baby pierced the silence, a sound so sharp and urgent it seemed to vibrate the very air.
The light breeze from before, once against his skin, had now suddenly frozen.
'Who the hell is being so loud?!'
He tried to open his eyes, but they felt like they were being forced shut by some unknown force. Shocked by the situation and what was happening, Orin slowly tried to pry open his eyes, fighting the heaviness of his eyelids.
Eventually, they opened, but what he saw in front of him left him stunned.
In front of him hovered the figure of woman, whose features seemed to be out of this world. Literally, since the first thing he noticed when he saw her was the pitch black horns protruding out from her temples. But her beauty was also incomprehensible, each angle sculpted by the gods themselves, flawless yet alien. Every aspect seemed otherworldly, even her fiery crimson hair shimmered like molten silk.
Sadly, he had no time to admire the divine scene before him.
Then...
'Gods, that screaming... Was that him?'
Shortly after realising this, panic creeped into his thoughts, sounding like an alarm bell trying to wake him up from a nightmare.
Then, the woman's eyelids slowly opened. And as he looked into her eyes, he found himself staring into an endless void of darkness. Time seemed to have stopped; however, he did not feel fear.
Instead, strangely, he felt a mellow warmth. A mother's love—something he had never prior felt. It was instinctual, he didn't know this woman; yet, she was the only one he had ever known.
He could feel it. This was his own flesh and blood. Someone who put him above anything else, and he who somehow felt the same.
He had never known a true family. Orphaned young for reasons no one ever explained, he'd spent his childhood shuffled between homes, most of which treated him more like a burden than a boy. This caused him to stop showing affection and growing bonds with his so-called family. He had spent his whole life inside his own head, dreaming of a world where he could do and be what he wanted.
A knot tightened in his chest. Where was he?
He'd dozed of watching Flixnet as usual on a Friday night after a long and tiring day of school, and now when he woke up, he was here. By all records, this was not normal.
His eyes widened as a bizarre thought suddenly popped into his head.
'Wait, wasn't this like one of those novels he used to read back in middle school? The ones where the protagonist was suddenly reborn into another world?'
He should be home in his warm and cozy bed, not in the arms of this gorgeous woman in a strange land, although he had to admit that he had had worse moments.
"Who he was" was a question that he had asked himself many times in his past life, but never found the right answer. So he didn't even bother. This wasn't such a new experience for him. The next page of his life being written in new place wasn't anything novel.
His mother's delicate lips trembled as she spoke, uttering something akin to a chant. All of which, of course, couldn't understand a single syllable of.
"Lukl'op c'aprs qurd duuk as'nk, uukt sani varim."
And then something peculiar occurred. The ground trembled beneath them, stones clashing against each other in a fierce assault, the circle began glowing with an enchanting violet tone. The wind returened, singing a melody of melancholy as black clouds endlessly formed in the sky, swallowing the moon and stars. Yet even with the sky covered with a layer of darkness, their surroundings however only grew more radiet by the glowing circle. The magic circle grew brighter and brighter as even the black clouds began turning gostly gray, then nearly opaque.
The magic circle was studded with alien runes and drawings which made a mystical look.
Maybe this place wasn't so bad after all.
This appeared to pacify him, calming down the sobbing even while his mind was screaming "MAGIC, MAGIC, MAGIC".
Once again, his eyelids grew heavier and heavier, impossible to keep open.
'No—he couldn't fall asleep now. Not after witnessing real magic with his own eyes! He had to fight it!'
Yet his body didn't feel like listening, no matter how hard he struggled, slowly drifting him into a sweet dream of magic and wonder.
But just before his sleepiness got the best of him, a strange pressure pulsed at the edge of his awareness. Not a thought, not even a feeling—more like a presence. Dull. Muddled. Alive. Something else was here, sharing this body with him. Not watching... existing.
Then—it turned black.
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