My earliest memory of my new life was from the first moment that I opened my eyes and saw a woman holding my baby form in her arms.
My old body was gone and I had turned into a baby.
She was running with me frantically through the forest as she held me to her chest, where I could hear her heart beating violently inside her. In one arm she held me and in the other, she wielded a fierce-looking blade as long as her arm with a jagged edge.
All I knew was that we were in peril, and the woman who was carrying me was doing her very best to try and save me from the men who were chasing us. I don't know how she managed to keep me from harm while evading all the arrows and spears that were being shot at us, but she did.
It was the middle of the night, but the moon was full and lit up the forest for us, this unfortunately also allowed the people who were chasing us to easily keep track of us as we sped in between the forest groves.
I had just been reincarnated as a baby and was pretty helpless in my state. All I could do was lay back and watch as this woman ran with me.
It wasn't long before we reached the edge of the forest which was, unfortunately, a death-drop cliff (at least a hundred meters) above a forested valley with a shallow stream below us. If we jumped down to the stream, we definitely wouldn't survive. If we stayed on top of the cliff, the people firing arrows and spears would kill us. We were at a dead end.
The woman holding me seemed like she was a warrior, from her armored clothes to that elaborate dagger she was holding, I could tell she was probably a knight or a soldier or something like that. She was also noticeably beautiful with dark hair and bright green eyes, she had a kind of exotic otherworldly look to her that I hadn't seen back on Earth.
"This is as far as you go." Came a chilling voice from inside the forest.
"You took us for a good run I must say, but it's over now." He scoffed from somewhere in the darkness. He seemed to enjoy the feeling of having trapped us.
"Give us the boy." He was blunt with obvious irritation in his voice, probably stemming from having to run a good few kilometers through the forest.
My little body stiffened in reaction to his unpleasant voice, and I let out a whimper.
"Never!" Painted the woman who was holding me, she held me even tighter against her chest.
Her breaths were ragged and her chest heaved violently. She wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer. I could also see her shoulder from the position she was holding me in, and it had a disturbingly deep gash in it that was oozing out blood. I was sure that wasn't the only injury she had gotten from the mirage of blades that were hurled at us.
Seeing as nothing had touched me, she had guarded me perfectly, sacrificing her body to shield me. who was she that she would be willing to go so far to protect me? She looked too young to be my mother…
"You won't have him!" She shouted at the man who was still partially hidden behind the foliage.
"By My Lady's honor, I will never hand him over to you!" She bared her bloodied teeth at him and his eyes blazed with determination.
I wanted to thank her but all that came out of my mouth was a pleased gurgle. Her words were very noble and I understood that she must be some kind of guard or knight sworn to protect me, but in this precarious situation, it seemed like she wouldn't be around to protect me much longer.
There was a long pause as we waited for the man to reply.
Slowly a shadowy figure made its presence known from behind some trees. The man was cloaked in darkness and it was impossible to see his face, but I could feel a very menacing and furious aura coming off of him.
"Then die."
The man raised his gloved hand into the air. At that moment a whole troop of masked men revealed themselves from behind the trees and began firing arrows and spears at us.
My helper was as quick as lightning as she repositioned me in her arms and dipped her fingers into the gash on her shoulder. She then took her blood coated fingers and drew a circle on her left palm in blood and muttered some indecipherable words under her breath. A glass-like red barrier formed up in front of us that blocked all the arrows and spears.
"Keep firing men. She is weak now so that barrier won't last for very long." The man in darkness commanded to his underlings.
He was right. I could see the barrier visibly weakening from the barrage of sharp steel arrows that came hailing down on it. With every shot fired, the barrier seemed to buckle under the pressure. After a few moments later the barrier started to crack like glass. With every crack forming in the barrier my little heart was pounding so fast in my chest I thought that I might have a heart attack and die again. At such a young age I was already experiencing fear. Although none of the arrows were aimed at me (they were all for the woman who was holding me) the terror I felt was still so real.
I was terrified that my helper would die. I couldn't let that happen, I needed to protect her, just like how she had protected me, just as I had sworn to myself in front of the afterlife secretary. The pressure I was feeling was immense. In response to my wishes, I felt something inside of me being awakened, like a leaf landing on the surface of a still body of water and making ripples. A big part of me was awakening, I could feel whatever it was rise up from the lake and spill into my little limbs.
The last arrow struck the barrier and completely shattered it to pieces. Everything was in slow motion. I watched as the shards of the glass-like barrier glistened in the moonlight and floated in the air. I watched as the arrow slowly made its way towards us. It's sharp metal head threatening to pierce through her neck.
I felt the need to protect others, the need to save the woman who had helped me, the need to repay her manifested itself deep into my will. I fixed my eyes on the arrow barreling through the air and thought 'stop'.
With all my might I wanted it to stop.
Power surged out of me and envelope the arrow.
The arrow stopped. The arrow that was only inches away from piercing my knight through her flesh froze midair.
I had done it. My baby self had somehow managed to release my magic and stop the arrow.
"I-impossible..." The man in the darkness whispered with nothing other than pure shock in his voice. "He is just a baby... How is this possible...?"
His fellow assassins were just as stunned and were completely motionless.
Even as a baby, I was feeling adrenaline pumping through me, my little heart working in overdrive. I wasn't sure if it was magic or adrenaline but whatever it was, was making me aggressive. Whereas a moment ago I was thinking about defence, now I was thinking about attack. My fear from a moment ago was turning into anger, and my mind was filling with thoughts of revenge. I didn't know what I was doing before I actually saw it happening before my eyes.
The arrow that I had halted in midair was slowly turning around. It trembled and shook in the air as it turned on its axis until the arrowhead was pointing directly towards the man in the darkness.
I could see the shock in the faces of the masked men as I was now pointing the arrow at them. But seeing their fear only seemed to fuel my fury as I found myself channelling more magical power into the arrow.
The arrow was starting to twitch violently as it was overflowing with magic. The metal head of the arrow was glowed bright red as if it had been left to heat up on coals.
I released my mental hold on the arrow and it went hurtling forward at a frightening speed leaving a trail of searing hot red magic in its wake. My eyes couldn't follow the arrow's path. All I heard was a pained scream coming from the man cloaked in darkness, I guess the arrow must have pierced him. All the other masked men rushed over to him in order to help him.
My knight took the chance while our pursuers were distracted to make a massive leap off the edge of the cliff. I gurgled and screamed in surprise.
She suddenly called out another spell. "Blood carpet!"
A configuration similar to the blood barrier appeared under her feet and she landed on it steadily. The blood carpet then sped off into the protection of the forest in this valley, safe and far away from the threat of the man in the darkness and his troops.
We flew together in silence as the cold night wind began to bite at both of us. She kindly tried to reposition my bundle so that I wouldn't get cold, even with her massive injuries she was still thinking of me first.
When I learned to talk I would thank her profusely.
In the warmth of her arms I listened to the calm beat of her heart. The excitement of that night had just been too much for my little body, so as we flew up in the air together I felt my self getting drowsier and drowsier.
Just before I dozed off I looked back up at the woman holding me in her arms. Staring at her warm brown hair and emerald green eyes, I wondered who she was to me and what the backstory of this dramatic night was.
I watched as tears began to well up in the woman's eyes. She tried not to let her emotions get the best of her but she failed miserably. Her tears just kept on rolling down her face and her sobs of anguish became louder as we flew.
"Are you watching Milady?" She whispered into the night sky.
"Your son is alive and well. I've done as I promised, I will protect and care for him in your absence." She looked up at the starry night sky and continued to cry.
I guessed that she wasn't my mother then, but she had promised my real mother that she would take care of me. I felt a bit sad though. One of the things I looked forward to the most about reincarnation was meeting my new parents, especially my mother because back on Earth my mother left my dad and me when I was really little. So I was really excited to have a mom for the first time, but I guess things don't always work out the way you want them to.
My eyes drifted back up to my knight only to see her looking straight down at me.
"Thank you for saving me." She whispered. "I don't know how you could possibly have done that, but I know you did it." She too was looking at me with bewilderment.
"You are truly gifted, Master Torryn. Your mother and father will be so pleased." She smiled happily down at me. The way she had been talking about my mom made it seem like she was dead, but now she just insinuated that she might be alive. That made my spirit rest easier. In addition to that, I supposed that my name was Torryn.
'Torryn'… definitely not something I heard back when I was Noah. It's different, I quite like it though.
Now I was really tired, literally on the verge of falling asleep. I heard her say one last thing before I fell asleep.
"You look just like your mother, but you have your father's eyes."