He felt cold, Joan felt cold. He didn't know what happened after death but it was dark. Then suddenly he felt a shock travel through him, his soul wavered and he seemed to regain his bodily senses. He wasn't where he was supposed to be it smelled like grass, burning, trash. He couldn't bear it anymore and felt a regained sense of eyes and eyelids, they felt heavy. What should have been an easy as breathing reaction felt like a eternity. His heavy eyelids opened up just a bit he found himself looking at a dark hall. He tried to look around but his body didn't allow movements of the head so he could only see his surroundings through his limited movement. He looked around and found he was covered in a brown leather blanket , he seemed to be off ground probably a bed.
He looked around and in this 'hall' he saw other beds with blankets over them only small mops of hair coming peeking out of the blankets. He tried to recall on what's going on only coming to a blank each time.
Then he felt heat , his control over his body seems to have returned. He gave a weary sigh then he looked around closely. He saw magic all around. This was shocking to him. Then he felt a jolt as memories flooded his brain, they were not his. It felt like a strenuous headache flashed through his mind. It was unbearable he left a soft whimper , it sounded to fragile and young. He felt his body warm up and his eyes couldn't stop from falling once again. He soon fell asleep on the bed.
A ring sound was heard and he couldn't clutch onto his sleep. He felt a tremble and shaking. He was a bit stared but soon he heard small pitter patters or footsteps , they were a child's to be exact a lot of children. He groaned but he knew what this place was now. During the night his body seemed to have shut down but his mind wandered around for quite a while and he was able to discover he was not in his own body. His memories of his past were only superficial he could understand what he went through but couldn't seem to feel those memories like he did before. But he knew his 'new' body he was 7 years old his name was Zero.
Zero seems to have been born a orphan , parents got killed. He was left onto a churches care where he lived pretty well, he was given only some education mostly of religion and history. This body knew how to read and write he learned that through the years by copying the words from the book. The book was used to recite many religious poems.
Up until three days ago he was a good kid living life of an orphan he was quite bright for his age. The church was surrounded by high walls so the kids never had contact with the outside except when adults came to adopt one or just pray. Three days ago though there was a accident caused by the cleaners dropping a lamp with oil onto the curtains and causing a fire. This news wasn't on the memories he received but he found this conclusion by all the hints given to him.
The church was half burned and only some rooms were left standing. The child hall the place where kids sleep and now a place where everyone sleeps, the animal stalls and the outside fields. The cattle had died of suffocation so the stalls only smelt of burnt wood and decay.
The children can't stay here anymore in about a week they will be sent to the streets. He didn't exactly know where he was he knew magic existed but it was really un pure. The language was olden Eolasian he didn't understand every word but he could tell this was his world and the dialect came from the crisis ages.He didn't know when this was exactly but he was okay with that.
"Alright children it's time for your meal come to the front near the door., sister Maria will bring the food!" Said a nun. She was wearing a dark red cape that had a lion holding a sword. Had brown hair , black beady eyes and tan skin. She belonged to the church of Holy Mane. Her name was Lusy a caring mother type of nun.
The kids ran towards the door they had only eaten once yesterday and were hungry. Zero chose not to go towards the door for food, he started to calmly walk towards the door ignoring the bread that was being served. "Where are you going?" Asked a nun. "Uhn. I want to go out." Said zero startling the nun at how calm he was. "Why would you want to outside little Z?" She asked questioningly. He noticed the edge on her question, he didn't know how to respond. "I don't want to burden the church they took care of me for a long time and lost a lot so I want to leave!" He said faking some cheer into his speech. The nuns eyes dulled and softened the previous edge wasn't there anymore. She gave a sigh of uneasiness and reluctance but still smiled.
"You may go, don't talk to the church nuns again as they'll try to take you back, ok?" She smiled at him, this was weird why didn't he need to talk to other nuns. There's something fishy here but he can't think of anything else. Zero nodded a look of fake conviction came to his face. The nun smiled and let him go.
He started to walk towards the door making sure that the wood underneath his feet didn't creek. He sighed once he was close to the door. If he was still in a grown up body the door handle would be in level with his stomach but he was only seven and barely reached the level of the door , he could still open it though.
He pushed the door open and was greeted by a chilly air and rays of sun on his skin. He took a big gulp of air and starts to run towards the door of the walls. The door had the Holy Mane symbol engraved on it. The door was big but large, it would allow a cart to go through. He went towards it the door was open wide and behind it was a street and on both sides it was aligned with houses. The houses looked as if made of mud and stone. The street was made of gravel with a mix of dirt.
He took his first steps outside calmly and then he heard shouting from behind , without thinking his body reacted to the killing intent released by whom ever was behind him. Though it was way slower then his other body he still felt it and ran. Without looking back he ran until his feet got tired. He took a calming breath. He now that he was out of the range of the killing intent was able to look around. The houses that he saw before were actually shops in a closer inspection. The one he was looking at right now was a bakery the sign board upfront said 'grasshopper bakery' the shop was decorated with green and blue the glass was still quite impure and green. It was a bit see through and allowed a person to see the bread inside.
He looked around again maybe he'll find some kind of map in one of the shops! As he looked around he finally found what he needed though it was hung in a display area he was able to tell that the map was upside down because of the writing on it. He gave himself a sigh and started to look around the map. If he's correct his current location is at woodpecker village. It was quite high in the mountains.
He gave a weary sigh and started walking towards the center of the village. The center of the village was not anything fancy there was a well and near it was big chunky wooden chair. There we some people around most looked quite average they weren't noble or anything only appearing to be normal farmers and 'peasants' as they'd call them.
He decided he'd sit on the chair first to calm down and let his adrenaline pass. As he went he suddenly started to feel the adrenaline leaving his body but he also felt something else , he felt cold. Of course he wasn't equipped to go outside of the constantly warm hall. He was barefoot in a gravel road. He looked down and saw that he had scraped under his foot. He shook his head and started to walk towards the chair there was only a spot left in the chair as the other spots were taken by an old women and a man with a huge axe on his back.
Once he reached the chair he sat down slowly he didn't know if this body could be careless for right now. As he sat he noticed the man had mana within his body which confirmed to him he was many years in the past. As if the clothing and such things didn't hint at it. As he looked around he gathered some mana around his ears , a minuscule amount but good enough to hear. He heard a lot of sounds from the grind scraping to strong thunks cause by iron hitting iron he also heard different conversations from people what he heard was interesting though.