He really didn't expect things to turn out this way. He didn't think anything could have prepared him for that moment.
It was any other day. He had gone through college like normal, studying and listening to the lectures.
Walking with his best friend, she had suggested they go hang out at the bar that night. Of course, he accepted. He wasn't much of a drinker but he knew it would be fun to relax with his friend after a long day.
Besides, his family life wasn't all that great and he was still staying with his parents while he was in school. They didn't entirely accept his way of life despite getting more of an education than they did.
Regardless, they had a good time. They were a bit tipsy, but not enough to muddle their minds. His best friend was tipsier than him, like usual. They decided to take the train before it got too late. Everything that night seemed normal, she seemed normal.
Yes, everything was just like normal.
They were talking, waiting just behind the yellow line for the last train to arrive. Laughing and enjoying themselves, the train didn't take long to arrive. It was coming in quick, like usual, which is why the yellow lines were put into place. But why would he have to worry about the yellow lines?
He didn't know what compelled her to do it.
Nothing that night was off; they enjoyed some time off to relax and have fun, just like it had been every day before then.
When he felt the pressure on his back, it was like things went into slow motion. His foot slipped, and his tipsiness disappeared in an instant. He tried to twist around and grab something. Anything.
She was in the middle of pulling her hand back. She was the one who had pushed him.
She was smiling just like they had been before. Only, this smile was different. It was sadistic. He didn't hear any screams from anyone but could see their mouths widening in his peripheral vision. He could only focus on that twisted happy look on her face.
His heart dropped. He was barely able to look as he began to fall into the pathway of the oncoming train. The lights blared, but he didn't blink. He didn't even land on the track before the impact hit him. A searing pain coursed through his entire body and he could feel his bones shattering at the force.
It only lasted a moment, but he doubted he'd ever forget the pain.
Then it was dark. It felt like he had fallen into a warm pool of water. It was comforting. In a way, it reminded him of when he had been cuddled by his mother so long ago as a child.
"I'm sorry..." It was a voice. A soft motherly voice that seemed to surround him on all sides. "It wasn't meant to be that way."
"What…?" His own voice sounded ethereal as it echoed throughout the empty-sounding space.
He tried to open his eyes, but only saw blackness. Was he blind? Didn't he just die? There was no way he survived. Could this perhaps be the afterlife? Just a black void with some woman's voice to keep him company?
"Your fate was tampered with." The voice came again.
"So… what now?" He asked.
Tampered with? By who, and why?
"I will give you a second chance. I will send you to another world. One with a fragment of my voice."
"Another world?" He questioned with disbelief. "Wait, who are you?"
He was confused and nervous. The voice was quiet for a moment. He even feared she had gone away and felt a moment of panic. He did not want to be left alone in this nothingness.
"Yes." The voice surrounded him finally, once more. "The world you will enter is called Erani." She began, her voice hesitating before she continued. "I am… what you would call, a God. In Erani, however, I am named Tirian, the Goddess of Creation."
"This is…-" He was about to speak, but was cut off.
"You have already spent too much time here. You will be able to call upon my proxy voice once you have entered Erani." She said.
He felt like time around him was drifting away, the warmth surrounding him was slowly fading away. But he wasn't ready to leave, he still had so many questions.
"Wait! A proxy voice? Where do I hear from you, yourself?!" He called out as he tried to cling to the last bits of warmth.
"The shrine, in the capit--" Her hurried voice cut away before she could finish.
Then it was only the feeling of falling. His stomach twisted and he felt like his insides were being turned inside out. Then the feeling stopped but a moment after, leaving only a lingering bout of dizziness.
'Ugh…' He spoke inwardly, trying to shake off the nausea.
Transported into a new world? God? He was confused and barely was able to get any answers. What would this world be like? At least things felt a bit more physical now...
Opening his eyes, he blinked the blurriness from his vision. As he took in the surroundings, the light sound of bird song entered his ears and his eyes slowly focused on where he was.
Above him towered massive trees. The foliage was eye-level as if he were in a deep untouched forest. A butterfly even fluttered down and landed on a flower in front of him. His eyes widened at the size of it. It was big! Or… Was he small?
Finally, he realized something was off. Not only was he in the middle of a forest, but his body was odd. It felt off…?
Looking down at his hands, he realized that he… didn't really have normal hands? No, they were blue-colored, scaled hands with hooked claws at the tips. His heart rate started to quicken, and he hesitantly twisted his head over his shoulder to find out why he felt… wrong.
It's because he was. He could see his back behind him, connecting to another set of short legs and a long tail. Not only that but he was covered in dark blue scales with some sort of black patterning. His spine even had nubs that looked like the beginning of spikes!
'What the hell am I?!'
[ Answer, Spiny Lizard Hatchling ]
The emotionless voice that entered his head startled him. All of these surprises were bad for his heart. This must have been the proxy voice that God… Uh… Tirian? The voice that Tirian had mentioned.
Spiny Lizard Hatchling? So, he wasn't human. Well, that was obvious. He could vaguely remember an animal on Earth called a Spiny Lizard. But he knew they were a desert lizard and they definitely were not this bright on their whole bodies. He wasn't on Earth anymore though so he might as well look different.
But, apparently, he was a hatchling? Wasn't that a baby? Ugh, that meant he would be starting over? Well, actually, what did he really expect? To just pop into a new world as a completely developed human? While that would've been nice, it was simply too impractical.
He tested out his new legs, hobbling around in the grass for a bit. It wasn't hard to get used to, and he shortly realized he was about the size of a small dog. So, in all actuality, he was quite large for a lizard. But… Why a lizard of all things?
'Where am I?' He asked inwardly with narrowed eyes.
[ Answer, The Great Yarka Forest ]
It seemed the voice would be handy. Time to ask it tons of questions.
After quizzing the voice and trying to test the extent of its abilities, he learned quite a bit. Apparently, the Great Yarka Forest was a forest of monsters and beasts located in the human Kingdom of Gaia. It was able to tell him plenty of specific information. It could tell him specific things like locations like where he was and names of plants, but it couldn't tell him if there was a specific plant nearby or how long it would take to get from point A to point B.
Along with that, this world had a stat system. It looked complicated at first, but he quickly understood it merely because it was similar to how a stat block looked in video games.
A small yellow box filled with words appeared in front of him when he asked the voice to show him his current status and he assumed that only he could see it.
[ Name, ??? ] [ Spiny Lizard Hatchling ]
[ Lvl, 1/10 ] [ Exp, 0/100 ]
[ Stats ] [ Stat Points, 0 ]
[ Str, 6 ] [ Dex, 8 ] [ Int, 10 ]
[ Con, 6 ] [ Wis, 7 ]
[ Skills, Swimming [Lvl 1], Climbing [Lvl 1], Venom Bite [Lvl 1], Venom Spit [Lvl 1], Claw [Lvl 1] ]
[ Titles, Other-Worlder, Tirian's Angel ]
It was all pretty self-explanatory to him. It seemed he was unnamed in this world, and he silently wondered if he could name himself. His species was obviously there, as well as his level and experience. He guessed when his experience went up, he gained a level. Which probably meant he had to do things or kill stuff to gain experience like in video games.
His stats probably weren't too bad for his low level. His strength and constitution matched with sixes. His intelligence was the best of them all, and his dexterity took second place. And then the middle marker, his wisdom. Stat points were marked at zero, which he figured also worked like games. When you got a stat point, you'd be able to put it into one of your stats to make the number higher.
His skills were a bit bare but pretty easy to understand. Climbing and swimming were terribly obvious. The rest of the skills seemed to be attacks. He was venomous, which meant he could debuff his enemies! Both bite and claw were melees, but only the bite had the venom effect. He could only guess that Venom Spit was a ranged attack. He would have to try it out later. Since they were marked with levels as well, he figured the higher the level, the better he was at it.
Now, last but not least, his titles. He figured he would gain more titles depending on what he did, but he already had two. Other-Worlder was obvious. He was a soul from another world shoved into this one. The title that confused him was Tirian's Angel. He knew Tirian was the Goddess of this world, and apparently Earth's as well, but what made him an angel of hers?
'Voice, what is Tirian's Angel?' He asked.
[ Cannot Answer ]
Well, that sucks… He could only sigh in response.
He supposed that was enough interrogation of the voice and began to waddle through the forest. He should probably find water and food. Time to start his new life... as a lizard.
Sigh...