This group were meant to be safe so high up in the mountains and away from the human villages. Besides the dwarves that lived inside the mountains and nearby kingdoms, nobody dared venture across these lands.
Flashing lights of gunfire and gunshots erupted outside the windows, brightening the darkened forest outside and indicating the arrival of humans. Hunters specifically, or possibly a mob. Apparently, they were wrong.
Grunts and screeches filled the air as Zephyrion covered his head, black straggly hair falling over his face. This was no time to hover on the ground like a coward! Those demons were a formidable force, but this was the perfect time to flee.
"Should we check inside or just burn it down?" A man questioned outside the front door.
Zephyrion's breathing halted. Wait, was he the last one alive? No, that cannot be… Alkazar had been a beast…. His almost-healed ribs told him so.
"Check it. Big fuckers like that normally have some weakling Slinktails to do their dirty work. We could sell them on."
Slinktail…
Shit! That was him?! Right?! He was a level four Slinktail demon!
A puzzle piece finally clicked into place, but now was not the time to stay on the ground in disbelief over new yet not-so-new information! If he stayed where he was, he was a goner!
Zephyrion hopped to his feet, clasping his head where he swayed momentarily, his tail swishing behind him for balance. His rate of survival was dwindling by the second. Not only was he a Slinktail, but he was also a pretty pathetic one without any strength at that.
Spinning around, Zephyrion dashed towards the basement. There was an escape route from there, one where a tunnel led to another spot in the mountainside. He was sure of it. The more his foggy mind began to disperse, the more he remembered about this world and who he apparently was.
As long as he locked the door to the basement and made it there in time, then he was safe. On the way, Zephyrion's swift hands grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and headed to the wooden door in the ground hidden beneath the rug in the living room. The door burst open in the kitchen, bringing in a chilly breeze and the smell of burning flesh. His tormentors and protectors were either already dead or dying.
Firelight shone brightly behind the human figures pouring into the cottage, casting elongating shadows reaching towards him. Zephyrion ignored their laughter and shouting and focused on his escape.
Ripping away the rug from the ground, Zephyrion tugged on the iron pull as the footsteps and their shouts grew closer until he was yanked back.
"Got one!"
Zephyrion attempted to fight back in his weakened state, his messy black hair flailing as he struggled against the man dragging him, but a swift blow to the back of his head sent him crashing to the ground. As black spots clouded his vision, an unexpected clarity washed over his mind. In an instant, vivid images flashed through his consciousness—scenes from a different time, a different face, and a different life.
Seth.
What in the seven hells is this?
Zephyrion didn't notice the punches to his gut or the shouts that sounded far too distant to his mind; all he saw was an unfortunate shitty life of a nineteen-year-old kid.
Born to abusive crackhead parents, Seth, his name in this other life, didn't get very far before he was bullied in college and then was dealt with shitty jobs at his part times. Part-time jobs, he mostly worked to pay the bills and get enough food to survive; that's if his parents didn't steal his money for their next fix.
When he finally had enough and ran away from his parents, Seth believed he'd found something truly special, an angel calling to him in the dark- his girlfriend, Sonia. This was all in some urban world, a world that seemed more realistic than his current reality where lights flashed, buildings grew taller than trees, and cars zoomed down streets, but the neighbourhood he moved to looked like nothing of this blissful 'city life'. His was grotty in comparison, except for his Sonia. She was there to speak sweet words in his ears, comfort him and listen to the sorrows of his teenage years.
Sonia had been his haven, and Seth helped provide for her and her siblings. He'd rather go hungry than her, especially when she announced her pregnancy. That was when more problems arose, and the child in Sonia's stomach turned out not to be his.
How did he know? Her lover, the one she really loved, who was also living off his wages, told him to fuck off. They'd used and abused him.
Dumped by his girlfriend's lover, in debt after buying her gifts, and then losing both part-time jobs and the loss of a child that was never his were Seth's last unfortunate memories before he was standing atop the edge of a bridge, the wind ripping across his shirt and baggy jeans three times too big for him. He stared into the dark depths of the abyss, the only light granted to him by the moon, as an alluring call resonated, drawing him towards the shadowy waters.
A car honk stopped him from taking that final step, though, snapping him out of his decision. Shit, he was about to jump? He was only nineteen! There had to be more to his pitiful existence than this?
Anger about his shitty life and those that had walked over him changed his mind. Unfortunately, luck did not favour Seth that night.
A car lost control in the torrential rain, its brakes screeched for grip, headlights drawing close to the teenage boy. The vehicle crashed into Seth, sending him spiralling into the waters that consumed him, constricting his lungs and burning out his oxygen.
This can't be it?!
Please, I do not want to die… I refuse to die!
Zephyrion jolted awake with a loud gasp, his sight clearing before he was smothered by memories that weren't his own. While he dealt with his skull trying to crack open, he remembered he'd been captured to sell on as a slave. This future was going to be just as bleak as his first life.
The sounds of creaking wheels, people conversing around him, and the vibrations of the ground roused Zephyrion from a dreamless sleep. His golden eyes, ones that were too sunken into his face, opened, his mind spinning slightly to the hammer pounding in the back of his head. His shiny, pale features reflected back the sun, his scaly skin shimmering under the rags for clothes, his scraggly black hair covering some of his features and pointed ears. He was almost identical to the others who sat near him.
Wait, who the fuck are all these demons?