He couldn't see it yet, but the fear clawed at his thoughts, urging him to believe it was something huge and monstrous.
'Goddamn it, I told you there would be animals!' he cursed inwardly, glaring at the little girl, though knowing full well that she had no idea what he was thinking, nor could she understand him.
She was just a child, barely old enough to comprehend the danger they were in, let alone make any decisions that might save them.
He cursed the situation, cursed his helpless state.
He imagined the worst—a gigantic bear using his bones as toothpicks, gnawing on his tiny, frail body like a snack.
The gruesome thought made his baby mind tremble in fear.
His hands instinctively covered his eyes, though he knew that wouldn't save him.
He couldn't even hide, couldn't crawl, couldn't run.
'I'm dead weight. I'm literally dead weight!'
'I can't even crawl behind a tree or something.'
'We're gonna die here,' he thought, the fear tightening its grip on him.
The image of him being swallowed whole by the bear or whatever it was haunted his mind, and he felt resigned to his fate.
'This is it. Death by bear. Great. Just great,' he mentally sighed, trying to prepare himself for the inevitable.
His breath quickened, panic rising, and in his mind, he almost blamed the girl.
But no—this wasn't her fault.
She was just four or five years old.
How could she know the danger they were in?
The fault was all his.
He was the one who'd been reborn as a helpless baby.
His heart pounded as he lay there, waiting for the end.
Then, just as he had resigned himself to becoming a meal, a strange sensation washed over him.
He wasn't being bitten, wasn't being eaten.
No.
He was...
floating?
He felt his body rising, almost weightless, the forest floor pulling away from him.
It wasn't a bear lifting him with its teeth.
It was something else.
Something gentle.
He opened his eyes cautiously, blinking against the sudden sensation of weightlessness, and found himself...
in mid-air?
'Wait... what the hell?' Adrian thought as he stared at the starry sky above.
The ground beneath him seemed so far away now, and the air around him was calm.
'So, I guess I'm dead? Huh... that was quicker than I thought. And no bear bites either!'
'Not bad.'
Without even realizing it, the instinctive response of his baby body took over, and a sound escaped his mouth—a soft giggle, high-pitched and innocent.
"Hehehe..."
Adrian cringed internally.
'Did I just...giggle? Great, now I'm a giggling spirit. A wandering, haunting giggling spirit.'
'I guess one sees two moons after death?'
But before he could dwell on his unreal situation, his body slowly turned.
He was no longer looking at the stars or unusual two moons.
Instead, his gaze dropped to the girl below him.
She stood there, completely calm, one arm stretched out toward him as if controlling his rise.
Adrian blinked.
'She can see me?'
He glanced down, now able to see that he wasn't floating up to the heavens.
No, she was lowering him, gently, guiding his descent as if he weighed nothing at all.
The realization made him feel stupid for jumping to the conclusion that he had died.
'Of course. I'm not dead...yet,' he thought, sighing in relief.
'Um....but why am I floating in the air?!'
He was so certain earlier that both of them would die here, but now, the image of a helpless little girl was starting to fade.
Replaced by a witch.
Naturally, he just had heard and read in history books where there were women who used to do black magic, and given this was a forest background and she was literally making him float in the air, the only thing he could think of was a witch.
However, why he wasn't that much surprised to yell and be shocked?
Simply because what could be more surprising than being reborn in a small baby's body inside a battlefield?
He sighed, shaking his tiny head.
'Great. A four-year-old knows how to make me fly; she can at least kill a bear, right?'
His body hovered over the ground for a moment before gently touching down behind the girl.
He landed softly, almost as if she had cradled him with invisible hands.
'!'
"Hhhhuhhh!" It was only then that Adrian realized there was no bear—or at least, no ordinary bear.
Standing in front of them, several meters away, was a creature unlike anything Adrian had ever seen.
'No, no, no, that's not a fucking bear, damn it!'
It was monstrous—easily twice the size of a normal bear, but far more grotesque.
Its body was covered in jagged, armored scales, glistening with a faint bluish hue that reflected the firelight in an eerie way.
Its face was elongated, more lizard than mammal, with glowing yellow eyes that locked onto them with unnerving intelligence.
Four sharp horns sprouted from its head, and from its mouth, dripping with saliva, were rows of teeth sharper than anything Adrian had seen before.
Its claws dug into the earth as it crouched, ready to strike, and its long, whip-like tail swished through the air with a menacing hiss.
The creature was part bear, part dragon, and all nightmare.
'What... the... hell is that!?' Adrian's mind raced as he took in the sight.
'This isn't some normal animal. That's... that's a damn monster!'
'Abort! Abort! Abort! Fly away, little girl!'
His heart pounded as he stared at the thing.
It was far worse than any bear he could've imagined.
But before he could spiral into panic again, the girl in front of him didn't even flinch.
Instead, she stepped forward, her tiny body standing in stark contrast to the massive beast in front of them.
Adrian, still in shock, couldn't understand.
'She's just... walking towards it? Is she insane?!'
'We're dead if she tries to fight that thing!'