The aftermath of the shooting was a blur. I had no idea what had become of me, or if anyone else had survived. I only knew that I was gone.
The blackness that consumed me after my death lingered. Was I alive or dead? I couldn't tell.
I could hear the drip of water, the wind whistling through cracks in the rock, but that was all. My eyes, if I even had eyes anymore, couldn't see.
Time became a distorted, unfamiliar thing. Days, years, centuries might have passed. I felt myself teetering on the brink of madness.
Then, one day, I heard voices. I recognized the sound; I wasn't stupid. I had once been an aspiring doctor, after all.
The voices spoke in an unknown tongue, but I knew they were discussing me. A hand reached down and grabbed me.
"We came all the way here to look for dragons, and all we find is a bone?" a young man with blond hair complained.
"It's not like we could actually tame a dragon," a woman replied. "Maybe your father could, but we can't."
"Ugh, I know. I just wanted to see one. Besides, who knows if this is even a real dragon bone? It could be anything."
"Yeah, you're right. Probably just a random bone."
The blond man carelessly tossed me out of the cave, sending me tumbling down the mountainside and into the forest below.
— — —
It didn't hurt. But I knew something had happened. The voices were gone, replaced by the rush of wind.
Had they thrown me away? Was I a stone? The thought of being reincarnated as a stone sent a shiver down my—wait. I didn't have a spine anymore. What was I?
The only upside was that I had landed in a softer place, like a bed.
Of course, it wasn't a bed. Grass, maybe? Yes, grass had that kind of softness. It was a comfortable resting spot.
Once again, everything was shrouded in darkness, but the silence was gone. I could hear the sounds of animals, the chirping of birds.
A forest, I concluded. But what forest? What world? Was I even on Earth anymore? What the hell was happening?
My mind was a whirlwind of confusion and frustration. It was torture to possess consciousness but be completely immobile. No one could possibly understand that kind of torment.
Perhaps it had only been a few months since my death, but it felt like an eternity.
More days passed, and then, a breakthrough. I sensed a different energy around me, something new, something I had never encountered on Earth.
It flowed into my—well, whatever I was. More than anything, I yearned to see again. I gathered that energy and focused it on creating eyes.
It sounds absurd, insane, impossible. But it worked. After days of concentrating and gathering energy, I could see!
My vision cleared, revealing a world of lush green vegetation. There were no signs of civilization, only untamed wilderness. I was stranded in the middle of the wild.
It was a start. I could see! Now, I needed to find a way to move.
I tried the same tactic, absorbing the surrounding energy to create legs or something similar, but it didn't work that way. No matter how hard I focused, nothing happened.
Still, things were looking up. At least I could see; it made my situation much more bearable.
One day, a man approached. He appeared to be in his thirties, with long black hair and a thick beard. His leather clothing suggested a world more primitive than Earth.
He carried a wooden bow on his back and a sword at his waist, giving the impression of a hunter or adventurer. But he wasn't alone. A feline creature, resembling a black panther, walked beside him. I could sense energy emanating from the panther.
'It's the same energy I've been absorbing...'
Things were starting to make sense. A unique energy source, a man with a panther companion—it felt like something straight out of the fantasy novels I used to read.
But if that were the case, my situation was even more miserable. Out of all the possibilities, I had been reincarnated as something completely immobile. It was utter bullshit.
The black panther approached and, to my surprise, bit down on me. I didn't feel any pain, but the sensation of being inside its mouth was certainly strange.
— — —
"Samantha, what did you find?" the man asked, kneeling beside the panther. He reached into its mouth and retrieved me.
"This bone is strange. It has mana on it. Let's take it back to the village. Even if it's nothing special, we can just toss it aside."
— — —
I still couldn't understand their words. How was I even hearing them without ears? It was baffling. I had to create eyes to see, yet I could hear perfectly well without any ears at all.
My surroundings went dark as the man picked me up and tucked me into his pocket. We were on the move. I just hoped nothing bad would happen to me.
After about thirty minutes, he pulled me out. I saw a little girl and a small wooden house. There were other houses nearby as well. It was a village. The man had brought me to his home.
"What did you bring, Father?" the little girl asked.
"Just a random magical bone we found. We'll store it in the shed," the man replied.
He walked toward a small cabin filled with tools and tossed me inside. Once again, I was trapped.
I had to find a way to move. I poured all my focus into the problem.
Two weeks passed – at least, I think it was two weeks. Then, something unexpected happened.
The hunter tossed some bones into the shed. They appeared to be from an animal he had hunted. I instantly felt a connection to them.
Using the energy around me, I willed two of the bones to move. It was as if my energy was levitating them! The two leg bones—they looked like chicken legs—attached themselves to my body!
I could walk!