A snow field was the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes to my new life. How did I get here? Well, it's a long story involving beings beyond recognition and me slowly going insane in a white void while waiting for my turn. I think it was more than a hundred years in silence? Maybe more?
I don't really care anymore about that type of thing. All I cared about was the deal I made with that being. It was a simple deal. Because I died in a worldwide phenomenon that wiped out the majority of humanity, we were all given a choice. A choice to be reborn in a new world or to be put in eternal rest, which is basically us going to a world to relax in for the rest of time. I was interested in the first choice, since I feel like I would go insane if I chose the second option.
But you know about the white room and the whole insane thing going on. So when my turn finally came, I pleaded with the beings to send me back to earth. To send me back to a world where I understood things how it worked. The time or place, I did not care. All I wanted was to return to earth.
The beings were reluctant to accept my request, since it didn't seem right to them to send me to a world I lived in. Or at least that is what they told me. But I really did not care and persisted in sending me back to earth. After what I think was several years, they finally cracked and accepted my request. But it had a catch. They could not be reborn as a human because of something involving my soul and presence. But what they could do is reborn me in a body that has a close connection to humanity.
I thought I might be reborn as a dog or a cat, heck, maybe a bird or something. So it didn't seem all that bad, so I accepted the deal and we shook on it.
Now hopefully you can understand my shock when I discover I am reborn in not any known animal body that could easily pop into my head. But inside the body of a creature that was so alien.
***
"Ugh," I groaned as I slowly stood up, my head throbbing and my mind racing. I currently feel like I just drank maybe ten shots, maybe more, of some vodka and just ate very greasy food afterwards. I placed my right hand on my face and felt something strange. The first thing I felt was the cold air around me. The second thing I felt was something soft, yet rough, being touched by my fingers. The last thing was something sharp touching the skin on my face.
When I finally opened my eyes, an onslaught of light crashed into my eyes and blinded me. I cursed as I quickly shut my eyes and put my hand to cover my eyes. Now that is a normal reaction to when you are flash banged out of nowhere and nothing weird should happen. Well, consider my shock when I realized I could still see the outside world even though my eyes were closed shut and my fingers were covering it. Hell, I could even see my fingers covering my eyes above.
...
My eyes above?
I was confused since I could see my fingers above my eyes even though I could distinctly tell my fingers were covering my eyes not only by touch but also by a sense of place. I quickly moved my hands from my face and opened my eyes. My eyes were flash banged again, but I kept them open. The light slowly settled down as I could slowly tell what my surroundings were. I could see a snow covered ground, I could see trees having their leaves covered in snow, I could see a small stream slowly flowing across the ground not that far from me. I blinked and my eyes did blink, but it was followed by another blink.
"???"
This confused me. I blinked once; I know I did. So why did my eyes show me that I blinked twice? I placed my hand on my chin. When I moved my hand to my chin, I noticed instead of my ordinary skin color that I had before, this one was way too different. And I don't mean in a sense that my race changed or anything like that. But in a sense that my skin was pure white, so white that it matched the snow.
I looked at my hand and saw that not only was my skin different, but also my hand was different. My finger, for instance, did not have the usual get up like they used to like the nails or the fingerprints. No, that part was instead replaced with a very white talon, as if my finger tip was cut cleanly off and replaced with a talon, or claw, of an animal. I also noticed my snow white skin looked sort of human, but when I put pressure from my fingers on it. It was as if I was not touching human skin, but a brick wall. It was not soft to touch, but so hard no matter how hard I pushed on it.
I stood up. I got up by placing my hand on one knee and raising the rest of my body with the aided force. But by doing this, I noticed my feet were also different. They were like humans, but just like my fingers, their tips were also replaced with these white talons. It also seemed like the rest of my senses were coming back to me as I slowly heard the nearby sound of running water. I looked at the source and saw the small stream of water not that far ahead of me.
I grew curious and walked to the stream. Each step I took was so weird. For one, I didn't feel the cold touch of the snow below my naked feet, but I could feel the cold air along my body. I felt, in a sense, powerful. I didn't know why, but each time I walked, it felt like I was in charge and the world was obeying my will. As if at any moment I could easily destroy this land.
When I reached the stream, I kneeled forward and stared at my reflection. For one, I definitely wasn't human. My face was as white as the snow like the rest of my skin, which I could understand. I had a mouth, but unlike my old one, this one had sharp carnivorous teeth unlike my old human teeth. It looked like I could just tear a large piece of steak in half with just a single bite. I didn't have a nose, which I found very weird since I could smell the nearby smells. I could smell the smell of wet sand inside the stream and I could smell the smell of something rotting in the distance. But it was a small smell, not strong or impactful, like the ones I could smell in my old life.
Then my eyes. When I saw my eyes, the answers why my eyes blinked twice and why it was so damn bright got answered in that moment. To start, I had four eyes instead of two. Two of them are where they are, while the other two were small and were where my cheekbones are at, although they were both diagonal, both going to the center of my face. Then there were my eyes. Both were black, not pitch black, but black enough to look like it was pitch back. My irises weren't any different since they were both shaped as red colored, plus signs that reach all the way to their respective sides. In the center of each of them was a small golden ball, which I can only say was probably my real irises.
Also another thing to point out was that I did have hair, but it was like a whitish animal hair that had a slicked back kind of look to it. But I'm not focusing on my hair too much and just looking at my eyes. I blinked and looked at the water surface, as my upper eye blinked first, followed by the lower eye a second or two later.
"Well, ain't that something? " I said as I grinned. Although this joyful grin of mine, which would have looked normal on a human face, seemed somewhat scary on this new face. I inspected the rest of my body and I got to say, whatever this thing I was reborn as is really ripped. Though it had a small stature and I personally wouldn't say was big, maybe a bit on the soft muscular side. But this body of mine had muscles on it. It had abs, it had muscles on its arms, shoulders, chest, and the rest of its body.
If I'm to be honest, I'm sort of confused how this creature has a close relationship with humanity? Were they perhaps a species with the same intelligence as humans and come out now? Or perhaps a distant relative of humans who evolved differently and have finally come out once the disaster was over?
As I think of these things, I noticed the smell of the rotting flesh moving. Although I couldn't tell exactly where it was, I knew the general direction. In my old life I wouldn't pay attention to this kind of stuff, but now in this new one it felt like I had to follow this smell. Like a switch was flipped in my and an old recorder was now playing. Telling me to follow the smell and locate it.
I have nothing to do, nor do I have any sense of where to go. So I listen to the words? Senses? Instinct? Yeah, I would say instinct. I listen to my instinct and follow the smell of rotting flesh. As I walked towards the smell, the stench grew stronger by the second. I only stopped once I had reached where it was.