AUTHOR'S REINCARNATION IN A FANTASY SETTING

I opened my eyes, and for the first time in my life, it had been so hard to just lift my eyelids. They felt heavy as stones.

But when I'd finally opened them and my vision got a bit clear, I was surprised to find myself alive. On top of that, I was no longer hanging from the tail of the klauth, I was lying on solid ground.

Above I could see the dark, but it was not the sky. Most probably rock…was I in a cave? I tried to reach the ceiling above with my hand and stretched it out, although when I saw my hand I was quite startled.

Even though the fact that I was alive was pretty bizarre in itself, I still wasn't able to get over the sight in which I had all my fingers intact. If I remember right, which I do, then I'd lost a handful of them while trying to grab the scales on the klauth.

As that thought lingered in my mind, I was reminded of another thing, the klauth. I was on the klauth when I blacked out, however here that didn't seem to be the case. I was lying on a solid surface, most probably ground, and there was a stone ceiling above me.

I was in a cave, or you can say that was what I was betting on. I tried to get up and was surprised when I was able to do it without feeling any kind of pain or cramp. Not a single sting in my body indicated I'd broken a bone or fallen off from a dragon in the clouds.

I looked at both of my hands, and they were both perfectly fine as if there never had been an injury, in the first place. Then when my attention shifted to my surroundings, I turned my head to take a look around.

Turns out I was right, the place did seem like a cave; and a big one on top of that.

The main structure was cut in a circular shape, which explained why the ceilings were curved inward and the walls were round-edged; it was like the insides of a big pipe, albeit that it was a cave.

Many spiky rocks were coming out of the ceiling and the walls, some were even on the ground, but the surrounding area seemed clean. From what I could tell in the little light I had around myself, I was in a compartment that resembled the main hall since there were four more openings, and each branched into a cave of its own.

The light that was illuminating the area was coming from one of the four openings—or tunnels, so I guessed it wouldn't be strange if that was the way out.

There was also this constant sound of dripping water, which I wasn't able to see where it was coming from, due to the dark. But there was a water body nearby.

Then I turned my eyes to my body and the area closer to me. My clothes had changed. I no longer wore the torn piece of fabric I'd wrapped around myself when I was in a hurry.

Instead, there was a dust-colored shirt and ash-shaded pants on my body. And while their condition wasn't the best, the shirt was rugged and there were cuts and stitches on the pants, but be that as it may, having these on was still better than being naked. f𝙧𝙚e𝘄𝐞𝚋ｎ૦ѵel.c𝘰𝙢

Especially considering the cold weather around here. I was not sure of my location, but the air here was colder than what it was in the village. I got up to my feet, slowly and carefully, then took a few steps around to explore the place.

Although I made sure not to wander too far, as there was no changing the fact that I was in an unknown environment. I glanced back at the place where I was lying before waking up.

There was a piece of cloth spread over the ground, and I'd woken up on top of it. One thing I didn't notice back then but now was clear, it was the remains of a bonfire at a distance of a few steps beside the piece of cloth.

The fire had been extinguished since the wood was used up, but it was alive not long ago, the smoldering red pieces of wood were proof of that.

This, and all the other things I'd seen, confirmed a doubt I had right after I saw the place I was in: that wherever I was, I was not alone. Even if this were a fairy tale, my clothes couldn't have been changed on their own—plus they would have been brand-new clothes with magic infused in them if that were the case—and fire wouldn't have been here without someone placing it.

Someone was here, but I didn't know who. Call it luck or whatever suits you, but I did not have to wait much longer to find out who this person was.

A few moments later, while I was wandering around the place and searching for a clue to find out my location, I heard a voice that resounded in the whole cave, reflecting from wall to wall.

"You shouldn't go on that side, depending on the circumstances it can be dangerous," the voice said. It was a man, that much I was able to deduce.

I turned and followed the direction it came from, and within the span of a few seconds I was standing at the place I'd woken up. If I was not wrong, the voice had come from one of the four tunnels that were there.

My strongest guess was the tunnel from which the light was shedding in.

I didn't respond to the voice and simply stood there, waiting for the person to arrive. They did arrive in only about a minute or so, and my guess was right, too.

The man came out from the leftmost tunnel, the one where the light was entering the entire compartment. At first, it was hard to notice his figure clearly, and it was because of his clothing and the lack of light.

He was covered in a robe in a color of deep gray I think, and its hood was covering his dead, hiding most of his hair. Although it did not hide all of it, a part of it was because it had relatively long hair.

Coming down from his shoulders, his hair rested on the upper part of his chest on both sides. In the dark, I still wasn't able to figure out the color of his hair.

He came close, and then looked at me. His brows probably furrowed a bit when he saw the area behind me, then his eyes shifted back to me.

_{𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢}

"The fire died, didn't it?" he said, I was not able to judge whether he was talking to me or himself. "Well, that was bound to happen. I've aged up quite a bit."

With that, he snapped the fingers of his right left hand, and then I realized he wasn't talking about the dead bonfire behind me. Right after he snapped his fingers, the cave was full of the bright, golden light of the fire.

Dozens of big torches hung on the walls lit up one by one along with the bonfire behind me. Now that there was no problem with the lighting, I found that the cave I was in was much bigger than I'd thought.

The man was now clearly visible too. He was wearing a dark-brown robe with a hood and holding a couple of mushrooms in his right hand. He had true-red hair, red as flame. And as the light from the burning torches fell on it, it shone quite beautifully.

He had a beard too, covering half of his face. When he put the mushrooms down and removed the hood from his head, I caught a glimpse of his clear green eyes. They were like gems, like a pair of emeralds.

From his looks, I could guess his age was somewhere around the forties to fifties, despite that he had quite a fairly built body.

"Who are you?" I asked while keeping my distance as a practice of caution.

The man looked over at me, "Me?" he repeated. "I am just an old man living inside a cave. Rather than me, we should focus on who you are. A warrior, I wonder? A magician? An adventurer? Or a fool? Whatever you are, you can't just be a kid. As kids don't fly on dragons."

His words left me thoughtful for a while. Who was I? … No one, I had no identity.