Ripped from the World

Darkness. Black. Nothing. These were the last images which flashed through the mind of a young man crossing a street, only to find a speeding truck plow into his fleshy body. The man had just exited his apartment for a routinely morning jog, no different from usual. But such is the way of life throwing a curveball, or in this case, a truck; something else occurred, resulting in death.

The man had been as ordinary as they come; a loving family, recently out of university, had a massive student loan, barely making a living- you know, the usual.

The one thing that made him stand out from amongst the herd was his blatant apathetic personality. There was almost nothing which ever interested him. It was if he experienced everything life had to offer and possibly more than once. Nobody could determine the cause of such attitude, not even the man himself had a clue- well, he did, but it was sketchy, to say the least.

The clue? Dreams. He had dreamed every night. In those dreams, he was in different time periods, different locations, and as different people. They felt so real as if he had personally experienced these events in the past, which was absurd. The dreams were always in fragments so he didn't get much out of them and he only had vague recollections when he woke up.

It seemed ridiculous to him. Even if reincarnation was a real thing, he shouldn't have remembered anything according to the theories. No one else seemed to suffer this problem- if they did it certainly would have been all over the media. The closest thing to his 'condition' would be déjà vu and the science behind that is a false memory, which he doubted is what he experienced. How could his mind make every single one of those scenes, landscapes, time periods appear so real when he had never experienced them before.

No! It couldn't have been real! It's nothing more than false memory! That was not him killing people with swords, spears, bows, guns! That was not him leading armies of tens, hundreds, thousands! That was not him ruling over tribes, cities, kingdoms, empires, countries! That was not him inventing, painting, sculpting, writing, or working all manner of professions! That was not him with his wife, his mistress, his harem! None of it was him!

***

A soul, his soul, now aimlessly drifted above a battered body and dark red smear on the roadside. It looked confused not knowing what to do, where to go.

Space twisted not far away from the soul revealing pitch black nothingness which gave off a foreign feeling as if it was not supposed to be there. And it shouldn't.

Almost as fast as the breach opened, space in the surroundings came alive thrashing., desperate to forcefully close the breach, screaming rejection. The rift was getting smaller by the second, it would not win the struggle, but it didn't need to. No, it came with a purpose.

The previously confused soul now looked terrified as it started being unwillingly pulled toward the breach. The soul in all its simple-mindedness conveyed the impression that it knew the breach was not a good thing. It was foreign, wrong, not meant to be. It shouldn't go near. It wasn't allowed.

Sadly for the soul, it had no power to reject the pull as much as it struggled. It was futile. Within seconds it had been taken through the breach. As soon as it claimed its objective the beach closed in triumph while its opponent wailed in mourning.

What awaited the soul upon entering the gaping maw was twisting black chaos mixed with dark purple and dark blue swirls being strung along the edges of a straight and narrow corridor. The suctional pulling never once ceased upon the soul as it was dragged down the tunnel.

The soul continued its journey for what felt like hundreds of years. The tunnel slightly caving-in every so often, as if it were struggling to stay open. It was during one of these times when the corridor appeared to be losing its struggle, that the soul looked to have reached the end. Arrived at its destination; wherever that may be.

***

Light. White. Everything. These were the first images going through the mind of the newly birthed baby boy, who deep down was completely confused. Cries from the newly birthed baby masked those adult-like feelings.

The soul of an average human being hit by a truck; an abductee by a crazy sucky hole; a traveler of long, narrow, weird, and creepy corridors; now new resident in a baby boys body kicking out the previous tenant.

'What in the world just happened!?' These were the first thoughts that went through that babies mind. Trying to process what has and is now occurring.

'Have I… Have I been reincarnated!?' Delight filled the mind of the boy for but a split second before doubt and confusion appeared, questioning, 'But why can I remember everything? Not only my previous life but also what I assume my soul experienced? Also, does this mean every one of my dreams in my previous life were real? If so, why are they fragmented and purely seen while asleep?'

Myriads of thoughts that were racing through the boy's mind were interrupted by the jubilation of a man and the exhaustion of a woman. They were celebrating in a language which sounded Asian, the boy guessing Chinese, with his limited knowledge.

He was not happy about the language barrier but then remembered he was a man inside a babies body; what baby is born comprehending the language of its parents? Paranoia filled him as he realized he would have to endure in not knowing what was being said around him, more specifically, about him.

His, what he assumed were parents, continued their conversations with each other while passing him between one another. He took this opportunity to get a good look at the couple, as-well-as his surroundings. He was not impressed.

The woman, his mother, was pale as a ghost, thin as a twig, and her youth suggested that she was still in her teenage years. She was lying on top of a wooden bed layered with the fur of some animal, while she herself wore what appeared to be some woven hemp clothing which looked both shoddy and dirty.

The man, his father, was about 6-foot tall and built solidly, but he too looked a little thin for a grown man of his size. He was sitting on a wooden stool which appeared to barely support his weight next to the bed. He was clad in leather armor while underneath was the same ragged hemp clothing as the female. He too didn't appear as if he were out of his teenage years yet he looked hardened and gave off the air of a warrior who had both seen, and dealt death.

The boy noticed that they were not in a room but a tent. The tent appeared as if it would collapse in on itself, or get blown away at any moment. It appeared to be woven of the same hemp material as the couple's clothing, only slightly better made. It was cramped, and there wasn't a lot inside, a bed where the woman was lying, two stools; one of which the man was seated, the other next to a lit campfire which was the sole source of light-and-heat in the tent situated not far from the entrance.

There were two more things in the tent which had the boy pondering for a few seconds. First of which was a wooden post crossed at the upper-middle; similar to the character t. He had seen those types of things in movies before, a place to keep armor. The second was something that made his mind churn with turmoil; a spear, one with a sharpened stone tip.

'IS THIS THE DAMN STONE AGE!?' The boy screamed in his mind as such a grim reality flashed through toward the front of his thoughts. It would all make sense. His young and skinny parents, signifying things such as early death rates and not enough food; the shoddily woven hemp clothes and tent; the poor craftsmanship of the bed and stools; leather armor; the sole source of heat and light being a campfire.

'Eh? Why do I not seem to be that surprised at this scenario? Shouldn't I be hyperventilating? I'm someone who grew up in the 21st Century I won't have any comfort here, yet I feel familiarity with this environment. It must be those damn Dreams! Don't tell me I have ones set in the Stone Age?'

All the observing and speculating started getting to his baby body as it grew tired, struggling to keep his eyes open. 'Damn baby body can't even stay awake for long. Waiting to grow up will probably bore me to death. Might as well go with the flow, no sense fighting bodily functions.'

***

The following days, weeks, months and finally year went by as the child acclimated to his new environment trying to figure out exactly where he was. While also assimilating into the culture by learning the language, putting words to sight, as-well-as getting to know the inner workings of the tribe.

He was born the first son to a warrior-father and weaver-mother in a small tribe who were nomadic, moving camp every few months. They moved about on a grassland sticking to hilly and mountainous terrain whenever and wherever possible, keeping away from going too far into the plain as if it were a desert. 'Bàn Rénmǎ' was the reason. Avoid the 'Bàn Rénmǎ.' Whatever that meant, he still hadn't figured that one out and wouldn't until he sees whatever it is.

The tribe got most of its food from the forest in the form of meats, fruits, berries, herbs and other forest bounties. A second but small source was livestock; cows and horses mostly. The food gathering was done by both hunters and warriors, male and female, which was interesting as such gender discrimination didn't seem to exist. 'Women weren't allowed to fight until the modern times in my previous world.'

Over the year of his new life, the sense of familiarity he got from his surroundings only grew stronger. It was like he had lived in a tribal stone age scenario before. But thank god he had come to note a few differences from what one would expect from a 'normal' Earth.

One of the first he had sighted glaringly, were the animal carcasses being brought out the forest. While most of them were animals you could find on Earth; they were big, like on-steroids big. Other stuff coming out of the forest looked as if it grew straight out of the pages in a fantasy novel; purple, lumpy, triangular fruits; grey fungus which looked like a brain; bright orange, fluorescent berries; heaps of weird combinations. And these people were eating all that strange stuff! 'Can't believe I'm saying this but thank god for me only needing breast milk.'

Another obvious thing that didn't exist on Earth were the glowing crystalline rocks which were passed around amongst both warriors and the shamans of the tribe, who knows what they are for; he can't exactly ask or do his own research as a baby.

The shamans were also a point worthy of note for they used what could be called magic, or at least a very primitive version. Ritualistic in nature, needing intricate webs of symbols drawn on surfaces or the ground, singing, dancing, chanting, sacrificing, and for what? Digging a hole, filling the hole with water, making flimsy dirt walls. They seemed to only be capable of shaping the nature around them; there was no fireball flinging for them. He didn't know if there were any real mages somewhere in the world or if this hilarity was universal.

***

'Those shamans would make such easy targets during a fight, only useful for defense and even then they would do little. Yet all they need to do is simply sit around the camp, act useful and they get treated like royalty? Laughable.' He thought as he stared at a few lazy old men while sitting amongst short grass surrounded by a few other kids as their own parents, including his mother, weaved close by.

'Just what are those glowing stones for? Given to both warriors and the shaman, they must have something to do with magic. But why do warriors get them the-' such thoughts were cut off by screaming. "ENEMY!!" "RUN IT'S AN ATTACK!" "THE BAN RENMA ARE COMING!" 'RUNNNN!"

'Bàn Rénmǎ? ...Run?' He sat there dazed. 'Shit! I'm just a baby. I can't walk on my own yet let alone run!'

"Darling child, come!" His mother had thrown down her weaving and dashed over to him picking him up and running in the same direction as everyone else; toward the hills.

That had quickly proved useless as they had been surrounded by the so-called Ban Renma which the boy had now gotten a good look at.

'Aren't they centaurs!? What the hell!?' He was too dumbfounded at the sight to realize that they had started charging toward the running, defenseless tribe members.

He came out of his stupor when he finally noticed them rapidly approaching and then immediately despaired. "This is bullshit! There isn't even a tiny bit of hope to get away as a baby! So much for a second life."

His mother who was still holding him tightly was too caught up in her own terror to realize that her one-year-old child had not only spoken but was using a foreign language.

Just like that, the centaurs collided full charge into the mass of fleeing people sending both men and women flying through the air in a bloody rain. Screams and cries echoed across the hilly plain as people were cut down, skewered, trampled over and more. It was during this horrifying massacre that an unassuming child lost its second life.

A soul in its place fluttering above the carnage, for but a moment looking confused about where to go next. It quickly gained a look of determination and rapidly flew south-east toward new pastures.

***

Light. White. Everything. These were the first images going through the mind of the newly birthed baby boy, who deep down was completely confused - no completely baffled. 'Again?'

"It is a boy. Good for the sacrifice." said a man dressed in a hemp weaved robe with designs marking him as a shaman from his life previous.

'Sacrifice? ...WHAT!? I'M GOING TO DIE AGAIN!? I HAD BETTER GET A THIRD CHANCE!'

***

| 2000 A.C. | Star Archon's Office, Stellar Palace | Shangri-la | China |

"Wait, you had not one but TWO previous deaths in this world before you met me? Why did I not know?" Umbra leaned over her master's shoulder re-reading what he had just recorded.

"Well, ahem, its kind of embarrassing… You know dying twice without even being able to do anything. Especially the second time." Star had a tinge of red in his cheeks looking away, wishing he could crawl into a hole.

"Yeah, whats with that one? Sacrificing a newborn? What were they even trying to accomplish? I doubt Necromantic magics existed in that part of the world in the time period."

"Hmm, I never bothered trying to figure it out but the last thing I remember was being left on a stone altar all alone. I believe the cause of death was hypothermia, however, I distinctly remember seeing a gigantic tiger breathing down on me." He shrugged.

"Oh, my scales! Hahahaha, you could have been eaten! Hahahaha! That's so hilarious!" Umbra wiped away the tears of laughter before trying to continue seriously, "Anyway. Let's hurry onward to your third life, pfft, I want to enter this story as soon as possible!"

Star sighed at his companion's behavior, "Fine let us carry on. But no more interrupting, and certainly no more laughing fits." He glared.