Chapter 6

Bored.

I was very, very bored.

After flying to the little beacon of smoke, I had found myself a dead campfire, probably less than a day old, as parts of it was still burning. I threw a stick into the head of an innocent wild boar out of frustration and, unsurprisingly, it died instantly. Poor thing was in the wrong place at the wrong time, though absorbing whatever that floating light was that came out of it added more details to my wings, which were just simple quadrilaterals up until then. They took on a more 3d shape, and what seemed like another pair of miniature ones appeared under them. Now they looked more like wings, less like thin, long, kite-shaped, glowing bits of living bad photo editing. My body also felt a bit lighter as a result. I made a note to be more careful and avoid getting in the habit of killing things just for that purpose.

If the campfire was still burning, though, surely the people who had made it were still around somewhere. With luck, I could probably get instructions to the nearest town.

Of course, I should have known better. My luck had been trash from the moment I was born, and it sure as hell was not going to change for the better after just one death. I flew in circles for around an hour before giving up on finding these people and taking a seat on the tallest tree I could find, one of the few that poked out above the endless sea of leaves. I made a mental checklist of things to get done, starting with finding intelligent life, if any existed.

The clothes I had on were scratchy and rough, along with being torn in many places, and it just wasn't very pleasant to have on. Though something about taking it all off just clashed with my common sense, and I chose to cope with it until I could get my hands on something better.

Only one of the suns were visible as I looked towards the horizon, and it was already dipping into the side of a mountain far, far away. Well, at least it was something other than a tree. I squinted to try and see if there was anything near the mountain that could lead me anywhere, but came up empty, naturally.

"What a great fucking start." I sighed into the blue sky, now turning a vibrant orange. "I'm put into some girl's body without knowing where I am, or even why. And I'm stuck flying around a damn forest that has no end. If this is Hell, then I want to switch plans to eternally burning, please."

Great, now I was ranting to myself. Any longer in all this confusion and I'd actually go insane.

"Now, now. Is it really that bad?" A comforting but hollow sounding female voice seemingly came from directly next to my right ear. She spoke in a strange language, but somehow, I understood it.

"And I'm either hearing a spirit or going insane now." I didn't even bother turning my head. "Confirm one or the other, I beg of you."

"The first one isn't that far off." Despite the language barrier, it almost felt like the voice could understand English, too. I pondered this for a quick moment and then realized that I was, in fact, subconsciously speaking in the same language as her.

"One more bit of damage to my already-confused brain." I mumbled.

"Would you like some help?"

"Is there a catch?" Out of habit, I took on my father's businessman attitude. Striking a deal before agreeing to anything came naturally to me, even though it was a skill I fruitlessly tried to kill over the course of the past few years.

"A catch? No." Somehow, I could see the voice's source shaking her head, as if she was right in front of my eyes. "I haven't seen an Reus in so long that you're practically doing me a favor just by talking with me."

"An Reus?" I felt a slight rush of excitement. The word sounded like "Deus," which is Latin for god. "Is that what I am?"

"The last of your kind, and you didn't even know what you were?"

"The last of my-" I stopped for a second, "Wait, no, no no no. This is setting me up for a role that I really don't want. I'm not gonna get some of that 'Chosen One' crap, am I?"

"Rest assured, I'm sure you're not being chosen to do anything."

I let out a sigh of relief.

"We're getting off track here." I said. "You said you'd help me, but in what way?"

"You want a better understanding of yourself, right?"

"And a map to the nearest city, if possible." I added.

"I can't do that much, but I'll point you in the direction of the nearest town. I'll have to warn you, it's a town of elves, not humans."

"Well, at least now I know that humans exist in this world." I said. "But the other thing, how're you gonna do that?"

"Sadly, I can't." I heard an apologetic undertone to her voice. "That's something you'll have to explore on your own."

"That's to be expected, I guess." I nodded. "You'll be helping me out plenty just by pointing me in the direction of a town."

Without another word, a weird wind gently turned my head left a bit, and a few leaves flew in that direction. I assumed that was the way I wanted to go.

"Thanks, then." I hopped off the tree branch, my wings materializing right before hitting the trees below and making sure to fly in the direction I was looking in. I could make my wings disappear and reappear, but it felt weird since my wings also transmitted the same signals for "feeling" as my other limbs. That's another unexplained thing that I had no clue on how it worked besides "it's magic."

Sure enough, after a minute of flying, I spotted a small town with simple buildings and paved roads down below. After descending until I was only a few feet away from touching a large tree that stood smack-dab in the middle of it all, I could see that the residents of the town had long, pointy ears and royal blue eyes that would put most cosmetic contact lens manufacturers out of business. I was so busy staring at the place in awe that it took a literal arrow flying past my ear to snap me out of it.

I moved out of the way of the projectile, and met the eyes of the archer standing in a watchtower outside the town's wooden fences. I put my hands up and slowly descended, hoping that he didn't fire another shot.

"I come in peace." I called as I touched the ground, keeping my wings out in case more arrows came my way.

The Elves standing at the entrance to the town glanced at each other in confusion, said something in a strange language, and one of them ran off. I stopped dead in my tracks, overcome with the urge to scream, cry, give up, maybe a bit of all three.

An actual language barrier this time. What a great way to start off my journey into another world.