Chapter 1 - Reborn

Tara found herself in complete and utter darkness.

Trying to yell, she found she couldn't even manage to groan. 

'Is my body that messed up?' She thought, recalling the last thing she remembered was the incoming truck slamming into her body, with her then blacking out before she heard a strange mechanical voice. 

'Wait, voice?' She thought, discovering her memories jumbled, unable to recall the words.

Trying to calm down, she reasoned she blacked out and went into a coma from the collision. 

She was likely severely injured, though she had no idea why everything was pitch-black. 

The strange thing was she still had control over her limbs, though she could barely move.

It felt as if something was wrapped around her body, as if she was bound. 

She knew this was not hypothetical either. Tara could tell that she was restrained by something, by a material that's hard but has a little give to it. 

Hearing a rustle outside made her feel even more paranoid. 

'What gives? This isn't some absurd prank pulled by her devilish little sister, is it?' She thought. 

Instinctively, she needed to yell out her name, but Tara failed again.

Once again, the strange muffled noise reminded her of her inability to speak. 

Tara was left to ponder again as an absurd realisation came to her. 

'Have I been kidnapped?' She thought. 

Though she had no idea of why her family was poor, she would not pretend she understood criminals. 

Well, regardless of the situation, she only needed to escape. 

After all, she felt no pain and could move her body. 

Ignoring the strangeness that she could move fine after such a horrific accident, she found the restraints were flimsy at best. 

Pushing hard, she heard a loud CRACK.

Encouraged by the thing breaking, she pushed even harder against the thing covering her. 

Further pushing, she knew it was on the verge of breaking.

She just needed to put a bit more oomph into it. 

Putting more power into it, she soon burst right through, scrambling out headfirst. 

'Ahhh! The warm sunlight and fresh air. It looked like summer hadn't left after all.'

Tara thought, being so lost in her reverie that when she finally opened her eyes, she immediately saw a horde of scampering critters, making her let out a screech.

However, instead of the usual high-pitched scream she was familiar with, her mouth let out a deep hissing sound. 

Letting out such an un-ladylike sound would usually make her feel embarrassed, yet now she had seemed to attract the attention of the bugs.

She did not notice it before, but these bugs were ridiculously huge. 

The bugs busily chomped on these large, round balls encased in a thick-jelly like substance. 

If Tara were to describe them, she would say they looked like super-sized dragonflies. 

Gaining their attention did not seem reasonable either. As the things turned their gazes on Tara, the hunger in their insectoid eyes was evident. 

At that moment, the jelly-like balls moved. Strange creatures began to force their way out as the buzzing of the insects increased.

Despite these creatures being smaller than the bugs, it was not by much. 

Appearance-wise, they resembled an odd cross between a lizard and a tad-pole, though they did not appear like vulnerable newborns as she saw sharp claws and teeth. 

Inspecting the creature's features further, she saw they had a weird blend of traits belonging to amphibians and lizards. 

Instead of running away like she thought the newborns would, these lizard-like creatures began charging at the dragonflies maniacally. 

And despite the insectoids' menacing appearance, they were not unbeatable. 

Then, she noticed that, compared to the insectoids, who struggled to eat through the thick jelly material, the lizard-like creatures had no such problem. 

The thick, jelly-like material gleamed like metal. Despite appearing like a sack of fluid, it was solid and hard. 

With the chaos of the bugs and lizard-like creatures suddenly fighting, she steadily tried to escape these monstrosities. 

'Has someone kidnapped me and thrown me in the middle of Australia?' She thought before deciding it was improbable since even Australia doesn't have such large bugs. 

Deciding to conclude she must be hallucinating, she was convinced this must all be some elaborate dream. 

However, upon moving her front limb forward, Tara found an unmistakable, webbed-like foot with sharp lizard-like claws.

'Wait... Is that a lizard leg?' She thought, yet rationalised that surely this can't possibly be hers. 

'Alright, Tara, no panicking. There must surely be a rational explanation for this.' She thought before repeating a mantra in her mind.

'This can't seriously be happening.' She thought, though despite repeating these words, she could ideally move the strange lizard-like appendages. 

After a moment of internalisation, she decided it was time to come back to reality.

She has been reborn as a lizard or has the most lucid dream. 

However, despite almost breaking down, the disturbing crunching sounds took her out of her stupor. 

Remembering the insects and other lizards, she realised that ignoring reality would do her no good. 

Turning around, she saw a group of bugs tearing apart one of the lizards. 

'Now that's disgusting.' She thought, however, when she saw its beady eyes searching for a new target, she suddenly realised.

'Wait, don't those lizards resemble me?' She thought. 

At that moment, one of the bugs had already noticed her, flying towards her rapidly, its jaws moving threateningly as its legs twitched. 

She had only mere moments to think before its jaws were attempting to clamp around her, using its legs to immobilise her.

Noticing the threatening gleam of her claws, she did what any human instinctively does when something threatens their life: she frantically fought back using every means at her disposal. 

Tara was never a fighter; the insect, on the other hand, was an experienced hunter. Yet her weapons were better than the insects', evening the odds. 

So, she was able to fight back and tear the thing apart. 

Feeling the adrenaline wear off, she saw the scattered goop of the remains of the insect, which made her feel the urge to barf. 

If it was, then a notification suddenly filled her mind.

[You have defeated Winged Nymph, gaining 1 EXP. You are now 1/10 into progressing to Level 2.] 

'What was that?' She thought the sudden mechanical voice filling her mind sounded eerily similar.

'Is this seriously real?' She thought, deciding to rationalise that suspending her disbelief further shouldn't be too tricky with the whole reborn as a lizard thing.

She decided to focus on that dilemma later since she had a pressing problem with murderous insects. 

Already, as the sounds of the rapid beating of wings grew closer, she had caught the attention of some of the insects.