ONESHOT - ABANDONED - Read the rework instead.

Author note: Possible oneshot or series, not sure. Tell what you guys think. It would be a progression fantasy focused around the antics of the protagonist and his mentor.

If I do decide to turn it into a new novel, it wouldn't slow down the upload speed for death knight, though, so don't worry.

Chapter 1: Clarity.

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I reincarnated into a baby. Shocker, I know.

It just happened one day. I was sitting in front of my terrarium, waiting for my gecko to mutate into a dragon. Unfortunately, even the matron at the orphanage forbade me from feeding it the ghost pepper I had secured online after an arduous amount of hustling.

13 years into that lifetime, 13 years of research, only for me to be thwarted by the adults and their ‘responsibility’ at the last second. All action creates a reaction. No action, no reaction. No gecko eating the provided ghost pepper, no dragon either. If I were a warlock, I would have turned the matron into a frog. Oh well. It was only a matter of time before Gecky realised his true potential, awakened his bloodline, and terrorised time square on my orders, forever putting an end to the madness that was advertising.

To think anybody could ever call me insane was staggering. Anyway, I’m going on a tangent. As I sat there, waiting for the inevitable transformation to take place, the heavens themselves sought to punish me for my pursuit of the truth. They smote me down with extreme prejudice, in the form of cancer. I later died at the hospital, wishing death and an angry dragon on all those who dared to betray me at the crucial moment!

In my final moments, however, I gained momentary clarity. There were no dragons, there were no curses, there was no magic. It simply didn’t exist. Hah! I knew my experiments hadn’t been flawed! It was the world’s fault that Gecky remained stuck in his mortal form, not mine!

Comforted by this thought, I closed my eyes for the final time…

Only to open them again approximately 0,000053 seconds later, staring up one of the worst, most horrifying creatures on the planet. A creature that fed on hopes and dreams, that spread its evil nature to all it touched… an adult! They dared! Even in my afterlife, they had come to pursue me, afraid of my genius! But I wasn’t about to give up now! En garde!

I opened my mouth to mesmerize their minds with my infallible logic and verbosity!

“Waaaaahhhh!” I wailed.

“%£¨*£%*¨¨£%¨*!” the adult replied happily, a gloating smirk appearing on her face.

I stared back at her in horror. Somehow, the adults had turned my curse against me! I could speak no words and understand no language! Either that, or they had turned me into a baby, somehow. But how? Magic wasn’t real, was it?

Instantly, I realised I would need to change my plans. As a baby, not even my superior intelligence would be able to save me if the adults decided to rid themselves of me once and for all… Yet, they hadn’t taken the precaution to do so already…

Could it be? Did they not know who I was?! Hmmm. It was possible… Since that was the case, my best bet at the moment would be to blend in…

And so… I wailed some more.

The lab that the adults had used to turn me into a baby turned out not to be much of a lab, after all. Its course stone walls went against all scientific principles. With this level of hygiene, how could they keep any of their test subjects alive? As a respected scientist myself, I knew for a fact that this building was filled with variables that could easily interfere with the test results! Even Gecky had required the very basics when it came to his accommodations. A heat mat, water and feeding troph, some rocks to climb and a damp cave to shed in. On top of that, he even required the right type of soil!

Yet here the adults were, handing me from one person to the next and stuffing me in a crude, woven basket, before shipping me off to who knew where in a wooden carriage, of all things! Was I being used as a prop for a medieval fair, or something?

Now that I thought of it, the strange attire the adults had been wearing did remind me of those I had seen in a picture book about the middle-ages… Those were trustworthy sources, too. Much of the foundations of my own research had been laid by my predecessors, the authors of those books, in fact.

Another possibility was that they had shipped me off to a Mormon community, I suppose. In hindsight, that made far more sense…

The next five years of this lifetime were spent as a child. It was a repeat of a trial I had undergone before, in fact. The Mormons were just as strict as the adults had been in my previous lifetime, though nowhere near as religious, for which I was thankful. The distinct lack of a church or mass had given me the time to delve into slightly less ambitious projects, such as recreating gunpowder and hydrogen fuel. Both had ended up in catastrophic failure, unfortunately.

If only their original creators, those pseudo-scientists, had passed in their wisdom in the way the picture-book authors had, that would have allowed me to succeed.

Interestingly, I found out that the Mormons had their own secret language, one they had hidden from the outside world like much of their other practices and habits.

Even worse, they did use electricity! The matron’s bedroom at my new orphanage had a round, glowing orb that hovered over her bedside table as a reading light. Another confirmation that all adults, even Mormons, were liars…

Determined, I continued my experiments. One day, my captors would see that none could contain my genius!

After several more explosive failures, it happened. Freedom! The adults finally threw in the towel and released the proverbial ball and chain that had been attached to my ankles. For the first time ever, I felt free!

They were even kind enough to escort me to the town, which was another medieval lookalike that shared none of the common traits that American architecture had. Perhaps I had been relocated overseas without my knowledge?

Eagerly, I went in search of more materials to continue my experiment. Unfortunately, even a day later, I hadn’t procured any. Furthermore, now that the adults had cast me out of their prison, they were no longer willing to spare me a second glance! They monopolized all the resources on account of it being ‘theirs’!

The idea of property was, by its very nature, one that stood in the way of scientific progress! Why couldn’t they see that?!

A week passed, and research had stalled. I was hungry, and thirsty. I had taken to drinking well water and stealing food that I found displayed on the stalls in town. All in the name of progress, I assure you… Yet none of the adults saw my vision, and it was becoming increasingly hard to sustain the functions of my body. Without movement, there could be no science!

Another week passed. I was starting to recognize that while my mind was unmatched, my sleight of hand was not up to par. My stomach had been making strange sounds as of late, and my skin was pulling on my ribs. Even worse, my mind was degrading. None of the great scientists from the picture books had warned me of this development! When the dragon rider went weeks without much food, he still looked as healthy as before! And yet… I wasn’t. I would have to carry on. Gecky was still out there somewhere… Not as a dragon, perhaps, but as a valuable research subject nonetheless. That’s right. That’s why I had to carry on.

A third week passed, and my body had regressed further. The adults had banished me from their lands, spouting some tale about a ‘famine’, whatever that was… As a result, I had taken refuge in a nearby forest and started scavenging for materials. I turns out that this place was filled with them, though not all were edible. I had eaten a strange mushroom at one point. Strange, red, bulbous pods had grown on my skin not much later. Unfortunately, their contents weren’t flammable and therefore useless to my research.

I was starting to sleep for longer periods at a time, my mind needed more rest to recover. Slowly, the reality of my situation was starting to become clear. I was about to die… Again.

Again the heavens had gotten the better of me. Did they want to gloat? Did they not want to relish in their victory over me? So be it. Neither science nor magic had even been worth my efforts. They had only repaid me with hunger and pain. If only Gecky were here… he would have something nice to say about me at my funeral…

I closed my eyes, hoping not to wake up. 18 years of this had been enough.

“Oh dear!” I heard someone say with an aged, panicked voice. I tried to open my eyes, but my vision was blurry. All I saw was an adult with a long, white beard, before I blacked out.

-Scene transition-

I opened my eyes an undetermined amount of time later. Colors swam across my vision, but from what I could make out, the old adult was dripping some kind of mixture into my mouth with a concerned look on his face. Unable to muster up the energy to even blink, I was at his mercy.

This occurred a few more times, and time continued to pass.

By the time I felt ‘awake’ for the first time since my banishment, I had noticeably grown.

At first, I felt the gentle pressure of the bedsheet that lay on top of me. Then, I felt the soft cushion wrap around my head and support my neck. Above me, I could see a wooden roof, lit up by the sunlight that filtered in from the right side. Unfortunately, turning my head was too difficult.

“Don’t try to move too much!” I suddenly heard on my right.

An old man with a long beard and a purple robe embroidered with stars loomed over me from the right side of the bed. His beard flopped over the railing and covered my eyes, taking me by surprise.

“Oops, sorry about that, child. My beard has a mind of its own, sometimes. I’m sure it just wanted to reassure you.” He said with his calm voice, a kind, welcoming smile plastered on his face.

I grimaced. I wanted no sympathy from an adult. Not when they had previously abandoned me time and time again. Once was a coincidence, and twice was a pattern. Let alone 5 times…

However, I couldn’t exactly give the adult a piece of my mind. My mouth refused to move, and my vocal cords remained stationary. My energy was starting to wane, and it only took a little longer for me to start slumbering again.

When I opened my eyes again, I noticed that I had grown some more. Now, when I wriggled my toes, the sheets rose much further away than before. In fact, I had almost grown as tall as I was when I died the first time around.

“How are you feeling?” I was suddenly asked. The familiar old man from earlier popped out of my periphery. Again, he loomed over me. Again, his beard twisted in a strange way and ruffled my hair. Out of instinct, I replied.

“…fine…” my voice produced hoarsely. Instantly, I felt regret for even entertaining the idea of conversing with an adult. Traitors deserved no such gift! Yet… this adult had saved me from death. Why? Did he intend to steal my research?! Not if I had anything to say about it!

“Uhurm.” He coughed, “May I ask why you regard me with such intensity? Was it something I said…?”

I concentrated my efforts and intensified my glare to unseen levels. It had the desired effect and caused the old man to back off… for just a few minutes, because he came back later with another one of his ‘goops’! He opened my mouth and dripped the goop slowly down my throat, giving me another reason to glare at him.

Just like that, time continued to pass and we settled into a routine. I would wake up, have a bit more energy each time, and glare at him and his sentient beard, before falling asleep again. Slowly but surely, I grew stronger and more energetic. Yet the old man hadn’t shown his cards yet. He continued to heal me with his goops, and told stories of dragons and knights while I lay awake, unable to do anything but listen.

At least the old man was willing to share his gathered research with me. That was a big sign of a trustworthy scientist, even if his sources were different from mine… Maybe this adult was one the good ones. Were there any good ones in the first place?

Eventually, I regained the ability to move, though it was still limited. It became easier to moved my arms and legs, but they still felt weak. The old man, however, had told me it was time to attempt to walk. I wanted nothing more, after being stuck here for who knew how long, so I decided to take a chance.

The adult helped me sit up, then pulled me up from the bed in some kind of embrace, while my legs supported most of my weight. They felt clumsy, but they were moving…

A lot of practice and a lot of goop later, I was standing while leaning onto something. Then without any crutch. Then I was walking, then running.

I took the time to explore my new residence bit by bit. Most of the building was made out of fresh, new-looking wood, though much of it was shaped strangely, as if the builders had refused to make their job easier by just using planks.

There was a small kitchen that lacked a stove or an oven. Instead, a red ball carved with strange symbols floated above a round basin. I had seen the old man cook food there before. When he used it, the food simply floated into the basin and hovered there, slowly starting to sizzle. When it was done, the ingredients gathered into a bowl by themselves. The Mormons sure had advanced cooking tech.

The house had three rooms that broke away from the cozy living room. One was my room, a sparse area that only had a bed, a desk, a drawer and a chair. The two others remained locked, though I suspected that the old man slept in one and kept his research in the other.

After I spent all my energy, I went over to the window and looked outside. The little house was surrounded by a beautiful flower garden, one that even Gecky would have appreciated. He loved to climb on plants, after all.

For a moment, I considered my progress.

It had taken so long, but I was returning to my prime. Perhaps some research… No. No, I didn’t want to do that anymore. Just like adults, research brought pain. Perhaps at some point… but not now. Furthermore, I had become acutely aware that without food and water, and research would come to a screeching halt. No, perhaps it was time for a change.

“What are you thinking about so seriously?” the old man asked not unkindly, as he appeared next to me. He, too, was standing up. Unlike the current me, however, he needed a cane as support.

“What do you want from me?” I asked after a moment of silence. He had the gall to look surprised, which frustrated me a little.

“Want from you? What a strange question… Though I suppose it… may seem like I expected something in return for my help. Nothing is more untrue, boy. Allow me to ask…What brought this on?”

I squinted, inspecting his face for any sign of a lie. Not want anything in return? The law of exchange was the one rule all adults seemed to follow!

“Let me rephrase that, so you can follow along. ‘What do you want me to do?’ The adults always have their expectations. Tell me what yours are. If I want to continue enjoying the privileges you bestowed on me, you will no doubt force me to integrate into your society. So, what does an adult actually… do?”

His face changed from one of intrigue to one of concern, only to switch to one of surprise at the end.

“Well… all adults usually do something different. That way, everyone contributes a little bit. I, for one, am a mage. I cast magic to ease the tasks of others, first and foremost, no matter what that task might be.”

“Contribute?” I asked at first. That question was quickly followed by “Magic? A mage? Stop lying. All of my previous research disproved the existence of magic! Don’t try to fool me! I’m educated in your ways of deception, adult!”

The older man frowned, and his beard rose up, before ruffling through my hair. I calmed down slightly, but only because, as Pavlov described, I had started to associate the beard with ‘story time’, as the old man called it.

The old man frowned and sighed, before raising his cane. Then, he stamped it down onto the wooden floorboards of the house, causing it to shake. The wood twisted and curled, creating small wooden figurines of the heroes in the picture books. The old man’s research was coming out of the ground!

“But… how?” I wondered aloud, recovering from my shock.

“Magic.” The old man said with a wide smile. “Magic.”

All that research, only to find out that magic was real after all? Why had Gecky never transformer? Why had no magic ever worked?

“My, my. Your surprise is, in and of itself, quite a shock. Though magic is rare, most people know of its existence, at least. Haven’t you noticed our cooking orb before? You’ve been walking around the house for months…”

Slowly, a strange feeling settled in my gut. A realisation that spelled doom for me, for my research, for Gecky…

“Old man, what country is this?” I asked, dreading his answer.

His frown deepened, and a sad glint shone in his eyes, though he hid it well with a pained smile.

“You don’t even know that? Poor boy…” He sighed. “This is the Aureum empire, the oldest and largest country on this continent. Welcome, child.”

I wasn’t in the same world anymore. I had been reincarnated into a new one. Where there was no Gecky, and I was all alone…

I slumped into a heap in despair and blacked out.