《The Adventures of Alexis》 Ch. 1: An End and a Beginning Ch. 1: An end and a beginning My Name is, or was, Jane Smith. Yes, it is a very ordinary name that was befitting a very ordinary life, but that was my previous life and some every now and then I wish I could go back to the simplicity of it. Back in that life I had been a high school history teacher for a very small school in rural Illinois, and I loved all 30 or so years of teaching. I never got married and rarely dated, but that was fine and I was content as I was able to lose myself in a variety of books. I never stuck with any one genre for too long because I always got bored and moved on to another. At one point I even took the advice of a student and read these odd little Chinese fictions that were very similar to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon; they were pretty good for the most part, but I always felt that the women in them were portrayed as weak too often and drifted away from them after a little. One thing that had caught my attention was the idea of reincarnating into what I assume to be a parallel universe. Even to this day I¡¯m not too sure why that always stuck out, but I¡¯m glad it did. A few months after I turned 61 I found out I had an advanced and terminal case of lung cancer. Just six months later I was laying on my death bed and was thinking to myself: ¡°Is this all there is to life?¡± Over the years I had read nearly every type of fiction possible that could be found by authors like R.A. Salvatore and R.R. Martin. From space opera¡¯s to medieval fantasy, everything pasted through my head in an instant and I couldn¡¯t help thinking back and feeling like was a boring life I had lead. Even now I feel it was a little boring, but that feeling is tinged with nostalgia and a little envy. During those last six months I also wondered what would happen after I died; would the Christian be right and I see those pearly gates, or would the atheists be right I just die with nothing else. That one thought is what made me worry the most, and in the end I ended up just hoping for the best and not give in to my religious friends wanting me to convert last minute. This is mostly because I knew, after reading tons of history research and books during my life, that most wars have been fought due to religious differences and that annoyed me to no end throughout my life. With all that said, On July 21, 2024, I died. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After I died my, for lack of a better word, consciousness just kinda floated around in a black void. Needless to say, it was extremely boring. An indefinite amount of time later I started to attempt to recall every part of my past life down to the smallest detail out of sheer boredom. I was oddly successful in some ways but failed miserably in others. I was able to recall everything except for my early childhood, and was even able to recall the majority of what I learned throughout my years in college. Unfortunately I was unable to remember most of the books I had read which was sad as that would have alleviated a lot of boredom. Most of the time I spent in the void I was asleep; I couldn¡¯t tell you how long I was in the void, but it was overwhelmingly boring and if I hadn¡¯t been able to sleep I probably would have gone insane. Luckily that didn¡¯t happen, and after an indeterminate amount of time I felt a strange tug on my consciousness. As I had nothing better going on I decided not to fight the pull and just went with it. After a little I began to feel extraordinarily tired and fell asleep. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.When I woke up again I felt warm, and this made me ecstatic as I hadn¡¯t actually felt anything in so long. Soon after waking I again felt tired and fell back to sleep. Some time later I woke up again surrounded by the warmth, but I still couldn¡¯t move or see. One difference was that I could feel an odd continuous thumping, but again I fell asleep after only being awake for a short time. When I woke for a third time I was still blind, but I was able to move around a little. I was also able to hear the thumping a lot more clearly. I was then I realized what happened and where I was. As you can guess I was inside some ones womb. A little bit after this realization I again fell back to sleep. Over the next few months I woke up randomly only to fall back asleep no matter how hard I tried to stay awake. Eventually the time came for me to be born, and I can honestly say it is still the oddest experience I have ever gone through. The actual process of being born was horrid due to the pressure of the canal walls pressing in on you, and when you make it through that and hit the open air it feels as if someone just pored hydrogen-peroxide into a cut only all over your body. Needless to say that stung, a lot, and probably the worst thing is the eyes. Oh the eyes! Just picture going from pitch black to what felt like a Hollywood spotlight shining in your eyes. Add to that the fact that I still couldn¡¯t actually see all that well; it felt as if I needed those coke-bottle glasses you saw in old movies. The most annoying part is that I couldn¡¯t see my parents or the doctors or anything else; all that added together made it easy to cry, and did I ever. Eventually I calmed down enough to stop crying and notice I was being held by my new mother. I could also hear her talking with my new father, although that¡¯s just a guess. I did notice that the language is very different from English; in fact I didn¡¯t sound anything like any language I had ever heard before, but it sounded very beautiful. One thing that I did know was that this was my chance at a new life, and I was going to make sure it was an exciting one. Ch. 2 - My New World * Italics mean inner thoughts Ch. 2: My new Life Right now I am six months old, and I have to tell you, being a baby sucks, hard. The first thing I noticed is that it is annoyingly hard to move. It feels as if I have training weights strapped to all my limbs. Even now it¡¯s a pain in the ever loving ass to lift my head, but at least it¡¯s getting better; I still can¡¯t stand though. And now back to the eyes, guess what, babies don¡¯t fully develop their eyes until they are close to five months old. That means for nearly have a year I had nauseating half blurry, 2d, no depth perception eyesight. So after I got the whole gross motor control and eyesight down I noticed a few odd things. First is that I am part of the beast race. I found this out after I first saw my Mothers ears which look strikingly similar to fox ears. At first I couldn¡¯t comprehend what I was seeing and just stared at them for a good ten minutes until I just kind of went with it. The second thing that shook me to my core was that magic exists in this world. I first saw magic when my mother had to bath me for the first time; what she did was hold her hand over a small tub and then water just flowed from her hand filling the tub. I was flabbergasted. After that I really started paying as much attention to her as my newborn eyesight allowed and saw a few other occasions where magic was used confirming what I had seen earlier. Another use for magic is as a body enhancement, I really didn¡¯t notice it until I saw my Mother get angry at my Dad. At the time I still had no real understanding of the language so I haven¡¯t the slightest idea why they were fighting, but then I saw my Mother punch a hole into a stone wall. At that point I decided not to get her angry, ever. Anyway, from what I can tell, my new family is fairly well off. Not rich by any means, but they do well enough to have a few luxuries. My mother¡¯s name is Zepha Swift, my Father is Kasa Swift, and my name is Alexis Swift. Right now I¡¯m not sure what either parent does for a living, but if I had to guess Father is a body guard for one of the higher ups in the city. As far as what Mother does, I still have no idea. One small achievement I¡¯ve had is that I have started to crawl recently. A downside to crawling is that it¡¯s murder on the knees, but at least I can get around now. The first place I try to get to is Mother¡¯s library/office. This will be my first attempt at trying to get a book. I¡¯ve been hesitant to try until now because babies just don¡¯t read books, and it would be a bit weird if I had tried prior to this. The reason I can try now is because Mother has finally started to read stories to me before nap time and before going to sleep in the evening. Unfortunately the door to the office is shut and I can¡¯t get in, but after crawling back to my room I notice that the book Mother read last night is still on her chair and I can reach it. After maybe five minutes Mother walks in and sees me and says: ¡°Aw, how cute. My little girl trying to read, huh?¡± While saying this she picks me up, swings me around, and hugs me. After that she places me back into my crib and starts to read to me during which I get tired and fall asleep. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I¡¯m now two years old, and guess what, being a baby still sucks, hard. First of all is teething. Teething hurts like hell, and I now know why people used to give babies whiskey during this time. I never really drank during my previous life, but what I wouldn¡¯t have given for some rum and coke right about then. Luckily, I have started walking and talking. As far as the talking goes it¡¯s still short sentences, but just a little longer I can start speaking normally without too many odd looks. I¡¯m thinking another six months and that should be good. One awesome thing about being a baby is the brain. I can honestly say that I have learned at an epic rate; especially after I learned to read. I managed to figure out how to read in only a couple months. Granted, previously knowing how to read helped, but the rate at which kid¡¯s brains store and decipher new info is noticeably faster than what I was able to previously. Another godsend is that I have a nearly perfect memory now, and I can recite anything I have read up till now not including my previous life. I¡¯m pretty sure that me being reincarnated is the cause for my perfect memory, but I¡¯m not sure. I don¡¯t think Mother knows that I can read yet, and I hope that I can keep it a secret for at least another year. Mostly so I don¡¯t get too much attention seeing as most kids don¡¯t start reading till five or six. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. So far I have been able to get my hands on a few history books, and according to them Beast men are the dominant species on Terra, which is the name of the planet. There are quite a few varieties of beast men with attributes from many different species of animals such as ears, claws, and tails; most people have ears, but the claws and tails are rare. Going along with that, I found out that I am part of the Kajra variety of beast men, and they look strikingly similar to foxes. Another thing that I¡¯ve learned is that there is only a single large landmass surrounded by countless island chains. The continent is known as Karnion, and it about twice the size of what Pangea would have been. I am currently living in a small town called Riverside in the kingdom of Belleford which is located in the eastern part of the continent. The kingdom itself is fairly old, but it is still ruled by the Belleford family. The other kingdoms that I know of are the Barkel, Jockra, and Vagra kingdoms. These kingdoms are near ancient, each being at least a few millennia old and they are ruled by the Reinhart, Julius, and the Alistair families. The last major place that I have read about is the neutral city of Cortana. Cortana is located at the crossroad between the four kingdoms, and was founded by the four ruling families in order to prevent wars from breaking out by acting as a mediator. One thing that I have failed to mention is that each kingdom capital, along with Cortana, are centered around these large, ever changing, labyrinths more commonly known as Dungeons. Dungeons can be found all over Karnion and have a range of difficulties. These are rated as either E, D, C, B, A, or S based off of the difficulty. The people who traverse these dangerous places are the celebrities of Terra; the adventurers. As soon as I found out about this I knew what I was going to do later in life; I mean, what can be more exciting than actually dungeon crawling. After two years I have seen plenty of examples of magic, but no matter how hard I look I haven¡¯t been able to find a book about magic and how to use anywhere in the house. Finally, I got the courage to ask Mother about it: ¡°Mama, Alex want to learn magic¡± I really hate talking like this; bear through it ¡°Aw, how adorable. I¡¯m sorry hun, but you¡¯re too young to learn magic¡± Alright, time for the secret weapon; puppy eyes and a few tears ¡°But, why?¡± Mom picks me up and hugs me tight and then says: ¡°Your body just can¡¯t handle the strain of learning it, okay. Ask again when you¡¯re older.¡± And add a slight sniffle ¡°How much older¡± ¡°When you¡¯re five you¡¯ll be old enough, before that it¡¯s too dangerous. Do you understand?¡± I nod Damn, that¡¯s going to be a long wait, hope I can find a book before that.