《Natalia》 Natalias Past Life I was watching this particular scumbag across the street, hiding to make sure he didn¡¯t see me. The scumbag was slowly drawing the noose that was around his neck tighter and tighter. He was walking across the park toward the undercover cop that was going to buy his drugs. His breath fogged out around his face as he walked through the crunching snow. The cop next to me is part of the side group that was assigned to capture this guy. We selected the dilapidated house that he was dealing drugs in because it was far enough away from other houses yet still close to the street so that it made the perfect place to attempt to capture him. The suspect has been dealing drugs to all the teens in the local area, we had to stop him here, or he would keep destroying the lives of teens. His name is Joseph Priatt, the bastard has 6 priors for drug dealing, this time he had a gun on him and wasn''t afraid to use it. With 2 wounded officers in past cases we were being very careful not to aggravate him. As I watched him approach my colleague, I got the feeling we were in for something bad. Sometimes I get these hunches, you see. They have never been wrong and I don¡¯t know what they are from, but when I get them, boy do I listen to them. In more than one situation these hunches have saved my life. I call it an overactive Women¡¯s Intuition. Although there are some bad things that come with this power. Like being able to tell when the ex-boyfriend that you were engaged to is cheating on you... with another man. All that being said, as he approached our officer I could see the gun sticking out of the waistband of his pants. It was then that he started talking to our undercover cop and asked questions to make sure he wasn''t a plant. Priatt was talking to the officer, asking about all sorts of thing. ¡°Hows your wife? Had a fun weekend? Shitty weather isn''t it?¡± It was then that the shit hit the fan¡­ This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. Priatt asked the undercover officer what he had been up to all day and the cop answered with the predetermined line. Priatt looked at him with a raised eyebrow and pursed his lips at the officer. He proceeded to pull out the gun and shoot the officer in the head. ¡°What the hell.¡± I blurted in shock. All of the cops in the area were stunned by what had happened. Priatt had shot the undercover officer in the head and started to run away. Rage twisted my face as I watched his running profile. Every cop in the vicinity leapt out of their hiding places to chase after Priatt. He ran into an alley that was closest to my hiding spot. I sprinted after him only to find myself staring at him with a big grin on his face¡­ ¡°Oh Natalia¡­ You just had to be the first to run in here¡­¡± Praitt glared at me while he slowly raised his gun toward me. My mind reeled over him using my first name. The sheer absurdity of him using my name made my body freeze, and forget all of the training I had learned. I just stood there frozen like an idiot while Priatt slowly raised the gun, aimed, and shot me in the head¡­ Dying is a funny feeling. At first I felt an excruciating pain in my head, then a lightheadedness that slowly consumed my whole body. I felt myself float upward, I knew I was dead and being transported to heaven. As I looked down, I saw the rest of my officer buddies shooting Priatt full of lead as he stood there jiggling around. As I reached ¡°Heaven¡± I had one of my intuitions. That I was not going to my eternal resting place, but was going to be asked questions and sent on my way. Chapter 1: The Surprising "Heaven" ¡°Hello my dear Natalia, How long I have waited for the day you would be sent to me. Our last chat was so¡­ Exciting!¡± said the woman standing in front of me. ¡°Wha¡­ Who are you? I know I died, but where is this and what is going to happen to me?¡± I was asking in a echoey voice. ¡°What was that! Thats not my voice!¡± I paused at and looked at her because I felt that the woman who was obviously staring at me was going to explain. ¡°Natalia, I was just wondering when you were going to let me explain the situation and you immediately looked at me with questioning eyes.¡± She sighed, ¡°I see the gift I gave you from our last meeting looks to be treating you well, it seems.¡± She shook her head incredulously. ¡°Gift?¡± I asked quizzically. ¡°Yes, after each reincarnation I give each person born under my banner, 1 gift, or ability if you will, of their choosing for their next life.¡± She explained. ¡°The old abilities that were given are forgotten when you enter your new body. Although, you won¡¯t remember what gift your previous life picked for you.¡± She snickered like it was a funny joke. I felt a tingle from my ¡°gift¡± when she explained about the abilities. Then I asked, ¡°So? Now what? Do I pick my ¡°gift¡± and get sent to my next life?¡± ¡°No!¡± She shouted, ¡°First you must choose the world in which you wish to live in. I have the power to send you to 3 worlds, the number has diminished from the past because I am running out of worshippers. By the way, gods gain power for each worshipper that prays to them. You are one of only four people born under my banner, as my godly power cannot support more.¡± She started to sit down. As she sat, a plain wooden chair appeared below her and she proceeded to sit on it. I gaped at the chair that materialized out of thin air. ¡°What? I am a goddess¡­ Why is that surprising¡­¡± She asked with a questioning look. ¡°I¡¯m sorry give me sometime to wonder at the intricacies of your goddess-ness,¡± I stated sarcastically, ¡°This is all new to me¡­ So how do we get started?¡± ¡°We begin by selecting a world, then we select a race that the selected world can produce. After you select your new race, I will allow you to make minor modifications to your face and body to fit your liking, and hopefully your new personality¡¯s liking.¡± She snickered. ¡°Well then lets get this over with¡­¡± I said angrily at her snickering form. She proceeded to lift her hands toward me and three big globes popped into existence a few feet from me. Each globe had a few continents and vast oceans of water. They were much like Earth but each land mass looked nothing like the continents of earth. ¡°Why can¡¯t I choose Earth?¡± I demanded. ¡°Because earth has left my realm of influence, child.¡± She chided me like it was obvious. ¡°If I could, in some way, get more followers than I would become stronger and gain more power in other realms. That includes the realm that harbors Earth.¡± ¡°Fine then if I became your champion and found you more followers would you be able to influence more realms?¡± I asked in a serious tone. ¡°Oh Natalia, you make my old heart beat with renewed vigor. If you could somehow ensure to get me more followers I would be able to influence more realms. However, the process you speak of is not an easy one. The other gods that are worshiped on these three worlds do not take kindly to those that seriously interfere with their worship.¡± She stated grimly. ¡°However this is all in vain as you will forget all that has been said here as soon as you enter your new body.¡± ¡°Not if my one gift was to remember everything from my past life, including what has been said here.¡± I said with a glint in my eye. ¡°Natalia, Natalia, oh how I do love that beautiful mind of yours. Not many people have found this particular loophole around the gifting rules. In fact the total amount that have found it since I have been alive, which is an extremely long time, is only 16¡­ that is including you of course.¡± She genuinely smiled at me. ¡°If you could become my champion and be willing to find me new worshippers I would be willing to give you a boon for each amount of worshippers you collect.¡± She proceeded to snap her fingers and a table that showed boons compared to worshippers popped up in front of me like an information window from an RPG game. ¡°Whoa!¡± I screamed and smacked at the floating information panel while staggering backwards because I was not expecting it to randomly pop up in front of me. After falling on my ass and having the ¡°goddess¡± laugh her ass off at me; I looked at the information on the panel.
Worshippers to Boons
Worshippers:1Total Boons:1
Worshippers:10Total Boons:2
Worshippers:100Total Boons:3
Worshippers:1000Total Boons:4
Worshippers:10,000Total Boons:5
Worshippers:...Total Boons:...
The amount of boons a god or goddesses champion gains for reaching certian quotas of new worshippers.
The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Wow so i get my first boon after getting only 1 new worshipper? and then another at 10? How did you come up with these amounts?¡± I asked. ¡°Oh, these amounts were agreed upon by all of the gods and goddesses as amounts for a gods champions. The graph for non-champions has the numbers starting at 1,000 and up.¡± ¡°Champions? So you can have more than one?¡± ¡°Me? No, i cannot support more than 1 champion at this time. However if my power grows¡­¡± She looked at me hungrily. ¡°I get it, I get it¡­ I get you worshippers, you gain power, you get more champions, they get you more worshippers, you gain more power, etc. etc.¡± I sighed. ¡°So? which world do you think would be easiest to get worshippers on?¡± She flicked one of her fingers forward and one of the globes moved toward me while the other dissipated.¡±This one, huh?¡± ¡°Yes, this world has many gods and goddesses being worshipped so we will not have to fight for dominance however, setting up a temple and getting people to convert is another matter.¡± She stated matter of factly. ¡°Yes, yes, we¡¯ll worry about that when the time comes. Okay let me see the races this world can support.¡± As I said this a bunch of humanoid races began to materialize in a group in front of me. All of the bodies had lifeless eyes and looked dead. ¡°Oh God, are all of these bodies dead?¡± The ¡°goddess¡± looked at me weirdly, ¡°No they are just waiting for a soul to possess them. They have not been selected yet, and are therefore not even born. They are only an illusion I am showing you for you to see the races in detail, and I mean in detail.¡± She said while loading her voice with innuendo. I blushed from her implied wording and proceeded to look at all of the races that I could potentially choose from. I saw a Dragonoid race with scaly skin and long thick tails. There is also a Feline race that had ears and were covered in fur with a long cat tail come from the tail bone. I also saw a Demon-like race that have dark red skin with tattoos that glowed. There was also Orcs, Goblins, Kobolds, Birdmen, and Elves with their beautiful appearance and long ears. I saw all kinds of different humanoid races. Then I saw the human race of this planet. The men were husky, large, and well built. While the women were taller than Earth''s average and slightly muscular with large breasts. I also just happened to notice, not that I was looking on purpose, that the men were rather largely well endowed. ¡°Are these all of the choices? Shouldnt there be more?¡± I asked wondering about any other races. ¡°There are other races that are not shown here. However, I do not have the power to force your soul into any other body besides general humanoid ones. Of course that could change.¡± She said with an obvious lust for power. ¡°May I see a mixture of elf and human please?¡± Two figures materialized in front of me while the others faded away. Both were nude, while one was obviously male, the other was obviously female. I blushed deeply as I looked at the male and female pair. ¡°I would like to be female.¡± I hurriedly said. The male model disappeared, and I was left with a nude female around 5¡¯ 7¡±. She had beautiful sky blue eyes that had flecks of green like falling leaves shimmering in their depths. Her hair was the color of a dark amber and it seemed to glow in the fake light of this void. Her body could have been described in one word, Voluptuous. She was equally well endowed in the ways of a female as the men were¡­ ¡°Wow,¡± the goddess stammered, ¡°You look good as an elf-human crossbreed. Would you like to keep this appearance?¡± She was staring at the nude body of the model in front of me. ¡°I quite like this new body,¡± I stated smiling. ¡°lets go with that.¡± As I finished my sentence a big green check mark appeared above the model and above the floating globe that was still hovering nearby. ¡°I guess this is where we say goodbye.¡± ¡°Yes, this is it. And once you open a temple and establish said temple as a place of worship to me. I will be able to communicate with you as you are my champion.¡± As she was speaking my body started to glow and condense. It didn''t hurt but I felt myself being pulled toward the model. My ¡°soul¡± was sucked into the new body and i felt myself dispersing into the atmosphere. ¡°Hey! Wait! I dont even know your name!¡± I yelled back at my new goddess. I heard her laughing reply, ¡°My name is Sylph, do try and gather lots and lots of worshippers for me¡­¡± Chapter 2: First Experiences ¡°Honey, hold on! Puuuuush! The baby¡¯s almost out!¡± I hear nearly unintelligible murmurs saying something while I am in a dark red, pulsing tunnel. All of a sudden am thrust out of the tunnel into an extremely bright light. My eyes start to water but I can''t move my arms to wipe my eyes because I feel weak. I feel a rough towel wiping me down, and then pressure of being lifted up. I am able to hear a woman crying softly behind me as I attempt to see through the blinding light. I can make out silhouettes of a man and a woman. I still hear crying behind me and I try to turn but I am held in place by large hands. It was then I noticed that I was tiny. I opened my eyes wide to try to get a good look at myself. I was a newborn baby, puny and cute. ¡°Honey! Honey! Its a girl!¡± The man holding me up says in an excited voice. The language he was speaking wasn''t english and had many guttural sounds as he spoke. I could understand what he was saying somehow, but I doubted I could speak this language without learning it. The man has a rather handsome face with slight stubble on a hard curving chin. He had healed scars on his face that signified he has been in many life threatening situations. He was wearing well worn leather armor that also had scars all over it signifying its long term use. He had a huge, happy grin on his face and he looked at me like I was the prettiest thing he had ever seen. ¡°She has your eyes.¡± He said while looking to the person behind me. The second person I saw looked quite young but was also of short stature and was wearing a maid outfit. She was staring at me with questioning eyes. ¡°The baby isn¡¯t crying, sir.¡± she said to the man I assumed is my father. ¡°Well she seems fine to me.¡± he said to her while checking me all over. ¡°Let me see her, if I may.¡± she said politely while holding her arms out. He handed me to her and she did a very methodical check over my body and made sure everything was in order. ¡°She seems fine, however I have never heard of a child not crying, except when something has gone wrong.¡± She said quizzically. ¡°She will be sleeping with us tonight so we will make sure she is okay.¡± He said while taking me back from the maid. He turned with me toward the beautiful woman that was laying on the bed. She looked exhausted from giving birth to me and I could see pure happiness in her eyes. Her eyes were puffy and had the glint of reforming tears as she looked at me while I stared at her face. She has the most beautiful face I have ever seen. Even with the gaunt look from being pregnant and giving birth, she still has the face any woman on Earth would have craved. Slightly curvy but not fat, just enough to be enticing, and eyes that looked exactly like the avatar I made in Sylph¡¯s plane. Her hair was shimmering between a turquoise and leaf green depending on the light. She had a happy expression with a smile but she was crying while she was looking at me. ¡°She has your hair, except for that small part.¡± she said in a lilting voice while pointing to a small patch of my head.¡±Let me see her, Duncan.¡± Her arms extended out toward me as she beckoned for me to be passed to her. My father passed me to her and she instantly shifted me so that I would be supported on her arm like a sling. She was staring at my face with an expression of wonder. She started to cry happily and she hugged me to her chest. ¡°I would like to name her.¡± she said obviously talking to my father though she was smiling at me. ¡°Anything you decide to name her will be beautiful, Aly.¡± My father said in a loving voice. ¡°I think Natalia would be a good name for this little one.¡± My mother said. My eyes grew larger as she named me with the name from my previous world. ¡°What, little one?¡± she said while cuddling me. ¡°You are the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen.¡± She said while taking me away from her chest and holding me up. ¡°Natalia is a perfect name for our daughter. Just like the Heroine of old, we can hope she will take after her namesake and become compassionate and heroic.¡± My father said proudly. My mother smiled deeply at me while my father smiled at her. ¡°I think my wife has had a rough day. I would like for us to be left alone for the rest of the day and night. I expect you, as the head maid, to keep the other maids working in order to keep everything clean while we are not to be disturbed.¡± He said to the maid that was still standing by the door. ¡°Yes, sir.¡± the head maid said as she bowed and backed out of the door while closing it with a soft click. My father lays down next to my exhausted mother and they cuddle me between them on the bed. As I''m laying on the bed between them I start to feel more and more tired until I eventually fall asleep in between their embrace. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 year later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was finally able to start crawling around about a month ago. I tried to walk around but my motor muscles couldn''t handle moving my legs for more than a few steps. So, in order to work out my muscles I started to crawl around the house. While I wouldn''t call it a mansion, it is a very large building with 4 bedrooms, a library, an office, a large kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and a enormous basement that had a huge circle in the middle of it. The circle was carved deeply into the wood of the floor. I did not know what it was for, but when I slowly made my way down the stairs to see more of the basement my mother saw and grabbed me. ¡°What are you doing going down there, you little rascal? You shouldn''t go down there, yet.¡± she told me cryptically. ¡°Lets go get you some food.¡± She said with a smile on her face. I could tell by her face that she did not guess that I could completely understand her. She kept murmuring loving words as she carried me back to the dining room and set me in a baby seat. She had pre made baby food earlier in the week that she reheated in the kitchen to give to me. As she sat in front of me, she fed me spoonfuls of the mashed baby food. It tasted like a combination of bananas strawberries, and milk; almost like a strawberry-banana smoothie. Unfortunately the blend was a weird dark blue color with purple swirls in it. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. ¡°I l-l-love you, m-mama.¡± I said while stuttering over the language I could hear and understand, but couldn''t speak well. My mother quickly looked at me and stared with amazement in her eyes. ¡°Did you just speak, honey?!¡± she exclaimed while standing up and picking me up. ¡°Oh did you say you love me?! I love you too, my little bunny.¡± she said as she snuggled against me. ¡°Lets just wait for your father to get home and we¡¯ll tell him the exciting news!¡± She was humming to herself as she walked to put the baby food away in the kitchen and I heard her give some orders to the maids. My fathers job was a guardsman of the realm, as well as a city guard. While he is not the captain of the city guard, he is a lieutenant. He participates in raiding the local monster dens that threaten the surrounding villages and farmlands. As a lieutenant, he has control of a small group of 5-6 men that will go out and complete small raids against the local wolf packs. Every day he comes back home exhausted and after eating, goes to sleep. I try to respect him when he goes to sleep but, its pretty embarrassing to say, I cannot control my bowel movements yet. So I keep quiet and let my father sleep until I use my portable diaper restroom. When I start to cry out my mother or the head maid is there within moments to change my diaper. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another 3 Years Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am now 4 years old. I have learned to walk and was able to fix my restroom problem. I do not miss the diaper I had to wear. I am starting to understand the basics of the spoken language and I was finally able to get a look at the books in the library. All of the books are written in these weird looping runes that almost look like a combination of hieroglyphs and the alphabet. The biggest thing that surprised me was the fact that in most of the books I attempted to read, the ink was grey that looked like it was glowing and shimmering. I couldn''t understand a word in any of the books and decided that the only way I would learn is to ask my mother. I grabbed the book that grabbed my attention as soon as I entered the room. It was thick and bound in red, scaly feeling leather and took it with me. ¡°Mother? Can you teach me to read the books in the library? I am really interested in this book though.¡± I said while indicating the book I was carrying. I opened the book and started to point to the pages. ¡°I can''t read any of the symbols in the book but I would like to learn.¡± My mother looked at the book I had opened and her eyes shot fully open while staring at the book. ¡°H-H-How did you open that!¡± She stammered in a loud voice. ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± I said questioningly. ¡°I asked how you opened that!¡± She told me in a stern voice. ¡°I don¡¯t know I just grabbed it from the library shelves, walked here and opened it¡­¡± I stated with a worried voice. She looked at me with a hard to place expression. ¡°Only elders of the elven race should be able to open that book, Natalia.¡± She said gently, noticing my expression. ¡°I will teach you how to read runes and understand them later. However this is important¡­ Did you say or do anything when you first touched the book? Or while you were walking here?¡± ¡°No, I didn''t do anything.¡± I stated confidently because I knew that hadn''t done anything weird. ¡°Peculiar, well maybe it is the combination of human and elvish in you that affected the books magical locks. Either way, you are not ready for the words that are in that book. They harness the raw magic of nature and are not meant to be used on a whim. Now please go put that book back where you found it and I shall teach you those when you are ready to learn them.¡± She said quickly while staring deeply at the red, scaly book that was in my hands. I was not surprised to learn that magic was possible in this world as I had seen my mother¡¯s magic help grow plants in the garden. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another 2 Years Quickly Passed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am now 6 and I have been learning the rune language that everyone on this planet uses as the standard language for their books. My father was attacked during one of his raids by a band of orcs, and lost an eye in the process. He now has to wear an eye patch, and was discharged from the guard with distinguished service. They graciously allowed him to keep his wage as a bonus for serving the guard nearly his entire life. He never particularly showed any ability in commanding so he was never promoted past lieutenant but I heard stories from mother that he was one of the best fighters in the kingdom. The day of my sixth birthday my father work me up and got me out of bed. He proceeded to push me into the bathroom while telling me to put on the thick clothes he came in with. I was still half asleep and did what I was told without questioning anything. After I finished dressing he pulled me toward the yard and threw a wooden sword at me. ¡°Start swinging.¡± He told me ruthlessly. I looked at the sword then back at my father and showed him a sleepy, confused face. ¡°You heard me¡­ START SWINGING!!!¡± He bellowed. I immediately started to swing the sword in what I thought was the correct manner from what I remembered from Earth. After swinging the sword, and being corrected on my stance, for what felt like forever my father told me to stop. ¡°It will do.¡± He told me. ¡°Be ready to do this again tomorrow.¡± He said with a playful grin on his face. I looked at him incredulously. ¡°It there any other weapon I could learn? I would like to use a weapon that will not kill my opponent.¡± I said while sneering at the sword. ¡°Oh, yes there are plenty of weapons that will let you do that. However they are much more difficult to learn and use correctly than a sword. Are you SURE you want to learn them?¡± He asked menacingly. ¡°Yes!¡± I said without even a moments notice. ¡°Then we will begin the staff tomorrow.¡± He said gently.