In Loki's Honor

I opened my eyes and saw rays of sunlight filtering in through a straw roof. The smells of loam, blood, ashes assaulted my nose. I was covered in gunk and lightheaded. I felt like fainting as I gasped for air. A searing burning pain went down into my nostrils and my lungs as I had to painfully force air down there. I felt I was drowning even though I wasn't immersed in water. I screamed in pain but all that came out of my mouth were the wails of a newborn baby. Which I was.

I was reborn. After my previous reincarnation as a slime (amoebas are kind of slime-like), where I failed to do anything but read a stupid message. It seems I was born as a person this time. Not a human but some sort of primitive hominid. Let's call them Troglodytes.

My current species had a wide and thick forehead, prominent cheekbones, a stubby nose, large chins with a severe underbite, and canine teeth that suggested a meat-based diet. Some walked with hunched backs and the arms were proportionally longer than a human's.

I heard voices but my eyes weren't focusing. I couldn't understand what they were saying either. Someone scrubbed me with a rag and warm water, then wrapped me in itchy furs. The furs smelled of carrion and wet dog.

Someone lifted me and an older woman examined me. She opened the fur and pulled my limbs aside. By her face, she wasn't happy.

She mumbled something in an angry tone to the person holding me. I heard a woman crying behind me. As my carrier turned me around, I saw my birth mother crying.

They didn't breastfeed me as my mother was taken away from the tent. Instead, I was fed a gruel similar to oatmeal but it tasted like cardboard seasoned by beetle innards.

I later learned I was in the midwife's hut and I was abandoned by my family. They were sent as a tribute to the King, a kind of tribal chieftain that ruled over the local villages. Cavemen villages. The leaky hut was considered a luxury.

Worse of all, I couldn't barely move my body. Even breathing was hard. I was fed dirty water and the cardboard-beetle gruel. With some smelly herbs tossed in for variety, I guess.

Recalling the messages I saw in my amoeba life, I knew I was ridiculously weak. Probably weak enough to be in a person's body. I was always winded, always trying to suck in the next breath of air. Existing was a pain. Yet I had no choice whatsoever.

The passage of time was slow but inexorable. Months went by like that, then a year. I knew because I could track the cycle of seasons. We didn't have snow in the winter but a biting cold nonetheless. The rainy season, dry season, cold season, scorching hot season. It seemed I was in a tropical biome. We got cold when it was cold, wet when it rained. The straw roof got replaced after the rainy season because it got moldy.

One year old and all I could do was move my arms. My growth was stunted and the midwife tasked with caring for me reduced my food rations. Even thinking was hard and slow because I was in so much pain.

I would have died of starvation or thirst if it weren't for my pseudopods. They caught the rotten matter of the furs and consumed them, converting it into nutrients for me.

At least by year three, I had learned the local language.

*

*

*

*

The midwife came to my "bed", a pile of old and rotting furs in the corner of her hut.

"You are a failure," she spat to the side. "No man will want to marry a girl so feeble like you. They won't even grace you with their seed."

Not that I wanted any, but thanks for the heads up. I didn't answer because I wasn't sure I could speak. Never bothered to try. She wasn't expecting one either.

"But I guess the Gods granted you life for a reason. Murdering one of our own tribe is taboo and brings bad luck. So I'll teach you what the Gods decreed every child should know."

She took a deep breath as she pushed me aside and sat on the pile of furs.

"In this world, people are blessed by the Great System when they come of age. They will gain power, wisdom, sometimes even magic.

"In the System, you'll see six numbers representing your Attributes. It is the System's way to measure how well developed your body or mind is.

"Three of them relate to your body. Strength measures your power to move things and how hard you can hit with a weapon. How much weight you can carry. It is the most important Attribute for warriors or anyone wielding a weapon or a tool that requires power.

"Dexterity is how agile and precise your movements are. And how well you can aim your attacks and dodge your enemies. Then Endurance, is what you're lacking, youngling," she chuckled and then grunted ruefully. "Endurance is how sturdy your body is, how much punishment you can endure, how long you can exert yourself. Your Endurance must be in the negatives!"

She smacked her lips, then went to get herself a drink. None for me. I understood she was trying to kill me slowly without bringing her shame for letting someone from the tribe die. She was slowly starving me and every now and then the size of my bowl of gruel would become smaller. I even suspected she'd swapped the old bowl for a smaller one.

When she arrived, she told me about the other three Attributes. "Mind is a measure of how smart you are. With a high Mind, you can perceive danger, find hidden enemies, forage better, react faster to changes in your surroundings. A good hunter must have a high Mind score. If you had magic, which you don't," she snickered, "Mind would allow you to condense magical energy in your body faster too. It would allow you to recover your spent magical energy faster."

"Willpower allows you to wield powerful magic. Without a strong will, your magic will be stunted and you won't even be able to cast powerful spells. It also shows how hard it is to influence your mind and take control of it."

"And last, we have Charisma. Charisma is your ability to make people do your bidding and also notice when others are trying to subtly influence you. It is very important for leaders and professions that interact with people."

It felt odd the woman was explaining all this to me when she was slowly killing me of starvation. The way she talked was also odd.

"Who... are... you?" I drawled slowly with a raspy voice.

"What do you mean, girl? I'm the one who took care of you all these years!" The midwife (or whatever took over her place) lied. "But it seems your soul is still too weak to handle a humanoid form. But don't worry, everything will end soon. It was too big of a leap to go for a humanoid this early," she mumbled the last part.

I heard screams and shouts from outside the tent. Then the sounds of fighting, roars of wild beasts, and more screams. Footsteps thumped the earth outside, the vibrations detected by my pseudopods feeding me underneath the furs.

"Who... are... you?" I grunted out.

The "midwife" shook her head. "A friend if you are willing to believe it. Now, I have to go."

The troglodyte woman shook her head, recovering control of her body. She stared at me with a blank expression, then took notice of the chaos outside.

She went for the door and shouted the name of one of the hunters whose voice she must've recognized. Big mistake. So far, whatever was attacking the troglodyte village ignored the hut because our scent was masked by the musky and poorly-cured furs we used. But now, they knew.

A quadruped beast covered in fur broke the flimsy door of the hut as it pounced on the woman, knocking it on the ground and biting her shoulder and part of her neck off. She started to bleed and the monster bit again. I heard the sounds of bone crunching, the midwife's last gurgles, then a victorious howl by the creature.

A sizzling sound struck the beast, who grunted and growled, annoyed its meal had been interrupted. I remained quiet and tried to keep myself from panicking. I knew that if I made a sound, the monsters would come for me.

Thrashing inside the hut, the big beast made its own exit by crashing through a wall. I heard melodic voices and the whistles that I now recognized as the sound of arrows flying.

Another beast crashed into the hut, two arrows with red fletching sticking out of the left shoulder that I could see. It was raving mad with pain and as its eyes met mine, I screeched in fear. The monster pawed my chest, breaking my weak ribs. then it bit my neck, causing blood to spurt everywhere.

An arrow flew and struck the monster in the eye, killing it over me and pinning me down. I was bleeding and would die soon.

Then an elf stepped inside the hut with an arrow nocked on her bow. She looked at the beast to see if it was dead, then at me. Next, she poked her head out of the hut and shouted something in what could be considered a sing-along voice. I would be marveled if I wasn't, you know, dying.

An elf carrying a gnarled walking stick with a cloudy crystal stuck on one end approached and took a look at me. He shook his head and the staff-bearer and bow-bearer had a discussion.

*

*

*

*

While I didn't understand their conversation at the time, it was still relevant.

The female ranger explained something to the newcomer. She was annoyed the mage refused to heal the troglodyte girl (me) who would expire soon.

The mage stared at me and it was as if I was bare before him. Which i was, the Troglodytes weren't too keen on clothing. Maybe it wasn't invented yet. He shook his head and gesticulated as he spoke, indicating they should leave me to die. He pointed at the monster who maimed me, then shook his head again.

The ranger's face became a rictus of anger and grief. She stomped her feet and looked west, saying something in resignation.

The male consoled her with some nugget of wisdom. He waved his arms in big motions, making the crystal on his staff do a circle. Then he pointed at himself and admitted some sort of weakness as he grimaced. He looked at me with tender eyes and said something soothing.

The female ranger produced a ceramic vial with a wax seal. If I had to guess, it was a potion and she wanted to give it to me. Seemed valuable.

The male mage refused her idea. He pointed at my wound with the crystal in his staff, and said something ominous, then frowned and said something even more ominous. He shook his head and denied her request with finality.

The mage cast a spell on me and my pain vanished. Relief washed over me and I slept.

"I know you can see as well as I do. This girl is marked by the Gods," the Ranger said. She was annoyed the mage refused to heal the troglodyte girl who would expire soon.

"I see. She is no child. See how her eyes betray wisdom beyond her years. Yet I feel we should leave her be. What will be of a frail child alone in the barbarian wilds? Her tribe is gone. The Boarwargen made sure to leave no survivors. Don't mistake me. I wish I could save her but you know as well as me that we cannot take her with us."

"Stupid laws of the Forest. It would take the endorsement of one of the elders or the Goddess to let a stranger in."

"I feel Fate will bring us together someday. Her soul predates the great trees. Yes, I can glimpse the future."

"Another vision?"

"I am not sure. Perhaps... Though I am low on MP and need to spare some for the trip back to the Forest, I shall spare a bit of it to alleviate her pain. She will die naturally but without any suffering."

"I have a potion to spare."

"Don't. The Boarwargen's bite tore a chunk of her neck. The potion will only cause great agony if you give it to her with such an injury. It cannot replace missing flesh. Then she'll die in pain and will hate us. We cannot let that happen."

The mage cast a spell on me and my pain vanished. Relief washed over me and I slept.

You Died.