”One, two; One, two; One, two…”
As always, I find it amazing how resilient this body is… no, you know what? I must stop doing this, as creating a line that separates my soul from my body, as if the two were two distinct existences, could take its toll on me over time.
Tinny could come back to life inside my head.
I have experienced something like that before. If I remember correctly, it happened when I learned that I had obtained a new body.
Before that infernal pain appeared, surprise, fear, and anxiety flooded me to such a degree that I was about to awaken a second personality in order to console me, to give me the courage I lacked. There I experienced for the first time in a long time what it was like to talk to someone other than myself since another voice appeared, not the one I was used to talking to.
An obvious sign of insanity, no doubt.
Of course, that situation could not be categorized as a typical event. After all, I was both mentally and emotionally riddled, so any outcome other than this would probably, no, certainly have broken me into pieces.
However, as unusual as that was, who can assure me that I won’t go through something similar again in the future? Although, actually, I don’t think it will happen, another equally distressing event is something that can occur.
I would not like to have to endure that again. If there are gods in this world, I beg them to protect me from such a fate. I wish it with all my heart, I beg it with all the weight of my soul, but I cannot just rely on such a request. I must prepare myself.
‘My body. It’s mine. All mine. No one else’s but mine’
”One, two; One, two; One, two…”
Yes, I must be fully prepared. I cannot afford to show even a hint of weakness, either physical or mental. I must be strong enough to withstand and overcome anything, or else trouble will come.
Will I make it? I’m not sure, and that’s something I’ve been worrying about for the last few days.
Right now, I am training with the exercises I learned in my past life. I do it while hiding from the others in the middle of the hill where the cave entrance is situated.
I not only exercise my muscles, but I also try to kick and punch the air imitating the fights I once saw in anime or video games, although the result of what I do is not even close to it.
I’ve tried so hard that I’ve even gotten used to the superhuman regeneration ability I possess.
The first time I felt it in the flesh was when, while trying to kick in the air, I slipped when I stepped on a small rock, so I ended up falling down the slope of the hill, crashing against stones and branches, until I stopped after impacting backward into the trunk of a tree.
The injuries I sustained from such a fall were severe, not enough to kill me, but enough to make me pass out for a few hours. Then, when I woke up, it was already dark. Afraid that a beast would suddenly appear, limping, with pain and tears in my eyes, I went down to the foot of the hill to enter the cave, where, arriving at an empty room, I slept until the next day.
After that event, I understood why that brat ate so much when he hurt his eye, for when I woke up, my body had healed a lot, but hunger was killing me.
At least, after two days, all that was over because by then, I had healed all my injuries. I have to say that I had luck on my side since, as hard as my fall was, I didn’t break a single bone in it. Also, this is something I’m not entirely sure about, but I think my regeneration is superior to that of the brat I saw earlier…
In any case, that was only the first time I was injured, but not the last since, after that, I began to take full advantage of such power by increasing the intensity of my training. After all, I now know that even if my muscles tear from a clumsy movement, they will heal quickly.
A lot is what I am doing, and yet my fears refuse to go away.
Sometimes I think maybe this is due to my low self-esteem or something like that, as no matter how much I do, I recurrently feel like it is not enough, as if I am trying to prove to my past self that I have changed and I have, of course, I have changed, but I am afraid to go back to what I used to be.
An irascible sluggard, who found it difficult to get out of bed because he had no will to do anything, one who thought he was so capable, and maybe he was, but his rotten personality dragged him down.
”One, two; One, two; One, two…”
Heck, I have to stop exaggerating things, as, in reality, my worries about my ghosts of the past are less than I make them out to be. What has me truly tense is our parents, for having those monstrous bastards roaming around my surroundings, I can in no way afford to be weak.
Only once in my life did I have the opportunity to see a gorilla face-to-face, and that was during a school trip to the zoo. On that occasion, as I was just a child, I was surprised and frightened by the size of such an animal.
However, now that I am young again, that terrifying beast from my memories looks so adorable compared to what I have seen here.
I have seen those bastards fight on more than one or two occasions since they, like their children, love fighting. Besides, it seems they also share the same stupidity, yet considering their strength, laughing or making fun of them is a resounding no, as it is not something to laugh at but something to be afraid of.
They are dangerous idiots who can kill their bare hand’s beasts twice or even three times their size, and as if that were not enough, their bestial traits are so marked that they are fascinated by eating the raw meat and drinking the blood of their prey.
Damn, if they have the traits of beasts then they should be fully and not half, for they lack something quite crucial that prevails in the animal world, that is, love or at least respect for their offspring.
It may not be frequent, but at least three brats have died at the hands of those psychopaths, and I say at least because those are just the deaths I have witnessed since I left the cave. How many were killed before that? That is something I don’t know.
I can’t even escape from here since just by looking at the meat we eat every day, I can estimate the dangers that lie in the depths of the forest, and by the looks of it, those may be worse than the ones in this place. Also, after some thought, it is evident that this site must be as far away as possible from civilization, so finding a town where to reside could be an impossible goal to achieve.
‘What should I do?’
I know that training the way I do is not enough, not nearly enough. After all, if I were to fight one of the brats, I would probably lose embarrassingly since while I’m out here fooling around and fighting imaginary enemies, they are out there, in the clearing in front of the cave, watching the adults fight, learning from their moves, and then putting them into practice on each other.
Their combat experience is much greater than mine. Sure, they are not my enemies, but maybe the adults are, and if I can’t even beat a brat, comparing myself to the big beasts is nothing but foolishness, a suicide.
”One, two; One, two; One. There, that’s enough for today”
I have been here too long, and I must return before dark, for if I forget to do so, the cloak of the night will cover me without warning. After all, there is no sign of its arrival, no dusk or the birdsong.
What a strange world this is. Everything is larger than I am used to seeing, the trees, the plants, the animals, the humans, and even the sun and the moon.
Jesus Christ, what is wrong with this place? What the hell sense does it make that a rabbit with claws and sharp teeth is the size of a car or a snake the size of a bus? Worst of all, I remember seeing a lion my size. Fuck, of my size, that is, the size of a house dog.
I don’t understand anything. The sky is weird, and the earth too. Also, so far, I still haven’t seen magic in action. The closest thing to it has been the lamps carried by the women and some strange inscriptions on the walls of the empty rooms in the cave.
The good side of all this is that, apparently, there are no dangerous vermin in the vicinity, as I have not seen any of them being hunted by that group of barbarians. Maybe they don’t exist in this world, or the worst-case scenario…
”In the worst cases, they have changed their habitat after growing to the size of a house”
I take it back. There is nothing good in knowing that somewhere there may be a 10-meter-long cockroach.
Anyway, after about twelve minutes of walking, or, since my sense of time is so different, after about 1200 steps, I arrived at my destination.
”Well, I must take advantage of the fact that the beasts are fighting among themselves to go and look for the day’s game because if I fall behind, I could end up dying like the other brats in the competition for fo-… oh… wow, do we have a visitor? How? Why?”
