Sing!

Reborn!

I came to consciousness again, quite abruptly. It was probably the cold that did it, given I was half frozen. I gasped and tried to get up but my body wouldn't listen. What was going on?

Panicked, I tried to take in my surroundings, noting that I was not anywhere near the suburban street I had just been bleeding out on. I was laying on my back and the sky was full of stars; I could make them out between the trees that appeared to be rooted either side of me. I saw the breath puff up out of me and shivered. It was cold enough to be autumn, but the leaves in the trees still appeared to be green.

Afraid and confused, I tried to call out for help, my mind still working through the fact that I had, apparently, died. And, had that really been a god that was speaking with me? was I laying in the forest of a new world now? And why the heck was my body not moving like I wanted. As I squirmed, feeling grass and not cloths on my back, I tried to call out. But it was not the shout for help I had expected to hear. No, the sound that came out of my mouth was more like a weak wail.

I recognized that sound. It was a baby's cry. Wait, was I a freaking baby?!

Fueled by the confusion and rising anxiety and the inability to fully think like the grown human woman my brain was convinced I was, I cried out more. And again it was the wail of a frail and frost bitten baby that escaped my lips.

As the panic began to rise even farther, I heard the thumps of foot falls and a woman's startled shout.

"Oh my gosh!" I heard gasped, somewhere out of sight. Then there were warm hands, and the flutter of what felt like the brush of hair. But it couldn't have been hair, because hair was not sea foam green... no, that's not true. people dyed their hair all the time, after all. "A baby... what are you doing out here all alone little one?" Asked the woman.

I was jostled about some more, the sky and trees blurring before my eyes. Then the cold faded as I felt myself being wrapped in a warm fabric, and then held tight to what I could only assume, was the woman's body.

I gazed up into the face of an impossibly beautiful woman. Inhumanly beautiful, in fact. Because there was no doubting that this woman was an elf. I may have been in denial about the existence of elves had I not just felt myself die and been told, in no uncertain terms, by a disembodied voice that I was going to be reborn in a world not my own. But here I was, a baby. And there this new woman was, sea-foam hair, clear creamy skin, vibrant green eyes, and a set of large pointed ears. I may not have been as obsessed with games and manga as others I knew, but I knew a damn elf when I saw one.

"Hello!" The woman called out, her head spanning side to side, clearly looking for whom ever had left a freaking baby alone and naked on the forest floor. "Hello!" the elf looked back down on me, her pretty face creased with worry. "Alright little one. I'm going to take you home and get you warm. Maybe we can find your mommy and daddy tomorrow, yes?"

With that the woman spun on her heel and began running with me held tight in her arms. I could not see her run but I imagined it was quite graceful given the fact that I hardly felt a bump as I was being whisked away.

I was not sure where the elf woman was taking me, but it did not take long to arrive. I smelt wood smoke first, then the scents of many flowers mixed together. It was a comforting scent and I felt myself begin to relax at last. This was all very scary, but if I was indeed a baby then there wasn't much I could do about it all. My fate and life rested in the arms of a pretty elf woman.

I heard the creak of wood as the elf slowed her pace. Then the night was flooded with a warm and flickering light. "Linfa!" Said a new woman's voice. Who ever she was she sounded happy to see the elf woman who, I now assumed, was Linfa. "I was starting to wor- what's that you have there?"

"A baby..." Breathed Linfa, and brought me closer to the light. I found myself now looking up into the face of a young woman with suspicious brown eyes and short brown hair, it looked like she was wearing a cloak over leather armor. "I found her just out in the woods. I called out but no one answered."

"Who would abandon a baby all the way out here?" Asked the suspicious woman, her eyes narrowed down on me, but then a hand appeared, fingers wiggling, proving she was kinder than her scowling face suggested. "And what were you doing out so late anyway. I was just coming to look for you."

"I was about to come in when I saw a light out in the forest. When I went to check it out I found her."

Now the brown haired woman looked at the elf reproachfully. "Why would you run out into the forest all on your own? its not safe to just dash off after a mysterious light!" I had to agree, that was probably dangerous. But this woman was an elf right? Didn't they have magic or something?

"It wasn't far." Said the elf rather childishly. "And its a good thing I did! Poor thing was all alone and naked, crying. If I didn't get her a monster would have."

Wait, monsters?

The human woman sighed. "Alright, well bring her in, before you both freeze to death." She stepped out of my sight and Linfa carried me into the warmth. "We will go looking for her family in the morning."

I was carried though what appeared to be a modest cabin. I saw herbs hanging and drying around the place, a shelf filled with table wear, and a fire place that Linfa was currently settling in front of, getting me warmed up.

"What if she has no family, Gale... She is so small." Whispered Linfa, beginning to rock me back and forth.

"Well..." Said Gale, reappearing above me. She stood behind Linfa and leaned over us, her face gentling as she smiled down upon me. "We could keep her."

"Really!" Gasped Linfa. As i began to drift asleep, lulled by the warmth and the elf's gentle rocking, I saw her eyes fill with hopeful tears. "Do you think it will be okay? To keep her, I mean."

"Sure, why not." Gale looked at Linfa with such tender love that I knew they must be partners. "So long as we make every effort to find her blood relatives first. Shouldn't be hard, I mean look at that hair!"

Linfa laughed tearfully, squeezing me close. "I think its beautiful. Do you think she is part dwarf?"

"She doesn't look it besides the orange hair. But there is no way at least one of her parents don't share it. I will go to Jerd tomorrow and ask around."

"And we can keep her till we find her family, right?" I could hear the longing in Linfa's voice and realized that she desperately desired a child.

"Mmm." Said Gale, brushing a lock of hair from my face. "Maybe the gods have heard our prayers..."