Reincarnated in a Fantasy World

18

Up Spree time! Back to the story.

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I sat in the kitchen finishing up assignments and grading a few papers the teachers were to lazy to do. They trusted my ability in the subject enough to have me do the work and I figured it was good practice anyways. My mind wandered to the serpent tattoo I had. I tried to remember how I got it but the memories were wiped clean... almost clean. Sometimes if I tried hard enough I would get a glimpse of black roots and Garrett fighting something but the memories were foggy and crammed as if someone has sand papered glass then punched it. Every time this happened I got a sudden head ache and would lose focus. The memories would disappear as soon as they came and I would be left with a sinking feeling of sadness. I tried to think of what the tattoo could mean. Based on my studies there were only healing, super strength, animal communication, super speed, and stealth. The rabbit was speed, the bird was stealth... the serpent could have been strength... no that doesn't sound right. Serpents aren't about strength. I wracked my brain trying to think of what it could be. I don't think the serpent is even supposed to be one of the abilities. Could it be animal communication? I recalled a popular book series were a wizard could talk to snakes. This world didn't know about that though so it was highly unlikely. I shifted my focus back to grading papers. Figuring out the tattoo could wait, for now I needed to get these done by tomorrow.

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A knock sounded at the door. I slowly lifted my head still tired from grading papers. "Who is it?" I lazily asked.

"It's Wesley! They called. I opened the door to find an energetic Wesley. "We gotta go to school! Why do you look like you just woke up?"

I looked down at my wrinkled uniform that I never changed out of. I ended up falling asleep at the table after finishing the grading. Shoot! I rushed up the stairs and quickly brushed my hair then pulled it back. Luckily I didn't take my mask off before falling asleep last night. I changed my socks and did my best to steadied out my clothes. Grabbing my cloak from a coat hanger I rushed back down the stairs to meet Wesley. I nearly tripped on my baggy pants like I usually do. "Ugh!" I growled in frustration I hastily rolled up my pants to a little bit higher than my ankles. This could work. I thought noticing how they wouldn't get in the way anymore. "Let's go." I pulled Wesley out the door with my ugly backpack on one shoulder.

He stumbled after me finally able to catch up. I was confused. How could he catch up? I was using a bit of super speed to go faster than normal... I looked at this arm which he had his sleeve rolled up. There sat a rabbit tattoo just like mine. I stopped running and walked at a normal pace now.

"I'm still not used to my speed. I woke up this. Opening with a fuzzy memory of how it got there, I could t remember anything after walking you home but I think I went to the forest to look for some good firewood." He explained still confused. "Then when I was on my way to your house I suddenly ran faster and I realized I had super speed. Is this what happened when you got yours?"

I looked at my arm. I guess he didn't know about the serpent one but he knew I had the rabbit and the bird. "Yeah pretty much." I lied knowing the real reason why the tattoos appeared and people suddenly had abnormal abilities. "Um, quick question, is there an ability for the serpent?" I wondered if he had ever heard of it.

"Hmmm, I remember a lore of a serpent coming from the underworld but only one serpent and it's just a story." He replied. "That's the only thing about a serpent I could possibly think of."

"Oh..." my voice trailed off. "Interesting, I'll read up on that.

Classes passed quickly and during break I rushed to the library, eager for any clues I could get. I shuffled through the lore section until I came across something. The Serpent of Hell and the God of the Sun. I think I found it, I thought as I pulled it off the shelf. It was dusty like most of the books here but this one looked especially old. I flipped through the pages that seemed like a picture book. The story went something like this...

Long ago lived a small village on the out skirts of Tarabith, a far away kingdom of the dessert, a sacred ritual was being performed. A cult of over 300 people had gathered to perform it, to raise hell. A large serpent appeared from the shadowy abyss and roared loudly, "who daressss to disssssturb me!?" It hissed. All 300 of the participants vowed to the snake. It's eyes burned with rage after not hearing a good explanation as to why they raised him. He spat poison at everyone and they all turned to a purple stone statue. Through the large sky light a beam shine down. A man appeared. The Sun God who was widely worshipped. He banished the serpent to a forest in the neighboring kingdom where he could keep an eye on him. The creature had to remain in the forest and was magically bound to a cave in which he was not allowed to stray too far away from. The snake could not kill himself and nobody was strong enough to kill him so he remained trapped forever. The story ended there. I got a splitting head ache as thoughts of the forest Garrett and I used to live in came to mind. I still didn't know the whole story but I think I mostly got it. The serpent killed Garrett and I killed the serpent. The only way for it to truly be free was to die so it gave me its symbol as a thanks. This mad me sick. I didn't want a gift from the thing that killed Garrett. It came from the under world so what kind of murderous power could it be!?

"Are you okay?" Wesley had entered the library and noticed that I was shaking in fear of myself. He sat down next to me and patted his lap. "Sit, do you want to all about it?"

I shook my head. He could t know, he wouldn't believe me and even if he did he would be scared of me and my unknown power. I tentatively crawled over to his lap and curled closer to him. I was scared but as long as I never used the serpent ability it should be fine, right? Those thoughts comforted me as I slowly became calmer. I felt safer when Wesley was here. I sank deeper into his embrace as he read a story to me.