Rebirth: The roar of death

      Well, the thing I’ve never thought about is that I can get stuck in such a strange situation that defies any reasonable explanation. I believed you stop feeling anything around you as well as thinking at all, but the system seems to be broken for some reason.       I really feel absolutely nothing around me neither with my body nor with my eyes or ears. Nevertheless, my mind is still there. In such situation only the thing I can do is to think. To think how it could even happen. How could I let myself pass away…       If I remember my life before the turning point — before my death — then, in general, I have always taken it as a cruel joke that God decided to play on me. And besides, my date of birth only confirmed this (April, the first, if anyone is interested). So, I lived in a small town, where I grew up and went to college to study zoology. No, honestly, I really tried to enter the Moscow college, however, as I have already told you, my whole life is a continuous prank, so this is why I never get anything out of what I have planned. I was also lucky that I got an opportunity to study for the profession I wanted, and still with great difficulty. In general, yes, I entered this zoological college and studied there for almost three years, which especially struck me. No, I study pretty well, even more than well, and I’ve collected enough points on the Unified State Exam, I just screw up for absolutely ridiculous reasons. Sometimes I can forget to bring something, or, for example, not even do anything, but at the same time screw up. Well, when I came to the class one day I suddenly met my teacher who told me about the canceled first class. I thought, “Okay. If it was canceled, then I have nothing to do here anymore.” So I went for a walk in the park and at the same time buy myself a cup of cappuccino. Approaching one cafe I got in line for this coffee and stood in it for hacking thirty or forty minutes (yes, this cafe was quite popular with locals). Finally I got this hacking cappuccino, so after that I strolled towards the park where I had planned to stay all the time I was given. The last place I stopped was a beautiful wooden bridge with carved railings and neat stone pillars at its bases. Under it I could see a very long stream framed at the edges by bushes of moss and other vegetation. The water shimmered with all shades of blue and turquoise. And so, standing on the bridge and drinking coffee, I didn’t notice how a guy attached next to me. A handsome guy with acute green eyes with light shades of blue in their depths and hair that was tawny as wheat. His face with its delicate and at the same time very attractive features, looked as if it was… shining. Yes, it was shining!       This boy spoke, and his gentle voice into which notes of deep sadness imperceptibly seeped poured out of his mouth like a melodious and insanely beautiful song. We started talking and didn’t even notice how we knew a lot about each other if not everything.       After the conversation with Egor on the bridge my life changed. He gave me his phone number as well as he got mine and since then we often called and saw each other on that very memorable bridge. I literally blossomed and Egor became happier and almost stopped being sad. And all this was cut off in one moment.       That day Egor and I as usual walked around the park and chatted about everything you can even picture telling each other the events of the past day, our interests and much more. After that we decided to walk around the city in the evening and buy something on the way. Then after going to the bakery and buying a couple of croissants and two glasses of fruit tea we headed to the courtyards to sit on the nearest bench and enjoy what we had bought. But we weren’t able to get to the bench we had already chosen because at that moment a guy emerged from the darkness. Something glinted faintly in his hand as he rushed straight to Egor and me.       Egor didn’t even have time to say anything when a hefty kitchen knife stuck into his shoulder, pierced through the skin and flesh and buried itself in his ribs. Blood sprayed. The man instantly pulled the knife out of Egor’s shoulder with so much power that my lover screamed terribly and sank to the asphalt. However, he immediately stood up, stretched out his arm with a glass of tea… and splashed boiling water in the attacker’s face. It was painful to listen to the stranger’s screams from the burn, but it was even more hurtful to hear Egor’s strangled wheezes escaping from his chest, and to see fresh blood glistening in the weak light of the lanterns on his shoulder. However, when I looked in his face, I saw determination and fierce rage there. I took my cup of tea ready… But I was late.       Egor swinging his fist to punch didn’t notice the attacker sliding down and swinging himself for a terrible blow…       As a result he failed to carry out his plans. I was faster. I managed to stand in front of Egor just at the moment when the knife was about to tear human flesh. As a result his blade glistening with blood dug into my stomach tearing clothes, skin and muscles. Blood poured onto the asphalt and painted it scarlet. I suddenly felt a strong weakness that spread through my body with terrifying speed, and I only managed to see Egor’s glazed eyes. Then he started shouting with tears something about the fact that I was a fool, I couldn’t do this to him, that he couldn’t live with such a heavy heart… With a weak sigh I sank to the ground clutching the wound with my hands and as through a cloudy veil I saw Egor struggling with the cruel opponent. There the guy hit the man in the jaw with his fist, planted his foot in the attacker’s stomach… The man bent double and growled something unintelligible and threw a knife at Egor with all his might…       He didn’t mess up. With a nasty crunch the blade entered exactly in the middle of the chest. Egor coughed and spat out the blood that got into his lungs. So he stood there until he fell to the ground and stopped breathing. I heard that I was screaming so loudly that a little more and I would break my voice… And it was my dying scream that was cut short because the maniac ran up to me and stuck his toe of a dirty shoe into my temple. I will never forget how much pain my whole body responded to such a hit which became fatal for me…       And now I’m sitting — or maybe standing, lying or even flying — and I can’t understand why I’m still alive. It’s strange that I don’t feel any emotions at all remembering this! Maybe I’m lying unconscious in a hospital? But then I can ask this question: why am I getting more and more cramped here? No, something is definitely wrong here. I’m definitely starting to feel like I’m resting my back against something hard, like I can’t move my limbs, like I’m pressing my head against my stomach… No, I’m pretty sure it’s not a hospital. It’s something else.       It is also strange why I do not feel the passage of time at all and what position I am concerned to the floor. I can’t even estimate how long I’ve been sitting here. A minute? An hour? A day? A month? Or eternity? And yes, if I’m in some intangible world, in Hell, for example, then where are those notorious cauldrons with boiling lava in them about which so much is being told? Or if I’m in Heaven, where are the angels? Where are the clouds? Where is God after all?       Damn, it got even tighter. And besides it got stuffy and hot to the point of faint here now as if I’m in a steam room with a man who keeps pouring more and more water into the coals and can’t stop in any way. Moving I felt real disgust for the first time slightly opening my mouth and accidentally swallowing something that looked suspiciously like slime in consistency. That’s right, this is slime!       So, we need to think about it. I am not in Heaven or Hell, besides it is known for sure that I am now in the body of a living thing. I’m in something hard and tight, shaped like an egg and surrounded by mucus… damn, I’m really in an egg! It’s incredibly hard to believe, but I probably won’t be able to find any other explanation. Am I going to turn into some kind of chicken?! However, it seems that I need to get out of here immediately because I can hardly breathe here now.       I raised my head which as it seems to me has noticeably lengthened and tried to bang my nose on the shell. It didn’t give in to me. Then I made a second attempt to make a crack on the eggshell, then a third… I’ve lost count. Finally after what seemed like an eternity I managed to achieve a small crack. Despite the small size this crack made me extremely happy, so I began to scratch a hole in it. It didn’t work out right away, but still a small hole was formed. I was so cheered up that it took me a long time to turn my attention to EXACTLY HOW I did it. And I made this hole clearly not with bird legs but with real paws with claws! I seem to have two pairs of paws judging by my feelings, and they all had a whole set of razor-sharp claws!       I literally began to tear the eggshell to shreds realizing that I was much better than a chicken. After a few moments I was already hurriedly getting out of the egg and shaking off the greenish-colored slime and pieces of shell stuck to my body.       Finally getting out of prison is an indescribable feeling!       I looked around for my “brothers” and really found them. Very close to me and almost close to the remains of my egg were three more of the same eggs, blue-black with irregular colored spots. Turning my head in different directions I managed to discover that our nest (if leaves covering the bottom and ceiling of the place where I was sitting could be even called so) was located high above the ground. A ghostly light was pouring from somewhere to the side from which I concluded that it was night. Turning in that direction I saw a round hole, an incredibly large one.       Turning around I noticed hard scales on my entire body, a tail, a dorsal crest and two additional limbs on my back which had a thin membrane that shimmered with all the colors of the rainbow. Am I a dragon with wings?! Unbelievable!       The scales were of a piercing black color which on most scales (with great reluctance yet) was replaced by other colors which it turned out to be impossible for me to describe. Some scales didn’t change color at all remaining black. The dorsal crest remained bright purple without any changes like the belly (black) and claws (the same as the crest). In addition, there was a weighting behind my head which could be explained by the appearance of horns. the head itself lengthened, the ears became larger, and behind these ears I felt something like ridges that I could close or completely straighten if I wanted to do it.       Suddenly a thought came to me… I stretched out my long neck and looked under my tail. No, that way I don’t understand what gender I am. It can’t be recognized this way.       I shook myself up and decided to end the act of self-admiration there and began to guard my brothers and sisters who were still sitting in eggs. I sat like a statue for I don’t know how long before one of the eggs hatched. I started up and began to stare at this egg with redoubled attention watching how small shells were flying off from it, how it swayed, how a small black clawed paw poked through one of the holes… When this little dragon got out of its little “prison” I was amazed to find out that it was somewhat different from me. Its blue-black scales as dark as night didn’t change their shades at all, only glittered in the moonlight. But its crests behind its ears and wings shimmered so that you just rock! His tail seemed to me to be a bit shorter than mine, but its ears, on the contrary, were a little longer than mine.       After the first little dragon my second sibling was born that was a cast copy of the first. But after the second dragon (I don’t know why, but I clearly feel that it’s is my sister. Nevertheless, the first one is surely my brother) a third one followed, not like us at all. All its scales glowed with all kinds of colors, but the membrane on the wings was completely black and looked like a night sky strewn with bright stars. The horns, dorsal crest and ridges behind the dragon’s ears seemed to be the color of emptiness, because they didn’t even reflect light. That’s how dark they were!       As I see we were all somewhat different from each other, although I definitely felt the kinship between us. Apparently, we were half-blood dragons in which the blood of two different dragon species flows. This is very entertaining, especially considering that, as far as I remember, not everyone accepts the union of two different races. And the dragons I believe are real warriors, and they certainly should have stopped something like this! But I seem to think wrong now…       Suddenly I turned my head and saw a movement through the hole in the distance and then the dark figures of two dragons, which I thought were really different from each other. I hope these are our parents, otherwise I don’t know what will happen to me, a little weak baby dragon…       With these thoughts I pulled my brother and sisters to me (yes, the youngest of the dragons as I suspect is a girl. I don’t know, her muzzle is more refined than that of the dragon that hatched right after me) and enveloped them with my still small wings as if telling them that they were safe, that I would be able to protect them…       Well, it remains for me to wait for those dragons, because it was clear that they were heading in our direction.