Chapter Text
The afterlife is astoundingly underwhelming. Darkness on all sides, no sensation but warmth, not even the necessity of breathing touches me. Oh, I forgot to mention the itching. The afterlife itches. A crawling feeling is just stuck under my skin (do I have skin anymore?) and won't go away! After all the religious debate on the afterlife, it’s a bit anticlimactic. Peaceful, but anticlimactic. Of course, thinking this, I jinxed myself.
The darkness became tighter, crushing me. Squeezing me. And am I moving? Yes, apparently. The darkness around my head squeezes tighter and then not at all, and then it’s not dark. Blurs of light and color are the only thing I can see. Then, the itching sensation gets stronger and then burns. Then stops. Instead of itching, I can feel. I can feel so much. The strange thing gripping me becomes a muted rainstorm. Another aura thing surrounds the tan shape in front of me. It feels like a cool breeze and cats, strangely enough.
A loud sound distracts me from the new sensations all around me. People are yelling, I realize. Not in a language I can actually understand, but I’m familiar with it nonetheless. Ah, Japanese. I’ve watched too much anime in my life to not recognize the language. But… uh, I’m pretty dead, so why are there people talking around me?
Then the rainstorm thing holding my body moves up, and oh dear, that’s a giant human face. I couldn’t see it before, because my eyesight is shit, but damn that’s a really big face. Wait. The thing holding me is a giant human. My motor skills and eyesight are shit. Oh no. Nope. Not dealing with this. I want to go back to the itchy abyss. I do NOT want a second chance at life!
I’m moving, I realize. The loud voices have stopped and rainstorm person is carrying me. I pass a blip of dirt-water-light-life. Was that a plant? Am I feeling plants now too?
There are other little blips too. They don’t feel like the plant’s. More like Rainstorm and Breezy Cat’s. Other humans, I realize, just farther away. A creak, then a blast of cold air. I gasp in discomfort, then decide what the hell, I’m a baby, and start to cry. Rainstorm gets… stormier. And I’m falling? Oh shit, I’m falling! Who the hell drops a baby, Rainstorm!
I hit the ground, and honestly it’s kind of a miracle I’m not two for two on dying before my 20th birthday. Well, if Rainstorm wants to be a negligent ass, I’m going to scream my lungs out. So I do. Until I can’t. Babies have no energy, I remember. Also, I was never fucking fed! Ah shit. So much for not going two for two.
I doze until a new aura thing catches my attention. It’s much stronger than anything I’ve felt before, sharp lighting, wolves, ozone, and salty tears crush my senses. I start crying again, hoping desperately that whoever that aura belongs to finds me. I don’t want to die like this!
The aura draws nearer until my ears pick up a soft sound, almost like a coo, and I’m being lifted again. I’m quickly bundled in a rough fabric. There’s a tugging sensation in my gut, and I hear the person mutter something under their breath. Damn, I really need to learn Japanese.
Another person is in my vicinity, dust and warmth. Suddenly, something is jammed into my mouth. A warm liquid floods from the object, and wow, does that taste really gross. Baby formula, maybe? It tastes like chalky milk and milk is bad enough plain. I decide to call my newfound caretaker Storm Wolf until I get a better name. Storm Wolf unwraps me from the rough fabric, then rewraps me in a softer blanket.
The pit of my stomach tugs again, and instead of the diverse pings of human auras, it’s the small blimps of life that I think might be plants and larger spots that might be animals. There’s another aura, too. More complex than the animals, but different than humans. It feels like cool, wind-swept mountains, ozone, and somehow even more wolf feeling than Storm Wolf.
I dub them Mountain Wolf. Mountain Wolf says something, then barks? Is Mountain Wolf an actual wolf? A talking wolf? Sure, why not? If I can sense people by a funky energy source, why can’t there be talking animals?
Babies don’t do much, I realize a few days after my birth. There is probably a good reason why minds develop along with bodies, because seriously, I’m going to go mad with boredom. I still can’t see anything unless it’s two inches in front of me, so I’ve resorted to listening to Storm Wolf and Mountain Wolf talk and trying to mimic their sounds. Hyo is a common word said in reference to me, so it might be my name? That’s all I really picked up on, but it’s better than just staring at the blurs of color around me.
My caretakers seem to really like forests, as the only time I’ve come into contact with other human signatures is when Storm Wolf goes to get baby supplies. I get the feeling they weren’t planning on finding a newborn when they decided to pick me up.
I don’t think the villagers like Mountain Wolf very much because they never come into town with us. Speaking of towns, Storm Wolf bought these weird archaic cloth diapers. And while it’s greatly preferable than the alternative, it’s still humiliating. I find out that my body is still female, so that’s a bonus.
Honestly, Mountain Wolf is a sanity saver in the boredom department. They are indeed an actual talking wolf, so they like to push their face up close with mine. Sometimes I can even manage to slip my hands out of my baby burrito and pet Mountain Wolf. I may be an eternal cat person, but damn, if Mountain Wolf isn’t making a case for all dogs. I still really like cats, though. The night breeze rustles the tree branches above us, and I imagine I can see the stars. Maybe I can learn to like this new life.