I must've been sleeping for a while, I don't know how long though, my internal clock is off after everything that has happened. I woke up briefly a few times only to fall asleep again shortly after. I must've been in this womb, I think, for weeks now, possibly months.

  How much longer will I be inside? Not for much longer I imagine. There's no way I gained sentience and self awareness in the first trimester, so this must be late third to early fourth. Even that doesn't make sense but nothing does at this point, so I can only speculate. Whatever creature I'm inside of doesn't seem to be human, so perhaps their pregnancy lasts longer than 9 months.

  I already feel my strength and energy returning to me, so I must be ready to come out. In fact, I feel extremely strong right now compared to the strength I should have as a fetus. I have no concept of my size yet, but my body feels fully formed. As I'm exploring my new shape I feel two lumps on either side of the top of my forehead.

  Before I can fully question what those are and whether or not I'm deformed, I start to hear screaming.

  It's coming from all around me. There is screaming above me, my new mother I'm assuming, beside me, my new father I think, and a symphony of fearful sounds in front. Right after the yelling started I felt myself getting tossed around, sloshing in my new home, shaken so forcefully I can't tell what's up or down.

  I'm getting slung around every which way, violently. No, don't tell me. Before I can process the response to my own concern I hear the hard ringing clash of metal. I knew it. My parents are fighting someone, no, multiple people, desperately. Occasionally I feel something thud against my mother, safely away from my protective bubble over and over again. Until the entire person housing me crashes down.

  No. This can't be happening. Is she hurt? What am I supposed to-

  Slash!

  Ahh! That nearly got me. Something sharp and hard entered my once safe home just above my head. It almost killed me, I… I think it grazed my head. It hurts. I have to do something, I have to think quickly. I reposition myself at the bottom of the womb and stretch out to fill that bottom with my belly tucked in.

  Please work.

  Stab!

  Just in time. The sword, I think, just barely missed me again just in front of my belly. The attacker must've been aiming for the center, for me. The weapon is twisted, and rocked back and forth before, slowly, drawn out. No! They were definitely aiming for me. I hear one more slashing and stabbing further away outside of my new home and mother, now dead. I don't even have time to mourn. Any thoughts I try to have on the matter are drowned out by the sounds of flesh being torn, slashed, stabbed, and even burned.

  A genocide? It must be. They're aiming for the unborn as well and burning bodies. This atrocious act can't be anything else. Whoever is doing this is trying to wipe out my entire species, whatever that may be.

  After that horrible sound of war near me finally fades, I faintly hear the footsteps of the attackers quickly make their way away from me, with more screaming and yelling far into the distance. At least, I think it's far away. I can barely hear it beyond the sickening crackle of my new mother's burning flesh. The fire hasn't made its way into my once motherly home yet, however, I have a massive problem. The umbilical cord has been cut partially. I need to breathe on my own, but I can't, not with my mother's embryonic fluid still surrounding me. I can't leave either, not with the fires of war outside of my sizzling, liquid prison.

  I have to stay here for as long as I can until I run out of breath. I can't leave my shelter until they do, completely. I… I'm getting dizzy. The dark walls of my home turned tomb, already blurry from the fluids around me, are becoming so hazy and foggy I can barely see them.

  I have to keep waiting.

  No! It's getting worse. The throbbing in my head is back, the hollow feeling of death is returning, and what's worse, the tendrils are here again. They're creeping towards me, slowly, menacingly and consciously. It's so hot in here, but it's so dark and cold in that place.

  Please. No more. I don't want to go back, even though, when I was there, I didn't want to leave. I can't go back.

  Wait… it's quiet. A low, unpleasant sizzle is all I hear after all that waiting. I have to take this chance to escape. I would worry about the strength required to tear my way out and run, but for some reason I feel strong. Much stronger than I should at this point in my life, my new life, already at the foot of Death. I have to do it, I can't wait anymore, or I'm going to die.

  I go for it.

  I start ripping my way out of the womb and belly of my mother through the hole left by the final sword strike, and past her muscles, still hot to the touch. Her skin is incredibly strong, despite its recent configuration, but I manage to open it up just enough to fit my head through. Finally out of the darkness I can see what's on the other side, and gasp a tentative and quiet gulp of air.

  Yes.

  The light is finally blinding me, and burning my eyes once again like in my old world. I look through the glare of the blinding light to see a strange world, with stranger plants, and the strangest sight, a scorched and grotesque monster in front of me. My mother. Dead.

  She's a horrifying creature with leathery thick, green scaly skin charred from the flames, with bumps, knots and small horns placed throughout her body except her abdomen. Her head, which is severed, is even more horrendous, like a cross-breed of lizard and baboon with large tusks protruding from her fat face and a crown of horns on her head. The blood pooling around her head is thick, dark green, viscous and slimy. The awful smell that I can sense, even through the fluid clogging my nostrils, is of burnt algae and moss.

  Is that what I'm going to look like? Before I can truly think about that abhorrent realization, I start crawling out. It's difficult at first but once I get my shoulders free I easily slide the rest of my body out.

  I need to go, I need to run away from here, away for all the fighting that just took place.

  Just as I start to run though I'm pulled back, terrified! Something is pulling me!

  I look back, shaking, until I realize it's the umbilical cord partially severed, but still strong.

  Oh.

  I quickly gnaw at it until it breaks the rest of the way through, then I run. I run as fast as my little green legs can carry me, which is surprisingly fast. I don't look like, feel like, or have the strength like an average newborn. This is clearly another world though, and I'm not human. I'm not sure if there's a name for my species but I look, almost, adorably monstrous. Unlike the purely monstrous bodies around me.

  They're scattered everywhere throughout this makeshift village in the woods. They look alien as do the trees and houses, shacks really. Amongst the grotesque, misshapen bodies though, there are some that look human. Not just humanoid, but like normal humans from my old life. Most of them have bright red hair with red armor and swords. I run up to one of them, and quickly realize that I'm about a third of his size. My species, from what I can see around me, has females that are three times his size, some right beside him that he must've killed. A few of them lay dead with abdomen swollen from new life snuffed out, before it began. Humans must be very strong in this world, and my species must give birth to fully formed and functioning offspring, or at least, mostly functional.

  I look around through the weirdly green colored green tree trunks to make sure no one is around. I can still hear fighting faintly in the distance, but nothing else. I need some material, clothing and a way of protecting myself, and this human soldier has everything I need.

  I start by taking off his armor and weapons that are hot to the touch, then I take his clothes off. His clothes are too big for me so I cut them down to size with the dagger he had at his side. I use the scraps to wipe down some of my still slimy and bloody body, and blow my nose to breathe my first full breath of air in a long time. I wish the air was fresh, but it only smells of smoldering death.

  I scrounge items and weapons off a few more bodies before I begin running again.

  Running around the bodies and alien trees as large as skyscrapers, under massive roots larger than houses that curl out of the ground and back in, and away from the fighting in the distance behind me. I keep running, past abnormally large blades of grass, seemingly as sharp as swords. I have to keep running, past bushes bearing fruits and berries of light and luster glistening, not from the light of the sun but from their own. I.. I can't keep running. I'm exhausted. Just a little more. Please. Let me leave this wartorn place.

  I can't keep running.

  After a few minutes I have to stop. I may be incredibly strong for an infant, but I'm still of flesh and blood that tires out over time, and my fear isn't helping. I have to stop to catch my breath and calm down. My heart is pounding in my chest and all the way up to my head, while my vision is getting blurry and I'm feeling weaker.

  Dammit, I need something to eat. I'm so hungry.

  I don't even know what my species eats, so I start looking around for anything that might be edible. There is a berry bush nearby so I go there first but I don't think I can eat them.

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  There's something about them that I can't quite explain. It's almost like they're emanating an evil aura, through their brilliant purple light. That must be my instincts kicking in, as they're probably poisonous. Or at least I'm not willing to chance it. When I look closely I can almost see the toxic fumes oozing out of their bright glowing skin, but, at the same time, there are no fumes. They are both there and not there. I don't understand, but I'll take the hint from my instincts.

  I start looking elsewhere, up, down, under rocks, in other bushes and trees, until something catches my eyes. There's something latched on to one of the trees about 200 feet off the ground.

  There! What is that?

  It has a strange shape and it's pulsating. It almost looks like a fungus, moss, and an amoeba all at once. It's glowing bright green, much brighter than the tree it's latched onto, and it's also translucent. It should look absolutely disgusting to me, but for some reason, I find it appetizing. Just based on appearance, I'd say it's the poisonous thing here, but my instincts are screaming otherwise. Perish the thought then, and just go for it. I don't have time to question anything right now. I'm still way too close to danger in an alien world and too hungry to fight even if I weren't an infant.

  I pull out two daggers that I took from one of the corpses, and use them like climbing picks, burying them into the green bark of the massive tree far enough in to hold me, with each strike. Slowly and carefully I climb my way up the behemoth until I can reach the slimy parasite latched on it. It's larger than me and still pulsating, and the tree around it looks like it's dying. Without a second thought I cut a chunk off with one of my daggers and shove it into my mouth.

  Eww… actually it tastes… uh… refreshing. The slimy texture is a bit much, but the moment I swallow it, I feel rejuvenated, more than that, I feel powerful.

  I eat as much as I can as fast as I can while it's curling up in response to my attacks, until it detaches and falls to the forest floor with a wet thud.

  “Hey, what's that!?”

  Oh no!

  There's someone below me speaking… English!? Wait, I need to ignore how weird that is, I can use this to my advantage. If we speak the same language I can talk my way out of fighting. I should look like a child to them, about 7 or 8. Okay then, before they see me, I'll stab my dagger lower into the tree to stand on it, pull out some scraps of cloth I have in a satchel I grabbed off a soldier, and wrap my face and hands. One hand then the other carefully, but quickly.

  Just as I finish I hear two sets of footsteps directly below me. Now, all I have to do is stay calm and climb down normally like there's nothing wrong.

  As soon as I get halfway down I hear one of them shout up at me.

  “What are you doing up there boy, this is no place to be climbing trees.”

  “I know.” I may be the size of a seven year old boy and my voice is a much lower pitch than I thought it would be, but I'll have to silently disagree with “boy”.

  His voice, on the other hand, is higher pitched than I thought it would be. He looks like a gruff, war hardened veteran, but his voice sounds clean, smooth and youthful. I suppose war does age people, so he might not be as old as he looks. The other man he's with is just watching me silently so I don't know what he sounds like, or more importantly, what he's thinking. Both men aged from war, with ash covered faces, stare in confusion and caution.

  “What are you doing here in the middle of a warzone?”

  He, the youthful old man, looks angry but concerned. Hopefully I can use his concern to get out of this, safely.

  “I got lost.”

  “Lost? We're in the middle of a Folar subjugation. It's not safe anywhere near here, boy.”

  Folar? Is that the name of my species, or the name of my town? Shake the thought away, I have more pressing concerns.

  The silent one, now that I've gotten closer, has started to scowl.

  “I'm a squire.” I have to think quickly, “I was looking for some resources.”

  I gesture down to the green parasitic slime I detached from the tree. I'm hoping it has some importance to them as well, considering how important it is to me.

  My hopes however, didn't last long.

  As I was staring at them, I saw the arm of the silent man begin to glow. A red and orange light illuminated his right arm and hand from the inside. An angry light, piercing flesh and flowing confidently to the tips of his fingers like rage, manifested.

  What is that light? I have to stop it.

  My instincts didn't fail me before, and now, they're screaming at me, stealing my mind with a single, dreadful word.

  DEATH!

  I leap off of the tree towards him before he can finish what he was doing and bury both daggers into his neck, as far as they can go. As soon as I finish sinking my blades in, I'm thrown to the side with an incredible force.

  What!? Hot air? No. Fire!

  The older one threw fire at me! Where did he get it from? How did he throw it at me?

  No time to think, I turn to face him as soon as I stop sliding on the rough ground. His hands are also glowing, one of them still engulfed in flames, both smoking up the air and distorting it with heat.

  There's no way! That's not possible!

  Damnit! Stop thinking.

  I have to run, but I'm not fast enough, I have to fight, but I'm not strong enough. What can I do then?

  The tree!

  I leap behind with a strength and speed that surprised me, but not him.

  He's right behind me!

  I react before I can even think and throw one of my daggers at him, but he swats it away. His swat though, his reactionary swing from my surprise attack, was too wide.

  There's my chance!

  I kick the ground as hard as I can and slash towards his unguarded neck with all of my strength.

  Argh! I'm blinded by a hot, red liquid. Did he get me?

  No! It's blood! His blood.

  I keep slashing and stabbing, even as he is falling to the ground, then one last stab cuts clean through his spinal column, almost taking off his head.

  I overdid it. That's fine though. The deed is done.

  Ahh! Damnit. My face is burning! I have to choke back any audible screaming, but this hurts so bad. I wipe off his blood as best as I can. The cloth rag feels like needles against my skin, but that pain is nothing compared to the burning of my flesh.

  How!? How is his blood so hot? Is it boiling?

  I finally wipe it all away, but not the dull burning that remains. The left side of my face is damaged more than the other. Most of the burning I feel is around my eye. I.. I can't open it.

  No! I need to be able to use both eyes, especially in this place.

  I'll have it force it open, I should've gotten all of that man's blood off of my face so I won't burn my eye. The moment I pry it open I know the damage is severe. Everything I see out of that eye is tainted with a purple and red tint, and blurry. That's bad. I don't know if it will heal. I don't know if I'll get my vision back fast enough to survive in this…

  What!? Oh my… it's healing already! Not just my eye, but my entire face is healing! My burns and blisters, from that man's unnaturally hot blood, are quickly healing!

  My vision is returning and my body is reconstructing its flesh, but my strength is fading. Healing a wound that quickly would definitely cost a great deal of caloric energy, or whatever this world's version of bodily energy is.

  I'm not familiar with this world, or how any of this is happening, but I think I understand why these soldiers were burning the bodies of my new people as they slaughtered them. A mere infant with this much strength, and an ability to heal this quickly. I think everyone here is being killed because they were deemed too dangerous to live by whatever powers that be who have control over this region.

  I ignore my questions of their motives for now.

  There's something I must know before I finish running away. A burning question that needs answering. Is bodily fire production the ability of these two men, and their people? It must be. Even his blood was hot enough to burn my skin at the slightest touch. I believe I would have been incinerated by his attack had it not been for the armor I stole, now covered in burns. I need to answer my question.

  This man, the silent one, has the same armor as mine, so I will switch with him, and while I'm at it… I must perform an autopsy. I simply have too, in order to know just how different this world is, and the people in it are.

  Ok. I'll remove my armor first and dispose of it, then remove his, and put it on. It's a smaller chest plate than the one the other man has, but still too big. It will have to do for now. The high quality of the material is easily noticeable, as well as the gold sigil of a serpent that sits at its center. The thick plate is lined in expertly crafted, flame themed trim, that has faded from time and war.

  It served him well, until I ended his life, now it will serve me.

  I have to do this autopsy quickly. I'll begin with cutting his blouse and undershirt off, and cutting a Y down his chest. Even with no pulse his thin, runny blood pours out of him and on to the ground, sizzling as it slides, and scorching the ground where it falls. I have to be careful not to touch it. How is it still so hot? There's steam billowing out of his open torso like a freshly opened pot of soup on the stove, and some of the dead leaves on the ground caught fire briefly. It reeks of metals of various kinds, some heavily oxidized, like thermite.

  I have to continue. Through the fascia, and muscle, then the hardest part, bone. I thrust my dagger down into his open chest but it ricochets off. Cutting doesn't seem to work on his bones, hard as steel. I'll have to use something to pry his ribs open, and break them where they are connected and weakest.

  My discarded armor should work! I just need leverage. I hook the bottom of the chest plate under one side of his ribcage, just above his floating ribs between the connection of his false ribs, and cut his sternum as much as I can. I place the armor at an angle and stand up.

  Now, with one hard stomp.

  Crack!

  There they go, along with another billowing cloud of steam that was trapped under them. Now I can see. Now every one of this man's thoracic organs are on display. They look wrong. Well, not really wrong, just placed slightly differently, with additional parts, and extra organs, some that don't seem like they belong.

  Almost every organism on earth is merely a tube, or pathway, of nutrient gathering to waste disposal, with extra steps. That's how life works after all, so why would it be different in this world.

  Esophagus, to stomach, to small intestine, to large intestine, to colon, and out, with extra stops along the way. At least one system, usually two, kidneys and liver, for the filtration of blood and other fluids, this man has three. The third one is nestled between the stomach and liver.

  A typical body has one system of two halves for the oxidation of blood, this man has two sets of lungs, one that has two halves where they normally sit, and the second looks like air sacks throughout his body, just under his skin.

  Then of course one organ, for cardiovascular circulation, this man has two, one for the set of somewhat typical lungs, the other longer one encasing the inside of his rib cage with veins and arteries branching out between some of his ribs, connecting with the subcutaneous lungs.

  This is amazing! Especially the strangest addition to his body. There at the center of his thorax, just above and between his liver and stomach, a new organ I've never seen. That is where most of the heat of his body is coming from, and the largest vascular set that branches out of his second heart connects directly to it. There are several other sets of veins and arteries that look different than the rest. In fact, the different looking ones, thicker, stronger, and brighter red than the rest are the ones connecting to this new mystery organ and all other parts of that alien organ system.

  That must be the source of his ability to throw fire.

  Yes!

  The fire hot organ connecting to the arteries that reach all the way to the extra sacks under his skin, must be the way he uses that heat inside him, to ignite his blood and set it free with cutaneous exhalation of fire. Maybe those aren't truly lungs then, but fire sacks for focusing and controlling his bio-flame. This is so strange… and amazing!

  The heat of a man's fire heart sends pillars of flame through his crowded chest.

  Beating strongly the sound of war, a tune that boils blood and burns away flesh.

  With skin that breathes the flames, a breathy hum adds to the melody of Death.

  Thousands perish, possibly more, lost in the heat of war, only but ashes left.

  What a terrifying creature, although, I can't really talk, as the one who bested such a monster as an infant, newly born, or rather newly torn, and still soaked in the cooked and rendered flesh and fluids of my dead mother. Wearing the aged and battered armor of the bested man of flame.

  Perhaps I'm the monster. I will leave you to rest in peace then, as I finish my meal and head off to whatever this strange world holds for me. Sleep well in that all embracing abyss, and pray you never come back.