God, if you're doing this to punish me and teach me a lesson about being content, I get it now. I swear I do! Please don't judge me, but I do. I should have treasured what I have, especially now that I'm trapped in an unknown place with nothing but darkness.
God? Yoo-hoo! Are you there?
Silence, a never-ending silence…
Hmm… Okay, a guessing game. I'll guess where I am? What can I do now if my vision is dark? Wait. Am I a non-living thing? But that doesn't make sense, but it kind of does too. That's why I couldn't move. But I was moved. I felt that I rolled and tumbled like a tumbleweed.
Whoa! I rhymed!
Oh God! Please, if you could see me now, I am kneeling, like my soul is kneeling because my body won't cooperate.
If you hear me… Please don't let me be reborn as a tree. Or a rock…and please definitely an algae or bacteria. I mean, I can't be in my mom's womb now right? Because I felt pressure earlier. There's no way she was tumbling and rolling like that…right?
Wait, it can't be, right?
God, it can't be that I died and then died again, right?
That is so unethical, you know!
Now I am a bit angry. How could I die again and again? Sigh… I can't escape a harsh life even after death. How long have I stayed in this abyss of darkness?
Really can someone answer my question? Someone? Anyone?
Sigh…might as well sing.
Hmm… oohhh… I'm singing…yeah… I'm floating, I am floating into nothingness. I am nothing and nothing is me. Floating, nothing is floating hmmmm.. yeaaahh..
I think I'm going insane… Is this what acceptance feels like?
God, if I'm reborn, at least let me be a rich young master. Please… Can you see my puppy eyes? I am doing it. I swear, I am.
Sigh…
Sighing is what I do frequently these days. Well at least I'm not getting crushed or anything now.
Sigh…
Wait…did something just press into me?
Blub…
Damn! Yes! Something did bump into me. Wait…Is it squirming? Soft bodies pressed into me from all sides shifting…moving…and somehow it felt…comforting.
More.
More, please…
I was pushed aside again.
Hahaha! Yes!! I'm alive!... and soft.
Wait, soft?
SOFT–!!!!
Have I finally lost it?
Why do I suddenly feel so naked…exposed?
What even is something soft…but conscious…?
Damn!
Am I... a slime?
Like the one in that anime?
Is this it? My era...from weak to overpowered?
Hahaha...a manic laugh escaped me.
God... I mean, I did ask to be a rich young master— but if I'm a slime in a fantasy world destined to be strong with strong subordinates.
Who am I to deny my fate?
No... Calm down. Don't get excited. Not yet. I need to think of a name. A powerful one. Something that screams, "I am a mountain. I stand tall no matter how strong the wind is."
A small giggle escaped me as the possibilities filled my mind.
I'll bide my time. I can feel it. Something inside me is changing. It's close. My time of greatness is here… and I'll embrace it.
It's here… the time is nigh…
The greatest being is about to break out of its shell.
I can see it now…faint lights, silhouettes going further away, moving—floating?
Wait… what silhouettes… what floating?
Blue...dark blue...
Quiet...too quiet...
I looked around and saw translucent circles with black dots moving all over me...
Moving...
Eggs...like a tadpole egg?
Am I a damn frog?
If I were still human, my chest would be heaving from anger right now.
Why a damn frog!? Where's the slime? My greatest time?
Wait… let's calm down. At least I'm alive. I can move. I can hop around—explore the world… maybe even grow big, become a behemoth someday, right?
Still full of possibilities. This is good.
Also, I have siblings. I never had any siblings in my previous life, and now I have… what… hundreds? Thousands?
I looked around again. I shifted. No. Rolled inside something round. So that's why I felt like I was tumbling earlier. I really was rolling…like a ball. But that pressure before—it was big.
Big… I tensed just thinking about it. But life must roll on. Wow! I really rock with accepting things today.
Then I sensed something. My siblings are about to be born. Witnessing childbirth is really such an amazing thing.
One of them rolled inside its placenta. It pushed and wriggled like a worm trying to break free. Then a tear. It slipped out just like that.
One...
Two...
Three…and more followed.
Such a beautiful thing. Tiny bodies. Soft shells. Moving. Alive.
Before I could even appreciate more of my siblings, a shadow darted and ate all of them into its large mouth.
It lingered for a moment in front of us.
It had one big, pale, dead-looking eye that somehow seemed to see everything, staring without blinking. Its body was thick and heavy, like something from the bottom of the ocean, not something that moved through it.
Its scales weren't smooth; they were jagged and uneven, like rock fragments stuck to its skin. Mud smudged its surface, filling every crack, making it look more like a living piece of the seabed than a creature.
Two long, whip-like feelers dangled near its wide, toothless mouth, swaying slowly as if tasting or sensing. It looked even scarier without teeth because it didn't bite—it just swallowed everything whole.
For something so large, it should have been slow, heavy, bound to its own weight, but it wasn't. With a swish of its tail, it disappeared as fast as it appeared.
I froze. That one eyed fish was a big one. Around three feet long… maybe more. It didn't look like something that lived in light. And my siblings…were bigger than I thought.
Also, was it a shell?
A frog… with a shell? A cyclops fish?
Where the hell am I… what am I… and what is this place? and…my brothers and sisters— they… they vanished in one gulp.
I don't know what to feel right now. I'm shocked, flabbergasted, terrified—you name it. But one thing is clear, once I pop out of my egg, I'll be one delicious cyclops fish food.
No, I have to think. I'm thinking deeply right now.
Thinking…
Thinking hard…and…I've got nothing. Damn it!