I had never witnessed something like this in my previous life. There was something about this beast, and he surely belonged specifically to this weird magical world. Were all animals like this in this world? For some reason, I was not scared of him. Perhaps, it was because I was an emperor myself in my previous life. Perhaps, I am used to danger itself. I looked straight into his eyes but never met them. It was looking straight at my mom with a constant snarl as it came closer.

My mom seemed to have frozen with fear, and it was obvious that she did not know how to react to the situation. I knew I had to do something. I let out a small wail that was enough to make her snap out of it, which clearly worked. As soon as she got back to her senses, the first thing she did was run. She picked me up from the back and hugged me closer to her chest as she ran. I could feel her heartbeat, and it was beating faster and faster with each passing moment. I could feel something wet on the top of my head. I looked up to see mom’s face full of sweat and it was dripping on top of me. One of the drops fell onto the top of my nose and swiped it onto mom’s shirt.

I glanced back toward the hybrid beast. It was catching up, really fast!

I knew she needed help. I would have grabbed a sword, smashed the beast’s head, and helped her get away from it. Unfortunately, I could only think of doing it; I was obviously incapable of doing that physically even if I knew what to do. I had never felt so helpless ever since I had been born again. I felt my eyes tearing up. Was it because I was scared? I couldn’t stop crying. The tears kept on coming out.

The beast was getting closer. I looked up at mom, and her face was turning blue with nervousness. She looked so sad and scared. I could feel her whole body trembling since we were so close. Looking at her made my tears come out even faster. I guess now I knew why I was crying. I had grown attached to this beautiful woman who had brought me to this world, my mom. I just could not see her that way. I knew that I had to do something, but what??!!

Huh?

The sky was coming into view, but my head was straight. I could see the millions of stars that I have always seen shining above since the day I got here. My mom was falling down. She must have tripped over a branch or something. The next thing I know is that the hybrid took advantage of the moment and jumped straight on top of my mom. She grabbed me tighter, hoping to protect me by putting her body between me and the beast.

“Baby, I’m sorry. I love you so much.”

Even though a shadow covered her face, I could see her tears flowing down her cheeks. It was something intolerable for me to witness. After thinking for a second, I managed to get my hand out and search for something that I could use to hit the hybrid without much strength. Anything would do at this point. I adjusted my head to take a good look at it. It let out another loud growl when it saw me.

Suddenly I felt something touch my hand; I had found something—a small pebble.

Yes!

Now I only needed to give my mom just a little bit of time to run away. The timing was something I was actually good at in my previous life.

The hybrid grabbed my mom and hardened its grip, making her scream with pain as its claws plunged into the skin of her shoulder. Her clothes were getting damped with blood. I blinked away as the tears that were blurring my vision rolled down my cheeks. Right when the hybrid opened its mouth, I knew it was my time to take action. I just hoped I had enough strength for the plan I had in my mind.

I threw the pebble right into its mouth and grabbed a handful of sandy dirt, and aimed it at its eyes. I was quite surprised at my shoulder’s flexibility. Fortunately, it hit the right spot.

The hybrid started to choke and shake its head, trying to get rid of the dirt in its eyes. It got off mom in the process. It was using its arms to take the dirt away. She took this as a chance to catch her breath and run away. I noticed that she was limping as she ran. The hybrid must have gotten one of her legs while it had her pinned down to the ground.

I needed to say something to her, but I was not sure what. She needed to heal fast. I could see a trail of blood from behind when I heard another growl far away. Did it ever learn how to give up? Then again, it was an animal.

I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was coming faster this time. Since my mom was limping, it would take even less time.

Then suddenly, mom stopped. She looked at me, eyes filled with tears.

“I love you so much. You have to get away somehow. I’ll try to lead it away.”

Snarl.

We both looked back to see it just standing there. The beast was completely angry about what I had done to him. I felt my mom stagger a little bit, and I looked back at her. Her eyes were unfocused, and I could tell that she was at her limits.

“Mama.”

That word snapped her back to life. It looked as if a new form of energy rushed through her body - a magic spell that had brought her back to life. I stared right into her eyes. I saw many emotions running through them, and one of them was definitely happiness.

I looked back at the beast. It was even closer than before, trying to find its chance to attack us once again. I didn’t know what else I could do.

It started to take a step forward. As it began to move, I gave out a little, low growl, which surprised the hybrid. It tilted its head, confused at what I had just done, and growled back with anger.

It was probably through with all the running and growling, so it just lunged at us. My mom dodged to the right and put her back against a large tree that was blocking her way. The tree was huge. It looked about four hundred feet high up toward the sky, and its trunk was wide and sort of caved in.

It lunged again. Mom had nowhere to escape, so she turned her back against the beast and hugged me even tighter.

So I guessed this was it. My second life was finally coming to an end. My days of being in a happy family were coming to an end. I wished I had more time to spend with Arthur, dad, and mom. I closed my eyes as I listened to mom’s heart beating rapidly.

Then I heard something cut the air, a sharp sound of a weapon. I looked past mom’s shoulder to find out what had just happened. My eyes met a long sword plunged through the hybrid’s chest.

“Hey Valerie, where’s Jake?”

The man was smiling as if nothing had happened. I examined him closely. He didn’t have any intent for killing, nor did he look suspicious, so I just sat in my mom’s arms, staring at him. I was still cautious as the man took a step towards us. Mom turned around to see who it was. When she saw the man, she smiled in relief and acknowledgment, and then all of a sudden fell down as she fainted.

I heard her mumble something like ‘thank you’ before she fainted.

I was slowly falling out of her hand as she loosened her grip on me. The man stepped forward and caught both of us. He turned to me and gave me a huge warm smile.

“You must be the youngest child of Jake.”

I gave him a nod while looking at mom.

“Wow, you did that as if you understood me.” Then he laughed. “What am I saying? Newborns can’t understand us. They’re dumb.”

Great! A man that verbally abuses a baby.

He then put mom over his shoulder and walked over to the beast to pull out his long sword. He did struggle a bit when taking his sword back since he was carrying us both. After that, we walked toward a carriage.

It didn’t take us long to walk over to a carriage, which was carried by two horses. It was quite big for just the man. I could tell he was having trouble carrying my mom with just one arm while holding me in the other.

The man went around to the back of the carriage and opened it up. There were four other people sitting there with ‘worriedness’ ridden all over their faces, staring at us as we went inside. Who were these people, and how did this man know my mom?