I don't know where this will end up going. I am a very sporadic writer who only put this idea down into words because I haven't written anything since October last year. I don't know what will happen or how long my motivation will last, but I hope you all enjoy the ride with me.

"Waahhhh…"

You know, some say that the universe is infinite.

The universe encompasses all we will ever know. An untold amount of planets, given life by the happenstance of countless stars. For all we knew, it could have been the lie we told ourselves every day. Nobody wanted to feel alone, existing through the whims of coincidence and odds so infinitesimal that they never be repeated anywhere else, for as long as there is existence.

"Waaaaaaahhhhhh..."

Maybe it would be better to say that the universe was potentially infinite. Just to cover all my bases. Though that would then bring into question the aspect of humanity's limited viewpoints, and the meaning of the words we speak in contrast to the concepts they're supposed to represent…

Where was I going with this again?

"W-w-w-waaaaaaahhhh!"

Oh, right.

Potentially infinite planets. Potentially infinite circumstances.

And what's the first thing I hear upon waking up from what feels like an eternal nap?

Some little fucker crying in my ear.

Spectacular.

Alright, focus. Focus on the here and now. My eyes were already closed, but I clenched them tighter as I tried to remember. Remember… what was my name again?

There had been an L… something to do with an L. I was born in… somewhere?

That was worrisome. My arm felt like a soaked noodle as I flailed it around, fighting against the world itself in my attempt to plant it somewhere and raise myself up. Eventually it came to a rest, flopped down beside me uselessly- and landing in something warm and slimy.

The crying stopped for a moment, before starting up again. Muffled, with the vibrations running along my arm.

Okay, one, fucking ew. Two, apparently my fist was small enough to fit inside a baby's mouth. At least I thought it was a baby. Shit, was it even human?

Choke, you little bastard!

Seriously, where the fuck was I? And why was my lower back hurting so damn much?

"Waaah-!"

"Do you ever shut the fuck up!?"

I'd tried to snap. It wouldn't have helped the situation any, yelling at a crying child wasn't going to make them quiet. But I was tired, hungry, my eyes wouldn't open, I could barely move my body any, and my voice had sounded to my own ears like an infant gurgling around a tongue that they didn't yet have the strength to properly maneuver.

...Shit.

I just realised…

I'm…

...Really tired.

XxX

"What are we going to do?"

It wasn't the words that woke me, so much as the sharp crack of skin against skin. Without thinking or coordination, I flopped my hand back over the mouth of the brat beside me, right as he was gearing up to start screaming again.

Partly because I wanted to hear what was happening, mostly because he was really starting to shit me with his attitude.

"We!?" It was a male voice this time, somewhat deep but still carrying a nasally quality that I would have made fun of, if I could speak. "You told me this wouldn't happen- couldn't happen!"

"I-I didn't think-"

"NO, YOU DIDN'T THINK!" A second loud crack echoed through the room. "A FREAK'S BLOOD RUNS THROUGH YOUR VEINS, AND YOU BELIEVED YOU COULD KEEP IT FROM ME!?"

"My grandfather was not a frea-!"

I'd been expecting something louder when the female voice cut off suddenly. The noise was quieter this time, mixed in with a grunt that could have been either surprise or pain. Probably both, if I had to guess.

"Perhaps this behaviour should be thought through, Sir."

Well, this was… unfortunate.

I tried to open my eyes enough to see around me. I wanted it so bad that I was hoping that it would become reality through sheer force of will alone. It just wasn't happening for me, though. All I knew about the outside world was the sounds assaulting my ears and the soft blanket that had been draped over me.

"That thing is not my son!" The sheer, simmering rage in that statement was enough to make me uneasy. Even after everything I'd ever seen or know… what had I seen or known? "I will not have a disgusting creature be my legacy!"

The guy beside me gurgled again. I turned a bleary gaze upon what little I could see of him, trying to map out any similarities.

Loud, obnoxious, and probably a jackass? Yeah, that sounded close enough.

"Makes sense they'd regret giving birth to you, mate."

Again, my voice came out as barely anything other than a high-pitched gurgle. The impact of the words was lost as a result, but the atmosphere in the room swerving back towards suffocating was hard to ignore.

"Get rid of it."

What?

"What!?"

"I told you I would not allow something like that in my home." Thundering footsteps came to a stop beside where I was lying. Instinct told me to reach out for a hug. Intelligence told me to stop fucking moving and pray that I wasn't seen. "Leave it in a bush, throw it in the river, I don't care. Get it out of my sight."

Silence.

Absolute and utter silence.

Until…

Footsteps, soft and agonisingly slow, made their way towards me. Any of the good humour I'd managed to hold onto up until that point withered and died as I looked upon the small shape beside me.

This was fucked up. This was absolutely fucked up. What was I supposed to do? In my current circumstances, what could I do? I may not have known or liked the kid, but there was no good reason to just-!

Two soft hands wrapped around my midsection. My train of thought sputtered and derailed off its tracks as I was lifted away from the wondrous blanket and into the freezing air.

"I'm sorry," that female voice murmured in my ear, almost too low for me to hear.

Oh hell the fuck no.

"No! Put me down! Take the other one, he's got less to live for!" I want to say I struggled. That I put up any semblance of a fight. Unfortunately, with my noodle limbs and dulled senses, there was nothing I could do but cry out. I struggled to struggle. "Do you know who I am? Do you!? Wait, shit, do you? I'm kind of drawing a blank here."

We continued like that for a while, her doing her utmost to avoid detection and me doing my utmost to draw all the attention in the world towards myself. My various calls of "kidnapper" went unanswered, nobody seemed to give it any mind when I started throwing accusation of sexual deviancy around, and the last thing I tried… let's just say that it was a stressful situation for all involved and that I regret ever mentioning it.

That field of potatoes may have inspired something, but that's all in the past and we can move on with our lives.

Eventually, the sounds of civilisation were fading. Voices and metallic clanging became woodland creatures and running water. I'd run out of things to complain about and was now just sulking, my arms crossed as best they could and my mouth still avidly attempting to bite through the hand that had been silencing me for the last stretch of the journey.

However, because nothing today seems to want to go my way, I didn't appear to possess teeth. Whatever, who gives a shit, not like they were all that useful for me anyway.

Damn it all. I miss my teeth.

Finally, my ride came to a stop. A great, shuddering sob ran through the woman as she placed something down, and lowered me inside of it. Immediately, my hands were pawing at the sides, running across… wicker? A wicker cylinder that went up higher than I could reach, right next to the sounds of crashing waves…

Oh you have got to be shitting me.

"I'm so sorry." Damn, she sounded really torn up about it too. Maybe if I was lucky, the wicker basket would spring a leak while I was still within sight of her, and she'd watch me drown. Wouldn't that be a fantastic way to end a thrilling evening?

A hand settled on my cheek, the thumb running softly across my closed eye. I seized up, barely feeling the other had that settled on my shoulder.

A tear landed on my chin, and even through inoperable eyelids, I could see that it was glowing.

"For it is in resilience that we achieve repentance." Oh no you don't, I'm not being cursed like this before you chuck me out like yesterday's garbage. "Through this, we become a paragon of strength and safety to encompass all."

The glow was getting brighter. I tried to squirm, to get some distance between myself and whatever the hell I was being held by, to no avail. It felt like my body was calling for it, like the light was sinking through my skin and filling me up inside.

It was hardly a pleasant sensation, to say the least.

"Infinite in love and unbound by calamity."

The light disappeared suddenly, seeming to take with it all the sounds in the area. I couldn't hear the water anymore, couldn't hear the wind whistling through the leaves over the heavy thumping of my own heart. I couldn't tell what, but there was something, something inside my body that felt foreign and defiling and wrong, pushing and pulsing against my skin.

It wanted out. I wanted it out, but there was nothing I could do about it.

"I release your soul, and by my heart... beg forgiveness."

I was too tired to really do much of anything as the basket was gently pushed away from the shore. A deep exhaustion seemed to have settled into my very bones, but it wasn't really physical. Nor was it mental, otherwise by this point this body would have likely succumbed and gone back to sleep.

No, it felt almost… spiritual? Like my soul had been kicked in the nuts by a mule.

Ah well. Death would await me soon, unless someone managed to fish my dumb ass out of this river. All I could do now was lie here, maybe try to shift around so my tail wasn't quite so uncomfortable, and then wait for-

WAIT TAIL WHAT THE FU-

XxX

I don't know when people start remembering the shit that goes on in their life.

There were some things that would stick with me, things that I could almost recall if I closed my eyes and concentrated. Occasionally I would see a flicker of light, or the glowing eyes of a monster for a moment before they blinked away. There was fire, there were the crashing waves of an ocean, and there was even a sword the likes of which I don't think I would have been able to imagine… while sober.

I grew, somehow. There was no chance in hell that I could have told you who was taking care of me. All I know is that I didn't die of starvation or dehydration until I could get my legs underneath my ass and hunt food and water for myself. Those big ugly wolves don't make for a nice meal, by the way. Fuckers always seem to melt away before I can cook them, and no way would I be eating that mangy coat raw.

Maybe someone took care of me. That sword would jump to the forefront of my mind whenever I found the time to sleep. There were flashes of other things, too, but they felt… fictional.

I would see a world with an intact moon. A world of technological marvel, where people were happy. I saw a world free of monsters, and that was how I knew it couldn't be real. Monsters were everywhere.

It didn't matter that I knew a language that I shouldn't. It didn't matter that I even knew what a language was. Those early days, the days that were lost to me, echoed nothing but misery.

But, good tidings abound! For the world around me may be shit, but a light shone in the darkness! For all that had happened while I was still a hapless infant with nary a say in the matter, I had at least lived long enough to actually remember something for the rest of my life!

At around the age of four, I killed a man.

To be fair, I wasn't willing to take all the blame for the man suddenly coming down with a severe case of not being alive. In fact, I was the victim in all of this, and that is the story I will continue to tell until they find the body and I am forced to flee the country.

I'd been in My Place. I called it My Place because it was the most fitting descriptor I could come up with. I'd not really built anything that could be considered a house, and it would just depress me if I started thinking of it as my home.

My Place was just a clearing in what was otherwise very thick forestland. Some of the tree trunks that surrounded it were too wide for me to reach my tiny arms from side to side. I knew, because on some of the lonelier nights, I'd been desperate enough for a hug to try.

I didn't have anywhere too spectacular to sleep. If I wasn't lying in a tree with my tail anchoring me to a branch, I'd just crawl into one of the bushes that didn't have thorns. In the middle of it was a fire pit, constructed out of what few rocks my likely malnourished body could push and whatever chunk of tree was unfortunate enough to yield to my fearsome toddler strength.

Hardly what could be called living conditions, but it was literally all I had.

The man didn't show up like the monsters normally would, poking his nose through the foliage and sniffing the air. I'd learned very early on to climb one of the opposite trees if I heard something like that happening. No, instead he just appeared right beside me, staring down at me while I watched the clouds and wondered what I was going to do with my life.

The faintest whisper of wind rushed through My Place, rustling the leaves and ruffling my unkempt hair. The man didn't seem to take any notice of it, just smiling down at me as though he hadn't just popped out of thin air.

It was a nice expression. It drew a lot of attention to his raggedy appearance and yellow teeth. I smiled back, even though I was already rolling to the side and climbing to my feet. Maybe I just wanted to show off how my time in the sun had ruined my own personal hygiene, or what little I could have had in the first place while wearing what was essentially ferns. We could bond over that, at least.

"Hey, kid." Oh, look at that, he spoke a language I could understand. That was… lucky. "You lost or something?"

The sinister glint in his eye told me he must have been thinking about the copious amounts of danger I was in, by being out here all on my lonesome. Geez, what a swell guy. It was nice to know there were still a few good people out there.

"Nah, this is My Place."

I swept my hand in a grandiose manner, hoping the exhibition of my exceedingly humble abode would distract from the fact that my voice had very obviously not been used for a while. It would have been terrible if he thought I was weird, he was the first person I'd seen out there!

"Heh, nice place you got, kid." I beamed, my tail wagging behind me happily. He thought My Place was nice! We're in, boys! "Do you wanna see somewhere even better?"

Do I want to see something bet- "hell the fuck yeah I wanna see something better!"

Huh, now he was licking his lips and loosening his belt… Damn, this must have been one hell of a place if this was his reaction to it.

The man chuckled once, a deep sound that almost vibrated off the air. Then, in another rustle of wind and leaves, he'd vanished again. I was about to call out to him, to let him know in very polite terms that he'd forgotten to bring me along, when something heavy landed on my tail and I was almost thrown off my feet.

I turned around, ready to give whatever had decided to attack me a piece of my mind, and was suddenly met with the man's wide, disbelieving eyes. The rock he'd been holding over his head, taken from my fire pit without me ever realising, slid out of his hands. With nowhere else to go, it cracked down on top of his skull, and he went down like a sack of shit.

Some light trivia about my tail; the thing was a good few feet long, about as thin as my wrist the entire way. The end tapered off into two very distinct shapes; the stretch of it that looked somewhat natural ended with a small fin, and elevated off that was a spire of what I could only assume was bone.

I had always been convinced that the thing had a mind of its own. It would wag when I was feeling happy, and lash out something was behind me. Without fail, it would always know, and it going through the eyes of some big wolves before I even heard them coming were some of the few foggy memories I had.

Something purple slid along my tail, flickering as though it couldn't decide if it wanted to be there or not. I watched, entranced, as it lightened along the way, finally settling on a pale sort of gray once it had reached my back. The same colour as the light that would always flash whenever one of the monsters managed to hit me, strange...

With a final flash of intermingled gray and purple that had me blinking away stars, the man slowly slid to the ground, his weight being a bit too much for my tail to handle. He rolled off to the side, bouncing his nose off the rock once more for good measure, and giving me an unimpeded view of the hole in his chest.

Something dripped off my tail's bone spire. I glanced down; it was red. Kinda like the stuff that was dripping from the man's chest and mouth, now that I got a good look at it…

"Uh, excuse me?" I nudged the man with a toe. The small movement made his head slide off the rock and land, face first, into the ant nest that I'd been avoiding ever since I'd established My Place. "Are we still going to that better place? Hello?"

No response. I sighed, looking back into the clouds. They may have changed shape and drifted away before, but they were always there when I needed them the most.

Unlike some people.

I kicked the man one last time, just to be sure, and rolled backwards until I lost my balance and landed onto a tuft of grass. What a tease.

I'd really wanted to see what was so good about this place, too-

With a near-silent whisper of wind and the slight crunch of freshly fallen leaves, I vanished from the clearing.