She opened her eyes to see...nothing. She went to move her body only to feel nothing. She was in a space devoid of sensory input yet only felt mild concern for the situation. This was definitely one of Astral's strangest dreams. Then suddenly there was light, a distinctly white light coming from the floor which somehow seemed solid. From what material it was made of she couldn't fathom. There was however a white table not far in front of her. At it where two white chairs one close to her and one on the opposite side that sat a man. He had short blond hair and blue eyes. His skin was fair and unmarked, his frame six feet tall and athletically thin and adorned with defined muscle. He wore white robes that reminded her of a hospital get up. In fact with all the white around she was beginning to think this was some super strange hospital dream. For some reason it just felt polite of her to sit down and at the moment she did her body reappeared and her emotions distant like a dream now felt very present. This was now the most vivid dream she had ever had. If it weren't so unrealistic she'd think she was awake. From the other side of the table the man spoke breaking her from her daze.
"You know what this is don't you?" The man asked Astral. His stare spoke of curiosity.
"Uh, nope. What is it?" Astral countered.
His curious look turned to a frown. "This is the after life." He revealed hoping he wouldn't have have to dance around the task at hand too long.
"Is that so." Astral responded with mild curiosity. "So is this hell? Would be torment to be stuck with just you in this...place." She said with a smirk crossing her face.
"No you're dead. I know you've dabbled in lucid dreaming but every time you've succeeded you got so excited you would wake yourself up. That isn't happening now and it's not going to happen even if you wanted it to." He said his voice commanding and emanating with authority.
Astral looked around and tried to will anything up with her imagination. She had a strong one, but nothing changed. It was still surreal, but she was beginning to take it seriously. Still had to be a dream though. "So how'd I die, tree collapse on me in my sleep? Assassination?" She'd have a sick sense of pride if someone actually went through the danger and trouble of assassinating her.
"Nope, you didn't have many enemies compared to others of your occupation and you had been perfectly healthy again, more than most. Up until all those energy drinks you had keeping yourself up to work gave you a heart attack." He said flatly.
Suddenly Astral remember last night or current night or whatever. She typically didn't drink anything caffeinated with the exception of tea unlike all the addicts out there, but really wanted to get this project finished and picked up possibly more than a few energy drinks. She did remember feeling super nauseous, her breathing becoming labored, and her arms a little numb. she just thought maybe it upset
her stomach and really needed sleep, having fallen back in her chair for that. Suddenly realization dawned on her. She was dead.
There wasn't a word between the two for a very long time. Astral was very sad over the life that was gone especially over something so stupid. She started to regret working so much rather than looking for a boyfriend. On the other hand though she was also relieved to find there was an after life and was curious about what happened from here, but with a healthy amount of trepidation. "So what happens now. Am I going to be judged." Astral asked with a slight amount of fear. She never believed in god and even worse she came to the conclusion if there was one she wouldn't support it in anyway not unless it was different from all the religions she had researched.
"No." He again said distributing flatly. "I mean normally that's what would happen, I'm pretty sure. Not very interested in it honestly. Normally I don't concern myself with however your universe functions. But I need someone for something and right now you're the candidate in front of me. So how'd you like to be reincarnated.
Astral's head was starting to spin itself in circles. There was so much to take in. She was dead that was still settling. The guy was apparently a god from another universe. Gave more credit to the multiverse theory and apparently he was offering to reincarnated her in exchange for doing something for him. She didn't know what to think except one thing. Something she had reached a conclusion to long ago. "Absolutely not. I refuse to repeat all the mistakes I've made and the lessons I've learned. Either it's me or I'd rather not exist."
The man gave an amused grin. You'll still have your memories, you'll still be you in everything but your body. I can't really take that and it wouldn't suit the task I have for you anyways. It's strike a deal with me or be turned to the gods of your universe and they aren't going to be happy you didn't play their game of religion."
Somehow knowing it was a game made sense to Astral and she did not look forward to meeting those gods. Besides wasn't like she was giving anything up she was already dead. "What is it you want and who are you?" Astral asked.
"My name is Cruinne and I need a goddess of dragons. They have long been without and done well considering, but now their numbers are falling. You have no strings attached to your gods, your mind is strong, and you are conveniently dead. So you can either take up the title of goddess of dragons or I can return you to the gods of your universe."
Astral supposed an after life experience should be chaotic and this was mind numbing. But this was a win-win situation. He would get what he wanted and she would be alive again as a goddess no less. She was of course losing her family and everything she'd known, but she had bad relations with her family anyways and not the typical families tend not to get along but the CPS should have been involved kind of family. And was dead anyways soo "alright I'll do it."
"You sure?" Cruinne asked. "Know that if you accept you'll be taken from this universe, you'll have strings attached to me so nobody could come along and do something like I am doing.
Astral didn't even need to think about it. Once her mind was made it up it was made up, she was going through with this. She nodded her head in confirmation. "Yes."
"Very well, I'll try to be sure you keep the same name." Cruinne said.
"What?" Astral blurt wondering how she could possibly have a different name. That was as far as her thoughts went though as abruptly she went unconscious.
When she came back to it was much the same as last time. Nothing to see just blackness. It wasn't the same though, it wasn't a nothingness void. There was certainly something but it was hard to describe to herself. And she felt strange too. Her body felt stiff and inflexible. Wait that wasn't it well kinda. She was curled up. Trying to uncurl she was met with concave walls in all directions. She was stuck and she wasn't breathing! Desperately she struggled against her cage, she needed to breath. She could feel her cage moving or wobbling rather but nothing she did so much as scratched it. At least that's how it felt she couldn't see it. She was going to run out of air soon or at least she thought she would. Her body wasn't actually demanding it she was just panicking that she wasn't breathing. In desperation she could think of nothing else to do but scream hoping someone would hear her and rescue her. No sound came out in her strange void cage but suddenly it seemed to squeeze her body. She tried even harder to do what she thought was screaming. Astral didn't want to die again. Especially not in such an equally pathetic way. Suddenly there was a very loud explosion and her cage burst apart and light came pouring in from everywhere. She screamed again this time an actual scream both from the shock of the explosion and sudden assault on her eyes from the light. She shut her eyelids but the light still shone through, though less intense and painful.
Slowly she braved opening her eyes they stung but she pushed past it. What she saw was very strange. She was in a primitive room of some sort. There was a roughly carved wooden bed and other furniture around. That was all strange enough but that wasn't even the half of it. The room looked super large because she was the size of a toy! That or this was a giant's room. The ceiling had a hole. In fact the whole room looked like a bomb had gone off. Debris was all over the place it was amazing she could tell it was someones personal room. She herself was on the floor on top of what looked to be once some sort of cloth below her. Was hard to tell now with only a few strands left. Egg shells were scattered about the room. She realized suddenly, the egg was her egg, her cage she had once been in, and somehow the point of origin on that explosion was her egg. Hesitantly she tried to turn her neck to get a look at herself, moving her body was difficult and unfamiliar. It did't just swivel though, her neck was much longer than she was used to, and actually wrapped around somewhat. Looking behind her she saw she was now indeed a dragon of some sort. There were jet black leathery wings hanging limply off the side of her equally black body and scaled. There was a tail behind her also limp and she was now a quadruped. Funny enough she was expecting to see a snout in front of her but didn't. Wasn't human though. She didn't see the nose everyone ignored on their faces. Astral tried to move her new extra appendages and did manage to twitch them around but otherwise had no idea how to use them. She could stand up easily enough. It was so strange being on four legs but her body was comfortable with it.
Suddenly something huge and black fell onto the floor of the room from the gaping hole in the ceiling. Seemed to be intentional as it was standing and growling, I froze terrified. It was a dragon and it was huge at least compared to me. It's large green eyes scanning the room and the moment it spotted me it also froze though clearly not out of fear. We just stared at each other and after a moment I realized it looked as I did, only giant. Then two humans ran into the room through the equally blown apart doorway. One was a very large human with long red facial hair who looked like he lifted weights all day and drove a Harley and was currently wielding a large axe at the ready. The other was much smaller he looked like a 10 year old but the maturity on his face revealed him a older teen. He had short brown hair and green eyes.. The moment they burst in the other dragon leapt at me and I screamed while trying to run away, but only really succeeded in tripping myself. It didn't eat me like I expected, but instead curled around me preventing me from escaping anywhere while it growled at the larger human.
Astral's body decided it had had enough and she fainted.