Chima: A Second Chance

by EditingJay

A U.S. Marine and his squad get ambushed in a town in Syria where they all get picked off by the insurgents over there. As the last man standing he attempts to fight them off but ends up getting shot and dying in the process. Yet, he didn't die, some being wanted to give him a second chance. How would he react when he finds himself in a new body in a new world? OCxEris

2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Darkness. That was all I could see around me, an endless abyss. I was confused until I heard a voice break through the silence and felt the presence of a blue light behind me. "Hello, young one. It is a great pleasure to meet you." The floating orb said as it started to come closer to me. I was shocked that this thing was talking to me so casually, almost like it knew me. "I know you might have a lot of questions, mostly pertaining to me and the fact at how you're still alive. Well, I can answer one of those questions, you are dead and there's no way to go back." It said rather harshly but I could at least appreciate the hard truth. I just continued to listen as the orb started speaking once more, "Yes, you may be dead in your world, but I want to offer you a reward, I guess you could say, for your heroics." When the orb said this, my interest piqued and I just had to ask, "What might this reward be, then?" It seemed to ponder over my question for a minute before he came back with an answer, "How does a second chance at life sound to you?" This surprised me, "Are you saying I'm able to go home?" I asked excitedly, getting my hopes up that I would awake in a hospital bed with my family around me. "Sadly, no. Like I said, you are dead in your world, but we can make you exist in another world where you never existed in the first place." The orb told me. Geez, way to get a guys hopes up and then immediately crush them. "I'm offering you this choice because of how you were unable to live out your life to its fullest potential. I mean, you are only 19 years old, there is so much more you have to experience in life, just as I did." The way it was worded made it seem like it had a life before it became a floating talking orb talking to dead people for fun. "There are some other things that come with my offer that I feel you should know about. One is that you will be able to take with you three things that was not on your person at the time of your death, the second is that you will still have all your memories, this conversation we are having will be excluded, though. Lastly, I just have a single question for you." I was shocked, I am getting a whole new opportunity at life just because of my actions that I made when I was alive. "What's your question?" I replied. "What's your favorite animal?"

/Break/

I awoke with a start from the darkness of slumber that I was in, which felt like it lasted for days. I looked around to start and gather my bearings before looking down and seeing all my gear laid out neatly, as if someone just folded your clothes without letting you know. I realized that I still had my cammies on my body. "WAIT, WHAT THE FUCK?!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. I realized at that moment that I had black paws. I also noticed a protruding object coming from my face and reached my paw up to touch it, which turned out to be a snout. I quickly looked around for some sort of reflection to be able to see the rest of my body when I spotted a puddle on the ground. I dashed towards it and kneeled, looking at my face I realized that I was at least one of my favorite animals, a maned wolf. The only thing remaining of my original body were my eyes, which were colored hazel. My mane looked more like a fluffy blanket than a mane. As I was checking myself out my newly acquired, and quite sensitive, ears started to pick up sounds of movement in the underbrush. I looked around and dove into a nearby bush and settled myself as to where the branches were not poking me in the face. It only took about 15 seconds before three figures emerged from the side opposite of me. Two looked to be male while one was female. The males were interesting, one was a lion with blue, almost roman looking, armor on while the other was a crocodile with more of a tribal outfit. "I was sure I heard that shout come from over here, guys." The lion said to the other two "Sure, Laval. Well, it doesn't look like there's anyone here, to me, or any evidence of someone who has been here." The crocodile told Laval, the lion. That was when the female spoke up, who was hovering in the air with a pair of wings that I had not seemed to notice before. "I wouldn't count the possibility out yet, Cragger, look at all this gear here." I cringed when she pointed that out, how could have I been so damn stupid as to leave my gear just sitting out? "You're right, Eris, it seems that someone was here recently, and could still be around. They might even be watching us." Laval said, looking around the area. I took this time to study what they had on their bodies in terms of gear. Laval, from what I could see, had a sword and, was that a glowing shield? Cragger had a double-edged spear-type thing, while Eris had a spear with a blade on it, but something else I could not quite see, her scaled golden armor was blocking it just enough to not be able to make out any details. Meanwhile, I have nothing, my rifle is over by my gear, hopefully they just pass over my gear and leave soon. While I was watching I felt something bump right into my foot and I looked down to see a snake slowly making its way over my foot. I was pouring all my willpower into not moving a muscle, so as not to disturb the branches that were surrounding me. Luck was not on my side, though, since the damn bird seemingly smelled it out and was starting to make her way over to me, and her prey. I saw her reaching for her spear and was pulling back to throw it. I stayed as still as possible and watched the spear fly, stabbing the snake and embedding itself in the dirt right between my legs and a couple of inches from my manly bits. My heart was about to explode with how much it was pumping. My eyes were stuck on the spear, that was almost the end to my heritage, for so long that I completely forgot about the animals until I heard some rustling from above me and saw a beak protruding from above followed by two eyes bearing down on me, surprise written in their shine. I decided what option was best for me at that point. I ran. Pushing her away from me, with a shriek of surprise, I darted out of the bush and started sprinting to my gear and grabbing the one thing I would need if anything were to go down, my rifle. With rifle in my hand and cries of surprise behind me I ran into the jungle. While running I felt way faster than I did when I was a human, it was probably because of the longer stride that I had. I could hear my pursuers behind me breaking through the underbrush. As I got deeper into the jungle, I noticed more and more stuff starting to fall. I put quite the distance between my pursuers and I that I decided to take a break. I looked around and found a log to sit on, setting my rifle down next to me I was finally able to catch my breath and rest my aching legs. I did not hear any more sounds, other than the sounds of nature, until a loud creaking broke through. I turned around and saw a big tree start to fall towards me at an accelerated pace. I tried to get out of the way, but I was a second too late and it came crashing down on me. "AHHHHHH!" I screamed out in pain, the tree landed on my lower body, crushing anything that was underneath. "Hey guys, it sounded like it came from over here" I heard a voice yell out, but I was too focused on the pain to even try and identify whose voice it was. My vision was starting to get blurry when I noticed a flying figure come to my aid before I lost all consciousness.