Soul Between Lives

Alex felt like he was floating in a great river as he came to. Everything around him was the perfect temperature and felt so comforting that all he wanted to do was relax and sleep in for as long as he could. Then with his eyes still closed, he noticed a strange swirling, whirling noise and felt as if he was being pulled along by a great flow. His comfort changed to dizzy disorientation as he finally opened his eyes and all around him was a sense of strange movement. Clouds and forms of hazy shadows danced here and there. Finally, something came close and Alex realized with surprise that it was a shiny fish!

[Whats a fish doing here!? And how can it be swimming in the air like this?] Alex wondered in astonishment as his own body reacted and darted forward with almost no effort and no sense of moving his arms or legs.

[What's going on?] Alex tried to look around at his body but only accomplished spinning himself in a rough circle.

A sudden realization hit him, [Is this water? Am I drowning?]

Alex closed his eyes again as he thought about it, [Guess it won't be long before I see that old grumpy grandpa again.] But no matter how long he waited for the end, Alex felt no sense of needing to breathe. In fact, he didn't even feel wet.

Yet another thought hit him, [Am I a fish? Wait, do fish even have eyelids?] He blinked a few times upon having this thought.

Before Alex could think too deeply about fish lids, a large fast moving shadow drew close, heading right for him.

[Is that a shark!?]

Alex instinctively moved his body trying to run away. In just a moment he was overtaken by the large creature and somehow dragged away by it. In a state of panic, Alex wheeled his wide-open eyes taking in all he could as the monster-sized shark harried him back and forth blocking every attempt at escape.

[Is it trying to take me to a shark meeting? Fish are friends, not food!] Alex yelled out in his mind.

Just then Alex was drawn to something on the shark's skin. Before Alex realized what he had done, the oddly compelling creature that was attached to the shark disappeared into his own mouth. As Alex felt the contentment that comes when eating a tasty filling meal, he came to the conclusion that he must be a cleaner fish. The shark doesn't want to eat Alex but wants him to eat the parasites feeding on its flesh.

Still feeling a sense of panic at being so close to a man-eater, Alex did his best, guided by instinct, to accommodate the shark's wishes. Finally, the monster moved on and Alex was free to swim toward a blurry wall that resolved itself into a great coral reef.

[I can't stop myself from eating those things. But it's so demeaning and gross. Am I being punished by that old man? I couldn't remember who I was when I was that pig like I can now. Why is that?]

All these thoughts went through his head as Alex got closer and closer to the reef. Before long he found himself trying to decide where in the reef he should go.

[I don't see any other sharks or other fish being cleaned around the area so I can't tell where I should head to.]

He decided to just swim around exploring the wonders of his new world. All around him Alex could see colorful coral and mottled rock teaming with marine wildlife. Most of the fish were so bizarre looking that he couldn't tell which end had the mouth.

[Speaking of mouths, I should figure out how to get more food for later.] Alex thought and inwardly cringed.

As Alex swam closer to a towering outcropping of coral, he couldn't help but marvel, [There are fish everywhere!]

If his eyes could be wider they would be. In his amazement, he failed to take note of an area devoid of any of the other fish and brazenly swam right through the middle of it. When he neared the border of this no man's land he noticed the school of fish ahead of him start to move rapidly away as if in fright.

[What's going on? Are they afraid of me?]

He suddenly felt a bad premonition and turned his body to look behind him and froze at the sight of a giant moray eel coming right for him. His heart nearly stopped for good before something within his mind screamed for him to run!

[If I'm a cleaner fish, why is it trying to eat me? Maybe it was already cleaned by those dam*ed cleaner shrimp!] A cleaner fish's natural competition.

His mind kept racing as he swam as furiously as he could away. His panic turned to dread as he realized all the other fish around him were still running for their lives to get away from him which probably meant the eel was right on his tail! He dared not slow to look back and silently cursed the bulk of his body that kept him from seeing behind himself.

[Do I look that tasty to you!? I used to eat eels like you for dinner! Ah, maybe that's why...]

Alex realized that he couldn't outrun the d*mn monster and didn't have the courage to slow down long enough to look for a hiding spot among the coral. He wasn't even sure if he could hide from the eel. He certainly wasn't outrunning it! He could feel its shadow, like the shadow of death, steadily overwhelming him. Alex finally darted to his left and got an eyeful of the monstrous eel within inches of the tip of his own tail.

[This thing is huge! Why does it want a little fish like me!? Why? Why? Why? Fu*k! Fu*k! Fu*k!]

In a last-ditch effort, he swam as close to the reef as he could even scraping his tender flesh as he hugged the surface polyps of a bright orange coral. It was his momentum that carried him along as his body started jerking and convulsing refusing to obey his will.

His mind had become lethargic almost instantly after brushing the orange coral and his body started drifting down to the sandy bed between two outcroppings. By the time the eel had found its way to and eaten his corpse, Alex was already back in the white space fuming at the old man.

"Why do you keep sending me to these dangerous places!? I've had enough of all this dying! Aren't you the almighty God!? Can't you send me somewhere safe!?"

The old man stood there giving Alex a dark look receiving this outburst in silence while fiddling with his own beard as usual.

"Are you done?" The old man asked and continued without waiting for Alex to answer. "I have been trying to send you to safe places and have tried to give you good lives. But I am done trying to figure this out. I have wasted too much of my time and energy on you and achieved nothing for it!"

The old man threw up his arms in frustration and started shooting bolts of lightning all around the space in seemingly random directions. Alex was trembling and feared for his life but was not dissuaded by this show of force. As Alex stepped forward and opened his mouth to yell some more, the old man turned to him and hurled another orb. Alex saw the glint of light but couldn't dodge and was once again thrown into another world to live another life.

****

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***Viram***

**

The forest behind Viram was an inferno, he had heard about the traps and barricades these people liked to use from the land army. The simplest way for him to deal with such pitiful tricks was to simply burn everything in his path. If he was alone, burning an entire forest would use up a good amount of power but he was leading an entire horde of fire monsters. They could supplement and support each other. The power used by one would cause a fire that would strengthen the others and when others used their power to spread the flames, the first monster would be reinforced in turn.

His group wasn't powerful just because of their element, they were powerful because of their mutual support of one another. When one monster used up its power, it could bask in the flames kept hot by its comrades and recover its strength much quicker than if it was alone. Given this advantage, as long as there was something to burn, his group had very little to fear. In a dense forest like this one, there was plenty to burn. Now there was an army of elves and other forest dwellers eager for the fires in front of him.

Viram's forces came upon Leilatha's army at the swamp. It seems news of his arrival had managed to get out. He didn't realize that the smoke from a forest fire, or any fire, was something abnormal and would normally be reported. He was so used to seeing it all the time that he was only vaguely aware of how it signaled his presence to his enemies. To be fair, Viram had never bothered interrogating any of his opponents in any great detail. He never really had to strategize on a grand scale, petty tricks and burning things had always been enough for him on the battlefield. This time should be no different.

As his forces advanced over the swamp, a wall of water rose up to block their path. The wall reached more than fifty feet into the air, but this was only a slight hindrance for any respectable flying monster. There was virtually no limit to how high they could fly. They could certainly fly high enough to drain all the magic power from any wall that tried to keep up. Or just fly around it all, but this current wall was a direct challenge to Viram and he had no intention of letting such a petty challenge go unanswered.

"First flames, begin generating the fire twisters. I want the air currents hot enough to lift the steam. Second flames, burn that water!"

Viram gave his orders and watched as they were carried out. The weakest of his units were the ninth flames and were usually used as support and reserve. For them, it was expected that when not given direct orders, they'd take it upon themselves to find things to burn on their own to prepare recovery flames for their more powerful comrades.

This also made it more difficult for enemies to flank them and sometimes made it impossible to get away if the fires spread enough. More than once an enemy army had routed as flames spread across the entire battlefield and started consuming their ranks. It was always amusing to see his prey screaming and hollering as they flailed and thrashed about trying to put out or escape from the flames eating them.

As he watched the wall of water heat up, the magic that created is also kept the water from boiling. Before long he expected the wall to detonate on its own in a massive steam explosion. This was not the first time a wall of water was used against him. Such measures were practically trivial to him and were entirely predictable after having been used against him so many times.

Viram's side of the wall was soon a scorching hell, even the rocks underground were starting to melt. Sand in the outskirts of the area was being blown away by hot air currents before it could turn into glass. Even the poor elves on the other side of the water wall were covered in sweat. Only a few realized that they were starting to cook just by standing in the swamp water. As more and more of their soldiers fainted, the elven generals came to realize that it was time to run and fast but it was already too late. Steam explosions in a healthy forest would be a very rare thing indeed and since almost all of the forest denizens stayed close to home, it is doubtful that any of them would truly understand the danger of superheated water.

The water magic failed as the wall of water exploded, flattening and flash boiling the forest for miles around. Viram's forces were safe and warm, the hot air currents acted like a physical barrier and deflected the force of the expanding steam up and around. In actuality, the extremely hot air was also pushed by the expanding steam and super hot water jets but all the monsters were pushed along with it while being safely carried by a cushion of compressed hot air.

It was an effect similar to when a meteor hits a wall of air that was compressed by its mass as it approached the ground. The meteor may hit this wall of air head on and explode due to various forces, but the monsters were pushed along with the wall of air and kept away from the ground by a layer of compressed air. Much like when you blow under a piece of paper on a flat table and the paper rides along on the air. The fast ride, huge explosion and churning flames were all great fun for Viram's forces. The elven army, however, was mostly cooked meat. The few soldiers powerful enough to survive the disaster were already at death's door and wouldn't be worth much entertainment. Then again, charred elf and incinerated fey always were some of Viram's favorite smells.