Return of the Runebound Professor

The terror that had been gripping him just instants ago faded away. He was safe. There was nothing to fear. All that mattered was moving on to his next life. His past didn’t –

Noah recoiled as something bitter hit his tongue. It spiked through the peace, binding around him like a thorny vine. The fraying memories of his mortal life suddenly stopped decaying and rushed back into him, packed into his body along with the disgusting taste.

And then Noah was gone, a streak of light shooting across the cosmos.

Worlds stretched past him in a blur of color across a black canvas. He streaked through the infinite black, his mind a muddled mess as he tried to comprehend the visions flashing before him. Time became a foreign concept. To Noah, existence became the dancing shapes and universes that he passed by.

But, as all things must, it came to an end. He felt a sharp jerk in the area that would have been his chest, had he had a physical form. The dull pain was the first thing that he had felt in – well, Noah wasn’t sure. A while.

Images bloomed before him, no longer of flitting worlds or stars, but of endless green fields and massive mountains. Lakes the size of an ocean and intricate cave systems deep below. Awe filled his being as he hurtled through the new world, his awareness sputtering as it tried to fully reignite.

For the briefest instant, Noah spotted two massive, reptilian eyes looking down at him from within the stars. Then he was gone, getting lower and lower to the surface of the planet. A faint drawing force pulled him down into a village and he slipped through the wooden planks of a small house.

A woman laid in bed, a newly born infant mewling in front of her. Her features were a mixture of relief and pain, but Noah didn’t get to examine them long. The force tugged at him, pulling him toward the child’s body.

He descended, brushing the crying boy’s face for an instant. Tight bands wrapped around him, sending flashes of agony throughout his body. No more than a second later, he was yanked away and sent hurtling across the planet once more.

Several more times, Noah was pulled into scenes of births, where his floating body tried and failed to merge. The tightness grew stronger, to the point where he could barely even muster the meagre thoughts that he’d managed thus far.

Noah caught a glimpse of the towering walls of an enormous castle the size of a city an instant before he shot through them. He pushed through the cracks in the stone and continued onward, hurtling past forests and great plains.

He slammed to a halt in a small clearing surrounded by charred, blackened trees. They stretched into the air around him like withered hands reaching for the heavens. To his surprise, there was no child. There wasn’t even a mother. A greasy black haired man sat beside a dying campfire beside a small lake. His features were sharp and pinched in pain. Blood trickled down his chest from a deep wound. Noah wasn’t a doctor, but he was pretty certain that it wasn’t the kind of wound that people walked away from.

The corpses of several furry creatures laid around him. They roughly resembled monkeys, but had large, jutting fangs and claws far longer than any monkey on earth. Their fur still smoldered, and they were all riddled with holes as wide as quarters.

Drawing a labored breath, the man fumbled in his belt and pulled out a small gourd. He snapped the wax seal at the top and lifted it to his mouth with trembling hands, draining the entire thing in one go.

Noah tried to move, but he had no control over his body. All he could do was float and watch. The wound on the man’s stomach rippled and bubbled. Strands of flesh and organ reached out, reconnecting themselves.

The man went to take another drink. He stopped halfway through the motion, his eyes bulging as he grabbed at his throat. The bottle slipped from his hands and crashed to the ground, shattering and spilling liquid across the ground.

A sharp tug pulled on Noah’s navel. The man glanced up just as Noah was yanked downward and into his body. Ice rushed through Noah. It felt as if he’d been plunged into the freezing ocean.

A scream split through his thoughts, but only later did he realize that it hadn’t been his voice. Noah drew a ragged, desperate gasp for air – and it worked.

Noah froze. He slowly reached up to his face, pressing against skin instead of ghostly ectoplasm. He patted himself down, slowly at first, then leapt to his feet. His foot landed on a patch of bloody mud and he lost his footing, slamming onto his back with a loud crash.

Pain flashed through him, but he didn’t even register it. Noah scrambled on all fours over to the lake and peered into it. What stared back was the man’s body, but no traces of his wound remained.

“Gods above,” Noah muttered. His head throbbed and he grimaced. He ran his hands along himself again, just to make sure he could still feel. “I’m alive. I’m alive!”

Noah burst into hysterical laughter and slapped himself across the face, just because he could. He had a physical body again. Sinking down into a small ball beside the lake, Noah continued to laugh until tears streaked down his cheeks.

He was alive.