Enlightenment Through BDSM

“Wait!” I shouted, popping up out of the brush, trying my best to both cover my chest with my arms and hold my hands up at the same time. I could feel my heart pounding from the fear, blood rushing to my face in embarrassment as well. “I’m a person!”

For a moment we were all frozen as we stared at each other. The man, still holding his axe over my head and ready to cleave me in two any time he wanted, had a look of utter confusion mixed with rage, while his partner had a more reserved expression, still confused, but more shrewd about the situation.

“You some kinda thief, cat?” the green giant asked.

“No!” I answered. I had just blurted it out, not even realizing I’d lied before I’d already spoken “Well, I mean…”

“Dreck, don’t talk to her like that,” the woman said, sheathing her sword. “And she’s naked for God’s sake. If she’s a thief, it’s out of necessity.”

“I don’t give thieving animals any mercy,” Dreck said, raising his axe even higher, preparing to make an actual swing as I cowered below, making peace with my second death.

“Stop!” the woman said. Dreck froze in place, arms shaking. “Put your axe away. Do not harm her.”

The man seemed to fight his own body as he placed his weapon down by the tent, snarling at the woman. “You swore you’d never do that,” he said.

“And you swore you wouldn’t hurt innocent people.”

“Thieves ain’t innocent.” Dreck gave me one last glare before turning around and going back to his bowl of stew. “And I take it back, Kalia. It ain’t your Job, it is you.”

The woman seemed lost for just a second, thoughts I couldn’t imagine filling her. But then she turned back to me, smiling. “Hey there, sorry about that.”

“It’s, uhm, okay,” I said, sinking back into the bushes, lowering my hands over my new breasts. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” she said, holding her hands together as a long black cloak appeared in them. She lifted it up, lowering it over my head. “There you go.”  Up close, I was beginning to notice just how beautiful she was. Her features were sharp and angular, like her ears, but she still had a warmth to her smile nevertheless, and it was odd to feel so comfortable with someone right after my life had been threatened. 

“Thanks,” I said, standing up and walking out of the bushes, taking care to make sure the cloak covered any important bits as I did. It was long on me of course, going down all the way down to my ankles, though it probably would’ve barely gone past her knees. “I, uhm, I’m sorry. I was gonna steal your sack for clothes, and maybe leftover food if there was any…”

“Wait, that’s all?” Dreck said, looking up from his stew.

“You shut it,” the woman said, staring daggers into him once more before turning back to me. “I’m Kalia.”

“Oh, my name’s—” No, I couldn’t give them that name, not as a girl anyway. “My name’s Mai,” I said. Mai. I’d always liked that name, and it felt right in this body, even if I was only using it to avoid explaining why I had a boy’s name.

“Nice to meet you. And the brute over there is Dreck. He wasn’t going to kill you, by the way, just rough up your HP a little.”

“HP?” I asked. What would he want with my printer?

“Yeah,” the man grumbled. “Not that it matters now anyway, thanks to fancy pants over here.”

Kalia rolled her eyes. “Here, let’s get you some stew.”

She made another bowl for me to eat, and the three of us sat in silence, much like the two of them had been doing before I’d been discovered. It was honestly delicious, warming both in temperature and flavor, a slight spice that I was handling quite well.

“So, what’s your Job?” Kalia finally asked once we’d all finished.

“And how’d you get into the mess you’re in?” Dreck added.

I blushed at the questions. It was always awkward explaining my job, and I didn’t really know how to answer the second. “I’m an athlete, a gymnast. And—”

“The fuck kinda Job is that?” Dreck asked, throwing his bowl down.

They both looked confused, and I had a sudden realization. I was in another world, and I had no idea of what their culture was like. They might not have even had sports, not had the words “athlete” and “gymnast” at all. And wait, how was I even talking to them in the first place? Did they speak English?

“So, uhm, an athlete is like, someone who plays sports for—”

“You’re Reborn, aren’t you?” Kalia said, an urgentness in her tone.

“Reborn? Oh, I guess I am, yeah. But before that I was—”

“She has Reborn Amnesia,” Kalia said. I could tell she was deliberately cutting me off, but I wasn’t sure why. “Were you just reborn, right now?”

“Well, a couple hours ago, yeah. But then I heard you coming, and I was naked, so I hid in the bush…”

“What kinda shitty hero were you that you got reborn stark naked?”

“Huh? I wasn’t a hero, I was just—”

“Don’t worry, Mai,” Kalia said, placing a hand on mine. “You have a type of amnesia that’s common in Reborn. I’m Reborn too, actually, so I know how it feels.”

“But I didn’t forget anything,” I said, trying to think through my memories. It’s not like I remembered my entire life, but no one remembers everything. “I don’t think I have amnesia. Before I died I was just—”

“It’s okay, I can explain,” Kalia said, squeezing my hand. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt, but I was getting the message now. For some reason, she didn’t want me talking about my past life. Or maybe not talking about Earth?

“What’re those words you people use to get 'em remembering?” Dreck wondered aloud. “Some type of game.”

“RPGs,” Kalia said. “Roleplaying game. They were really common in our time, right Mai?”

I stared blankly.

“You know, like Dungeons and Dragons?”

“Oh, I saw some people play in the rec center once, but I didn’t really get what was going on. There’s dice though?”

“Huh…” Kalia said, scrunching her face in confusion. “Well, did you play any fantasy games on PC or console?”

“No, I never actually played video games, really…” It was always embarrassing admitting that. “I know it’s kind of weird, but my dad just didn’t let me when I was growing up…”

Dreck seemed unreactive to that revelation, but I could tell a feeling of dread was overcoming Kalia, her face dropping in horror.

“Mai, please tell me you watched Game of Thrones, or Lord of the Rings, anything like that.”

I blushed even more, bowing my head and sinking into the cloak I was wearing. “No… Wasn’t allowed to.”

“What’s that mean?” Dreck asked. 

“It means she has severe Reborn Amnesia,” Kalia said, looking panicked . “And that I’m going to need to teach her a lot before we even think about letting her go off on her own.”

“Figures,” the man said. “At least we’re close to town. She can stay with us tonight, and then I’ll leave you two to it.”

“Dreck, come on! She’s still a Reborn. We could use her, have a third party member again.”

“So you can get her killed too?” Dreck said, almost roaring the words. “And me while you’re at it? No, I said I’m done and I meant it. And you better release me, or else. Goodnight.”

His exit maybe wasn’t as dramatic as it should have been, since he just walked over to the open tent and climbed into a sleeping bag, but his words were heavy enough to leave a lingering air of awkwardness anyway.

And someone had died. One of their friends, from the sound of it. 

“Kalia, what’s going to happen to me?” I asked.

She stared off into the distance for a moment, almost seeming to ignore me before she turned back, smiling that warm smile once more. “Nothing bad. I’ll explain everything once he’s asleep. But first, we’re going to figure out your Job and your skills.”