Core Life

Chapter 1: Restart

He woke up in... a plains biome? Last thing he remembered was sitting on a tree, next to his trusty axolotl. Where was he now?

This wasn't the same world as the previous one, for sure. Although there were patches of plains biomes there, those were typically surrounded by oak, or dark oak. This one was surrounded by birch, spruce, and a bit of stony 'cliffs'. It was nothing like the previous world, except....

The barriers.

They were stripy, transluscent-blue 'structures' that extended to the sky as high as the eye could see. They bordered the previous world, and he had a hunch they bordered this one, too.

Realisation hit him. Was he stuck in another game? Like last life? But how? Shouldn't a 'winner' be congratulated?

'Scott?' An all-too familiar voice called out, and from the foliage, emerged an all-too familiar face.

Their brown, slightly-messy hair swayed on the light breeze. Their red jumper slightly covering their hands.

'How are you not dead?' Scott looked at the young man in disbelief.

They stepped back, surprised. Yet didn't run, for some reason.

'Where are we, Grian?' Scott stared at him.

Grian let out a loud sigh, and walked into the comforting sunrays. 'Were you the winner then?' Grian bluntly asked, placing down a spruce log before promptly sitting down on it.

'If winner means surviving till the end in last life, then yes, you could consider me a winner.'

Grian looked at Scott, half in fear, half in curiosity. 'And do you remember third life?'

Scott was confused. 'Third life? What's that supposed to be?'

Grian sighed once more. 'So the memory protection only lasted as far back as the beginning of last life...' he mumbled, just loud enough for Scott to hear.

'What? Memory protection..? Grian, what's going on.' Scott turned, looking at the younger avian.

'It's... a long story. Let's just say that last life wasn't the first life game you've been put in. With each new game, the participants would forget the previous game, apart from the winner. So, only you and I currently remember the previous game.'

This was a lot for Scott to take in. 'What?'

'And the reason why I remember is because I won the game before...'

Scott started to line up the pieces. 'So this third life... you won it?'

Grian nodded. 'You were there, too. One of my few allies, as well.'

'And because I didn't win that, I don't remember it?'

'...yes.'

Scott was a bit disheartened by this information, but quickly shot back again. 'Is everyone alive, then?'

Grian looked down. 'Yes... but they won't remember you at all. Even your closest allies may forget you... and turn against you.' He noted, almost bittersweet. 'For example, my closest ally in third life was Scar, yet he teamed up with Joel, before later staying by himself. Your closest ally may even become your enemy here, or your enemy may become your friend.'

'An enemy becoming your friend... did this happen between third and last life?'

Grian nodded. 'Ren. In fact, he took your final life.'

Silence followed. He was close allies with Ren in last life, yet Scott knew that he was the one that took Ren's final life. He could say that the two were equal now, in some twisted way.

Grian broke the silence. 'We're in another game now.'

Scott simply stared at him. That's when he noticed the hearts on each of their shoulders, yet they were still white.

'So we'll have to go through the random life picker, and the boogeyman curse again?'

'I don't know. In third life, everyone was set on 3 lives, yet red lives still existed. The curse didn't exist there. Everything could've changed.'

And Grian was right.

The two saw a flash of almost purple light in the area of their hearts. When it dissipated...

The two had been given red hearts.

They were starting on one life.

(657 words)