Classy, Controlled Chaos - The STEAM Team Adventures

🐦‍🔥 Reincarnation [4/10] 🐦‍🔥

Blackthorne's POV:

Ever since Marshall Valkyrie took me down from the skies for the final time, Purgatory has been quite the peaceful resting place.

Sand stretches out for miles in this barren landscape, with large, claw-like rocks poking out of the ground every few yards.

Boulders that vaguely resembled the skulls of both humans and animals alike were scattered throughout the land, just about as massive as the claws.

A single moon rose high overhead, never setting, never rising, adamant on remaining in the position it was destined to be in for eternity.

Sometimes if I squinted hard enough, I could make out a tiny, orange-tinted, shrimp-like fetus within on its surface.

Stray clouds hovered just above the distant horizon, wisps of slate-gray in the eternal golden hour.

Peaceful, calm, and quiet.

Just how I liked it.

Apparently, the afterlife is different for everyone.

Most of us are alone in their own little bubble of the universe, left to spend the rest of forever snoozing away in our own world.

Not me.

After what seemed to be years of boring myself to the point of a second death, something finally awoke inside of me.

Well, not exactly inside of me.

The ground.

Something was awakening in the ground.

As a spirit, I knew I could phase through walls and fly, but I preferred to limit myself to what my mortal form was capable of.

I stepped onto a nearby claw-rock, climbing up to get some space between me and the sand.

Muffled cries came from underneath the surface, followed by a series of quiet, childish squeals.

I knew that voice when I heard it.

"Sir Blackthorne!" River shouted, breaking free from the sand's grip and getting back on his feet. "Can you hear me?! Hello?"

I smiled, sliding down from the rock. "Why hello, little one. What brings you to my secluded part of Purgatory?"

Coughing up a mouthful of dirt, the merchant kid glanced up at me, his mossy-gray eyes shining brightly in the midst of the dark sky above us. "I just wanted to check in on you as always. It's been a while since I've seen you!"

River looked up to me as his role model, even though he had a pair of wonderful parents that took care of him and cherished him like diamonds.

He was raised in a sailor's family, intended to follow in his father's footsteps as a fisherman.

When I was alive, I bought mackerel from his family, and they always gave me a discount because they claimed he had been very attached to me.

Their claims were being proven right.

"I look much better than when I was in my casket, no?" I chuckled, crouching down to meet the child at eye level. "Man, I wish I looked as nice as you right now, kid. I probably look like I just rolled down a mountain and fell off a cliff twice over."