Transmigration: Loved by the Phoenix [bxb]

Chapter 1-A Cold Welcome

It was cold.

The world was a mess of ice and snow, scrawled across the ground in a layer of white. Frostbite clung to his exposed skin while a persistent chill seeped deep into his bones.

He did not know how he was still standing in this unforgiving weather. He could not fathom how he still had the strength to walk through hills of snow. But somehow, he was able to continue forward when everything else in the world was trying to hold him back.

Vaguely, he wondered if there was something wrong with him.

A human couldn't possibly live this long in such cold weather. A normal person couldn't possibly stand the grueling task of continuously walking forward.

Then again, a normal person couldn't live after dying either. A normal person would be studying for the exams that were coming up next week. A normal person would have three meals a day and at least require sleep.

And a lucky person wouldn't have transmigrated into a world of eternal winter.

Yes, Kai should've been dead. His blood should've stained the dirty sidewalk from where he died. His killing was anything but expected; he was merely collateral damage from a fight between rival gangs, an innocent bystander. But sometimes life throws a wrench at you, and it hits you in the head.

And if anyone was unlucky enough to be hit by a stray shot, it was Kai. Just like only the truly unlucky would be transmigrated into the middle of nowhere after they seemingly died.

Or perhaps was this Hell? Perhaps Hell was a cold, lonely place where people lost themselves. A place where nothing mattered, and time was merely an enemy.

Kai didn't think that he deserved Hell. He was a fairly good person. But he had just been walking for so long. It was just so boring that he couldn't help but entertain his darkest thoughts.

So he kept walking, and walking, and...

And then something stopped him.

It was small, like a dot in his vision. But it wasn't white. It wasn't the color of snow.

And most importantly, it was moving.

Kai sped up. Trudging through the snow felt like wading through a swamp, but he had to move. He couldn't let the only evidence of something other than snow leave him. It was his ticket to knowing something about where he was, even if it was only an animal.

He tripped, falling face first into the snow. But he picked himself up and trudged forward with snow sticking to his cheeks.

After what felt like decades of falling and scrambling forward, he was finally close enough to identify the dot's features. What he saw should've made him smile. The fact that he saw people, one of his own kind, should've made him ecstatic.

A majority of them were bundled up with thick winter coats, riding horse-sized wolves. The ones who weren't covered in layers of clothes looked a bit weird. Their hair was of the purest white, making it a bit hard to identify them against the snow. They also wore minimal clothing, making Kai wonder why they weren't frozen yet. But it wasn't them that snuffed out Kai's excitement at seeing living beings.

It was the fact that the odd looking people were locked in chains, and that the winter coated people had whips in their hands.

Before Kai could decide whether to run, hide, or continue to stand there stupidly, someone looked his way. At such a distance, there was no way that he could've seen Kai. Kai's clothes were even completely white, further improving his stealth capabilities. Yet something very deep inside himself told Kai that the man saw him.

And when five of their people broke off to guide their wolves in his direction, his suspicions were confirmed.

He took a step back, wanting to run, before stopping himself. Running would be futile; he simply wasn't fast enough to outrun wolves. He might as well see what they wanted. And if they wanted to kill him, then he would die standing. He had already died once, so what was one more time?

It felt like they were moving at a snail pace as Kai anxiously awaited them. Clouds started forming overhead, heralding the call of an incoming blizzard. Such an event would be a blessing right about now. Sadly, the sky delayed granting his wishes and seemed perfectly content with watching the show.

Eventually, the wolves and newcomers came within talking distance to Kai, who tried to act as though his trembling was from the cold. None of these people held whips. Instead, they had a variety of other weapons, ranging from swords to bows. Kai was especially wary of the people with bows, considering that they were drawn pointing straight at him.

Oddly enough, they decided to circle him instead of going straight for the kill, capture or whatever. And Kai felt a sudden burst of shyness at the attention, the feeling preventing him from talking.

"Careful, these wild spirits can get tricky," one of the men said.

For a moment, Kai worried that there was some freaky supernatural stuff going on. Spirits? Did that mean there were ghosts somewhere too? He would've looked around for this so called 'spirit', but Kai was currently in a staring contest with one of the men, presumably the leader, judging by how his coat was a deep blue instead of the brown everyone else wore. The man had interesting tastes and rode a deer instead of a wolf.

"Who do you think you're staring at, filthy spirit", the blue-coated man said in a superior tone before pointing at Kai.

Then, a fireball manifested from the air before his fingers.

What. The. Hell.

Kai's eyes widened. This man wasn't a leader; he was a magician. Kai would've clapped, but then, as impossible as it seemed, the magician threw the fireball at Kai. And Kai decided that self-preservation took precedence over fascination.

The stalemate seemed to break as Kai dodged the attack. Someone released an arrow, missing him by a narrow margin as he saw the snow beside him fly up. There was a flash of silver, and Kai rolled away to avoid the incoming sword.

The magician uttered gibberish, and suddenly there was something holding Kai's legs in place. It was only for a second, but it was enough time for one of them to nail him in the shoulder with a spear.

Ajsdhaksjdfnawef.

Kai silently screamed, his mind turning blank from the pain. Reaching out, he tried to remove the weapon from his shoulder. Oddly enough, it shattered the second he applied pressure to it, as if it were a piece of fragile glass. However, he had no time to ponder on the wonders of faulty weaponry as three men pinned him to the ground. Another wrangled his arms behind his back before handcuffing them there, effectively reducing his nonexistent combat ability into the negatives.

Something seemed to seep out of him the second the handcuffs were on. The world became a bit warmer as a growing sense of exhaustion threatened to overwhelm him. His stomach was growling, and it felt as though all of the abuse he put his body through since he transmigrated was coming back to get him. At that moment, Kai didn't think he could put up a finger of resistance even if he wanted to.

"The spirit is secured, lets head back boys," someone said.

One of the men tossed Kai onto a soft wolf. The animal's fur reminded Kai of his blanket back at home; warm and cozy.

"Well, that was easy," someone whispered to their comrade.

"Yeah. I thought it'd be more of a challenge, considering that his hair is more silver than white. Do you think he's defective?" someone else said.

"Dunno and don't care," a third voice interjected. "With a face like that, he will fetch a pretty penny, even if he is as weak as a chicken."

Kai's eyes drooped to a close. The pain was a dull throb compared to the sea of tiredness washing across his mind.

Someone snorted. "Those filthy rich people would buy a rock as long as it's rare. Even if he were a useful spirit, they'd probably keep him as decoration anyways. Something to show their peers, you know?"

A chuckle proceeded that comment.

"How about-"

And then Kai slipped into the land of dreams.