Chapter 1: Chapter 1
The first sensation that came back to me was warmth. Some liquid and the warmth that surrounded me permeated my entire being. I tried to move my limbs and was pleased to find I could, but I soon met a hard surface.
An egg, then.
I had died. There was no need to mourn for me, though. My life was long and fruitful. I married someone I spent the rest of my days with, and my days ended with my grandchildren and great-grandchildren kissing my forehead goodbye while I released my last grip on life. My wife, Melony, was just as beautiful as the day I met her 52 years ago. Her loving eyes, which had started to moisten, were the last thing I saw as my eyesight slowly dimmed and my heartbeat slipped away. A good life. A satisfying life. A life of love.
Coming out of my memories, I found that the passage of time eluded me, but the liquid I was surrounded by at first had reduced significantly. If I had to surmise based on the knowledge of my previous life, the time for me to hatch was not long off.
I am excited about this new life and have no regrets from my previous one. What piqued my interest is that I would be spending this one as some reptile. I had read novels before about some Chinese character being reborn as an animal and then evolving into cosmic entities, so I was curious if this were the type of life I would experience going forward. It is a scary life, but, from my point of view, these were all bonuses. Now, what would suck would be if I was captured and used as an experiment. It's funny how humans are capable of the most beautiful and terrible things.
Time passed inconspicuously, and I was stuck waiting for the liquid in my egg to be used up. This would, hopefully, mean I would form into the best I could be. No one wants to be the runt of the litter. The creature sitting on me, my mother, would occasionally get up, I assume, to get food and come back to reclaim her place on my egg. I sometimes wondered if my would-be father was around, but I never felt his presence, if it was there, during my time in this egg. The only "person" here throughout my stay was Mother. I could sense her affection towards me from outside almost constantly. More importantly, this was my first time as a baby with awareness. Do all babies have this sensitivity? I do not know, but it makes me wonder if we humans lose that somewhere along the way. If we do, when?
I do not care about these things, but I was trying to waste time until I was born. After all, the advent of technology, phones specifically, has led to an increase in entertainment, and I was used to my attention being constantly satisfied. I was incredibly bored, stuck in this egg with nothing to do.
Luckily, it was time. Now, how do you crack this egg again?