Slowly, ever so slowly, the corpse’s eyes opened. A thin trickle of water flowed over the man’s face. Sunken skin drank up the water, a rotten smell permeating from it. Thankfully, the man couldn’t smell the stench, his nose having rotten away long before. Though, that wouldn’t last for much longer.
Shifting his submerged form, mud squelched. Freeing his arm from the clinging mud, the man pushed against the water-clogged ground. His bony hand sunk slightly as his chest rolled over. Pushing up from his other arm, submerged in the shit filled mud beneath him, the man’s body rose slowly. Weak muscles strained to hold him up as ash began to fall from his form. It floated around him as he gained purchase on legs little more than bones. A gaping hole in his skull filled with the ash, alighting his body with the semblance of life.
Gasping, the man took in breath once more. Then he sniffed the air, wondering what serene smells he would experience. Shit. That was all he could smell. SHit, shit, and more shit. Sighing to himself, his chest once sunken and cracked now filled with flesh, heaved from the recent exertions. His legs began to fill the loose material that made up his breeches. The ash that had swirled up to meet him settled against his body, becoming one with it, and filling it.
Looking out, the sight was one he couldn’t remember. His body had been left in the bed of a small stream. Great oaks towered up around him as he stood to his full height. Being 6’4” would have it’s advantages, that much he was sure. Looking down at his body, the last bits of dust filling in some grooves, the man blinked. His chest was bare, whatever wisps of cloth having fallen off as he stood, though a thin set of breeches covered his legs down to his knees. At least Fate had the mind to keep him decent.
Looking back up at the trees, he could see a light that sat in the middle of a great root. One that stretched the span of the creek. Farther in the background stood the remains of a crumbling castle. Its name reverberated within the man’s mind: Veldrick.