3 Chapter 3: My element.

[Maxim POV]

'So this is me…', I thought, an indescribable feeling going through my heart, which was also beating extremely fast. 

It was all surreal but it was my reality now, there was no denying it, not that I really did or even could in the first place.

I couldn't see much detail because it was simply ice and not a real mirror but the impact on me was all the same.

In front of me was my very own reflection, even if it was pretty blurry. And from what I could I was the farthest from what I looked like as a human. 

Nothing even remotely close to reminding me of what I used to look like and was, I don't know if I should take this as something good or something bad, honestly.

I have my memories, but I don't have a magical eidetic one, so some of them will likely fade away or become with time and it is a bit terrifying. 

That isn't because I'm delighted and overjoyed with this new chance at life, that everything will be easy for me going onward.

Going back to my memories, I don't know how I still have them and what it truly entails for what we know and believed about the world, but I have them and that's what truly matters. 

Memories are one of the core components of what makes you, well you. No matter the circumstances, losing them or some of them will always affect someone, and more often than not, negatively.

Nobody is prepared for this, reading novels and fanfiction about random people reincarnating or transmigrating didn't make me a veteran or even remotely prepared for this kind of thing to happen to me.

Reading it and experiencing it are two entirely different things. Especially with something like this.

I was average, nothing outstanding about me, and I think that I take everything currently going on pretty well. And maybe I could become something more in this new life, something I could have never dreamed of as a human.

I don't think reincarnating makes me someone particularly special in the grand scheme of things. And being special can be a double-edged sword.

If I got the chance of getting reincarnated then that means that there is the possibility of an infinite number of people having the same chance as me being extremely high.

I don't have a system, which is in my opinion a good thing, excellent news even.

A good portion seems to be a trick in some way, can have a strange voice in your head, all variants being creepy, it's often a crutch, or in the worst case, you have obligatory conditions to meet unless you want the immediate termination of your existence. 

There is no free food in the world.

So, no thanks.

Reincarnating and with all my memories was already more than I could ever hope to ask for. Nobody should have any right to whine or complain if their death wasn't caused by the one who reincarnated them... Anyway.

Back to my reflection.

I could see my inhuman yellow-slitted pupil staring right back at me, above my head were two long and moveable pointed ears that seemed to not listen to me, my snout that was a bit similar to that of a boar, and my two small white tusks going downward from the end of my upper jaw, making my pinkish gum slightly visible. 

It looked like I was constantly snarling and angry. Which should look cute since I'm a newborn and from my reflection, it seems I'm right. A cute killing machine, that is.

I opened my jaws as wide as possible, which was pretty damn wide compared to a human, inside were multiple rows of sharp teeth and I could nearly see behind me through my gills.

On my back was my dorsal fin a bit similar to an orca but it seemed, sharper. And also seem to be a part of my spine.

My fins, flippers, wings, or whatever they were called, I was until now unconsciously moving them gently, keeping me steadily in place. 

I moved each one, left and right pectoral, same for the dorsal ones, and repeated the same process for the pelvic ones. It feels comfortable and natural to move them, even all at the same time. 

My new limbs are completely different and more numerous than in my last life. Most of the movements I made would have been impossible for humans and vice versa due to these same reasons.

The structure, anatomy, and morphology of my limbs were too different, this was also the case for my whole body. I didn't feel my heart beating in the same place, my skull was different, my ears, tongue, throat, the position of my neck, my spine, my tail, and I continue on and on.

The lack of real hands was slightly more unsettling to my mind for some reason, though. 

I could flex each muscle of my six flippers, I could fold them against my body, and expand the surface area of skin and scale between my 'fingers', just like wings.

Those appendages between my flipper's membranes felt like fingers to me even if they were very different.

They were quite flexible but visibly not made for grabbing things or anything even related to this.

I couldn't move my neck much compared to a human, but I could move my tail from left to right, it was at the end divided into three moveable appendages, and those same three were connected together by blue membranes of skin and scale. Quite sensitive too.

Frankly, I don't know what I am, my body sports similarities to species I know, like sharks. But it's just that, similarity. The rest was going against what I know should be possible on Earth. 

And I look like a creature of myth. I somewhat looked like that fish boss in that 2D game... It was Terraria if I remember correctly. The idea that I was a being like this was thrilling and alien, but as long as I don't end up on the divine quest for a god's hundredth bastard to kill me.

The chance that civilization exists in this world is slim anyways. And I don't need civilization unless I become a pet/slave, which I won't. I had my pride. 

Why would I even do that? For free food, pffff. Just the prospect made a part of me boil in outrage and disgust, it was both from my human mind and my body.

If I have to be the property of someone then this someone would be me. And will fight for it to stay like this.

Anyway.

It was fascinating to simply observe and feel every movement I could make with my new body. Most of them were pretty clumsy since all of this was new to me, my time in my mother's uterus was mostly me eating… well my sibling... and sleeping. Also, my mind was foggy and my body was numb to many sensations.

It helped, but not much.

Speaking of eating. I'm hungry. I swam backward with my flippers, the water shifted as if to help me move… Wait that's not the water doing, I'm doing it! It's me!

'This is amazing! Is this some kind of magic!?', I thought, my excitement breaking whatever I was doing with the water, propelling me backward until I stopped myself by spreading my six flippers wide open.

'I used it again!', I thought, this time a bit calmer. This was this supernatural feeling I felt earlier!

Is this magic, or some kind of hydrokinesis? My thought process about my power was interrupted as I felt my stomach growl in hunger, demanding food.

I swam downward, and the sensation of water passing my scale and gills was amazing, wonder if I could also fly?! 

I know my body wouldn't let me do it if I was in my last world but here I instinctively controlled water!

Flying might not be impossible with this kind of magic thing floating around. I could feel it, and I was the biggest source of it in my immediate surroundings. I will also need to study this at some point, but not now.

I was continuously smelling the water and I also have an electromagnetic sense, two things impossible as a human to do. These two were both amazing.

And this is not a game ability that I deactivate or activate, both are always present.

With this I know that food was at the bottom, bellow me, I was still careful and ready to swim back at any sign of danger.

I was potentially in mortal danger while scared, it was strangely compelling me to continue. The idea to fight, something I didn't particularly like and tried to evade as a human seemed stimulating here.

Of course, I will still evade it if I feel I don't have any chance of surviving… huh not being wounded or anything less but surviving, okay new suicidal me. 

I don't know how to feel about this, my personality is already changing. I can't stop it, unless I take drastic measures, and for what?

I'm in the wild of an unknown world with unknown fauna and flora, as a mutant baby of an unknown species. I don't think I have the luxury to do this and I don't want to do it in the first place.

I will still tone it down, rushing to my certain death wasn't in my plan.

Light started to become rarer as I swam downward.

I continued like this until I was nearly in total darkness, good thing I never had thalassophobia or achluophobia and it would have been ironic seeing what I'm now. (first is fear of deep and dark water and the second is fear of the dark.)

'Is this the sea, ocean, a big lake, or just the continuity of the cave?', I thought in wonder, the water was sharply going down in temperature and it didn't affect me. I know it's cold but it isn't bothering me.

I was wondering where I was. Since even with my possibly better eyesight I didn't see anything but vague shadowy shapes, the pink light wasn't really powerful at all and only a part of the ice was glowing and the light emitted was swallowed by the water.

And I didn't know how exactly deep I was but it was deeper than I ever was in my past life.

The water pressure didn't faze me, I even found it pleasing. I didn't need to equalize my ears as I would have as human and so many other little things that could make the difference between life and death, it was already so much better than anything I have experienced.

I could swim with such ease, even when most of my body movements were foreign and completely new to me. It was exhilarating!

I was in my element.