Chapter 2 - Her 18th birthday

To anyone else, it's just a normal 18th birthday, but for her, it was the day it all changed and everything started to make sense. Avyanna Winter woke up in a cold sweat and jumped out of bed to look at the mirror in the room. As she stared at her reflection, her brain began to process what she had just seen. Last night, in her dreams, she felt like she had lived a new life in someone else's body. A place that she had seen, or, to be more accurate, had once lived, was completely different from the world she was in now. In her dreams, she had lived a life as Anna, a citizen of Earth—a world devoid of magic, relying solely on technology and science.

But the biggest thing that stuck with her was sports. In her first life, she lived and breathed sports. It was the one thing that distracted her from the stress that was happening around her and brought her great happiness.

Anna loved all sports and had started to compete heavily in rock climbing. She made her debut in the IFSC at 16 and has been trying to get on the podium ever since. It was on her 18th birthday that she had just secured a place on the podium for the first time. She was at the top of her route, celebrating, when equipment malfunctioned and she found herself falling. The last thing she remembered was looking down at the crowd and seeing surprised faces, and then all she saw was black. That was her last dream as Anna.

After that, she woke up as Avyanna Winter. Since she was a kid, she had always seen small flashes of her last life, but she never knew what they were, and when she went back to think about them, her memory would always be blurry. Because of that, she always felt like she was different and a lot more mature than her peers. This was really prominent, as she had a twin brother. They were always close, but it felt like something was separating them. If anything, she had distanced herself from everyone around her. She didn't understand why she was so different, and she didn't want people to call her out for it.

But when she woke up on her 18th birthday, she realized that she was remembering her past life. She looked in the mirror and stared at her reflection. What she saw was the same as what she saw yesterday. With long, wavy hair the colour of snow and unique eyes. One looks like Earth with green on the inside and blue on the outer layer, and the other is purple with what looks like lightning going through it. She was someone that you would never see on Earth, and she had a rare beauty that was only seen in movies. She was pretty in her last life, but not as pretty as she is now. She used to have black hair and black eyes, but now they are completely different.

As she was thinking about her last life, her door burst open, and her twin brother Dune came running towards Avyanna.

"Happy birthday, Avy," Dune said with a big grin on his face, pulling her into a bear hug.

Dune had a mix of white and dirty blonde hair. The white was closer to the top, and the roots were a darker blond, but it was overall a mix of both colours and unique blue eyes.

Walking behind him was Avyanna's older brother, Ashton. His hair was very similar to Dune's; he had dirty blond hair and light green highlights with green eyes.

He walked up to Avy and patted her head, saying, "Happy birthday, Avy."

"Thanks, Ash, and happy birthday to you too, D," Avy replied with a smile on her face.

"Mom and Dad are calling us to have breakfast, so we came to get you." Said Ash, but Dune pushed him out of the way and looked into her eyes.

"Hey Avy, are you alright?" Maybe because they were twins, but for some reason, they always knew when the other was hurt or having a hard time. And, to be fully honest, she knew that she wouldn't be able to hide it from her family, especially Dune. But she just couldn't tell them, especially not on her brother's birthday. She needed time away to process everything and know what she was comfortable with.

"D, why are you worrying about me? Maybe you will awaken another power or find your soul mate; who knows?" Avy said as she tried to rub his head. Dune smiled at her but looked a little sad. Avy realized that she shouldn't have said anything, as it was a sensitive topic within the family.

"OK, both of you need to get out. I need to change. I will be down for breakfast in 10 minutes," she said while she pushed her brothers out of her door.

"Come on, let the maids get you dressed up just for today."

"Dune, you know that I don't like the help. I will be quick." She said this as she smiled and shut the door.

She ran to her closet and looked for one specific dress. It was a dress that her father had bought her on her last birthday, and she promised that she would wear it on her 18th birthday. It was a light blue dress that went down to the floor. And on it were white embroidered snowflakes that covered the top but started to dwindle out at the bottom. It took her about 10 minutes to get the dress on. She was very careful not to wrinkle or ruin the dress in any way.

When she was done, she opened her door and made her way downstairs to the dining room. As she walked down the hall, servants stopped what they were doing and bowed to her. It was a normal occurrence for people to bow to nobles, but she really couldn't get used to it, especially today. She had just fully remembered her past life, and growing up in Canada was a very different experience.