1 A Crack in Space

"Shit."

As I fell through the kaleidoscopic passage that grew brighter by the second, I could feel my consciousness slipping away.

"I messed up"

-1 HOUR EARLIER-

"BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!"

"Smack!" A hand reached up from under the covers of a bed and slapped the top of the alarm clock, ceasing the ear-piercing noise.

A pair of hazel-colored eyes open, adorning a face that could be described as average, neither bad nor good. It was a boy, although close to reaching adulthood, he was still in his adolescence.

As he groaned and rolled out of bed, his body was exposed to the cold air revealing a body that was neither muscular nor fat. It seemed that just like his face, his body was also average.

The boy walked over to his dresser and slipped on his clothes in a sloppy manner, then walked to the bathroom where he went through his daily routine. He soon finished and walked downstairs where his father sat watching the news, his mother apparently having already left for work. The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, checking the time.

Seeing that he still had an hour before he was scheduled for work, he sat down, unlocked his phone and started to read a light novel that he'd begun the day before. After whittling away the hour, he sighed, stood up, grabbed his keys and unlocked the door before opening it. As he walked outside, sucking in the crisp air, he noticed something flashing in the corner of his eye.

He turned his head to locate the source, only to see a crack on the sidewalk seemingly glowing. Out of curiosity, he walked over and squatted down, trying to get a better view. As he squatted down the light suddenly pulsed dimly causing him to furrow his eyes before leaning in even closer.

The boy was puzzled by this mystery, and he didn't like to be puzzled, so he reached out his hand trying to touch the glowing crack, hoping that his tactile senses could help him solve this puzzle. As his hand was about to touch the crack, the space seemed to get thick, like he stuck his hand in a bowl of water. Before he could realize the implications of what just happened, he felt a strong vacuuming force pulling his hand into the crack.

As he saw his hand get sucked in and his arm start to be pulled in as well, he let out a scream before quickly being pulled in entirely into the crack. As if satisfied after a meal, the crack pulsed once more before fading away entirely.

-PRESENT-

As the unconscious boy hurtled through the tunnel, his body started to crumble away, with his hair and skin the first to disintegrate, followed by his musculature, then his organs, and finally his bones, leaving only a small, dim orb about the size of a tennis ball. Then something miraculous happened, a stream of the kaleidoscopic light broke off from the tunnel and merged with the orb, causing it to light up with newfound strength and change colors rapidly while growing until it became the size of a basketball.

The orb continued to hurtle through the tunnel and after what seemed like an eternity, the end of the tunnel came into sight revealing a majestic sight. It was a blue and green planet that appeared small because of distance; however, it quickly became larger as the orb shot towards the planet at such a high speed that it was unable to be seen by the human eye.

As the orb got even closer, continents were able to be made out on the planet's surface and strangely enough, it looked exactly like the planet that the boy had just been stolen away from. As if being controlled, the orb adjusted its course mid-flight to go to what the boy would consider Iceland. It eventually reached a medium-sized village on the eastern shore, where it shot toward a small wooden house with a thatch roof located near a large longhouse.

The orb eventually stopped and hovered right above the bed of a young man about the same age as the boy. The young man had blond hair that was braided in the back, he was wearing coarse clothing and was emaciated. The young man had the traditional features of a Scandinavian and wasn't unpleasing to the eye, however he was by no means a very attractive person. The orb slowly descended onto the young man until it sunk into his chest and as it did so, the young man's eyes shot open and glowed with a multicolored light while his body started convulsing.

Inside the young man an equally miraculous thing was occurring, the orb merged with the man and traveled through him into the metaphysical space inside of him where the soul is located. The orb finally reached where the man's soul should be only to come across an empty space where it finally settled down and rested.

As the orb adjusted to its new body, it slowly let out pulses of multicolored energy that healed damaged muscle tissue and repaired cracked and fractured bones. As the young man's body healed, he unconsciously released a satisfied sigh and drifted off into a content sleep.

-POV CHANGE-

My eyes slowly opened, but quickly closed once more as I stretched my arms out and let out a loud yawn. When they opened once more, I froze.

'Where am I?'

As my grogginess vanished, a splitting headache soon followed that was so painful I clutched my head with both hands and fell to the floor screaming in agony. After what felt like an eternity, the pain subsided and I was able to think once more, what was strange however, was the new memories.

It seems I was in the body of a thrall named Rune who was the slave of the jarl, Halfdan Odgerson.

Halfdan was not a very tall man and was only 5'4", but what he lacked in height, he more than made up for in ferocity. He had dark hair that he cut short and blue eyes that were often dulled by alcohol.

It seems I was now in the body of a slave, or thrall as I now knew what the locals called such people, named Rune who was the slave of the jarl, or village head, Halfdan Odgerson. Setting aside my sudden transition, what scared me the most was my memories of the local warriors performing feats of strength that could only be described as inhuman. My most vivid memory was of Halfdan using his bare hands to crush a large rock, and the scariest part was that Halfdan was nowhere near as muscular as his lackeys, who for some reason, were much weaker.

Now there is only one thing going through my mind, 'I'm so fucked.'