That Time I Destroyed a Country as a Child

The Arrival

London. One of the wealthiest cities on Planet Earth and capital of the United Kingdom. Many stories have started here. Stories of brave men, of kings and queens and heroes and villains. This is none of these stories, for this story starts with an end.

***

James was not feeling good. He was feeling so utterly miserable that he couldn’t even be bothered to take off his clothes before going to bed. The symptoms he felt indicated that he had caught a cold, albeit far more potent than what he had read on the internet.
For a European, this wouldn’t have been much more than an inconvenience, but for James it was a major problem. He was merely studying abroad, and the change from the warm climate of South Africa to the cold rains of England had weakened his body defences. That, in combination with a few stressful months, meant that his immune system was on its rear foot.
Thus, as soon as he closed his eyes, he fell asleep, and, when he awoke again, he was no longer in his apartment. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing but darkness around him.
At first, he thought that there might be a blackout, but then why didn’t he hear traffic? Sure, it was the middle of the night and thus traffic was relatively low … but this was London. At least the city centre should be busy, even at …
James realised that he didn’t know what time it was, so he turned over to look at his alarm clock. However, as he did, he felt like he was just wiggling in mid-air. He didn’t feel resistance from his mattress or the weight of his blanket. He also didn’t feel like he was rotating or moving any other way at all. Panic gripped him, and he slammed his hand down onto the mattress to see if it was still there, but his hand just continued on and on without being stopped. Next, he tested the blanket, by throwing his other hand down onto his belly. However, not only did he not hit the blanket, but he also missed his body.
He slammed both his hands down onto his belly, but they just continued on without resistance. It was as if his body no longer existed, as if he was no longer a part of reality. He crossed his arms over one another, continuing to stretch them out in opposite directions in the hopes that, at some point, they would inevitably block the other’s progress. However, not only did that blockade never come, but from his sense of location, he could actually tell when and where his arms passed through one another. The feeling made him nauseous, and the nausea was exacerbated when he stretched his arms to their maximum, and they reached not only through one another but also through his torso and the joints they were attached to.
James quickly repositioned his arms into a natural pose – at least as far as he could tell and gulped down his nausea. He forced himself to stay calm and tried to find out what was going on. However, before he could investigate anything, a voice suddenly spoke to him out of the abyss.
‘Greetings, James.’
James whirled around, looking in all directions in an attempt to spot the source of the voice, but around him there was only darkness.
‘Your feeble attempts at locating me are amusing, but entirely futile. You have left the material world, James. The concept of “location” does not apply anymore.’
James was a bit surprised at himself when he had very little issue with comprehending this concept. Though it left quite a few questions unanswered, it at least brought him certainty that he had died … from a cold.
‘Quite indeed,’ the voice told him. ‘It seems you are beginning to understand the situation you are in.’
James had to think twice about what the being just said. He could swear it was reading his thoughts. The voice chuckled.
‘That is correct. I am the ruler of this realm, James. I know everything that happens within it. From the arrival and departure of all the souls to every single tiny thought that passes through your mind.’
‘Ah,’ was all he could answer to that. ‘Well, I guess that means this is the realm of the dead, isn’t it? So, what happens now?’
He was surprised at how calmly he could say that. The news that he had died would probably drive another man insane … or would it? There wasn’t really a way for him to know since everyone who knew was … well, dead.
‘You are going to be reincarnated, albeit with a few alterations,’ the voice answered.
‘Alterations?’ James echoed. ‘What kind of alterations?’
‘You are not going to be reincarnated into your old world. You are also not going to be “born” in the biological sense. Instead, I will prepare a body for you to use, and I will grant you powers far beyond what would have been possible in your old home.’
James was taken aback for a moment and overwhelmed by what the voice said.
He couldn’t help but feel a minor surge of joy. Being sent to another world sounded like fun, even if a tad dangerous, but the promised powers should help in keeping himself safe. However, the more he thought about it, the more it seemed strange that he would be given such gifts.
‘What’s the catch?’ he asked, to which the voice let out another chuckle.
‘The “catch”, as you call it, is that I will give you a task to fulfil,’ the voice answered. ‘You see, in the realm I am going to send you to, there is a country. Said country is ruled by a powerful witch, who is worshipped by her subjects almost as if she is their goddess. This cannot be allowed to remain, so you were chosen to overthrow her rule. You may destroy her lands as much as you like and use whatever means you wish. However, that country’s population is to remain intact as much as possible, so keep your killing to a minimum. As for the other countries … you may do with them as you like, they don’t hold any value to me.’
James pondered over what the entity had said for a moment. He had read many stories and seen many movies and series about being reincarnated into another world, but being ordered to destroy a country? That was certainly new. That left one question, though:
‘Why don’t you do it yourself?’ he asked, though noticed pretty quickly that he might have overstepped a little.
‘Do not question the motives of us deities, mortal! Your primitive mind wouldn’t comprehend the answer, anyway,’ the voice boomed. Luckily, it didn’t seem angry, and James certainly wasn’t eager to change that. Though, there was another last question that popped to his mind.
‘Of course, of course, but … If I may ask … why me?’
The deity sighed and left James sitting in an uncomfortable silence for a few seconds, before it answered.
‘You mortals always need some higher explanation for every little treat I throw at you … to feel special, to have something that makes you feel superior to your peers. Do you expect me to say that you were bred from birth for this very task? You don’t need to deny it, I can see it very clearly in your thoughts.
‘No, mortal, no. There are millions of others who show the same defining traits as you do, and thus a million others whom I could have chosen. The only reason that it is you and not one of them is that you happened to die at an opportune moment. Nothing more, nothing less.’
The deity paused for a few moments, before a swirling portal opened under James and started pulling him towards it.
‘I have indulged your questions for long enough now. It is time for you to be on your way,’ it said, before James was sucked into the vortex and lost his consciousness again.

***

He awoke in a large clearing with a small lake, in the middle of what seemed like a lush green forest. He tried to identify some of the trees, but none of them seemed familiar, though that might be because he actually had very little knowledge about plants, in general. What he didn’t have any issue identifying, however, was the bright blue sky above him.
He arrived lying on his back, facing up towards the sky. Grass was lightly patting against his skin, and he could feel the wind race between the trunks and over his face.
After a few seconds of looking skywards, he chuckled. The absurdity of the situation – of dying from a cold, only to then be sent to a different world by a deity that he didn’t even know the name of – was at the same time amusing and disturbing to him. However, at the same time, he felt something weird. Something like a chance that maybe this new world would finally bring a fresh breather into his previous string of misfortune, even before his fairly ridiculous demise. At the very least, he had a very clear given purpose now.
He decided that he should make the best of his situation for now, so he rolled over and tried to get up. However, not only did he find that his surroundings were seemingly a lot larger than he thought, but also that keeping his balance was unusually difficult. He assumed that he might no longer be human anymore and checked his back to see if there are wings or a tail or something. However, what he found instead let a short surge of horror jolt through his mind.
He checked his entire body and, when his findings only seemed to be validated more and more, he crawled over to the lake and looked at his reflection.
To his utmost annoyance, he found that the sudden imbalance and strange proportions of the place were related. What stared back at him through the water’s surface turned out to be a young boy of about 14 years of age, with blond hair and wearing a white shirt with a dark blue suit vest over it, a red tie hanging from his neck and dark blue suit pants on his legs.
James had to admit that he looked quite classy, like a young noble or something. However, noble or not, that left him with a rather big problem.
‘So you want me to fight an entire nation, but only give me the body of a child?’ he asked into the nothingness with a strong undertone of annoyance.
‘The age of the body itself does not matter, as it is only a vessel to keep your soul bound to this realm,’ the deity suddenly spoke directly in James’s head. ‘This particular body is made in the image of a boy who was given to me as a sacrifice by its parents. His name was Frozen Blood, so it shall be yours as well from now on.’
‘Frozen Blood? What kind of a na– Wait, what do you mean by “sacrifice”?’ James, now Frozen Blood, asked suspiciously.
‘As I have already told you, the motivations and actions of us deities are none of your business. Now go. This forest is magical in nature and houses many a beast that might prove too powerful for you in your current state. I suggest moving west. It’s the shortest path to civilisation.’ And, with that, the deity’s voice went silent, leaving Frozen Blood alone in the clearing.
‘Hey! No, you can’t just weasel away whenever I ask uncomfortable questions! Hello?’ he shouted, but no answer came. He realised that he was probably not going to get one, so he looked around. The forest looked the same everywhere, no matter where he looked and he also didn’t know the time, so he couldn’t just use the sun as reference. Seeing as he was probably going to need help, he sighed and spoke up again, though this time in a more respectful tone.
‘Um, please excuse my earlier outburst, sire, but could you please tell me where “west” is?’
He heard a branch snap to his left, and he whirled around to look at it. He saw the branch fall to the ground and split into three pieces that formed an arrow, which pointed into the forest.
‘Huh? … I guess that way … thank you, sire,’ he said and went on his way, following the arrow.

***

Trees, trees, and even more trees. It had been quite a while since James – or Frozen Blood, by his new name – had started his journey. Journey, in this case, being meant literally, as he was still wandering through the woods.
Trees, trees, and more trees yet. There were still no signs of civilisation, though. He was following the path the deity had suggested, albeit not because of blind followership. After all, he knew that deity for what was only about two hours for him. No, in the time he spent travelling, he had already thought of some reasons of his own to seek out civilisation. After all, how should he become the greatest bane in this nation’s history if he didn’t know anything about it? He needed information, and that was easiest to gather in the local settlements that hopefully had libraries or at least something close to it.
Information gathering was the easy part though. Actually using that information would be the tricky bit, but since that depended completely on what info he would find, he left those thoughts for later and concentrated on not getting lost.
Trees, some buildings, even– wait, what?! Finally, there were signs of civilisation in front of him! He released a relieved sigh, as his long march would finally find its end.
He ran over to the edge of the forest and found a small town just a few hundred metres away from the woods. A dirt road snaked its way from the town towards the forest but bent away to the left just before and instead made a wide turn around it. Above said road, at the town’s entrance was an archway upon which was a sign that read, ‘Welcome to Ermweir!’
This put some ease to his mind, as it meant two things. One, he was still able to read, which made it far easier to gather information. And, two, he understood the local language, which he found rather curious, given that it was highly unlikely that two civilisations, from different worlds no less, developed the same language completely independently from one another. Although he supposed that the deity likely had a part in this, either through implanting the language directly into his mind or by influencing this world’s development.
Either way, it was a rather large rock off his chest that language would not be a problem. However, that rock was just a pebble in comparison to the landslide that was the plethora of other problems he was facing.
‘One step at a time, though …’ Frozen Blood thought, before walking over to the dirt road and following it through the arched sign. Then, he crossed a bridge that arched over a small river and walked into the town.
Once he neared the first buildings, he noticed that, firstly, the state of technology seemed rather … mixed. There were modern-ish streetlights placed in regular intervals along the streets, which started out as dirt roads in the outskirts and grew more and more paved the closer he got to the town centre.
A similar development could be seen with the buildings around him. They started out as thatch-roofed half-timbred houses in the outskirts and ended up with a style akin to Earth’s late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century architecture in this town centre.
On top of that, he also saw manholes dotted all over the streets, including the outskirts, suggesting that the whole town had proper plumbing. However, the most modern vehicle he saw was a horse-drawn cart, with the exception that through one of the streets, he was able to catch a short glimpse of what looked like a train station, thus implying the existence of trains.
And lastly, to address the elephant in the room, the population was completely humanoid but not all were human. As far as he could tell, there were three different species present: normal humans like himself; High Elves who, apart from their long ears, were nigh indistinguishable from humans; and lastly, people with bird legs and wings on their backs, who referred to themselves as Harpies.
Frozen was a tad surprised about them. He knew of them from Greek mythology, though they were almost always depicted with only the head of a human and were exclusively female. These ones, however, had almost a completely human body with only the wings and legs coming from a bird and were both genders. Alas, he was in a different world, so he made a mental note that he should be careful about assumptions based on his old knowledge.
In the centre of the town, he found a large plaza with shops all around it and with market stalls filling the free space in the middle. Some of the goods they sold were completely unknown to him, though he was surprised at how many of the goods he recognised – and how diverse the level of technology really was.
There were stalls that sold modern kitchen appliances, irons with hilts that seemed like they were made out of plastic, TVs, radios and many other things that seemingly had no place in this world. However, Frozen quickly noticed that there was one major difference from these things to their counterparts on Earth: none of them seemed to need electricity. At least, he didn’t see any cords on any of them.
This suggested that they used another power source, which Frozen for now assumed to be magical in nature, maybe even pure magic.
Not all the goods sold on the market were magical in nature, though. There were also food items and furniture, which, while again made in a somewhat modern style, was clearly handcrafted. A stall with fruits momentarily grabbed his attention, and he contemplated getting an apple. However, he decided against it as, on one hand, he didn’t have any money, and, on the other, he had noted just earlier that his old knowledge may not apply, and he would really like to avoid learning that those apples weren’t actually apples.
He continued his stroll through the market, all the while not noticing the strange looks and even disapproving glares he got from some of the local townspeople. What he did notice, however, was a building on the other side of the plaza that had a sign that said ‘Library’ hanging above its door frame.
Splendid, he thought. A subtle and easy way to gather information.
He made his way over to the building and was just about to open the door, when he suddenly heard a deep male voice behind him.
‘Excuse me, young man?’
Frozen Blood turned around and looked at who called out to him. It was a middle-aged man who wore what looked like a dark blue uniform beneath blue leather armour and a metal breastplate. He also had a baton and a sword on his hips and a whistle around his neck. A local policeman, maybe?
‘Uh… do you mean me?’ Frozen asked back.
‘Yes, I mean you. Say, what are you doing here at this time of day?’
‘Uhm, I wanted to check up on a few things in the library. I didn’t do anything wrong, did I?’ Frozen tried to remain as polite and passive as he could, though him having caught the attention of the police after merely an hour in this town unnerved him slightly.
That and he very desperately needed information, before he could safely hold conversations – including with the police – as he didn’t know anything about the local mannerisms and those things that the locals would see as common knowledge.
Those things combined meant that this bobby was definitely not something he wanted to deal with at this point in time.
‘Well, that depends … To my knowledge, school is in session right now.’
Realisation hit Frozen like a brick. School, of course! He was a child, so he had to go to school! On one hand, he was glad about that, as it meant that this place had mandatory education, but on the other hand, it happened to be a major inconvenience to him right now.
‘Uh, heh heh, there has to be a misunderstanding, sir. I’ve actually left school two years ago and am now studying. That’s one of the reasons why I need to check the library, actually.’
Heh heh, smart move, I’ve got to say, he praised himself.
‘Oh, really? In that case, you should have a student ID, shouldn’t you?’
‘Or not …’
‘Umm, yeah, that’s the thing. My student ID is in there and…’
‘You can stop right there, kid. I’ve heard these excuses way too often already to actually believe them. Now, I’m afraid I’ve got to tell your parents about this. So, be a nice boy and tell me where I can find them, OK?’ the policeman said in an authoritarian tone.
Oh crap …! ‘My parents? Uhm, uh, they are…’ Frozen Blood stammered. He needed to come up with something quick, or else he might–
‘Ah, you know what, I’ll let Mrs Brisbourne deal with them. For now, I’ll bring you back to school. Maybe we can make it in time for afternoon class,’ the policeman said, leaving no room for argument.
‘B-But – woah!’ Frozen tried to argue anyway, only for the man to lift him over his shoulder and carry him off.
Oh, god dammit! he cursed to himself, as he saw the library slowly move away.
…