When I opened my eyes again, I was no longer in a dungeon. In fact, I had no skudding idea where I was.

  "What's a baby doing out here?" a gruff voice said.

  Baby? Which baby? I tried to get up, but my body wouldn't cooperate. Skud. Was I paralyzed?

  A

  shadow moved into my field of vision. A giant man with messy black hair

  and an even messier beard stared down at me, his expression a mix of

  confusion and mild concern. I found it impressive how he managed to make

  beard as short as his appear messy. He wore leather, with his muscular

  physique rather obvious.

  "Hey there, kid. Where are your parents?"

  Parents?

  I blinked, and a horrible thought struck me. Slowly, I lifted my hands.

  The tiny, pudgy hands that waved back at me were not my own. No. No,

  no, no! My expression contorted to that of absolute horror. These were

  baby hands-my baby hands.

  I tried to scream, to let out a string of curses, but all that came out was a pathetic "Aaauuggh!"

  "Alright, you little brat," the man said, sighing. "Guess I'll take you too."

  He

  scooped me up, not at all gently, and slung me into his arms as if I

  wasn't a fragile skudding baby. I wanted to scream at him for his rough

  handling, but it wouldn't do any good. My baby mouth refused to

  cooperate. Damn it all.

  As he walked, humming to himself, I took

  stock of my situation. First, I was a skudding baby. Again. Second, I

  was abandoned. Again. And third, this grumpy giant had apparently

  decided I was worth lugging around, for god knows what reason. Hell, I

  might even be an offering for some cult.

  "Looks like Will's going to have a twin sibling," he muttered to himself.

  Will?

  Was this one of the "seven others" the dungeon man mentioned? If so,

  where were the other six? And sibling? So I wasn't going to be

  sacrificed? Wonderful news.

  The man's humming grew louder, and I

  remembered the other part of the dungeon man's instructions. "Close your

  eyes for 20 seconds." Might as well see what happens.

  I squeezed my eyes shut and started counting.

  The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  ========================================

           INFORMATION         ========================================

  Name: Age: OccupationAffinity:  Achievements:

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  What

  the skud? Information my ass-I didn't know what half of it meant.

  Before I could dwell on it further, the man's voice pulled me back to

  reality.

  "We're

  here," he said, stopping in front of a small wooden cabin. The smell of

  roasted meat from inside drew my attention, and my baby stomach growled

  loudly.

  The door

  swung open, revealing a woman with dark brown hair and a kind smile. She

  looked too pretty-and too pleasant-to be stuck with Mr. Grumpy.

  "Galt! You're back!" she said, pulling him into a hug. "Will's been missing you."

  Her eyes fell on me, and she gasped. "Oh! Who's this?"

  "Found the brat abandoned in the fields," Galt grunted. "Figured I'd bring him along."

  Her hand flew to her mouth. "How terrible! The poor thing! Come, the child must be starving!"

  You're skudding right I was. The smell of meat had made me realize how starved this body of mine was.

  She

  snatched me out of Galt's arms, cradling me with surprising gentleness

  while fussing over how dirty I was. Her warmth felt so alien, it almost

  made me forget my predicament. Almost.

  From

  the corner of my eye, I spotted Galt in a chair, holding another baby.

  Was that Will? The kid had his fist shoved in his mouth, drooling all

  over himself like a regular baby. Was he pretending? Or was he actually

  normal?

  I stared at

  him, with many important questions popping into my mind. Where was I?

  Who was I? What was I? And most importantly, what the skud was I

  supposed to do about my predicament.