Darkness embraced Draden, frantic cries and a freezing cold pulled at him. It was all so confusing to him. He remembered working on the construction of his house and then going fishing in the lake nearby.

  Then everything was fuzzy… had he drowned, been swallowed by a giant catfish? He couldn’t remember, but he for sure knew he had died. Though the event itself was missing from his memory, he absolutely knew he had died. Yet, somehow, that was no longer the case.

  A small hand holding tight to his, alongside the sniffling cries of a small child, were the first things Draden heard as he drifted through the haze of unconsciousness.

  “Daddy… Daddy…” There was another snot-filled sniffle as something wet fell onto his cheek. “Don’t leave me. Leah will be a good girl from now on. Just don’t leave her alone.”

  A soft, fragile voice—half-cry, half-plea—pulled at his mind, pushing away the lingering fog of death. No, that wasn’t right- Draden’s eyes snapped open, taking in the bewildering sight above him.

  A dirty ceiling he didn’t recognize was several feet overhead. The thatched roofing was gapped in places and let him see the gray sky that threatened to open up with rain at any moment.

  Holding his hand tight was the small, soft hand of the most adorable little girl Draden had ever seen. He licked his dry lips, wanting to say something to the little girl, to ask her what was going on. However, before he could do anything more, a torrent of memories began to flood through his mind.

  *************************

  Please take a moment to rate the story. As the author, I am only putting this story on RoyalRoad at this time. If you are reading it anywhere else, please let me know as it was stolen.

  *************************

  It was confirmation that he had indeed died and either been transmigrated or awakened the memories of a past life. Who really knew which one it was? What he did know was that he had been a terrible father to this little girl.

  In the past, this girl’s father had been a mercenary. A man of some renown, only to suffer one of the few fates that all who lived that life did. He had gotten seriously injured and betrayed by a person he had once considered a brother. Now, his right leg was practically useless, and an injury that had just missed his spine had left him unable to cultivate.

  That had been six years ago, and he had been slowly weakening ever since. Then his wife had been taken and that had been the last straw. Since then, he had spent every day drinking himself into a stupor and ignoring his daughter whenever it suited him.

  In other words, he had been the sort of father that Draden despised the most. He had been the exact same as his own father on Earth, a man he had hated. His father had loved the bottle more than anything else, while his mother… The less said about that woman, the better.

  He had never wanted to be a parent like them, and yet here he was, finding that his alternative self-had become just like them. It was sickening.

  His wife had kept him stable for a while, but then her family came and took her forcefully one night. Ignoring the half-breed child their union had created. Unfortunately, his injuries had weakened him and gradually destroyed his cultivation. He had barely been able to keep their daughter safe at the time.

  That had been a little over a year ago. After that, he began to spiral and came to blame his daughter for the loss of his wife, her mother.

  His arching back began to ease as the influx of memories began to slow. Truthfully, Draden felt some sympathy for the man, so much had gone wrong in his life, all while for the most part, he seemed to have actually been somewhat decent. True, he had been a mercenary, but had been closer to a free-knight in his general methods.

  There was a weak frailty to his limbs, a sign that the man had truly given up on himself in the past year.

  Reviewing his memories, Draden could tell that he hadn’t exercised a single time since his wife had been taken from them. That day, he had just given up and stopped fighting the slow decay of his cultivation core. His muscles had withered, and his belly had begun to grow.

  The once handsome and lean fighter was no more. Now all that remained was a slightly overweight slob, who had disappointed his daughter, and himself.

  He had run away from the world in his past life. A mix of autism and ADHD had made sensory issues a constant problem growing up. Then there was the problem with learning. People liked to joke about how those with ADHD could hyper-focus but tended to struggle if they didn’t find the subject matter interesting. Well, it was worse when combined with autism.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  He couldn’t speak for everyone, as while he had been on the spectrum, it hadn’t been to a noticeable degree until he got older. However, if he wasn’t interested in something or framed in just the right way, then the topic was lost on him. That said, if he later became interested in the subject through another channel, then all bets were off.

  He had a friend who had failed all of his college classes for the exact same reasons that Draden had struggled with them. The fellow had later become a Videogame Youtuber, which he had absolutely loved. As a result, he had found himself doing deep dives into some of the same subjects he had struggled with in college. Only now, he loved learning about the information, consequently, he was able to learn the data with relative ease.

  He didn’t want to run away in this life; rather, he couldn’t, not with his daughter here. She was his responsibility, and he needed to become a proper father to her. He supposed at some point he also needed to go after his wife as well.

  That meant he needed to work towards healing his leg, along with the injury in his spine. Then fix the damage to his cultivation. Well, those were all long-term goals, if the original Draden hadn’t been able to do anything about them then who could say whether it would be any different for him?

  “Daddy?” As his back settled onto the bed, his small daughter called out to him. Her hand grasped tightly to his, tugging at it to get his attention. “Daddy, daddy, are you alive? Have you really not left Leah?”

  Draden coughed, a cloud of ominous dark mist leaving his mouth as he did so. He swung his legs off the bed and sat up. The next moment, the little girl was in his arms as he held her close, hugging her tight.

  “I’m so sorry, Leah, for everything. I’ve been a terrible father to you this last year. Ever since your mother was taken, I just stopped trying. I’m sorry.” Tears rolled down his cheeks as he held the little girl tight. “I’ll do better.”

  He had never been a father on Earth, and never particularly wanted that responsibility. Yet, he had all the memories and feelings that came along with this body. He knew how much this man had cared for his daughter, and how helpless he had felt when he was injured; robbed of his mobility and cultivation.

  Before she could say anything, both of their stomachs rumbled in pronounced hunger.

  “Can you hand me my cane? Let’s see what we have in the kitchen. I’ll make us some food. Then I need to get cleaned up.” The memories he had inherited of the last few days were fuzzy, but it was clear that he had become sick rather suddenly. Either way, he hadn’t bathed in a couple of days and generally just smelled of sickness and lingering alcohol. It was a smell he detested, not the sickness, though that was unpleasant, the sour smell of alcohol was one he hated with a passion.

  This body might be addicted to the stuff, but as far as he was concerned, he was going cold-turkey from this moment forward.

  His daughter slowly wriggled from his grasp; her nose wrinkled as she flapped her hands at him. “Daddy stinky. You’ll make the food stinky.”

  He chuckled and winced as his stomach grumbled again. “Alright, I’ll get cleaned up first and then cook. Is that better?” He lightly poked her nose as she grabbed his cane. “Thanks, sweetie.”

  “Is daddy alright?” Leah asked softly, holding his sweaty shirt tight as she looked up at him.

  “I wasn’t, but I think I am now, for the moment at least,” Draden said, while remembering the cloud of dark mist he had coughed up before. The memories he had inherited included nothing that related to that mist. He wasn’t even sure if it was related to what had made him sick or a combination of factors.

  There was too much unknown, and for now, there was no way for him to get any answers.

  He shook his head and pulled her along. “Come on, let’s both get cleaned up and then I’ll make some food.”

  The worn-down house that Draden and his daughter lived in was outside the walls of a nearby city. However, it had been built next to a stream, so they did have easy access to water. Back when Draden and his wife had first purchased the place, they had even made pipes and bought a pump, so they didn’t have to haul the water in with buckets. Sure, the water was cold, unless they heated it, but the easy access more than made up for that single problem.

  He already had plenty of ideas for improving the place. The main question was whether or not he would be able to do any of them with how weak his body was currently.

  It was a question for later. Right now, getting clean came first, and then getting fed. Since he had been sick, little Leah was dirty and probably hadn’t been eating anything the last couple of days either.

  He limped toward the bathroom and stripped down to his small clothes. Everything went into a nearby half-barrel underneath the pump. It had a cork-plug that could be removed to drain the contents. A nearby stave was used to beat and stir the clothes inside the barrel to clean them. It worked, but he wouldn’t call them clean to the same level as what they would achieve on Earth.

  There was a large stool for him to sit on, and a smaller one for his daughter. A bucket that could be filled with water was used to wash themselves.

  Leah threw her clothes into the barrel and quickly began pumping water.

  “Were you able to eat anything these last couple of days?” He asked her, putting the bucket underneath the waterspout as she went wild on the cast iron handle.

  “Teacher gave Leah some food when she stopped by, and the berry patch was raided by bears.” She stopped pumping to make claws with her hands.

  He chuckled and ruffled her hair. “Bears huh, they wouldn’t happen to be bears around your size and have long strawberry-blonde hair?”

  She blinked and looked away guiltily. “Nooo, bears have short hair, and fangs, and claws. They eat little girls.”

  He nodded, taking the bucket of water and dumping it over his head. “Yup, that’s what I hear. They think little girls are the tastiest snacks, especially ones that have been flavored with berries. They’re the best.” He smacked his lips. “It’s a good thing you weren’t there when the bears were raiding the berry patch.”

  Draden began scrubbing away the smell of sickness and sour alcohol while holding in his laughter as Leah began to freak out. “I’m just joking, honey.” He told her before she could dissolve into a puddle of tears.

  “Daddy is mean!” Leah pouted.

  He rolled his eyes and poured some water over her head. “I’m just glad you were able to eat while I was sick. Remind me to thank your teacher later.”

  There was a lot he needed to do, and all of it started with becoming a better father to this little girl.