“He died a hero. He woke as someone small enough to save the world slowly.”


A gentle giant dies saving strangers in a London tower fire—and wakes as Lili, a baby girl in year 904 of another world. With only a fading mother, a stubborn rooster, and a flicker of healing light inside her, she must learn to survive, grow that light, and someday face the lion-lord who may be her father.


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Additional context for story and some spoilers for earlier chapters of the story.......

Bruce lived big, saved quietly, and died without applause—dragging children from a burning tower until his lungs gave out. In the hush that follows death, a small, stuttering god places a “light-heart” in him and sends him to try again. He opens his eyes as Lili, newborn daughter to a young northern woman in a one-room cottage by a lake, in a world that keeps time as “904 after Sighard.” 

This second life is small on purpose: woodsmoke, winter porridge, seven hens and one imperious rooster (Mister Terminator), and a mother whose health is slipping away. Lili’s light can warm and steady, even heal—but it costs her. Overuse brings black-edged vision, trembling limbs, and sleep like a trapdoor. There are no doctors. No roads. No contrails in the sky—only forest, lake, and the memory of a lion-crested lord who visited at Lili’s birth. “Wait for your father,” Mama whispers. “Or go north to his castle.” 

When spring finally softens the brutal winter, Lili—still barely able to walk—keeps the garden, bosses hens, fixes the wattle fence, and tries her light to help Mama. It’s not enough. After Mama’s quiet death, Lili does the only thing she can: calls for help into a silence that answers with wind and birds, then sets out along the lakeshore with her rooster and hens like a tiny honor guard, following survival logic—find water, follow the stream, find people. Exhaustion drops her, but not her vow: be good, keep the fire, keep the flock, live… and one day find the castle in the north. 

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Content notes (gentle)

Grief (parental death), survival stress, child in danger (fox, exposure); non-graphic. Courage, kindness, and comfort animals throughout. 


Tags: Reincarnation • Female Protagonist • Slow Burn • Slice of Life • Low Fantasy • Survival • Found Family • Cozy Grim • Soft Magic System • Medieval-ish World • Strong Animal Companion.

All historical characters, nations, places, and events depicted in this story are entirely fictional and bear no intentional resemblance to real-world counterparts.The opinions and beliefs expressed by the narrator or characters are fictional and do not necessarily reflect those of the author.


Content Warning:This story may contain strong language, graphic depictions of violence, and controversial subject matter. Reader discretion is advised.


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