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So apparently, Lia blamed the whole thing on herself and shut herself in her room, and though I was fine, refused to see me.
Fine by me, I didn’t want to be friends with a literal idiot like that either. But, it kind of felt wrong at the same time; she was three for crying out loud. So, I kind of volunteered to help. Definitely not because I was trying to impress Mom or anything.
Aka, go over to Lyra’s place and uh, yeah.
What am I even doing? My eyes were glued to Lia’s doormat.
After nearly two whole weeks of recovering, Mom took me over to Lia’s place. I was pretty busted and she more or less had to change my bandages frequently. She wouldn’t let me see the wounds but I had a feeling I didn’t have much meat on my arms. I mean, I could tell. I couldn’t really move my arm much. It hurt; it was also quite numb. But I could at least move around now.
They lived close to the rice paddies, so it was somewhat of a familiar terrain. And not just Lyra, Apparently Den and Xena also lived nearby.
I could visit them later. For now, I stood by Lia’s door, unable to muster enough courage to knock.
Their house was pretty much the same as ours just larger with two distinct floors and six rooms while we just had two rooms. They had like five people here. Lyra, her husband, and her kids. Two boys, who were both older than me and Lia. Apparently the fourth one was on the way, or so I heard.
It’s now or never dude. You came here for this!
Mom and Lyra both just let me be and were doing other stuff. I had a feeling they were keeping an eye on me, or us, so we didn’t accidentally repeat our previous incident. For now though-
Breath in, breath out... Knock, knock!
“It’s me... Sol,” I said.
No response. So, I waited a minute. Maybe she wasn’t wearing much and needed some time to get changed.
But that time never came and the door didn’t open.
Or maybe she’s sleeping? So, I knocked again. “We need to talk,” I said.
Again, no response. I knocked with my left hand but even just moving my body made me tired, and it kind of stung.
I sighed. “Look, if you don’t want to talk, just say so. I’m pretty busted up and staying like this is making me a little lightheaded. I’d like to sit.”
Nothing.
So, after a minute or two, I gently stomped my feet, making a sound on purpose.
If she still didn’t open the door then... that was that and I’d just leave without a word.
However... squeak! The door opened, as she haphazardly came out to find the passed-out boy on the floor. I was anything but passed out though. I grabbed her hand, pulled her out of the room and pinned her next to the wall, staring. “You look... bad,” I said. Basically panting, I could hardly stay up and since I only pinned her with one arm, she could easily just slip out from the other side.
My attempt at faking baby talk had mostly failed, so at this point I kind of started giving up halfway.
She didn’t look me in the eye, and just kept her gaze low. Dry skin, messy hair, more or less shit health.
With a sigh, I let her go. “It wasn’t your fault. I did what I wanted,” I said, and kept on walking. “And while I don’t think you consider me your friend, if you ever need a friend, I...” I didn’t finish, or rather, I didn’t get to.
She’d grabbed my shirt, and pulled it... eyes moist, she didn’t say word. At least for a few minutes. She finished silently crying and stared at me. “Thaink you... Shol.”
“You’re welcome. Lia.” I chuckled. “And it’s Sol.”
***
Lia spent the vast majority of the evening gulping down food and water like she was starving for days. She proceeded to unload everything right back up an hour or so later though. Yeah, not eating for a while and then eating a lot at the same time probably wasn’t the best way of going about this, especially if you were as young as her. But it was her choice, so oh well.
But... at least she came out of her room. If she blamed herself, she was right. Because it was her fault. It was her fault she got into that. But it wasn’t her fault I got hurt. That was my choice, and I wanted to make that bit clear.
Anyway, we came back home and Mom made me some soup.
“Lately that goat isn’t showing up anymore,” I said. “Is it because I don’t need milk?” I asked.
I was two and a half, ready to just let go of milk.
“Maybe,” Mom said. “Drink it all,” she said, leaving the room.
She often changed the subject or downright avoided it when I spoke about the goat. That goat had saved my life, and... I wanted to thank her at the very least.
But... I guess you can’t have your cake and eat it... I’d just have to try again later.
Come to think of it, did this world have cake though?
***
I was recovering. But quite slowly. Mom changed my bandage a couple of times over the last few weeks and even applied herbs and stuff but the arm just felt weak.
It wasn’t until the fourth week, aka, after a whole month did I finally see the outcome. My arm, or rather what was left of it, didn’t look that different from a typical arm. It was just that... it was missing meat in some places; awkwardly sewn together like Frankenstein. At one particular place, I barely saw any meat whatsoever. Just a thin bone and skin that was barely attached. The whole arm was calloused and full of weird pus like yellow liquid. Gross!
No wonder it’s so weak. And it was my dominant right arm no less. Doesn’t this mean I’m fucked for life. Well at least it didn’t stink. That bad...
No wait, considering how I didn’t have any good abilities, I was already fucked for life. I had to be grateful I had an arm and at least it moved
I sighed. A really, extravagant exaggerated sigh.
“What?” Mom said. She cleaned my wound, and without making a disgusted face like I did. “What’s wrong? Hurts?”
“No. It’s just that...” I chuckled. “I’m so weak...”
Now, Mom sighed. “You’re not weak... you’re just a little different now.”
Yeah, like changing the way you view your disability is going to make it any different. I rolled my eyes but didn’t quite say anything.
Lately, we had fairly fluent conversations, and I didn’t bother to hide my intellect. Mom didn’t quite view me as suspicious either. At least I thought she didn’t. I still didn’t find out anything about this ‘possessed’ thing and honestly, I didn’t want to figure it out. Just yet.
Sitting back and just staring at the damn wall all day was getting awfully boring. But this world didn’t have books. No, strike that. I didn’t know. Just because Mom didn’t have any, didn’t mean there weren’t any books at all. Besides, she taught me to read, so there had to be books!
She didn’t teach me math though... “Mom.”
“Yeah?”
“What’s five plus five?”
“Um... uh- Ten?”
“How about ten divided by 5?”
“2?”
“Forty times 3?”
“Um...uh...100!”
No, that’s 120.
Hmm... so she knew basic math. But didn’t quite know enough.
Hmm....
“Did you,” Mom paused. “No, never mind.”
She seemed to be a little conflicted. Was she thinking about that possessed thing?
Wait, she didn’t teach me math but I still. I groaned inwardly. No, no, wait. Though she messed up, I didn’t say the right answer. Still safe, we were still safe!
Back then, Mom and Lyra were having a conversation. A conversation I didn’t want to barge in, because I was afraid to. “What’s a Possessed?” I spoke. And the minute I did, I regretted it.
After all... Mom’s expression crumbled. She sighed anew. “It’s when monsters, really high ranked monsters, take over the corpses of young children.”
“And you guys think I might be one of them?” Why the hell did I say that? Perhaps curious... perhaps afraid.
“Wh-no!” She slouched closer. “No.” She patted my head with a smile. “For as long as I’ve had you, I never considered that. You are my child.”
“I-” I wanted to tell her.
I wanted to tell her, I wasn’t from this world. I wanted to tell her... I had memories of a different life.
I...
“I love you, Mom.”
She snickered. “I love you too, Solni.” Giggling, she moved back. “By the way... I’ve made soup.”
“More soup...” I groaned. Actually, milk was better than soup in this world. It was just veg flavored water without any spice other than salt. Argh....
Or maybe Mom just didn’t know how to cook... but I discarded that possibility immediately.
“It has meat in it though,” Mom said, smirking.
“Meat!”
Finally!
***
Okay, I had to admit, the meat flavored soup was actually pretty good. Mother added some spices, cumin and coriander seeds. But considering how little she used and how she didn’t use it on anything else, the spices were either very rare, or very pricy or probably both.
Still, it was pretty damn delicious. Mom had cut the meat in such small pieces; I could eat and chew for once! She only gave me very little amount of meat though.
It took me some time to notice but, Mom had never handled a baby and knew virtually nothing about babies. She didn’t bother contacting her friends for the first year, for some odd reason and that’s why she didn’t feed me anything other than just goat milk back then. But after having multiple conversations with Lyra, she started giving me solid food. She was still super careful.
I didn’t know why but I found that oddly cute.
Knock! Knock!
Mom opened the door. A wild Den had showed up. And he’d bought... birds? No, Chicken!
This world has chicken! Let’s goo!
Upon closer inspection, those weren’t chicken. Chicken wasn’t that big and chicken didn’t have two heads. Not just two heads, they even had multiple eyes and... wait, weren’t these birds just... those ‘good fortune’ ones? They were oddly fat though. Closer to a duck, I see.
Well, Mom did say they tasted good.
Den gave the birds to Mom and came over to me. “How’re you doing?”
“Better than before,” I said, giving my arm a look; Mom had only just applied some herbs. No matter how I stared at it, it was pretty busted and I was probably never going to be the same.
“Good. Rest well. Starting next month, we’ll start training.”
“Training?”
“She hasn’t told you?” Den looked back but Mom didn’t give him the time of day. Rolling his eyes, his brought his gaze back to me. “Yes, train you. So this,” he pointed at my busted arm. “Doesn’t happen again. Of course, you have the right to say no. But,” he came closer, eyes dead center, no blinks. “Think how much she will be sad if you just died in a ditch like last time.”
“One, I’m not dead. Two, I wasn’t just dead because I wanted to. And three... you’re right, I need to train.”
He moved back. “Kid already makes excuses,” he proclaimed loudly.
“Pretty sure, he has a point,” Mom said, almost dumping a bowl full of Soup on Den’s chest but somehow Den stabilized that.
Man that was close. I almost resisted the urge to scream.
“Uh-huh....” Den chuckled and started drinking. “Oh, this is good!”
“I know, right,” I smirked.
He smirked back.
Yep, we understood each other.
***
Exactly a month later, Den dragged me out of the hut and took me to the outskirts of the forest. I hadn’t seen this part before.
Just endless fields of grass and grass... no, wait, I had. Mom found me around here. Brought back memories. Back then I couldn’t even stand up on my own feet. Mom took me in, fed me, kept me safe and taught me everything I knew about the world. If she hadn’t... maybe I wouldn’t have made it. Maybe some stray monster would have just eaten me. Come to think of it, what was this body doing before I came to this world? I didn’t bother thinking about this before because well... I didn’t want to think about having killed the previous owner and taking over the body. But isn’t that the same thing as the ‘possessed’ mother spoke about. Yeah, just worrying about all this wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Besides, if it was really alive and all that, it wouldn’t have been randomly abandoned in a field, right?
I looked up at Den, his head blocked the sun and it was kind of blinding; he looked down and then without a word, he kept on walking. Was this dude going to take me to the site where he found me and explain how I wasn’t a real Southerner and stuff? Too bad I already understood that crap.
Actually, Den took a few steps and stopped, turned and grinned. Not the gentle kind. ‘I’m gonna eat you up’ kind. He was probably going to beat the shit out of me.
“How’s the arm,” he said.
“Better than before. Still can’t move it well though,” I said.
I had mostly recovered. Moving my arm wasn’t painful anymore and I didn’t need herbs layered on top. I was hoping we’d have some wild healing potion or maybe some healing magic at least... but neither seemed likely. I didn’t even get to see a doctor, assuming there was one. Instead, Mom just used some herbs on my arm and that seemed to be enough.
I was glad we were over that messy pus-filled gross phase. However, I never really grew the meat back, and the whole boney look on some places didn’t look the least appealing; the scarred look didn’t suit my juvenile body either. If Southerners didn’t like me before, they were definitely not going to like me now. Speaking of Southerners, these folk were mostly tall, white people. I did see some variation of color, but that was oddly rare.
Den threw a wooden knife at my feet. “Pick it up and try attacking me. You know what we’re doing out here, right?” He had his bow on his back, and sword stuck to his waist. He didn’t draw either.
“Yes?”
“Good.” He clapped once, as if to signify he was ready.
I picked up the wooden knife, grabbed it firm and ran ahead swinging awkwardly with my left hand, only to be dodged and then slapped on the back. Yeah, he definitely just wanted to spank me. “Again!” He screamed.
Moving this lazy body drained more stamina than I’d anticipated, so I was a little out of breath; it only got worse. The whole thing repeated a couple of times before my frail body finally gave up.
On the grass, amidst the bugs I panted, staring at that beautiful blue sky. Some white fluffy clouds. Since when was the last time, I saw a sky so calm and peaceful?
During my two years here, I never once saw the sky growing dark. Sometimes it grew grey and rained but... never dark. I never saw any storms or lighting. It was surprisingly peaceful here. And even out here, there were no monsters.
“She said you were below average and she was not kidding, no,” Den sat down, sighing.
Mom was a pretty versatile warrior, or so I’d heard. But she never attempted to teach me anything related to fighting. Maybe she didn’t want me to pursue a life of conflict. Or maybe she didn’t want to bother since I wasn’t worth it? No, that didn’t seem likely. She actually cared. So, there was another reason....
“Yeah,” I said. “The priest said I was worthless or something, but Mom beat him up. So be careful.”
“Well, I don’t think you’re a waste,” he didn’t look at me. He just stared at the distance. It was too damn peaceful to not watch.
Grass swayed with the wind, a peaceful calm breeze. Some trees and huts in the distance. This world... this place, was amazing. Those weird large two headed husky dogs were also pretty amazing. I could admire them all day! As long as they maintained their distance of course.
“Then why are we out here, when you know-”
“To assess you so I can properly build a regimen for you to train,” he shrugged. “Normal training won’t suit you.”
“Wait, you’re building a regimen, just for me?”
“Yeah. You clearly lack stamina, even for a three-year-old, you’re....” He grimaced. “Let’s just say, you’re going to have to run a lot from now on.”
“I can do that!” Yeah, I’d been thinking the same. I was growing pretty lazy thanks to Mom babying me all the time; ever since the incident, she was hellbent on monitoring my every activity. “But do you think... do you think I can actually... grow strong?”
He flashed his teeth in a triumphant grin. “Practice diligently and you’ll turn out stronger than typical Southerners.”
Better than nothing. As long as I was better than average, that was enough to flash a middle finger to the bastard priests and move on.
“Say Den,” I said. “How come the church has so much power? Why do people not do anything about them?”
“Well, they control everything, from the nobility to even typical villages like ours.” He stood, walked towards the forest and judging by that look, I was to follow him back.
Wait, we lived in a village? I could have sworn, every house was its own village considering the next house was at least half a kilometer away. Or maybe that was just the huts near us.
“But think about it, they’re just guys in robes. And Mom was clearly stronger-” I followed him.
Den leaned closer. “Such words would be seen as heretical and you’d be branded as a Heathen.”
“Noted,” I said. “But aren’t there any other religions?”
“Religions? Yes, I believe there are some in the western world. But the Askavan church controls everything, so every minor religion is just snuffed out of existence. Besides, why would people even be interested in minor religions when everyone knows Askavan is the only true religion?”
To be fair, I’d asked the same question to Mom who vehemently answered- “Don’t bother wasting your efforts thinking about the church. They can’t hurt you.” Obviously, she mistook my curiosity as fear instead.
“What is Askavan anyway?”
“God. Lin doesn’t believe, so she didn’t tell you but, but Askavan is the Dragon god of Lunara and he is the god everyone worships; allegedly all powerful.”
“You mean, there are other gods?” I tread carefully.
“I don’t know. Frankly, I don’t know if this dragon exists either.”
“Careful now, you don’t want to be branded as a Heathen, do you?”
He snickered and ruffled my hair. “Wise words, kid.” He then picked me up and we were more or less done for the day.
However.
I did learn some very important things. One of which was the existence of this village. And if there was a village and a church, there had bound to be a library, right? I felt stupid for not thinking about that sooner.
***
My training began from the next day.
Den wanted to take things slow but steady. So, he made me run around the house twice, taught me how to do some pushups and set up a pull up bar so I could do those too. He didn’t instruct me to do anything else like sit ups or skips. For now, running, push-ups, and pulls ups were enough.
He did say he was going to increase the intensity every week and honestly, I agreed with him. Everything he did so far was very reasonable.
Yet... yet my pathetic chubby body couldn’t even handle that. I wasn’t just weak, I was extra lazy. My weak arm was much less of a handicap than I thought. Maybe it just needed some movement?
I could only do two push-ups and a single pull up. I did everything, slowly, but I still did it anyway. And ended up in a panting session. I didn’t have asthma but I sure felt like I had it, huffing for every breath.
“I’ll tell Lin to give you more meat; request extra if you’re hungry. Meat is your friend from now on,” he said.
We practiced in the outskirts of the forest just like the first time. He argued it was good to be walking around and just walking alone should have helped me in the stamina department. But I was so out of it, he had to carry me back home on his back anyway.
Honestly, this dude was really tall. Not as tall as Mother maybe an inch shorter but still that was already over six feet. And things from up here... just different. I never had an experience like this in my previous life.
I always wanted my father to pick me up like the other dads and have fun or play around but-
But he was hardly ever home.
He was hardly ever there.
“Got it.”
Den said he was eventually going to repeat this same thing in the afternoon and even take me to regular hunts from next year after my fifth birthday. The guy actually seemed to be really into it.
Which was great but I was kind of starting to get a little suspicious. “Mom’s real pretty today, huh?”
We watched Mom washing clothes and stuff in the pond. She was quite far away, so she probably couldn’t hear us, even with that superhuman level hearing of hers.
“Yeah,” Den said.
He wasn’t the least bashful he just said it in a matter-of-fact manner. Hmm... “Lately, I’m getting a little lonely, you know,” I said. “Maybe it wouldn’t be the case if I were to have a little brother or sister like Lia...” Speaking of Lia’s younger sibling, Lyra was apparently 7 months in. Just two more months to go!
The guy looked at me, almost squinting, almost infuriated. At least try to hide that a little, geez. “Have you spoken to your mother about that, yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“Good. You want friends, right? I’ll ask some kids to come play with you.”
“Well... it’s more like I wanted to see more of the village.”
He sighed. “I’ll ask someone to take you around; actually, I’ll just take you myself!” He put me down, scratched his head and walked away. “And he’s four?” I could have sworn I heard him say that as he kept on going. And no, I was three and a half, dude.
Sometime later Mom came back and looked around for Den. “Where’d he go?”
“Beats me.”
We went back to the house and had lunch. Yeah, lotsa meat.
“Mom.”
“Yeah?”
“Den’s a nice guy.”
“Yes. Has a bad habit of saying weird things at times. He’s not as honest as he should be.”
Weirdly that was true for others. But Den often just spoke frankly. And for better or less, he didn’t try to put on a mask around me even though I was a baby. Come to think of it, almost no one treated me like a baby. I’d seen how the group treated Lia but they treated me very differently. Weird indeed.
“Yeah.”
I wanted to give them a push but at the same time, it didn’t seem like I needed to. They already liked each other and were moving at their own pace, at least that’s the impression I got. I knew for sure Den liked Mom. And Mom respected Den but I wasn’t sure if she liked him romantically. And although I was curious, I didn’t want to intervene.
I didn’t want to intrude. I already had my fun teasing Den anyway.
