It's been a whole year since I was reborn, but notice how I say year instead of twelve months. That was because ti on this planet was asured differently than back on Earth. Not only were the months a few days longer, but a year was considered fifteen months instead of twelve.
I knew it had been exactly a year today because it was my birthday. After all, everyone stayed ho and was fussing over more than usual. That, and the lockout screen that pops up every ti I try to distribute stat points, ticked down to 135 cycles this morning.
Plus, the parents acted a similar way five months ago for my brother, where Dad didn't go off to work outside, and Mom made a bigger al than usual. I still needed to learn to count in their language, so I wasn't sure how old he turned, but I was sure it was Brother's birthday because he had received a present. He got a wooden sword from Father, which he loves to swing everywhere.
Similarly, I also received a gift today, but it wasn't much of a surprise because I'd watched Mother fuss over it the last couple of months. But while Richard got a cool sword for his birthday, I got a dress. It wasn't frilly or flamboyant by any ans, but it was undoubtedly a dress, one that Mother forced into and ensured I kept on for the entire day.
No matter how much I struggled and whined, I couldn't escape the breezy garnt. Thank god my birthday was at the beginning of fall, so I wouldn't be forced to wear it for long.
We got all types of weather where we live, though it was mostly sunny. Sumr took up a third of the year, taking up five whole months. Fall, which was where we were now, lasted only two months, with the second month being mostly rainy. After that, the temperature dropped rapidly as the seasons shifted to winter.
It snowed on and off again for four months straight during my first winter here. And the last four months were spring, where the sun lts all the snow.
It was difficult to track the weather, as I could only do it by sneaking glances out the window. But it's beco easier the bigger I get. And as I previously stated, it was currently the beginning of fall.
It wasn't exactly cold yet, but I still spent most of my ti sitting on the ground in front of the fire. I briefly considered shuffling out of the dress I was forced to wear and throwing it into the flas, but I knew that would break Mother's heart. She worked really hard on the plain white cotton gown, and reluctantly it was more comfortable to wear than the other clothes she's made for , albeit more drafty.
I still felt like a fool in the dress, but it wasn't like rebelling against my gender would change anything. At least I wasn't overly panicking about it anymore, it still caused to lose sleep, but that couldn't be helped. The simple fact was I spent twenty-three years as a male in my past life, so spending fifteen months as a baby girl didn't automatically change how I saw the world. I was still , just with so different plumbing. At least, that's what I was repeatedly telling myself.
I had nothing against won, but I never considered what it would be like to be one. If I were back on Earth, therapy would be an option, but that wasn't exactly an option here. Instead, I had to deal with the ntal ramifications of swapping genders by myself, as I couldn't formulate the words to tell my new parents, let alone explain why I wasn't comfortable in a dress.
I've slowly co around to the idea that I was female now, but that didn't just make everything easier for . It was a good thing I was reborn as a baby because if I had been transported to a new world as a woman outright, without any ti to co to grips with what happened to , I might have gone completely insane.
I might actually be insane now, as insane people don't often realize they're insane.
Shaking my head, I try to clear those dark thoughts from my mind.
"Aww, **** you **** up, Aaliyah?" My brother Richard frowns, mistaking my head shake as complaining about his outstretched hands.
He looks so sad I start to feel bad. So, I stretch out my little chubby toddler arms and say, "Up," childishly.
Richard's sad look instantly disappears as he reaches out and gently grasps my smaller hands with his bigger ones. Then, ever so carefully, he helps to my feet and helps balance in place.
As I wobble, for the first ti, I consider the possibility that my previous life mories were doing more harm than good. For example, If I didn't rember being a male, I wouldn't have this gender identity crisis. I wouldn't have to pretend to be a baby around my loving family. And I'm pretty sure a normal baby would be walking by themselves at this point.
I had the leg muscles to do it, but balancing in this new form was so different from my past life I kept overcompensating.
Behind , I hear the parents clap; like , standing was the greatest achievent they've ever seen. It was even more embarrassing, considering I wasn't even standing on my own yet.
"Gooo," I slur the word go, which was code for 'let go.' Having done this a thousand tis now, Richard understands my command and slowly retracts his arms, so he's no longer supporting in any way. However, he keeps his hands near in case I trip or fall over, as an excellent big brother would.
Tentatively, I turn around and step away from Richard and the fireplace. Then another, followed by a few rapid steps as I leaned too far forward and almost tripped. Luckily, I find my center of gravity before toppling over.
"Go, Aaliyah," Dad chears.
"You, *** ****, Honey," I catch half of what Mom is trying to say, but I know it's inspirational.
It was nice that I was finally becoming able to understand everyone. I knew a few dozen words and even used a few of them regularly to communicate what I wanted.
Crap, I lost my concentration!
Flailing my arms, I try to stop myself from falling over. Brother moves to catch , but he's not swift enough, and I fall backward onto my bottom.
My instincts tell to cry, but I refuse to tear up over nothing.
"*** you, ok?" Brother sits down next to on his knees with a concerned look.
Acting reminds to look sad, which isn't hard due to my frustration. Brother tries to cheer up, but I ignore him and instead pull up my status page, hoping to see at least so improvent.
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LV: 16 Experience: 1,428/2,807
Health: 100/100 Stamina: 17/80 Mana: 69/90
Vitality: 10
Endurance: 7
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 6
Senses: 12
Mind: 27
Magic: 9
Clarity: 14
Status Points: 150
Skills: Sense Mana (LV11), Acting (LV8), ditation (LV10), Expel Mana (LV1)
Nothing new since I checked it yesterday. But it wasn't like I earned a skill every other day.
Overall though, if I look at my status page and compare it to what it was a year ago, heck, even eight months ago, there was a drastic change.
Biggest of all, Sense Mana passed level 10. Until that happened, I wasn't sure if skills were capped out at that point or not. My current theory was that skills didn't have a level cap, but I had no way to verify that. After all, my three skills have leveled up a lot, but not that much.
As a toddler, I still didn't have any responsibilities yet. And while Mother or Richard was almost always around , I could still pretend to fall asleep to ditate and practice my various skills. That's how I unlocked Expel Mana.
When Sense Mana passed level 10, I could better feel the mana inside my body. And once I could reasonably feel it, I naturally tried to control it. If I wanted to cast magic in the future, I would obviously need to practice controlling my mana.
Originally, I tried to control it as a whole, but when that didn't work out, I started focusing on the mana in my hands because that was where my mana network was closest to my skin. In my fingers, specifically.
And while I was focusing on the mana in my fingers, I could get it to seep through my skin which was how I unlocked Expel Mana. Of course, the mana dissipated as soon as it left my body, but I was confident I was on to sothing and would be able to throw fireballs in a few years' ti.
So far, Expel Mana doesn't do anything other than let dump my mana pool rapidly, but that could be useful by itself. Since I unlocked the skill a week ago, I've been using it to deplete my mana pool every night, hoping it increases it overall. Other than video ga logic, I had no evidence that that would happen, but it was sothing at least.
"**** ** try again?" Dismissing my status page, I face Brother, who's holding out his hands again, expectingly.
Not one to give up, I take his offered hands, but I don't tell him to let go this ti. Instead, I point at Mom, sitting in her sewing chair, watching us with a smile. "Mmomm," I purposely stretch out the word cutely.
Brother understands , and this ti, holding my hand so I can balance better, he walks over to her. Then, when I'm only a few steps away from her, I let go of Brother's hand and take the last few steps by myself.
I'm so proud of myself when I reach mothers legs; I don't even need to fake smile up at her.
"***'** so cute," Mother's smile is brighter than the sun. And god help , I giggle in joy from how much love I feel towards this woman.
"Up," I wave my hands, saying I want to be picked up.
Mom bends down, effortlessly sweeps off my feet, brings up, and begins kissing all over my face, causing to laugh even harder.
While struggling to breathe from laughing so hard, I feel a familiar sensation in the back of my head. A week ago, I felt the sa sensation when I successfully unlocked Expel Mana. Did I get another skill; for what?
I conjure my status page again and gasp at what I see.
LV: 16 Experience: 1,978/2,807
Health: 100/100 Stamina: 9/80 Mana: 69/90
Vitality: 10
Endurance: 7
Strength: 7
Dexterity: 6
Senses: 12
Mind: 27
Magic: 9
Clarity: 14
Status Points: 150
Skills: Sense Mana (LV11), Acting (LV9), ditation (LV10), Expel Mana (LV1), Charm (LV1)
Wow, I got 100 experience for unlocking that skill, just like I did with Sense Mana, putting it in the second category of skills I've discovered. And for added bonus, Acting leveled as well.
I didn’t get as much experience as I did when I unlocked Expel Mana, that skill seed to be a cut above he rest and awarded 150 experience. Which is surprising, because it’s the skill I’ve found the least uses for.
I’ve only had my new skill for a few seconds and have a feeling I know what it does and how useful it could be, but it's hard to keep my eyes open. My Stamina was now below 10, aning it took everything I had from falling asleep in Mother's arms.
Whenever Stamina or Mana fall below 20%, it's like all the energy is sucked out of you. The result is the sa between the two, but it's easier to endure low Stamina than it is, Mana. Another big difference is their recharge rate. I'll take a nap in a mont and regain most of my Stamina by the ti I wake up. In comparison, I emptied my Mana Pool to 20% last night, and it still hasn't fully recovered. However, sleeping does help, if only a bit.
Speaking of which, I can no longer keep my eyes open, and while in Mother's arms, I drift off into blissful sleep.
Was my bed moving? Opening my eyes, I awake in Father's big strong arms as he's carrying over to the kitchen table.
I was confused because I specifically rember falling asleep in my mother's arms, not my father's. Looking around, I quickly see why I changed hands.
Mother was standing in front of the fireplace, preparing dinner. Richard was also in the kitchen, setting the table, which left only one other person to hold .
Man, I must have been out if I didn't notice Dad was holding . That wasn't complaining about him holding or anything. Over the last few months, he's grown more confident handling . It's just Dad's arms are super muscly and about as comfortable as laying on cent. I didn't know how long he held , but it was probably a while if Mom was almost done with dinner.
Even if I'm not the most comfortable at the mont, I still smile up at Father. He could've placed in my crib if he wanted to, but he chose to hold instead.
Behind his bushy blond beard, Dad smiles down at as he puts in my highchair—the highchair he made specifically for . I'm strapped in with a piece of leather across my lap, but Dad doesn't take any chances and sits beside until Mother tells him she's done.
Dad then gets up and moves the hot pot full of porridge to the center of the table for Mom while she moves next to .
Dad recites this world's version of a prayer. I hear it every night, but he recites it so quickly that picking out individual words is hard.
Dinner ti flies by quickly as Richard happily chats with our parents while mother shares her porridge with . She mashes all the vegetables before spoon-feeding and even gives small chunks of mystery at. I was teething all the ti, which sucked, but at least I wasn't being breastfed anymore.
While eating, I note how my new family might not live an extraordinary lifestyle, but everyone is obviously happy, including .
At the end of the day, no matter how I feel about being a girl or my worries about the future, I only need to look at Richard's and our parent's smiling faces to feel better about the second life I was given.
Our night continues like any other; two people clean the kitchen while the third watches over . Of course, the family takes turns in who gets to watch , and tonight it's Richard who has the pleasure of sitting back and watching the parents clean while trying to keep entertained.
It didn't take long for the parents to have the kitchen spotless, but it was almost dark outside by that point, aning it was ti for bed.
For my first birthday in another world, today was pretty nice.
I don't even make a fuss when Mom uses her dieval toothbrush to brush my eight teeth, and soon I'm laying in my crib in Brother's room. The whole house was soon silent, which was good for . Everybody else's day was done, but thanks to that nap not too long ago, I was wide awake, and now was the perfect ti to work on my skills without drawing any suspicion toward .
Plus, it was rare not to hear the parents having 'fun' through the walls. You would think at the rate they were going, they'd have a dozen children by now, but surprisingly it was just Brother and .
Either way, I relax and clear my mind. Activating ditation, I try to better feel both the mana around as well as the mana inside .
I spend what I think is an hour in that state without feeling any of my skills leveling up. Oh, well, it was a marathon, not a sprint, and I'd already unlocked a new skill today.
I'm about to call it a night and discharge the mana I've regained until now when I hear what sounds like drums in the distance.
Why would soone be playing the drums this late at night?
I don't have long to ponder that thought when another drum starts playing closer to our house. Now I was starting to worry. The noise wasn't enough to wake Richard, so I did the only thing I could. I cry.
Richard groans in the dark, but he's soon up, and if the shuffling I hear in the nearby parent's room is any indication, they are too.
Richard pulls out of my crib as Mom bursts into our room, holding a light candle and a knife in a sheath. Thanks to the light, I can clearly see down the hallway and catch Dad running for the front door, holding his largest woodsman's axe.
He shouts sothing as he runs, which has Mom looking like she'd seen a ghost. Then, after ordering Richard to do sothing, Mom rushes after Dad.
Richard places up against the wall farthest from the door and window. Outside our room, I hear the tell-tale sound of our front door being flung open before being shut and locked.
Mom rushes back into our room and closes the door behind her. Then, with Richard, she and he push his bed against the door like a makeshift barricade.
Mother then directs Richard to sit down next to . He pulls into his lap and protectingly wraps his arms around .
anwhile, Mother is standing in the middle of the room looking between the barricaded door and the shutter sealing the window in the room closed.
My anxiety spikes as Mom carefully unsheaths the dagger she's carrying.
All manner of horrible thoughts fill my head. The way she was acting, we were under attack, but by what.
Bandits? Monster? This world had magic, so I couldn't rule anything out.
For thirty agonizing minutes, Richard and I stay huddled together, watching our mother, until the three of us flinch hearing dad calling mom's na from outside the house.
Mother visibly relaxes hearing Dad's voice, and with help from Richard, they move his bed away from the door, and mom runs out of our room.
Richard picks up and runs after Mom. The two of us find her crying while hugging Dad in the middle of our living room. He was sweating and covered in green paint.
Only as we got closer to them did I realize it wasn't paint. Instead, Father was covered in green blood. The stuff was dripping from his axe and pooling on the stone floor.
Mom soon realizes this and rushes to grab a bucket of water and a rag.
Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep that night.
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