It took Karie some time to settle into her new life. Her previous life had simply ended quite suddenly, and now… there was so much now coming at her all at once that she had to adapt to. Fortunately for her, however, she was just an infant and nobody expected a whole lot out of her. Whenever she was woken up or whenever she woke up on her own, the only things they wanted her to do was eat. And, occasionally she had the experience of having to have her diaper changed. It was a fairly embarrassing experience at first, but eventually she managed to accept it as all being a part of being a baby.
So, for the most part, that was all she actually did. Just eat and sleep. In a way, it could be said that this was adapting to the situation. And, because of this, her nerves which were quite rattled at first discovering she had been reincarnated in a new life had calmed down considerably. The first step was calming down. Once her mind was calm, she was able to take stock of the situation far more calmly.
Well, the first thing she discovered was that the language people spoke here was definitely not English. It was hard for her to understand what the people were saying at all at first, but eventually their voices stopped all sounding like muffled yammering as her hearing improved. Actually, she was very glad to discover her hearing was not damaged. However, getting her hearing back did not help her understand much at all because everyone was talking some foreign language.
The second thing she discovered, well, using anime for reference, she actually somewhat expected it. It looked like the technology level of this world was pretty low. She was reincarnated into some medieval world. It was not all bad for her though. Lacking any kind of crib and living in a noisy house full of siblings, she was with her mother almost all the time, even at night. She slept between her mother and her father, and she was strapped to her mother's back as she went around doing housework.
The final significant thing she discovered came a while later. It wasn't until she gained the ability to lift her head. She couldn't even do that much at first when she was just born. It's very frustrating being a baby and not being able to even move your own body much. However, at 2 months of age, she finally gained the ability to lift her head, and then during one of her diaper changes she was able to look down between her legs. It was at that time that she discovered that she wasn't actually a "she" at all.
'I changed genders!' Karie realized as she stared down between her legs at her genitals that were the opposite of what she was expecting to see. Karie's heart was racing upon this new discovery. She… or rather "he" now, had not felt this panicked since, well, since first being born 2 months ago and regaining the memories of her.. or his past life in that same moment.
The more Karie discovered about this new life, the more the ability to hold onto her past identity as "Karie" in her former life began to break down. Maybe if Karie had been reborn as a girl again she would be able to continue thinking she had just become an infant again and she was still Karie inside, but now she was a boy. This really turned her entire sense of identity on its head. She really didn't suppose some form of gender reassignment surgery would be available in this medieval setting, so continuing to live as a girl definitely did not seem like an option.
Karie had a fairly hard time from that point forward. She/he began to feel more and more unsure of their place in this world, and how they should approach it. Ironically enough though, being reborn as a boy seemed to serve as a kind of blessing of sorts. If it weren't for that, it may have taken her a lot longer to learn the language of this world. Before this, Karie had simply allowed everything the people around her were saying to fly right over her head since she couldn't understand any of it. However, now that her sense of identity as Karie was shattered, "he" began to give up his attachments to his previous life and, in doing so, began to pay a little more attention to what the people around him were saying.
He eventually identified one word he kept hearing over and over again, especially when his mother was breast feeding him. He assumed that was probably his name. "Levin." That was his new name in this new life. He was no longer the 14 year old Karie Williamson. Now, he was the 2 month year old Levin.
'Levin.' With his sense of identity as Karie Williamson destroyed as such, he began to roll his new name over and over again in his head. He had not learned many other words yet, but he wanted to latch on to that one strongly. 'Levin.' That was his new name. That was the first building block in rebuilding his new identity in this life. Something deep down inside him knew that clinging on to Karie Williamson was only going to harm him in his new life.
'I'm a boy now.' He said to himself. 'I'm a boy named Levin. I'm not a girl, I'm a boy. I'm not a girl anymore.' But wait, if this was the medieval period, wasn't it better to be a boy? Girls were not treated very well in this time period, right? It was weird to suddenly be a boy, but maybe this was all for the best? Levin was not too certain about all this, but he figured he still had a lot more babyhood ahead of him to figure this all out.
-
Several months went by in this way. Levin did not leave his mother's back or even get placed on the ground until he was a full year old. In that time, he had begun to learn enough of the language that he could at least get the gyst of what people were saying to him. One day, just before his first birthday, his mother decided to have him try to walk. She supported him with her hands by holding his hands over his head.
Some babies who had never been set on the ground once might have had a lot of trouble in this situation, but because he had his knowledge from his previous life, he knew exactly what she was doing and did his absolute best to accommodate her. He stayed upright and held on tightly to her hands, and then with her help he took several steps across the floor.
"Very good!" His mother praised him. "At this rate, I won't have to carry you everywhere anymore. You can walk on your own." Was she that eager to get rid of him? Well, that's fine. Levin was eager to be able to get out on his own as well. Also, Levin was sorta amazed that after only one year he was able to understand that much of the language here. He couldn't talk yet, but he could understand quite a bit. Were all babies always like this in terms of learning a language?
His mother helped him walk several more times throughout the day, and by the end of it he was quite exhausted. He slept well that night. There was no celebration when his birthday passed. He barely even knew about it. At some point somebody just casually said that he was one year old at this point. In the meantime, Levin was walking more and more. Eventually, he started being allowed to walk around on his own even though he had to hold onto everything in order to keep himself upright.
At some point, as this was going on, Levin had a bitter-sweet realization. Sometime soon, he was probably going to stop sleeping in his parents' bed. In such a small house, his siblings all wound up sharing the same bed. He had several siblings too. I hadn't taken time to count before, but it looked like there were over six of them older than he was. He knew there were both older brothers and also older sisters, but he had never had the focus to get a good count of them. He was sure though that it was going to be very rowdy sleeping with a group like that.
Constant elbows in the face, squabbling before they could get to bed and fighting and bickering. He had had several experiences of his mother getting up late at night to scold them, and soon he would be sleeping with that crowd. Well, it was part of growing up in this world. It probably goes to show how much Levin had grown accustomed to this new world though that he did not feel the need to complain in his mind about how difficult it was to live what was clearly a peasant life.
-
That night, just outside the outskirts of the village where Levin was born, hidden beneath the concealment of the tree line, a tall man with long beautiful flowing brown hair looked out over the ramshackle houses with sharp eyes. He couldn't help but smirk as he watched the peasant villagers come in one by one to their houses and the small flame torches they used for light go out one by one signifying they were each going to sleep.
"So, what do you think elder?" A young scout with long blond hair tied back with straps of leather approached him.
"It's an amazing find," he says, "It's just as you said, the children of this village seem to have incredibly strong spirits. They will be perfect. The newcomer's child will grow up very strong if we can take these children back to them." It was not common for the elder to come out on his own this far away from the settlement. There was only one occasion for it, and that was when he came out with a group to hunt for the human children necessary for a newborn baby to the settlement.
Normally, if it is only for the adults in the village, it will be fine to lure in one or two human children every couple of years or so, a single hunter who finds a human child wandering in the woods on their own is good enough to accomplish this task. However, when it comes to a newborn baby, a rare event that happens only once every other decade or so with the low birth-rate of their race, a far larger number is needed and in order to get the children with the strongest spirits they need to get children so young their parents would usually not allow them to stray far enough from the house to be lured.
For such a high risk operation, several hunters needed to be dispatched, and their elder had also come along as well in order to witness the event. He had overseen many operations like this in his long lifetime. A child may only be born every few decades, but in his lifespan of several hundred years he had seen several dozens of children born to his tribe.
This time, the hunt was not for the child of one of his own tribeswomen though. Just a little under two years ago, a scouting party had gone out to investigate an area on the far side of the forest. It was technically well outside of their territory, but for an event this monumental it was worth exploring and finding out what had happened. It was said an entire section of the forest was simply wiped out, and the scouts went to investigate.
On their way back, they had brought a woman wearing torn cloths and covered in wounds. The scouts had said they found her village ransacked, and the residents were killed. The searched the village, but found only her alive, and they had brought her back with them to their own settlement. Later, it turned out that that woman was pregnant, apparently before she had even been brought in. It seemed to be a surprise to her as well. Regardless though of whether she was an outsider or not, and regardless of how she seemed to have her own mixed feelings about the discovery of this pregnancy after the tragedy of loosing everyone she knew in the raid on her village, it was still true that a baby was coming. And, to a race with such a low birth rate, every single birth is a cause for great celebration.
The elder looked across the young hunters who had come with him, so eager to bring back a good catch for the sake of this outsider's baby. The elder couldn't help but smile at their determination. It was good to see the outsider had already been completely accepted. Well, the fact that she bought a new baby to the village with her likely had a lot to do with how quickly she was accepted. The entire village had been bustling with excitement ever since they found out.
In this time especially, every birth is precious. The raids by the corrupted fallen dark elves had increased lately. This was the disturbing side to the newcomer's news. The identity of her village's attackers.
Good news wrapped inside of a lot of bad, the elder had a sour expression on his face as he recalled the difficult tidings that had come along with the newcomer they had invited in and let out a sigh.
"Well then," he said in a low voice. "We will just have to make the most of the tragedy of the newcomer's village two years ago. Her child will be born soon now. Let's make sure the child is bathed in the light of these strong human children when it sees the world for the first time." There were nods all around as the hunters looked to the houses ahead of them.
The leader of this operation, a veteran hunter, gave a signal with his hand. On his signal, one other hunter rushed ahead as a scout to check that the humans were asleep. Everyone watched in anticipation as their figure raised the hood on their cloak and rushed forward, eventually vanishing from even the sight of their trained eyes as they blended in with the tall grass. This was not to say they were hiding in the grass per-say. Rather, it was the magic of the cloak they were wearing.
This was the cloak traditionally worn on these large operations, specially designed and enchanted with special magic known only to their people. This magic allowed the wearer to blend in with anything by mimicking the appearance of whatever was around them. Once it was fed magic, the texture and patterns on the surface of the normally monocolor gray cloak would change to look like whatever was behind it as though the observer was looking right through the person. It was not invisibility. Rather, a disguise that looked perfectly identical to whatever was behind them. And, so long as the one wearing it did not move too quickly, it would be almost impossible to spot them.
That said, with the limitations of the cloak, the fact that this scout could disappear so completely even from the eyes of these trained hunters was truly saying something. Once he had gotten a certain distance away, even the ripple that could be seen on the air as the cloak adjusted to whatever was on the other side of the person wearing it could no longer be seen.
Normally, when a scout goes out like this, all eyes would be on the scout as they eagerly waited for the report back. However, since the scout had completely vanished as a testament to their great skill as a hunter, the young and fresh eager members of the group were forced to only look at each other with light chuckles and anticipation of what was to come.
In this time, the elder went over in his mind what was going to happen in this operation. The scouts from before had reported there were two children around one year of age who seemed to have a particularly strong spirit. Better yet, they each had several older siblings, around a half dozen each.
The elder grinned upon reviewing this information. The scout had said these youngest children were strong of spirit, but exactly how strong? From the sounds of it, it was enough to amaze the scout. According to them, the strong waves of human spirit he was feeling from two of the houses here were all coming from only the two children in question. The elder found this fairly hard to believe. However, if it was true, perhaps these human children could be useful for more as they grew up. What's more, if it was true, just the two children could very well be enough to keep the new baby well nourished on their own.
No, they would take the older siblings as well. At least the ones who were younger than 10 years of age. They knew form experience, the older siblings could serve as sort of care takers for the younger siblings. Even if they are not necessary for the new baby, at the very least they can help look after the younger siblings and keep them in line.
They would have to be careful though. Sometimes a lone hunter may lure a young human old enough to be considered an adult, but in this case they couldn't risk such a thing. The older they are, the more suspicion they have. Several of them at that age know to be weary of accepting the food given to them by those of their race. It could pose quite a hassle if the older siblings prevent the younger siblings from eating anything they are offered.
At about this time, the hunters waiting in the trees all heard the sound of a certain bird. It was the call of a bird not local to this area, but very well known to all of them. All of them stiffened up when they heard it and smiles of satisfaction spread across every one of their faces as they looked from one to the other. That was the signal, the scout had just indicated that they were clear to approach. With nods to one another, they all as one put up the hoods of their own cloaks identical to the one the scout from before was wearing and they all vanished from sight. Someone who was looking very closely might see the ripple of the cloak's pattern adjusting to the changing environment around it, but for all practical purposes the hunters had become invisible. This went for their faces as well. While no fabric was covering their faces, the magic of the cloak extended down over even the areas not covered by it.
Once the hunters had left, the elder looked to the wagon they had brought with them. It was unusual for them to bring any kind of vehicle or a horse, but for something like this it was necessary. He nodded to the woman sitting inside and she picked up a flute. This woman was brought along specifically for this reason. It could be said that she had one of the most important jobs in this operation. Her ability to play the mystic flute that would calm and ease the minds of the human children as they brought them back to the settlement.
The elder went back to the edge of the forest, watching in anticipation. Just like him, these hunters had been on several operations like this one, and he had worked with them every single time. He knew their skill very well. It would not take very long at all. And, sure enough, it wasn't even a minute after the hunters had set out that he felt the powerful spirit light that he had senses ever since they came to this village growing closer. He watched as the tall grass was disturbed as the hunter in question hurried back to the cover of the trees. Seeing this, the elder began running back to the wagon just in time to hear the soft and nearly imperceptible disturbance in the leaves of the forest floor keeping pace with him.
Once several steps into the tree cover, the gray cloaked figure appeared right next to the elder as the returning hunter had stopped supplying his cloak with magic. The elder placed a hand on the hunter's shoulder as he looked under the cloak at where he was holding a small sleeping child who looked like they were barely even a year old. The child slept wrapped in a blanket often used to fasten infants to their mother's side. This sight caused the elder's heart to beat more quickly in the realization. This would mean the infant had been lifted straight from their parents' bed! That was an incredibly high-risk maneuver, but with the incredible spiritual power the elder could feel coming from this infant he could see exactly why that risk was entirely worth it.
"Alright, you did good." The elder said approvingly. Several more hunters came immediately after this in the same manner, delivering sleeping children ranging from the size and age greatly, but every one of them under 10 years of age from what the elder could tell. Human children grew so much faster than the children of his own people, but he had a lot of experience in estimating a human child's age by this point and could roughly tell the ages of these children.
Soon after this wave of returning hunters, the elder could feel another powerful sign of a human child's spirit that easily rivaled the first. It seemed the hunting party that went to the other house had returned as well.
"It's true, just these two infants can more than account for a couple dozen normal human children. They may really be something incredible as they grow." The elder mused to the approving glances of his tribesmen. He looked over the returning hunters and began to do a head-count. Confirming that every one of them had successfully returned, he gave the signal to move out. One of the hunters quickly climbed to the front of the wagon and urged the horse forward, four scouts immediately ran ahead to confirm the trail, two stayed behind to watch for any sign of movement in the village should the kidnapping they just completed be noticed, and another two boarded the wagon in the back to watch the children.
This left the elder and six more hunters to walk along side the wagon, confirming the course and watching for any nearby danger that may appear. And, once they were a short distance away from the village, a mysterious melody of a flute began to play from the wagon. It was a soft melody like a lullaby, but it had a large feeling to it with a lot of long notes held as though to invoke images of a river and rolling hills in a beautiful countryside.
Just like clockwork, they had executed the operation like a machine. Every person who came knew their place in the machine, and every person who came executed their role perfectly. In only the space of 3 minutes, 9 children had been taken from that village between two households, and the culprits who had taken them were now making a hasty escape with the abducted children who were handled so tenderly that without a single sleeping agent or spell of any kind had not even stirred once during the entire experience.