I was walking home from school scrolling on my phone looking at the new idols debuting. The sun was bright and there was a calm buzz of students like me walking home. We were preparing to cross the street and once a heard a noise I went forward.
Sadly, for me it was not the time to cross, as I was engrossed with a male idol's picture the world stopped. Suddenly I was on the street and screams ring out. I felt no pain as people gathered around me. With all these people I still felt alone and cold as everything became black slowly.
"You have to get through this Miss!" A panicked voice came from my left and my head was brought up to drink something. I they forced it down my throat then stuffed something in my mouth to bite. I open my eyes for a moment and once my eyes focus I can vaguely see a man I didn't know. When he looked into my eyes the world went white.I opened my eyes as a pain went shooting through my spine. A scream left my body as my heart stopped then pounded so loudly it sounded like thunder. People were holding my hands as the pain filled my mind.
I wake up and feel a soft bed beneath me I smell the sheets, I sit up in a panic knowing this isn't my room. Everything is in a style I do not recognize. My breathing becomes labored as I curl into a ball. I move to the headboard and try to find something I recognize.
The door begins to open, and a whimper escapes me, and tears fill my eyes. A woman comes in and sees me awake, she calls for someone and rushes to my side. I flinch and she may not see it as her hand touches my forehead.
"You are finally awake Miss!" she begins to cry in happiness as more people enter. They all start talking all at once and as they do I begin to feel dizzy and lay down. I stay awake but luckily this prompts all of them to leave the room. Having them out I sit up again and get out of the bed.
I see a mirror and walk over holding onto various furniture to see myself. I look up and see a girl, she must be five or six. She has soft blue hair and dark blue eyes. Soft skin and pale lips. I move my hand and she moves hers. I cover my mouth and cry. That isn't me… this isn't my body. I fall to the floor and continue to cry as I try to contain the sobs, so nobody returns.
"To think the young miss was poisoned the day of her debut…"
"She has bad luck being the daughter of a soldier…"
"She must be so sad her only parent has already left…"
I hear these things outside my door. I looked around the room and found a book only to find I cannot read. I try finding information without anyone noticing. This young girl who was poisoned was named Rei Lanter Kai. She is the only child of General Kai and directly caused the death of her mother during childbirth. Her father the General left while she was recovering from the poison. The is all I could guess from the gossip outside.
I decide to speak less and listen more till I knew how the child would act before she died. I open the door and the noise stops. They look at me with hesitation and I open the door completely.
"Miss where are your slippers and robe?" An older woman asks with concern as she ushers me back into the room and helps me dress. I watch her curiously and let her do what her and this body seem used to already. "Alright now that you're dressed let's get you something to eat! You must be hungry after a few days asleep."
She takes my hand and leads me through the big house, the more I look the more it seems like a mix of Asian and English. We arrive in a large room and she picks me up and places me in a chair. My heart nearly stopped as I felt my feet leave the ground. In front of me is a porridge like meal and some milk in small dishes. I look at the older woman, Mary as the others call her.
She hands me a spoon and I begin eating, it tastes so warm and comforting! I quickly eat as much I can and once I feel full I take a taste of milk. After a sip I stop drinking it, I couldn't handle the overly sweet warm milk. The woman beside me sees me stop and smiles.
"Want to go play outside?" she asks as she clean my hands and once again picks up my small body. I shyly smile and nod like a normal child would. I did not want them to question me, so I went with a simple child. Again, she took my hand but went to my room instead to change me. She changed me into a blue nearly white dress. I wonder how I can play in something as easily dirtied as this.
Once outside she lets go of my hand and stands still to let me play in the relatively large back yard or as they say back courtyard. I see a small lake and head to it. I look in and see fishes swimming happily and nipping at others. I squat down and hear a noise behind me, I see Mary rushing up to me with a worried look. Warranted I assume as I fell backwards into the water. She is scared from her expression, but I surface quickly and laugh as I swim in the warm water. The fish avoid me, and I swim back to her and she picks me up holding me tight.
"Miss Rei Kai! What on earth are you doing and how did you learn to swim?!" she takes my dripping body back to my room to dry off as a pout appears on my lips. I don't answer her, and she doesn't push for a reply. She takes care of me and soon I feel tired, so she lays me down for a nap.
As time goes on I begin to understand why they never expect a reply from me. The child before was a bit… slow… in a sense. It seems she would stare blankly and never really spoke. She would smile at some people though and never seemed greedy. The people around her cared for her and though she never spoke they felt she was still some kind of good person. They said this was caused by the complications at birth. I pitied the girl who never got the chance to grow up nor live a normal life.
I looked up at Mary as she helped me dress again. I had decided to try changing so hopefully the slow change wouldn't cause any suspicion.
"Mary…" I softly whisper as she tied a ribbon on my collar. She stopped and stared at me before tears filled her eyes and she hugged me tightly to the point I could hardly breath. I let out another whimpered word. "Mary…!"
She let go of me and wiped her eyes then calmed herself.
"It's okay young miss this servant just got an excitement." she had us continue to follow the daily routine. I continued to observe and when Mary wasn't around I still heard gossip from the others who took care of me.
Time passed and I slowly started acting like a normal child. I still felt discomfort having to act this way sometimes but it helped the people here feel happy. I learned to read from Mary who set me in her lap and read to me. Luckily it wasn't too hard to learn and by reading when no one was around I was able to understand more of who I was and the type of world I was in.
My Father Anlin Kai was the General for the Eagle army. It belonged to our Kai family for generations and served the royal family. The surname of the Royal family is Halaith. Currently the emperor is in his mid 30s and married to empress Lea and many concubines. The house I live in is quite small for the standards of a general but it seems this is not the main house. For my 'health' I have been taken to the countryside after being poisoned to recover. In reality it was to hide me from society for protection and to keep embarrassment to a minimum.
I read as much as I could find in this house and when I was outside I was happy to find that the world was quite like mine. At least in terms of ladybugs and butterflies. I light up each time an animal I recognize. There are a few that seem to be unique to this world that I have read about but I have yet to see them so I will just chalk it up to myths like we have in our world.