Morning came faster than James would've liked. He was suddenly woken by a loud smack and a sudden burst of pain on his rear. Having little actual sleep and still feeling groggy, he pressed himself out of bed and looked around with a yelp escaping his lips.
Giggling off to the side was a strange woman, whom, now in dim light, James slowly recognized as his new sister and who seemed to enjoy teasing him. She was dressed in what appeared to be a somewhat faded but still colorful ankle-length dress with a tight sash around her waist.
"Wakey wakey. Jeez, are you trying to play sick after last night? It's time to get to work already. Now hurry up before mom joins dad in being mad at you." She made one last irksome smirk at James before walking out of the room.
James was left holding his head and giving his new ass a rub to help the tingling fade. He got up and stretched in his new body for the first time, and though it was sore, there was no real pain anywhere. He was definitely in a youthful body once again, and it felt kinda nice, minus the glaring changes. He quickly looked over his side of the room and found a number of clothes, mostly dresses, one pair of linen pants, and a shirt. Already uncomfortable enough, James opted for the non-dress outfit and quickly put it on. With a pair of leather boots as well, he didn't feel too bad about the outfit, though the shirt was obviously too large for his new size, with the sleeves ending near his elbows and the hem of the shirt hanging well past his waist. At least it covered everything and didn't hug too tightly.
He walked out of the room and looked around to find a rather sizable kitchen and dining room. Well, sizable for what he thought a villager might own. It was at least the size of his old apartment and was mostly made of wood, with a few furs hanging from the walls. His new family wasn't too poor then. He saw a somewhat older woman cleaning the large wooden table with a wet rag and a stern look on her face as his new sister was carrying around a large number of dishes.
The older woman looked up and said, "Finally up, are you? Well, you can help Tista take the dishes down to wash then. And afterwards, you'll be right back here to help me clean the house, unless you feel like missing supper as well as breakfast." A small, teasing smile broke out on her face, and it would actually be rather charming to see if it didn't mean that James was on the receiving end of the implied punishments. She had a similar hair color to his new sister, but hers was more of a deep scarlet red, compared to his sister's more ginger color. From the crows feet around her eyes when she smirked, she was at least pushing forty, if not older. But the size of her curves and rather sweet face would easily leave any man jumping for her in his last life. Definitely a solid 9/10 on the hot mom scale.
However, James soon realized his thought process and couldn't help shaking his head. Sure, she wasn't too far out of his previous age range, but still, this was his new mom. Kinda weird how he was already having dirty thoughts about their first meeting. He merely nodded to the woman and walked over to his sister, no, Tista, and grabbed a number of dishes before following her out the door to wherever they were going to wash this stuff.
"Why are you wearing your training clothes? There's no way dad's letting you train today after last night. Hehe, or are you gonna try and sneak off again?" Her eyes glinted over at James with a mischievous light that only a younger sibling could have at the idea of tattling on their fellow siblings.
James just gulped and said, "Uh...no, I just.....kinda felt more comfortable wearing this today. No reason." Though his now higher pitch was only heightened by his poor acting skills, which made Tista think he was lying.
"Uh huh. Well, maybe if you gave me a little something, I could help mom turn a blind eye to you for a while. At least until it was time to start dinner. Say.....your really nice purple dress~" Her voice was laden with desire, as she looked like a hungry devil looking to steal someone's soul for that dress. The smile on her face and the glaring mischevious eyes made James feel like she was trying to one-up him in all the weirdest ways, but he just shrugged and thought that he didn't care either way, so he nodded and said
"Alright, but I need your word that you won't tattle on me for ignoring chores and actually get me off."
Tista's eyes lit up, and she looked like she had won the lottery as she grasped James's shoulder, saying, "Really? Definitely. Cross my heart. Hehehe, now I'll definitely get Asher to notice me~" She almost squealed before setting down the dishes next to a wash basin that had been at the back of the yard, which neither looked too clean nor dirty at least. Tista couldn't help doing a little dance as Silva set down her own plates before she turned to leave. Tista couldn't help but look up at her in slight confusion.
"Hey, aren't you helping out first?"
James just smirked, looking back at his new sister, and said, "You promised, remember? Have fun~". He then walked off with a bit of a faster stride, leaving a somewhat stunned but still happy Tista behind. It was time to take a look around his new home base and see what he could do to get his new hero's journey started.