I wish I could say that I missed my family, that I missed my old life. But, as time went on, I found that the feelings of heartache seemed to be ebbing away. I loved them, and it's true that there were times that I missed them, but I wasn't going to worry about it too much. There was no way for me to get home and, to be honest, my previous life truly wasn't that worth living. As horrible as that made me sound, it was the truth.
Aside from having died, life was literally going great for me, all things considered. It was true that I may not have been one of Dad's apprentices, but that was fine, because I was still learning everything that I would have anyway. And me not being an official apprentice meant that I could be at home and play with Catherine more. She really was a really cute little sister.
Arthur started to work with Dad nearly full time when he turned ten, I taught Catherine all that I knew about playing in the woods and swinging from the trees. It kind of gave me pause though because she was the same age I was when I got hurt back on Earth. I didn't want to see my little sister get hurt, ever. She was too precious to me for that.
As time went on, though, I stopped worrying so much about bad things happening. When Catherine got to be five, six, and seven and there were no issues I felt my worries begin to ease. And I, likewise, had made it to eleven years old with no issues whatsoever.
I started to believe that I didn't have to keep waiting for the hammer to fall. I started to let myself just be happy with my new life. I was letting myself enjoy the way that things were going as time moved on.
Arthur had officially started working with Dad, not just as an apprentice but as a real merchant. He was even going with Dad to the city to sell our goods. Dad was still doing well, the best merchant in the entire village and respected by all.
Mom was still as pretty and nice as ever. I liked having a mom around all the time. It was nice being able to talk to her whenever I had a problem. That was an experience that I never really had before. Then again, nothing about this new life of mine was like the one I used to know long ago.
Sometimes I did still find myself thinking about my previous family from time to time. Now that it had been a few years I was wondering about my mom, my Uncle Vinny, even my sister Charlie. I had let myself stop thinking so negatively about my past life after a while and I had actually loved my family despite everything. I tried to think about what they would be doing now. I had been in this world for eleven years now, which was still over ten years in Earth time. Charlie would be in her mid-twenties now. I wondered if mom remarried, or if Uncle Vinny ever got married and had a family of his own. I would dream about them still, once in a while. And when I did, I would often wake up crying.
I got to know the people in my village which I had learned long ago was called Citrine. The city that Dad and Arthur sold things in was Solis, the capital city of the land of wolves. Dad and Arthur also took trips to visit the other villages and make sales and trades there, but the bulk of our business came from Solis.
Sometimes, on days when the sky was clear, I would climb to the top of a tree and stare off in the distance at the city. I could see its massive walls and the tall towers of the castle sticking up over the top. The place looked beautiful as well as massive. I wish I could visit it one day, but the only humans allowed in there are merchants or slaves. Maybe one day my dad could take me.
I was learning a lot with each passing day, week, month, and year. Before I knew what was going on, I was just as capable as Arthur was when it came to being a merchant, but I never showed it to him or Dad. I didn't want to upset my brother, or to have my dad think that he had made a mistake on who he chose to be his successor.
There was one thing that I had learned about this world that I didn't like so much. As the years went by it was clear that the men were the ones to make all the decisions in life, no matter what. Even if I became a merchant, I would end up getting married and my husband would be the one in charge.
The way that things had happened was for the best anyway. When it came time for me to get married, Dad would probably end up telling me who it was that he approved of. I was guessing that Catherine and I would be married into other merchant families to strengthen Dad's business. I had never asked them about it myself, but I didn't think that I needed to. I had heard some of the other girls in town talking about it.
That was something new about this world too. I had friends in town. I actually had friends. I never once had a friend before this life. I was excited every time that I got the chance to spend time with my friends. I have been spending time with them since I was six.
In the past, whenever I played with the local girls, Beatrice, Josephine, and Pauline, we would be rambunctious and play like I used to with Arthur. However, all they wanted to do now was look at the boys in town and talk about who it was that they liked.
I guess, now that time was moving forward, it was to be expected. I had just turned thirteen and it was nearing the end of the Season of the Sun. There were a few boys that caught my eye, but I didn't know if I should bother looking for someone or just wait for my parents to tell me who I was going to marry.
The thing is, I didn't know how to pick a boy that I liked. Not to mention, I had been eighteen when I became Addison, if you combine those ages then I was thirty-one years old. Should I even be looking for someone my age? What age do I consider myself in the end? This is so strange. Going through puberty again is weird.
Not to mention, I had those weird marks on my wrists. One on each of them. I didn't know how a future husband would view those. What would he think of a bride that was born disfigured like that?
I thought that, since I had been living with them for so long, I should probably try asking about them again. I had asked my parents back when I was six, but they told me that I was too young. Now that I was older though, they shouldn't deny me, right?
I went to see them one night after dinner. Catherine had gone to her room and Arthur was outside finishing some chores.
"Mom, Dad, can I talk to you for a minute?" They were surprised to see me looking so serious when I spoke to them.
"Of course, my little peach, you can talk to your daddy anytime." My dad, like my previous mother, often forgot that I was growing up.
"What is it dear?" Mom asked with a slightly more mature response.
"Well, I wanted to ask you about my birthmarks again." I pulled back my left sleeve to show off the black and more noticeable of the two symbols.
"Oh." Dad seemed taken aback by my question.
"You told me when I was little that I was too young to know about them. However, as you can very well see, I am not little anymore. I have grown up and I would like to know what they mean."
"Addison, my dear." Mom was the only one in the family that had not taken to calling me Addie when I asked them to do so many years ago. "There is a problem with us being able to answer that question."
"And what problem might that be?" I tilted my head in confusion and looked at the two of them with worried eyes.
"We don't exactly know what they mean." Dad hung his head in shame as he finally answered me. "I wish we did. I wish that we could help you to understand what they mean, but we can't. I'm sorry, Addie."
"I truly wish we could help you with this."
"Oh." I was saddened by the turn that this issue had taken. So, I would need to find someone else that knew what they meant. "Is there someone else in town that might know? Someone who had seen them somewhere else before?" I was trying to be logical about this and think about it from different angles.
"No sweetheart, when you were born with those marks, we asked everyone in town about them. No one had ever seen anything like them before." Mom's eyes were wide when she answered me, like she was shocked but not quite lying. "We didn't ask anyone outside of town because we didn't want to see you get hurt or taken away if those marks were bad. We didn't know what the wolves would do if those marks meant something to them. We didn't want them to come for you."
I had never thought about that before. My parents had been curious when I was born, and they knew that I was going to become curious at some point, but they wanted to wait until I was old enough to understand before they told me the truth, or that there was no truth.
I guess this was the way that things needed to be.