It was a groggy morning for Rowan who opened his eyes with a lot of effort, his vision a lot blurry than usual. 'That was quite a weird dream I was having, have I been getting paranoid of those old crooks?' He tried to get up but realised that he couldn't.
'Huh, what's going on why can't I get up? Has someone tried to poison me again? That can't be possible, my body would have removed it in my sleep then.'
That's when he finally noticed his surroundings were way different from the bed chamber he was used to.
The familiar chandelier was nowhere to be seen in his blurred vision.
He tried to scream but what came out was a shrill cry accompanied by tears that flowed due to his frowning.
'Why am I crying right now, what kind of illusion is this.'His inner thoughts were chaotic as he continued crying.
That's when a purple-haired woman walked up to him, picked him up and started cradling him back and forth whilst singing in a foreign language.
That's when reality struck Rowan.
'That wasn't a dream was it, those guys surrounded me when I was sleeping after developing a new spell which somewhat restrained my ability, they had been collecting information on my ability for all those years for this reason, weren't they? Acting like they had enmity while collaborating in disguise.'
'They truly got me this time, good thing I didn't leave them alive to enjoy their newfound success then.'
The baby gave a smile, which the presumed mother took as a sign to settle him back in the cradle and return to her work.
'I always thought that reincarnation was a hoax made up by the religious groups to gather more followers. After all, everyone is afraid of death except those that are insane.'
'This doesn't appear to be a place under my rule, I know enough to differentiate between all the languages that were spoken under my rule and the attire that people wear is also different with very few similarities.'
'I'm still not certain about it, but this could be a different world than the one I grew up in, I'm in an unknown territory right now and my survival is my top priority, I can explore the customs later.'
He held up a tiny hand.' Let's see if I have the means to protect myself.'He felt a strain on his head and was about to pass out when he saw the nail on his pinky finger lengthen by half a centimetre. He smiled at it and passed out.
The woman walked back in with a frown, 'I have to change diapers as well.'After washing and dressing him up, she once again tucked him in and went back.
He woke up with a yawn after a few hours of sleep.
'It appears I can still morph myself but I can't depend on it for immediate survival, my only option is to depend on my parents till I grow up.'
That small exercise was quite tiresome for a little child and he soon felt the hunger. Luckily, the purple-haired woman came with a bottle of milk soon otherwise he would have had to sacrifice his dignity by crying for food. He chugged it all down before stopping.
'It looks like I'm at least a year old, back when I first discovered my ability I was around eleven years old, maybe that's why I got tired just by doing this.'
'My ability did grow stronger as I grew up, as for why it did I never gave it a thought.'
'For now, let's keep practising for growth.' He retracted the nail, more easily than when he had grown it before and went to sleep.
As the days went by he gathered a lot of information by observing his surroundings.
His family consisted of four people. Through their daily interactions, he figured out that the purple-haired woman was his elder sister.'What a large gap they had between the two children.' His mother was old but maintained herself well. She wore a purple gown that perfectly complimented her purple hair. His father had black hair and was quite fit, probably a soldier from the armour that he wore every day before leaving.
His sister wore some formal attire probably belonging to some educational facility.
Another fact that heightened his curiosity was the use of magic by his mother to prepare a concoction which she then distributed into several bottles. Turns out his mother made potions to sell at her shop, he had been once taken to the shop where he observed that a lot of people visited during the day, most of them were armoured, and a few cloaked magicians visited as well. He had also been observing their hair.
Most of the armoured ones had black or brown hair while the cloaked wizards had a wide variety of colours. 'Is the hair colour related to their ability to weild magic? Let's ask Mother when I can converse properly.'
His mother tried to teach him new words by saying a word and then pointing at what it indicated.
'I've never had any children but I think that's a bad way of trying to teach children, I guess I'll entertain her.'He gave a half-hearted attempt at reciting the word, which garnered a big smile and a hug from his mother. He held on under the pressure.
His practice started paying off. He could now grow pointed nails for a hand in a second without passing out. He could also understand what the people spoke to some extent due to his mother's efforts.
'Seems like it wouldn't be too long before I can move on to more complex body parts.'
Just then he was suddenly picked up by his mother and taken out into the outside world for the first time. He hung on for dear life when his mother chanted something in words unknown to him and started flying.