"Thish ish.... fih!" I said proudly pointing to one of the wooden blocks laying on the ground.
"That's correct! Our Bubbly is so intelligent." A frail old man, looking like a scarecrow with sunken cheeks and no meat on his bones, praised me immensely after hearing my answer. I reveled in getting head pats from him. snuggling against his arms.
"One mohe!" I yelled again but he shook his head which still held a helpless smile. "Sorry dear, but I have to take care of the other matters now." he stood up from the ground "you play with the toys like a good boy and if you get hungry, drink from that milk bottle."
"Noo.. play more.. learn.. learn more. Study!" I held his legs to prevent him from leaving. But the sickly thin man tossed me aside, patted my head once more and left, snatching his leg from my grasp. "Let's play at night again, my precious.."
I looked on.. sprawled on the floor, towards the door. "Play.. more.." My vision blur ever so slightly from the moisture. Then I return to the wooden blocks of different shapes and start fitting them in their specific frames. This life is so boring... I wanna return to earth.
.
I don't know the exact time due to my underdeveloped memory, but it's been around 3 months since my reincarnation in this world.
At first I was full of optimism, but now....
Anyway, so currently I'm focusing on learning the language of this world. My grandpa bought some toys to play with in the absence of my parents. It helps me to ease my feeling of loneliness for a bit. I have understood now that loneliness is just a byproduct of boredom. I was not feeling lonely when grandpa brought the toys 2 months back but now that I know them all inside out. I'm craving for more and more attention from him.
It's impacting my mental health... I need someone to interact with.
But well.. honestly I can't do anything about that. By looking at the state of things, we're not so rich anymore to afford me a wet nurse. My father disappeared one day and the 'mothers' didn't come after that day either. So I guess they were wet nurses then. I can't even walk more than 4 steps before my feet wobble, making me fall. Not to mention how do I make friends with my broken speech? Sigh..
Giving up on the idea, I crawl back to the colorful spelling book for kids and enhance my knowledge of this world's language. I take a 10 minutes break in between my session and sleep, drinking some milk. "*slurp* *slurp*... yeah.. that sister's was tastier.. and softer. Man every boy should have rich parents."
I wonder what will grandpa bring today. I can't stand this boredom anymore,
....................
It was peaceful night when the little boy gazed out of the window, the moon was so full and closer than he had ever seen it. The leaves were whispering secrets in the calmness. A chilly winter breeze kissed his nose, making him sniffle. "Achoo!" He exclaimed.
Shutting the window quickly, he stepped down from the wooden edge of his cradle and cuddled up in a flimsy blanket, feeling cozier right away.
['Darn, that milk was freezing! I should really drink it in the morning from now on, it gets cold as the night goes on.' Surviving is tough, especially when it's not based on boobs...]
[*Tap tap... tap tap... tap...* Someone's coming? I wondered as I heard the footsteps getting closer. It's the grandpa and... someone else. I poked his head out from under the blanket to see who it was.]
To his surprise, there was the familiar fragile old man standing there with a stunning lady. Her skin was as pale as the moonlight outside, almost like she was a mysterious creature of the night, but her dirt covered outfit suggested she'd had a rough day.
[Did I get my wish of feeding on fresh produce get fulfilled?] He was ecstatic in his own dreams for just a moment, until a dreaded conversation began.
"Is this the boy you talked about?" She questioned.
The old man nodded eagerly, "Yes, he's the smartest in the whole family. He can say more words than other kids way older than him and he's great at reading. If you train him, I bet he could even become a fourth rank wea..-!"
But before he could finish, the lady in dirty clothes gave him a sharp look, and he quietened down immediately extremely scared. She moved closer to the boy, looking a bit like a knight in shining armor, but definitely in need of a good scrub.
The woman had skin as soft as silk, with curves that would make any man's heart flutter. She had a pretty face, a bit rough around the edges, but it had a certain charm to it. Her figure was hidden under a loose hoodie, but he could tell she had a waist as slender as a willow tree and enough up top to be his personal comfort pillow.
Her hand gently touched the boy's forehead and everything went blue for a split second. Something strange happened in that instant. She smiled sweetly and then, with a graceful flick of her fingers, she wrote something in the air.
"Read these words for me," she said.
"shaa....huu....ieee" [I did as best as I could and maybe she also acknowledged it and thus patted my head.]
"Good good good" her face beamed in a wider smile.
"Here's your reward," she exclaimed, tossing a tattered brown pouch, much like the attire that clung to her mature frame, in the direction of the eager grandpa. He caught it with surprising agility for his age.
[What on earth was going on? Am I being sold? It was as if the plot of my life had been hijacked. Did I miss the memo that said I was born into a family of slaves?]
Before he could even process the chaos, the boy whose head was still all wobbly from his neck found himself floating along with this woman, his eyes squeezed shut tight as they leapt from the safety of the window. She moved with a grace that seemed almost supernatural, her body gliding through the air with the ease of a bird. When the boy finally managed to peek out from the cocoon of his blankets, the world around was a blur of motion. The towering trees, with their thick bamboo-like trunks and lush canopies, whooshed past the duo with a sound that could only be described as a symphony of nature's whispers.
It was at the speed faster than even that of a Maglev but it still felt like he had been traveling forever, zipping through a landscape that changed as swiftly as the pages of a flipped book they darted through forests with strange bamboo-like trees, only to ascend into the clouds while scaling a towering mountain. And then, as if teleported, they'd be sliding across the surface of a vast lake, the water parting around them like the Red Sea. It had to be at least two hours, and in that time, they must have covered a distance equivalent to a quarter of the Sahara desert.
Soon the boy saw a peculiar settlement approaching from afar. The tower stood tall and proud, reminiscent of an ant hill, surrounded by a hodgepodge of smaller structures made from mud, stone, and straw. It was a stark contrast to the world he knew, and as they drew closer, the grandeur of the place began to sink in. Nothing like his old home in a forest. Reaching the center of a large wall surrounding the settlement the woman carrying the boy in her arms just flashed her face from the hoodie and the gatekeepers let them in without a second glance. The massive gates, carved from single slabs of stone, swung open with a silent ease that defied their weight, revealing the bustling life beyond.
People whose collective characteristic would be called "Variety" roamed all around inside the gates. A stark contrast from the ones in the outskirts of the wall.
She shed her hoodie like a snake shedding its skin, freeing her long flowing red locks like a raging fire. She walked with a confidence that could only be found in the most seasoned of warriors, striding towards a large, dull-gray building that looked more like a fortress than a home. Her eyes searched the surroundings, finally landing on a figure sweeping the ground. "Is the mentor in?" she inquired, her voice a mix of urgency and authority. A single nod was all she needed before she headed inside, pulling the boy along in the air.
In a room which appeared small solely due to how cluttered it was from all the books and obscure materials like stones and weird trinkets, a dwarf man half the woman's size looked at me and the woman in turn while sitting at the center.
Sensing the arrival of a guest, he gestured the lady to enter the room without even shifting his eyes from the lines he was reading.
"Potential Grade?" he asked coldly. "7 to 8" The woman spoke. This simple number seemingly caught the attention of the authoritative figure, diverting his attention from the books in his lap.
"Parentage?" he said flipping the book in his hand without even looking at it "The father ran spice business for locals but he was an unweaver before being killed. Mother is unverifiable. No other direct relation in the area." Huh? My eyes burst out from the sockets because of the casually thrown revelation. Dad was killed? the heck? No other relation? Who was that old man then? What? Who killed him? Who are you guys! Why do you know all this? "Also he was given the "church's blessings" for 10 days after birth after the father made a hefty donation." She added.
The dwarf had his eyes shining when he heard the last part "Oh is that so.... It's generally not possible for people to receive the church's blessings unless there's a weaver in their family tree no matter how much a peasant donates."
The woman spoke "That's what intrigued me initially, unfortunately. I couldn't find anything about his mother in that area, maybe she belonged to another tribe..."
"Ok, I'll look into the matter myself. You may leave now." Waving his hands impatiently at the woman he threw two shining white stone at her which she promptly caught and stuffed into a hidden pocket in her hoodie and darted out leaving me on a table nearby. [Much like the grandpa] the boy thought.
The dwarf looking guy stands up and grabs a metal object looking like a crowbar beside him. "Hmm, you have high potential. Maybe you can be used to nourish the master?" He said, bringing a blue pill near my mouth.
What the fuck is this guy saying? I scream in my mind. "Nourish?" Forget everything. Am I in danger? Please tell me I am safe! What's with me being nourishment? Whose nourishment? I want to have a harem before dying!!!!!...
*Gulp* I didn't even feel when he slid the pill down my throat... I want that skill. No wait! What did he feed me!? "uaah gih yoo feeh mee"
I tried asking without any response. I wonder what will happen to my body? Will I get cooked from inside? Surprisingly his reaction was almost the same as me. Anticipating something with round eyes looking at my soft belly.
*Sniff* I wanna return to earth... it was the best after all!