Capítulo 5: New Life

My mom and dad, or as pre-Addie called them, mommy and daddy, were so worried about me that they made me stay in bed for, not just the rest of that night but, the entire next day. My birthday cake was indeed brought to me in bed, and it was delicious though it was completely different from the cakes I was used to. The food was yummy too, though once again it was different than anything that I had ever had before.

For one thing, the spices here seemed to be different. They didn't use the same things, because this wasn't the same world. The people here seemed to use nothing but fresh vegetables and fresh herbs. I was just glad that the herbs were called the same as I was familiar with back on earth. In our home we had parsley, garlic, rosemary, and sage. Apparently, herbs were not grown in our village and the only way to get them was to trade with the other villages or buy them in the city. We had an abundance of potatoes, carrots, lettuce, squash, and a few other vegetables. And then, there were the farmers in town that kept animals for harvesting. I hated to think about that, but I did like having fresh pork, chicken, and beef. That made life better.

Something else that I knew, but never realized until I blended my two lives together, was that this entire world was basically medieval. There was no running water, there was no electricity, there were no toilets. We had a chamber pot that was taken to a hole far back from the house. This hole was, thankfully, covered with a wooden lid that would help to block the smell.

This whole world was completely different from the one I used to live in. The medieval part wasn't even the most disturbing of it all. Nope, not by a long shot.

I learned, by listening to the people around me, that this world was inhabited by werewolves. The city that everyone was talking about, Solis, was a werewolf city. The men and women there all turned into wolves of one form or another. And to make matters worse, they were the ones in power. We humans were considered the lesser class. We were barely people to them. In their eyes, we were the uncivilized animals.

That was both fascinating and frightening at the same time. To think that I was reborn into a world where something as fantastical as werewolves could exist. I didn't know what to make of that, but I had to guess that if werewolves existed then there were other things in this world as well.

I was getting used to this new life of mine though. Actually, I didn't need to get used to it, because I took to it like it was the most natural thing in the world. Every day, after my chores were done, I could be seen running and jumping through the yard. I climbed a tree the day after I woke up with my memories and swung from branch to branch.

My brother Arthur was usually there with me, playing and jumping around while Catherine begged us to wait up for her. I didn't want to see my cute little sister cry so I would often pick her up and carry her as best as I could. I have never carried Charlie because I was too little when she was born and incapable when I got older.

I swam for what I believe was the first time in either of my lives. Arthur was scared at first but I showed him what I had seen on TV and videos in my Adelaide days and, after he saw that, he leapt into the water wearing just his shorts-like undergarments.

I can tell you that I didn't like the fashion that I was forced to wear here. No matter what I had planned, I didn't have any pants to wear. It was all dresses, all the time, simple ones as well as complicated and frilly ones. And the undergarments that I had to wear were tied on, so were the socks that I was forced to wear when I was inside for the night after I cleaned up.

I was glad to be clean though. From what I saw, in the village where we lived, cleanliness wasn't all that common. I didn't want to be a dirty person, so I made sure to keep clean. And mom often pulled the top of my hair back and tied it into a ribbon. I guess that was typical mom behavior no matter what world you were in.

Things could have been worse, and I knew that. They could have been better too, you know, with running water and functional toilets, but I was content with the way that things were so far.

I had also gotten a full grasp on the days of the week and months of the years. Daddy had gone all wide eyed when I asked him a few of the questions that I wanted to know about. He thought that I was a very intelligent little girl with the potential to be his merchant apprentice. He was only going to train Arthur at first, but my curiosity had caused him to start thinking about training me as well.

Still, I had asked Daddy about the days of the week. There were six: Day of the Merchants, Day of the Craftsmen, Day of the Farmers, Day of Alchemy, Day of the King, and Day of Rest. Going off of that information, there were six months in the year as well: the Month of Spirit, the Month of Water, the Month of Fire, the Month of Earth, the Month of Wind, and the Month of Darkness. There were fifty-six days in each month, so this meant that the year here was shorter than the years back on Earth. Only three hundred and thirty-six days here, as opposed to three hundred and sixty-five on Earth.

There were still four seasons here. That was the same as back home, and I could guess they were the same only with different names. The Growing season, to me, meant spring. It was followed by the season of the Sun, or summer for me. After that came the Harvest season that should be autumn. And last was the Cold season which was, obviously, winter. So, it seemed to progress the same, it was just called a different name.

I was learning a lot from Daddy too. He was teaching me the way that the writing system in this world worked, and I had to get used to writing, drawing, and basically doing everything with my left hand here since that seemed to be my dominant hand in this life. Unlike in my Adelaide days when I couldn't even move that arm.

Dad was immensely proud of me when I started to learn things. I was picking it up fast as I could read the books that he gave me much sooner than Arthur. I could see that my brother was getting frustrated and didn't like losing to me. I did try to help him and show him some tricks to learning it all, but he had refused me.

"I will not learn how to read from my little sister." He had snapped at me.

"I just wanted to help you, Arthur." I pleaded with him.

"No, I will learn it all by myself. I will not lose to my little sister.

"I'm sorry, Arthur."

I hated seeing that he was upset with me. I guess I hadn't grown out of that part of me. I hated ruining things for my family more than anything else. I didn't want them to be angry, annoyed or frustrated with me at all. It was a bad habit to have, because I could see what I was doing. I was starting to become a people pleaser, and do whatever it was that they all wanted and expected of me. That was what I had done as Adelaide as well. It was all that I could think to do though, I didn't want them fighting because of me.

I started to tone back my work with my dad until Arthur got better. I made sure that when we started to study together, I always got something wrong so that he didn't think that I was too good. Dad was starting to get happier and happier with Arthur's performance in his studies and decided that I would be allowed to tag along, but Arthur would be his only apprentice after all. That was better in the long run. It was the way that it should be for Arthur.

I mean, had I not retrieved my previous life's memories, would I have been better than Arthur or would he have been the best one of the two of us?

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