Chapter 2 - Birth

As my consciousness began to regain, the mansion around me was gone and instead replaced by a strange, warm black space. There was a small amount of light and I could feel myself being pulled slowly towards it, feet first.

Oh, good lord, I've just been born.

That was probably the most disgusting experience I've ever felt, and thankfully it's over.

Looking around, there are some shocked faces looking down at me, a man and a woman who is not my mother, wearing strange clothing and holding a strange rock.

" *** *** ****** ** ******, ** ***** ******** ***** "

Gibberish. Pure and utter gibberish. I must be born somewhere that doesn't speak French or Italian.

Suddenly, I was picked up and placed into the arms of who I can assume is my mother.

Beautiful. I mean, this is probably weird to say since this is technically now my mom, but good lord is she like a nine out of ten on my personal scale.

She seems to be wearing some strange clothes too, weird.

Looking around, the room we're in seems worse for wear. Bare wooden walls, wooden floors, windows with dingy-looking glass, and everyone is wearing clothes that a bum in Naples would be ashamed of.

Everyone seems to be looking at me with a strange look I can't identify, but to touch on the subject, my father has good looks to him as well.

I don't swing that way, but I can call a handsome man handsome can't I? Besides it's my dad, I have that right!

Why is everyone looking at me and speaking? Was I born early or something? I mean, it's bad if a baby is born legs first but I came out fine!

Suddenly, my mother brought me close to her and hugged me. This feels, nice actually. The nice warm feeling of a loving mother's hug. A nearly forgotten feeling.

God, I may start crying.

///

The days in my baby body have passed both quickly yet painstakingly slow.

It's been almost two months now and some things have become apparent.

First and foremost, I live in the fucking boonies! No electricity to be seen, the house is warmed by a fire in the fireplace, my mother writes with a feather and ink well, and whatever my father does for work he definitely doesn't drive, as I've heard no cars and see no roads.

We live in a two-story house at least, possibly three-story but I can't tell if we have a basement or not, with my family and an assortment of others.

There are two children, one who looks around six and one who looks around twelve, both of whom I can assume are my siblings. There also appears to be a whole other family living here, since I see an adult or two once in a while when my mother walks me around the house.

Either way, I have no idea to tell if we're rich or poor. We have an assumed three-story house, but we live with other people and we're in the boonies.

My father obviously works as a good amount of days he's gone. My mother doesn't seem to work as I get, uh, fed, every day, and I have no frame of reference for the rest of the people within the house.

I still need more information if I plan on following Ego's orders.

//

I can't tell how old I am, but I know my birthday hasn't come yet. I was born in fall and winter has already passed, so I think I'm around eight to nine months old. Either way, I can feel that my body is strangely strong.

I can stand fully in my crib, and I can even escape and both crawl and walk around. Probably because I don't have to learn how to move as if I was a normal baby, but otherwise I can move pretty well by now.

Using my newfound abilities, I've discovered a number of things.

First and foremost, there are more than a single-family living here and this is bigger than the house I thought it was beforehand.

My house is roughly the size of an inn, remodeled to be a large house. There is one other family living here aside from my family, as well as two maids who live in the basement.

So, based on the fact we have servants, you'd assume we're well off.

But no! We don't even have running water!

The maids and my mother wash our clothes by hand on a washboard!

Even after nine months alive, I haven't seen a car, or electricity, or anything resembling the sort! I thought at first we were Amish, but there are no horses or buggies, and even then I'd at least hear of something.

It's like we live in a damn village!

///

It was a normal day like any other.

I had a first birthday that amounted to everyone in the house telling me happy birthday, and that marked for me my first full year in this world.

It was a day like any other, I can happily say I'm around a year and three months old, and I have just about a solid grasp of the language. I can make out most words that I've heard and I've already been able to speak in simple sentences.

One day, exploring the house and avoiding the servants and my mother, I was looking out the window of my room on the second floor.

The house we live in is surrounded by not much, only fields of wheat I can see farmers tending to in the front, and after a small backyard, there is a forest.

Since I can't go out that's all I know.

What I saw today was a strange sight, I saw my father, who I thought had work, doing something strange.

He held a large sword in his left hand and a short sword in his right, both seemingly glowing with power. Wearing strange-looking clothing, he seemed to be fighting something.

That something, was a dog, more than that, it's a wolf! Nearly the size of a moose!

In a few swift movements, the wolf was killed by my father, and he then raised his hand and began to say something. I couldn't hear what he was saying but after he finished, a flame came out of his hand and burned the wolf!

Today, I learned the key thing I was missing. We aren't poor. Far from it.

This isn't my world.

This isn't my universe.

This is a world of sword and magic.