I woke up to the feeling of my body ripping itself apart and then healing continuously for what felt like hours. It may not have been, but that’s what it felt like. Pain was all I was aware of. After an unknown amount of time, the pain finally subsided enough for me to take in my surroundings. I was face down in tall grass and I could hear water running nearby. I’m obviously outside. Why am I outside? When I went to sleep, I was in my own bed. I have the sinking feeling that I may not like the answer, but I probably won’t have any way to do anything about it. I can vaguely hear people bustling around in the distance. Since I don’t hear anyone screaming, it’s likely I didn’t fall from the sky or appear in a flash of light. I should probably get up and figure out where I am. I get another shock when I lift my hand to push myself up. It’s tiny. Definitely not an adult hand. WTF! I feel myself on the edge of freaking out as I check the rest of my body. I shake as I’m hit with another shock. There’s dangly bits down there. WTF! At this point, I’d really like to beat the Gods that stuck me, a 35 year old woman, in a small male child’s body! Being a child once was more than enough. It’s not something I’ve ever wanted to repeat. I never wanted to be a teenager again, let alone a small child. And being male…being male is going to take some getting used to as well.
As I’m calming myself down, I feel my stomach clench in pain. Not the same as before. This is just hunger, but it makes me realize this body is starving. Is that why I’m in it? Did the previous owner die of hunger and that’s why I got stuffed in it? Just as I’m contemplating the previous owner of this body, I hear someone calling out to me. It’s not my name, or my language, but somehow I understand and know they are calling my name. Or rather the name of the previous owner of this body. However, just from the tone of their voice I can tell they don’t like me. Whether it’s residual feelings from the previous owner or my own, I don’t like them either.
“Red! You lazy brat! You snuck out here without weeding the garden and washing the laundry! If it weren’t for the priest sending me to call you back, I’d beat you! I got in trouble because you weren’t where you were supposed to be!”
I stared at the boy yelling at me. He was skinny too, but not as much as this body. He also looked to be about seven years old. It wasn’t until I stood up that I realized I was quite a bit shorter. I guess this body is probably about five or six. Unless it’s stunted from malnourishment. From his words I’m guessing he dumped his chores on the previous owner even though he’s far more physically capable. I didn’t say anything as I followed the boy to wherever the priest was. I needed more information about this world before I could make any plans.
It didn’t take us long to get back to the small church at the edge of town. There were several skinny children waiting in front next to a tall slender man. As soon as I saw the priest I felt revolted. I could even see a slight glow around him that the only word I could come up with to describe it was putrid. It gave the impression of raw sewage on a hot day. The look of disgust in his eyes when he saw me didn’t improve that impression either.
“You’ll have no supper tonight since you kept everyone else waiting,” he said to me. “All of you line up. A senior priest will be here soon to test the magic of those of you who are 12 this year. Those of you who aren’t yet of age to be tested will be examined to see if you meet qualifications for adoption by those coming with the senior priest. Do your best to make a good impression…if you’re capable of it.”
I lined up with the rest of the children. I noticed they seemed to be sorted by age, so I stood at the end of the line. Luckily it was furthest from the priest as well. I don’t think I could keep myself from gagging if I had to be closer. Almost as soon as we were lined up, I could hear the rattle of what I guessed would be a carriage and the clomp of hooves. It was soon revealed to indeed be a carriage, but what was pulling it was definitely not like any horse I’d ever seen. It had hooves like a horse but that was where the similarities ended. It looked more like a scaled dog. And it was huge, or at least it seemed that way to me. And it had fangs that reminded me of a sabertooth tiger. Definitely a carnivore. I found myself wondering what it would feel like to touch it. I surprised myself a bit when that thought popped up. Maybe I’d already suffered so many shocks today that I’d become numb.
My attention was drawn to the coachman when he got down to open the door for those inside. I couldn’t tell what, but something felt off about him. However, before I could consider more I was hit with a wave of stench when the door opened. As I struggled to hide how I was feeling I noticed that I seemed to be the only one who could smell it. It was like what radiated off the priest, but a lot worse. I could also see the glow of it wrapped around the few people inside the carriage. I tried to focus on being as invisible to them as possible. I didn’t know if the magic here was the same as the myths and legends of my previous world, but I didn’t see where it would hurt to try using the energy work techniques I knew to hide from their sight. I instinctively knew I didn’t want them to take notice of me. I just didn’t know why or exactly what I was hiding from. As I stood there imagining myself being transparent as air, I kept repeating in my mind that there was nothing here to see or remember.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
There were three men who got out. One was a morbidly fat man who was dressed similar to the priest but in higher quality clothes. He looked like he was sweating grease. Next was an older man who acted like a butler to the middle aged man who came out last. Both of them wore high quality clothes, but the last man was more ostentatious in flaunting his wealth. The greasy priest looking one had the ickiest aura, but the other two weren’t far behind. All three of them looked around scornfully.
The priest bowed to the three of them respectfully and waved a hand at us.
“These are the children of this orphanage. These three are of age to have their magic tested.”
The greasy priest nodded as the coachman brought forward what looked like a crystal ball and a stand.
“Come forward one at a time and touch the ball,” he said.
To me, his voice was as irritating as nails on a chalkboard. No one else seemed to be bothered though. I decided to file the information on my reactions away until I had a broader base of knowledge of this world. I had a feeling that all of these things were important warning signs, I just didn’t know of what, so I turned my attention to the testing.
The first was a tall boy with curly brown hair. If it was clean, it might be a golden brown. He was rather gangly like he was in the middle of a growth spurt. When he touched the ball it gave a light glow of yellow.
“Very good. Potential to be an Earth Mage.” The priest nodded as he noted it down. “Next.”
The next boy was shorter than the first by about a head. He had black hair and was the only one of the children who could be considered heavy set, but that was only relative to the other children. When he touched the ball, it gave off a light glow of blue.
“Ah! Another one! Water this time. Very good. Very good. Next.”
The adults seemed to be rather excited that two children tested with potential. The third boy had light blond hair and a more delicate build than the other two. At first I thought he was a girl, but then realized I hadn’t seen any girls which was strange. However, I was distracted when he touched the ball and it lit up with a fairly bright golden color. This made the adults extremely excited.
“Ah! A Light Mage! If you can learn higher Light healing spells, you’ll have a bright future in the church,” said the greasy priest with a calculative gleam in his eye.
“Having all three show potential is quite good luck for such a rural area,” commented the middle aged man. “I wonder if any of these other children will have potential.”
As the man looked at the other children, his eyes lit up when he saw the twins in the middle of the line. It gave me a shiver when I saw him looking at them like they were something tasty. The children may not know what that look was, but living for over thirty years I knew. That man was lusting after them. I felt my heart go cold and ache, knowing there was nothing I could do to protect them. I could warn them but other than that, I could only hope they could escape such a fate on their own. The boy who brought me here was also noticed by the man, but not to the same degree as the twins. Luckily, I was overlooked. Whether it was what I did or just that I wasn’t acceptable, I didn’t care as I sighed with relief. It was then, I caught an important part of the priests’ conversation.
“Lord Garrot will take those three that caught his eye. A carriage will arrive for them tomorrow. After sending them off, you will bring the three that tested with potential to the Garola Church to be trained. The other two you can take as well to be teaching aids for the healers if they don’t show potential next year. As of tomorrow this orphanage will be shut down since you’re being recalled.”
“Yes, sir. I will take care of it.”
With that, the three got back on the carriage and left. It took until they were out of sight for me to realize that the greasy priest’s orders didn’t seem to include me. That was both a good and bad thing. Good since I was sure going either with that Lord Garrot or to the Church would end up as a bad ending for me. Bad because I wasn’t sure I could survive on my own since my body was still a child. However, with my knowledge as an adult and the fact that this world seemed to be roughly equivalent to the Middle Ages, but with magic, I might have an easier time surviving on my own.
After the carriage left, everyone headed into the church to start making supper. A thin soup of boiled potatoes with a few carrots added in and hard unleavened bread was the extent of supper. Even as starving as I was, the smell of it made me gag. That’s when I realized the soup was made with half rotten and dirty potatoes and the bread was moldy. If this was what they usually had for food, it’s more likely that the previous owner was poisoned by what they ate as well as starving. I noticed the priest was not eating the same food as the children and scoffed in my heart.
Dodging someone for the third time, I realized the shield I put around myself earlier was obviously working because they showed no indication of seeing me. I sighed with half relief. If it works on animals too, it might become a life saving skill. Since there was still light, I decided to go out to look around and see if I could find something edible while exploring this new world.