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Against The Flow
Chapter 1 - Jerry, and now Ethan

Chapter 1 - Jerry, and now Ethan

Work sucked.

As a man who now had been working for 6 months after graduating high school, he could honestly say that he should have spent the time in school trying to find a profession that didn’t result in too much effort.

Jerry wholeheartedly regretted thinking “ill guess I’ll just join my dad’s construction company” instead of getting off his lazy ass and thinking of his career.

Alas, that is not what happened, and so Jerry finds himself once again driving himself to work, dreading the sores and pains and menial labour he is about to undergo.

Eventually approaching the new construction site and seeing his father there, Jerry couldn’t help but feel tricked by the smile on his face, why on earth his dad had told him that construction work was fun and invigorating he had no idea.

Preparing to get out of the car, he looked back at his father whose expression slowly morphed into horror as he looked at Jerry.

What? Could he see the life-sucking out of Jerry as he approached the construction site?

Or more likely he saw the runaway 18-wheeler that smashed into Jerry’s car and sent the man and car flying across the road and smashed against the building.

‘Ah so that’s what he saw, well at the very least I won’t have to go to work today’ were Jerry’s last thoughts in this world as his body slowly ceased function from the many crushed organs he has suffered.

~~~

Samantha and Tom had a strange child, which is what many of the people of Shortbeck village thought.

Ethan as a babe was completely normal, crying when hungry, crying when shitting, just generally crying.

But as he grew older, he became far quieter than most children were, he’d sometimes refer to himself as jerry, or ask a nonsense question with a vocabulary far too verbose for a child.

And then sometimes act like a regular kid and play with other children and pick boogers and fling them at people while gurgling with delight.

It was this contrast that people thought of when thinking of young Ethan, and while some of them thought it strange, at the very least most villagers just thought it the habit of one quirky child and thought nothing more of it.

Of course, they would after all he was only a 3-year-old child, wasn’t he?

~~~

This can’t be a dream at this point formerly Jerry-now Ethan thought, as he gazed at fields of wheat the spanned nearly to the horizon, after his last thought of getting tossed around in the car, he had found himself occasionally awakening in this sort of medieval rural village as a babe.

Figuring himself to be in a coma and experiencing some strange dream, he had half-heartedly messed around and asked modern things of the adults-only for them to be confused about what a TV was when he asked of one.

Heh pretty funny in Ethan’s mind, but as of three days ago, he hadn’t drifted off to sleep again, he had been in this dream and everything was too vivid. The sights, the smells, the feel of the grass underfoot and the real interactions he had had with the people here, which all pointed to one thing that Ethan couldn’t deny anymore.

He was alive here; this wasn’t a dream.

The only thought that he could think of that could explain this phenomenon was reincarnations, he had died in that accident and awoken as a babe in a time 1500 years past, well it would be 1500 years past it hadn’t overheard people talking about how a passing guilder had saved an old man’s life in his youth with a terrific display of magic.

Magic. That alone made him know that this world wasn’t just in a medieval era, but an entirely different world, as nowhere in the past did, he remembers tales of people not being afraid of magic, instead, it was reviled and feared.

Truly this was a wonderous circumstance he had found himself in. finally he could laze about as a child and not go to work, things were looking up

“Ethan?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Looking up, Ethan saw a smiling woman gazing down at him.

Pretty in an earthly way is most thought when gazing at her brown hair and comely features, her blue eyes a mirror to his new ones gazed at him with amusement as she knelt next to where he was sitting.

“what are you doing Ethan?” she questioned in a language he wouldn’t have recognised in his old world, even though it was similar to English enough to have a few common words and a lot of the same names

“looking at the wheat fields” Ethan replied his pronunciation tilted, knowing that he would just get more strange looks if he said he was pondering the circumstances of his birth.

“well, it’s time for dinner so come on back inside, you’re not allowed outside without either your father and me you know” she chastised, as she starting ushering Ethan back towards the house at the bottom of the hill he was on.

“yes mother” he replied

Probably the strangest part of this reincarnation was neither the mention of magic, the new world, or even the entire process of being reincarnated, instead, it was getting used to my new parents, Samantha and tom.

Being a child again and having people look after you was a strange experience after having control over my life for the last few years.

Having an adult’s mentality wasn’t helpful with acting as a child, most things children would happily do, Ethan just refused to, potty training he didn’t need, playing with the other children was mindlessly tedious and annoying as they would more like fling boogers at him than do anything remotely interesting.

And he couldn’t just act like an adult either, he was 3 for Christ’s sake, if he acted as mature as an adult, they would defiantly think something was wrong with him, or worse might suspect him of being possessed by some crazy dark wizard.

Wait Christ didn’t exist in this world, who was he supposed to swear by now?

Shoving useless thoughts, away he walked into the house for dinner, at the very least he was off baby food now and could enjoy regular food, even if it wasn’t that good compared to his old worlds.

Ethan Learnt a few things after the next few years, one, his parents were farmers, who manage the wheat field behind our house, it was a meagre living, however one they were happy with so he didn’t question it.

Two, the level of hygiene in this world was surprisingly high, there would be daily in the small river that was the namesake of this town, soap and shampoo were somehow not only invented but readily available commodities for all people, something he was immensely grateful for, as he did not want to live in a disease filled hovel much like his old-world medieval times were.

Three- the name of this country he was born in was the Diam kingdom, we were in the eastern fief of the country and close to our neighbours’ border, who I still haven’t learned the name of.

Other than that, he hadn’t learned much, the village was small housing only about 200 people and he didn’t go out much, not only because he was a child, but there wasn’t anything to do, the children were annoying and the adults gave him funny looks.

Instead, he had spent most of the last few years expanding his vocabulary with his new tongue and learning his new worlds alphabet which was also strangely similar but different to English. His house had a few books that were about farming and the country’s history, and while he had read a bit from the farming book with his mother’s help, the book on the country’s history obnoxiously titled “The Diam Kingdoms Illustrious beginning and reign looked like an annoyingly patronising read, so Ethan avoided it for now.

Quite frankly, Ethan was getting bored, doing nothing but sitting around with subpar food and reading about farming were not the most stimulating activities he could do.

He only wished that he had something that could cure his boredom.

~~~

“Ethan, you’re turning six tomorrow, so it’s time to begin working in the fields with me, replanting season is beginning with spring, so we got lots to do,” His father said, looking inordinately pleased with himself

Why on earth was he happy? Because he was going to work with his son? Ethan pondered, eating his soup as he looked back at his father, with his muscly build and straight messy black hair he inherited, he wondered if this could be used to cure his boredom, he had been reading up on farming, so he was a little curious.

“Ok” he replied simply

“Great! I’ll wake you up at two hours before dawn, and teach you all you need to know, we’re going to have a blast” his father excitedly rambled, a wide smile across his dimples. If he’s that excited maybe farming would be fun…

Wait. What did he say about two hours before dawn?

~~~

HE WAS A FOOL!

He had already fallen for it once and Ethan couldn’t help but think that he was a gullible fool, as slammed the plough into the field for the 1000th time, he had fallen for working for his father in his old life and regretted that, and he had thought farming would be better than construction

No, it worse, he had to work from before dawn till half the day was over, and waking up to sores and pain, didn’t prevent Ethan from going back right to it, according to his father, it was growing pain meant to harden him up.

And then there was the kicker, he was getting it light, his father worked for at least 3 more hours than him and said that was the normal amount of work in a day.

He couldn’t do this; he did not die just to get into more hellish work.

Ethan swore to get out of this lifestyle no matter what it took. He would not be a farmer.

He would immediately plan and escape this hellish work

“Ok you’re done for the day Ethan… hey, you okay there?” his father’s concern felt nothing to him as he collapsed to the ground after being told work was over.

Ok, first he would get feeling back into his legs and then he would plan his escape.

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