"It's about time, I was getting bored of you getting ready, plus I definitely need some sun"

Nira took and carried him in her arms and just like that they left for the Yeval house. When they reached the entrance of their house, they went out and what could be seen on the other side of the door frame was a well-kept garden, it was at least 15 meters long and 6 meters wide, in it there were small bushes, flowers and several trees with round and large leaves, the house to which this landscape belonged was a two-story house with an area of at least 180 m2 and was found surrounded by white stone walls at least one and a half people high. This was the house of the Judars, the home of Reinhall.

They went out through the black painted metal gate directly onto a dirt road, the house was found on the edge of the town directly next to the main road. In this area the buildings were scarcer than in the rest of the town and from here you could see the plantations around the settlement. This town was known for the harvest of various vegetables and tubers specific to the area. Nothing on it was very interesting, Reinhall thought it was a bit boring even, but there was a sense of freedom in it different from that of the old city where he lived.

The fields were wide, and the space between each dwelling was refreshing when he compared it to the apartments he used to live in, like sardines in a box, side by side, with very little space to call their own. Therefore, he didn't mind if the village was somewhat boring, it was a sight that eased his mind every time Nira took him to the market to buy food for the house.

Not far from the town it was also possible to see a forest with tall trees, at least 15 to 20 meters high, from how little he understood his parents, that was the place where hunters used to catch and kill beasts for their leather and meat, he heard this mainly from his father Saley, who worked as a transporter and seller of fabrics and skins in one of the neighboring cities.

After walking down the main street for a few minutes, gradually more passers-by became apparent. From all the times Reinhall had visited the town he calculated, based on the houses he saw and the population on the streets, that the town consisted of about 200 to 300 buildings, or about 800 to 1200 inhabitants.

One of the things that caught his attention at first, was the absence of distinctive and fantastic animals in the locality, although he noted the rare lack of pets such as dogs and cats, some of the other animals were not very different from those in his world. For example, one of the types of cattle were a type of hairier bovines and looked like a bison with a height of at least 1.60 meters tall, a type of hairy boar or pig with long tusks in the mouth and a relatively long tail. This made him wonder if this was one of the famous cases of convergent evolution that he had read so much about on the internet.

As the two walked down the town's main street, people greeted them and tried to exchange a few words of conversation, sometimes complimenting Nira's appearance and other times how handsome Reinhall looked in the colorful red clothes he wore.

Although it was a village that was on the border of rural population and small town, even if the inhabitants were numerous, they were small enough to recognize the faces of almost all the inhabitants. And Nira being one of the most beautiful women in the village, certainly the popularity of the two was much higher than that of the average person, especially in the male population, where Nira's mere appearance caused many heads to turn on the street.

Even though the home of the family they were going to visit was a short 15-minute walk away, because of all the people who stopped to say hi and chat with them, the normally short walk turned into at least half an hour of their time. This was not a rare occurrence for the two of them, because every time they came to the market they always ended up occupying themselves for at least an hour and a half or more. Depending on whether during the journey, their mother heard a spicy rumor about some unfaithful couple or other interesting things.

The life of the town was as such: slow, boring and with a lot of drama everywhere. Because in a world where entertainment was scarce, due to the lack of media such as television or the internet, people tend to increase their meddling in the affairs of others, to find out what new and interesting rumor they could get out of it. For Reinhall, this whole scene of rural life was very reminiscent of middle and high schools before the advent of cell phones and the internet.

Nira and Reinhall finally found themselves in front of the Yeval house, this was a relatively more modest house than theirs but still held itself several levels above the rest of the village. But this was because Reinhall's father was a successful merchant, which placed them higher up the social ladder compared to most of their counterparts.

The home in front of them had the typical architecture style that was seen in the rest of the town but clearly more stylized, a wooden house with a high wooden roof and sloped for the rains, one of the curious things that he noticed was that almost always the corners of the houses were rounded and there was rarely one with straight corners, even the roofs shared this particular style; a quirk he could also appreciate was the way almost every building had doors with semi-circular arch at the top and an obsession with having two similar arched front windows in each of house.

Nira knocked three times on the wooden door, and waited for an answer on the other side, almost immediately a lady's voice sounded from the other side of the door.

-Just a moment!

The door opened, and instantly Reinhall had an adverse reaction to the person who appeared behind her, a face he couldn't forget, a woman who appeared to be about 30 years old, wearing a tight dark green dress that clung to her body, her figure was one that could be described with the word triangle, since her hips were much wider than the rest of her body, her hair was black that reached her shoulders, her eyes were almond-colored, and her skin was fair as all the rest of the people who live in the northern hemisphere of the continent.

-Oh Nira, look how beautiful you are, and your boy, aaah he looks like a doll, with that red dotted suit and his little bow tie, will you allow me to carry him?

As soon as this woman began to speak, Reinhall felt discontent rise up his spine, not because of her appearance or her character, but because of a previous experience during one of their mundane outings to buy food at the market.

"Oh no, oh no, don't come near me, don't let her touch me, I don't want my cheeks to suffer again!"

Certainly, the person in front of him was one of those women who couldn't control their urge to pinch the cheeks of children they found adorable, and of course, he was the number one candidate who fulfilled all the conditions, during their countless encounters in the market his cheeks never returned home intact.

-Of course you can, here you go…Reinhall stop clinging to my arm!

Knowing the fate that awaited him, Reinhall desperately clung with all his strength to his mother's arms. However, his attempts were useless. Even with the secret training he did during the last few months, the strength of a baby would never win against that of an adult.

Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

-Come on, darling, stop clinging, can't you see that Ralia wants to hold you for a moment, let go at once!

-Mom, mom, noooo!

Pulling it from her own arms, Nira finally managed to lift him with both hands after putting in a bit of force.

-My Goddess, why the hell do you have so much strength?

-It is clear that he must have inherited your genes, after all the things you have done that is very clear, or are you going to tell me that this strength comes from your husband Saley?

-Oh don't say that, he may be a merchant but still he defends himself.

"Keep your hands off my face!"

During the brief exchange Reinhall had already passed from his mother's hands to Ralia's hands, doing everything he could to avoid those fearsome cheek pinches! Unfortunately his reflexes and speed were not the same as a normal grown person and eventually failed to defend himself.

-Well, but what am I doing leaving you out here, let us go to the living room.

-It will be a pleasure.

-Come on Reinhall I'm going to take you to meet my daughter Suniel. By the way, I couldn't help but notice that he already knows how to say mom, how amazing! just how old is he?

-Of course, my precious boy is really smart to be able to say mom at the age of 8 months

-How wonderful, I hope he is just as sociable, Suniel would do well with a friend of her age.

The three entered the Yeval's home, the interior was cozy with white lined walls, immediately after crossing the door was the living room, while in the back was what seemed to be the dining room.

-Sit down as if you were in your own home, in a moment I'll bring the drinks and Suni so you can get to know her better. Juice or tea?

Ralia proceeded to place Reinhall on one of the couches right next to Nira.

-I prefer juice, I could never tolerate the bitterness of tea.

-Oh I understand you, those merchants are always offering it trying to look like the nobles, when the quality they give you is not even close to what they have. Give me a moment and I'll bring them to right to you.

Ralia moved around her house bringing the pitcher of juice and snacks quickly and elegantly, it was hard to see a flaw in the way she walked and carried things revealing that she was possibly more than just a peasant who managed to marry a successful man.

-Very well, in a minute. Right now I bring Suniel so she can play with the adorable Reinhall, I just need to go wake her up.

-If she's asleep I don't think there's a need, do you?

-Nonsense, she has been asleep since noon if I don't wake her up now she won't sleep at night and therefore she won't let me sleep either.

-Seriously? That never happens to my Reinhall.

"I don't understand much of what they say but what I'm sure of, is that every time my mother talks, it must be something about me... she certainly doesn't waste a moment to show me off."

A moment later Ralia comes down from the second floor with a newly awakened baby named Suniel in her arms. The little one had similar pupils to her mother but her hair was brown, she seemed to be smaller than Reinhall making him estimate that she is at least 2 months younger than him in this world.

-Here is my precious Suniel.

-But what a pretty girl!

The two mothers began to discuss about their children as soon as they could, Reinhall lost the thread of what they were discussing, because it was very repetitive and boring for him, he only paid attention from time to time to see if he could learn any words, but in his eyes one could only see the disinterest in the whole situation. What he had no idea, is that contrary to what he thought and felt, little Suniel did not stop looking at him with her two eyes wide open.

For a baby who had never left the house in a world where everything is big and so are the people around her, finally finding another human with characteristics similar to hers clearly filled her with curiosity. Noticing Reinhall's obvious lack of interest, the two mothers proceeded to gather the two babies together on the living room rug.

-Look Reinhall, it's little Suniel, aren't you interested in playing with her? She is also just as small as you.

"No Nira, I'm not interested in playing, if it weren't for my other will being incapable of abstract learning I probably wouldn't be here."

-Look suni say hello to the adorable Reinhall, dont you want to play with him?

With the help of ralia's hands, Suniel performs the universal greeting movement that all humans know, as soon as little Suniel was release, she quickly began to crawl towards the baby in front of her.

-Oh look how cute they look together, it seems that my beautiful girl loves your baby.

-Of course, when he is that adorable, how could she resist? But your daughter is also very pretty.

-I'd love to paint them together, or even better use one of those gadgets from the capital they use to make instant paintings.

-I heard from my husband that they are very expensive and you need to know magic to be able to use them.

-Gosh, It was to be expected of those shameless and petulant magicians, always believing themselves superior and doing things that only they are capable of using.

-Needless to say, I always hated working with them during those days. Who do they think founds their academies? It all comes from our taxes and on top of that, all wizards are unable to keep their legs covered.

-Despicable indeed…hey wait a minute, you should be able to use one of those right? You are capable of using magic after all, aren't you?

-hmmm I'm not as amazing as you think, I'm only able to circulate a little magic power through my body, I'm on par with the rest of the exterminators of my level, needless to say that it actually took me a long time to stop falling behind my peers.

-Don't say that, not everyone achieves what you can, how many people are even able to feel the magic power within them? Most spend their entire lives never knowing about it or seeing magic in the first place.

-It's not a big deal please, it's not such an incredible thing as you believe, after all I left that life for the one I have today.

Nira gently turns to see little Reinhall who is entertaining baby Suniel, playing between hugs and little pushes.

-And I don't regret anything.

-Well, do you think your son will turn out like you? After all, you already know that the children of those who can use magic power are usually much more likely to be able to manipulate it.

-Definitely not! I'd rather he live a life like his father than go kill himself out there, exploring the unknown and fighting beasts or worse, demons.

-What do you say? I have always envied the exterminators, always going from one place to another. They are not bound by normal social rules and many of them are famous around the country, exploring and traveling to places that no one has visited before, how I would have preferred that to having grown up locked up learning etiquette and history, as if anyone cared.

Ralia finishes speaking, a little angry at remembering those days of yore when her family forced her to study and seclude herself from the world in order to fit into the world of the nobles. Meanwhile Nira takes a drink from her glass of fresh juice and says:

-The desert is disgusting, the sand gets in everywhere, the heat is unbearable and there is never enough water. The mountainous tundra is a horrible place to travel, it is cold all year round and the soils are hard, the beasts are much bigger in those places so there are usually more wounds than normal and resources are scarce, if you do not go well prepared you will die of fatigue and hunger rather than in the jaws of a starving beast. I don't want to imagine living every day worried, knowing that my son is in those kinds of places on the verge of death.

-Please Nira, it couldn't be that bad, it should have been better than marrying one of those pigs through an arranged marriage, right?

- I don't deny it, but once I experience it, I'd rather never do it again, I left my spear and gear behind, and I'm happy to live as I do now, and I hope Reinhall never knows any of this."

Having paid attention to the conversation between the two mothers, Reinhall suddenly turns his head at the last part of their conversation.

"I don't know what? I didn't understand a quarter of what they said, heck it's the first time I've heard so many strange words coming out of Nira, I still lack a lot of understanding of this world's language, I just hope that by getting the new skill I'll be able to learn everything a lot more easy."

-Well changing the subject, I think it's time to talk about my business proposal that I told you about before.

-oops, I was so busy talking about the children, that I even forgot that's why I came to visit you.

-hahaha, don't worry, when you have children as adorable as ours who wouldn't forget something so boring. How about we start?

- Of course let's start.

Reinhall realized that this was going to be a long afternoon at the yeval's.

"I hate being a baby"