Delvira and friends had exited a short moment ago to finish their disagreement, talking in much more civil tones as they seemed to be close to coming to an agreement. Now, the woman laid in bed alone, bewildered and distressed. If she wasn’t in so much pain already she would’ve tried to pinch herself. She had expected Delvira to return at some point but she never did. Hours passed as she laid there alone, slowly coming to terms with her situation. She was in a new body, possibly that of a child judging by her size compared to Delvira, and this body had apparently suffered a horrible accident involving fire as well. Furthermore, death had most likely been the result, and now her soul was inhabiting this body. From what she picked up from the earlier conversation, the accident had been caused by the sons of the two individuals Delvira had been arguing with, and Delvira’s son and this body had been the victims. Delvira had already paid for her son’s treatment and he was fine, but this body was still bedridden two days later, covered in dirty bandages. Not only were the bandages dirty, but the sunlight coming through the window was starting to dim and no one had come to check on her. The urge to use the bathroom was starting to grow, and she was hungry and thirsty. Delvira had referred to this body, to Emrys, as her niece but her expression at that time obviously showed a lack of care. She had also called Emrys the daughter of martyrs, meaning she was an orphan.
All the evidence she had at the moment was suggesting that Emrys was an unfortunate child, relying on her uncaring aunt's family to raise her after her parents passed. The hours alone had allowed her to somewhat accept her current situation. She had even accepted the fact that her new body wasn’t that of a human. She had withstood the pain just to raise her arm and touch her ears. One was just a small mass of melted flesh, but the other felt long and sharp, same as Delvira’s.
As she was lost in thought, the door opened again and a young girl entered. She looked to be in her teens, and she was human. The woman stared at her, however this time she made sure to keep her fear and confusion from showing on her face. The girl looked at her, her expression distant. “Dinner will be ready soon. Should I help you up?” she asked, making no move to come over. It seemed she didn’t really want to help her. The woman shook her head slowly, before starting to get out of bed with all the gracefulness of a sloth. By the time she sat up she realized the teen had already left the room. So they really were making her take care of herself? She was a bit miffed, but she pushed that feeling away. If this was real, or some sort of strange afterlife, she didn’t know. It certainly felt real. Regardless, since she was now in this situation, she had to make the best of it and do what she had to do to survive. She had been snatched back from the jaws of death, and she really wasn’t willing to die again. So, she had to play her role in this family. They didn’t have much of a reaction to her current actions, so she could only guess that Emrys didn’t talk much and had a low presence in this family. Until she found out more, she would just act cautiously.
She carefully pushed her legs off the side of the bed, groaning lightly as she slid to the floor and looked for some slippers. She couldn’t see any, so she walked stiffly to the wardrobe by the bed to see if there were any shoes inside. After pulling it open, she was rendered speechless as she saw that it was completely empty. No shoes, and no clothes. She glanced over to the other side of the room, and the setup was similar to this side. The difference was that the twin bed was covered in a thick quilt, and the wardrobe had two pairs of shoes sitting beside it. She sighed and left the room. Going out into the hall, she didn’t have to wonder where the dining room was. The room she came from was at the end of a short hallway. Going forward, there were three more doors. One right across from the bedroom she came from, and another set of doors across from each other further down. She walked forward slowly, exiting the hallway into what seemed to be the living area. The living area was dominated by a large dining table with twelve chairs sitting around it. Off to the side was a large fireplace, and situated in front of it was a large three seater couch, with two cushioned arm chairs on either side of it. Other than these things, the area was a bit bare.
There were already three people sitting at the table. Moving closer, she glanced at them while heading to an empty seat at the end of the table. The three people were actually three young boys. Two of the boys were the same as her and Delvira, sporting gray skin and long, pointed ears. They looked to be the same age, and stared at her with identical faces as she approached. Twins, most probably. She looked at the other boy after she arrived at her seat. He looked different from what she’d seen so far. Almost human, but not? His skin was white, almost gray but not quite, and his ears were pointed but not as sharp and long as everyone else's. Was he mixed? So far she had seen three gray people and one human, so this might be a sort of blended family. She took her seat slowly, barely stifling her whimpers of pain. After she was firmly seated she glanced up again. The twins were whispering amongst themselves, while the mixed boy was looking down at his plate, his expression thoughtful. He looked to be around 4 or 5, so his thoughtful expression looked slightly out of place. She brushed off the thought, since she really couldn’t say what was or wasn’t normal right now. She stared at her plate as well, listening to the twins’ whispers, and slowly came to a realization. They weren’t speaking any language she recognized, but she could understand them without issue. The more she took note of it, the more she could pick out individual words of the language. It was like she was previously hearing while having the words automatically translated, like she was watching a foreign film with subtitles. After she focused though, her native language shifted to the background and the words they were speaking shifted to the foreground. It was an odd feeling, like learning and understanding a language rapidly in real time. By the time the rest of the family came to the table she felt she could probably reply in one or two sentences if anyone spoke to her.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
They didn’t though. She watched as Delvira and the human girl brought several already filled bowls to the table, placing them on top of the plates in front of them. Entering behind them was another figure who took a seat at the head of the table. After everyone was seated and the sounds of utensils clinking against bowls came, she sneakily looked around the table. At the head of the table was a burly human man. He and the teen human girl had the same slightly tanned skin, light brown hair, and blue eyes. On the other hand, Delvira and the twins had the same loose curly brown hair and brown eyes. The last boy had wavy light brown hair and hazel eyes. The woman mentally nodded, definitely a blended family. She ate her soup silently, wondering if she would get in trouble for not finishing it. Although it was slightly soothing her sore throat, it was not very good. It was some sort of noodles in broth dotted with several small pieces of gamey meat. Both the broth and the meat tasted weird, and the noodles were still hard. Glancing around again, she felt a little resigned when she saw that everyone else had more noodles and meat than she did.
After suffering through dinner, she found the restroom after watching one of the twins go in. After he came out she went in and was surprised to find a somewhat normal looking bathroom. Directly to the left was another small room that contained a toilet, and to the right was a large sink set on top of a wooden cabinet. Going further in, there was a tub that was longer and deeper than the standard tubs she was used to. The most surprising bit was the full body mirror, which sat on the wall next to the tub. She stepped up to it and examined her current appearance. She appeared to be around four or five years old, though she was very scrawny compared to the other kids she saw. Her arms and legs were covered in bandages, and the exposed gray skin on her face and the back of her hands were covered in blisters here and there. There was a small crusty gash at her hairline, and half of her scalp was badly burned, ending in the melted stump of an ear she had felt earlier. On the other side, her unharmed ear was shielded by curly black hair, which was badly knotted. She made eye contact with herself, examining her steel gray eyes.
“It's…. Interesting.” she murmured in english. She didn’t appreciate her current injuries, but otherwise her appearance was interesting. She didn’t feel particularly repulsed, as she was looking at it the same way she would have when having to wear a full body costume on set. She had been acting since she was three months old, her first role being Baby #5 on an episode of a medical drama set in a hospital. Although she had later been forced into only playing certain roles due to her appearance, she had played a variety of roles as a child and had been dressed in a fair bit of strange costumes. Rather, it was her current situation and her uncertain future that was bothering her. She exhaled slowly, “One thing at a time” she whispered. For now, she needed to focus on her injuries. She didn’t know if Delvira would really get a “healer”, which she assumed meant doctor, according to the earlier conversation. If those figures from earlier didn’t give compensation, then she may not get any more treatment beyond these soiled bandages.
She turned toward the sink and searched the cabinet for bandages, but she couldn’t find any. Before coming out she decided to use the restroom. The toilet flushed normally, and she was happy to see that this place had indoor plumbing. Going into the hallway, she briefly considered going back to the bedroom she woke up in, but she decided to try and ask Delvira for some bandages first. She was really bothered by how dirty the bandages were, and she was scared of infection. She turned down the hallway and made her way over to the entrance of the kitchen, which was to the left of the hallway, and stood in the doorway.
“Auntie.” she called out tentatively in this world’s language.
Delvira paused slightly and glanced over from where she was washing dishes at the sink. “Mm. What is it, dear?” she asked distantly. The human teen also looked over from where she was standing at Delvira’s side, drying the dishes she handed over with a towel.
The woman cleared her throat lightly, ignoring the pain. “Well, are there any spare bandages?” she asked hopefully.
“There aren’t any.” Delvira answered without thinking, before looking her over. The woman was wearing a loose shirt and shorts, exposing most of her bandaged body. “Just bear with it tonight. Those women will be over tomorrow with some silver, and we can find a healer for you.” she said indifferently, turning back to the sink and continuing to wash the dishes.
The woman didn’t bother saying any more after such an obvious dismissal. “Alright.” She said lightly before returning to the room she woke up in and starting the process of slowly sliding into bed. She felt that most, if not all of the wounds under the bandages had been opened up at some point. Her whole body throbbed in time with her heartbeats. The human teen joined her about ten minutes later, changing into a set of pajamas that looked similar to what she was currently wearing before getting into her bed and turning towards the wall. Soon after, the sound of soft snoring filled the room. The woman sighed lightly while staring at the ceiling. Despite deciding to continue living, she still felt lost and confused. She didn’t know anything about this place, and she was depending on people who didn’t seem to have a lot of consideration for her. She mentally sighed several times while thinking about her current predicament, and soon she unknowingly drifted off to sleep.