The event had been more anti-climactic than she thought. She expected an explosion of emotion or something, and while there had been a commotion at first, Mrs Sianna defused things pretty fast. Considering the comments she had heard from the girls, she even expected a fight or confrontation of some sort, one she was already prepared to lose or flat out forfeit. Her mind was still somewhere else and she had no place or room to start arguments.
In fact, she was more the kind of person who had been taught to count her blessings. She had learned the wrong way that privilege was invisible for those who have it, and thus she knew she couldn’t do anything else but adapt. Just adapt.
She had a brother now, which was a plus. She had a bed and roof over her head she didn’t have to pay for either, which was also a plus. Thus, if her caretaker wanted her to stay quiet and knit, she would, for she was in no position to put her life at risk more than necessary.
Mrs. Sianna seemed very surprised with the scarf and was even given approval to give it to Theo. However, she didn’t praise it like all the other girls had done and were clearly excited about it. It was a little bit of an awkward exchange, but Ruby could tell the mistress at least felt happy about the outcome. Maybe happy wasn’t the right word, but she couldn’t think of another one at the moment.
With the mistress there, the chit-chatter died down quite fast and not too long after, the girls were already in their beds, ready to end the night. She still had some wool and although she was told she could continue the next day, she didn’t feel ready to depart from the needles just yet.
She didn’t know yet, maybe it was just the simple stimulus what kept her going and made her wish to not stop. She didn’t know for sure, but just didn’t feel like stopping.
When the woman had left, some of the girls tried to talk to her, but they were too far to really have a normal conversation and the night had already gotten too cold for getting up. The cold was not forgiving and it wasn’t like they had a fireplace or something else than shutters to stop it from coming in. It was an orphanage after all and not a high-end one for what it seemed.
Eventually, however, at some moment through the night the candle she had by her side ran out and there was no choice but to bring her needles down. The cold hit her like a brick to the face, and suddenly not only she felt tired but realized how horribly sore her body felt.
Until that moment, she had been focused on knitting and knitting some more, finishing a couple more scarves, but now that she couldn’t do that, she felt a sudden void in her chest.
Thankful for the scarves to help her stay warm throughout the night, she stared at the dark ceiling, praying that she would fall asleep soon and wake up from this horrible dream. She just wanted to get back in time.
Maybe a power-nap would have prevented all of this, but she didn’t know. She just wanted another chance. Could she still prove herself? She didn’t know that either, but her chest felt so tight. Tears fell on her pillow, but she dared show no emotion nor make any sound in the dead of night. She just wanted things to go back to that specific moment where she could still change her life for the better.
It took her hours, but she finally ended up asleep, knitting needles still in her hands.
----------------------------------------
Waking up to a wood ceiling came as a surprise. She had prayed before falling asleep, wishing for things to finally end, and for her to wake up where she was meant to wake up. Sadly, things rarely tended to have the result she wanted unless it was something she did with her own hands, and that still didn’t make the journey any easier.
Deep down, she knew she was in denial. She was blatantly rejecting the simple fact that she was no longer in her world and her body wasn’t hers anymore. I mean, this new one was hers now, but it wasn’t the old one. She suspected she was having one of those moments when you tell someone old to do things in a different way and it’s really hard for them because it’s not how they have been doing it for the last thirty two years.
“Fuck.”
She said to no one while looking at the ceiling, hands cold and hard as stone, still clutching the knitting needles. A twist to the side made it clear the rest of the girls had already left. Was she late for breakfast? Why did no one wake her up? Maybe it was because she was still grounded, or because the moments where Ruby, the old one at that by the way, was unconscious were too precious.
Her body was still sore. Not as sore of course, the rest did her good, but she knew it was going to take her sometime to get back to feeling normal, if she ever felt like that. It was strange, being in a new body and moving just like her own, but looking so distinctively different. Her blonde locks replaced by a dark fiery auburn, her skin a few shades darker as well. At least she knew she could tan now and not look orange like that summer in Lake Tahoe so many years ago. Small blessings.
The morning cold was still going strong, especially now that she stared at the open windows, all letting the freezing morning air inside. She thought of closing them down, but then again, it was a room where at least ten other kids slept in every night. The air was necessary.
Speaking of air, she was reeking, yet felt too hurt and way too cold to even try to get a bath. She didn’t even dream of finding a hot shower. She was adjusting, sure, but she was no fool. Ruby knew her best prospect was a barrel full of water and luckily one that would be under a fire or something.
Eventually, she ended up doing the only thing she knew she could do while not bothering anyone. She started knitting again, as she was still grounded and still had quite a lot of work to do.
Scarves with the Long Isle pattern, the ‘Christmassy’ one for the uneducated, used two to three balls of yarn, depending on how much she used on the patterns themselves. At a glance, she could tell she had at least a week’s worth of yarn to continue doing her scarves, though at some point she would have to change to simpler looking ones, since there wasn’t enough of the fancy yarn.
“I should eat.” She thought when the sun was already high up in the sky, the air still cold but the sun coming in from the different holes the place had was enough to keep her warm.
“I should eat.” She voiced this time, trying to convince herself that she was focusing too much on her work. She really didn’t feel hungry at all, too much in her head. It was just the moral thing to do. The normal thing she suspected.
After a stitch and then another, she finished the row. Then she did another row and finally decided to stop. Having good lighting at this time of the day made quite the difference in terms of her speed to knit, as she had already finished even a third scarf already, now making the fourth.
“I should do a couple more with designs and give these to those who seem the nicest, but I don’t have enough of the fancy yarn to make some better stuff, so I guess that will be it.” She thought as she got up and went out to the hallway. She could hear a few kids on the floors down below, but there wasn’t a single soul in her own floor apparently.
The bathroom she found was… decent compared to expectations. There was a barrel of water by the corner which seemed clean. “I hope it is.” Not one for taking her time to make decisions, she went at it and cleaned her face and arms. Then, with the door closed behind her and an old rag that didn’t smell awful, proceeded to clean herself completely, examining her new body.
“So weird, what the hell is this?” Ruby said to herself, trying to look behind her thigh, skin stretching with the pull of her hand.
“What the fuck, I didn’t even know you could have bruises there. What the hell was wrong with this woman?” The face was one thing, but the rest? It made her queasy, forcing her to pull her face and half her torso inside the barrel. Her eyes stared at the pitch-black bottom of the cask for a few seconds, giving her the idea that there was no end to the tunnel of water she was in. The stray thought didn’t linger however, as she had to pull herself up about twenty seconds later, never a trained swimmer.
“Gah! Shit. Fine, calm down… Ruby. Just calm down.” She preached to herself, still getting used to the name thing. Her chest going up and down for the lack of oxygen and the sudden difference in temperature. The rag did quick work to get her dry again with the exception of her hair, though her eyes kept going to the reflection in the water.
“Fuck. No.”
She replied to the reflection while shaking her head in an effort to make her go away and bring the real reflection that should be in the water. The blond one.
Her attention went to her hair, which she promptly made into a quick braid and then promptly tugged into a fashionable bun in the back of her hair. If there was one thing this kid Ruby had in common with the real Amy Sanderson was the length of their hair, which didn’t go unnoticed to the transmigrated woman for it was another small blessing she was thankful for.
“God didn’t answer my prayer to take me back, but maybe it was his will to take me here?” She never considered herself a very religious person, maybe agnostic at best, but she knew for a fact that this couldn’t be the afterlife. Hell, the sheer fact that she was in another world was proof enough for her that there were forces she didn’t know that were at play. She should have reincarnated from birth or maybe get inside a body she liked better, not the half beaten-to-death-most-likely-to-be-a-Thief-girl as her vessel.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Another sigh escaped her lips. Her hands promptly resting by the edge of the barrel to steady herself. Eyes closed, head down.
“Okay, gotta keep it together. Shit happened. Fine. Now I just have to deal with it and make sure I don’t piss off anyone else. Apparently I’m already walking on eggshells here.” She talked to herself for a little while before dressing up again, sans shoes of course.
“I should get these clothes fitted. Maybe I can get a needle and thread after the whole knitting ordeal.” The hem of her pants was too long, and although she tried to fold them to make a nicer looking cuff, the fabric was much too soft and wasn’t good at holding structure.
Giving up, she just stretched her back and inhaled deeply before giving a long exhale. Then, looking at her reflection once more, she said her goodbyes.
“Tits up, Ruby.”
----------------------------------------
She almost forgot, but didn’t. She went down to grab breakfast, remembering the importance of having to eat for the whole ‘you need it to not die’ thing. She didn’t remember much about her situation at the workshop right before waking up as Ruby, but if there was one thing she knew for sure about it, was that she had felt tired to the bone and with very little energy. Since Ruby was not a fan for history to repeat itself, she went out on her quest for food.
“Well well, look who decided to wake up.” A voice she recognized caught her attention.
Turning, she realized it was the Mistress.
“Thought I heard you already up and about, was about to come and get you for late lunch.”
So she did listen through the floor. “Late lunch? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sleep-in.”
A quick exchange of pleasantries turned fast into a long conversation about how the scarf she had made had been the highlight of the morning, with most of the boys flat-out disbelieving she was the one who had made it. Ruby was quite nervous, realizing that the Mistress seemed pretty suspicious of her, giving a comment here or there about how she was behaving… not like herself lately, putting it mildly.
Ruby just played it off like she had been reflecting on everyone’s words, especially her brother’s, rethinking her actions and attitude. Mrs. Sianna went as far as to put a hand against her forehead, checking for temperature, but she didn’t relent with her excuse and tried to quickly get away from her. Ruby left, though not without a reminder she was still grounded and had knitting to do.
She had thought about telling someone about her not being exactly the Ruby most people knew, but then she just decided not to do it in the meantime. Who would believe she was from another world and that this wasn’t her body? Best not disturb the waters and learn more before taking an action. In her mind, the worst scenario would be that she ends up deemed crazy, being hunted, and then burned like a witch.
Finally, she arrived at the kitchen. She still wasn’t feeling with appetite, but was pushed to grab something to eat anyway by her own consciousness.
“Hey Ruby. Late lunch?” Saluted one of the girls who was already cleaning the dishes from today’s lunch.
“Hey… you. Yeah, I didn’t want to skip another meal.” She replied with an awkward tone. It’s not that she was against small talk or anything, it’s just that she was getting tired of finding excuses for everything every time she opened her mouth.
“You don’t even know my name, do you?” The sandy-haired girl asked with a raised eyebrow, hands still under the soapy water.
“Eh… Look, I’m sorry! I just hit my head and-”
“Haha, you don’t have to apologize. I’ve been here a month and still don’t know a few of the kids. Can’t blame you either.”
“I’ve been here for way more than a month though.”
“But I haven’t, and besides, it’s not like it’s a surprise. You’re famous for a reason around these parts.”
“I think infamous would be the right word…”
“Right… sorry.”
Both continued to talk for a while. Once the girl finished cleaning everything, she grabbed two plates and added a serving of an orange soup in each. While both of them talked, she finally introduced herself with a smile. Aurelia was the same age as Ruby, so that meant they would both turn fifteen in a few days.
“Don’t tell the Mistress I’m grabbing another plate for me.” She took one of her fingers to her lips while guiding Ruby to seat at the back table inside the kitchen instead of the mess hall.
“My lips are sealed.” She gave her a half-smile as she sat down, being pretty sure she wanted to avoid the Mistress for the time-being.
“So? Spill it.” Asked Aurelia, spoon already grabbing some of the steamy liquid.
“Spill what?”
“Girl, you’re a year from awakening. Tell me what Class you want to become, what skills?. Girl’s talk and all that. Or are you actually planning on becoming a Thief?”
“R-Right. Eh… I think I would like something like Tailor… or Seamstress?” She didn’t really get much the ‘Class’ thing, but with the way her brother talked about it, she just assumed it was the word equivalent for Profession.
“Huh, so the scarf thing wasn’t a sham? Did you actually make it? I’m across the hallway by the way. I saw the girls piling-up on your door last night, but don’t wanna be seen as the gossiping kind.” She explained, one foot on the chair and knee by her chest. She was still holding the rag she used on the dishes by her shoulder, using it every now and then to clean her mouth and a stain or two from not paying attention to her food.
“Y-yeah. I made that. I was hoping to finish lunch and then take it to Theo.”
“Weren’t you grounded for… life or something?”
“So?”
“You won’t find Theo until dinner, and even so he’s still busy right after. Heard he was helping Renick with his chores lately. He’s awakening too this winter.”
“Ah… I guess I’ll just leave it in his room then.”
The conversation quickly turned from the scarf to discussing about Classes. Aurelia appeared to have a craving for becoming a ‘Guilder’, and while Ruby didn’t really understand what it truly meant, she at least knew it was related to those people who carried weapons all the way across the bridge.
The other piece of information she happened to gather was that it was extremely hard for people like them, orphans and most who lived near the slums, to get a mentorship from a guilder, making it even harder for them to actually get a Class that would be useful.
From what she understood and the explanation given by Aurelia, mentorships were crucial for obtaining a desired Class. During awakening night, the person would be granted a Class, which was determined by many factors. Some of them were one’s knowledge, practice, and own desires. Aurelia’s example was “If you want to become a Blacksmith and have done some training, you won’t get a Class like Healer or something.”
But it turns out that knowledge and desire was not everything, as that only determined the direction of your Class and not a specific one. Mentorships, however, helped narrow down exponentially the possible results of your obtained Class, as they prepared you specifically for a determined path that already existed.
It was very enlightening for sure, as the whole ‘Future Breaker’ thing made quite some more sense now. “So when my former self pushed other kids to do stuff, it had an influence over their practices? Maybe even desires, if she pushed them to steal stuff. Sounds like a stretch a bit though. She wasn’t sure her logic was right.” Ruby knew, however, that she was still missing information but didn’t want to appear completely clueless.
“Can I ask you something?” Ruby asked with her plate still half-full.
“Depends, you gonna eat that?” Aurelia asked, eyes glued to her dish. Ruby just pushed the plate over, the other girl just pulling her sleeves over her elbows to not stain them anymore, prompting Ruby to ask away.
“Why are you hanging out with me?”
“Because you’re hanging out with me. Most humans don’t even get close to beastkin. That, and because I don’t believe in the whole future breaker ordeal. If there’s one blessing the God of Night gave us all, it’s having the same limited grasp on our destiny.”
“Beastkin? What do-“
“Of course I would find the two of you together. Can’t say it’s a surprise though, filth always ends up in clumps.” Said a foreign voice, forcing Ruby to turn around.
“What do you want, princess?” Aurelia replied with a dead tone, as if the maltreatment was to be expected.
“One, I’m not a princess, and two, don’t talk to me like that, dog.”
“Then what’s that on your head?”
“A tiara.”
“You were saying?” Aurelia raised an eyebrow.
“Which also happens to be Adventuring Gear, for your information. Why am I even explaining myself to you? I came to deliver a message and I would rather not waste more time among the future breaker and her pet.”
The violet eyes of the white haired girl posed directly on Ruby. There was clear disdain on that look, but her attention quickly went back to Aurelia, who was now standing up. Ruby hadn’t realized before as she had her plate in front of her, but after a quick glance to the back of Aurelia she noticed the beastkin had a lump in her lower back that kept moving. Her hat also seemed to hide something more than just hair too. “So tails and ears are actually a common thing apparently…” She thought, getting back to the pictures she had in her mind about the demons she had seen around town and other ‘beastkin’.
“Out with it then.” The sandy-haired snapped.
“Mrs. Sianna said she needs your help with Klaus again, something about some filthy claws and the brain of a chimp.”
“Question. Is being a stuck-up bitch with a wand up your ass also preparation for your awakening, or you were kinda born like that? Surprise you kept on dreaming about being adopted.”
“I’m the bitch? As far as I recall, I’m not the one with the tail.” She replied with a smug grin on her face, leaving too fast to continue the argument. Her clean white robe moving gracefully with her walking.
“Sorry, I have to go. Klaus needs my help, little shit keeps having issues with you know what.”
Ruby didn’t really know what, but just nodded, playing along.
Aurelia put her sleeves back to where they belonged and tossed the rag into a chair, preparing herself to leave. Though, just as she was reaching for the door, she paused.
“You know, even the stuck-up bitch of Layla was able to get a Mentorship from a guilder. If she could pull it off and get what she wanted, I’m pretty sure we can too.” Were her final words before quickly leaving.
Ruby was left alone to ponder. She had many things in her mind, so she decided to make her body get busy too. After cleaning both dishes, she went back upstairs to continue with her effort of making as many scarves as she could with the yarn she had. Her mind couldn’t help but think about Classes again and also how Layla’s strut was perfect for a runway, but that didn’t distract her much.
Soon enough, it was time to sleep again, and unlike the previous day, this time she went to sleep at the right time with the rest of the girls. Some were already sleeping while others were doing their hair before going to bed. Since she had no one to talk to and Aurelia was sleeping in the room in front of hers, she just lay her head against the pillow and closed her eyes.
Then, as she was drifting into oblivion and the whispers of the girls talking was nothing but background noise, she heard a loud voice coming from the bathroom.
“Girls! Why’s the dusting rag wet? If you’re gonna clean it, make sure to at least put it out to dry!”
Her eyes shot open.