This time though she didn’t wake up next to Nightflash, instead she found herself floating in a white space when she heard the now already familiar ‘ding’ of the system.
[Lineage detected...Loading Lineage please wait…]
It took only a few moments before another system message arrived.
[Transferring player… Welcome Titania Xixi of Faeglade. Please enjoy your new life]
After she read the message the space around her rippled and she found herself in a room full of maids, bustling around a woman who was very obviously in the middle of giving birth.
An all encompassing pain grabbed her body, making her cringe and screaming out, but nobody in the room took notice of her. She felt like her body was ripped apart while her lungs stopped working. Her sight blurred and her consciousness got weak for a moment.
Then everything suddenly vanished, leaving her painless and without any problems. She looked up, surprised by the sudden change, only to catch the first breath of the newborn girl that was followed by her first cry shortly later.
‘ding’ [Please be advised that resurrection is no longer possible]
Another shock hit her reading this message.
“Congratulations mylady to your healthy daughter” one of the maids said as she placed the baby into some sheets before handing it over to her mother. multiple congratulations rang out from the other maids. A flurry of movement later the room was cleaned up again and the maids left to take care of the bloodied clothes and stained water buckets.
When the last maid left the room a man entered instead. Walking over to the bed with long steps worry still etched into his face. “Are you alright honey?” he asked and gently stroked her head. “Just a little exhausted but holding our daughter in my arms is reward enough to make it worth” the woman answered showing off her newborn. “She is beautiful just like her mother” the man said tenderly brushing a single finger over the cheek of the baby. “So what name did the Baron think of for his first born daughter?” the mother said, exhaustion straining her voice already. “She is our daughter so of course she needs a strong name. But she is also as beautiful as a little fairy so it shouldn’t be something borish. How about Titania?” the father answered, voice raspy with emotions. “Titania… that sounds good it’s a beautiful and strong name. Our daughter Titania Xixi of Faeglade” the woman said when she drifted off to sleep. “Xixi?” he whispered surprised by the sudden addition to the name of his daughter. But with a shrug he took his child silently bringing her out of the room to let his wife rest.
The next few days passed by in a rather calm manner, the servants tended to the Baroness and the newborn while the Baron worked hard to keep all the other nobles and affluent families away, giving his two loved ones some time before they need to attend social events.
A whole month went by in this manner, by then the Baron had already made sophisticated preparations for the grand banquet to celebrate the birth of his daughter. Xixi was still watching the whole time in this rather discomfortable ghost-like form. At the beginning she tried to look around the whole place, but she soon realized that after the birth of the young Titania Xixi she was only able to see and hear parts of what happened around her, as well as that she was unable to leave the side of the baby at all.
‘It looks like this is me when I am a baby… just growing up… I wonder if it will be a blessing or a curse not to be stuck as a baby’ Xixi thought to herself as she watched the banquet that happened in front of her. Other then being able to observe the nobles shen wasn’t able to do much. But a few things that she heard people talk about did worry her a little. Like this one noble, or at least she thought it must be a noble from the way he was dressed, who talked with the Baron. Even though she couldn’t hear much, especially as the Baroness started to talk with her daughter, what she could hear was about preparations for war and something about eradicating the Selkies. Her mother excused herself when the noble started talking about the need to kill all Selkies as the monsters they are, so Xixi couldn’t even try to follow the discussion anymore, but the glance she could get from the face of the Baron was very obvious of how little he thought of the topic. She was even wondering if the noble would even be able to reach his home alive today with the way the Baron looked at him and the bloodthirst she was pretty sure she felt from both him and the Baroness.
‘I’m a demi-Selkie…. wouldn’t that mean that either both my parents are demi-Selkies or one of them is a full blooded Selkie while the other is a human?’ Xixi thought about it startled. The baroness took her daughter back into her private chambers, returning to the banquet alone.
The next few months seemed to fly by, Xixi realized that the time seemed to accelerate and decelerate depending on what happened. As long as the days didn’t really change and nothing of importance to the young Titania happened the time flew by while it slowed down for her to really grasp what was happening when it was of importance to the slowly growing girl.
The next time, after the banquet, when the time seemed to slow down again it was when the baby was just 6 months old. The Baron was on some journey for the last few weeks, so when the Baroness heard that her husband had returned she picked up her daughter and went to the stables to welcome the head of the house. Even before they reached the stable they could hear some loud voices and horse whining. It seemed like multiple stable boys where trying to place a horse into the stable, while the horse was clearly unwilling.
“My… why did you bring such a horse with you?” the baroness chided her husband as she reached him, without even really giving the horse a glance. The Baron kissed her cheek and smilingly picked his daughter out of her arms to greet her too before he said, “Well it’s a nice and strong horse. I thought to train it up to use as a war horse” only then did the Baroness take a look at the pitch black stallion that was rearing in front of the stable.
What both of them didn’t realize yet was how their daughter looked at the horse. Only a split second later the stallion broke free from his restrains, turned around and rushed in the direction of the gate. In horror the stable boys scrambled after the horse, the servants screamed for their masters. Because the only obstacle that could stop the free horse were the Baron, who still held his daughter, and the Baroness. The Baron hold tightly onto his daughter, trying to shield her from the loose horse. A nearby soldier grabbed the Baroness and pulled her to the side just in time for the stallion to pass by. Everybody was silent, only the running horse could be heard as he tried to find a way to escape back into freedom. A small and velvet voice broke the silence, “Na-ty!” the young Titania squealed as loud as she could, trying to reach with her small arms the horse that was already tens of meters away from her. Even more surprising than the girl calling out was the reaction of the black stallion as he suddenly stopped and looked at the girl, completely still.
“Naty Naty” Titania babbled on, squirming in her fathers hold to reach the horse. Xixi watched in wonder how the girl called out to the horse, a horse she had recognized almost immediately as her companion Nightflash. And it seemed like not only she knew exactly who he was as the young Titania was, pretty obviously, calling out to him. But Nightflash still seemed uncertain what to do, as he only turned demiway to her, still not wanting to give up on his way into freedom. “Bad Naty tay!” Titania cried out as her eyes started to fill with tears. And it seemed that did it for the stallion as he finally turned around and rushed back, though he stopped a little before he reached the Baron and Titania. Slowly he took the last two steps and pushed her lightly, just as if he wanted to wish her tears away for her.
Giggling Titania pushed at his nose “Naty Naty” she giggled and Nightflash just snorted at her, acting just like a tame horse in front of her. A stable boy stepped up to him, wanting to fix a new halter on him to bring him in the stable. But Nightflash was obviously not liking that idea, snapping at the hands of the stable boy showed it very obviously. Unsure how to handle the horse the stable boys looked at the Baron.
“Go and place down a paddock in the back of the garden, add a shed to it and make sure it has some access to one of the fields in the back area” the Baron ordered the servants as he still observed his daughter. “A paddock in the garden? Do you really think it would be good to keep such a dangerous horse near our daughter?” the Baroness was obviously not that fond of the idea of having the imposing stallion anywhere near her daughter. “Honey, you can see it for yourself. Our daughter could tame him instantly. I don’t think he would even do anything to harm her” the baron tried to console her starting to usher her to move along the way back into the small palace they called their home. Nightflash followed them, seemingly content with staying near Titania without being touched by anybody else.
Slowly the time seemed to accelerate again while Xixi watched Titania when she would go to visit her horse each day in the paddock in her garden.
The next time Titania was already three years old. Xixi had started to feel her emotions at some point though she couldn’t really pinpoint when it started. But the shock that now surged through her rattled her up, out of her daze, and made her concentrate on Titania. For the first time since she arrived in her ghost like body Xixi didn’t look at the scene from above but rather through the, currently pitch black, eyes of Titania. Seeing the reason of the shocked child as she was greeting by the vision of a sleek body covered in grayish black pelt. ‘Oh…’ Xixi soon realized that Titania must have triggered the seal transformation somehow. Something the girl seemed to take a moment longer to realize, as her shock only went a couple minutes later to settle at surprised calmness. But when Titania tried to get up another slight problem arose. The girl was always sleeping on her back, nothing problematic when she was human, but she couldn’t sit up as a seal so she tried to roll around in the attempt to regain her mobility. With a dull ‘thump’ the small seal fell from the bed, tightly tangled into the bedsheets and slightly dazed from the new perspective.
The sound of the opening door rang out behind them and a maid entered into the chambers. Titania could only see her after she kneeled in front of her, recognizing her as the personal maid of the Baroness. “Young Miss, let me help you” she said after a second of looking at Titania. Without any hesitation the maid picked up the bundled up seal and sat on the bed, lowering Titania on her lap. “Let me first help you out of your sheets Miss, before I find something more suitable to wear for you” she explained what she wanted to do calmly, Titania always liked the calm way this maid worked. After the bedsheets were loosened and tossed to the side her nightgown followed as it was nothing comfortable to wear in her current form. “Let me go and fetch something to wear for you” the maid said as she placed Titania next to her on the bed, this time on her belly so that she would be able to move around. The maid stood up and went to the door, Titania already started to worry of her leaving as she didn’t know what she should do if she was left alone like this, but the maid never left the room. “Go and inform the Madame that the young Miss asks for her” the maid ordered whoever was outside of the room, before she turned back and rummaged through a cupboard for only a moment. Titania soon realized just what the maid had picked for her to ‘wear’ as she was soon bundled up again into a albeit smaller sheet of fabric then the bedsheet, but this time it had a hood too that covered her head fully. Now she could nearly hide herself completely from sight is she was carried by someone. But at the same time her front was only covered partly allowing her to still rob around rather comfortably if she was placed on the ground.
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It took nearly 10 minutes before the Baroness entered, closely followed by the Baron. “Mistress, Baron” the maid greeted them both, though it was already obvious that while everyone saw the Baron to be the Family Head this maid would only follow the command of the Baroness. “Lucia what happened?” the Baroness asked, irritated as she couldn’t see her daughter yet. Instead of replying the maid stepped aside allowing the parents to see their daughter in her seal form. “Oh…” the Baron was unable to say something as he saw the little seal on the bed, slightly quivering as it looked at them with it’s little black orbs. “I told you that was a possibility” the Baroness snapped at him as she went and picked up her daughter. “It’s alright my lovely girl. There is nothing to fear as long as your mommy and your daddy are here with you. How about Lucia prepares a nice water tub for you to really move in this body for a little and then we see about getting you to get back your legs” she cooed her daughter, calming her down as she stroked her pelt slightly. The maid already working on getting the large tub in the chambers of the Baroness filled with water for the seal to take her first dive.
“I know you told me…” the Baron grumbled as he stepped up to his beloved girls, placing one hand around the Baroness’ waist while he petted the furry head of his daughter gingerly.
“She will need to learn to control her form” he started, the Baroness agreed and added “and she will need to be able to be in both forms for some time, comfortably.” “I know. She won’t be able to go off to swim in a lake or the sea like you do for some time. I will call for some workers and the gardeners to revamp the garden. Adding a pond to it” he said. But the Baroness shook her head, “a small pond won’t be enough. She will need a small lake, it needs to be deep and if possible have the size of your private training ground” she explained and her husband simply nodded. “I will order it to be done and to add a hedge around it to keep the eyes of others out of it” he said and only left to order the servants as his wife told him that this would help their daughter.
The swimming in the tub helped Titania to get more comfortable in this new body of hers, but the tub didn’t offer much space for her to really move around so she mostly got comfortable with the feeling of the water on her pelt and how to move her fins. The Baroness then tried to teach her how to change back into her human form for multiple hours before she, more or less accidentally, changed her form, landing in a heap of legs and arms. “Mommy what was that?” she asked slightly disoriented and distraught at the happenings of the morning.
Sighing the Baroness looked at her before she picked up her daughter again, setting her on her lap. “Don’t worry my little baby. It’s your mommy’s fault” The Baroness said hugging her. “Many different kinds of people are living in this world. Humans like your daddy, and Selkies like your mommy, and many many more. The difference between your daddy and your mommy is that your mommy can transform into a seal, just like you did earlier. As long as we stay in human form nobody can tell the difference between a Selkie and a human but because we can transform into seals some humans think we are monsters. That is why you can’t ever tell someone that you are able to do that. Whenever someone asks you you need to say you are a normal human. Sometimes a Selkie has the urge to dive into the water, which was probably what triggered your transformation earlier, this is normal and you need to follow that feeling as you might transform forcefully when you don’t allow yourself the time to be a seal. It is really important that you can control when you want to transform. Your daddy went to get the garden redone. So that we will have a space to swim around for a bit without having to leave home. I will also try to get a personal maid for you… maybe I can pick a little girl to accompany you when I meet your uncle in a couple months” the Baroness explained Titania what the girl needed to know for now, all the while still hugging and caressing her.
It took nearly two months before the artificial lake in the garden was finished, filled with water and some plants as well as a couple fish. Since then Titania and her mother spend a full afternoon in the water each week. Just a month after the lake was finished the Baroness went on a journey, accompanied by two teams of soldiers from the private army of the Baron. Titania only knew that her mother was visiting her uncle, she asked if she could go with her mother as she really wanted to meet this uncle of hers that she only ever heard from, but she was told that she needed to grow a little older before she could travel. After the Baroness left Titania jumped into the lake in the garden, not wanting to leave for the whole time. But she already climbed out of the water when her father sat on the chair next to it with lunch. Still she was obviously angry at having to stay home.
It took slightly over a week before the Baroness returned. But when Titania ran out to greet her mother only to see her, holding the hand of another girl she stopped. When the Baroness looked up and saw the utterly devastated look on her daughter she called out. But Titania didn’t want to listen, instead she went to the only place she felt safe and she knew her mother would never follow her. She was already huffing when she reached the fence around Nightflash’s paddock “Nighty!” she called out hearing the stallion whine in the distance. She climbed on the fence, already seeing her companion rush to her side and before he even could fully stop next to her she already jumped on his back telling him to run. Always willing to comply with this order he darted off, leaving the Baroness and the girl watching as he carried his little rider into the distance.
Titania held his mane in a death grip while her tears fell into his coat. She hear voices first in the distance but getting louder and clearer but she didn’t want to listen, didn’t want to see them either so she closed her eyes and buried her head in the long mane of her horse. She felt him getting slower but she didn’t think any of it as he was still moving forward, still bringing her away from the place she didn’t want to be.
A few minutes later the slowed down even more till he finally stopped, Titania looked up again, hoping to not see anyone around. But instead of being alone she saw another horse standing next to her own, her father looked at her lovingly but he didn’t say anything. “Go away” she sulked but he didn’t even attempt to move, and Nightflash seemed content with having her on his back while he was calmly eating some grass.
“Go and care for your new daughter!” Titania screamed at her father, startling him, but he still didn’t leave. Instead he jumped from his horse and took her from Nightflash’s back, sitting down with her in the middle of the pasture. “Why would I want another daughter when I have you?” he asked, totally confused by the accusation of having another daughter. “Mommy brought her home” Titania sulked, getting even angrier when her father started laughing at her. “Baby, whoever your mommy brought with her I don’t even know. But I know one thing and that is that you are my only daughter, my only child” the baron said hugging her. When he felt Titania sagging into the hug crying he simply caressed her head without saying anything.
It took nearly an hour till Titania calmed down and was willing to get on the horse with her father to return home again. On their way back they rode on one horse, Titania safely nestled in between her fathers arms while Nightflash simply walked next to them.
The Baroness waited for them at the stables already, the new girl wasn’t seen anywhere. Happy to see her daughter healthy and in the safe embrace of her husband the Baroness could finally stop worrying. “So I heard you came home with a new daughter?” the Baron asked her cheekily and Titania pouted in his arms as she saw her mother blanch. “No.. oh honey I’m sorry but I only have one daughter and that is you my little baby” the Baroness said and hugged her daughter, picking her up from her father's arms in the process. “So who is that girl I still haven’t seen?” the Baron asked, and the Baroness explained him and Titania who the new girl was. “My brother brought her with him to be the personal maid for our little Xixi here. She is still young, only 5 years, so she will still need to learn many things but I’m sure she is a good choice as a maid. Her mother died shortly after her birth and her father… well he wasn’t there so she was all alone. So when my brother heard that his lovely niece still needed a personal maid he brought her with him” The trio walked back to the house as the Baroness explained. And after giving Titania another round of loving hugs and promises that they loved her they entered the small, private dining hall where the young girl was standing, listening to the instructions of Lucia.
“Xixi…” the Baroness called out and waited till Titania looked at her, “you know because her mother died already and she didn’t have any family left she never got a real name. So what name do you think would fit her?” she asked. Titania looked in wonder to the girl, two years older than her that still was nameless. At the same time the girl looked at the three year old that she was told was the new mistress she would need to serve, hopefully to finally gain a name of her own. As soon as Titania saw the silvery eyes looking at her she opened her mouth “Luna… cause her eyes are like the silver moon” she said and Lucia, Luna and the Baroness looked at her in wonder, shocked by the name she chose for her maid. “Honey?” the baron called out, not understanding why the women all looked at his daughter in such wonder. “The name of the moon is one of the most revered names for Selkies. Normally only members of royalty get the honor of using their names as their own. Sometimes when a member of Royalty wants to appoint a personal servant and confidant for life would the servant be granted the name of one of the moons” the Baroness explained her husband lowly, surprising him with the explanation. “Luna…” the young maid mouthed over and over again, not believing that she would really not only get a name but one of such honor.
Just like this Luna took up her job as the personal maid of Titania, asking Lucia, or if possible another maid, whenever she needed help.
Another year flew by, and Titania was nearly five when her parents decided that it would be time for her to get a tutor to teach her the many things she would need to know as a noble young miss. Titania liked to learn, but she didn’t like her tutor, as he never taught her to really do stuff but mostly what she should not do. The only things she was allowed to do in the lessons was to sit straight, to talk properly and to dance. She wasn’t allowed to run or to talk like she wanted. She disliked her lessons, and she voiced it too, more than once. Every time Titania was again whining about her boring lessons at the dinner, something she learned in her lessons about what should not be done, again it was hard for Luna not to laugh. As she was the one who knew the best just how bad Titania behaved when her tutor was there and just how much she read through books and discussed with her the moment they were alone in Titania's chambers.
This continued until Titania was seven and her parents finally allowed her to accompany her mother to meet with her uncle.