The next time I opened my eyes and saw the familiar sight of the sun just beginning its rise in its usual fashion. I felt well rested, to say the least, which I warmly welcomed. The only small issue I had was there was a slight headache every time I went through the treasure trove that was now my memories. Luckily, the pain was slight and was quickly fading as I flipped through it all. I also discovered a major memory that I seemed to overlook as mundane in my shock.
Today was the day we teenagers of the village do the equivalent of finals in high school except most of us were two years younger than the average in my previous life. The “test” includes writing what an elder says, so basic transcribing I guess. It also included what I can only describe as an arithmetic competition, but instead of elementary school-age kids, they were replaced by their highschool age siblings. It was optional though as there was much emphasis that area outside of our schooling earlier in life. I remember the record holder in the village history, who was from a family who did most of the "logistics" of the village while only being able to do addition and subtraction, of course, was able to add up the number of beast finger bones stored within the storage that year in 2 minutes using the scribbles that all the villagers used as their numbers. They were basically tally marks in my eyes. Of course, the final section of the test was a conversation with at least a third of the elders of the village in the clearing of the village, with most of the village watching I might add, which I guess is their primitive version of a promotion board. Except they use said conversation to determine what our teens' occupations will be.
Given that my memories of both of my lives have to settle fully, I should have no trouble doing perfectly, and honestly, I feel like I should give everything I can given that my lives have both been so lame up until this point. If continue that path even with all I have now no one would forgive me if I ever do end up in the afterlife.
With that in mind, I finally got a good look at the wooden shack that was now my room and home.
The furniture was barebones as I could clearly feel on my back now that I was fully awake now. I rolled out of bed in my usual fashion and to do the workout I had done since middle school, well when I had time at least. I did two hundred push-ups followed by a hundred situps with fifty squats coming next.
After completing said workout I expected myself to be exhausted as I usually would be by now, but I wasn’t quite there yet. In fact, I felt like another round wouldn’t kill me at this point. Before I could act on those thoughts though, I heard that very familiar voice once again at the door of my room again.
“Oh, I didn’t expect you to be so active this time of the morning. I guess you have finally started listening to me.”
“Mom.. I’ve always listen..-”
“My word son!! I guess those coming-of-age stories are real. Your voice changed so much overnight!”
I have pretty much accepted my situation in terms of my modern life pretty much over. The knowledge from those times is enough to claim that my home is inside of me, as weird as it sounds. But I didn’t expect my voice from my previous life to be one of the only meta-physical things to travel with me. I was glad nonetheless to have something else I was familiar with.
“Do we have any breakfast ready? I want to be prepared for today.”
“Of course dear, on the table in the food area several sausages, and milk. Be sure to save some for your father though.”
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She dragged me toward the table while grabbing an armload of clothes and stumbling into their room, where my father was probably getting ready for the day. I took the chance to study the clothes left for myself with my own eyes though I’m sure I could find some memories about them.
They looked just as ancient as everything else did, and sure enough, being mostly made of leather from felled beasts and being tied closed using leather strips. The shirt was more of a vest if anything as if only covered my torso and left my arms completely exposed. I saw one of my mom's skirts and tossed it aside while searching for some pants. But all I could find was more skirts, albiet shorter than the one I tossed earlier.
*smack*
After laughing at myself for a bit, I looked down at myself and saw that those "short skirts" were in fact the preferred bottom of choice for the men of the village. Quickly searched through my memories got me no results for the first time though as just like breathing when you do it all the time it becomes second natire.
Looking through my memories some more, I could find some clothing with a different color but it was extremely rare, almost nonexistent. I stripped out of the clothes I had been wearing for at least a week now and used my hands to scrub every inch of my body using one of the buckets of lukewarm water that had been prepared by my mother I presume.
I then dunk my head in the water because it was the right thing to do at the moment.
After quickly getting dressed again in the leather outfit. I quickly ate some of the food prepared by mom and headed for the door, after all a good amount are taking their test today and while I don’t wanna be first, I definitely don’t wanna be last as well.
Before I could get out the door fully though I heard a different but equally familiar voice that I recognized as my father yelling out to me.
“DO YOUR BEST SON!! THE WHOLE FAMILY WILL BE THERE WATCHING!”
“Alright, Dad!”
My voice still couldn’t compare to my old man’s even in this world I thought to myself as I continued out the closing door and into the crowded “streets” of the village.
I say it like that because they are just the paths most taken through the low grass surrounding the shacks. Even without the memories of this world’s version of myself, I would be able to find the clearing where so many events are held in the village. This was because my family as well as my extended all lived in houses off a dirt path that connected to one of the bigger dirt paths, which then lead directly to the center of the village.
The walk was about ten minutes with only one turn needed in total and along the way, I saw basically carbon copies of my house which was kinda hypnotizing in a way. All the memories I had now were settled completely so I know this village like the back of my hand now.
I arrived at the clearing along with most of the kids, teens, and young adults and joined the growing circle of teens closest to the empty part of the area. The few elders in the very center of the clearing were conversing as they usually did while waiting for us teens to assemble. I scan the elders in the center and saw two elders who I wasn’t that familiar with, one being a male and another being a female. The third elder though was a lady I was extremely familiar with as she was one of the people who said I would be reserved in nature.
She was my grandmother and the oldest person in the entire village. That has some significance because while all elders are equal in terms of the control they have of the village, which isn’t much in modern terms, however, the power they hold over the hearts and minds of all the villagers is unshakable.
Now with her age in play, everybody in the village would consider the experience that came behind her words. The elder's words are probably the closest thing to something resembling a religion in this village at the very least. I still have no other frame of reference for the world as a whole but I digress. The elders are basically politicians except with the power the ancient priest had back on Earth.
My grandmother has the most experience as a “politician”, making her the de facto leader of the villager. But since the decisions of the village are usually confirmed by all elders and a few adults, she has no official title as leader. As I was looking at her she was scanning the crowd as well and saw me.
She smiled calmly and tapped her two colleagues while beginning the speech given to every batch of teens going through this test.