My training session went smoothly. Den gradually raised the intensity and by the second month, I was running five laps around the house, walking to the outskirts of the forest and even swinging a wooden knife at Den. He didn’t give me any pointers or lessons on how to wield a knife and just seemed to let me be on my own devices. I guess he was letting me try out how this worked and stuff? I was getting a better handle at swinging but my accuracy and movement were pretty shit.

I made some progress in the stamina department but I didn’t really gain any strength. My body did shape up better than my previous chubby version but I was still pretty chubby regardless. And given how I wasn’t even five yet, this wasn’t going to go anywhere for a while. ‘Hard to imagine I used to be thin as fuck.’

Den made me repeat our training sessions three times a day. He wanted to increase the count to four but Mom forbade him. I bet Den just wanted to come see Mom and needed me as an excuse.

“By the way Sol,” One day before leaving, Den produced an envelope of sorts from underneath his shirt and threw it at me. “I’ll be out for a week. Keep practicing.”

A clothed envelope; I caught and opened it … just a crude short knife and a leather cover; somewhat sharp? “Thanks,” I said, but he was already gone. I strapped the knife to my belt and went inside to show Mom.

…

On my spare time, I asked Mom about how to make money and how things worked around here. She was happy to share that she didn’t really work to make money. Instead, she grew veg, sew clothes, gathered food, hunted stuff, all by herself. And has been for years. Basically, she was alone. I wasn’t sure if she had any family or not, but she never spoke about them, so I didn’t feel like asking either. We’ll cross the bridge when we got there.

But Mom did make ‘some’ money. Mostly from the hunting sessions. She’d hunt with the others and get a portion of the hunt money. Apparently, people in the village bought meat, skin, or other parts of a hunt for some money.

“Doesn’t that mean you could have sold the tiger?” I wondered.

Mom smiled awkwardly. “Yeah…”

Anyway, I kept pestering her about stuff and yeah, this world was amazing. First of all, there were much bigger cities inside the forest. Towards the long south, there was a capital city called Aihan. A massive Honeycrisp tree lay at the center, and the fruits were said to be twice as large as the ones found here. They were sweeter, tastier or so Mom emphasized. Not to mention they even had a bit of tartness which made them truly divine.

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My mouth watered at thought. And I stared at Mom with hope. “There’s also the holy church there, so we can’t go,” she said.

My mouth opened in disappointment but I wasn’t going to be a bitch about it. “I see.”

“I’ll buy you one for your fifth birthday though,” She smirked.

“Yesh!”

***

The next day, Mom took me to Lyra’s place. Or I thought so. But instead of entering Lyra’s house, we took a slight detour and moved past theirs, towards a much fancier looking one.

Just a standalone house, or rather sort of a mansion in a sense. Obviously built out of wood just like any other house around these parts but, but this particular house was wide, two floored and had color. Paintings outside, on the wood. And not typical doodles but rather… actual paintings. Some even good. They even had flowers outside!

“One of her kids paints,” Mom said knocking on the front door.

‘She was married!?’

I could have sworn she looked younger than Mom and….

We waited by the door. I stared around. They had a fence like ours and ponds of their own. There was fish in there. Some of the fish jumped around. Such clear water….

People in this world didn’t have filters, so they had to keep the water clean. They boiled water regularly. But since most households didn’t have a pond like this, that more or less made water a precious commodity. Especially clean water like this.

A few minutes later the door opened and we were greeted by a boy younger than me; probably three. “MOOM!” The kid yelled back, running too.

His mom came soon. Zena. Dressed in a rather baggy dress, and caked in dust. “Oh hey, thought you were coming next week?”

“No, we’re actually a week late,” Mom said.

“Oh… okay.”

She welcomed us in.

“She always gets the date wrong. I mostly have to cover for her,” Mom said.

The inside wasn’t really all that impressive. There were paintings here and there and, on occasion, weird malformed clay sculptures. But aside from that, it just looked like a typical house, like ours. Just bigger and with more rooms and a separate floor. Very spacious though.

‘Why’s it so bright in here?’ They had a second floor, so it probably wasn’t a hole in the ceiling. So what? I examined the ceiling quite closely and eventually found the source. A lightbulb like structure. A tad larger than my head, and a tad bulkier too. Yet, the light it released was hardly enough to compete with a typical 10–15-watt LED. The light was well defused and very mild. ‘Maybe because it’s still sunny outside?’

“What is that?” I said. I didn’t see any wires or other electrical appliances, so maybe the bulb wasn’t electrical?

“That’s a Magic Lamp. They’re really popular these days,” Zena said. “Oh, and feel free to take a seat. I should be done in half an hour.” She took a hand broom and went upstairs. While her small boy just stared at us from across the room, staring awkwardly.

“They’re really expensive,” Mom said.

“I’m not asking you to buy me one,” I said.

She didn’t say another word, and I didn’t either. Sometime later, Zena came back and the real talks began.

“So,” she smiled. “You ready to learn a new language!?” She’d washed her hands but her face and hair were still a bit dusty.

“Yes. Yes, I am.”