There were seven of us, eight including me. But I doubt they included me.

For what?

Meat division!

Yeah, butchering was over and now they were deciding who gets what. There was a whole debate on why Den was supposed to get the tender loin or whatever. But in the end, it was decided, the meat would be equally divided into seven portions and everyone would receive pretty much identical portions. Of course, that was only possible in theory but not in reality. Yet, they didn’t seem to complain as much.

These people did try to one up one another but they weren’t inherently trying to scam each other. Which was good. Some trolling was always part of friendship, but scamming outright and murdering… yeah, murdering. Sigh.

“Tired?” Den said.

Den had the hearing of a literal hound. Every time I sighed, he picked up. And lately he was being a bit too nosy. I guess he was buttering me up before he made a move on mother.

“I’m fine, Den,” I mumbled.

He stared, visibly confused. “He remembers my name, wow. Kids really do have great memory.”

“Lin,” Mother pointed at herself.

“Mother.”

“Lin, Lindell!”

“Mother.”

“Mommy?”

“Mother.”

I was not going to call her anything other than mother, no.

She groaned, almost whining. “Sometimes I feel like he’s doing this on purpose,” she said.

“Maybe he is,” the curly haired woman came near. “Lyra,” she pointed at herself.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The others also introduced themselves.

Den was Denkar. Apparently, the team leader.

Curly haired Lyra was the vice leader or something like that.

Aluc, the green haired tall handsome man, the only guy who had kept his mouth shut the entire time I knew him, was the spotter of the group.

The other woman, Zena, was somewhat short, and actually the shortest of the bunch but she did make it up with her beauty. It hurt to admit but she was prettier than mother.

We had two more guys. Xelec and Serec. Brothers. Black guys, both muscular and heavy hitters of the team. One of them always had a shield on his back, and the other had a small axe instead of knives like the rest. But every single one of them had bows and arrows as their primary weapon.

I guess it only made sense since they were primarily focused on hunting in the forest and the more range they could get out of their weapons the better.

“Names… too difficult,” I managed.

Nope, I actually had pretty good memory. But not as good as my last life. In my previous life, the reason I was so damn good at studying was partly thanks to my memory and how efficient I was at remembering things. I could basically remember anything as long as I read it twice. Even full-length novels.

Now that I thought about it, ‘that was one darn broken ability, huh?’ Yet, I never got to cherish it or enjoy it. I was always under constant stress of remembering the next thing for my exams. I didn’t study to learn, I studied to do well on a test. And it only made my life miserable. So, in a sense I was glad I didn’t have memory that good anymore. At least I couldn’t be pressured like that for having the talent.

Yet.

‘Why do I feel even worse?’

I tried my best not to show it on my face.

“That’s okay,” Mother said. “You’ll learn with time. For now though,” she stared at the others. “Who’s going to carry all this? Or at least my share.”

“I’ll do it,” Den said.

“You can’t carry your own portion,” Xerec snorted. “I’ll do half.”

“I’ll do the other half,” Serec said.

With that settled we made way for our home. Yes, our home. They all came to see the two of us off and once we got home with our stuff, they just left. Apparently, they used to hunt every two months before mother picked me up.

I was starting to get a little fond of them. Particularly because mother felt so lively around them. Not that she was unhappy with being alone with me but… but nothing beat the comfort of friends. ‘But I have no one anymore…’

“Can I… eat?” I asked.

“No dear. Too soon for you,” she said. “Maybe once you grow a little older.” She did end up grabbing a feeder though. Goat milk!

“Okay…”

She snickered. “You’re so mature,” she smooched me on my forehead.

I smiled and attempted to smooch her but she didn’t let me and just smiled coyly. “Too slow.”

And then proceeded to give me another smooch and another and another. Wet smooches. I would have been darn disgusted of this in my previous life but… but yeah, I couldn’t help but cackle the more she smiled.

Gosh, my mother was gorgeous.