Shit.
Ione knew she was reborn again, some inkling of awareness that had chased her down in her deep slumber before feeling the birthing canal contract against her fetal flesh.
She didn’t know why this keeps happening, why she is continuously reborn wherever, and whenever. She lives, she eats, she shits, she dies. Repeat. Not always in that order. It was interesting the first 10 times; after that, Ione lost count, and she’s sure it's in the triple digits at this point.
As Ione was pondering the woes of almost eternal life, she felt the walls of inner flesh violently contract and then jet her out and into the inevitable shitstormwhatever this world had in store. She didn't want to open her eyes, to be confronted with whatever species she was born into this time, but when the feeling of gentle hands -gentle human hands- encased her tiny body, she couldn't help but take a peek.
What Ione saw astounded her. If it wasn't the blurry, but distinctly human faces looking at her in the background that caught her watery breath, it was the bright blue window screen at the forefront that put her brain in a complete halt.
Status Screen
HP: 5 | ST: 5 | Mana: 5
Name: Ione G’alatria
Race: Human-Elf Halfling
Birthday: 06/01/700 RY (Renewal Year)
Age: 0
Class: locked
Class skills
Passive: locked
Active: locked
Class aptitude skills: Locked
Attributes (0 points available)
Constitution: 1
Wisdom: 1
Stamina: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 150
Status afflictions (none):
General Skills (1):
[Focus to expand]
Arcane perks (2):
[Focus to expand]
Resistances (none):
Taken Quests (none):
Gear (none):
[Focus to expand]
Ione’s eyes glazed with wonderment as the possibilities laid themselves bare before her. She remembered her first lifetime, when she was a human on Earth. How many many years ago she endlessly played video games to help curb the boredom and the devastation of her illness.
Instead of crying, Ione giggled. She felt excitement, for the first time after a millennium's worth of life.
All of a sudden, she felt weak and sweaty hands desperately swipe at her skin and Ione was swiftly whisked onto the table next to the bed. A scratchy towel was roughly dragged across her body to wipe off the birthing viscera.
With the way Ione was placed, she could see who was grabbing for her; sickly, boney hands connected to a skeletal woman, prone on the bed, reaching towards Ione as a growing pool of red stained the area below the woman's abdomen.
Well, that doesn't look right, Ione grimaced internally. She’s starving and dying.
She briefly recognized what appeared to be nuns running around the crowded room, big blotches of black and white yelling orders over and at each other and...ignoring the dying woman. Ione’s mother. Granted, Ione wasn't attached to her. Literally and figuratively, but clearly the woman needed some help.
Her mother’s fragile voice, hoarse from screaming, crooned towards Ione, "Oh my baby, my sweet, sweet Ione,” a sob escaped her thin frame, “please give her to me let me hold her, I-I want my baby", her voice ended in a whisper. She started sobbing, begging for them to give her Ione.
Ione’s excitement had completely abated, leaving a hollow pit in her gut. Not that she hasn't had this experience before; where her birthing parent had passed after she had come into existence, however, it was never a good experience and this one stunk of cruelty.
The woman quieted, and then with a voice of steel she demanded, “Give. Me. My fucking baby. Now! Give me her!”
With the ensuing silence, she was ignored.
Ione knew her time was coming to an end. With that amount of blood and no apparent help coming her way, her mother had no chance. She tried to gurgle towards her mother, her tiny hands reaching out in her direction to give her mother some indication that she knew who she was.
The distended and skeletal fingertips touched Ione’s and the woman let out another sob, her shoulders sagged and her body melted into the bed. "My beautiful Ione, my precious sweetheart, I love you so, so much. I've made it this far and now it's your turn", her face tilted away from Ione, eyes gazing into nothingness, "find Al’Varo, find him and he will tell you the truth".
DING! Quest Obtained! Please refer to the quest tab to get a detailed explanation.
What the fu-
Her mother's hand fell against the bed, too weak to hold up. Ignoring the resounding message in her mind, Ione reached once more and touched her mother's fingertips. The dark-haired woman let out a shuddering breath, "I love you, be strong for me. . .you need to be.'' Her voice ended in a hushed whisper and her head drooped.
All was still.
~~~~~
Well, that was fucked up. Ione blankly stared at her mother's blurry corpse as she was cleaned, diapered and swaddled, all three of which she pointedly ignored, right next to the dead body. Granted, they covered her upper half with the rest of the sheet, but she couldn't look away! She tried, and was able to successfully move her a head an inch towards the ceiling but her weak neck wouldn't allow anything more. For once, she was glad that she could barely see.
Luckily, her head was moved to the other side and her eyes averted to the opposite direction.
Soon enough, Ione was picked up, and with cruel irony she, again, had a direct view of her mother's body; of course her head was propped at the exact angle on the nun's shoulder. With a few more steps she knew that this was the last time she would see this person, her mother.
The moment slows, the blur of Ione's parent slowly being replaced by light brown wall.
They finish turning the corner, and then she's gone.
The moment passes.
A right, a left, and roughly 22 steps later, to her increasing horror, Ione is brought to a moderately lit room suffused with the cacophonous noise of crying babies.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Oh my God. I'm going to kill myself. I would rather die than deal with this shit. Not after what I just witnessed.
After being placed in a crib that creaked far too much for her liking, and in her hope to distract herself from both the wailing cries of neglected babies and the absolute tragedy that happened in the first 30 minutes of her new life, Ione peeked at the Status Screen. This time she noticed a little exclamation point in the top left corner and decided to mentally focus on the symbol.
A new blue screen appears:
Congratulations! You have been reborn into the world of Terrestria.
Based on your unique previous life experiences you have added unique skills of [Increased Experience Acquisition] and [Language Learner]. Refer to the Unique skills tab to get a detailed explanation.
Ione had briefly noticed that she had unique skills upon her discovery of the status screen, but was otherwise occupied by her mother dying in a traumatically horrible way.
Dammit, she was not doing herself any favors. The more she doesn't think about what happened, the faster she can forget and move on. Which, she recognized was not healthy, but they didn't have baby therapy here, and she was fairly sure they didn't have any type of therapy.
She dragged her focus back to the Status Screen.
Status Screen
HP: 5 | ST: 5 | Mana: 5
Name: Ione G’alatria
Race: Human-Elf Halfling
Birthday: 06/01/700 RY (Renewal Year)
Age: 0
Class: locked
Class skills
Passive: locked
Active: locked
Class aptitude skills: Locked
Attributes (0 points available)
Constitution: 1
Wisdom: 1
Stamina: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Intelligence: 150
Status afflictions (none):
General Skills (1):
[Focus to expand]
Arcane perks (2):
[Focus to expand]
Resistances (none):
Taken Quests (1):
[Focus to expand]
Gear (none):
Feeling excitement, Ione focused on the Arcane Perks tab.
Arcane Perks (2):
Increased Experience Acquisition: due to the experiences of multiple lifetimes you have endured, you have gained this skill. You receive experience for quest completions, monster hunting, general skills, resistances and attribute acquisition at a rate of 2.5x.
Language learner: due to the experiences of multiple lifetimes you have endured, you have gained this skill. When you hear or see a new language for the first time, you understand it completely. This includes written text as well.
Letting out a small coo of laughter, Ione basked in her luck. [Increased Experience Acquisition] was absolutely huge, and broken. She couldn’t have been more grateful that her suffering had borne such fruit. She could even foresee her language learner skill opening up incredible opportunities.
Ione went back to the Status Screen again and peered at her Race.
Race: Human-Elf Halfling
Hmmm. Ione’s eyes narrowed.
She decided to assume it was her father who was the elf, and while Ione had blurry vision, she knew she didn't see pointy ears on either side of her mother's head. Granted, that's under the assumption that in this universe elves had pointy ears. Well, she would find out once she starts walking and looks into a mirror. She wondered if it was her father her mother told her to find, but her mother didn't state a last name, only the first, and Ione wasn't sure whose last name she took.
It was something she wouldn't get answers for anytime soon, so she decided to focus on other things.
She remembered the notification that popped into her mind the moment her mother told her to find… Al-Someone? Ione forgot the name, so she mentally focused on the Taken Quests tab, it popped up.
Taken Quests (1):
Find Al’Varo
Rewards: 10,000 EXP, +5 Attribute points, ???
How the fuck am I supposed to go off of that?
At the very least, it told Ione the name and some of the rewards; the most intriguing part of this was the mystery behind those three question marks. She briefly wondered if it would be an item, like how it would be in a video game to get a piece of gear, but she quickly let go of that thought, not wanting to be disappointed if it was something different. For now, Ione knew she had to plan. Nothing was set in stone at the moment and she had to think about what she'd do in the meantime while she had limited mobility.
She was remarkably fast at deciding to simply sleep as much as she can and listen for any important information.
It did work in her favor that she was a baby completely aware of her surroundings, so if the nuns did decide to say some particularly juicy details in front of her, well, Ione wasn't going to complain.
DING! Wisdom +1
DING! Additional information has been added to the quest: Find Al’Varo
Huh? Thoughts can give attribute points?
Taken Quests (1):
Find Al’Varo: Obtain information from the nuns.
Ione’s confusion was interrupted when she heard a rush of footsteps enter the nursery, muffled voices suddenly taking coherence as they spread out among the room. Ione couldn't twist her head to look, her weak neck muscles refused to cooperate, but she heard the conversation between two nuns.
“Coranne”, A harsh elderly woman's voice whipped through the room, “please go to the halfling and make sure she’s fed- here’s the bottle.”
“Um, uh Mis- Mother Belan, this is o-only a quarter of the way fu-” Coranne stuttered.
“Coranne”, Mother Belans’ snide voice interrupted, “you must do as you are told. Yes, the bottle is not full, anyone with eyes can see that. There is a milk shortage happening right now and unfortunately the halfling will suffer...” She trailed off in false sympathy.
Ione, knowing exactly who they were talking about, had some choice words.
What the actual fuck? She doesn't even sound like a real person.
“But, the other bottles are fu-”
“That is none of your concern, now feed her, or I will find someone else.”
A resounding silence, then a resigned, “Yes, Mother Belan”.
For fuck's sake.
The nun in charge of her care is going to be forced to keep her weak and malnourished. She can’t die, ergo; she refuses to. The one life Ione desperately wants to keep, only to be threatened by some racist old asshole that doesn't have empathy for her.
She has to make sure Coranne feeds her properly. As her mind races with ideas, she settles on the one thing within her current capabilities; to be extra cute.
Ugh.
She could hear Coranne’s cautious footsteps make their way to her crib, and as soon as she entered Ione’s line of sight, Ione giggled, gurgled and squealed. Rocked her body side to side, as if she was excited to see her.
DING! Wisdom +1
DING! Intelligence +1
If Ione had fine facial control, her brows would have raised. Clocking that in her mind for deliberation later, she turned her attention back to Coranne.
She could see the vaguely human-shaped features morph, particularly around the corners of Coranne’s mouth. She dared to hope.
Ione kept cooing even as Coranne picked her up and cradled her.
Despite being about 10 inches from Coranne’s face, Ione still couldn't see her features clearly. She was just a blotch of earthy skin tone, black and white. With an internal huff, she knew she was going to be annoyed by her eyesight, however her thoughts were soon distracted as Coranne directed the opening of the bottle to Ione’s mouth. After a millisecond of internal screaming about having to drink from a medieval baby decanter, Ione ravenously latched.
“Oh you are just a sweet little thing”, Coranne whispered, “and very hungry too”, she added with a giggle.
Ione ignored her, and all too soon the bottle was empty, and she was still hungry.
Ultimately, Ione knew this was how it was going to go. Realistically, expecting a young girl to defy her superiors at what was presumably her first job was not a plan that could be relied on. No matter how cute she acted. Mother Belan was a racist, and she would ensure that her rule was absolute. If baby Ione wasn't meant to be fed, then baby Ione would starve. She was going to wreck her senile ass once she got strong enough.
Wait, that didn't come out right.
With a disappointed frown, Ione looked away from Coranne, her mind whirling with potential solutions.
“Listen, I-I’ll try my best to help you, I know you don’t understand a word I'm saying, but I-I promise, and I don’t break my promises”, she said in a whispered rush, nodding to herself, “I’ve been assigned to take care of you so I'll be back in a bit, gonna have to clean up any accidents if you know what I mean,” she giggled, “not that you do know what I mean”.
She gently placed Ione back in the crib, and with one last concerned look she departed, leaving Ione with the horror of what Coranne just said.
No, Coranne, I know exactly what you mean.
It really wasn't the act of shitting herself that was the problem, although it did play a little part; no, it was the cleaning afterwards that made her blanch. The smell. The wiping.
Then, Ione heard it. Her stomach gurgled.
A burning pressure.
No.
No. no. no. no
OH, FOR FU-