I am more than 2 years old now. They do not note down the date of birth here, but every year there is a children's festival of which I have just experienced my third, where all of the children's age change. Probably the adults too, but the festival is for the children. It is a momentous occasion, where most of the village shows up. It is held in the main square outside the green church/temple. Parents give their children gifts, and the ones turning "adult" are given a ceremony where the priest man, who smeared something fluorescent on my face, blessed each of them in a similar fashion. I say adult, but they're really young teenagers, since this happens on their thirteenth children's festival. There are tables set up, a lot of food is brought in, people sing and dance and great merriment is had. It is also the only real holiday event I have observed here. Some days seem holy, but they mostly consist of the adults going to the temple for a few hours before returning to their daily lives.

This year I am very happy because I received shoes. Up until now, I have simply had some kind of cloth wrapped around my feet, but as I started running it became unwrapped or tore. And if I ran barefoot, my mother would scold me for forcing her to waste water, which seems to be, alhtough not a rare ressource, something to be used in moderation. So I wished for shoes and I got them. It seems it was troublesome though, I guess they are expensive, but I am receiving special treatment for some reason, much to the dismay of my older brothers Lod and Sten.

The younger of my older brothers, Sten has especially given me a lot of trouble. I have tried to act like a kid and play with whatever sticks and stones I could find, but he has recently made it his mission to ensure that my sticks and stones are his sticks and stones, pushing me down and tripping me etc. If I tell mom, she scolds him, but that only seems to make him madder. The oldest brother Lod only seems to ignore me no matter what I try to play with him or ask him something or hide from Sten behind him.

My given name is Yos, by the way, which is weird because I still feel like Brian, so sometimes I forget to react to my own name. It probably just takes some getting used to. I do not know the name of my grandmother, since my father and mother simply call her mother, but my parents name from her are given. My father is Karar and my mother is Luvia.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I have since noted down even more exceptions from my old world that cement the strangeness of this one. Not only are there no livestock, but I have seen no animals whatsoever. No birds, no insects, no rodents, no nothing. In addition, no seasons or temperature changes seem to occur. Night is as warm as day, which is the same year round. I really wonder what makes the light appear in the sky.

Since I have reached a certain age, I think it is okay for me to ask questions about how the world works now, but I have simply been told stories as a reply. I have asked about the place food comes from and I was told a story of how the world came to be. God apparently discovered this world once, and saw that it could sustain man created in his image. But god could not create anything as great as himself, so the beings he created required food and sleep. They died of old age and wounds. So God created the dungeons. It was places where food and water and wood and all they could need sprung forth endlessly. But man was greedy and squandered god's gift. They took more food than they needed and left the rest to rot or grew fat. They left some of what God had given them in return for what they thought was more delicious or valuable. God was mad that they didn't appreciate his gifts or works, so he created monsters from the food. Now most of it would make man pay for being greedy, killing those who took more than they needed or were unprepared. Thus man now had to fight for their daily food, water and whatever else they needed.

I had asked why I was given special treatment after receiving my shoes and soon found myself being told yet another tale. God wanted his children to be plentiful and spread across the world, but the monsters now made each of them only take what they need, and whenever they found themselves facing with the other people of this world, they would back down because of their lack of strength. So god gave some of his children gifts in form of great power and the ability to use magic. But not every man was worthy of capable of having this gift, so he only gave it to his chosen children, and those are to be revered because they will hold great power and lead humanity. When I inquired how many have this power, I was informed than seven people other than me currently had a gift in this village. When I asked about their nature, the only two mom knew of were quite different. When old man Jorgen runs, nothing can stop him and he can topple large monsters or even houses when he needs to. And the priest of town can make wounds close in a fraction of the time they do so naturally. I ask what gift I have and mom says she doesn't know, it is something for me myself to figure out. I hope it has something to with running. I leave the house and start running with my new shoes.