I move my hand along the wooden groves of the table. The two of us were now sitting up on benches facing each other at the medium sized wooden table in the room. Everything here seems to be made of wood from the floor to the benches and table, to the ceiling. A rustic cedar smell continuously permeates throughout this three roomed cabin where I have been staying for the past week.
Right when I got healed I wanted to jump off into the world, but lying in bed for a whole week straight made me a bit weak, so I am to not leave this cabin-area for another day to get readjusted. I personally think that having fresh air would help more than hurt, but I don't care enough to argue over such a minor issue.
The rooms are as follows: the bedroom, dining room/living room/welcoming area, and kitchen. As someone who has stayed in the wonders of a college dorm room for the past four years, the size seemed more than enough for me.
Although we moved over to eat, it was just from the floor of the living/dining area to the table. Lunch for today is a hard baguette-like bread, sliced meat, and cheese. It makes me think of picnics and hiking food, as it is easy to transport. Again, I don't pry into where the food originated from, and am thankful that I am being fed any food at all. But as it was all brought over earlier today the ingredients are a bit warm and don't have a cool crispness that would make them truly delicious.
I sliced the bread apart with a knife to make mini open-faced sandwiches, placing the sliced cheese and meat upon each piece of bread. While I was doing this I noticed Hannah having trouble cutting with the knife.
*Sli-CRUNCH*
A similar sound kept replaying over and over as each slice would be making no progress in cutting the hard bread. Then by lifting all of her 8-year old body's weight onto the knife, the bread would get crunched into the remains of just crumbs.
Rather than the bread I was more worried that she would cut off all her fingers. Is it normal for an eight-year old to use such a large knife here? I didn't think about it at first since Hannah has seemed so mature since the start, but aren't I being a terrible adult here...
I didn't want to hurt her pride, but in the end it was too unbearable to watch. I slid her my plate of already prepared food, and tried to coerce her into handing the knife and bread (or what was left of it) over.
"N-no, I cannot accept that. I can prepare my own food." (Hannah)
She seems to be slightly out of breath from trying to cut the bread. ...was it such an arduous task? I again needed to remind myself that the one in front of my is only eight.
"Please accept it. At the very least it can be from disciple to teacher. Wouldn't such a thing be acceptable?" I said while putting on the best pleading face I could.
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"Teacher? I am only helping you recover for two days as part of my duty as a healer. I have not accepted such a disciple!" Hannah said while pointing the knife in my direction subconsciously.
...or at least I hope subconsciously. I don't particularly want a knife wielding child coming my way like some horror movie.
"A teacher is one who teaches, no? A disciple is one that learns? There should be no fault with what I have said." (me)
"T-that may be the case, but ...how could I have a disciple already at the age of 8." Hannah said grumblingly. The latter half bring barely audible.
She started to waver, and then it seemed like she was able to gain back her composure after recovering her energy for minute and silently handed over the knife and bread.
After slicing the remaining bread and preparing it to eat, we finally started to have our simple meal. Since the atmosphere still seemed a bit stiff from before, I decided to break the ice and talk.
"To be honest, I was surprised Hannah can also act like that. With how knowledgable and sophisticated you have been so far these two days I was beginning to suspect that you are a reincarnated person who retained all their previous life's memories or something of that sort!" I said while merrily chuckling a bit.
Perhaps I am a bit of KY as well. (Aka person who can't read the mood) Or just couldn't resist making a comment like that, even so. Little did I know that such a small joke meant to would completely change the route and course of my life here in this world.
Not hearing any reply I looked up from my plate over to Hannah but her eyes were wide and her mouth agape. The mini open-faced sandwich in her hand seemed to fall back onto the plate as well.
""..."" (Hannah & me)
Such an obvious reaction, it can't be right? Even if it were true, one would just not make any reply towards it to disguise their true feelings. I mean reincarnation of all things. Perhaps she's trying to trick me in return for just before ruining her pride.
Or so I thought but her expression ended up becoming increasingly sharp.
"You..." (Hannah)
"How did you have such an insight. Everyone just thinks of me as a genius...and geniuses are really a dime a dozen in this vast world, so there haven't been any problems. But how could you have realized I am a reincarnated person from merely two days?" Hannah inquired while continuing to glare at me.
I feel like this is the part where I am supposed to be super intimidated, but I can't really feel so when it's an eight year old trying with all her might to look ferocious. It's like a baby lion trying to roar. No...perhaps closer to a baby kitten roaring. If only I could video search for baby kittens roaring right now.