Aurora opened her eyes and looked up at an unfamiliar ceiling—raw wood. Something poked at her sides, and she twisted to find herself lying on top of a pile of hay. Her body felt awkward, not like her own, she felt compressed, smaller. She lifted her arm and first noticed how tiny her hands had become. Looking down, she found that she was all small. Aurora stared down at the body of a child.
Had she been reborn, she wondered. Was this what that voice had told her about?
Something wet and large nudged her, and she looked to find a large steed. The horse had been munching away at the haystack she had woken up on. Her head pounded. Light poured in from the outside, and she found that the headache made her sensitive to the light. At least some things never change. Aurora felt like she had woken up from a bad hangover, and she had been no stranger to those.
Standing up, she tried out her new body. It wasn’t new, though, was it? She had taken over someone's body—a second-hand body. Aurora shook her head. No, that was a weird way to think about it. To her, this was her new body.
Now, the question was, who was she? If she had taken over the body of someone else, they must have had a family, memories, personality, experiences, and about a million other things she did not know about.
The body wore ragged clothing that looked medieval. She wore a linen dress that was obviously too small, with a quarter of her legs visible. The sleeves were also short. The outer layer looked to be a long apron. Her stomach growled. The body was not only dirty but also hungry. Looking at her thin wrists, malnourished would have been a good description of the body.
Aurora looked around, finding that she was standing in a stable. There were horses around her who had stopped eating to stare at her. She had seen a horse in person once before. Otherwise, she had only seen the beasts on videos, which did not do justice to how large the creatures were.
Or maybe she had just become so small? How old was her new body? Aurora wondered. The big man upstairs had not explained anything to her.
Pain jolted through her, and a vision came.
The girl sat hugging her legs to her body. It was cold. The cold cut to her bones. Her fingers had gone numb.“Happy name day to me,” the girl mumbled, trying to warm her freezing hands.
As fast as the vision came, it left. Aurora stumbled from shock. The girl had been fourteen years old, and now she herself was also fourteen. It took a moment to process this information. She, an adult woman, had been shoved into a fourteen-year-old body. That was problematic in itself. Her mentality was not that of a child, and her wants were far from those of a child. She grabbed knotted hair. Did that mean she couldn't even drink away her problems? Aurora found another issue to worry about: she wasn’t attracted to other children. How would she ever find a boyfriend?
Was it too late to return? She wondered.
“How awful,” she mumbled, referring to both Clementine’s memory and her situation. Her voice was gentle and high, a stark contrast to what it had been before she died. It held the lightness of youth in it.
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As the day went on, she was fed more and more memories of the previous host of this body. She had learned that her name was Clementine. The girl was homeless and was allowed to sleep in the stables in return for doing manual labor. The labor consisted of looking after the horses, which the girl seemed fond of. Aurora, not so much. They made her anxious. Clementine had not always been homeless. There were memories from her childhood when she still had a home but what had happened in between those memories was a mystery. Not one that she really wished to explore. Clementine had a bad life, and she died because of it. Aurora did not want to know more.
She couldn’t spend the day in the stables recalling the depressing memories of her body's previous host. She was hungry and needed to eat if she was going to survive in this world.
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The merchant looked at her with clear disgust. " Take this,” the woman said, holding out moldy bread. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn’t utter a sound. A screen popped up in front of her.
I told you there would be a punishment
Aurora looked at the floating screen in bewilderment. She reached out to touch it, but her hand passed right through it. Then she looked at the merchant, whose gaze was still unwavering. Looking down at her in clear disgust, an outstretched hand held the moldy bread. It didn’t look like she could see the screen. Her stomach growled. The text on the screen changed.
Respond to the merchant
That would be easier said than done, she thought. Once again, she tried to speak, but no words came out. Something held back the sound. She felt like she was floating back in the darkness when the air had been stolen from her lungs, and she couldn't speak. An unfamiliar force restrained her. To try and speak felt uncomfortable.
The words on the screen changed again.
1. Say thank you, eat the bread
2. Say thank you, eat the bread
3. Say thank you, eat the bread
Aurora was baffled. Why would she ever take and eat moldy bread? Her body was hungry, but eating that. She looked at the bread. It was a death sentence. There was no way she would not get sick from it. She would not eat the bread. She turned to leave, but invisible hands kept her in place.
You must choose, ungrateful little speck.
This is your first lesson.
But there was no choice, she inwardly yelled. They were all the same.
1. Say thank you, eat the bread
2. Say thank you, eat the bread
3. Say thank you, eat the bread
The damn screen was back. Aurora sighed and pressed the first option. Her body moved beyond her control. She reached for the bread, grabbed it, and mumbled a weak “thank you.” Then her hands moved, bringing the bread to her face.
Stop, she mentally yelled to herself. But she was not in control. She chowed down on the moldy, dry loaf. She gagged. Like a puppet, she was controlled. Shoving the bread down her throat like an animal. Through gagging and nausea, she ate. Until there was nothing left to eat.
The merchant looked at her, horrified.
Aurora was also mortified.