Time had passed and  as I learned my way through the village, I began stealing books from the bookshop to read. We couldn’t even buy a whole piece of bread for a whole three days worth of food so how much more would it cost if I’d have to rent a book. Education here is expensive. The children aren’t even schooled. So, whenever the bookkeeper takes his leave to gossip or have lunch, I’d take my chance and sneak into the shop then out the window with a book of my choosing. Most of the books here are cheaply written but it was enough for me to cultivate some knowledge that I could use. I mainly read about herbs and medicines and some news about nobles. It was through this that I survived every beating I got from my parents by healing myself with the ointments I’ve learned to make from herbs by the books. I escape them whenever I can to reduce the damages but I always get caught none the less. With my frail body and my father’s expertise at hunting there’s not much I can do.

As I am sitting here behind the shop, indulged in ‘my’ books, I failed to  notice what had come next.

“Huh! It’s you again”.  I instantly sprung into action and ran when the shopkeeper caught me in his line of vision from outside the window while he was dusting out old books.

“Ah!"

" Wait, stop"

"Thief ! Thief!”

I sprinted with all my might towards the market where there are a lot of people leading him on a chase and hid behind a giant barrel that was twice my size. The stout keeper could barely catch his breathe as he run past me through the large crowd and lost sight of his thief. When I figured the coast was clear, only then did I emerged from my hiding spot.  I realized I was near the apple stall so I took the chance when the vendor was looking away and took some, who knows when my next meal will be.

I certainly miss my life of great fortune in my past life. I’m even down to my last 863 words of writing before my recalling of the story’s events gets shambled. So I made myself a little scrapbook of cut out words and pasted them on its pages. I’ll rewrite them in better paper and context when I get older. Because if I simply wrote down the turn of events in the story until I lose my word count, I wouldn’t be able to record everything. Who knew boiled corn starch would make such an effective glue.

Looking at my stolen calendar I still have about 15 months before the event that I’ll be involved in which is meeting the protagonist so by then I must have everything prepared.

As I was walking out of the marketplace chewing on my apple while getting lost in my own thoughts I suddenly felt a sharp sting on the back of my head, so I turned around but only to find out that I had been hit by a pebble. I hadn’t noticed passing by the bunch of kids in the alley. They grinned at me with the small pebbles in their hands as they playfully toss them up in the air.

“Hey slut-born! Where ‘ya off to?” , the kid with the awful crooked teeth yelled.

Ah yes. I forgot about that, this is also one of the things I have to deal with here. For I, Lupa Bricallis, four years old and a half, is the village stray kid. Weak and frail in my ragged clothing that haven’t been able to clean herself up for days, but I sure do look well enough for them. I usually get ignored by the adults but not so much as these kids who have nothing else to do in their free time. I blame the classic cliche background setting of stories like these for this.

But I ignored them and went on my way.

“Hey puppy, we’re talking to you!”

"…"

“Tsk! How dare ‘ya turn your ugly face back on us”

*PAK!*

One

“Hahah, get her!”

Two, three pebbles at a time went flying at me like bullets as they began to chase me while I ran away with their sharp pebble stings on my back. I covered my head with my awfully stitched bag that looked as ragged as I am, it’s the best support I can do rather than simply shielding with my hands.

“HAHA!”

“Little dog!”

“ Yer disgusting ‘ya know that!”

Out maneuvering them into a curve, I had managed my escape into climbing a tall tree. They tried to climb after me but I’d spat at them when they do. Even when out of reach, they still threw rocks at me as I comfortably sat, heavily out of breathe on a big branch.

“You can’t ran from us”

“My dad’s the village head”

“Your mom’s a village whore”

“And her dad’s the village fool, HAHA”

“She ought to be one of them when she grows up”

“Might even be both of them”

“A whore and a fool!”

“Hahaha”

Looking down at them, I rolled my eyes from their endless rambling. I could get upset and beat their heads with a sharp rock for as long as I pleased but I know that a certain someone is watching, waiting to get a reaction out of me. Did he think I’d cry from these silly feats?  

I don’t sense any of the other gods fate guidance on them other than from my own god so it’s not worth fighting any of  them, he just wants to watch me suffer even more. More than anything, he loves it when things doesn’t go as he expected it to be so I’ll keep him guessing ,we’ll see who’s the best prankster here.

Eventually after a while, they left when their parents called them. Finally some peace and quite. It’s been about half an hour before I got rid of them.When I jumped down from the tree, I raised my middle finger up in the air to show I wasn’t please with ‘his’ antics  and heard a roar of thunder from the distance mere seconds later and right after its last echo, raindrops started to fell. I watched the sky turn gray and I let the rain seep through my clothes making it wet and feel the cold breeze on my skin, letting myself be drenched. I looked up at the sky once more and found myself laughing. As the rain began to fall heavily, I was just standing there in awe for the unexpected bliss of  joy I felt, like as if this is my last life. I began dancing in the rain  on my own because suddenly ,I remembered that there was never a time in my lives where I got to enjoy the peaceful downpour of rain like this.The thunder came once more and I could tell my reaction didn’t appease him but I simply did not care, as if saying ‘Fuck you’ to the whole world.

*The next day the 7^th God gave Lupa a very bad fever