It took me less time than I expected to completely master Latin. Probably because I spent every single night repeating in my head every bit of knowledge I remembered of the language.

 Sleeping was not really my thing. Having spent so much time without being able to move in my previous life made it difficult for me to find comfort in just relaxing.

 And then there were the nightmares; every night, as soon as I closed my eyes, dancing images of my past struggles appeared in front of me: all the difficulties I’d had to overcome; the mix of pity and disgust in the looks of the people who had to interact with me; and my mother, the one who ended it all. She was the absolute protagonist of every nightmare I had. I woke up crying every night after remembering the last words she told me, and Metis hugged me until my tremors ceased. There was something incredibly soothing about being held by her, a sense of protection I had never felt in my old world.

 In the end I had decided to sleep as little as possible, to avoid unpleasant memories and not create too many problems to Metis. Of course I needed to rest, but I felt like all the energy stored in my previous 16 years of life was imbued into this body, because I only needed 1 or 2 hours of sleep to be perfectly functional.

 Snapping back into reality, I put into action my plan to gain glory and honour: I crawled outside the house- an exhausting and dangerous challenge for a toddler like me- wanting to show off my now-refined skills to the only person I could speak to: my “new” mother.

 I locked in on my objective, the tall woman was staring intently at a patch of earth just in front of her, and was about to approach her, when I heard her muttering something under her breath and, just like that, every single bit of knowledge I thought I knew about this world crumbled. A tree just spawned in front of the figure of my mother! A tree with grown apples on it! My mom had already started putting the fresh and red apples in a basket when she noticed me.

“What are you doing here, Ignis?! Outside house DANGEROUS! No good!” She said, pointing back at the entrance of the door and trying to make her words as simple as possible so that even a baby could understand.

Completely ignoring her performance, I pointed at the tree with my small and puffy finger: “Mom, mom, how did you do it?”

 I realized my blunder as soon as the sound left my mouth.

Shit, now that I think of it, aren’t these my first words? Is a one-year-old baby even supposed to know how to speak? I was so excited to be finally able to confidently speak Latin that I forgot about the fact that I’m still a child!

My mother’s eyes sparkled with excitement as soon as the words left my mouth, and luckily there was no shadow of a doubt on how I learnt how to speak so fast; “I can’t believe it, my little baby said his first words! You are such a smart kid, Ignis! You sure took your brain from me, even with that red hair of yours!” she concluded chuckling.

Red hair? What did she mean by that? Wait, I never got to see myself in a mirror since I was reborn. Having her as my mom, there is a good chance I have the genes to become incredibly handsome! Man, I sure hope I got those blue eyes of hers!

While my thoughts raced on all these useless- I mean, really important- factors, Metis, seeing what my finger had been pointing at, started walking towards me.

“You’re curious about what I did, aren’t you? - she said picking me up from the dirt- This you see is the most beautiful art ever created, bestowed on us by the Creators themselves. It’s the ability to talk with nature, to become one with all your surroundings.” She fell quiet for a few seconds after saying this, then broke into a hearty laugh.

“I’m really getting old; look how pathetic I am, talking all high and mighty to a child just because he spoke his first words a few seconds ago.”

I didn’t really hear the second half of her sentence, though.

This world has magic.

I continued to repeat it to myself, unable to believe such a thing really existed. Would I be able to learn it? If I asked her to teach me once I got older, would my mother say yes? Was it even possible for me, a reincarnated boy, to learn the magic of my “new home”?

All the thoughts about my old life suddenly disappeared: my pain, my sadness, my tears, my last moments; everything was replaced by wonder, wonder of who I could grow up to be in this world where I wasn’t cursed. By the time I got to sleep all the unpleasant memories were back, ready to haunt me, but, as a newfound hope raised above them, I felt like, for the first time, I would be able to control my emotions.

That was the first night without nightmares I had in my second life.