“Coming Mum!”, I said as I hurried out of the house in the direction of the stream that flowed lazily on the right side of the building. The small river didn’t have a name- if it had one my mother didn’t know it- and it continued to run quietly until it reached the sea, which was just a 10-minute walk away from where we lived. I had never seen the sea in my old world, not even once, so I really wanted to go exploring the beach, but my mother never allowed me to go.

“It’s too dangerous”, she says. I wonder what kind of danger there might be in this place. I have not even seen a single animal since I was born; probably not even they know about the existence of this oasis of peace.

I had recently turned 4, and, since I had also learnt how to properly walk, I started helping my mother out with all the chores of the house. Initially, she didn’t want me to help out: she thought I was still just a baby and all the stress from the hard work could be bad for my growth. However, I had insisted and she ultimately gave up. It was only right that I helped her after all she did for me in the past years. I was not going to be useless in this life, not anymore…

“Can you bring this inside?” she asked me, holding a less-than-half-full basket in her hands.

“Mum, I’m more than strong enough to carry a full basket of clothes back home, you know…”

“I perfectly know how strong you are, my little ladybug- she said while stroking my fiery red hair- but these are the most elegant clothes we have, so I want you to take care of them first. We may need them if an unannounced guest shows up. It’s a very important task!”

We’d never had a guest in four years… I sighed, reluctantly accepting the way-too-light basket.

“After you complete this dangerous task, you can go have some fun in the library, ladybug!”

“It’s embarrassing to be called ladybug…” I mumbled, as my cheeks reddened because of the cheeky nickname.

“I’m sorry, but you don’t get to choose how your mother calls you! Now go, hurry up!” she said chuckling.

Knowing that was a battle I could not win, I surrendered and headed back home. Calling me ladybug just because I have bright red hair… and she is supposed to be the adult here! My lips involuntarily curved in a little smile, that turned into a big grin by the time I arrived home.

 I had never felt as loved as I did in these four years. The painful memories of my past life were still there, but they were overwhelmed by the amount of joy Metis had given me. That’s why I can’t mess up this time! I have to be useful; I have to! I repeated it to myself like a mantra while folding our “elegant clothes”: they were plain white tunics like the ones we wore every day. The only difference was the simple floral design that run down the left side of the cloth.   

Once I finished my “dangerous task” I went straight to the library. Since my mother always said that it was too dangerous to go venture outside the safe haven of our front yard, I managed to hold back my curiosity by reading the numerous scrolls contained in there. There wasn’t a single one about magic, much to my disappointment, but I found many intriguing stories about the birth of this world and about its geography.

 From what I had read, this world had been created after a clash between a group of good guys called the Ten Creators, and a powerful evil being. The fact that there weren’t any names for neither the Creators nor the bad guy really pissed me off. Come on scrolls, you can’t just give half the information and expect me to be happy with it! I don’t even know how the battle ends! I made a mental note to ask my mother for more details about this story. She had mentioned the Creators when she explained me what her magic was- although the explanation had been pretty general- but I felt confident she knew something more about them.

 Ten Creators, huh… If I had read this while I was in my old world, I would’ve taken it as nothing more than a bedtime story. Now, however, not even the existence of Gods and monsters is difficult to accept.

 After searching for more information about these Ten-Good-Guys-or-whatever for 30 minutes, I finally gave up and started reading another scroll. It was about all the races present in this world, but it was way too short to contain all of them. If half the creatures mentioned in Latin mythology were real in this world, not even fifty scrolls of this length couldn’t have contained a summary of all of them.

Well, I guess I should consider myself lucky to have access to a library, considering that, magic or not, I’m still in the Roman Empire, I thought with a sigh.