I heard the front door open downstairs as someone entered the house. Victoria was talking to someone with a manly voice before a barrage of footsteps shot up the stairs.

“Esther!” A man barged into the room.

The first thing I noticed were his clothes. Leather armor outfitted with metal plates, and clinking on his belt was what appeared to be a genuine sword. Shining it’s cold steel.

“Oh, I shouldn’t have left you!” He held my hand, pressed it against his forehead as he knelt by the bed. I could smell something familiar coming from him. It was a smell I knew all too well; the smell of blood.

I stared at his kneeling figure. “You must be my father”

“Oh my Goddess it was true!” His eyebrows scrunched together as he seemed ready to cry, much in the same way as his wife. Not expecting him to answer, I looked toward Victoria for am answer. She had entered the room after him and was currently consoling her husband.

“Say hello to your father, dear.”

He was a handsome man. His sharp jawline was devoid of hair and his obsidian eyes were looking at me warmly under his jet-black hair. Sweat had come together making small streams running down his face. His broad shoulders covered by the armor looked to be from the result of rigorous training. The same could be said for the other muscle parts.

Victoria explained to him how after he left for the three-day hunt, she had to call over a priest to heal my body. Holding onto her small sliver of hope, it was ruthlessly crushed when he suggested she prepare the ritual intended for the dead. This all happened before I opened my eyes, by the way.

“I knew those people were quacks!” He bellowed.

“Gale, watch what you are saying!”

He pleaded to her. “Why else would healing magic not work! They must have sent some unqualified dolt!” He looked like one of those demon paintings the temple had on its walls. I never understood why they hung them up.

“I don’t know either… but please calm down? Esther is watching...” It was only then that he noticed the situation. Messy armor stained with blood, dirty sweat covering his face, and he stank. He coughed and took a moment to collect himself. “So she doesn’t remember anything?”

“I think so, she even asked w-who I was…” Victoria broke out into a sob, again.

“Oh honey, come here. I didn’t mean to make you cry.” Now it was the wife’s turn to be consoled.

I watched them silently, as if watching a show or a play. Because that was what it felt like. A mother that tried her best for her sick daughter, and a father that came home concerned for that very same daughter. I had to suppress my laughter lest they find out that I wasn’t really her. I closed my eyes to try to wake up.

Yet another new day welcomed me as the rays of sun lit up the room and woke me up. A pleasant smell of plants filled the room. It smelled kind of like incense.

Victoria had fallen asleep while taking care of me for the umpteenth day. In the same chair by the bed. She looked exhausted with her raised shoulders, although the smile on her sleeping face indicated otherwise. Sitting there under the light, the dust being lit looked like stars dancing around her. She really looked like an angel and I imagined a halo above her head.

The body I was in felt particularly well today so I decided to snoop around the house a bit. Sneaking past the angel, I went out of the room carefully, making sure not to wake her up. The first thing I wanted to see was a mirror. You see, I still haven’t seen myself. The bedroom that I have been using since I woke up didn’t have one.

Opening the closest door in the hallway, a cozy small room greeted me. A bed, half the size of the one I’ve been using, sat against the wall. A short desk with a matching chair was placed under a window pointing towards the forest in the distance. Taking a look outside, the trees there were even greener than the ones at the temple. It looked peaceful, and the rustling leaves rooted me in place for a while.

Back to reality, I searched around the room for a mirror but found only some books placed haphazardly on the desk. They were all about plants and their medicinal properties. It was interesting how although I had never seen the type of script used in the books before, I could still understand the writing. Was this the effect of magic? It was cool enough.

With no sign of a mirror anywhere, I left the child-like room. The small distance between the rooms seemed to stretch indefinitely as I waddled one foot after the other. A trail of sweat painted my back and my legs wanted to cry by the time I survived the journey back to bed. My noisiness made Victoria wake up and she stretched her arms in the air like a cat.

“Good morning, sweetie. Did you sleep well?” I nodded. At least her smiling face was more pleasant to look at than her crying one.

“It smells like your father is cooking something delicious.” A mouth-watering aroma did fill the house and distracted me while I was snooping.

She came over to my side to give me headpats again. It was warm. “Oh dear, do you have a fever again? You are sweating so much!”

My body had gotten much better the past week with all the rest and food, and today, two weeks after I woke up for the first time, I finally got permission to venture outside of the house. Yesterday’s rain had soaked the garden behind the house, covering every blade of grass with water droplets.

I crouched down to the small pool of rainwater collected under the tallest tree. Reflected in the muddy puddle was a face resembling Victoria staring absentmindedly at me. It looked like a smaller version of her, a small angel. I tried to emulate her smile but had to stop. Even my smile looked weird in this prettier body.

“Esther!” Victoria was calling from the kitchen window, “Do you want to help your mother with preparing breakfast?”

“Coming!” I said. Standing up too fast got me a bit lightheaded, a feeling which had become far too familiar.

Yesterday, Victoria suggested I help her with preparing dinner and gave me some vegetables to play with. All I ever did these days was sleep and read the few books available in the house, even beginning to re-read some of them, so I accepted her suggestion readily.

The kitchen had some interesting things. A stone that, literally, made water appear. A stone that summoned a controllable fire, making cooking easier than using a gas stove top. I had almost burnt down the temple kitchen when I tried to cook something there for the first time. These stones that did magical things were aptly called magic stones.

Victoria gave me an apron and helped me tie a bow at the back. “Do you need me to show you how to cut them into cubes?” She always asked me whether I knew something or not.

“I think I got it,” I said.

It had been a while since I last held a knife. And folding each of my fingers around the handle, I couldn’t help but be reminded with how small my hands were. Still, I could still the familiar feeling of a blade’s weight, the balance point, and the overall craftsmanship. Giving it a few turns and flips, I came to the conclusion that it was a terrible knife. It felt upsetting really.

“Is it too heavy?” Victoria asked when she saw my face.

“No, it’s fine.” It wasn’t really fine.

The balance of the knife was out of whack, making one need to use more energy than necessary. Not to mention the dull and nicked blade edge catching the morning light like shattered glass as I inspected it. Despite my inner complaints, I still made quick work on the carrots, sawing them into suitable pieces.

Helping the monks in the temple prepare dinner had become routine. I had originally only wanted to make a dish to give back to the monks, and seeing my knifework, they asked me to help in the kitchen whenever I had time. I had a lot of time at the temple.

“Goodness, when did you get so good at preparing vegetables?” Oh, I got carried away. “You must have gotten it from me, because my daughter is so talented!” Victoria gushed and gave me a squeeze from behind.

“Mom it’s dangerous, I’m holding a knife.” Mom, mom, mom. I don’t think I will ever get comfortable saying that three-letter word.

“Sorry, sorry, you’re just so lovely! Oh, are these made to be stars?” Victoria studied one of my pieces. “Pretty cute…”

“I think they taste better as stars.” I placed the knife down on the kitchen table, making sure the tip pointed away from us.

“Hmm.” What? She didn’t agree? “Come here!”

A full on hugging attack. “How is my daughter this cute!”

I didn’t like Victoria. Nonetheless, whenever she hugged me with her warm arms, my heart ached. Whether it ached in a good way or a bad way required a few more hugs to know.

With cooking done, I set the table for three. Gale came down the stairs groggily scratching his belly.

“What’s for breakfast today?” He asked, slumbering toward his seat at the end.

“Vegetable stew and fried potatoes,” I said.

“Really? Sound’s delightful.” He gave me a smile. A smile which I only blinked in return.

He and I took a seat at the table while Victoria went around placing the different dishes.

She stood behind her husband and waved her hand. “Phew, you better wash up afterwards. I can practically smell the alcohol coming from you, how many did you have yesterday?”

Gale sighed. “I didn’t even get to take a sip, some guy spilled his whole cup all over me.” He tasted a spoonful of the stew. “Wow, is it just me or did your cooking get better lately?”

She smirked mischievously. “It’s a secret ingredient I added recently.”

He took another spoonful. “Poison is it?”

“What nonsense!” She crossed her arms. “Why would I poison the same food as Esther and I are eating.”

He whispered to me, “Esther, your mother didn’t deny it…”

“What you are tasting is the sweat and efforts of our daughter. She has helped me out in the kitchen lately.”

“Really? She did feel more mature lately, but to think my child is now all grown up…” Fake-wiping his fake tears, he gave me a few pats on the head.

“I should give a gift to my now all grown up daughter, say it and it shall be yours.” He said theatrically, eliciting a chuckle out of his wife.

“I don’t need anything,” I said.

Gale slumped his shoulders. “She really did go and grow up… How about this?” Rummaging through his pockets, he pulled out a silver coin.

“Isn’t a silver coin a bit much, honey? You could buy a day’s worth of food with that.”

“This is nothing, wait until you see this.” Leaving the table, he came back with a book in hand. “I heard you were interested in monsters.” It was a monster lexicon.

“Whoah.” I looked at the heavy book in my hands. Now I could finally see what the monsters in this world looked like.

“So my daughter likes monsters more than money, noted.”

Victoria commented, “Where do you keep finding these books? Aren’t they expensive?”

“Don’t worry, I got this for less than that silver coin.” He said something about it being sold everywhere en-masse.

Flipping through a few pages, I understood why Victoria didn’t worry too much about her husband going out and slaying monsters. Each page had a picture and a description of a monster. A rabbit with antlers, a deer with four eyes and other animals with an assortment of features either added or subtracted.

…Well, I guess you could call these weird animals monsters.

“Speaking of, you know the people I met yesterday? We are currently figuring out the last details about a really good job. A lot of money is sure to be paid out.”

Victoria started to clean up the table. “Really? Who are they?”

He explained how some fancy people from out of town had come here to find something, and needed people to show them the way. They wouldn’t give more details until they finalized the contract.

“We won’t have to worry about money for a while if my gut instinct is correct!”

“This sounds too good to be true, I’ve never heard of guarding duty being well paid?”

Gale leaned back into his chair. “Well, by the way she was acting, it looked like the leader was a noble. I would know.”

“A noble? Well, that does makes sense…”

I guess nobles splurged more money than necessary? They sound rich. Anyway, how should I spend this silver coin?