Time had now passed, and years had come and go, and I'm glad to say that I wasn't that newborn baby that I was three years ago. Now I have grown. I was a toddler, though I don't know if that's the right term to call myself a toddler. I may be a baby once again and reliving all my baby years. Sure, unlike the first time, I didn't know anything because I wasn't a thirty-two year old assassin who was trapped in a baby's body.
I've never had any experience with having or handling a baby in my former life, and though I grew up in an orphanage jumping from one family to the next, my old parents didn't really leave me with much, like for instance a younger sibling, so I was all alone.
Now I was a three year old baby, and I'm glad to say after trying so hard to push myself to do the impossible in the first two years, I really struggled with a lot. I couldn't speak, and all I could say was just baby noises that I myself, as the speaker of those words, understood, of course, but the same couldn't be said with my new parents. Whenever I would try and say something, they would totally misquote it and say a different thing that I didn't even try to say.
For instance, let's say if I made my baby noises. To translate them:
If I said,
"Ooh, Ooh, da-da!"
My parents, especially my dad, would say,
"Honey, I think Cain wants to go outside and watch his old man try out some new magic tricks."
Which was not even close to what I said, but because he was my dad and he loved showing off his new magic tricks to me, heh, talk about can't teach an old dog new tricks. When it came to my dad, he'd force himself to find a new way to learn that new trick, and as much as I'd hate to say, he wasn't really having the best of luck.
After all that misquoting, I think my mom knew better, because maybe it was our mother and son link, but she knew I didn't say any of those words. But because she knew how much dad needed to spend some time with his one and only son, she'd pretend like that's what I said and allow us to go out.
But in honest truth, and honestly speaking, all I actually said in those three baby words was,
"I wonder what mom had cooked for me today?"
Oh yes, unlike the first time, now I'm more than old enough to eat real people stuff, and I was so glad when I tasted my real first meal, because though I'm not complaining, eating soft baby food for almost two years really does get old for a person.
My parents really loved me. I mean, they showed me so much compassion and unconditional love, the kind that I didn't even know existed nor was even a possibility.
So my life was wonderful, and though I had both parents, I would often spend a lot of time with my mother, who goes by the name of Nora Everest, by the way.
Because my dad, Rick Everest, was always gone, since he was what, if I remember very well from my mom telling me stories, my dad was part of this royalty guard that would go around hunting monsters that seemed to have crossed over to our world.
I know that sounds made up. There is no such thing as monsters. Everyone sane knows that. I will also admit I used to think that too, up until I had hurt myself trying to climb a tree all by myself while dad was still distracted trying to find a new spell to try.
I remember that day like it was yesterday, but it was actually six months ago. I had hurt myself so bad that I opened up one hell of a wound, where my bone would come out of my elbow.
And yes, I know, since I'm an assassin and have had so many hurtful accidents, this one was particularly painful. Plus, I was also young, so I screamed, cried, and kicked so loud I could be heard throughout all the multiverse.
Dad rushed me inside the house, and I've never seen him so scared in his life ever before like that. From all the great stories that he'd tell me, he really sounded brave and strong.
My dad was so many things, even possibly being not one of the brightest people, but he was pretty amazing.
He was trembling, crying, and even trying to say some words, but they really didn't make any sense.
So my mom dropped everything she was doing, which was washing the dishes, and she rushed over.
"W–what happened?!" She was also shaking.
Then dad tried to explain, but he was busy crying so much it was really hard to make out any words he'd say.
While I was busy trying to climb the tree, honestly speaking, I really had no idea what I was trying to do, but the tree really looked so beautiful. It was beautifully green. Its leaves seemed to have just grown over a day ago, and the plush fruits of all kinds that came, each second after a different one grew.
I wasn't really interested in the fruits. I was interested in the thing that I couldn't quite catch clearly to see, but it felt like there was something trying to catch my attention. I didn't know what it was, but it was calling to me, and it even reached out its beautiful smooth hand to help me up.
And since I was dumb, and since I was a child, I went along, took the beautiful hand, climbed the tree. Then, when I got on top of the tree, this thing seemed to be coming into the clear. I think I saw a young girl, probably older than me by two years, looking back and smiling at me.
Now there was a one way down slide, and as much as I tried to fight just for her to let me go, her grip was strong, and her once happy, beautiful expression would change and become dark and evil. Even her hand was now changing, becoming dark like her.
Obviously, I was afraid for my life. Yes, I'm not supposed to be afraid of anything, and thanks to my old job I'd seen a lot of crazy things, but no one would have prepared me for that.
From down the tree was beautiful, but once we got on top, it was rotten. Like every beautiful thing I saw had died and decomposed for more than a year now. It even had this foul stench, like someone died there.
"Come on, don't worry. Once we go through here, on the other side it's even more beautiful!" The girl said as she was trying to convince me.
"No, I don't want to. I think my mom is calling me now, so let me go. We'll go again tomorrow." I tried to reason with her and tried to free my hand.
"No, don't go. We are almost there!" The girl just kept pressing.
"Let me go! I don't want to go anymore!" I kept trying to yank her back so I could actually free my hand.
Clearly, it seemed like I was winning, because she was slowly retreating. Maybe it must have been my strength from my previous life.
But victory was short-lived when the girl suddenly changed and became even more hostile.
"No, I said we will go!" Her voice was completely different. It sounded like it was hurting, but at the same time trapped.
"Let go!" I also became even stronger, enough that I had finally managed to free myself, and then I must have tripped, because I just found myself falling.
And when I landed on the ground, there was this loud crack.
CRACK!!!
At first, I didn't know what it was. Maybe the adrenaline was still overflowing, but something told me to look at my arm, and that's when I saw it.
My arm was not only broken, but also twisted to face the direction an arm shouldn't have faced, and my bone was popping out.
That's when I screamed.
And then dad came and took me to the house.
I really thought there was nothing much that they could do, but only try to bandage dress me themselves, because not even a single one of them said anything about taking me to the doctor.
I heard mom say, "Quick, step back. Let me heal him while the wound is still fresh!"
Dad stepped back like mom had told him to, and after that she knelt down next to me and placed her hand on my broken arm.
"Don't worry, baby. Mommy's going to heal you in just a second, okay?" Mom looked into my eyes, and she saw the pain I was experiencing.
"Okay!" I was sniffling.
Then she proceeded to press her hand against me, and I saw a yellow, low, bright light appear in her hand, and I swear for a moment I felt my wound healing up and my broken bone going back to its place and mending itself up.
And when she removed her hand, I was totally healed, like nothing even happened.
I was mesmerized by this, and I kept looking and feeling my arm.
"How did you do this, mommy?" I asked her.
"With magic, of course." She smiled as she hugged me.
"Magic?" She could see right away that I had no idea what she was spewing.
"Yes, and don't worry. I'll teach it to you soon when you have your own awakening, but first tell me what were you doing in that old tree?" She held my face.
"I saw her." I pointed towards the tree.
And they both looked at the tree, but I don't think they saw her.
"You saw who, son?" Dad asked, now worried.
"Her, a beautiful girl. She wanted me to play with her." I kept pointing at the girl because I was still seeing her.
They both looked at each other and looked at me, and I knew that look. It was a look that said I was crazy.
But as I kept looking at the girl, because I knew what I was talking about and I knew I wasn't crazy, she was slowly backing away, and it seemed like a shadow was also retreating with her.
She kept waving at me as she was disappearing into the tree, and once she was out of sight, she waved and smiled at me, and as the shadow completely shadowed the tree.
It decayed before my very eyes, becoming old, like all the beauty of it I saw was just in my head and all gone.
And I just lost consciousness.