Pestered by damn old women

We were outside! I could see the world! Well not much of it if you’re wondering… Our house was surrounded by trees, kind of an out of the way place as expected… Not too far out but enough for privacy… A good and romantic place for a young couple, I guess? Not a romance expert…
“Cato seems very happy!” my mom said while holding me. “He can’t stop turning around!”

Oh yeah… I forgot to mention, Cato is my new name. No family name… Well, that wasn’t a big problem. Cato was nice and enough. Too bad for my mom that I didn’t yet feel like talking or I’d praise her on the name choice.

“What’s new about that? The little thing never stays still if he’s eyes are open… With how much he rushed to the door it’s no surprise.” My dad answered sounding a tad too tired of my shenanigans… ‘Sorry dad, but I bet you’d move like your ass was in fire too if you found yourself in a baby body in an entirely new world… Forgive me and endure, I’ll make your life easier in the future if you’ll allow or want it…’

We walked down a narrow yet well maintained path between some thick bushes and trees. The ground was covered in blanket of leaves. Each step of my parents was accompanied by the rustle of leaves and the smell of damp earth. All of it was seamlessly mixed with the sound of birds singing and distant clangs that sounded like bell chimes. From the clearing in which our house was it took about seven minutes to get out and see the rest of the settlement. It wasn’t a big place by any means, perhaps thirty houses in total, at least here. I could see cultivated fields outside on both sides of the road. Perhaps more houses were scattered out there… I had no way of knowing yet. The small path joined a stony dirt road… It looked like they wanted to cover it with small stones but then run out of them so they spread them out. Looking at how deeply lodged in the soil they were and how even the ground was, I rather believed that all the stones were sunken and covered by a layer of dirt… A testament of the use the road saw and of the many winters it witnessed. There was nothing special about the houses of the village unlike what I expected. They were all similarly made of wood and had the signs of renovations. New pieces of wood were mixed with old ones giving the place a very rustic look. It was a powerful call to reality. This wasn’t just some forgotten place, the humans here were real, each with their troubles and happiness. In comparison my problems until now, even those of my past life couldn’t compare…

My peace and time for thoughts didn’t last long. Soon the many housewives gathered around. Probably this moment was something planned… Perhaps a tradition? Younger children were perhaps not introduced because they had a low chance of surviving, a grim reality.

“Linnea your little critter takes after his father, you must be disappointed…” One of the older ones said.

"I was at first," my mother admitted with a laugh, shifting me in her arms. "Nine months of waiting, with several of agonizing pain, and he comes out with his father's stubborn brow. But I'm hoping he inherits my smile. At least this one seems to know what to do with it, unlike that sourpuss I married. He even looks wise at times…”

“Really? Then give him here so we can see him better! What are you waiting?” the same woman said. She seemed to be the wife of the village chief or at the very least someone that was at the core of the housewives.

Anyway I took her words as a threat. I was about to be manhandled by a bunch of old women how could I be happy? I looked at my mom with a look of horror clinging harder trying to convey my unwillingness… Unfortunately, my mom was blind to my efforts and had far crueler plans for me… What could I do? I was doomed!

"No problem, Eld-Mother Edith, as per the tradition you are to be the first to hold him now, of course, no need to be so impatient…” She held me out to the woman… Edith she called her… Bah, Edith, Medith same thing, my torture begins!

Of course my father soon left to his on work and I was left to be touched, caressed, stared at, spun and checked by each one of the women. Each one seemed to check me for a physical problem they decided upon first and all were happily passing me on and around, seemingly not finding any problems. I was grateful for the checkup but having so many persons around was exhausting. That is not even considering that any hope for privacy was shattered. How was I supposed to face these women when I got a bit older knowing they literally saw everything from now?

After being fully checked by the elderly, some younger women and some girls got to have me while the adults started the usual exchange for the daily necessities… What can I say… My mom abandoned me! I became the plaything of these fair skinned devils! Heeeeeelp!!! All jokes aside the girls were actually careful and gentle, I had to give them that, but in the harsh economy of the village it seems I became a currency to be exchanged for good will. The girls tried to make me laugh… Too bad that I was as sour as my father. After the embarrassment from earlier there was no way I’d be in the mood for cheap laughs at funny faces. But I had to say that it was weird how well the people here looked. At least by my standards they were definitely more beautiful than what I was used to in my past life. For example one of these younger girls that was very proactive in trying to get me to crack had very smooth and rich hair, the kind that women in my past life would kill for… Not just that but her skin was without blemish despite her looking like she was fourteen. She had delicate features and thin rosy lips… Perhaps her lips were thin due to her making strange faces at me… Anyway, you get the gist of things. The others were similarly drawn with very little imperfections and seamless smiles. The boys weren’t far off either, but the features tended to be more rigid or sharper. I saw some standing further away, probably knowing that when so many women gathered getting close was only going to make for a good source of humiliation later.

Still I had no idea of what was I supposed to do. I still didn’t want to start speaking since I couldn’t perfectly pronounce and formulate propositions. By now I also realized that there were no books around to learn reading and I doubted I would have an easy time learning by matching the words with the inscriptions on paper. Besides I wasn’t even sure that there was anyone that knew to read here… Back in my world teaching was organized around the church, here didn’t seem to be any such thing and while I was happy I didn’t have to feign belief, I was really out of ideas for how I’d be able to come in contact with the knowledge I needed. Not to be rude but this backwater place didn’t seem like it had anyone capable on instructing me on the use of this new energy that I’ll call aether for the sound of it. Now the absence of a teacher wouldn’t really be a problem honestly. Some small experiments driven by boredom told me that this aether could nourish and strengthen living beings but would not affect the functions of the body…

Now that I think about it perhaps it was due to aether that the people here looked better… It’s constant flow removed and fixed the minor problems in the bone and skin structure that would cause exaggerated features or asymmetries. Perhaps that meant that the younger I started working with aether the more benefits I’d have? I have seen stuff like this described in my past life and even the Taoist meditation contained techniques for this, however those were more of a side effect that came with the life prolonging. I wonder if here emotions were more potent and contagious as a result as well. After all aether readily answered my will, did that mean that if I was happy others around me would get that sense of happiness conveyed through aether and be put in a better mood too? How funny it would be if the best therapy in this world was just jumping in a group of happy go lucky people…

‘Oh I’m making strange faces again I guess’ The girls were all looking at me strangely while I was sitting on a bench. What? Was I that weird? Oh well get used to it cause I’m not changing! Anyway I grew used and resigned to my fate of being at the center of attention here.

Soon my mom came back and picked me up to go home. ‘Finally! I escaped! I’m saved! But I won’t forgive you, traitor!’ I was happy for a bit then threw an ugly glare at my mother. Seeing me like that she only burst out laughing. Damn it! No matter what I do will be funny since I’m just her cute baby to her! Ha… Whatever… Let’s just get home faster… Wait… If I think like this I’ll grow into a shut in… Should I consider an office job then? Are there offices in this world? On the way back my mom would not stop asking me stuff as if she was expecting me to answer…

“Did you like our little village? Are you happy now that you went out? So where the girls nice to you?”

What was I supposed to do? How shocked would she be if I talked and answered her? Anyway, we got home and I was put down on the floor while mom went back out. Probably to get whatever it was she exchanged for. I crawled to a corner and started meditating. I was still very suspicious of the effects aether had on the body and its interactions with the rest of the vital energies but that didn’t stop me from simply consolidating my inner vision. I closed my eyes and sunk my mind inwards. Now I was able of keeping an eye on both lower and middle dan tians without a problem, I could sense the main vessels of the body too. It was an interesting experience that is hard to describe through words. Unless one did it himself it was impossible to imagine how the vessels and meridians looked or felt like in reality.

Even if one used the TCM diagrams and models to imagine it would be useless. Those meridian charts were pretty much just a generalized incomplete model that only showed some main channels and acupoints, the actual reality was far more complex, it differed from person to person and its complete exploration took a lifetime… With about 72000 channels and grand achievement implying one not only charted and verified them all but was also able to be fully aware of each one in each moment. Even while walking or drinking. But that was also partly unnecessary for my own goals, or rather it was a hard to reach realm of awareness of the body, that only became harder to achieve in this world where aether flooded the senses and blinded one to the subtle energetic forms. Not only did I have to still myself to not cause noise, I also had to still the aether within to stop it from blinding me.

Anyway, soon my mom was back and started preparing food. Up till now I was still breastfed which in the minds of many men would be bliss I think, but I assure that only degenerates would enjoy this. It was humiliating and it felt like I was intruding. I was a damn adult in a child body so there was nothing I could do, but I really did not enjoy this situation. It was demeaning… Luckily it all ended today as from what I understood I’d be eating cooked food from now on! About damn time. Weren’t babies supposed to eat solid food at 4 months old? You sure took your sweet time holding it back till 6…

Later my father returned from his work, which was unusual. I thought that mom was going to go and bring him food, but it seemed not today. Then both my father and mother came to me. My father laid down four things. A small cane, a feather, a wooden sword and a small wooden harvesting scythe. I looked at those things strangely. I was expecting my parents to say something or to do something to make me understand what they wanted, but nothing came. Only expectant gazes at me. I started thinking rapidly and, after a while, an idea popped up in my head. Was this that thing with the first thing the baby picks is what he’ll do?

So I crawled forward and put myself on my butt. I definitely did not want to be a farmer so I guess all the other were better. The sword might be something like a warrior but I lacked understanding about what the feather or cane could mean in this world… But I was someone that wanted to learn as much as possible so I quickly came up with an idea. I took all three! Aren’t I a genius? My parents looked at me baffled then gave me some wry smiles... I guess they wanted me to pick just one. Well, no way. Go on say something let me know what trickery is this!