Age is Just a Number

Full disclosure, many of the nerdy things I did during my time on Planet Earth circa 2021 involved watching isekai and transmigration anime, as well as reading lightnovels from Japanese and Korean authors, no matter how badly they were translated. Secretly, deep, deep, DEEEEEP down, I kind of always wished for something like this to happen to me. Maybe I hated how my world seemed to be spiraling the drain or how men seemed more interested in Photoshopped faces on Tinder than real women, but I wanted to bail from that flaming bus ages ago.

So here I stood, beside the Chief of the village – who happened to be the Crowned Prince of hotties – discussing the future with a group of elders of a small pre-medieval village in a pre-medieval country of, wait for it…

Beast. People.

As in people who regularly transformed into animals. Not even regular animals, but animals on a strict diet of steroids and the blood of their enemies.

Trust me, so far? It's just as wild as it sounds.

So far my task is to help these guys out when it comes to technological advancements and…uh…inundating the gene pool with my brand of awesome. I guess.

The only one I'm really excited about is the advancements.

So. Going back to my earlier statement. Isekais and transmigration, right? There are tons of stories out there detailing goobers who had been dropped into medieval times and turned around making a mint or collecting a huge following simply by bringing often-underappreciated technologies from our world and manifesting them in whatever world they landed in.

I mean, I'm assuming that's why we get to keep our memories, anyway.

The problem, of course, is that basically in every story I read, the worlds they moved to had magic. From what I could tell, so far, there wasn't any…but some things didn't add up, either. How did mating marks work, for example? From what I read in the novel, they just appeared like a magical tattoo on a female's skin, and, theoretically, she could have as many mates as she had inches of skin. Then there were the stones harvested from this world's dinosaurs – which could be beast people in their own right! – which somehow lengthened someone's lifespan. And merpeople and their weirdo talents which made no sense in the animal kingdom I knew of.

And what about all this shapeshifting everywhere?!

Surely this world had some sort of magic going on. Could it be that these people simply haven't discovered it?

And even if they did, how could they harness it? Or even sit down long enough to think about it?

Oh! There must be magic in the world! What about that ape beastman with his mental powers?

I could definitely discover magic if I really tried. That would be a huge step forward for these people…but, naturally, there were easier things to start with.

The discussion between the chief and the elders had continued without me and by the time I was tuning back in with my own set of random questions, Gharret's mother was imploring him to get on my good side and mate with me, already.

My cheeks flushed red as I cleared my throat, drawing their attention.

"So…not to change the subject but we never properly introduced ourselves, had we? I apologize for that and I will go first. I would greatly appreciate if you followed suit." This, of course, was not only a ploy to learn their names, but the average lifespan of beastpeople in this world. "I am Zion Ordaz. A human from Earth. I am 22 years old. Unmarri-uh..mated. Unmated, I mean." I blushed and laughed a little nervously at my fumble if only to sell it as such.

They chuckled a little and Gharret's mother was the first to answer, taking a stand from her seat.

"I am Caroline, a fox beastman." Honestly, that explained SO much… "I am 150 years old and sadly widowed. All 30 of my darlings died a long time ago, I'm afraid," she said with a sad smile and a chuckle before she took her seat. My jaw hit the floor. This lady looked like she was barely in her 70's!!! What the heck?!

The next to stand was a little old man with a mop of hair that covered the top half of his face and two very long, proud ears that stood up from the top of his head.

"You may call me Jack. I am the youngest at 105, a hare beastman. My sweet mate is still alive and kicking. She'll be birthing another litter shortly."

A few more introduced themselves, also: a female sheep beastperson by the name of Holly, a male forest cat beastperson named Gregory, and another wolf beastman who purported himself to be one of Gharret's uncles by the name of Nevin. Finally, the last one got to his feet, towering over the others, and the only one who looked roughly close in age to Gharret.

"Call me Vernon, little girl. I am one of the longest-lived stag beastman in the entire kingdom at 250 years old. And thanks to the Goddess, I have been mated many times and unmated just as often." He bent his head back and laughed at his own misfortune.

In the books, he would have been one of the many to inhabit the city of cast-offs or be a wandering beastman fated to never mate again and be forever ostracized from society. I guess she fixed that and it made me smile a little. Just because one of those bitches rejected a male didn't give anyone any right to reject that person, also.

"It is wonderful to meet each and every one of you. Truly, I am honored by your presence and…"

WAIT THE HECK A SECOND.

My brain really needs to stop reacting so slowly…

DID HE SAY…?!

"Wait. 250 years old?! How are you not dead yet?!" I gasped in horror, which caused the other elders to laugh as he threw his own head back to thunderous guffaws.

So…that was a fun experiment…not so much for breaking my brain, but uh…