CHAPTER 3 - A MARK ON THE WORLD

Year 604

We gazed up at the starry night alongside my best friend, Arlo. Today is both of our 4th birthdays. Both our fathers are in a drunken state as we just enjoy the nice patchy grass outside the main hut that my father owns. It's nothing overly fancy, but the walls extrude a cinderblock structure and straw and iron reinforced walls to deal with water. The windows are clear and glass-like with yellow and green tints showcasing across the 2-3 mile long fields.

Houses expand outward, leaving space for the crop fields to stretch miles and miles further. It didn't take me long to realize I was reborn in the bustling outlands of some medieval farm or crop field. While I am still learning everything, these people seem to use magic in everyday life to enhance everything they do. However, they call it Spirit Reathing, which sounds odd.

I told Arlo we would study some more tomorrow, and he responded that he was always bored and did not want to waste time staring at books. I assured him that the results of these books would pay off tenfold. He signs before heading across the dirt road towards his house, which is nearly similar to mine, just with less space around the edges.

It took me only a short bit to learn my new name Toki, which is as shorter than my last name, so I don't mind all too much. I have black hair that I assume I pulled from my mother, as my father has a different hair color though I often hear I have his face.

I do recall in my past life that it's an actual biological survival mechanism to look like your father in some way so they feel the urge to protect you more and it raises the child's survival rate. It's nice to see this in action.

What I still find most upsetting is that I would have loved to be reborn further into the future with advanced technology; this is Sean's dream more than anything. Then there is the issue with the ghostly spirit women who still haven't shown up once after four years. Perhaps it was just an illusion and one of those visions you get as you die.

Regardless over the last four years, I've come to accept what I can control and focused on learning as much as possible from this place.

Arlo has already begun using magic. Also, I always get scolded for calling it magic instead of spirit energy or spirit reathing, but I personally don't see the difference and will continue to call it such.

My mother and father are both impeccable role models and while im upset about being reborn here and having little control over anything, I can safely say I, at the very least, have capable parents to guide me in this world until I have grasped everything and can head out on my own.

Marris, my mother, has long black hair, a sleek build, and is roughly 5" 2, maybe 5" 3; I've come to notice she uses wind magic and can lift objects with ease and, in a way, bend the air around her. Even on the hottest days, she's always without a drop of sweat. I imagine this is due to her having a current flow of air around her, almost like a portable fan.

Father is a testy man, Tall in stature, and could be mistaken for a statue himself if he stood still long enough. His name is odd, and I don't think I've fully learned to say it right yet.

Samoht the Clay maker. Always loud and talking about how we must worship the holy meteor and the divine gods who blessed it upon us. I've never been on for religion, but I find myself questioning life more after the last events in my old life.

I recall the moments of my blacking out, waking up in a small hamper of dirty clothes, and just wondering about Sean and why he was in my dying vision. Maybe he got reborn somewhere with spaceships and fancy boats as a way the gods can mock me.

Regardless of these events, I have taken it upon myself to study this world and do what I can to excel. Being a rural farm area, this place is packed with thousand, if not a hundred thousand, people. A stone building is chiseled down to the fine marble details, with pillars holding up the building.

Big wooden doors encompass it. At first, I assumed this was some type of official building where members of the government would plan events.

But no, this was the region's library filled with thousands of books brimming two stories tall. Of course, they wouldn't let a small child that is just learning to speak check out books thoroughly, so I convinced my father to grab me some books so I could study them. He smirks and laughs, thinking im just playing with them, not expecting me to be able to read these books.