Solstice Birthday (Part 1)

The morning of the winter solstice finally arrived. It was the one day a year that Vivi took a day off work. She was still sleeping soundly next to me. The sleep deprivation of an entire year of waking up early and working late catching up to her. To be fair, it was still dark outside, with only the four moons providing light. At some point during the night, she had stolen Rosie from me and was holding her around the midriff like a giant plushie. Rosie was awake and stared at me pleadingly to free her from Vivian's iron grip. I disregarded her pleas, it was her own fault for being so damned cute and soft.

I got out of bed and exchanged my fluffy pajamas for black leggings and a white tunic. On top of that, I put on a thick set of formal robes and tied them with a large decorative sash. The sash had a pattern on it that looked like golden rope painted by an abstract artist. The robes still had slits down the side of the legs to allow movement, but it was unlikely I would need to move wildly on my birthday. The robes were brand new, and not worn out from training like every other set I owned. Unlike the other robes, which were dyed the family colors of Lilac with royal purple trim, I had these dyed royal purple with golden trim. The family crest sat on the left breast as usual, except instead of royal purple embroidery like my combat robes, this was made of white embroidery thread.

You may be curious about what this family crest depicted. It was a round shield held by a cat on its hind legs, that's right, a cat, not a lion. This was on purpose. The cat represented the pursuit of curiosity even to the point of endangering one's self. Only one image was depicted on the shield, and it was customized to the individual. In the foreground would be the back of the head of a man or woman, in the middle ground would be a field of lilacs and in the background would be whatever the individual pursued. For my grandfather, it was chests filled with gold. For my father, it was vast sets of alchemical instruments with active experiments. For my mother, it was the mechanical glove she often used and made modifications to. For me, power was a difficult concept to represent, but ultimately we decided on placing an older version of the foreground character in the background, one with an idealized body and power radiating off of it. Vivian's control was even more difficult to depict in any flattering way. Ultimately we had decided on featuring Vivian's desk at the warehouse, perfectly organized with everything in its place, and a place for everything.

Finally, I brushed my long hair out. Vivian still snored loudly in bed. She had turned partially onto her stomach and was now pinning Rosie to the bed. Rosie continued to plead with her face for me to help her. I continued to ignore her. I tied my hair behind me with a hairpin. I still wasn't used to it, but it was more preferred on formal occasions than ribbons or hair ties. To me, it was like sticking a chopstick in my hair. It was still a mystery to me how this random stick miraculously held my hair together. But I had practiced the instructions my sister had given me, and after many failed attempts, eventually could succeed at the task, even without understanding it. I didn't put my hair up in a bun, only tied it into a knot and let the rest of my hair flow in a narrow stream down my back.

After I ensured I was cute as a button, I put on a pair of leather boots. These boots went up to the top of my calves, the soft side of the leather pointed out. The insides of the boots were lined with soft, black tiger-rabbit fur. In addition to having a generously thick sole on the bottom of these boots, they also had slightly raised heels. I had finally attained 3' 4" in height, but I was leagues behind my peers. I didn't know why I was so short, but I was starting to get a complex about it. I even spent a week eating as much food as I possibly could, thinking it may be a nutrition problem. I temporarily gained a pudgy belly but didn't gain even a fraction of an inch in height.

It was cold and drafty in parts of the villa during winter so I also put on a pair of fingerless, supple-leather gloves lined with cotton. Ready for the day, I snuck quietly over to the bed with my sleeping sister. Rosie nearly cried tears of joy thinking I was about to save her. When I was right next to the edge of the bed, I jumped up high and slammed down on the wooden floor with my boots, producing a loud bang. Vivian jumped even higher than I did, but much less gracefully, and a tiny fox went flying. I caught Rosie. Vivian landed in an unsightly heap back on the bed.

"Good Morning Vivi," I said with a bright smile on my face while Vivian glared daggers at me.

Rosie tried to get free, but I held her tightly. It was now my turn to hold her like a plushie doll. Rosie resigned herself to her fate. I didn't even mind the copious amounts of red fur she was shedding on my robes. I played with her black toe beans while Vivian got ready for the day. Like me, Vivi opted to wear Royal purple, it was a bit of a family tradition on our birthdays. She wore a long sleek dress that reached her ankles. The dress had a high collar and long sleeves with wide openings at the hands. She also tied her hair back similarly to me, except her hair wasn't quite as long, she kept it shorter because of the warehouse work. I knew I would likely have to cut my hair shorter as well, as it could become a liability in combat, but for now, I kept it long. She also did a bit of makeup, or she tried to anyway, she normally didn't bother, so she wasn't used to it. When I started seeing the first hints of dawn outside the window, which meant it was already late into the winter day, I convinced her to abandon the makeup.

"Vivi, you're cuter without the makeup anyways, we're going to be late to our birthday breakfast if you keep fussing with it." I put on my charm as a little sister.

"Do you really think so?" Vivian blushed and asked.

"Yes, now wipe that stuff off, and let's go eat," I demanded.

Vivian seemed to realize something, "You just want to eat, don't you? You don't really care about my appearance one way or the other, do you?"

"Guilty as charged! Now let's go, I'm starving." I shamelessly replied.

Vivian sighed in resignation, then wiped the makeup off. Finally, we left for breakfast. I set Rosie down, and she instantly gained the zoomies, running here and there wildly as if to scream "Freedom!" at the top of her lungs. I cycled my Qi, reversing the charge of my skin and clothing, and the shed fur dropped to the ground. A little trick I discovered while Li Kai was training me in martial arts. I thought I could probably make a fortune writing a book titled "101 Uses of Qi Even a Mortal Can Master" with the little things I had picked up here and there. But some of the things I had learned were probably adjacent to sect secrets, so I decided not to.

Instead of going straight to the kitchen for breakfast like we normally would, instead we went to the dining chamber. The table was already laden with all of our favorite breakfast foods. Many of the foods I hadn't tried in my previous life or since I arrived in this life. I was a bit of a picky eater, but apparently, Zoey liked these foods, and I was Zoey. New life, new taste buds. I dove into the wide variety of breakfast pastries. They were definitely sweeter than I could've tolerated in my past life, and the texture of the jam-filled pastries would've driven the past me crazy. But for the current me, these were all heavenly nectars. Zoey definitely had a sweet tooth, a whole mouth full of them. It's a good thing I would be cultivating soon and tooth rot would be much less likely after that. I swam through the breakfast delicacies like a ravenous shark. By the end of breakfast, my stomach was bloated, and my previously elegant face was smeared with crumbs and jam. For nearly an hour I stared off into space in a food coma. Rosie was in a similar situation, the cook had given her a large roasted rabbit garnished with wild berries. She napped on my lap with berry juice still smeared on her lips.

Vivian and I spent the rest of the playing a variety of table games with a few guards and servants. Fred was sweating as he had lost 13 hands of Eternia's version of poker to me in a row. I didn't even need to cheat with my luck stat, but it was hard not to. Fred's shiny armor reflected his hand, whether I wanted to see it or not. Fred's luck stat had to be terrible. Fortunately, we were only playing for favors. Still, Fred now owed 13 favors to me. I immediately began planning how I could use those favors in my future pranks. I even wondered if I could somehow employ Fred to prank himself.