~ Chapter 8: A new life. A new family. ~

Because of my many accidents back on Earth, I often found myself scrolling through numerous medical articles or research papers on various subjects. Not that I understood a great deal from them, but like any other patient lying on a bed in a hospital, I was concerned with whether or not the injuries I suffered were going to have any lasting effects. This and the fact that I had a lot of free time were the main two reasons.

So, among the things I read, there was an article on genetic memory, which stated that it was a fact that humans couldn't remember anything from the time they were in their mother's womb up to when they became toddlers, when the earliest possible memories began to form. However, humans apparently had the ability to store memories, skills, and experiences in their DNA. How this was possible was still uncertain and even a lot of the data in the research paper was skeptical at best, but I was starting to believe it wasn't our DNA that retained the said memories but rather it was our souls.

Right from the moment when I came into existence in Sapherya's world, because of my special constitution gifted to me by those gods, I was able to feel and somewhat be aware of myself. As my brain and nervous system started to develop, the act of thinking became a possibility.

Even though I had yet to be born, I understood that I was safe and most importantly loved by my new mother, whom I had yet to meet. The sensations I felt as a growing fetus couldn't be explained in words, and my thoughts were often cut. One moment I was barely growing my limbs and in the next I was clenching a fist. It was weird to say the least.

It didn't take long for me to realize that I wasn't alone in there. My yet to be born twin sister was right by my side, floating in the amniotic liquid. Instinctively, I felt the need to protect her, to keep her safe from harm, but there was nothing I could do while we were still in there. This was father and mother's job, my only priority now was to grow up and be a happy child.

As time went by, we slowly developed and grew bigger. I was certain we ended up causing a lot of trouble for dear mother whenever our tiny limbs moved and hit the soft walls around us. Although still an unborn baby, at one point, my sister managed to land a right hook on my chin. It didn't hurt or anything, but I had to praise her instinctive aim. I also knew it wasn't intentional, my own body reacted the same way without me willing it. This was just nature's way of making sure that everything from our nervous system to our skeletal system was working properly.

When it was finally time for us to come out and greet the world, everything happened quite fast. One moment I was inside the warm womb and in the next I was crying my lungs out because of a stinging pain on my bottom. The other reason I cried was because of the bright light when I first opened my eyes. I felt like I was going to go blind. It startled me terribly. Next one to go through the same thing was my sister. Since I was the one who was born first, I became the older brother.

We both got cleaned up and tucked up in a warm cotton towel. Then, I was moved and held by someone. I first thought it was a nurse or one of those old women who usually help during childbirth. I was wrong... The one who held me was my mother, and her loving soothing voice calmed us down immediately. Once more, I felt safe and at peace.

As time went by, I realized how troublesome a baby's body was. All I did was cry, sleep, and poop. At first, I only saw a blurry world, but slowly, my eyes adjusted, and I was able to see properly. This happened after three weeks or so, but this was only an estimation. I fell asleep so often that my sense of time was seriously messed up. One moment it was morning, the next it was night and I saw father's sleepy face with bags under his eyes.

There was a big reason for this. When my sister was asleep, I was the one crying. When I was asleep, she was the one crying. We never woke up each other, which led to mother and father barely catching a wink of sleep. Luckily, we also had a pretty maid, and she helped them quite a lot with us trouble-making twins.

Speaking of which, me and my sister shared the same crib, and as a baby, she was so adorable, I could melt from her cuteness! That was why whenever someone took her out, I ended up glaring at them. When it was feeding time, I was restless and grumpy until mother realized that I wanted my sister to be fed first.

Honestly though, I began to worry that I may end a bit too overprotective of her. Even if she was my twin and most likely ended up sharing my hyper regeneration and strengthened bones mutation, I feared she could still be in a lot of danger. Of course, I was thinking only of ridiculous situations such as what if an asteroid fell on top of her head, or what if the Demon King suddenly attacked her.

As if something like THAT would ever happen to her!

Little sister, this older brother of yours had a very weird head on his shoulders.

A few weeks after we were born, I said my first word.

“Mama!” I called out one day.

Mother dropped the plate she was holding and rushed to my side immediately. She was so happy, I thought she was going to melt, while I felt like I was going to barf because she picked me up too fast.

She kept saying something along the lines of: 'mother is happy', then something about me being smart or a fruit cake. I had yet to learn this language, so I couldn't understand what she said exactly, but all of this affection she showered me with made my little sister envious, and to retaliate, she made a cute little pout.

Several days later, after a great deal of effort, she said her first word as well, but not exactly what everyone was expecting...

When father was holding her, she reached out for him and said that language word for 'poop'. She was calling father 'poop' instead of 'papa'. The poor man was devastated, while mother had a laughing fit when she heard it. Instead of being discouraged, this only made our father more eager towards teaching my little sister the right way to say 'papa'.

In terms of looks, I had to say that I landed in a family filled with beautiful people. My mother was a blonde beauty with a generous chest and a drill haircut. Her blue eyes were as clear as the sky, while her smile radiated with happiness. She was also able to use magic because more than once, I saw her summon water from thin air, starting the fire with a flick of her finger, or she floated us around using air magic.

When I first witnessed her casting a spell, I also learned how Magic Energy felt like. It was similar to a presence of sorts that floated in the air around us. When casting, this energy vibrated and changed according to the caster's will. Unfortunately, besides feeling it, I couldn't do anything else with it.

Well, it would have been weird anyway if I could cast spells before I was even able to walk.

Unlike mother, father was a stern-looking man, always wearing an elegant attire and spoke in a well-mannered tone. He had chestnut short cut hair and green eyes brimming with energy. Although I never saw him use magic, I believed he simply never had the chance to show it.

We also had a maid in the house. She had long black hair all the way down to her shoulders, gentle black eyes, and a rather small chest when compared to mother. I never saw her without her typical maid clothes, but there was a peculiar item she always wore. It was a black collar around her neck with carved runes in it. Ever since I became able to feel Magic Energy, I realized that a faint trace of it could be found in that collar as well.

My guess was that she wasn't just an ordinary maid but our family's slave. I wasn't that surprised, Sapherya did say this world employed the use of the slavery system.

Not long after we both said our first words and were struggling with the second one, mother started to seriously teach us the language by reading us all sort of stories. Unfortunately, this world lacked in easy to understand picture books, but little by little, we were both making some visible progress.

One thing needed to be mentioned though: baby bodies grew tired very very fast. When we woke up, we were brimming with energy, but after three hours, we fell asleep cuddling each other.

At this rate, it took me another three whole months to be able to somewhat understand mother, but my baby mouth was unable to properly reproduce all the sounds. I didn't mind, I had time to spare, but I was seriously starting to wonder if learning other languages was going to be this hard or I simply had a hard time because I was a baby.

On the bright side of things, I learned what our names were!

Mother was called Melissa Drakarys. Father was called Reynald Drakarys. My little sister's name was Cassandra Osyris Drakarys, and I was called Leonidas Drakarys.

When I asked mother why sister had two names, and I had only one, she told us that it was because of a promise she made a long time ago to a very good friend of hers. We couldn't hear the rest of the story because we were too young now, so it probably wasn't one that ended with a happy end. That or it was about politics, so it was complicated mess.

Our names were pretty impressive from my point of view, especially our family name, which was given to our Great Great Grandfather. It literally meant Dragon Blood. As for how he got it, we were going to find out when we grew older. Once more, mother judged that this sort of story was inappropriate for two babies who had yet to learn how to walk properly.

Aaand yes, my little sister, Cassandra, beat me to it. She was the first to learn how to walk, and boy was she proud of her little achievement!