(2)A much needed bath
After a bit of calming down and several deep breaths he looked at the rest of his body, looking at his skinny legs,arms,hands and the ribs he could see even without sucking in his stomach he knew,
'This body was starving, and..probably died from starvation.. Or..if it really starved to death how could i move? Wouldn't i just starve too?! Perhaps a fever?'
Reaching up he felt his forehead and found it slightly hot. The body must have been starving and with a high fever, looking at his surroundings it didn't seem like there was any medicine and so the original owner probably died.
Standing up he shot a look at the long black hair loosely tied together behind him full of knots. Then at the empty room that now that he thought about it, had probably been raided for anything worth any money. Turning on his heal his held his still aching stomach and walked into a smaller side room he had noticed before.
As he stumbled around he finally found some buckets and drew himself some water from a well sitting by the kitchen. Dragging the bucket back he stoped.
Looking around he saw only forests as far as he could see.
'It should be fine..nobody's here anyway!'
Without any reluctance he set the heavy bucket down and walked back to the room he woke in. Dragging the wooden circular bath and propping it up on its side so it could roll on its side he slowly but steadily made his way back. Huffing and puffing through the kitchen and into the smaller back yard where the well lay he finally put the bath down.
It fell with a thump and he stood there for a few moments before pouring the water he had gathered earlier into the bath. Bit by bit the bath was filled. Sliding off the smelly and musty white gown he suspected were underclothes, he sat down in the bath. Taking the white cloth as a bath scrub he wiped himself down finally getting a good look at himself. He had pale skin and seemed pretty young and short, although that might just be because of the lack of food.
After some curious glances and touches he had somewhat adapted to his new body. Somewhat adapted, the weight between his legs felt awkward to look at, so for the moment he ignored it.
With a more refreshed feeling he relaxed and began to, knot by knot, untangle his long black hair. The sky above was blue, the forest around him was green, the birds chirped and..
"IM GOING TO FUCKING SHAVE MY HAIR OFF! WHO THE HELL WANTS HAIR LIKE THIS?!?"
Unable to take it he shouted out loud and had the urge to kick the bath he was sitting in over. After what seemed like ages his hair was finally as unknotted as he could make it he left the bath. Standing naked he wanted to curl up from the cold but he knew the only cloths he had were soaked.
Finally, he just resigned himself and dumped the dirty water out. Finding a old rope he tied it up from the courtyard wall to the wooden beams. He hung his underclothes on it and walked away in search of something to wear. Air drying would have to do.
Taking this time to also explore he found that he was in a semi large mansion, plenty of rooms and even some large prices of fancy furniture laying around. After settling for a white bedding sheet to wear he walked bear foot opening all the doors and airing the whole place out.
After this tour he had unexpectedly gained a lot of affection for this house and wanted to take care of it. After exploring all the rooms and finding some random things like cloth,paper,lanterns,ink exc. He realized that unless it was large or there was a large amount of it almost every was gone. No cloths, no mirrors,no food, no jewelry, and especially no money.
The original body was probably… abandoned while undergoing a high fever. Perhaps the original inhabitants had wanted to leave quickly and couldn't take the burden or maybe they were looking for an excuse to leave the original to die.
Feeling his headache coming back he moved back to the room he first woke in, 'his' room.
'I guess this is my room now.. seems pretty nice i doubt the original had a low status. Wait. Low status? What am i thinking? That doesn't even exist..anymore?Also..why am so sure it was a fever that killed the original?'
Just as he had sat down on his bed the world turned black and memories rushed up like a tide. Struggling to remember everything that was appearing he finally got a picture of his current situation.
He was a young master of a household that was in decline. Not that it mattered anymore, since war had broken out and there was a usurping of the thrown. Unsurprisingly he was in ancient times, thankfully he was in a mans body and not a woman otherwise he might have to marry to keep himself safe. With the imperial court in shambles and the whole country split into different factions, tension was everywhere.
The original was a student at a royal academy, and he family had payed big bucks to get him in. He came from a line of lower officials who although seemed inconspicuous made a pretty big amount of money by running several businesses on the side. Originally if things went as planned he would have entered the court as a lower rank official but because of the roomers of rebellion everyone began to flee for their lives.
Returning in fear he was shamed by his family and almost immediately tossed aside. Their attitude something along the lines of, 'If you can't even survive in the imperial capital what use do you have to us?!' Originally he wasn't very well liked even though he had been born by the first wife and should have been able to rightfully inherit his father's position and power.
In the end his family was struck by a sickness and in a time where medicine was little people began to die. As the roomers of a rebellion became true- war spread and food and medicine was stretched thin they left and hid in the mountains. Unfortunately the original had caught the sickness going around and had been abandon in the hidden house in the mountains. His family and the servants had taken everything of value with them and left for a distant relatives land trying to escape conflict.
Alone, he had predictably died. And then 'she' came in. But this wasn't even the worst of it. He blinked his eyes and thought back to the names he had seen while looking through his 'new' memories. The names…sounded an awful amount like the story 'she' had just finished reading.