(2) A Baby’s Life

Meadow had woken up in the middle of the night, due to the nightmare of her past life's death. After the nanny came and hushed her crying self, she spent most of the night awake trying to make sense of her thoughts.

'I'm certain that I'm older than the body I'm currently in. Why can I remember some things, but not everything? I'm certain I have died. Have I been reincarnated?'

She tried to focus really hard hoping to stir up some memories, but none came except the final moments of her past life. Scared of vividly remembering her death, she stopped trying to remember her past life. Instead, she went over the people she had recently met.

She peeked through her crib and watched the Nanny sleeping soundly in the chair. Nanny-- from what Meadow had gathered-- was in charge of taking care of all of us children, which is exactly what she could think she remembered a hired child caretaker would do. She recalled the nanny calling the children young masters, so now she was certain that she was part of some family with wealth and likely a title. Based on what she could remember from her past life people would call nobility by that title.

'Why can I only remember useless facts about my past life and not actual memories?' She sighed in frustration and resigned herself to going back to self reflection.

She recalled the green haired woman who the nanny called 'my lady'.

'That woman was very beautiful. She must be the lady of the household. She seemed to radiate elegance.'

Then she started to recall the bear of a man she met. She was having trouble picturing this man as the lord of the house. 'He couldn't have been more different from the elegant lady. He had no noble aura at all. How are these to humans together, they are just too different.'

She eventually gave up on trying to make sense of this pairing. 'I guess opposites attract.'

Next she recalled the two boys. She remembered the older of the two fondly, while bitterly remembering the other.

'The older one was very nice and warm. I like him. I believe his name was Leopold. The other one was… stupid. Me... Ugly… I can't possibly help it. I bet he's just blind and stupid. Not like I know what I look like, but I must be cute, aren't all babies cute.'

She nodded and thought that she had to be cute, but then recalled the conversation where the elegant lady said she looked like the bear man. Picturing a menacing baby human-bear mix, she could help but agree --- it wasn't a cute image.

Shaking her head she refocused her thoughts. 'So in summary. Elegant lady equals mom. Bear man is dad. Leopold is the oldest brother. And the stupid one is youngest brother. We are most likely a wealthy noble family. And finally, I am Meadow Lark, a baby girl.'

She nods her head internally proud of her summary, before her frustration takes over again. 'Baby. Why do I have to be a baby? I'm such a weak existence currently. There is no way I can protect myself from anything.'

Deciding there was no point in overthinking about it, she fell back asleep.

****************************

The next couple of months went by fairly fast, at least to Meadow who spent most of her time eating and sleeping. She recalled all the new people that she had met the past couple of weeks.

The nanny's granddaughter had come to visit one day. Harriet had introduced herself to the baby as her future maid. Harriet looked similar to her grandmother with her braided brown hair and freckles.

She recalled how the ten year old Harriet turned to her grandmother, mentioning how cute she was. Before telling Meadow she would come visit more often, which Harriet did. Harriet would stop by in between her work breaks as a maid in training.

Meadow also met most of the other staff of maids and butlers. They also swooned over her supposed cuteness. There were the three maids Lily, May, and Sue, who seemed to be 20 or older, who excitedly talked to her. They each promised to come play with her as the head maid Julia nagged at them to get back to work.

The male attendants Hugo and Jerimy also enthusiastically promised to stop by again when the head butler, Hornsby subtly coughed at their actions.

When she went on her first stroll outside in her mother's arms she met Rosco, the family gardener. He seemed to be the more quiet type ---the type to keep to himself--- but Meadow and her mother could both see his interest in Meadow. Meadow waved and smiled at Rosco, who quickly turned his head before peeking back at her. He was covering his grin with his hand before quickly composing himself. He nodded to the madam giving his farewell and walked away. But under his breath Meadow heard him mumble, "so cute".

Meadow's mind jumped to her biggest fan of her cuteness, her father. The remembrance sent a shiver down her spine. Just last week, her father dragged all of the knights and guards into the baby room. She had felt like an exotic animal on display and died of embarrassment at her father.

Her father had picked her up and paraded her around to each of the knights. Graham, the captain of the Lark family guard, was the first to be introduced to Meadow. To Meadow, Graham looked like the only one in the group that had knightly qualities. He was wearing his armor perfectly and held himself like a knight. Graham also looked to be the oldest of the group with streaks of silver visible in his hair.

The next two that actually looked semi-like knights were Cable and Lewis. They wore the armor but lacked the charisma that Graham had.

"I give my greetings to the little lady." Graham politely spoke. Cable and Lewis followed suit and gave a quick bow to Meadow.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly until her big oaf of a father started to speak, killing the mood.

"Hahaha! Graham there is no need for such formalities. Now tell me isn't my daughter just the loveliest."

"Yes, my lord, she is truly lovely."

"My lord, there you go with the boring formalities, but at least you have good sense. Bahaha!"

Meadow could feel her checks flushing in embarrassment as her dad continued. She could feel everyone just staring at her too. Her eyes moved to the group of roughly dressed men in the back of the room, who seemed oddly quiet.

"Mathew, why don't you introduce yourself to my little princess."

The man named Mathew stepped forward. If her dad was a bear then this man was a lion. He had shaggy orange-brown hair and a beard. His eyes held a fierceness to them, which seemed to soften when looking at Meadow. He gave a slight bow and started his greeting, which was more polite than Meadow was expecting.

"I'm sure won't remember any of this, but to please this big buffoon. I greet the little miss. I am Mathew, a former mercenary that worked with your father. Brandon, is the short scruffy one. Just like his height he has a short temper, but is loyal like a dog. York is that silver haired beauty. He is a lady's man, so be careful of him. Hank is that stupidly grinning old man. He may look a bit scary but is a big softy. Harry is the tall twig. He may look weak, but is the fastest and deadliest we got. The two brats are Nate and Marco who were picked up by Hank. They are in training to be a part of the guard."

Each man stepped forward and bowed when their name was called. However based on Mathew's description Meadow could easily pick out who was who.

"We all are excited to greet the cute little miss."

Hank added at the end of Mathew's explanation and her dad seemed to be nodding in approval. Seeming like her being displayed would finally be over Meadow let out a sigh of relief. But she hears the mumbling of the two boys, Nate and Marco, as does her father.

"Nate. Marco. It seems like you have something you want to share with us."

"It is just…"

The taller dark brown haired boy stepped forward after elbowing the dirty blonde haired boy in the side to shut him up. "No Captain Hayes. We have nothing."

"Nate, it seems like you had something you wanted to share."

The blonde haired boy stepped forward after being acknowledged again by Lord Lark and started to speak. That is when Meadow saw Marco's eyes looking for a place to hide. Meadow knew the next words that came out of Nate's mouth couldn't be good.

"Captain, it is just that you were bragging in the training field how much Meadow looked like you. So, we were shocked when looking at her. We had expected her to look a bit... different."

"Different how?"

"We… ummm… thought..." Nate started but couldn't finish.

"We?" All of the guards were avoiding looking at Lord Lark. Meadow was even shocked to see Graham seemingly to avoid his gaze. "Mathew." Mathew avoided looking at Lord Lark and refused to speak.

"Graham. Explain." Her father demanded. Graham signed.

"I believe that it was hard to believe that a baby that resembled you in the slightest would be perceived as cute."

"So you all imagined my baby girl couldn't be this cute, but you all are now reflecting on your mistake because you see her cuteness. It is my fault, since I was unable to capture my daughter's cuteness with words, which is why I brought you all here. I mean just look at her, isn't she the cutest?"

Meadow's father praised her as he held her up for everyone to see again.

"Yes, my lord, the cutest."

"She is adorable."

"A true treasure."

"Too cute!"

The men all answered in unison, showing Meadow in praises. Meadow had never felt so embarrassed in her life as she was holding back her tears.

**********

Just remembering this still made Meadow want to die of embarrassment. Whenever her dad came to visit since that incident, Meadow was always nervous of who he would bring along. The only other person who would frequently visit her was her older brother Leopold.

He would always stop by her crib and give her a brief summary of how his day was going. Meadow always looked forward to seeing him.

Oswald stopped by once in a while as well. The first time he stopped by to see her was around two weeks after their first meeting. He walked up to her crib and peered down into it with the help of the step stole the nanny put there. He looked at her, seeming to be judging her.

"Still ugly. I visit when less ugly."

He spoke and then just left. Meadow was flabbergasted, by his rudeness, but was getting used to it. He would visit once in a while to tell her that she is still ugly and then leave.

She preferred this over her dad parading him around and demanding everyone to chant about her cuteness, but she still had a grudge against her brother constantly calling her ugly.

However, Meadow remembered one more person who seemed to be immune to her cuteness. An old man with fading green hair walked into her room followed by Hornsby. He looked down at her with disinterest.

"So this thing is my granddaughter. How plain."

His eyes stared at her for a brief moment before declaring her plain. Seeming to have looked at her long enough he left the room followed by Hornsby.

It was frustrating to Meadow not being able to say anything coherent back. She feels so trapped in this tiny body not being able to do anything beyond crying, eating, and sleeping. Going crazy with not being able to do anything but get lost in her thoughts and frustrations. She was constantly trying to understand why she was able to understand what people were saying around her as well as why she could recall certain facts.

However she knew that there was nothing else she could do except focus on growing.