Chapter 3 : Connecting

Suddenly I can see letters appearing in front of me, causing me to jerk backwards, they follow my movements where ever I look. I read the letters that appear in English..

[Elven language unlocked!]

Yep. Its there right in front of me. Well now I can confirm it for sure, I have reincarnated and gotten a system, but now is not the time. I look past the letters, that float in front of my eyes, over to my mother. The letters fade away, because my focus shifts away from them, my view of my mother unrestricted again.

She still looks at me shocked, as she slowly sinks her posture back down, trying keep to upright and to look right into my eyes. The former look of hate and disgust, no longer present even the light in her eyes have faded, replaced by confusion. But she slumps back down and our line of sight is broken. She must have used a lot of her strength, both from giving birth and from throwing me, now she cannot keep herself upright.

I panic a little and try to crawl back over towards her, my head still hurting like hell from the impact against the wall, the process of crawling over is slow but I managed to get back over to her. She is lying down on her side, her knees still huddled up close but her arms are not covering her face any more, her eyes are closed and she is breathing shallowly.

Looking at her closely now, her ragged breathing the only sound, I once more notice the poor shape she is in, her body covered in cuts and scars, dirt and filth on her here and there. Her hair clumped together some places, looks like dried blood, the rest unkempt and damaged. Then I notice her ears.

Long thin points, instead of the normal ears I know, so the [Menu] was not lying. She is a elf.

So because she spoke to me I instantly learned her language? That is a very convenient ability, I will have to investigate the menu more later, I resume trying to get closer to her. Her eyes open slightly from hearing my shuffling, my form the first thing she sees, she instantly backs away eyes filled with fear. I pause and back away slightly, trying to not appear hostile, I cannot scare her. Mainly because I do not want to make her even more scared, but also that I really do not want to get thrown once more.

My tiny body lying next to hers, propped up on my elbows, I look at her eyes as she slowly calms down. I inch slowly forward, as I reach her hand that is lying on the ground with no strength, and gently put my own 4 fingered hand on it. Each small move I do makes her twitch slightly, her eyes switching between panic and calm with each pause I give her, as my hand touches hers gently she quickly looks at my hand. Her eyes widening slightly from the weird situation, confusion once more taken control of her mind, instead of pure panic.

We sit like this for a while, I try not to stress her more, just allowing her to reclaim her calm.

Her eyes move back up looking into mine, that purple light returning again, her fingers twitch a little. But slowly she closes her fingers and holds onto my tiny hand. If she wanted, she could easily take back up her hobby of flinging newborn babies through the air at the nearest hard wall, but instead she closes her eyes and sobs quietly.

Her crying must be because of not having had any gentle interaction in a while, this simple action of holding someone's hand has brought tears to her, I allow her to slowly cry and try to also tighten my hand in hers. We remain like this for a while, as she slowly calms down, she looks at me again with a quizzical stare at this apparently abnormal situation.

"..why.. why is this happening.." [Mother]

I listen intently to her weak voice, perfect English, I try to shrug my shoulders and look like I do not know. I try to speak again, but only a weird noise comes out, my mother twitches as if that noise is something she has heard before. I quickly tighten my grip on her hand and stop trying to speak, returning my eyes to hers, wanting her to not return to her panicked state.

"..purple.. eyes.." [Mother]

She manages to say something odd, before closing her eyes, seemingly falling asleep. Wait why would she say purple eyes, does she mean mine?, it dims on me I must have the same eyes as her. Was that why she was so confused? She seemed to relax or become very confused, whenever she looked into my eyes, so that must be a weird trait I have.

I look at her hand tightly closed around mine, five elegant fingers, despite the horrible mess they are covered in. I look at my other hand, four rough looking fingers with black nails, clearly I have not inherited her hands or skin tone not that I can make out specifically what color it is only that its shaded more darkly. I move closer to her, my body also feeling weak from my exertions, and then lie my head down on her hand.

("...at least we are not alone anymore...")