Chapter 6: 4: On the way back

Levin woke up to the unfamiliar feeling of the rocking carriage of the wagon, and the sound of an entrancing melody played on a flute. As he looked around, he was surrounded by what appeared, to the best of what he could recall peeking from being held on his mother’s back all his life, to be his siblings also sleeping all around him. Right next to him though, there was another infant who looked like they might be a lot closer to his own age.

All the others seemed to still be asleep from what he could tell. However, there were some other people around. Adults that he had never seen before. One was the woman playing the flute, she wore a rather beautiful dress. Then, as he looked around, he saw two more women wearing green colored cloths that seemed to be covered in some animal furs in some places.

‘Oh, they’re wearing pants.’ For some reason Levin found this somewhat noteworthy. He tried to think on why he would have such an impression, it’s not like he hadn’t seen women wearing pants before, even though that was in his previous life. In fact, back when he was Karie, she had liked to wear jeans everywhere.

‘Oh! Wait! THAT’S the problem!’ Levin came to the realization, even his father hadn’t worn pants in this world. Instead, he just had some cloth draped over his shoulders. Come to think of it, it actually didn’t look all that different from what his mom wore. At the level of poverty his parents were living at, there wasn’t really such a thing as men’s and women’s clothing.

‘They look tough!’ Yes, these women looked far more fit and far better fed than anyone he had seen in his one year of life in his peasant family. It was ridiculous to think, but he was forced to wonder if one of these women had the idea to beat up any guy in the village.

Actually, come to think of it, they looked to be at about the same standard for proper nourishment as everybody back in Levin’s previous life. However, it was not just that they were getting enough to eat, they were also clearly quite physically fit as even for women they had quite a bit of visible muscle in their arms.

“Maa, er en' taurn-val laito kuile.” One of them turned to the other. But wait, what language was that? Levin had only just barely managed to start learning the language his parents were speaking, but this sounded like an entirely different language again. Also, their voice sounded pretty deep. Was that actually a guy and not a woman!? Levin, despite his knowledge from his previous life, was still unable to hide his shock at the realization since his reactions were still very much those of a baby. A look of shock and horror completely warped his face, and he could feel a frustrating and uncontrollable urge to start crying all of a sudden. It was a cascade reaction of emotions stemming from his surprise at this long haired and smooth featured man that his infant brain had next to no control over at all despite his previous life memories.

“Oh, gorga ho lle ume.” The other one spoke up. This one actually was a woman’s voice. “Hmm, sut ten' sina? Mata-aya lle ve'?”

The woman seemed to have seen the distressed look on Levin’s face or something, because she came over to him in a very soothing manner. Levin could not understand a word she was saying, but with the soothing tone combined with the calming music the other woman was playing, Levin found it rather easy to calm down and managed to bring himself under control before he broke out crying.

He noticed something though, the woman didn’t just come up to him. She also seemed to be holding out and offering something to him, something that looked like a piece off of a small scone or something like that. Was she trying to give him something to eat?

Whether it was because of the activity nearby, or for the same reasons that Levin woke up, the other children all began waking up one by one at about this point. They all seemed to look a little confused as they opened their eyes. They each seemed a little started at first, waking up in a strange place like this, but every one of them one by one began to get a placid look on their face before a light smile began to float and curl the corners of their mouths upward as it turned to a peaceful expression.

One by one, this process repeated with 7 out of the remaining 8 children. In the end, all but 2 of the 9 were sitting there with peaceful happy expressions, not saying a word. The only ones there without that same expression on their faces were Levin and the other infant.

“Whaa- goiii-n oon?” The other infant child babbled, causing Levin to turn toward him in absolute shock. The words were badly distorted by a lisp, but… was that English he was just speaking!? Genuine English!? Not whatever language it was his parents were speaking? After hearing that, Levin turned and couldn’t take his eyes off the boy.

“I' templa naa il-ap-sen, sai-taurn val ron naa.” The long-haired man said something with a heavy tone that attracted the attention of the woman trying to offer Levin some food.

“Ahn. Tanya ron naa nessa sii', Quel marth.” The woman turned to him and responded in an equally heavy tone.

“Ahn. Nan' i' lereth moota-uva?”

“lye nev-uva.” The woman said something that sounded conclusive before turning back to Levin, holding up the small piece of bread-like stuff to him again. “Sinome, hin. Caela ta.” She seemed rather insistent about having him take it. At his age, he hadn’t been on solid foods for long. Actually, if he was a normal baby, he was probably more likely to choke on a piece of bread like this. But Levin, not knowing a lot about babies and choking hazards in his previous life, didn’t think much about taking this from her if she was so insistent about shoving it in his face. He could probably use something to eat anyway.

“Hmm… lye elea manka tanya moota.” The man says. Meanwhile, as Levin begins to gnaw on the piece of bread that the woman had given him and she had turned to the other little boy to begin repeating the same thing she just had with Levin, he was looking up and looking at her from the side. This was when Levin noticed something, something that made his heart flutter as the implications landed on him.

What he was looking at was the woman’s ears, which extended to have narrow pointed ends at the backs. Could this be!? Elves!? After he noticed this, he began looking around at the man, as well as the other woman playing the flute. Now that he was looking closely, he realized that they also had the same pointed ears. He started to grow excited. They were riding in the back of a wagon or something with Elves! But, why though? And also, where were his parents?

Well, more importantly than that, Levin got distracted before, but… the other boy in the carriage, or, was it a carriage? He wasn’t too familiar with the names for different types of low-tech vehicles. At any rate, the other little boy, he spoke English earlier, didn’t he!? Could he be the same!? Well, there was only one way to find out.

“Haay! Was.. uh… did uu sbeak English earier?” (Hey, was.. umm.. did you speak English earlier?) That didn’t come out too clean at all. Levin hadn’t spoken the language of his previous life since he had been reborn, so he was rather surprised at how badly he was talking. It was just enough though to attract the other boy’s attention.

The response was instantaneous. The boy immediately turned straight to him with a dazed and amazed look on his face. “Whah! D-d uu?” (Wait! Did you?)

The two boys stare straight at each other for a while as the gears in both of their heads start turning. Meanwhile, the elf woman continues to hand out pieces of bread to the 7 other children, all of whom simply accept it and eat it immediately.

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“Nno, wai-. Aar uu da zzame aas ee? Uhh..” (No, wait. Are you the same as me? Uhh..)

The two infant boys talking fluent English, despite both having a severe lisp, look around the wagon, feeling suddenly very uncomfortable with all the other eyes. It’s not likely at all any of them can understand what they are saying, but both of them are still self-conscious enough that they feel very uneasy about saying what they want to say in this situation. Meanwhile, after the respective older siblings of both boys finish eating the bread the elf woman had handed out to them all, the one playing the flute suddenly changes the tune she’s playing. As soon as she changes the tune, one by one they all start dropping off to sleep again, the only exception being the two boys.

The two of them look at each other for a moment, but then some sense of realization started to dawn on them that was strong enough to overcome any fantasy idealization they may have had over elves. (Are we kidnapped!?) Levin asked in a frightened tone to the other boy.

(Hey!) The other boy said something in distress as he realized Levin was starting to cry. It seemed a lot easier to cry in these new bodies as babies, and once they started to get even a little upset it was like a chain reaction that caused them to completely loose control of their emotions. And, no matter how old they were in their previous lives, the just cried. And, once Levin, started crying, the other boy started crying as well.

“I' simpina templa ta il- uma moota no' sen ie' ilya.” The woman who had been handing out the bread said something in a disgusted sounding tone, looking at the two crying children with the face of someone viewing something repulsive for a moment before she let out a sigh. She began to approach them carefully, hovering her hands over them and trying to say something that sounded soothing as she pulled the two crying infants into her lap and stroked their backs. This, however, only caused the both of them to cry harder.

-

As the elder was walking along side the wagon, he heard as the flute’s music turned from the tune of calming to the tune of sleep. These were special pieces of flute music that wrapped magic into the notes, developed specially for the purpose of acquiring the human children needed for when a new child is born to their own people. The special nature of the music is such that it only affects human children, but the effect is quite powerful.

If the music turned from calming to sleep, that would mean the children have all already eaten their food. With this, it was no longer possible for them to ever leave and return to their own people. While the music of the flute helped in smoothing things out, this magic placed on the food was the ultimate magic used to bind humans to them.

This was the point when something unusual happened. Shortly after the music had turned to the tune of sleep, he heard the sound of a baby’s cry coming from inside the wagon. Much to the credit of the player, her music did not stop for a second in this unexpected situation. She truly was skilled. The elder had been observing these raids for over 100 years, and had participated in them as a member for 300 years before that. However, this was the first time he had ever seen a human child resist the effects of this music. It was just infants, so there was no real danger, but with the sheer unprecedented nature of the situation he simply could not help but come to peek in to see what was going on.

“Is everything alright?” He asked one of the caretakers left to mind the children.

The caretaker gave a sour look toward his companion who was holding and attempting to sooth the crying children. “The flute’s magic does not seem to work on them at all.” He said in response.

“How were they before this?” The elder presses him for details. He was quite curious, the caretaker didn’t just say the tune of sleep wasn’t working, but that the flute’s magic was simply not working on them what so ever?

“During the tune of calming, they were both anxiously looking around. Eleneril managed to keep them calm at the time, but then when the music changed they completely burst out crying.”

“Hmm… did they eat what they were given?”

“They gnawed on some bread for a little while, this is my first time dealing with human infants so I am not sure whether or not the amount they ate is normal.”

“But they did eat some of it then?”

“They did, but…”

“Hmm… you’re right. If the music will not work on them, there’s no telling whether or not the magic of the food is working either. Well, they are rather young. Since we took them this young, even if they are not bound by the normal method, they should not have any attachment to their birth parents at this age. I will have to ask Eirlathion his opinion, but from what I can tell I think we found some pretty incredible humans here.”

Even though the situation is quite odd, both of the men have broad smiles on their faces.

“We certainly did luck out,” the caretaker says, “that poor girl, at least her child will grow up plenty healthy with what we are bringing back.”

“I know, I almost feel young again just walking beside this wagon. Those two really are something else. If we didn’t need the older siblings to help watch them, we would very easily have been able to get by with just those two.” With a chuckle, the elder walks back to his previous position.

Author’s note

Yes, Aerien’s mysterious species that feeds on human children has been revealed. If you had guessed Elves already, you get cookies. Good job staying up on your German fairy tales. (Although I sorta did strongly hint that direction by right out admitting the language they were speaking was based off Tolkien’s Elves, but I phrased that in such a way that would have likely sounded like it could still be something different should someone have been denying that idea.)

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