Life

"Would you like to do anything"

Victoria moved towards Alex slowly from the kitchen, he was sitting on a tall wooden chair that was usually reserved for special guests with his feet settled on another, smaller chair.

*ZZZ ZZZ*

When she came closer to where he was propped up she could faintly hear snoring coming from his mouth and so decided it would be best to leave him be without making too much noise.

Leaving the house quietly proved to be more challenging than it ought to have been, with random squeaky floorboards being strewn all around, which she hadn't noticed until now.

But when all was said and done she found herself once more outside, with the beautiful breeze that was now blowing through causing all the trees around to rustle to an almost deafening level.

The peace of it all was a thing of majesty in and of itself, with little more than the cries and shouts of the children playing in the village centre to break it.

"A beautiful place is it not"

The goddess was back, startling Victoria who nearly choked on her own spit.

*Gack* *Ghck*

`You b*tch, you almost made me choke myself to death`

"That would be your own fault, but you'd think that having a high intelligence stat would make you a little smarter wouldn't you, I guess it's true when they say you can't fix stupid"

Victoria already knew better than to respond to the insults that the goddess gave out, she would just tire herself out mentally for no good reason.

`Well, now that we have more time to talk let's have a proper discussion`

She found somewhere comfortable to sit before continuing discourse with the aethereal being residing inside her head.

"Well now that you've made yourself comfortable, what do you want to talk about?"

`First off, what's wrong with my head, there seem to be several blocks put in place to stop me from taking certain actions such as calling myself a she, DAMNIT`

The word that she had been looking for found itself changed before she had said it, yet again.

"Well that's to make it easier for you to fit in in your younger years, not really necessary for you in such a large manner, but it is an essential lifeline for those born as a different species like a vampire"

`Well when you put it like that, it does certainly seem useful to get someone used to drinking blood, but why put something like that on me`

"To make it easier for your soul to fully.. what's the word for it.. Adapt, there we go, it makes it easier for your soul to adapt to your current body"

It certainly seemed to have worked as well, Victoria could barely see herself as anyone other than her, even though she knew that she had been someone different.

`Well how long will it last, I can see some parts of it fading away already, such as the acting on impulse bits`

"All last different amounts of time, some are permanent and others temporary however I can not tell you what will end or when"

`That's a stingy rule, you might as well tell me, it affects how my life is going after all`

"Sorry but that's not happening, a rule is a rule, even if you are one of two people to be cognisant of the changes that have been affecting your mind"

`So you can tell me how many people have realised, but not how long the changes will last, those two pieces of information have very different levels of importance`

"Maybe so, but while I did not create the rules, I must still abide by them, as useless as they may seem to be"

While Victoria did not like the reasoning given as to why she was not allowed that information she could do very little to argue against it.

"Any way you seem to be doing very well for yourself"

`What's with the sudden interest in my well-being, I don't remember you being so caring not too long ago`

"I've always cared for your well-being, you are my player after all"

`So that's what it was, it all makes sense now`

She had been thinking along those lines for a while now, but that wasn't the only reason she could come up with so she hadn't taken it as fact until now.

`Does this sort of thing come with any benefit for me?`

"Nope, not at all"

Victoria could practically feel the smile that was certainly plastered all over that goddess' face, she knew that there was one since she could hear it, despite her obvious attempts to cover it up.

`Oh you find this funny do you?`

"Oh why am I trying to lie to you, of course I do, it's the only form of entertainment that I've had in a very long time, you don't seem to understand how stressful my job can be"

`Do I not now, well then what exactly do you do`

"Well firstly I make sure that all living beings on several thousand worlds don't go extinct due to the influence of the evil ones, then you hav-.."

She continued on for several hours, boring Victoria half to death and not giving her any sort of information other than being a goddess was actually a very dull endeavor.

`OKAY OKAY I'M SORRY please stop`

She honestly couldn't take another minute of that hell, it was like being back in a classroom with a teacher that knew everything except how to be any form of entertaining.

"Well then I hope that you won't force me to spiel on about my stresses at work ever again, 'cause that was only just beginning to scratch the surface"

The lecture had gone on so long that the sun had started to set on the horizon, turning the once bright-blue sky a soft pink-yellow that seemed to combine the two colours perfectly without diminishing one or the other.

While it seemed almost melancholy to see the sun set behind the trees just out of sight until tomorrow, it would herald the coming of a day that would hopefully be the start of something truly exciting.

But for now, it was time to head back inside for something to eat, which seemed like it would be cold by now, seeing as it was already nearing dusk.

Yet as luck would have it when she returned food had not even been served yet, apparently today her father was going to be out for longer than normal and as such the family would have to wait.

Alex was also now wide awake but was doing little more than staring at the fireplace, seemingly lost in his own sea of thoughts.

It was the opposite of what Victoria wanted to do at the minute, but her legs had started to hurt due to the extra walking after the intense run that she had done.

While she felt like she should know why the pain happened, it seemed like the information was sitting at the edge of her brain, laughing at her lack of ability to reach it.

What she certainly did know is that she needed to sit down unless she wanted her legs to start feeling like they would buckle under her tomorrow.

"So how's being in a house compare to sleeping on the forest floor?"

She sat next to Alex, except she was sitting on the much comfier rug rather than the rough chairs that hurt your arse if you sat on them for any extended period of time.

"It feels.. nice"

His words carried a hint of sadness with them, possibly a sign of what he's gone through in his short life.

"What are you really doing here then?"

"I've already told you"

He was audibly annoyed, but had perked himself up which caused Victoria to smile at his seemingly rapid recovery.

"Well then, how about you tell me how you got here"

"I walked on foot for most of it, although there were some instances where I deemed it necessary to take a carriage or boat"

That was a kind of endurance that Victoria could only wish to have, and that wish would come at a price if she wanted to use it.

"Where are you from?"

"From a small barony in the south of the continent, you would have never heard of it nor is it really important"

"Be that as it may I still want to know about it"

He took a long breath in, noticing that all the other occupants of the room were also listening in, not that they were showing it they were just really bad at hiding their intentions.

"Fine" His words were a mixture between audible words and a sigh so heavy that it could crush lead.

Everyone stopped even trying to hide the fact that they were listening in, Victoria's brothers moved themselves to be just behind Alex's chair, listening from behind while her mother stood in the kitchen doorway, leaving the food unattended.