NOVEL NEXT Life 5 - Chapter *01 - Growth (*)
One could be led to believe that living in a house with only women would prepare me for what was coming my way. I thought it would, honestly. I knew what life had in stock for me. Living in the biggest metropolis of the free world, exposed to all kinds of media, I had the intellectual knowledge. I had secondhand experience watching my sisters and my mother go through it seventeen times a year each. Times four, one out of every seven days a woman in my family was in that special state.
I thought I was ready. I was a fool.
The smell of blood was a known one. I had Wyxnos and his System as witnesses on how many times I bled in my current and previous life. I was at the plantation in my lab preparing poison paste for the [Assassins] when I smelled blood.
Detection methods were myriad. Ways to hide too. There wasn't a catch-all ability that would hide you in every way possible. Or I haven't found it yet.
I didn't transpire that I was aware of something wrong. I calmly finished what I was doing and put my reagents and tools away. Then I moved away from my workbench. That's when I felt the wetness in my trousers.
I opened my mouth but only a faint groan came out. Frozen and pretty scared, I ran a hand to touch my inner thigh. It came back red.
I felt weak on the knees and slid down to sit on the floor with my legs forming a W around me. As if waiting for me to grow aware of my new condition, the cramps came. It was as if something was squeezing down inside and under my navel.
Nenandil said, trying to be helpful. I focused hard to stop from snapping at her.
I would have to deal with a problem I was pushing aside for five lives already. No, it wasn't the fact I was bleeding out of my crotch.
I had to accept who I was. Having my memories on Earth come first, molding my being before the others had me start every life with that sense of identity. The wounds I got from fighting, the feelings about the people around me, everything felt like a very immersive first-person videogame. But the feeling of my uterus cramping was such an alien sensation for a -former- male that it shattered that notion.
It was something they always get wrong in those sex-changing stories. That the person will only notice they changed genders once they look in the mirror or touch themselves. What my experience showed was that it was awfully obvious. Just from my body's sensations, I can tell things are different. No touching required. I couldn't sense my dick or my balls where they should. Instead, I could clearly feel something else in my crotch. Or inside of it.
Sometimes I even flex a muscle I am sure the former me shouldn't have.
I stood up after the big cramp passed, picking a damp rag to clean the floor. It seemed I was one a heavy bleeders. I confess, I had no idea how much was normal and it frightened me. I took off my trousers and loincloth. My work tunic went almost down to the knees so I wouldn't expose myself too much. I fashioned a sanitary pad and another loincloth out of the soft cloth I use as bandages. Then I went to the river to wash the blood. I didn't feel like asking Nenandil to do it for me.
I learned one curious thing as I cleaned up my mess. I always thought periods came like a trickle. No. It gushes every now and then. A cramp and splosh. More blood out.
I imagine today would be the day the System became accessible to me. Well, an achievement gained. Survive until puberty.
On the way back, I run into Gloria. The veteran [Assassin] looks at me and makes a puzzled face.
"Did you kill something?"
I make an even more puzzled face, "No? Why?"
"I smell blood on you," She said, causing me to blush immediately. She looked at the damp clothes I'm carrying and tilts her head to see my bare legs under my tunic. "Oh! Poor girl. How are you feeling?"
"I think I'll survive. Thanks, Gloria."
She put a hand on my shoulder, "If you want to ask anything, just say. I was in your shoes one day. And I had a ton of doubts."
Gloria being nice to me. What a novelty. And I had absolutely no idea if she was lying to me or not. I decided to trust her. "Can we talk in my lab? I'm not... we're exposed here."
"Sure, lead on. Do you need a towel?"
"I have something on already, thanks."
I returned to the lab and laid my clothes out to dry on an empty table. I frowned upon using Nenandil for frivolous chores. She wasn't my servant.
"Do you have sage's root? Or weeping maidens?" Gloria asked while browsing my shelves of reagents.
"Yes. The jars are labeled," I answered as I crossed the lab to reach her. "This one. Weeping maiden. I have no idea why it's named so."
"Well, make some tea with it. If you have cramps, you'll figure out quickly why it is called as such," She winked.
My Skills guided me when I thought what I could do with weeping maiden leaves and I had an surge of inspiration. The herb is a muscle relaxant. I picked another two jars and made a mix of crushed leaves to brew my tea with. The combination of herbs would enhance the relaxing effect.
"Remember to change your pad often. The blood can clot and it can cause diseases. Also, you don't want to be smelly down there," She smirked. "You should ask your mother to make some permanent pads for you. You can wash them."
On perfect cue, my uterus decides to protest against biology, and my chest aches at the same time. Gloria giggles. Then she gropes me.
"Yes, they're growing too. You'll have some interesting months ahead of you," she remarks, amused. "You'll start to look at boys differently too. You should be cautious around them. They'll feel you are a ripe fruit now and will try to take a 'bite'."
I just stare at her. If I was an Earthling girl, I would be a couple months short of fifteen years old. Maybe I was a late bloomer. And I have no interest in men. Like, thinking of dicks reminds me I still miss mine. I'm not ready to put one in me. No way. I haven't even masturbated yet. Maybe I should. I think I read on the internet that it helps with the cramps.
Gloria keeps teasing me and I let her. It might be good to have something in common besides the same boss and job, although I haven't murdered anyone in the last few years. The tea was bitter but the effect hit in minutes. I felt warm and relaxed inside.
"Well, I have to go now," Gloria said. "Take it easy these days. I'll tell the boss if you need some time off."
"Thanks, Gloria."
She kissed my forehead. I froze in surprise. "See you around, princess."
The last thing I saw before she vanished in plain sight was her smirk. Damn.
Good. I didn't have to worry about an invisible [Assassin] peeping on me.
After dumping the bloody water and fetching two buckets at the well, I locked myself inside my laboratory. It was an apartment of four rooms in the plantation main building. I had the chemistry lab where I made my poisons and ointments, a crude operating room with a table covered in a sheet of bronze, and two bedrooms. One with two cots and no other furniture next to the operating room where my patients rested to recover from surgery, and another bedroom with a good bed, a dresser, an armoire and a desk which was where I slept when I stayed over.
Sometimes wounded [Assassins] were brought to me. Potions were expensive, magical healing too rare, so they brought them to the doctor here. Or should I say, [Surgeon]? The product of fifteen seasons of Gray's Anatomy and other shows. And the System bending reality behind the scenes.
But enough of that. I wanted to spend some quality time with myself.