6 months have passed. (1 year and 6 months since Cashews Birth.)
Cashew has maintained his habit for a while now. Sleeping all day and practicing walking at night, he has long since left the wall and was able to walk in his own now. His parents and Meredith Don't seem to know that he can walk now, since he's asleep all day and only wakes up for food before passing out again. He's been snooping around the house at night time, looking for books, hoping his parents would conveniently have a magic related book just lying around somewhere that he can reach, but no luck, his parents either don't have a magic related book or it's somewhere he can't reach at the moment.
The Next day, Cashew is sitting on Meredith's lap as she watches Sara drag disobedient farm animals into a barn, she assumed Cashew was asleep, as he always is, Cashew suddenly tries to bolt from her lap and run off in the distance. It's not really a "Bolt" and Meredith noticed it immediately and caught him, thinking he was gonna fall off her lap. Cashew angrily swung his arms around for a brief moment and internally cursed Meredith after his plan was thwarted by her. She noticed this and was surprised at his sudden show of anger. From her perspective, Cashew has shown as much emotion as her childhood dolls his entire life, so seeing him express anger was surprising.
Sara noticed while carrying a disobedient sheep over her shoulders.
Sara: I think the kid wants down.
Sara suggests while holding the sheep, it's kicking and flailing, not enjoying being over someones shoulder. Meredith reluctantly stands up and puts baby Cashew on the ground, letting him stand on his own, but hovering her arms around him just in case he falls. As soon as Cashews feet touch the ground, he bolts away, it's not really a "bolt", but as much as one he can muster. He ran in the direction of the Village Elders house, Meredith was surprised at him "Running", but couldn't think too much on it as she followed him, not wanting him to fall.
"The Village Elder is almost 200 years old and a human, she has to have books on magic. I wanna see if I can use it!" Cashew was thinking about magic his entire "Run" to the Village Elders home. He has been there multiple times even before Meredith started showing up in his life. He had to try and learn magic. He had nothing else to do in this world and since magic is possible, he wants to at least try.
"How could someone be reincarnated into another world from my old world and not wanna at least try to learn magic? I get not being compatible, but magic doesn't exist in the old world, why would you not wanna try something that you lived your life thinking was fiction?" Cashew was thinking about what kind of magic he could learn and what kind of books the Village Elder might have.
Cashew ran through the village towards the Elders house, every old person in the village watched Cashew run with a smile on their faces, as this is the first time they have seen a child in a long time. Meredith looks absolutely worried that Cashew will trip and fall, step on a lost nail, or get hurt and everyone can see that she looks like she's about to have a heart attack. Which is making some people wonder when the 18 year old Meredith is gonna find someone and have her own kids. Before Cashew was born, she always talked about wanting kids and has been watching over Cashew as a way to Raise a kid or just help raise one. From her perspective, She never had a kid because every guy in the village is either married or related to her, and the Royal guards who visit the village every month are all old enough to be her dad. So helping raise someone else's kid is the best she can get without leaving the village.
Cashew finally showed up at the Village Elders doorstep and started reaching for the doorknob, but he is too short to actually open it and made a baby noise at Meredith, hoping she would understand and open the door for him. Which she thankfully did understand and opened up the door, announcing out loud that she and Cashew were here.
"Oh my God, I love you! I'm sorry for all the curses I wished on you in the past! You're the best!" Cashew gleefully thought in his head as he rushed into the house and started snooping around. Looking for books in the Village Elders house.
Meredith: it's Rude to snoop around in others homes, you know?
She said while watching Cashew look around.
After a few moments, Cashew found what he was looking for. Books! He doesn't know what kind of books they are, but he wants to see if they are the books he is looking for, so he is reaching up for the books while making baby noises, which Meredith notices.
Meredith: Books? You want a book?
Cashew responded by jumping up 1 time, still reaching for the books. Meredith noticed this and found it strange that Cashew seemed to understand her despite being a baby, but she picked him up and held him closer to the books so he can check them out, Meredith assumes Cashew is like a dog and he just wants to sniff the books or something. Not thinking that he wouldbe interested in reading the books or learning to read.
At this moment, The village Elder enters the room and sees Meredith holding baby Cashew up near her bookshelf, looking at the books.
Village Elder: What is happening here?...
She asked in a Raspy voice, not seeming to care, but asking just to know.
Meredith: I don't know. Cashew wanted to come here and he seems interested in your books.
Village Elder: Haha! Wouldn't that be funny? The child of those two glorified apes ends up as Bookworm. How hilarious! What kind of books he seems interested in?
Meredith: I can't tell. But I don't think he's interested in any of the books here.
Village Elder: this seems funny. I'll take you to other books just to see what he does.
The Village Elder leads Meredith and Baby Cashew deeper into her home, she leads them into a room thats the same size as the previous one, but with 10 small shelves full of books as well as other piece of old furniture in the room. Cashew immediately reaches for the nearest shelf and Meredith carries him closer to the shelf. Cashew is lucky that this world and his old world seem to share a language. So he can read just fine here, for the most part. None of the books on the current shelf seem magic related, so he reaches for the next nearest shelf so that Meredith will carry him to it, rinse and repeat and they have gone through most of the shelves with Cashew not finding any books he seemed interested in.
Village Elder: hmph. Disappointing. I was hoping the Ape couple had a smart child, but he doesn't seem to know what we are looking at.
Meredith: he's looking around the room as if he's looking for something specific, so maybe he hasn't found it yet.
Cashew continues to glance around the room, hoping his eyesight is good enough that he can spot what he's looking for without getting close to the shelves. After a few moments,he finally sees a book about magic, it's on a shelves he already checked, but it's higher up. He immediately starts reaching for it and making baby noises, as if he wants Meredith to carry him over there so he can get the book, which she complies and he immediately reaches for the book. Cashew reaches up and tries to pick up the book, but his baby hands are too weak and he ends up knocking the book on the ground instead. Which causes Cashew to have the most depressed look on his face that Meredith has ever seen. The Village Elder leans down to pick the book up.
Village Elder: Oh, he was looking for magic book. Well, I hate to break it to you, but this book isn't magic. It teaches you basics of the Elemental magic schools. You won't learn any actual spells from this book. I don't have any books that teach you spells.
Hearing the Village Elders words send Cashew into temporary depression. After a few moments, he reached for the book anyways, still interested in it nonetheless.
Village Elder: oh? You still want it? Fine. Meredith, bring it back when he gets bored of it.
The Village Elder said while handing the book to Meredith.
Meredith: you're not gonna question why a 1 year old is suddenly interested in magic? You're not even gonna question how he knows about magic either?
Meredith asked the village Elder while taking the book from her.
Village Elder: you think this is first time I've seen this happen? I mean, it's first time I've seen human baby interested in magic, but among Elves, almost every baby expresses an interest in magic before they can talk. This isn't strange at all.
Meredith was gonna question her again, but decided against it, thanking the Village Elder for the book and carrying Cashew back to his parents house. Eric was still away and Sara didn't seem interested in what Cashew was doing at all, so Meredith carried him into the house and sat in a chair with Cashew on her lap and the book in front of him, intending to read the book to him, but before She could even open the book, Cashew jumped out of her lap, tried carrying the book away, but ended up dragging the book away because it was too heavy for him and reading it with his back to Meredith. Which hurt her feelings.
Meredith was hurt by this and Cashew didn't seem to notice, eagerly opening the book and reading it. Meredith can't tell if he's looking at pictures or actually reading it, Cashew was really lucky that this world and his old world share a language. He read the book rather quickly, he was a good reader in his old life, so he was zooming through the pages, which made Meredith think he was only interested in the pictures, but he really was reading the book and managed to finish it by the time his dad got home.
Eric: Where did the kid get a book?
Meredith: He managed to run to the Village Elders home and find it, she let him take it, as long as I return it when he's bored of it.
Eric: I see... Cool.
Eric said after sitting down to eat. Meredith got up and went to take the book and return it, which received a disapproving baby grunt from Cashew, she put her hands up in defeat and headed home on her own.
Sara wasn't so nice and picked up Cashew and sat him down to eat. Putting the book on the table, which Eric grabbed and looked at.
Eric"What's so special about this book? It's colorful, I guess, but it doesn't look like a kids book.
Sara: it's a book on magic... I think, maybe not a spell book, but still related to magic.
Eric: Oh no... I hope he doesn't wanna learn magic when he's older. If he wants to fight, he should pick up a sword and learn to fight like a man, not hide behind fancy spells.
The words caused Cashews Eyes to dart to his father, giving a shocked and disapproving stare.
Sara: i think the kid is interested in magic.
She said while laughing.