Reincarnated extra refuses to die

Arc 2. Chapter 2-1

The birthday cake my mother prepared was a simple thing. Made out of whipped cream and fruits, it was sweet due to the prickly pears she used. Here, in this part of the world it was easier to get sugar than in other places, but it was sometimes still difficult, especially for us, commoners. Prickly pears were an incredible source of sugar. When they matured, you could smell the sickly sweet taste for kilometers. It's what we children usually go after during the months of summer, and here in the house we got a pretty big stash of it since there are plenty of cacti in the surrounding area.

The weather had been getting colder the more we advanced through the days, but it was still tolerable. It almost never snowed here, so compared with other places in the south, we had it pretty easy. That didn't mean though, that it could not become freezing cold sometimes. And since we didn't have that many preparations both in clothing and housing like in the south, it could be pretty uncomfortable.

But well, that was life, I guess. As mom cut the cake after everyone sung happy birthday to me, I could not help but be in awe. Twelve years old. It was my twelfth birthday, and now I was twelve years old. While the original Elaine lived only until she was eleven, I managed to turn another year thanks to my efforts to save my life.

I was happy.

Especially because Lucas stopped ignoring me and now everything was back to normal. I ate, drowning some water from time to time because I'm not really a fan of sweets, and talked with my parents and played with Thomas and made fun of Lucas who was already on this third piece of cake.

After the celebration was done, Thomas, Lucas and I stepped out of the house. I guided Lucas by the hand while Thomas ran in front of us, his laughter filling the air and bringing a sense of peace and warmth to our hearts.

"Mmm, Elaine, where...?" Lucas asked, unsure. I gave him a mysterious smile, taking him to a wooden building a little farther away from the house, farther than the henhouse and even the barn. Lucas blinked. "That place..."

"Did you ever go inside?" I asked, looking at him knowing the answer already. He shook his head, and my smile widened. "What a good boy. Not putting foot in places he wasn't told he could go to..."

"Are you making fun of me again?"

"Not at all" I answered sincerely. "To be honest though, neither I nor Thomas is allowed there. Only when it's one of our birthdays we can enter. Mom and dad are always worried we're going to ruin the place" I said, rolling my eyes, though honestly, if I was an adult I would also forbid children from going inside the building.

Lucas looked at me curiously, but asked nothing as we already arrived at the entrance. Thomas was jumping up and down excitedly, waiting and prodding me to open the door already. Smiling, I took out the key mom gave me reluctantly and unlocked the door. Once opened, Thomas darted inside with a squeal of joy.

"Come on" I grabbed Lucas' hand again and like that, we darted inside.

At first it was too dark to make sense of anything in the place, but soon after our eyes got used to it. Thomas was trying to jump inside one of the wood-slatted pens containing all the clean and dry feathers, with little success.

"Elaine! Help!" he yelled. I chuckled and went over to him, carefully lifting him up. Thomas was impatient though, and as soon as he was at the necessary height, he jumped, spreading feathers everywhere that Lucas and I would have to clean up later. I smiled, not caring about that for now and also jumped inside.

I resurfaced, giggling and beckoning Lucas over. "Come! What are you waiting for?"

Lucas blinked, looking from us, who were playing with the feathers, to the work tables and pieces of cloths lying around. He finally returned his eyes to me. "A feather house?" he asked, incredulously. I nodded.