When Harvick entered and saw William he went over to inspect the baby. Without warning he lifted William up and peaked underneath his puffy worn gown. He then exclaimed with a surprised voice “It’s true! There really is no lump down there”.

William was not the average baby. The shame from having his privates ogled at made him yelp out in anger. He swung his tiny arms around to make the big meany put him down!

Joss was no help in this case. He only agreed and asked “Why? You haven’t seen a girl before?”. Harvick reluctantly put the struggling baby down and said “... No. My moth-... Erhm… I only have brothers”.

Joss wrinkled his eyebrows at this strange reaction. Harvick seemed to have a slight speech impediment when it came to mentioning his own mother. William also noticed this, but could understand why. His mother wasn’t exactly a saint…

Joss couldn’t help but demand “Since you have your own family, stay away from mine”. He didn’t sound angry when he said it. Rather he seemed upset and at a loss. Harvick didn’t understand what the young boy meant and said “But your father and my m-... But our parents agreed to have me help you with hunts and such…”.

An awkward silence filled the room.

Joss kept glaring at Harvick, wishing that his eyes could command this home-invader to leave. Harvick on the other hand was judging William. He was puzzled at something and decided to act on impulse. He grabbed onto William’s arm and steered him down onto the floor. At this, William was confused and scared.

He thought: What now? Please don’t misuse my body! Just because I’m powerless right now, doesn’t mean I won’t hold a grudge in the future!

Harvick held both of William’s hands in his own and helped the baby stand up. William wobbled on both of his legs. They were like spaghetti: Fast determined to bend sideways, forward or backwards. Harvick frowned at this unstable child and asked “Why hasn’t she learned to walk yet?”. Both Joss and William were baffled at this observation.

William especially. He didn’t know that he was supposed to be able to walk at his current age. 

Actually, William had tried to walk a couple of times, but was rather displeased and shocked to find out that his new body couldn’t do it. He had walked so much in his last life, he thought it would be a piece of cake!.. Having been defeated by setting his expectations too high and failing miserably, he practiced walking less and less.

He thought that something must be wrong with his current body, if he couldn’t use it properly… Besides, every time he tried to walk, Joss would come help carry him to his destination. So was there really a need to stumble around like a fawn? Perhaps it would come naturally and someday, BAM! He could walk...

These silly thoughts had led William to slack, when it came to practicing his gross motor skills. Harvick on the other hand, had siblings of his own and helped raise them. Therefor he was determined to help William as well. So he grabbed hold of William’s hands again and began coaching him with kind words like “You can do it… A tiny step at a time… Good girl”.

William, seeing how quickly he progressed, became extremely happy and proud. Nobody had tried to help him learn how to walk before Harvick. Not even his own mother: Vanessa. Because she was too busy doing housework and farming.

While the toddler clumsily tried to walk, the patient sat quietly by the side. Spectating…

Joss saw how William’s eyes sparkled with admiration for this new older brother, Harvick...

In Joss’ mind thoughts ran wild: So what if Harvick, that pretentious prick could teach William how to walk!? Seeing how to do it, it looked like a piece of cake!.. So Joss stood up from the bed and demanded “Let me do it! I’m her brother after all”. William glanced at his selfish brother and thought: Ah! You actually are shameless enough to use the brother-card!?

Harvick didn’t mind and handed William over to Joss. This was a mistake…

Joss was too eager to make progress. It got so bad that instead of letting William walk at his own pace, he was dragged across the floor. Harvick couldn’t help but snicker. This brother was too excited to do a task that needed so much patience…

After letting Joss torture William some more, Harvick intervened and sighed “You’re too eager, Joss!”. But Joss interpreted this action differently. He thought that Harvick was getting jealous of how excellent he was at teaching his own sister.

Just look! His sister could already walk from the bed to the doorframe. A much greater distance than, when she walked with Harvick!..

Joss was blinded.

He hadn’t noticed that the baby wasn’t using both legs to get around, but her stomach instead. So to reply to Harvick he said “What eager? Can’t you see that I’m doing much better than you? Just admit it. You’ve lost”.

Harvick sighed again and said “It’s not a competition you know?”. Joss released his grip on William, letting the mistreated toddler fend for itself. Then he crossed his arms, raised his chin and said “But, we can make it one… A competition that is… Anything you can, I can do better!”. Harvick snorted and said teasingly “Oh really?”. Joss nodded with confidence.

After some thinking Harvick jested “Then, let’s see whom of us can shoot down the most chickens, with slingshots as the weapon!.. Behind Owel’s house there are a lot of free-roaming chickens. Everybody knows that not all of them are his. Hah! They even say that some of them are wild ones, who was attracted from within the mainland forest… But anyway, those are the chickens we’re gonna try to catch”.

Joss didn’t take long to accept this challenge. As he headed out he suddenly remembered something…

He was technically grounded at the moment. Vanessa had scolded him countless times to stay inside his room and remain still. If she saw him leaving the house now, she would definitely scold him harshly!

Harvick knew of this. So he fetched his winter cloak. The cloak was black and had been his father’s. That was also the reason why it was too big, for his current young body. For normal use it was quite impractical, but for sneaking out other kids it was excellent! Harvick clicked on the cloak, opened it up like outstretched bat wings and tempted: “Come on in. There’s room enough for all of us… Also you Mirabelle”.

Joss understood Harvick’s intentions. He quickly squished his way in front of Harvick, who was the tallest. Then Harvick guided Mirabelle in between their legs and instructed “Grab on to our pant-legs, if you want to come along”.

Normally a toddler wouldn’t understand such a complex command, but William with his reincarnated wisdom did…

Harvick hadn’t thought much of how he had overestimated the baby, until it actually followed his orders!? This made him baffled. Was it normal for babies to understand adults so early on? Maybe he was just imagining things and this was just a coincidence...

He thought that, that was most likely it. A big misunderstanding.