Being a newborn sucked; that was the thought that filled Edwin's mind. Months of helplessness had ruined his initial excitement about this world. At a month old, he had almost no control over his body; his hands were useless because he had not figured out how to use his thumbs, and his legs lacked the power to carry his body weight. In fact, his neck barely managed to hold his head straight; many times, he had fallen over and failed to get back up.
Lacking proper speaking capabilities, his every noise came out as a gibbering of a baby for his nurses to either laugh at or attempt to comfort me if they thought the noise was bad. Lately, most of the noises he made were bad. Edwin, unable to fully control his emotions any longer, was constantly in tears.
"That's not even the worst part." He cried to himself.
Edwin found the worst part to be the local nobility's tradition. Instead of being breastfed by Anna, it was Mary's duty to feed him. Apparently, it was considered unbecoming of nobles of any station, even the poorest, to feed their own children. To Edwin, the problem with this tradition was that, instead of a beautiful young woman nurturing him, it was a rude old crone who did.
Mary was on the wrong side of forty; the fact that she was Edwin's nursemaid meant she had somehow recently popped out a child. Her skin was leathery and worn from a lifetime spent working fields alongside her husband. Thin white hair failed to cover a handful of balding spots on a patchy head. Her attitude matched her crooked back; she was cruel and mean. Her granddaughter was the other nurse, although she did not feed Edwin as she was too young to have children. Theda was the name of the younger nurse; she usually took the most care of me. Mary abused her power as Theda's grandmother to get away with extra naps or to sneak away to her home.
Edwin had made a game of crying louder when Mary neared, but less when it was Theda, so he spent more time with the younger lady. The situation sat fine with Mary, just fine, she no longer had the patience for children after having a whole litter herself.
It was when mother or father came that Edwin truly kept crying. Robert was energetic, always eager to show Edwin the land around their castle, although he had yet to take his son further than the wooden palisade that surrounded the keep. Anna, still recovering from the short but draining birth, often kept Edwin in the nursery, or, if he was lucky, she would carry him to the small vegetable garden that sat nestled between the southern side of the wall and the keep.
Anna, despite not being as entertaining as Robert (who always sought to make Edwin laugh), would tell stories of renowned nights or great kings; at other times, she would sing songs with a voice so angelic that the serfs in the keep would stop working just to listen.
Over the following months, Edwin would come to learn a handful of useful pieces of information. Firstly, the family he found himself reborn into was called the Sonders, named after the river Sonder, which flows adjacent to their lands. The family was old, having been given their land many generations ago when their forefather, a man named Roger, followed the Duke of Nordan across the ocean to conquer the Island they now live. Secondly, the Sonders are broke; generations of poor leadership and poorer decisions have left them stripped of much of their land and financially destitute. Lastly, Robert, whom Edwin mistook for a man of humor and likely peace, was actually a war hero to be respected.
A giant of a man, Roberts' size was not just for show. During a rebellion against the King, Robert, who fought in the King's army, slew many notable Knights of the traitorous Duke Attwell Merden. According to Theda, who spoke with great passion about Robert's feats during the major battle of Stanton, he led a counterattack that saved the king's entire left flank, resulting in a costly but vital victory.
Peace was achieved many years ago, with House Merden being allowed to remain in power as dukes due to some ties to the royal family. However, Attwell Merden was slain in battle, his sole surviving son was shipped off to the capital to be raised alongside the royal family as a noble hostage, and most of their land was stripped, along with their treasury, to pay for the debt the war caused the crown.
As a reward for his role in the war, Robert had walked away with pockets full of money, the ransoms of many knights. But Roberts' father had been an excessive man, someone who liked to live well above his means. Saddled with three decades of debt, Robert had paid all of it off once again, leaving their family poor but debt-free. Anna had been wed to him during this time as well; she was the only child of Ser Isaac Barfoot, an aging landed knight who ruled a small hamlet located on the opposite side of the river Sonder that Roberts' land lay.
"I will ensure our family regains its glory, no, it will surpass its previous height," Edwin vows to himself while Theda changes his dirty diaper. "Once I grow up a little, just you wait, world, I'm coming."