[ WP ] Two people discover a fountain of youth . The problem is that upon drinking the water you turn back into an infant . The two decide to take turns raising each other in order to live forever until one day one of them decides to break this agreement .

It was difficult every time. We retained our memories and skills every time. That was both a great boon and a horrible misfortune. When we first discovered the Fountain of Youth, I was a wealthy merchant, and my `` partner'' was a trusted caravan guard. He had taken a drink and immediately became a babe. I realized what this meant and took him in as my `` ward''. I had no friends or family and never had any lovers for any longer than a few nights, so this would present very little in the way of problems. I then purchased the cave in which we had found the fountain, and as much of the surrounding land as I could. This would be the foundation of my empire. 
 
 What I did not realize at the time was that while he was an excellent guard, he was no good with money. I began to realize it as he grew into a young man and began to take advantage of being my ward. I still had control of the estate, of course, and I thought that perhaps I could teach him to understand trade and economics. By the time he reached the age we agreed upon wherein I would drink from the fountain and he would become my parent, I was still unsure as to whether or not he would manage, but I thought that in the short time that I was unable to speak, it would be impossible for him to spend all the money. I was wrong. 
 
 The first drink left me disoriented. I lived the first few months in a dreamlike state as my old, fixed mind adapted to the new and flexible brain. What I did not understand at that point, but do now, is that the brain actually undergoes a physical transformation from birth until young adulthood, so while I had my memories and skills, it took many years before I was able to properly take control of my empire again. Specifically, I had difficulty with judgment, and by the time I had mastered enough of my brain to overcome it, puberty would hit with another round of changes. What was worse was that it never happened at the same time. The effects of the environment saw to that. 
 
 Yes, my environment was different every time. My `` partner'' had ensured that every time. Even with as much skill as I had with money, my `` partner'' was nearly as skilled in wasting it. This would n't have been so bad, and I could have planned for it, if he did n't change with every reincarnation. The first time around, he spent it all on every vice he could think of. In the time it took for me to become lucid and strong enough to speak, he had taken my vast fortune and reduced it to nearly nothing. Further, as it turned out, he was not keen on obeying a child, even if that child was actually older than him. He would pretend to obey me, and then hide the results. When I was finally old enough to take control, we were in massive debt. It was only through luck and my vast intellect and skills that I was able to dig us out and be on my way to being rich when it was his turn to drink again. When he did, I began to make changes. 
 
 I quickly discovered that I could n't trust anyone else. Despite this man's flaws, he was rogue enough to know not to share the secret. He knew he had a good thing going. I had known him as my guard for 20 years before we entered our agreement, but in my new lives, no one ever kept my trust for that long. After two lifetimes of regaining my lost wealth, I began to take steps to never have to do that again. As such, I secretly hid money. For my next few youths, my partner was different: a poor investor once, a man who wasted money on his friends the next, a man taken in by confidence men after that, then a gambler, then an `` artist'', and so on. Due to hiding my money, I never had to earn it back again, but I had n't counted on two things: the damage to my family's reputation caused by my partner's failings, and war. 
 
 My `` partner'' and I had lived for quite a few centuries by my next turn to drink, and my hidden savings had reached the point where I was richer than when I found the fountain and no longer had to scrape by when I became an adult. It was my turn once again to drink. I did so, and when I finally regained my senses a few months later, I was in a place I did n't know. My `` partner'' had changed again, too. He glowered at me menacingly all the time, and had taken to heavy drinking. When I regained my ability to speak, I asked him, as I always did, what had happened since we last spoke. He explained with slurred speech how an army had destroyed the house with cannons due to the retreat of some other army. Before I had time to realize the implications of this statement, however, he then added, `` Oh, and when digging through the ruins, I found your hidden money.'' Being a child again and losing some of the brain function of an adult must have made my shock and surprise visible on my face because first he looked incredibly angry, then my vision went dark. It took me a few seconds to realize that he had hit me. Hard. It was the first and last time he ever hit me. 
 
 It was my 77th incarnation, and he had drunk away every last bit of money we had. He also sold most of the land I had purchased in order to buy more alcohol. We were reduced to living in a hovel right outside of the cave entrance. When I again became old enough to take over, I had nothing to start with. Nothing to leverage to make money. Even my family name, which had always garnered trust when I was in charge, was meaningless until I could rebuild it with my own two hands. For the first time in nearly 2000 years, I had to take a job and work for someone else. Despite my being the poorest I had ever been in my life, this would become my luckiest incarnation. 
 
 You see, having to work for another man made me the equal of many others. Instead of every person I'd ever met being someone I hired or who served me, I was now free to actually explore friendship. I found not one, not two, but THREE friends this time around. Lasting friends. Valuable friends. Friends I knew since their childhood. Best of all, I fell in love with one of them and made her my wife in secret, and as luck would have it, my other two friends became man and wife as well. By the time my 25th birthday rolled around, we had been friends for 22 years. As the time approached for my `` partner'' to drink, I had long realized that my friends and my love were as skilled as I was. Not in money, but in skills that allowed us to complement each other. I knew how to trade and invest, but my wife was a natural leader, commanding respect from all. My female friend excelled in all things production, and my male friend's curiosity made him a natural with the sciences. I had known them for 20 years and trusted them with my life. I decided to let them in on my secret. They were skeptical at first, as I expected them to be, but after 2000 years of life, and a natural skill in trade, I knew how to convince others. I promised to show them proof when my `` partner'' drank and became a baby, and I explained to them my plan. 
 
 That night was the night of my 25th year. My `` partner'' and I had long since agreed to live in 25 year cycles, the older drinking at 50 while the younger would take over at 25. After half an hour of walking in the cave, we finally approached the pool. The room was a large one, and there was plenty of water. In all the years we had done this, the water never seemed to rise or fall, and the room never changed; it was as timeless as the power it provided to us. My `` partner'' laid down a blanket next to the water and began to disrobe. The first time my partner drank, he nearly died when his quickly shrinking body collapsed, nearly dropping him into the pool, and it was only my quick reaction to his collapse that he even survived at all. Since then, we would lie down on the blanket and drink to allow our body to shrink. The other would then wrap up the baby and our cycle would begin anew. This time would be no different. While he disrobed, I glanced over to one of the many dark alcoves in the cave where I knew my friends and wife were hiding. They needed to see this for them to take part in the plan. 
 
 As my `` partner'' laid down, there were tears in his eyes. Curious, I asked him why he was crying, as I had never seen him like this before. He explained that he had always wanted to apologize for hitting me all those years ago. He knew he was a horrible man, and had spent every incarnation trying to change; trying to find a way to be a better partner. This last time around he had learned all about wines and alcohol with the intention of doing something with them, but instead he had become a drunk, and when he hit me, he had continued to drink to try to forget about how horrible he had become. I stood silent for a while, taking that in, before simply replying to him that this time around would be different, and I guaranteed it. I offered him the pewter cup we had used all these years to drink from and he smiled at me through the tears. Before drinking, he said, `` You always was a good man, boss.'' 
 
 He then shrunk to the floor, becoming a sleeping baby once again. I wrapped him up while my friends stepped out of the alcove with incredulous looks on their faces. They understood and believed. Now it was time to move forward. Now there would be four of us. Two of us would drink, and the other two would become the `` parents'', and we would grow our empire. As for my `` partner'', I had decided that I could n't kill him. For 2000 years he had made me miserable, but he had never faltered in his loyalty. Instead, I would make him drink from the Fountain of Youth every three months for the foreseeable future. In time, I hoped, he would forget everything and become a normal child. At that time, I could then raise him properly and he could live out a normal, happy life. It was time for his cycle to end, but, I hoped, it was just beginning for my new life with friends and loved ones.
