Cale’s time in daycare was coming to an end, he had been there six months and survived all the biting, drool, scratching, and non consensual grabbing that comes along with baby territory. Overall, he had a good time. Sure, daycare itself had been boring; who can play the same block game every day and not be bored? The part he looked forward to every day was after daycare since he enjoyed his time with his dad the most of all.

  Cale was surprised at how fast he had learned to understand the nuances of the language. He suspected his baby brain along with the interface was helping him learn. He found it interesting that the interface understood most words, but it had no context for body language or undertones. By the end of his six months in prison daycare, he could almost speak full sentences and could read basic words. His ability to speak was a little hampered by his biology, which meant that everything he said sounded cute and nobody really took what he said seriously.

  He tried to ask basic questions about magic, but both his father and his aunt laughed and would just tell him that one day he would understand when he learned his own script. Cale thought about messing with his interface on his own, but he was nervous that if anything went wrong, his real protector, his mother, was not around to fight for him. Sure, his father would protect him, but it could take hours for his dad to be contacted and then to get there, and a lot could happen by then.

  Cale instead would occasionally map out his soul during naptime to see if any new swirls or tendrils appeared. He never found anything different, but it was captivating to be able to look at one's soul. An ever-changing beauty. He didn’t have a way to confirm, but every time he went to check on his soul, it felt like it had grown a little. With no way to measure it, Cale could only assume.

  As Cale and his father enjoyed their final walk home from his daycare, his father would point to almost anything on the street and Cale would do his best to call out the right word. He calculated that he was right about eighty percent of the time. His baby brain was really enhancing his ability to learn, and it was exhilarating. While he called out answers, he could tell his father was enjoying his time due to the beaming smile on his face. And why wouldn’t his father be proud? Not only was Cale learning to speak quickly, but Cale caused as few problems as possible since he didn’t want his father to stop teaching him words or to stop reading to him. Cale would have potty trained himself, but his baby body sometimes didn’t tell him he had to go to the bathroom, which meant he had some very stinky accidents, and occasionally… slippery ones. Regardless of Cale sometimes messing up, his father took it in stride and was never angry with him. Something Cale greatly appreciated.

  Tomorrow they would travel to the dig site where his mother had been working for six months. He was excited to see what type of work his mother actually did. He had refrained from asking his father about her work too often so he wouldn’t get annoyed and stop answering any questions he had.

  Over the last few months, Cale had expected his father to act suspicious of his curiosity and ability to learn, but either his father didn’t understand how clever Cale was being, or he was just purposefully ignoring it. He wanted to ask his father, a flaw in his endless curiosity, but a question like that could reveal more than he was willing to at the moment, so he refrained.

  He was unsure how much he could get past his mother though; there was no way to hide the fact that he could basically say full words and partial sentences. What kind of face would his mother make when he talked to her? He hoped she would be surprised and not sad that she missed a big step like this in his life. To make it up to her, he had even snuck his favorite book out of his aunt's house so that he could show her how much he had learned. She may be upset that she missed so much of his life so far, but he thought that maybe she would appreciate reading to him. Soon he would see her again, and his little baby brain buzzed with excitement.

  Aunt Gistine

  Gistine waved to Xavier as he went home with his father. She had been watching him over the last few months and had found this little boy to be equally frustrating as he was impressive. The whole family had written the boy off as dead after the gods hadn’t gifted him an interface. After all, only children destined to die - unfavored by the gods - didn’t get an interface. Yet at the one-year mark, she found herself, along with others, at the boy's birthday party where they were surprised to hear that he was still alive and had been gifted an interface, albeit very recently. Many of her family had assumed the boy was mentally stunted, but her sister had been very tight lipped about the boy. The family assumed that she was just being protective and didn’t try and pry too much.

  Then the incident happened where they were singing happy birthday, and the poor child had almost died! The singing must have been too much for the boy because as soon as they were done singing, the poor boy screamed and then passed out. Her sister asked the healer of the family to take a look, but the healer wasn’t able to fix anything and had said he was physically fine, but his heart was barely beating, which made his chances of recovery very slim.

  She had written off this child as gone, after all it wouldn’t be the first time a young one didn’t react well to their interface, and Xavier hadn’t been registered with the system until he was much older than most. The world was a tough place for those who lost the blessing of the gods. And she wasn’t the only one that was on edge, everyone at the party stood there quietly and looked at one another with somber faces. Everyone assumed it would only be a matter of minutes before their family lost another young one. She herself had met the boy a few times and had enjoyed pinching his cheeks, she was so worried that she found herself gripping the table hard enough that her hands had become white.

  To her immense relief, Xavier’s body stirred, and the crowd was yet again surprised as the boy regained consciousness and the healer confirmed that he was ok. Even weirder yet, her sister insisted that everything was fine and basically forced the family and guests to sit for dinner, which they all stayed for until the boy fell asleep in his food. Everyone left the party feeling sorry for her sister and sad that this poor boy had such a terrible fate.

  After this incident her sister had come to her and verified that she could watch Xavier while she got herself re-situated with work. She could see the worry on her sister's face as they talked, and the guilt of having to leave her boy. She understood her sister's feelings; her job was of the utmost importance to their people. Finding out what happened between their ancestors and the gods was the primary goal of the church as they wanted to get back within the gods graces. Her sister was one of their top researchers and had a knack for unlocking ancient secrets. She herself didn’t have that skill, but she could help in other ways.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  She calmed her sister and reaffirmed that she would watch her boy. She had a duty to help in any way she could. Besides, she only had to watch him during the day. The boy's father, a Ranger, could watch him at night, but only because he had gotten special permission to do a desk job during this time. Of course, she couldn’t let her sister Diana know how she felt about watching Xavier, she had to act like it was going to take some convincing to watch him. Her sister's position allowed her access to some of the nicest places in town. She “let” Diana wear her down with promises of shopping and wine. She wasn’t trying to be too greedy, but just because she was helping her sister didn’t mean she couldn’t get something extra out of it.

  When the day finally came to watch Xavier, she was not sure what to expect and she hoped that he wouldn’t end up passing out like he did at his birthday party. That would be way too stressful for her. However, what she had not expected was for him to be terrifyingly clever. On his first day of daycare, he solved all the puzzles she had purchased for the kids. She had seen a few of the kids in the past solve them either by accident or after a few months, she was not expecting him to solve them in MINUTES!

  Then she noticed him trying to walk – months ahead of any other kid of his age. If this wasn’t enough, the moment she had let herself get distracted, he had made a move to escape! Which in itself wasn’t surprising, all babies tried to escape at some point. The surprising part of the already surprising situation was that the boy had made sure that no one else had left with him before he CLOSED the gate. Was this really the child that was overwhelmed by people only a few weeks ago? She would have gotten upset if he hadn’t been so cute trying to shuffle walk down the hallway.

  After that first day, the rest of her days watching him had been fairly normal, as long as she kept a close eye on him. There was the exception of him taking a book when his father came to pick him up for the first time. The book was meant for children much older than him. He held on to it so tightly that neither she nor his father could get it away from him safely. For the sake of the book, and her nephew's grip, she let him take it with him.

  Over the next few months, she found Xavier learning faster than anyone she had seen before. Every day she saw him she was amazed at the new word or phrase he had learned and more importantly, he usually used it in the right context, even if his pronunciation was a little off. Sometimes she wanted to correct his words, but he just sounded so darn cute! So, she would let it slide and smile as he continued to talk.

  He had taken to her book collection with a hunger that she was not expecting to see. He was constantly sneaking out of the play area to go get books. She tried to stop him by locking the gate with an actual lock, but instead of stopping him, it showed her that the gate was more of a formality to him. He was strong enough that he could climb right over the barrier. She then went out and got another gate, making it twice as tall. To her surprise she still found him outside of the play area swapping books. It had taken her a while to figure out how he was doing it, here he had found a toy giraffe and was using it like a lever to bend one of the bars enough to get out.

  She gave up at that point; to keep her sanity, she took down the extra fencing and locks, then put a small shelf with some books on it next to the play area. Lastly, she re-used the second gate she had purchased and put it farther down the hall. She knew she probably wasn’t going to be able to stop Xavier from escaping, so might as well give him the books he desired. Besides, once she told her sister how difficult her boy was, she would have to give her more in return. A greedy smile creeped up on her lips.

  Whenever Xavier came and went, she had noticed his father teaching him basic words and Xavier soaked it up like a sponge. She had found herself talking to Xavier during the day as well as he pointed to different things around the house. Sometimes he was the last kid to be picked up, so she would let him hang out with her while she did chores waiting for his father.

  When hanging out alone, she would say a word, and he would try his best to repeat it. His voice was so cute as he struggled to repeat some of the tougher words. She thought about sending her sister a letter, telling her about her boy and how smart he is, but she assumed his father was keeping her appraised of their boy's progress and she didn’t want to make her sister jealous of missing such nice moments like this. Besides, she would have plenty to talk to her sister about when she came to pay her in wine and shopping. PLENTY to talk about...

  As Gistine walked back into her house, her eyes fell on a gap in her bookcase, the exact location where Xavier would put the spelling book, she let him take home on occasion. That clever little kid, she thought. He snuck that out of here without me knowing. She shook her head in amusement. She could get it back later if it was still in one piece, not like any of the kids in the house currently needed it.

  She walked over to her window to look at Xavier and his father walking down the street. She could see Xavier excitedly saying the name of things his father would point at. He was a curious kid, which to her meant she had to be on her toes watching him. A small part of her felt relief knowing that her days would be a little bit easier. He was her sister's problem now.

  Out in the wilds, not far from where Cale’s mother is working...

  Tonight is not a good night to be away, but she needed to hunt. Her cubs had yet to learn to gather their own food, so it was up to her to keep them fed and safe. It would be a difficult night for her and her cubs. The thick air around her felt like it was in a frenzy. The forest was no stranger to the hoots and howls of animals during the night. But tonight, all the animals were making noise.

  Fights were breaking out all throughout the forest and the sounds of their fights clashed with the cacophony of strange sounds from the various animals of the night. She hoped her cubs would stay down low and not peek their heads out. She dared not think of what could happen, she wanted nothing more than to run back to them, but they needed food and could not wait any longer. She focused her attention back on the hunt ahead. Nights like this had started to happen more frequently since she had her cubs, if it kept up, she may have to move them somewhere safer.

  She covered a long distance as she hunted and by the time she safely made it back to her den it had been two days. The whole time she was coming back to her den, she found herself afraid that she would walk in on her cubs gone, taken by another predator. But when she worked her want into their den, she found her cubs healthy, albeit very hungry.

  As her cubs gorged themselves on her kill, she figured that it wouldn’t be long before she would have to move her den. The forest around them was becoming increasingly dangerous and unpredictable, making this part of the forest unsafe for her and her children. She was not going to wait for something bad to happen. Once her cubs got a little bit bigger, they would move. But for now, she would bide her time.

  A feeling of happiness swelled in her as she looked at her cubs. They had fallen asleep on their backs with their paws in the air, twitching occasionally as they dreamed of things only the young can. Their bellies were swollen from all the food they had eaten, and they were making adorable little snoring sounds. After the long nights of hunting, she found herself feeling relaxed and content next to her cubs, and soon her paws were up in the air just like theirs.