My growth seemed to steady out at six months old, or at least i did not get any bigger. Since my parents had started supplementing my diet with soft foods and other liquids once my first tooth grew in, i had even gained some weight. Stopping most forms of exercise had helped my weight gains.
After talking with my father, i decided it was time to give my body a break and let things progress naturally. I was just now reaching the age where my teething would start, but i already had several teeth in both the top and bottom of my mouth. Since i had not gotten any taller, i could only take this as a good sign.
Once i started resting, six months turned to seven months in a vague series of naps. I did other things, but i did not work my body more than climbing the stairs every morning and night. I did not really speak much anymore, either, even with my father but I was sure he did not mind the change.
After the uncontrollable napping, i suddenly seemed to wake up and find that i was a solid three feet tall with slightly short arms but proportionate legs. It was honestly pretty weird seeing myself like this and, coupled with the curse of my eyebrows, i could not help but roll around laughing at myself.
When my mother found me in such a state, it took a while to calm myself, calm her, and then explain what was happening.
As if i had opened her eyes for the first time, she took a good long look at me and then burst out laughing. Still laughing, she ran from the room in search of my brother and father in the yard. Returning with everybody a short time later, the entire family was soon laughing with me at my reflection in a large panel of polished steel.
Once everybody had calmed down and i had recovered from the shock, we all went outside for a late lunch. As of a few days ago, i had all of the front teeth in my mouth so now i could enjoy light sandwiches of bread and cheese. As well as the usual mashed baby foods.
By eight months i was a fully proportionate and weighed almost thirty pounds. What little bit of fat i had been proud of gaining had been stretched out with the growth of my arms, i now looked almost stretched taut in an emaciated way that pronounced muscles that should not be seen at my age.
I looked hideous and spent all of my time fully clothes. Even less than a year old i was already the general height of a five-year-old. I was a freakish monster and cursed that crazy-eyed bastard with every fiber of my being.
My back teeth refused to grow in, so i was fairly limited on what i could eat, but after the past few months of experimenting i at least knew i could digest normal foods. Because of this, i ate as much food as i could get my hands on until i was visibly bloated.
At first, my father encouraged this behavior even though my mother worriedly tried to limit my intake. Though, not for long.
At ten months old i had filled out to a little over fifty pounds and my father had to start working his previous schedule to keep up with further food costs. Even when my father was taking more time off, we had enough 'general income' that he was basically off for several months.
Now that he was taking on 'requests' for the sake of my food bill, he worked a little more than a week out of the month and everything seemed to be covered.
I had no idea what he actually did for a living, but i could tell it paid very well. Until a couple weeks before my first birthday when he came home with a limp arm in bloody bandages. I never got to see under those bandages, but from the tightness with which they hugged his bicep and tricep i could tell there were large chunks missing.
In comparison to my bruised butt that only took a few seconds of magic, my mother spent almost ten minutes basically hovering around my injured father. His arm was the worst injury, but not the only one. Across the back of his other shoulder were three wide tears in his abnormally thick skin, his left calf had several punctures in it, and the rest of his heavy leather clothes were just ragged and dirty.
I knew that my father owned not just one but a few suits of different armors, but for as long as i could remember he had always gone out to work in the same military-style hide trench coat and simply clothes of layered leather. The coat had always seemed like a bit much, to me, but the rest of his clothing was functional.
His coat now, though, had two sleeves tearing away at the shoulder and most of its once plush fur was missing from all over The sleeve that had once covered his wounded arm had several sets of puncture marks and tears that looked patterned like teeth.
Examining the coat on the floor and the bestial scratch on my father's back, i cannot help but ask, "Did wolves do this?"
Mother actually stopped in her current work on father's leg to look up at me in surprise. Something seemed to have caught her off guard. I knew i had not been talking much while fattening up like a normal baby should, but it should not have been that big of a deal at this point.
Father, on the other hand, barked out a short laugh and said, "Yes, Chuck, your old man here got surrounded by wolves. Our mission was to track a SMALL pack of ice wolves that were supposed to have come down Mt. Kai a few days ago. Turns out, the alpha had been collecting our local timber wolves in its harem."
Then, giving me a wry smile, he asks, "How could you tell?"
"Well, if it was a bear or cat," i start off with, distracted by examining the missing patched of fur in the coat. "Their jaws would be shaped differently and shorter, so from the pattern on this sleeve your entire arm went in their mouth and the back teeth are what clamped down on and tore into basically all four sides of your arm.
"And the paws for everything but dogs are..." I continue to explain until i find myself looking up and trailing off. My mother had yet to start healing my father again, staring at me with open-mouthed shock. Father was just beaming wide with pride, and even Gryn off to the side who had been nearly in tears was staring at me with a mix of emotions.
Finally, Gryn seemed put into words the questions on all of their minds and the fear that had just cropped up in mine. "When have you ever seen a bear or wolf?"
Fuck. This word ran through my mind not once, not twice, but repeatedly as i scrambled for something to say. Finally i could only blurt out, "F- I don't know! It's just what makes sense and comes to mind whenever i look at the coat and father's wounds."
"Omniscient comprehension," My father says suddenly with a sagely nod of his head. "I bet it had nothing to do with Divine Translation, that's probably just a blessing for US to understand our son's mind. Just a while back when i was telling him about that old soothsayer-"
Worst thing he could have brought up at the time, but probably the best thing for me, was that little story from their past.
"YOU TOLD HIM ABOUT THAT?!" My mother suddenly seemed to roar in fury, displaying emotions i had never seen from her in all my near-year of life. Her voice seemed to be amplified to the point of deafening, causing the house to shudder with magically enriched sound.
Seemingly unfettered by my mother's reaction, my father crossed his newly healed arms defiantly over his chest and says, "Of course. The boy deserved to know. He was only a handful of months old and ASKING QUESTIONS. Put aside the fact he can speak at that age being a miracle, he already knew how to phrase a question and get what he needed.
"That doesn't mean you tell him some ghost story from before he was born, what if that changes the way he thinks and sees?" She asks seriously, probably no longer caring that 'he' was right here for the conversation. "You promised we'd talk about this stuff first, Harlen. That's what has me so... disappointed."
"Disappointed?" Father asks incredulously, looking around at the room in which dust was still settling from her explosive voice. "I'm not much of a people person, but that looked- no, SOUNDED, like enraged to me. But, then again, i could be wrong about what just happened in front of the children."
Then, just like that, my mother once again became aware of Gryn and I standing just a few feet away on different sides of her. She really DID forget i was here. How do you forget a five-year-old sized one-year-old?!
My father was a god. Not only had he completely sidetracked the previous conversation with a past event, he even used the reaction he knew my mother would have to scold her. This kind of preemptive mind play was truly awe-inspiring.
And intimidating. How much did he actually know or think about this situation? Regardless of the answer, he had just saved my ass.
Chalking everything up to the fact that this was probably the first time my mother had witnessed me talking in full sentences, i decided it was time to make my exit while mother was making excuses.
Because of my father coming home injured, i decided that i had gained plenty of weight for the time being and forced myself to eat smaller amounts of food until my stomach shrank to a normal size. By the time i ate the same number of meals as the others, it was already my birthday. This was sure to be interesting.
Like the usual anniversary of one's birth, the idea here was to have a party with lots of friends and family coming over. The yard was decked out with some pavilions and tables, huge amounts of food that i normally would have eaten were being prepared. There were sure to be gifts inbound as well.
The only problem with my birthday party, however, was me! Who in their coherent mind would want to go out and socialize at my age and size?! I was a freak! You do NOT put kids like me on display like this!
The entire day beforehand was spent arguing and running and hiding. Father was trying to convince me that his family descended from giants so it was common for kids like me to appear. As much as i believed that because of his dinosaur-sized boots, it did not matter in the least. But, it was good to finally know my size was relatively normal.
Until i asked about it and he said that it was not until he was three that his giant genes became active. I was the one who went crazy at birth. So, right back to running and hiding we went.
Today, on the first anniversary of my birthday, i was dressed extravagantly in a surprise suit or tuxedo of sorts with my hair oiled and slicked back from my face. like in my previous life, my hair was unkempt and shaggy but then again i was ONE.
As it turned out, more than the family members i remembered had come to town for the affair. I knew my father's parents and his sister, all of them were normal as hell, but the next three members of his parents' generation all towered over his seven-foot frame. These were true giants like Shaq standing between eight and ten feet in height.
Only one other person in my generation had the giant genes and that was a boy about Gryn's age. However, while Gryn was only like four-and-a-half feet tall, our cousin Malkrys was just over five-and-a-half. His mother was a giantess who was taller than my father, so i did not doubt he would probably end up taller than me.
That was actually a huge relief.
*