As Zalan was enjoying himself, the clattering of foot steps doubled as both Alex and Amanda dashed down the stairs. With their worried and shocked shouts resounding the hallway, Zalan could barely make out what they were saying.
"Are you sure he spoke, Amanda? He's barely 6 months old! This isn't funny if it is a joke. I was in the middle of something important!"
Alex said with a glare.
"Yes he definitely spoke. He even answered when I asked him what he said!"
Amanda replied whilst making crazy gestures with her hands like a madwoman.
"Alright. Even if he didn't, I've never seen you this shook before. Something must be happening. You are a usually a terrible actor just so you know."
Earning an eye roll from Amanda, Alex turned his attention to the door and shot his hand towards the number pad. His finger blurred for a second before the green light flashed and the familiar sound of the door sliding to the side occurred revealing the dimly lit room behind.
The book room was in perfect order other than the small child laying down on the chair and a child's book open on the ground as if it had been tossed aside like common waste.
Without wasting a second, both Alex and Amanda dashed forward. Being a tier 3 awakened, Alex was a much faster and reached Zalan first. Alex had a slight look of uncertainty before reaching out to grab Zalan by the waist. Holding Zalan in his hand and close to his face like Zalan was a precious artifact that needed examining, he stared down the two large brown eyes gazing back at him. After a slight awkward pause with what seemed like a questioning gaze, Alex turned to Amanda who appeared beside him.
"How do I make him speak?"
"Umm…"
Amanda started to have recollections of what exactly prompted Zalan to speak in the first place before conveying it to Alex, but Amanda was soon interrupted as Zalan squealed before chanting "fluffy bird" with his arm raise as if to mimic what he had saw in the book.
'That should be enough to show them I am a literary genius!' Zalan thought whilst looking indifferently at Alex and Amanda, who snapped their heads in his direction, as if he was just a regular child with no idea what he had done.
Now it was Alex's turn to be shook. His eyes early popped out of his sockets as his mouth hung open, unfortunately releasing a 'lovely' odour right to Zalan's face. The rabid smell caused Zalan's face to contort as he attempted to cover his nose with his tiny hand.
'This breath is enough to kill Chasm-Borns!' Zalan thought
"Alex, get back to your senses, you are holding him to tightly." Said a worried Amanda as she snapped back to her senses after noticing Zalan squirming in what seemed like agony. Little did she know, he was only trying to get a breath of fresh air. Alex also came back after hearing Amanda's concerned tone.
"Sorry!"
He replied quickly before setting Zalan back down on the chair. Both parents looked down at their child in disbelief whilst Zalan was uncomfortably sitting there under their scrutiny. Their piercing gazed looking as if they had discovered he was an alien specimen and are closely examining him. Which wasn't far from the truth considering he had been reborn into this body. This carried on for about a few more seconds before Zalan looked away.
Breaking the awkward silence, Amanda was the first to speak.
"Honey I think we should keep reading the book to him."
"Y—yea I think that's a good idea." Alex quickly agreed whilst still shaken by todays events. After all, he had just discovered his one and only child is a generational genius. They both gaze back at Zalan wondering that was going on in his head.
'Tsk, I'm not going endure that stuff again.'
So Zalan made a statement. He pointed his finger towards the book laying on the ground and simply yelled "No!"
This earned him another incredulous gaze as both Alex and Amanda were shocked once again that Zalan could in fact understand what they are saying. But Zalan simply ignored them.
"No Bird!" He added.
As his parents started muttering incomprehensible jargon, Zalan had one last display to make. In the past 3 months, he has been training himself to walk and fine tune his motor functions when Alex and Amanda weren't around. Now, he could do just about anything with his baby body like any regular adult human could. Well minus their strength.
So Zalan simply hopped down, stood up, and then waddled towards the door. He tried his best to hide his laughter as he imagined once again how his parents would react. Was it going to be stammering? More drooling? Or Eye widening with 'o' shaped mouths? Contrary to his guesses, there were 2 loud thuds on the ground behind him. Sensing something was amiss, he turned his head to look back at his parents. Rather than looking up at them, he glanced towards the floor where 2 bodies resembling rag dolls were sprawled on the carpet with their limbs outstretched and piled on each other. A wide grin suddenly appear on his face.
Rather than feeling worried, he was ecstatic. All Zalan thought about was that he could finally take a look at the control manuals.
"Yes finally!"
As fast as his stubby legs could carry him, he waddled over to the bookshelf where he saw them placed. Unfortunately, one obstacle he failed to account for was the height of the shelf where the books were located.
'Shit' Zalan thought at he gazed upwards at the towering shelf. Knowing that he didn't have much time left, he did the best thing he could to reach greater heights. That was building stairs out of books. Looking around, he gazed at 'Mr Bird' laying on the ground.
'Great, let's start with that one!'