Rosa didn't know for how long she had cried, but at one point she got so tired that she just fell asleep. She only woke up when horrible hunger pangs gnawed at her stomach. Opening her eyes, she saw the same gloomy room with no windows. But before being able to properly assess her surroundings, her stomach growled with almost painful intensity.
Is this really how babies feel hunger? The feeling is so excruciatingly strong that it is painful. No wonder that babies cry so loudly when they feel hungry.
Despite being an adult mentally, Rosa barely managed to hold herself back from screaming. But before she could begin to worry about it in earnest, a man with a bushy, brown beard appeared in her view, saying something in a calm voice. His voice didn't suit his appearance at all – it was soft, like a woman's voice. Rosa thought she saw a smile behind the bushy beard, but it was hard to tell. The man apparently took the fact that she hadn't begun crying as a good sign and picked her up while carefully holding her head.
Rosa realized she wasn't naked anymore, instead she was dressed in a soft and warm cotton onesie. Or at least it felt like cotton. As the man held Rosa close, she also understood that she was mistaken. This was not a man, but most definitely a woman as she could feel the large, soft breasts on HER chest.
But how can a woman have such a large beard? A woman having a beard wasn't impossible, of course, there were illnesses that could cause that as well as hormonal imbalance. But I've never actually seen a woman with such a luscious beard.
Much to Rosa's delight, the bearded woman did not have any horns or tail. She murmured something to Rosa and then produced a glass bottle with a nipple for the cork.
I'm not supposed to eat that, am I? Just suck on the bottle like a baby? Well, I am a baby now and I am hungry, but there's no way I'm just going to accept it so easily.
As the woman brought the bottle closer to Rosa's mouth, she considered whether she should just kick it away. But the sweet smell of milk reminded her of how hungry she actually was. And she didn't exactly have teeth to chew things with. Begrudgingly Rosa latched onto the bottle and drank the milk. It was thicker and creamier than cow's milk, but also more filling. She quite liked it. The bearded woman nodded in satisfaction as she drank, a smile peeking out from behind the beard.
Rosa was almost done with her bottle, when the door was thrust open with a loud clang and the same Demon Man from before entered. That's how Rosa decided to call him, for what else is he supposed to be? He is no doubt at the core of her misfortune – pulling her away from her own world for his own nefarious plans.
With her stomach full, Rosa began to worry about her world.
How can I get back? What happened to my body? Am I just dead and have no way of going back? Or perhaps somebody has found me and my body is being kept alive in the hospital – attached to machines and tubes? But even if that is the case how can I get back?
These horrible thoughts overwhelmed her so much that she began crying again. The bearded woman grumbled something towards the Demon Man, who awkwardly scratched his head. Rosa wanted to scream at him to send her back to her world, but her baby tongue and lack of teeth made her completely unable to speak. The bearded woman rocked her in a futile attempt to console her.
After a few minutes Demon Man bent down to pick Rosa up from the woman's hands. She then realized how much taller Demon Man was than the bearded woman.
Was he actually a Giant Demon Man? No, that's not quite right.
Looking down at the bearded woman Rosa saw how short she actually was. If she were to break her down proportionally for a drawing, then she would be five heads high. Normally humans were about seven or eight heads high. This woman was a dwarf.
Good gods! I was pulled into some world filled with weird, inhuman races. Do humans even exist here? And what about all the technology? Phones, computers, cars and other daily conveniences? What about movies? What if they don't even exist in this world?
Rosa frantically looked around the dark room they were in, trying to find any sign of some sort of modern technology. But the room was decorated like some goth's nursery – dark walls, a dark crib with tacky frills, dark plushies depicting some monsters in the corner of the room, and a dark changing table which no doubt contained everything a baby needed.
She looked up at the ceiling and saw that there was a lamp there. At first she was relieved, thinking it was an electric lamp, but looking at it more carefully, noted it was different.
The dwarf woman noticed her interest, and clapped her hands twice. The light turned off and everything turned dark. Then she clapped once and the light came back. Rosa outstretched her hands towards it, hoping that Demon Man would bring her closer to the lamp so she could inspect it properly.
He asked something to the dwarf woman, who nodded her head and then he brought Rosa closer. It was still high up on the ceiling, but she saw that there were no actual light bulbs on it. Instead there were tiny little glass balls that had some odd liquid moving inside it – almost like a lava lamp only much smaller.
What is that even? How does it work? Even if it is some sort of technology, it certainly isn't the same kind as on Earth. Then… it's very unlikely that there is something here like computers or TVs.
The thought was so painful, that Rosa barely managed to hold back her tears. Demon Man smiled and wiggled his finger above her, no doubt hoping that she would grab it.
This is all your fault! You pulled me into this world, didn't you? Even without any proof, I know it. But I won't let you get away with it.
Rosa took a deep breath and then began screaming for no other reason than to annoy Demon Man. This was the only thing she could do at the time, being a baby. But as she let her little voice carry loudly through the room, forcing Demon Man to wince in displeasure, she swore an oath to herself.
One day, I'll find a way to go back home. No matter how long it takes, I'll keep getting stronger and keep searching. I'll become an artist that I've always dreamed of becoming, even if it takes me a hundred years.
***
Rosa stared at the demon, and the demon stared back. Neither of them said anything or did anything. She – because she couldn't, he – well, she didn't know why he was silently staring at her. His expression was incomprehensible to her, neither angry, nor sad, nor excited. But there was something in his face. Curiosity perhaps? Or perhaps something exclusive to demons.
How long are you going to keep staring at me?
The dwarf woman said something, a question judging by the tone of her voice. The demon blinked and finally turned his gaze from Rosa, saying something to the dwarf woman. She nodded and a small smile was peeking out from behind her beard. Then she left the room in a hurry.
Hey, don't leave me alone with him!
Their awkward staring contest resumed, and Rosa began counting seconds until the dwarf woman's return. After exactly three minutes, the demon lifted his arm and Rosa flinched, fearing what he might do. Seeing her reaction, he slowly lowered the arm and the excruciating staring contest resumed.
Thankfully, it didn't take long for the dwarvish woman to return with a baby bath in tow. It was made out of metal or something akin to it, and seemed too large and heavy for such a short woman to be carrying. Much to Rosa's surprise, she put it down with one hand, as if it weighed nothing at all.
The demon nodded at her, and then pulled the bath closer to Rosa's crib.
Are they going to wash me? I suppose a bath doesn't sound so bad.
The dwarf came up to the bath, holding some sort of large marble ball in her hand. Before Rosa could begin to ponder its purpose, water poured out of the ball as if from a tap.
Is that some sort of magic?
Noticing Rosa's interest, the demon bent down closer to her and said something in his incomprehensible demon speech.
I can't understand you. And even if I could, I can't answer you.
The demon waved his hand above Rosa and a little ball of water formed in his palm. Rosa marveled as he moved the water ball above her head, making it bend and turn, inflate and deflate.
That definitely is magic. That's amazing! He just created water out of thin air. Or are there perhaps some rules that he has to follow to do that?
Much to Rosa's surprise, the demon chuckled. A large demon man with black horns and horrifying black eyes who no doubt killed puppies for sport – just chuckled. And not in a creepy, evil maniac kind of way, but in a human kind way people laughed when they found something amusing.
No, it must be a ploy to make me forgive him for this forced kidnapping. Not today, you evil demon. I will not fall for your Stockholm Syndrome plan.
Rosa hardened her expression, attempting to glare at the demon, but he had already turned towards the dwarf woman, discussing something with her. The bath had been filled with water and there was a towel and a bar of soap on a little tray on the side of the bath.
The demon approached her, and then began unbuttoning her onesie.
You intend to bathe me? No, no, no. No way I am letting a demon wash me.
Rosa opened her mouth to scream, and the demon instantly stopped, wincing in anticipation of her scream. When the scream didn't come, he resumed opening the buttons and Rosa opened her mouth once more. He paused again, but didn't remove his hand entirely. But as soon as he tried to open another button, she let out an earth shattering screech. The demon backed away and appeared annoyed.
The dwarvish woman said something soothingly, and came up to Rosa to finish the task. Ideally, Rosa would have wanted for the man to leave instead of gawking at her naked baby body, but she had a feeling he wouldn't leave no matter how much she screamed. She'd accept his presence for the time being.
Once undressed, the dwarf gently lifted her while supporting her head and then deposited her into the warm bath water. It was pleasant, but at the same time the bath was filled with water all the way to the brim. Her body floated helplessly in it, and suddenly she remembered how the violent sea waves had dragged her under water.
No… I don't want to go into the water!
Rosa began flailing and screaming as much as her little hands allowed her. She slipped out of the woman's grip and her head went under water. But before she even realized what had happened, strong arms pulled her out. She coughed up the little amount of water she managed to swallow as the demon cradled her close to his chest, and angrily shouted something at the dwarf.
The woman lifted her arms defensively and muttered something while shaking her head. The demon commanded something at her while pointed at the bath, and the dwarf bowed profusely and then hurried to draw the excess water out the bath using the marble ball.
That was the first time Rosa felt gratitude towards the demon.
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Rosa found it difficult to keep track of the days and months that followed as they were some of the most boring days in her existence. Aside from when she was a human baby probably, but she didn't have the mental capacity to remember that. However, stuffing an adult mind into a baby's body was proving to be a great torture device.
There were so many things Rosa wanted to do. Learn more about the surrounding area, find out more about this strange, new world and perhaps figure out if art was a prominent thing here. Walking also would be a nice thing to do.
Unfortunately, she couldn't even roll over – that's just how weak her baby body was. The nursery didn't even have any windows, so she couldn't even deduce whether it was daytime or nighttime. The only difference was that during the night the lights were turned off. Or at least Rosa assumed so.
So whenever Rosa wasn't eating or sleeping, the only thing she could do was stare at the gray ceiling, following the swirling patterns from one side of the wall to the next. Slowly she began to resent the room. It was so dark and gloomy, with barely any color in it that wasn't black or some variation of gray. Sometimes she wondered whether she had just died and was sent to her personal hell.
But there was one thing that convinced her that it wasn't so. Or rather it was a person. Her dwarf nanny. Whenever the bearded woman came, she would chat with Rosa in a cheerful tone and play some silly baby games. It sounded stupid for an adult to enjoy such things, but after spending day after day staring at the ceiling, even something as mundane as peekaboo became a great source of entertainment.
Of course, what Rosa truly appreciated was her nanny's talking, because through her she was slowly beginning to understand the language. For example, Rosa understood that her name in this world was Morrigan – a dreadful name in her opinion – from how both the nanny and Demon Man addressed her.
The nanny's name was Gunna while the Demon Man was called Alphegor. Quite honestly she expected him to have some cliched name like 'Lucifer' or 'Azazel', but this was another world, so earthly cliches didn't apply. Nonetheless, Rosa decided to still refer to him as 'Demon Man' because calling him by his name would be like acknowledging that he was a person and not a monster.
And I'll never acknowledge him as a person, much less as my father.
Rosa also learned to understand some simple phrases, like 'Are you hungry?', 'It is time to sleep' and 'Let's change the nappy'. The nappy changing times were by far the most horrible and embarrassing for Rosa. Oddly enough Gunna never showed any disgust, instead chuckling from behind her bushy beard.
But this day turned out to be different for others. Sometime after lunch, Demon Man stepped into the nursery followed by a scrawny, bespectacled man with long, greasy hair.
This is new. He's never brought anybody but Gunna to this room.
Rosa felt excited, seeing someone who looked human. But after carefully assessing the man, her excitement quickly faded.
He had horrible red marks around his wrists as if he had been painfully bound. And his scrawniness wasn't something natural, but rather it looked like the result of malnutrition. There was also a dark bruise underneath his eye. But the most unusual thing about him was the extremely long ears.
An elf? But why is he in such a horrible state?
Demon Man pushed the elf towards Rosa, glaring at him in the process. The man glanced fearfully at Demon Man, then came towards her crib with shaky steps. She saw that he was holding what appeared to be a slab of some sort of stone. He glanced at Demon Man again, who glared at him so hard, Rosa thought that the poor elf would just drop dead on the floor.
With shaky hands he brought the stone slab towards Rosa.
Is he giving this as a gift or something? Surely not.
He was holding it and staring at Rosa with pleading eyes as if trying to send some silent message across to her.
What do you want me to do? I'm just a baby.
The only thing she could do was touch the stone slab with her tiny hand. And so she did it, mostly out of curiosity. It felt just like any other rock – cold and smooth.
Relief washed over the elf's face and he muttered something. The slab began glowing with a bright red light. Demon Man exclaimed in a loud cheer, making Rosa flinch away from the stone while the elf and Gunna looked thoroughly shaken. They regarded her with fear in their eyes. Rosa was not surprised that the elf feared her – after all she was the biological offspring of Demon Man. But the fact that Gunna had the same type of fear in her eyes, actually hurt.
Demon Man was boasting loudly and laughing like a maniac in the meanwhile. She didn't understand what he was saying, but she heard her name mentioned a few times. Then he turned towards the elf, and Rosa saw a red glint in his dark eyes. Her whole body shivered as she felt murderous intent emanating from him.
He's going to kill the elf. No, no, no!
Rosa began to squirm frantically trying to think of a way to prevent a murder from happening right in front of her eyes. The elf was still looking at her and didn't notice how Demon Man lifted his hand.
What can I do? What can I do? I must stop him!
She reached her hand towards the elf hoping to grab him, but he was too far.
Oh, why is this body so weak?!
She saw how Demon Man was about to lunge forward towards the elf, and so Rosa automatically tried to scream 'Don't'. But due to lack of teeth and her uncontrollable baby tongue, all that came out was a sad little 'do'. Everybody froze and looked at her with wide and shocked eyes. She's not sure why they were so surprised, but it seemed to have gotten their attention so Rosa repeated the process, mumbling 'do, do, do' and reaching with her hand towards the elf.
The elf looked flabbergasted, terrified and astounded at the same time. Rosa worried that the mixture of emotions was going to make the man faint. Demon Man disregarded the elf completely and ran up to Rosa's crib, lifting her high up in the air with a wide grin on his face.
How can you be so damn happy after almost murdering somebody? Damned demon!
Rosa regarded him with the same look she would give to a fly sitting on a pile of poo. But Demon Man clearly had no understanding as to the meaning of her expression, and proceeded to lift her up and down while happily muttering something.
He then looked at her with expectant gaze and said something. She didn't understand his words, but had a feeling he probably wanted her to 'talk' again. But she wouldn't do that just because he wants it. So Rosa scrunched her nose instead and glared at him.
Gunna suppressed a laugh, hiding it behind her beard. She then said something in a calm voice, and pointed towards the elf. The elf lifted his arms up in defense, and Demon Man glowered at him.
After a moment of consideration, he handed Rosa to the elf. The man took her with shaky hands, but his hold was gentle and he made sure to support Rosa's head. She didn't really need the support anymore, as she could at least hold her head, but she appreciated his efforts nonetheless.
Then, just to spite Demon Man, she smiled at the elf and repeated the 'do, do, do' while sending a mental message to the villain.
Don't you dare to kill this elf! Or any other person for that matter.
A small smile appeared on the elf's lips while Demon Man left the nursery with a huff, pouting like a little child.
Serves him right for trying to kill somebody!
The elf looked unsure of what to do with her, but Gunna took Rosa from him and said something in an encouraging albeit a slightly sad tone. The elf nodded absentmindedly in response, but the whole time his eyes were locked on Rosa, as if trying to understand the inner workings of her mind.
***
After a few days of trying to count every single raven's feather displayed on the wallpaper, something interesting happened. Along with Gunna, the elf from before came to Rosa's nursery. His look was completely changed – instead of dirty rags he wore nice scholarly tunic and pants which matched his brown eyes with their earthy tones. His hair was washed clean – Rosa could tell that he had dark brown hair. Previously it seemed black from all the grime and dirt. And most importantly, the bruises on his wrists and face were gone; as if healed by magic.
The elf approached Rosa's crib cautiously, and she saw a nervous bead of sweat rolling down his temples. He asked Gunna something, but it was too quiet for Rosa to hear. The nanny smiled at him and gave him a reassuring pat on the back.
"It's alright!" She motioned for him to approach Rosa. Rosa just looked curiously at the nervous man, and wondered what he would do. He began rummaging through a bag that he carried with him and then pulled a book out of it. He displayed it before Rosa, so she could see it. The book was thick with a leather spine and dark blue letters on the cover. She could not read what it said. Whatever those letters were, they were nothing she'd seen on Earth before. There was some resemblance to celtic runes, but it was very distant.
The elf pointed at the letters and Rosa assumed that he read the title of the book.
I know you have the best intentions, but you can't really expect a three month old baby to understand you.
Rosa scrunched her nose in displeasure, and the man flinched. Gunna walked up to him, pulling the book aside. She pointed towards Rosa and said something about telling her his name, and then something else. It was still really difficult to understand anything that didn't involve the most basic words. But the elf understood the nanny and nodded. He pointed to himself.
"My name is Faenor," he said slowly while enunciating. This Rosa understood without an issue. She smiled at him in response, and the elf visibly relaxed. Then he turned towards Gunna and retrieved the book from her. It looked like he would begin reading, but the nanny interjected again.
Rosa didn't quite understand what they talked about, it was so fast, but after a bit of back and forth, Gunna lifted her out of the crib and offered for Faenor to hold. He shook his head vigorously, while muttering something rapidly. Rosa puffed out her cheeks.
How rude! He doesn't want to hold me.
He noticed the change in her expression, and visibly paled. Perhaps he thought that she was about to cry. Faenor extended trembling arms towards Rosa, and finally took her. His hold felt boney, he was much leaner than Gunna and didn't have the large muscles that Demon Man did. But Rosa wouldn't complain about something so petty so she just looked at the book he held in his other arm and waited.
Seeing that Rosa wasn't going to cry, Faenor released a sigh of relief and settled into one of the gloomy chairs. Gunna nodded with satisfaction and began cleaning around the nursery. The elf pointed at the cover again and slowly enunciated the title of the book. Rosa still didn't understand what it said, but she clearly heard every sound. When somebody spoke fast, she couldn't even catch those – everything sounded like a jumbled mess.
Faenor looked down at Rosa, and seeing as she was still staring at the book, he opened it. First page showed a picture of a red dragon, but the art style was rather cartoony. Rosa almost squealed with delight.
A picture book? Finally something that isn't just black and white.
The elf flipped to the next page, and there was an egg laying in a pile of gold. Faenor slowly read the text above the picture, and Rosa tried to listen to his pronunciation and commit it to memory. She heard most of it, but got a little bit distracted by the artwork.
Finally, I can see more colors than just black and gray. How I missed all these beautiful shades of red and gold.
Faenor flipped to the next page and there a little, red dragon emerged from the shell while spewing dramatic, blue flames. Rosa watched and listened carefully, trying to understand the story told in the pages.
When the first book was finished, Faenor put it aside and pulled another book from his case. Rosa was excited to see the art within it. But, unfortunately, as the elf was about to begin reading the title, Demon Man burst into the room without as much as a knock.
Rosa glared at him in annoyance, mentally willing him to go away. But instead he just stomped over and took the book from Faenor's hand. The elf began shivering out of fear, and he clutched onto her baby form tighter as if she was the only thing that protected him from the demon. Demon Man looked through the pages of the book and scoffed.
He then said something with a disdainful look on his face, and tossed the book on the ground.
How dare you?! I wanted to see that book. I won't let you get away with this.
She waited for Demon Man to take her from the elf, and then screamed at him. He tried to rock her, shush her, reason with her in a soft voice and she's pretty sure he threatened her a little bit as well. But she did not relent her screams until Gunna finally took her away.
If you insist on ruining the best time I've had since coming to this damned world, then I'll be sure to make your ears bleed.
Demon Man left looking like a puppy that has been kicked by its owner. But Rosa did not feel sorry for him. In fact, she felt proud for teaching a bit of a lesson in humility. Unfortunately, as Rosa later found out, it would take way more than screaming to keep Demon Man away.
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