Chapter 27
Flange Orphanage, City: Three Prongs Fork, Republic of Shantu, Continent: Barat, Year 2022, Planet: Grimoire
Everything was going fine until they'd been tucked into that box. The child squirmed a bit. The others clumped a bit too close. His nose wrinkled in horrified disgust. Ack, that wasn't comforting at all! It didn't have the heart to shove them away, nor the strength much to the dismay of the soul.
When would we be able to leave from here? The soul noticed that their savior seemed rather restless and prone to mischief when he wasn't occupied with any serious. The soul was rather amused when he heard the growling between the savior and the other companion, a coachman, it seemed.
From what the soul could determine though that coachman did all kinds of other jobs for the savior. Ah, his name was Grimes? Interesting. Also, the savior's name was Doyle Moline? He was a director of some kind of organization.
Hmm, that might not turn out to be a bad thing after all. Still, it wouldn't hurt to remain cautious for the time being.
Not much time passed before the inside of the box and carriage became uncomfortably warm and the soul's shell began sweating hard. At this rate, the box would fall apart. Its shell wasn't the only one producing unnatural heat and cold sweat either. The shell's nose wrinkled uncomfortably.
Now all his joints ached. What was with this absurdly weak body? It seemed to fall prey to the weirdest things. So, this means we're all sick from the cold weather and too-warm carriage? What a messy situation this was rapidly becoming.
The soul was rattled and confused because there were too many unknown factors that were unaccounted for, and it heaved a frustrated sigh. Could it be something about the rain that fell was unnatural?
That hadn't even occurred to the soul as a potential health hazard. Great, what else was going to go wrong now? Annoyed, the soul contemplated the situation so far. Well, not all of it was too bad, when all the variables and circumstances were factored together.
No doubt, the soul realized belatedly, their ending would've happened much sooner. It hadn't happened only because they'd been found through his embarrassing screaming earlier. As humiliating as it had been, at least it was worthwhile to sacrifice dignity if it meant surviving to live a few more years. The soul within this weak shell wasn't too pleased with having to make such annoying concessions this early onward. It didn't bode too well for the future.
That was providing the health of this shell didn't collapse because of severe weakness. The soul sighed wearily. Definitely, something needs to be done about that problem. Only time would tell whether the circumstances would become more opportune.
Right now, there was nothing that could be determined yet. Physical weakness could be remedied provided the environment was suitable for encouragement. The soul's attention turned to what it could discern for the moment.
It seemed it and the siblings lucked out. They'd been found by supernatural beings who didn't see them as total freaks. Could it be that this world it landed in was made up of mythical creatures that weren't intent on world destruction for once?
If so, that was totally awesome. The possibilities were endless if that was the case. The soul frowned as something occurred to it. Oh right, if the gender was male and that did appear to be the case, it should refer to itself as him, and he, not it.
Inwardly he nodded with satisfaction at making a small decision that would make his life easier. True, it would take some getting used to before being able to speak. This was the best time to begin making the transition, it reflected solemnly. So, it should try referring to itself as him while not being able to talk. That also might help process the information cascading into its brain right now.
It was quite the barrage, but it really was helpful information about this world. There was also quite an array of characters and species that he would be dealing with in the future. So, gaining knowledge of how he could deal with them now.
Well, that was going to be useful, so he didn't stand out like a sore thumb. Yes, that would be the most useful thing for him to get used to blending in with the locals while growing up.
While he was hopeful of that being the case, he wasn't going to be totally on board with life being easy to maneuver. His previous experiences hadn't been that wonderful. So, no expectation of a smooth-sailing rich-as-in scenario.
That was too much to hope for.
Instead, he would settle for having been born with some cool abilities. Hmm, yeah, innate ability or talent would be great. A golden ticket that would help him gain a worthy reputation and be looked up to as a good role model.
Even as those thoughts ran through his head, he realized that the Commander was looking right at him with a sharp aware gaze. Uh oh, was he going to rat me out? Seconds later, however, he was relieved when the Commander merely commented. "...They're going to need a specialist...Takesha Murray...I have something that'll help them in the meantime..."
Blech! The soul almost threw up. Ugh, that stuff was disgusting, he conceded very grudgingly and had to admit that it was very effective in clearing away the worst of the fever symptoms.
The conversation between the two men puzzled him. Alphas, Omegas, and secondary genders? Where had he heard those terms before? He yawned.
Strange, the earlier dizziness that kept his mind stuffy and uncomfortable finally faded away. Now he was able to think clearly but ironically, he was very sleepy. That aside, could he really trust what he heard from these two geezers? They sure seemed awfully wary of one another all of a sudden.
When had that development occurred? For sure, it was rather obvious to the soul at least that the bigshot whatever he was, had some interest in the man who was called a director or something.