For a long time it was cold and bright.
Too bright.
Then slowly it grew warmer, and the blinding light calmed to a dim and murky surround.
That was when he pulled himself from the depths of unconsciousness. With enormous effort he pushed his Will onwards, fighting against an all encompassing weight. Slowly, he was coming awake.
Until, suddenly, he was.
His body became weightless and his every sense was muted. Sluggishly, his mind attempted to recollect his memories, but they were shrouded behind a veil of fog.
Who am I... No, where am I?
The answer was difficult to ascertain.
He tried to move his hand in front of his face but his arm stubbornly refused to cooperate. Still, he persevered, resulting in a strange sensation as his arm moved to what he vaguely interpreted as the front of his face.
When he tried to look at his hand, he could see only a short distance in front of him and immediately, an instinctual fear gripped him.
The sense of blindness, coupled with weightlessness was a shocking combination, one that caused him to quickly panic.
His breathing grew frantic but no oxygen came in —instead, a strange pressure, reminiscent of bitter and metallic warm water, was drawn into his lungs.
I'm drowning! Why am I drowning?!
His instinctual fear blossomed into true horror. Beyond his control, his mind ordered his body to thrash and his desperate inhales warped into screams.
Yet no sound came out.
Fortunately, he did not collide with anything.
In fact, he seemed to be within some sort of liquid medium, one he did not feel unless he moved and it exerted subtle pressure on his sensitive skin.
That was what he was inhaling and exhaling!
His back folded and straightened madly while his leg muscles contracted and extended hysterically, but he remained unsuccessful in moving... or so he thought.
Without warning, he felt something brushing against his skin. He did not know what it was, but he could feel its fleshy surface and the cartilagous ridges running over it.
W-what is tha—
The thought died quickly when the "something" tautened: it had formed a loop around his neck!
In a panic he thrashed some more, but all he achieved was tightening whatever it was strangling him.
Is all of this some twisted torture method? But why? I haven't even been asked anything!
Slowly he felt his wet breathing grow more and more difficult.
In the end —after a shockingly long time– his unseemly gasping stopped completely and he fell into unconsciousness once more.
*****
The next time he awoke, they were driving cold needles into his flesh.
He jerked his eyes open and immediately went blind from the bright illumination.
Loud beeps and clanks nearly deafened him, and all manner of unnatural and putrid stenches clogged his nose.
The unexpected shift to this new environment snapped him out of his vague and murky state of mind. The pain and discomfort brought lucidity, or something resembling it, back to his mind.
I know what this is, it's sleep deprivation torture! First they strangled me and now they're depriving me of sleep, these bastards really want their information. But I don't remember anything!
He tried to scream this information out to them but instead of words, something weird and marvelous came out –a baby's cry.
The sound was so strange to him that he visibly flinched and quieted.
Following his silence he heard another odd sound he was also not expecting: laughter.
This laughter did not come from him, it did not even come from a single person. The laughter came from a group of people, and while his ears were not adept at deciphering sounds yet, he could somehow tell that the laughter sounded relieved.
He felt something warm and rough hold his rear and the back of his head. Then, the liquid in his ears shifted, indicating that he was in motion. The sense of weightlessness had vanished!
He was moved out of the blinding light and into a shade. Only there did his eyes begin to adjust and very quickly he could perceive blurry shapes.
Even the beeping and clanks had subsided by then.
There was a shuffle of many footsteps, slowly moving further away.
Then, for the first time since awakening, he heard someone speak. A woman's voice said, "What is the worry with the baba? It was net scathed, no?"
Instinctively he knew that the sound he was hearing was wrong, but he had no understanding why that was.
Baba?... baby!
Do they mean me? And what's with this language? It's like English but all the sounds are wrong! I can barely understand this shit!
It was as if some part of him knew the reason for the wrongness but could not share what it was. The part of him that did not know wondered
.... Wait, what's english?
The odd situation caused him some pause, but before he could dwell on it a male voice answered the woman's question:
"We were a bit late to catch. The umbilical twine had been about him fir a while. With thanks he appears to be doing well, yes. The mind-lore doctors have been lingarling to look op his twin hemispheres, nuw they will get their opening."
What the hell does that even mean?! - sigh - It's fine. If I just focus it sounds normal enough to understand.
He furrowed his brow, intent to translate their words.
"Look at him," the male voice added, "He looks so interested. It's almost as if he can understand us."
I can if I focus on it!
"Well, the Clan is greatly interested in his cognitive abilities so the more intelligence he exhibits the better it is for us." The woman answered.
Excitedly, the man said, "We'll need to accelerate our observations. If his cognition is as good as the data suggests, I'd like to have him in full-time observation and testing programme ASAP. We could even use one of the others' O&TPs until we know more about his physiology."
In a more muted tone, the woman said, "Sure, but let us not get too invested doctor, the S-3 initiative is done. The Patriarch has expressed interest in taking direct control after the success of V-12 and H1 to 6."
"The Patriarch only shared his thoughts." The man said. His uncertain words were followed by a long silence.
"I know you know him better than I do," he added. "But the subjugation of the New Worlds is going well. There's no need to prematurely take over an initiative that could only potentially produce more Valoured. The clan can gain more by just waiting for us to produce results, and I'm thinking of staying with these kids until we do. "
The woman did not answer.
Is she... is she gone?
There was a rustle of fabric and the woman's voice said, "I'll take the baby to the nursery. We need to get him acclimated before the inoculations."
"Of course." The man agreed and handed the child over to the woman. "I'll stay here and compile a report to the clan." The man's voice sounded contrite and somewhat cowed.
The shapes are changing... wait, is that giant blob that's been providing shade his head? It's enormous!
Well, I suppose it must be, I am a baby after all.
Somehow the idea was baffling to him, but he could not pinpoint why being a baby seemed so intrinsically wrong to him.
Regardless, he was soon tightly wrapped in soft fabric and carried in a warm embrace. A heavy scent of feminine perfume surrounded him.
The woman began moving, and the gentle swaying calmed the child.
This is nice, all snug and pleasant. I could get used to being a baby if it's all cuddles and warmth.
Unconsciously he yawned. The woman beamed at the sight. "I suppose you are kind of cute."
What do you mean 'kind of'? I'm absolutely stunning!
He did not know what he looked like, but a deeper part of him felt that this statement was true. He had a surprisingly large ego for someone so small.
The woman was unaware of his thoughts and spoke mostly to herself, just bouncing her words off of him.
"You deserve to live a full life; running around green grass meadows and swimming through the clear rivers of Earth."
That does sound lovely, yeah.
"It's a pity you're going to die before you ever see it."
Eh?
"Traubert has gotten attached to all of you. He sees you as his kids, but I know what you are. I know what we made you for."
I don't care, go back to the dying part! I'm not precisely sure what death is, but I feel like it is not very lovely.
"We are scientists and we are human, but we belong to the Bayne Clan first. Our loyalty to clan and Patriarch must never be in question."
You know what, maybe 'die' means something else in this funny English of yours.
"If the Patriarch orders you to die in battle, you must thank him for the honor and die a warrior's death."
Nah, death definitely means what I think it means.
"But that's years away. For now, you're just a baby and you will serve by growing and fulfilling all of our expectations. Live up to your potential."
The woman stopped walking. She conversed with a new hoarse male voice while the child in her arms slowly began slumbering.
His body acted on its own, completely disregarding his Will. This change felt slightly frightening to the child.
What if i go back to that dark embrace?
He jerked head to the side as if refuting this thought.
He felt that his fear would not come true, what was happening felt absolutely normal but as the edges of his vision darkened with each small blink, he silently cursed.
This is so embarrassing. I know I've only been doing this baby thing for one day but if its going to keep
-yaaawn- being like this...
He could not complete the thought. His eyes closed and he suckled his gums, falling asleep.
In his slumber, he dreamt.
*****
The first dream was the sort that preludes deep sleep. It was comprised of incoherent shapes and sounds, buzzing noises and muted voices.
The shapes danced before his eyes and all around him, eliciting emotion through their rudimentary movements and clicking against each other.
Abruptly, that dream ended. The second dream suddenly pushed its way to the fore of his consciousness.
In this dream, the warm sun fell on his richly brown skin. The sky was split into three, two sides were in perpetual haze while the centre, like a rip through the heavens themselves, was a clear azure ocean, as clear as the heart of a storm.
Here, such oddity was common. The rip in the heavens ran from north to south, tearing through the thick clouds above the atmosphere. It revealed to mankind the skies beyond — the skies as they should be.
But the sun still shone, so such considerations had long been forgotten by the people of this world.
The boy with brown skin never questioned why skies were the way they were, especially right now, as he did not have the luxury of time.
He was running through the streets. Three other children were with him.
Behind his left, a portly boy, behind his right, a red-haired girl, and ahead of them all, was a boy far too tall for his age.
They huffed over cobble-stone streets surrounded by stone and lumber buildings. This early in the day, the people were few and far in between, allowing the four youths to barrel through the town freely.
Far behind them, you could hear the sounds of barking dogs and angry shouting men.
Our boy looked at his companions and screamed, "The river, get to the river!"
They took several abrupt turns and like magic, the river appeared.
The side they were on had a stone-brick retaining wall. It held back the encroachment of the river... for now, until thee river wore through the brick and stone.
The side directly opposite the boy and his companions had a natural embankment before naturally turning into a sparsely treed meadow.
Beyond the meadow, stone and metal sky-scrapers rose higher than anything else. Specks representing flying eagles could be discerned circling the heaven cutting buildings.
The four youths hesitated upon reaching the murky river. The brown skinned boy watched filth bob up and down then turned his head to look behind him.
Two burly men had caught up to them. The two came to a stop upon seeing the kids, — their three dogs did not.
Our boy did not hesitate any longer. He grabbed the the portly boy's arm and jumped into the water.
For a second they sputtered uncomfortably before gaining some control over the current and moving towards the opposite embankment.
Two more splashes indicated that their partners in crime had joined them. Our boy turned to look at the pair and was surprised; while the older–looking boy still appeared the same. The red-haired girl was red-haired no more. Her hair had lightened to a golden shade!
He turned back to his swimming, and after what felt like a long time, they reached the other side.
Upon reaching the muddy embankment opposite where they had escaped, all of them turned to see if they had been followed.
They had not!
The two men looked furious, but they nonetheless reined in their dogs with much reluctance.
Seeing this, the youths all began hurling insults and profanities at the pair, and especially at the dogs. Unfortunately for them, their exhausted and high-pitched voices barely carried over the distance.
The brown boy realised this last, but once he did, he turned to the girl. He watched her wring her hair and as he watched, it turned from blonde, back to red.
Magical. He thought.
"H-hey," he stuttered, "You know, you guys didn't tell us your names."
The over-tall boy and the magical girl looked at him quizzically.
"Oh yeah, I'm-
_____ _____ _____
[MOVE ROACHES, I CAN'T SEE HIM]
[STOP! DON'T PUSH, MONKEY]
[WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MONKEY??]
[YOU CALLED US A ROACHES FIR–]
[AH SEE, YOU IDIOTS WOKE HIM UP! NOW HE'S GONNA CRY AND GET US ALL IN TROUBLE!]