Little Aegeus was minding his own business, his attention fixed on the ceiling, when he noticed a small dot at the edge of his vision.
'Wow, shiny!' thought Aegeus in his own baby language.
The longer he stared at it, the brighter it grew, until it swallowed everything else he could see.
[Name] Aegeus Granger
[Age] 42 days
[Strength] 1
[Intelligence] 2
[Magic] 2
[Defense] 1
[Control] E
[Skill] Empty (...)
"...."
He didn't understand a word of it. He only understood, with the sudden, total clarity infants reserve for genuine catastrophe, that the ceiling was gone and so was the room and so, as far as he could tell, was everything else.
"WAAAA"
Jean and Adam rushed to check on their son the moment they heard his cry.
Jean reached the room first, with Adam close behind. She scooped Aegeus from his crib and cradled him.
"What's wrong, Little Ag?" Jean asked gently.
"Don't cry, Baba and Mama are here," Adam reassured him.
But despite their efforts, all Aegeus cared about at that moment was his sudden "blindness."
It wasn't until much later, when the status page disappeared, that he finally calmed down. Unbeknownst to him, he had been at the doctor's office during that time.
And like most babies, Aegeus learned absolutely nothing from this experience. In the next moment, he went right back for it...
"Wow, shiny!"
...
Poor Aegeus, his undeveloped brain failed to connect his gaze at the bell with his temporary "blindness."
~~
It had been a full year since Aegeus was born, and life had been peaceful. Although Aegeus's unusual behavior persisted, at least he stopped crying for no apparent reason. Now, he had instead taken up staring into space for hours on end. Adam considered it a win, while Jean found it endearing how serious he looked.
Meanwhile, Jean was determined to get Aegeus to say his first word. Being at the age where he should start speaking, Aegeus remained silent. They both had a theory on what he was doing. Adam thinks he is just goofing off, on the other hand, Jean thought that Aegeus was obviously trying to make sense of the world and its many secrets, or that's at least what Jean thinks.
"Say, mama"
"....."
"Maa maa come on, say, mama."
"mm hm" was all he would say.
Jean sighed and wondered, not for the first time, whether he was doing it on purpose. Aegeus is sweet, and he doesn't cry a lot anymore, and he very rarely throws a tantrum. The only exception is when someone tries to move him or touch him in any way while he is in the "zone." They have all learned to leave him alone when that happens.
"Say, mama."
"...."
"Come on, say, mama."
"Mmmmh," was all he uttered, frustrating Jean.
~
Pov Aegeus
'Here she comes again, trying to get me to say something'.
He said nothing. He had, if he was being honest with himself, no real reason not to— he could have said it days ago, but there was something quietly satisfying about watching her try, he had very little else to occupy himself with besides that small, private little rebellion to amuse himself.
After his mother's failed attempts to pull the words out of his small little mouth. He retreated to the corner, wheezing laughter in the corner of his crib. Once he had his fun, he turned his attention to the hovering small shiny dot to the right of his vision. He only stared for one second before something appeared.
He'd learned, by now, not to be afraid of it.
[Name] Aegeus Granger
[Age] 1 year old
[Strength] 3
[Intelligence] 5
[Magic] 4
[Defense] 3
[Control] E
[Skill] Empty (...)
He can barely understand what the numbers mean, only that they were his, and that they'd been climbing steadily since the day he first saw them.
The system, whatever it was, had been quietly processing information ever since and filling gaps in his understanding.
It hadn't just been his mind. Jean liked to joke that Aegeus had been born the size of a hamster, and for a while, that hadn't felt like much of an exaggeration— the doctors had used words like "small for his age" so often in his first few months.
He wasn't small anymore. Somewhere between the crying and the staring and the long, unexplainable silences, he'd caught up to his peers— and then some. He was, if anyone had thought to compare him, taller than most children his age. Nobody had noticed it happen. There hadn't been a single dramatic growth spurt to point to, no night where he'd gone to bed one size and woken up another. It had happened slowly, the way real growth does— nothing dramatic enough to notice day to day, only cumulative enough to notice in hindsight. The way the numbers on his status window simply climbed, a little more each day, until one day the small, fragile thing they'd brought home from the hospital wasn't small or fragile at all.
He was still lost in his own thoughts when something at the edge of the room caught his attention.
"Wait, wait, wait"
'What is that??'
Standing 3 meters from him, he saw a shadow climbing up the wall from the window, the moment it crawled beneath the lamp... his eyes opened wide.
He had heard of that creature before, it's like a creature from the beyond, a very smooth-looking body, like it was dipped in some disgusting oil, a head that looked like it was looking straight at you no matter which angle you look at it from, and connected to its head were two whips moving everywhere. It seemed as if it was borrowed from satan himself! Cactus-like legs that can walk on any surface, no matter how smooth.
And if that wasn't scary enough, it has long armor-like wings that can fly, glide, and even swim. It's as if it was designed to chase you to the end of the earth and beyond.
It was a creature that wasn't even afraid of nuclear bombs.
"...."
'WHAT DID I JUST SEE?'
WHAT IS THIS ANOMALY?
The creature paused, as if considering him in turn, and then, slowly, began to spread something that had no business being called wings.
"NOOOOOO"
_____________________________________________________________________________
TO BE CONTINUED
~~~
What do you think? If you like my story, leave a stone, if you hate my story, throw a stone, maybe it would hit my head. You never know...
Tell me, did you leave a stone or throw one?