Lucy's POV

I am concerned about our child. I have to acknowledge that at first I was not just frightened but terrified. On the day he was born he reacted to his name. A baby not even a day old, looking straight at me when I called to him. I know he is my first and I'm not exactly experienced, but even I know that's not normal behaviour. Was something wrong? Was he possessed? Had my baby been replaced? But this is just a small village far away from any mana fields. There is no danger here. How was this possible?

David reassured me that he was probably born with the [Genius] trait or something similar that gives a big intelligence boost. If only we could check, but [Analysis] doesn't work properly on someone less than a year old, at a time when traits haven't yet settled and are still in flux. Richard did try on that first terrible day, but the best he could do was assure me that Peter was human. The moment he hits his first birthday we're taking him to the village clinic to be checked out by Richard again.

He's almost lived out his first season now. Shamefully I have to admit that ever since that first day I took to calling him 'little one' and have been avoiding using his name. It's like I'm hiding from my own son. That's not how I should be. I do love him, I really do. I just wish I knew exactly what he was.

He only ever cries when I'm late for a feed or he needs changing. When not being held he acts more like he's doing physical exercise than the usual random flailing of a newborn. When interacted with he coos and giggles and acts endearing. It's obviously deliberate. He knows exactly what he's doing. By rights I should still be terrified, but when he looks at me... Yes, there's too much intelligence in his eyes. But there's also love, towards me and to David. He is certainly no monster. For better or for worse he is my son, and I shall treat him as such however weird he may be.

Despite his obvious intelligence and the way he knew his name at birth, he didn't have any knowledge of language at first. He didn't react at all to anything we said. But he's learning quickly. It took him only a few days to learn when I was telling him it was time to feed, and a few days more to figure out 'little one'. But he's always listening, and now he seems to understand more and more. I wonder how long it will be until he starts to speak? I've caught him practising when he thinks I'm not close enough to hear. He's more than capable of calling to us if he wanted to, even if not able to form full words yet. Why does he not? Perhaps he feels my concern, and worries about how he would be treated if he stops pretending...

Physically, he's a lot more normal. He's certainly developing early, but not to an extent to make me doubt that he's human. I've seen children with traits like [Strong] or [Able Bodied] develop faster. Even now he appears to be trying to drag himself along the floor, and is failing spectacularly. But he's not giving up. I've got to respect his perseverance.

I walked over to scoop him up, and cradled him in my arms. "You don't need to try to hide, little one. You know we'll always love you."

His eyes opened wide in surprise. Wait... don't tell me... Did he seriously think his acting was successful!? I burst into laughter. I've really been worrying over nothing after all. If he thought he was fooling anyone, then obviously he is no [Genius].

Peter's POV

"Zua fup'v piif vu vsz vu jofi, movvmi upi. Zua lpux xi'mm emxezt muwi zua."

Right, I can do this one. She's talking about me. The second part is saying she loves me. That's something she says often, but this one is phrased a little differently. I think she's talking about the future, rather than the present. Always? Saying she'll always love me. How sweet. The first part is a little harder. Something I shouldn't do, or don't have to do. What's 'jofi'? Actually I think I've heard her use that word when we play peekaboo. Something to do with hiding? Wait... Don't tell me... Did she seriously just tell me that I don't have to hide and that she'll always love me? She knows! I'm screwed!

She burst out laughing. Okay... Not the expected reaction. No, she said she'll always love me. She was giving me reassurance that she's not about to abandon me to be eaten by wolves in a forest, or hand me over to an orphanage or secretive government research lab. I really shouldn't be surprised. Why did I ever think that I could fool my own mother? She's probably known for ages. I started giggling myself at the absurdity of it all. Well, since she knew that I knew that she knew, I might as well go all in. I looked up into her eyes.

"Mama, muwi"

Waahh, careful, you almost dropped me! Wait, is mum crying? Did I say something wrong? No, she's smiling again... What an emotional roller coaster. I hope I haven't broken her. Well, whatever, it's not as if I was getting anywhere with my crawling attempts. I might as well dedicate today as a family day.

I'm almost three Earth months old now. Eighty six days, to be precise. I don't think months exist here; they seem to jump straight from weeks to seasons. Weather changes across seasons are certainly a thing, and it's noticeably colder now than when I was born. At some point dad brought out a bunch of red crystals that gave off heat and scattered them around the house in little pots. Now that I think about it, the way he put them at ground level and didn't seem concerned at all about me burning myself should have been a clue that my baby impression was less than perfect. Or that my crawling attempts were even more pathetic than I thought and he didn't think I could reach them, I suppose.

And that's another good thing. I can see properly now. The lighting comes from little yellow crystals, and water from a blue one, so there must be some sort of magic involved. I can see my parents faces properly. Both have slightly toned skin, dad more so than mum, with dark brown hair and green eyes. We have no mirrors, but if genetics works the same here then I'm likely the same too. No bright fantasy hair colours for me. The brightest I've seen so far is Clana who is ginger bordering on orange, but there's no greens or blues or pinks. Speaking of Clana, she is very visibly pregnant now. She's supposed to be due in winter, which given the temperature is probably soon.

Dad is a farmer and spends the days tending fields and animals. Mum is a tailor and works at home sewing and knitting. She's not been entirely housebound though; she started taking me out once I was a month old. Less often now that the temperature is dropping, but I've already had a chance to see around the village we live in. Total population is probably about a hundred, unless some of the houses are very densely packed. We're a farming village, surrounded by fields and pastures. The village has a tavern, a general store, a smithy and a clinic, but nothing else that's not directly farming related. Even the facilities we do have are just extra bits tacked on to the sides of the houses of the proprietors. I haven't been close enough to the fields to see what sort of crops we grow or if they match anything I'm familiar with from Earth. Same with the animals. I've not seen any other babies or toddlers, but I've seen older kids playing outside on the dirt tracks. And heard them too. My ears are functioning at 100% now, and it turns out our houses are not well endowed in the soundproofing department.

Calling them houses is a bit of a stretch to be honest. Maybe shacks would be better. They are a very simple wooden construction with straw roofs. The biggest mystery about them currently is how the bathroom works. I don't get to use it myself so I've not had a chance to give it an inspection, but I very much doubt we have sewers and yet I've never seen it needing to be cleaned. If I have to sit on top of a toilet with some sort of slime living in it I'm totally going to freak. My potty training schedule could be at serious risk!

Oh, mum seems to have recovered now. It'll be a while before dad returns from the fields. This could be awkward... Hmm? What is she doing getting out a pile of coins? Are we going shopping?

"Topdi zua'si tadj ep opvimmohipv movvmi cuz, xjz fup'v xi tvesv zuas ifadevoup e movvmi iesmz?"

I didn't quite get that one. Since I'm something, we'll do something early? She's splitting the coins into piles? Oh, I see what she's doing. There's one in the first pile, two in the second, three in the third. I think she's teaching me to count. Sure enough, she points at the piles in turn.

"Upi. Vxu. Vjsii. Guas. Gowi."

At which point she ran out of coins, but kept going regardless, switching over to her fingers instead.

"Toy. Tiwip. Iohjv. Popi. Vip."

I'm glad she stopped at ten. That means that this world probably uses a base ten numbering scheme. At least I hope so, and it wasn't just because she ran out of fingers. Didn't the Babylonians use base sixty or something? But they counted on their fingers differently. Anyway, I already knew most of those numbers, but it was nice to get them laid out for me. I did my best to count myself, trying to uncurl my little stubby fingers one by one. It did not go well. Not only was my pronunciation utterly incomprehensible, but I couldn't even move my fingers individually properly. Neither of us minded of course, and mum just smiled while watching me struggle. We moved on to learning colours and names for random objects around the house. Many I had already picked up, but it was nice to get confirmation. Others I was sure I'd forget again by tomorrow.

We took a break from the tour of the house, and mum started to talk at me. It was very much at me rather than to me, as if she was letting loose something she had kept bottled up for a long time. She didn't seem to expect a response, so I concentrated and picked up what I could. Apparently I blew my cover on the very first day. With my poor senses back then I would never have noticed no matter how much I had shocked my parents, so I had carried on in blissful ignorance. But she didn't seem to know exactly why I was weird, so my reincarnation secret was safe for now. She seemed to have a different theory about my intelligence but I couldn't decipher what it was that she thought.

In my opinion she was taking this whole thing very well. Suspiciously well. If you found out your child was as weird as I was, wouldn't you take him somewhere to get checked out? Given the fantasy world setting maybe priests and purification rituals are a thing? Or appraisal skills? Staying alone with them in a house for a month seemed rather risky. What if I was some sort of monster? I don't know what sort of wildlife they have here, but mimics or changelings were things from Earth mythologies that you really wouldn't want sticking around your house pretending to be a child. One explanation would be if we simply couldn't afford the required help, but that wouldn't explain why mum showed such trust in me. She's never showed anything to me but motherly love. Given that she seems to have some explanation for my behaviour, maybe this isn't an uncommon thing? Maybe there's a 'born with the intelligence of an adult' trait.

Done talking at me, we started to go over body parts. Most of these I'd definitely forget by tomorrow, but hopefully at least some information would stick. Repetition would help too. Alas while I was poking at bits of mum's face and making my best attempts at calling out names, a sudden yawn alerted me that I was running on fumes of my stamina. Why now? I'm learning here. There's so much more to see, why do I have to sleep? Despite my best efforts, my eyes started to close. Mum noticed, and gently lay me down in my cot.

ding

Did I get new upgrades? Please be something that lets me not sleep.

New trait acquired: [Curious]

[Curious] - You look upon the world in wide-eyed wonder, ever eager to seek out new experiences and understanding. Awards soul points for learning and exploration. (Rank 2)

I'm not going to turn down another source of soul points, especially since I've not earned any the traditional way yet. I have to admit that the traits I'm ending up with are... appropriate. They do describe me rather well. But indulging my curiosity will need to wait. For now I need to nap.