“Why are we so small?” Agwyn peered out of the window towards the bright blue sky with a pouty face. The warm rays of sunshine licked her scrunched-up nose like a spotlight on her adorable smallness. “I don’t want to be small anymore!”

Elrhain sat beside her, squinting his eyes at some strange flying creatures in the sky. They had wings like a bat but paws like a cat. “It means we get to live longer.” The boy mumbled.

She didn’t want to hear that. “Ahhhh…” She screamed loudly as she threw the pillow out of the crib with surprising force.

Elrhain’s mother was practising some strange dance in the middle of the room, and the pillow hit her square on the bosom. The woman reeled at the sudden hit before staring at Agwyn with bewilderment.

The little girl felt terrible about that. This pillow throwing habit should be rid of before it could turn worse. But, “There’s absolutely nothing to do! I can’t see any more improvements no matter how much I train in this damned crib… I want to go out and run, I want to play with my Plasma-lance! I wanna swiiiiim ahhh~.”

“Who was it that called me hasty when I wanted to stand up without learning to crawl?” The other baby smirked. She wished she could punch a hole in his charming face, but then she won’t be able to look into those dreamy eyes.

“I thought we’d grow up in no time! Ten months ago, it was summer, and it still is. Exactly how far from the star is this bloody planet?” She pouted harder as if that would solve all her problems. It did back in her previous life, when she was a cute little girl, her parent’s favourite princess.

“Well, people living in Norway aged no slower than everyone else. So I don’t see how longer seasons can affect our lifespan. I will guess it would be the genetics then, and not if summer is longer. But maybe it does depend; Who knows.” Elrhain shrugged. Agwyn always felt jealous of how a little intrigue could satisfy him so much. He wouldn’t complain as long as he could mentally analyse some new aspect of this world.

She, on the other hand, needed physical activities.

It was a habit ingrained in her soul for 75 long years. First as an interest, later for training and her career, and finally as an excellent hobby of combat sports. She went through more forms punching another human than she could poke a stick at, and now it was coming to bite her in her violet peachy bottom.

Agwyn slapped the flab on her tummy in annoyance, “Hey… how old do you think we are in Earth terms?”

“Pre-genetic-enhancement? My best guess is a month.” Elrhain dodged her legs as she kicked them up and down in frustration. “A week after I was born, I think? I measured my body. If my head started on this stick of the crib’s fence, then my curled legs ended squarely on… this one.”

Agwyn half-closed her eyes, thinking of the many weird experiments Elrhain had devised because of sheer boredom.

Elrhain slapped one fence bar where his head started and pointed to another. His toes now went a little past the indicated stick. His legs were still curled, though. Meaning he grew. But only slightly.

“I want to hover skate….” Agwyn groaned. “I also want to eat meat.”

“Or vegetables, rice, fruit, or anything else solid.” Elrhain groaned with her. Agwyn smiled. Food was about the only thing the other baby complained about these days.

*******

Agwyn didn’t feel the déjà vu today. These last few months, she felt like every day was the same.

Get up, bother Elrhain, get fed, try to exercise, listen to Elrhain talk about what he discovered that day. Then came the feeding again. Let herself be harassed by her or Elrhain’s father or mother or all of them at the same time, then complain about all the unfairness a baby must face, drink milk for the last time and go to sleep after pecking Elrhain on the cheek.

She needed to invent another phrase for super-boring because she didn’t know if her current one, ‘Watching weeds grow,’ was up to the task.

But today was different. Agwyn crawled to where Elrhain was sitting, near the edge of the crib facing the window.

There was a simmering rectangle of runes on the window frames. Agwyn could guess their uses, and it was...

“Fascinating…” She heard Elrhain say. She agreed.

The constant prattle of heavy rain outside brought a calmness like no other to her mind. She could feel the icy touch of the humid wind and hear the cacophony of frogs and insects out.

Yet no rain came in; the water droplets rolled down the window plane like they hit glass. But there was nothing there.

The servant who set up those runes also did something to the crib. It felt warm and cosy, like she was constantly being hugged by her mother. But the protection on the window and the crib didn’t stop the refreshing flow of the moist rainy wind.

‘This is the life.’ Agwyn almost melted into the fluffy pillow.

“Do you think the year passed?” She asked the other baby.

“… or the season. In some regions back on Earth, they divided the calendar into six seasons. If this is the monsoon, then it should come after summer. Then again, this is a fantasy world.” Elrhain said.

Agwyn used her tiny fingers to count, “That’s… 1800 days to a year then?”

“Yeah, well, we are assuming the number of days a month is like Earth’s. Maybe in this world, it’s 120 days a month. Or summer is divided into bright and dark parts like in the Earth’s Arctic winter, with each being as long as a normal season.”

“Ughhhh.” She snatched away one of Elrhain’s pillows and pressed her face against it.

******

“Winter isn’t ending!” Agwyn looked up at the dusky sky behind the curtain of snowfall. Her body felt a chill, and she curled the fluffy blanket up tighter around her body. She felt like a kitten, and she was not happy about it.

If she counted by Earth time-spans, then the sky had been like that for two whole years.

“It looks like the long days and nights of the Arctic… I don’t even think this planet is orbiting any sun. Or if it is, then there should be multiple.” Elrhain spoke with a sigh. Agwyn grumbled and agreed, but she didn’t have to like it.

Speaking of suns.

The window in their room never showed any sun or suns directly, but they could see multiple moons and the infinite stars at night.

“Do you think that because of this weird day and night cycle? I guess a single sun would be hard-pressed to fark the seasons up so bad, so randomly.” She asked with a purr, even if she could deduce the answer herself. She simply wanted to hear Elrhain speak.

The boy had gone quieter since the snow started falling.

“The first ten months were normal. Then it was like midday for one Earth year. After that, it was dusky. It’s been eleven months, and the sky is getting darker. The next Earth year should be like the night sky. Then… what happens when the sun rises again? Will it stay like the dawn?” Elrhain had a melancholic look on his face.

Agwyn sure hoped not. That would be apocalyptically tedious for her. “I don’t want that….”

“Well, we’ll see.” The other baby shook off his foul mood and crawled up to her side. He squirmed into the fluffy blanket like a small ferret seeking love and warmth. She felt his heat warming her as well as his soft hands wrapped her up in a tight burrito hug.

Agwyn smiled, “Hang on. They’ll be here soon.”

She heard a sleepy growl. She knew the cold was affecting Elrhain far worse than her. But not all was bad.

Her feet reached a few longer on the crib fences now, and they had long uncurled their legs. But even she felt too lethargic to start practice walking right away. Even though she knew she could if she tried.

And the other good thing was-

“Agwyn!----eat----Elrhain,-----milk, food!---Mother--” Agwyn’s mother came in holding a steaming pot full of delicious stew.

A few servants followed behind her with the other dishes and necessities like bowls, cups, and plates. The barbarian, her father, followed behind with a bearded old man.

Elrhain’s mother came in last. She had grown plumper by the seasons. His father, the romantic young man, had last visited 2 months or 60 Earth days ago before disappearing to God knows where.

She kind of missed the young man. His straightforwardness with Elrhain’s mother was consistently so interesting. She was keeping notes. Elrhain was preoccupied with other things.

He had once wondered if Agwyn’s mom’s lower half would turn into ice if winter came. She was curious too. Yet even as the weather grew colder with the darkening of the skies, her watery legs remained flowing.

“Eiiigh…” She felt Elrhain make another unintelligible noise. When his face came out of their burrow of blankets, he was smiling.

Agwyn shared his happiness. The smell of the food was mouthwatering.

It had been a while since they started eating food other than their mothers’ milk. Agwyn felt half her depression and anxiety melt away like ice on a volcano on that fated day, the moment she sipped the sweet juice of that purplish lemony orange thing.

*Gulp*

Elrhain spoke with some mashed meat in his mouth; he had no trouble chewing with his tender baby teeth.

“The beings of this world must have soooo many more taste receptacles active! It always blows me away, this depth of flavour.”

Agwyn agreed and gave her own opinion, “Imagine what would happen if they actually knew there were spices other than common herbs and salt!”

“You! Don’t tempt me, you little devil.” Elrhain chided her as he tried to swat away the barbarian’s finger from his cheek. He currently sat on the elderly man’s lap. While it was her mother who was feeding Agwyn one finger-full at a time.

Elrhain’s mommy had taken up the duty of adding ingredients from the stewing pot to each of their bowls and plates. If she ignored the servants, then this would be the perfect family meal of rural society.

“… It’s so unusual.” Elrhain suddenly said.

“What?” Agwyn asked. She swallowed the soft starchy mashed vegetable in her mouth. Her weak teeth still had trouble chewing anything more complicated than pudding, unlike Elrhain. She looked at the approaching spoon of broth in instinctive anticipation, the anticipation of when she too could chow down on meat.

She once tried to drink the soup from an unsuspecting bowl left on the side on her own; the meaty chunks were just too tempting. The heat hurt her tongue, gums and everything so bad she didn’t stop crying until she fell asleep in exhaustion.

“This food is so rich and flavourful, all this lean meat. I bet it is packed full of nutrients way above a human infant’s safe limit. Normal babies would have so many problems. What if these tribal people are being over-enthusiastic and…?”

Agwyn didn’t share his concerns, “We age at least eight times slower than pre-gene-modded humans back on Earth. And we aren’t as inactive as turtles. I say this is another one of the ‘Bright sides’ of this boring world you’ve been listing.”

“Would be nice if true. But I’m willing to bet my collection of glowing socks that this world is anything but boring. Wait till we’re older. I’m going to re-enact the lord of the rings if it’s the last thing I do.”

Agwyn imagined the scene in her head and giggled out loud.

They didn’t know what the adults were speaking except a few prevalent words, but they looked merry as always. Even the grumpy grandpa smiled now and then when Elrhain tried to appropriate more meat for himself.

Their family didn’t always come for meals like this, and they didn’t always eat so much. Perhaps once a night every few days. But it cheered her up so much. She hoped they would come more often.

She also saw a childish smile floating on Elrhain’s baby face every night they spent in this warm atmosphere.

Agwyn loved it when Elrhain smiled.

*******

Today, like ever, Agwyn looked out of the window with Elrhain by her side. The scenery outside was no longer a blanket of white.

The last snow had melted a few days ago. The final Earth-year or season of winter wasn’t eternal dawn like they had feared but like the first winter season—typical day and night.

It was spring now, with flowers sprouting and butterflies flapping. It cheered up Agwyn sometimes when she noticed the butterflies were the flowers, and the flowers could swim in the water.

“Do you think spring will also be weird like winter?” Agwyn asked.

“I don’t know, but I would guess not,” Elrhain replied. His face was a lot healthier than a few months ago. “If we weren’t born at the end of a weird summer season, and if the monsoon, autumns, and late-autumns were the regular seasons, spring should also be ten to twelve months. Winter is weird no matter where you go, so I guess it is an anomaly and not the norm.”

Agwyn clapped the insides of her fists together, “So ten times more?”

“… Yes. Ten times boring like you said, and ten times more to live.” Elrhain said with a smile that reached his ears. “Unless there’s fantasy plague, or this world’s magic of medicine is still at the Palaeolithic age. Or there are us-eating monsters, or tribal wars, or….”

“I get it! Don’t be such a sour-butt.” Agwyn put her palms on his mouth to stop all the unlawful jinxing. She wasn’t sure if she liked Elrhain when he put a wet towel on her cheerful mood like this.

“By the way,” Elrhain said with a funny glint in his eyes. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“… what?” She looked back in confusion.

When she saw Elrhain pat her legs, her eyes turned wide in shock. The anticipation gushed out of her being like nuclear radiation and almost suffocated Elrhain with positivity.

Oh, wait, that was her hugging him too hard.

“We can play sumo now!”

“Absolutely not!” The other baby screamed back.

Of course, she was joking. She’d have to learn to walk first. But oh, walk, she will.

She will walk, run, skip, hop, jump enough for a million lifetimes. Only then will she play her sumo!