My spirits rose sharply over the next three months. My plan worked perfectly, with the energy concentrated in my bone marrow the rest of it was perfectly distributed through my body. Not evenly, but my blood was made to transport nutrients where my body needed it most, and did the same with energy, which meant my head had the second highest concentration of energy after my bones.

Surprisingly my kidneys had the highest concentration of energy in my body, even though my head held more total energy than my kidneys!

Still, my body was coming along perfectly, by now I managed to turn on my own, and crawl around my crib for a few hours a day.

I had no clue of my mother's language, as she didn't have anyone to talk to, not even her, which voided me of any chance to learn it. A pity.

I didn't care all that much though. because of my newfound ability to move on my own most of my days consisted of moving through my crib and moving energy when I was exhausted. I was thoroughly bored by both though, so for today I would cry until my mother let me out to explore the room on my own!

Plan set I started wailing my heart out. And I could wail with the best of them, courtesy of the energy coursing through my veins, refreshing me at an unnatural rate. Or what seemed to be unnatural for me, perhaps all infants had this much energy.

My mother didn't take long to come, and picked me up, ready to feed me. I wasn't hungry though, I wanted to move, to explore! So I ignored her, and continued crying.

I looked up at my mother's face, and saw she was at a loss. She seemed a little desperate, and even started talking to me, something she didn't often do. So I turned my head towards the ground, stretching as if to escape her grasp.

She didn't take long to understand me, and set me down on the ground. The moment she did that I stopped crying, and shot off, more than ready to explore.

I heard my mother's steps following me, but didn't care.

Freedom!

My body felt full of energy, revitalised by being able to move more than a few centimetres on my own. I looked around, trying to map the room from my new perspective. To my left, blocked by my mother was the fireplace and cooking pot.

A table and two chairs were to its right, with the only window in the room above the table. It was closed with some kind of leather most of the time, and quite small. A good idea seeing we didn't have any glass.

A large cabinet filled with food was to the fire's right, though rotated by ninety degrees on the next wall.

The only way out of the room was next to to the food, a small, currently closed door. A massive dresser was on the other side of the door, with a small painting of some man hanging on the wall above.

My mother's bed and my crib were on the wall next to the dresser, with a closed closet separating the bed and table.

The floor was wooden, and a large grey carpet was hiding most of it, which seemed extravagant to me, but I wouldn't complain. The wooden floor was quite cold after all. I made my way over to the carpet before anything else, a huge smile nearly splitting my face in two.

I quickly tired myself out, and my mother tucked me back in my small bed, before going back to her work, whatever she did.

My night was better, and more refreshing than any night I had on this world, I felt glorious. Free.

My next day started even better, I woke with mom picking me up, before moving to leave the room. After feeding me she set me down on the ground, secure in the knowledge the fire was behind a locked door this time, for there was no fireplace in this room.

I surveyed what I assumed to be a workroom and was astounded. My mother was a tailor, or seamstress or whatever. She worked with fabrics and clothes at least. The room was a little cramped, mainly because it was filled with supplies. Rolls of colorless fabric filled the cabinets lining most of the walls from floor to ceiling.

I didn't see a loom, so I assumed mom did not produce the fabric herself, only worked with it. Only four parts of the walls were free, a small window, a small desk with a chair, and two doors. The middle of the room wasn't free, it was filled by a large table, which I assumed to be mom's worktable.

I gave some happy sounds from me, approving of the new room, and started exploring after mom set me down. It was a paradise for a freshly mobile infant, full of decently soft, if scratchy material. I could 'hide' from the others in the room, which was only my mother, but still. With both doors closed my mother also didn't have to worry about me, seeing all potentially dangerous tools were in her sight.

As I explored the room I noticed something terrible. It was really boring! I had nothing to do! I was in luck though, as mom had another surprise for me. She actually started talking to me! Her voice was soft, and soothing and I finally heard some actual words.

They were without context, but any words were good, I needed to start somewhere!

I crawled under the table and sat up, contentedly listening to my mother's voice. Learning the language was something I wanted to do for ages, and finally I got the chance. I wouldn't waste it for the world!

Once my body was tired I only had to cry a second before my mother picked me up to put me back in my crib. She resumed working in the other room, so sadly I wouldn't be learning any more words. Tired from the excitement and boredom of today I closed my eyes and started moving the energy filling my body into my bone marrow once again.

It was work, something I had to do every day after all.

Recently I was having problems with that though, over the last three months I had effectively purged my body of energy and I didn't get enough from my surroundings to replace it fast enough as my control improved. Sure, the amount of energy leaving my bones as new blood grew as well, but I didn't need all that much new blood, something I hadn't thought about before.

As it was I effectively starved my body of a probably essential energy, and if I didn't do anything about it my growth would be hampered.

There were no two ways about it, I had to find a way to get more energy into my body. I had a stopgap measure I could use until then, refresh the energy in my bones less regularly, but I didn't want to go that far just yet.

I didn't know if it was possible to increase my energy intake though, after all the ambient energy had resisted my attempts at influencing it so far.

At the same time all my energy had been ambient once. The only difference I could find were the impressions the ambient energy contained. My own energy didn't have anything to tell, no glimpse of something more.

I already knew how to control energy, and could perceive the energy that constantly entered and left my lungs. Didn't that mean I just had to strip the energy of its impression to make it my own?

How would I do that? Perhaps a small change to my void? I wouldn't affect the energy in my body if I didn't want to, and while my lungs held nearly as much energy as the rest of my body combined I knew I could affect that much at a lesser degree of efficiency. It was time to try.

I imagined a bubble around my lungs, its rim a void like the one I used to move energy. Once the bubble was in place I imagined a small film of energy moving up and down, cleansing the energy in my lungs of its impressions.

Failure. A small amount of energy moved, but it was only marginally more than normal. Hell, it was less than when I immersed myself within the energy directly.

Wait, that was it, wasn't it?

I 'cleansed' the energy by viewing its stored impressions. Now the real question was if I could use that information or not? After all the energy wasn't actually intelligent, or influenced by the thoughts I send it so far.

Could I perhaps replicate that reliving without doing so?

Definitely worth a try.

I reconstructed the bubble of void around my lungs, but added a set of eyes, ears and a nose inside of it. Now I just had to wait and see, these impressions were miniscule, just a moment of something's life, so I should see results any moment now.

Nothing. Perhaps I was doing it wrong? I decided to try something a little more abstract next. Instead of trying to fool the energy directly I just filled the bubble with a general feeling of observation and general alertness.

I could feel the tickle of energy entering my bubble increase to a small stream. Better, but wasn't ready to give up just yet. How did I feel when I tried seeing the impressions in the energy?

I wasn't watching attentively, I simply let go, ignored everything else around me. I observed, but did not search, I watched, but only as a bystander inside my own mind.

I recreated the bubble of void once again, and filled it with a feeling of presence, passively observing nothing and everything at once. I highly doubted it would work, but testing didn't cost me anything but time. And I had time.

Success. What had been a small stream of energy before now felt like a steady river, more energy entering my body with each second.

Holding those two images in my mind all the time should not be a problem, so long as I only did so an hour at once. I soon felt exhaustion creeping up on me, and knew the time had passed. I collapsed the bubble, and took stock of my body.

The area around my lungs brimmed with energy. I had only managed to filter a small part of the energy that was in my lungs at any moment, but it was enough.

If I took in the same amount of energy every day my development wouldn't be hampered. And if I managed to hold out longer, it would maybe even speed up.

I concentrated shortly, moving all new energy into my heart so my blood could transport it everywhere in my body, I felt too tired to do so manually right now. Tomorrow I would move the energy in my bones before getting more, and repeat it until a new problem turned up. A new problem I didn't know about, but was sure existed.