The trip to our unknown destination seemed short, but I’ll be honest, I spent most of it asleep. Jaws was very unsure about how to hold me at first, constantly shifting me from arm to arm, often hunched over me protectively like he was afraid I would be destroyed by an errant gust of wind. I guess, now that I think of it, he really hasn’t spent much time with me yet.

Having arrived where we were headed, I instantly figured out at least part of the reason that mom was so mad. Smoke rising into the air, deafening sounds of metal hitting metal, glowing red hot furnaces and pieces of metal all over the place: We were in a smithy! Not exactly the best place to bring a two-month-old child.

Jaws (I’m not calling him dad until I get out of this alive) brought me around to meet a whole host of dirty, soot-stained individuals, who were all visibly delighted to meet me. Heck, some of them even remembered to take off their work gloves before rubbing their grubby mitts all over my face... Oh, the joy. I refrained from crying because I didn’t want to make Jaws look bad, but I was sure hoping that mom gave him a few good thwacks for me when (if) we got home.

One thing of note was that about 40 percent of the smithy staff was Female, but all of them were built like bricks. I’ve never seen a woman with that much muscle on Earth, so it left me wondering if it was something to do with the weird traits (mutations) we all have. Seems like the line between genders was a lot more blurred on this world, which was pretty cool.

Anyway, Jaws then proceeded to take me all around, pointing out various parts of the forging process and how they worked. This part was definitely a bit more interesting, but he had a tendency to stand a lot closer to the fire than was appropriate for an infant. Still, I have to admit that I didn’t get burnt even though it was quite hot, so I guess he was being somewhat careful.

Next, I had the distinct honor of being set in a corner under the (not very) watchful gaze of a young boy with coarse black fur all over his body (maybe an apprentice). Jaws then started working on a piece of iron, going through the whole shaping process for me. He stopped to describe each step, not that I understood. The young apprentice was paying rapt attention though. Probably never had a lesson this detailed before.

I was starting to enjoy myself more and more as I watched him work the hot metal, but it’s hard to stay awake for very long when you are only a few months old. I fought it off as long as I could, but sleep took me eventually, despite the amazing din of the shop.

When I awoke I was already back at home in mother's arms, hungry as heck but strangely content. I have no idea why dad (hey, he earned it, I’m alive) decided to show me all that, but I guess it was some sort of ritual here. Does this mean I’m destined to be a blacksmith? Actually, that might be kind of cool, now that I think of it.

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Another few months went by, my time spent almost exclusively with mom, broken only by monthly trips to the Smithy with dad. I actually started to look forward to it, and after that first time mom never got upset about it again (at least, so far as I could tell). I’m getting more used to this family now, the natural rhythm they have. Dad gets up early and comes home late, tired from a hard day at work but always happy. Mom always seems angry or bothered by something or other, except when she looks at me (and sometimes dad).

I have spent a lot of time missing my own from family back home, often dreaming about them and how they are doing. I’m sure they are sad, but I had a valid life insurance policy for half a million which should cover the house, and worst come to worst they are both getting into one of the Divine realms (whatever those are). I wouldn’t exactly say that I have moved on… more that the world (universe?) moved on for me, and I’m just doing my best to adapt.

I made definite progress on accessing the massive book that the Celestial somehow stored in my mind, and it seems like it contains a whole wellspring of information (I mean, it was a book, right?) that I just have to figure out how to access.

One thing I did get was that in order for it to start with the whole weird absorbing and refining (what does that even mean??) process is to try and think of a specific formation while I go to sleep. That’s right; the bulk of the process is supposed to happen behind the scenes. The hard part is the formation, which is incredibly complex. It reminds me of a fractal pattern formed out of geometric shapes and some kind of runic letters (I think… they might be just more geometric shapes all jumbled and joined together for all I know).

I tried to remember to be more vocal, but often forgot. Hopefully my parents were used to it by then though. I also started getting more and more impatient to learn the language, so I started pointing at things and making nonsense noises until mom described them to me. I tested this out by periodically pointing at the same object the next day – the descriptions were nearly identical.

By repeating this process I also started to pick up on the sentence structure used to answer questions and to describe objects. I still wasn’t there yet, but I was making more progress. The sounds were getting easier and easier to pick out, though I was a bit worried about some of the syllables.

At least they didn’t have rolling 'r' sounds. I could never figure those out.