Chapter 2

Determination

Waiting couldn't have been more painful for a toddler who already had an established consciousness. Time flew ever slowly for Arthur, both literally and figuratively. A full day was barely less than a whole and a quarter of the previous world. And the months too, he had lost count once he reached the one-hundredth day or so.

When Arthur developed some muscles and sturdier bone structure, he began stirring his arms and feet in the morning every day. In the afternoon, the old lady, whose name was Katarina, would always accompany him. And although he never answered, she often talked about her day or some trivial things before leaving at dusk. Arthur took advantage of it to learn the verbal language as he continuously obtained some power to move. As he picked up new vocabularies, he also began to recognize that Katarina spoke two different tongues.

He worked hard every day until he was able to turn around his body. A small feat, yet he felt very pleased. Katarina was also inside his chamber and usually talking about her day. In delight, she carried him and kissed his forehead multiple times.

"Just like your father," she said, a smile curving her lips from ear to ear. "I knew you'd grow strong and become a great wizard."

Arthur let out a soft childish giggle at her words. It wasn't conscious, but he didn't mind. His joy overflowed that even his cheeks blushed, and his green eyes sparkled.

The sense of achievement boosted Arthur's morale. Day after day, he started his morning routine by moving his arms and legs, sometimes rolling inside the crib. Then after only a few weeks, he was able to crawl and support his weight.

Arthur would have jumped in joy if he could. A sense of freedom surged in his veins. He never knew such happiness from just having the ability to move. With his newfound strength, he grabbed one of the columns and pulled up his body. He tried and tried, but his arms weren't strong enough.

Now, intending to support his body on two feet and strengthen his arms to climb, Arthur's days of rigorous body exercise began again. However, saying it was hard was an understatement. It was the slowest process, and he nearly thought that he reached a point of stagnancy. The only saving grace was he was learning languages pretty well. He didn't understand how, but he learned them together. But since he grew up bilingual in his past life, it didn't surprise him too much.

***

At age one, Arthur finally learned to walk on two feet with ease and climb the crib. His only problem was he couldn't get down to the other side. Many times, he would often cry from the fear of losing his balance and falling on the floor. Katarina always came to his rescue and always put him back down inside.

"Kon–" he stuttered, pointing at the floor. "Konso... Konso..."

Arthur unconsciously clapped his hands when he finally said the word for the first time. Even Katarina picked him up right away and put him down on the floor with a smile on her face. He walked inside the room in delight, sometimes he fell, but he would always stand back up.

Suddenly, a realization struck him. Arthur looked up to the small wooden shelf with children picture books. "Tasa," he said, pointing at the books. "Tasa."

Katarina looked at him, surprised. "You want me to read the books for you?"

"Resa... Resa..." He nodded profusely.

Katarina obliged and sat Arthur on her lap, and then she read the eight picture books. The art style was clunky, but it had its charm in his eyes. His favorite story was "The Legend of Hula Duliri," a story of a tribal hero from a particular archipelago in the South. Duliri defeated an evil and powerful chieftain in one of the islands and united the tribes from the archipelago.

***

By the next day, it was unusual for Katarina, but when she got out, she left the door slightly open. Tempted to go outside, Arthur approached the door and walked out carefully.

The living room was big and brightly lit, bathing in the morning sunlight that passed through the window. The carvings on the rough white wall were magnificent, a symphony in stonework forming a serpent. Various gemstones piled over the cupboard to Arthur’s left while a long wooden chair adjacent to two shorter chairs laid across the center.

There were two Goth full armor men, one beside a staircase and the other standing in front of a large door. They didn't move, didn't even twitch. But what amused Arthur the most were the brooms and dusting sticks that move on their own to clean the room. His eyes followed them attentively, not minding the metals clattering not too far away.

Suddenly, a hand touched his shoulder. Cold and unnerving. Arthur was so startled that when he backed away, he fell flat on his back. It didn't hurt much, but he could feel his heart thumping. The man arched his back and carried him.

The third wave of shock washed over him. He saw that the armor was empty, and a small jewel inside the helm emitted a faint light.

Damn! This one is moving on its own.

After a few moments, his fear faded away as awe began to spark in his eyes.

On that day, his daily routine changed. Before Katarina left in the morning, she would always put Arthur on the floor and let him play inside his room. But he would sneak out and watched the morning ritual of enchanted objects in the living room. The gothic armor would then pick him up and put him back inside his chamber. After a few weeks, its behavior changed and began to put him on its shoulders as he watched everything in awe.

Katarina regularly returned in the afternoon and would always read him the eight picture books on the shelf. Arthur took the opportunity to learn more vocabulary, master how to make sentences, and in some way, memorize the letters.

***

When Arthur turned two, he gained more strength to run and crawl on the staircases. He then decided to roam the house and discovered two rooms upstairs. One was Katarina's bedroom, which had the same theme as his room, and the other was a large dark room that had no window. The walls were dark gray. The frames were reinforced with copper and bronze plates, embedded with black gemstones. Aside from a six-inch hole in the upper corner of the room, there was no other way for fresh air to come in. A rounded stone hung at the center, shedding the room with a faint light.

Five Gothic full armor set stood in front of each tool rack. There were a lot of metallic tools on the shelves, some looked familiar like the rake, hoe, shovel, and chisel, while others appeared very foreign. A lump of metals was also lying in the far corner of the room. Arthur approached the nearest armor and gently tapped its right leg. He waited for a few seconds, anticipating its movement from the stimulus. Seeing that it remained still, he hoisted his gaze to see if it had a stone. It didn't, so his interest waned right away.

Arthur began following Katarina whenever she went into the workshop. He wanted to uncover the secrets of enchanting stones to the armors and tools. After seeing it a few times, he memorized the chant and attempted to do the enchantment himself. But all of his hard work failed. In the end, he gave up and just dedicated himself to learning the languages.

Learning the languages distracted Arthur since he had always been fascinated by them. Within the next few months, he mastered the languages and learned their equivalent writing systems.

Katarina's more frequently used language was neither hard to use nor its handwriting hard to learn. Its grammatical structure resembled his first language. Emphasizing a syllable, inserting affixes, or merely repeating the first syllable produced different meanings.

The other was different, however. The structure heavily resembled French and English, while the writing system was complicated and required a more significant effort.

By the time he was able to hold a proper conversation with Katarina, he had discovered that the house was a two-story building with five rooms. He already explored the first four, except for the chamber where he first woke up. He tried to go in, but one of the Gothic Armor heavily guarded it.

***

On his third birthday, Katarina prepared something that looked like corn kernels sweetened with honey and milk. He saw mashed potatoes, salted vegetable salad, and meat-barbecue, which released a strong aroma. He never ate much since his body was still relatively small, but just looking at it made him salivate as he gulped mouthful saliva down in his throat.

Arthur would have devoured all the corn and even licked its container if Katarina hadn't stopped him. And since both of them knew how heavy the corn was for a kid, he didn't. Still, he would love to taste them again in the future.

"Wow!" Arthur exclaimed as he stared at a dancing wooden puppet in his room. "Is that mine?" He asked, looking back-and-forth from the doll to Katarina.

She nodded. "Do you like it?"

"Resa, but can it run too?" he asked again, his eyes hoping for a positive response. He didn't understand how, but it seemed that after becoming a child, his mind became a little more childish. Not that he minded. He convinced himself that perhaps, there was a god out there who let him grew from a child again for him to experience what it meant to be one.

Then at the wave of Katarina's hand, the puppet began running after Arthur. He ran away in delight, and it chased him all over the room. She watched him contently, a smile creeping on her lips.

Arthur panted as he lunged on his bed. When he caught his breath, she moved closer to him and kissed him good night.

"Granny," Arthur called out before Katarina could walk out of his room, pulling the hem of her nightgown.

She turned around and gave him a gentle smile.

"Can you teach me magic tomorrow?"

"Magic?"

"Yeah. Like lighting a fire or making objects fly and stuff."

Katarina gave him a half-smile, gently cupping his face with both hands as she sat on his bed, "Sorry, honey. But you're too young for that."

"Am I?"

"Yeah," Katarina assured him. "Maybe we can do that when you're a little bigger."

"Okay..." Arthur pouted, turning his eyes away in disappointment.

Seeing his sudden change in mood, Katarina heaved a sigh in defeat. "How about going outside tomorrow? How 'bout that?"

His face brightened, his smile curving his lips from ear to ear. "Really? I can finally go outside?"

"Yeah, but only when I'm around. Okay?"

"Okay," he nodded as he hugged her childishly.

Arthur couldn't contain the happiness within him. After being inside the house for the first three years, he had been dying to go outside and see everything, not just from the window. Like most children, the excitement kept him out of bed until Arthur heard a noise coming from the living room. He stood and peeked behind his partly open door.

It was dark.

Arthur took some time to adjust his vision. He could barely see Katarina as she came face to face with a Goth Armor standing in front of a door.

Isn't that the door to the secret chamber, he thought while his heart raced in anticipation.

She placed her right palm on the armor's tummy and said, "Funtore!" The armor stepped aside, and the door automatically slid to the side.

"So, it had a password all along!" Arthur whispered, covering his mouth with two hands. His blood pumped up, his heart raced. All the while, Katarina looked back. As she slowly approached the door, he ran to his bed and dived under the sheets.

"Finally!" He whispered many times as Katarina walked away.