《The Mechanist》Chapter 2: The first milestone
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This is chapter 2 v2.0 Rewrite i hope you enjoy i did write it for 5 hours with a head ache(Not sure about the time though) 14k symbols
As i wonder who is it the door creaks open. What greets my ears is a soft, slow and deliberate voice. It speaks but alas, i cannot fathom the meaning behind his words. Most of the time I'm sleeping due to headache.... and I'm having another one... 'Think simple thoughts, simple..' That calms me down and i focus on the conversation.
Mom sounds more worried and angry by the minute. I figure 'Oh well.. I cant help what I cant help' and start playing with my foot. Damn I'm flexible. this thought brings me to a slight giggle. The talking stops and footsteps close towards me. My mom picks me up and i get my first good look of the house. Other than the thatched roof i couldn't see anything wile in my crib, having no proper neck muscles combined with the deep crib contributed to that.
Having a good 360 look makes me happy, after all i was right we do have only two rooms one is a bedroom, were we keep chest, closets, my parents bed along with my crib, which looks bad ass. Its made out of a whole log. A big one, no wonder i was a half a meeter deep. There is also a trap door at the corner. Probably a basement or food storage area. The second room is something between a living room and kitchen. On the far wall there is a iron stove with two cupboards on its right,one from the high and one low leaving space in between for cooking along with a few knives on the wall, and stacked wood on the left. In the middle of the room is a rectangle table with a few chairs around it. On the table lies sewing materials and what looks like an unfinished coat for a midget....oh thats for me. Its probably for the cold weather. On the floor and many of the walls there are rugs made out of hides, probably for thermal isolation.
My mom walks back to the door and i see a plain and simple douchebag. Don't get me wrong he looks like quite nice, mid thirties, short black hair, long face, brown eyes, white shirt with a black long coat on top, black pants and some over the top shoes. I mean seriously who wears shoes with gold thread? Mud and grime will be a serious problem not to mention his look squeaky clean. And we are a poor farmers in the middle of....i don't know were, and he is at least some one rich and by the previous sound of things a plain pain the the three letters.
They start talking again and this time my mom sounds more serious and angry and he keeps insisting on something. He steals a look ate me from time to time and keep talking and making hand gestures towards me. My moms hold on me tightens a bit every time he does, so he must be including me in the conversation. I don't like him one bit call it baby instinct or something.
I start sucking my middle finger making it as slimy as possible, looking innocent and cute until.... splat!! I lunch my middle finger with force spraying all my saliva over his face. He stops mid sentence with a finger pointing trying to make a point about something....was trying. Well i decided to aggravate him more by giggling hysterically for a few moments. My mom even raises her hand to cover her creeping smile. As he getting redder and redder and is about to explode in anger. A towering shadow looms behind him as a hand the size of a bears clasps on his shoulder.
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The cavalry has arrived!!!(Trumpet cavalry song)
Dad moves him to the side and comes in to block him from getting close to mom and me, just in case, while keeping his firm grip on him. The Golden-shoe man takes a piece of cloth from within his coat and wipes his face and coat from my present. He opens his mouth to continue but dad grips harder and says one word which in this case I'm pretty sure is a simple "LEAVE!!".
The man looks a bit angry until he looks down and sees my dads bloody axe. And boy does try to make a new record for "Most shades of white within a second". He bows his head politely and leaves. The sound of horses can be heard a bit later. Dad comes in with a bloody rabbit closes the door and gives mom a kiss. He leaves the rabbit on the lower cupboard and we sit around the table me included. happily I'm smarter than most midgets my age so i don't fall over due to curiosity of gravity.
They start talking about something but i got bored. 'Now that i think about it don't i sleep too much? I mean i don't know how much times has passed since i was born and i don't remember eating or going on potty breaks or something. I'm barely even awake for more than an hour or two, which is my best guess. And those headaches are annoying. No wonder babies cry nonstop. Come to think of it i only experience them when i think complex thoughts like math, logic, science and so fort. Stuff like colors, emotions, shapes and the like you know simple stuff are ok.' The more i think about the problem the more my head hurts and i black out.
This keep happening most of the time eventually i manage to form a likely conclusion. Baby brains aren't complex enough to to manage complex thoughts easily, and use too much energy. So i stopped trying to figure things out and let my imagination rung wild and started living the life of a baby. I still kept repeating the basic math in my head in order to help my feeble brain develop you know counting, memorizing things the best i can. I even did physical exercise from time to time. I even managed to stay awake for half a day and sometimes a bit more which is quite good for a few months old baby. I will not tell you any potty details just know it includes a diaper and a shallow bucket.
As time went by and my body developed and started to craw but the inside of the house was cramped. I wanted out again. So like usual annoying the crap out of people helps. When mom and dad have dinner i will craw like there is no tomorrow around the house. I took inspiration from the cockroach. Moving every where i can reach even beneath the table. It didn't take them long to figure out my need for speed. So mom started doing work outside while dad works on the fields and i play around while trying to be in their field of view, don't want to have them worry for nothing.
This way i explored the area round my house. Behind the house is the field and what i though was an tool shed actually was a lot bigger and has a bath house attached. The actual outhouse is in front with a well close by. There is also a dirt road leading towards the hills and the horizon, besides the road and field everything else is filled with a forest and god knows what else. But mostly i played in the mud like a kid!
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Life was nice and simple i slowly started to learn a few words mostly names due to their repetition. Mine is Salion, it sounds quite nice though i hope it has a hidden meaning like my old one. Any way my mom name is Clarice(Clair) and my dads Jonathan(John) they sound quite normal even though its pretty obvious I'm not in Kansas anymore. And the best part wait for it ... magic!!! I found out when i scraped my knee during my crawling adventures. I brawled my eyes out until mom came in a hurry with dad. When she saw me she paled a bit, came close to me and placed her hand over my scraped knee. I felt a warm sensation on skin and when she removed her hand and the only thing left was the blood stain. Not believing my eyes i took my moms hand and started to examen it with a look of wonder in my eyes. She and dad just smiled and let me play around with it for a bit. Later that day my mom showed me more.
She put pointed her index finger and a small flame appeared. I tried to blow it off and managed to do it with ease. Then she relight the flame and would try again each time harder than the previous one, until no matter how much i tried it wouldn't go off. I decided to touch it. I took my time moving my finger slowly towards it, i could feel the heat slowly building up until it my finger went trough. The heat wast high enough for there to be flame at best it was uncomfortably hot. I was looking in wonder, in turn mom was watching with a smile and dad had a complicated expression. Like he was glad and worried at the same time. I thought nothing of it and the days went on.
I started to show more of my curiosity and annoying character, though none of my parents minded. A baby has the ability to speak at around the middle of his/her second year, so i could only bable my way through. Words like axe, table, chair, flame and so on were leaned without a problem. One of the advantages of being a baby is the ability to learn rapidly. And i didn't waste a moment, simply because the more i learn now the less ill need to learn later when its harder. Eventually i decided to learn to walk, i still haven't tried it yet there is a sort of comfort to being close to the ground, you know the saying the bigger they are the harder they fall.
I slowly stood up with the help of my crib and started to balance. I heard a creak and the door in the kitchen opened with. I turned to look and saw mom walking in with something light brown under her arms. When i looked at her she gasped and put her hands on her face. She wasn't afraid or scared, in fact her whole face was brimming with happiness. Even the thing she was holding fell to the ground with a thud. Deciding to bring the impact factor to max i slowly and carefully made my way to her, step by step trying my best to keep my balance. Half way trough dad shows up and stand behind mom with a smirk.
Eventually i reach mom and hug her legs look up and give a big smile with my only tooth and said something long the lines of "Ma-ma", and yes growing a tooth hurt like hell, dad just said to man up and bear with it so i wasn't crying much, compared to mom who picked me up and is now crying rivers of joy. Quite few hugs and kisses later mom finally let me go and put me on one of the chairs around the table. She took the package she was carrying, in it was a book and a bunch of spices covered in paper. They both looked expensive, and the book old and used.
Clair>"Happy birthday son" She said with a sweet smile
From the corner of my eye i could see dad working on a big piece of meat in the cooking area, looking at us with one eye and a smile and a bit of worry. The book was big ,about A4 big, thick hard covers with edges and letters embroidered with a fine thread. It looked expensive and old, something that you shouldn't give to a 1 year old. Most kids my age still giggle like the happy idiots they are. Once i flipped the first page i was greeted by a richly decorated text which i couldn't read even if i tried. The next page was a very realistic picture of a man with different pieces of armor, a breastplate, a single bracelet on his right arm, a longsword on his left side, shin guards over his boots and leather gloves with knuckle guards, and what looks like a bow on his back with a weired quiver on his belt. There was also text right under it and on the next page but i ignored it for now.
On the fourth page there was something similar but the man was heavily armored from head to toe. It wasn't full plate armor but it was quite close, the armor was similar to the first one but everything was in pairs, including shoulder pads and guards with a plate sleeve down to the gauntlets. a few armor pieces on the abdomen and a cool looking bascinet. His right hand was over a 1.5 meeter tower shield and was holding a spear. And just like the first guy he had a longsword on his belt. The same wall of text followed.
On the sixth page was a rat, on the seventh a squirrel and so forth were many wild animals all the way to a bear what followed were many different animals ranging from a woolly rhino to a huge flying eagle. Thankfully on every page the is a rough drawing of a human without any details. Flipping through the pages i finally arrive at something different. A midget around 1.2 meters with green skin, ugly face, 4 fingers on each hand crude stone spear. My geek sense screams goblin at me. Wanting to make sure a look around for mom and dad and see the flirting while cooking. Can't blame them i know how i become when i find something interesting. Deciding it is best to leave the lovebirds alone i continue to flip page after page. I'm greeted by giants monsters trolls of different kinds, everything from here on out is humanoids all the way till just about a fifth before the end. It starts with a wyvern, dragon flying, serpents, bulls with flaming horns and manes all the way to blank. Thats it an empty picture frame followed by a small amount of text. And this goes till the last cover.
Those empty pages trouble me. If dragons are one of the strongest things i know of then those blanks are stronger, after all nobody met them to tell the tale, or either the author is lazy or the book is too old. I prefer the last two options the first one i don't like much if you ask me i would prefer to be a simple farmer with parlor tricks.
Not long after i started to learn to read, not much mind you i can't ask question after all the best i can do is point and 'buaa' at something, but as time went on i could grasp the basics. The fancy book is old indeed. Its from dads side, given from father to son. Due to most common monsters being discovered quite a while ago this book hasn't been outdated. Most books of this type are only regional, meaning you buy a book from kingdom A it will have only stuff from kingdom A and there will be no theoretical knowledge in it like the blank picture pages. This makes the book quite valuable and irreplaceable.
The book is aptly named "Wanderers guide to the dangers of the world" the author being some long dead relative of mine. I'm guessing since its a family thing there are bound to be more of those but i don't know why i would need 2 of the same kind. As for the 2 armored dudes in front there are aptly named "Sweeper" and "Sentinel" thats all i know so far so it will take time to learn more.
Huh life is never easy, I'll just enjoy my childhood to the best of my abilities
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