I am 8 months old. The past few months were uneventful. The villagers, especially the children, were really excited for the past few days. Why? Because today is the first day of the annual butterfly mating period. hundreds of colorful butterflies came to the island making the whole sky filled with a rainbow of colors. There were red, green, blue, purple and orange butterflies everywhere. It was a beautiful sight. I guess I know where the name of the village came from (Farfalla is butterfly in Italian, or at least according to google translate). All the kids are outside trying to catch the winged creatures and I am no exception. I could walk at 6 months if someone was helping me and I am striving to walk by myself. It should take me a month or two at most.

As I walked down the hill on which the orphanage was located, I could see the countless specs of color flying about. We proceeded to go near the forest, where most of them were. I look behind, seeing Tina with a sparkle in her eyes. She enjoyed the beautiful sight as well. I look at her, seeing the early signs of puberty. She was just over 9 years old.

She noticed my gaze and her smile deepened. I guess she grew really attached to me. People tend to cling to others when disaster hits. And she is no different. But I feel the same way, although a far weaker bond. She is my caretaker and I’m glad for it. After all, I am a human and I still posses emotions. But that is where I draw the line. I will never treat her like a sister. I am far too weak for that. Relationships introduce weaknesses and I cannot afford any. At least until I reach the peak. I know relationships can give one strength as well but for now it’s not worth it.

After about an hour of playing we join others for lunch. The lunch ladies are here too. The older kids start eating brown bread while I queue in the line for a more liquid oriented diet. After that was done, Tina brought me a few softer foods, which I happily chewed. There were a few cherries and strawberry looking fruit. They aren’t as sweet or as large as back on Earth since they didn’t go through centuries of selective breeding but they are passable.

After a few more hours of playing, we returned home as the sun set. After a quick change of clothes, I was laid down, into my crib. I tried to recall the day. It was nothing special besides the butterflies. I tried to remember all of the children’s faces, all of the butterflies I saw, all of the patterns and all the paths I took. I even tried to remember the taste of my lunch. A bit of drool left my mouth. That aside, I moved to the next set of exercises for my memory. Today was the memory training day.

After about an hour of training and breaks, I started feeling tired. Just before I fell asleep, I came up with a random, 10 digit number and memorised it.

***

I woke up feeling refreshed. As usual I tried to remember if I had any dreams that night. The more appropriate question would be if I could remember the dreams I had. Dreams mostly occur in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, where your body as paralyzed. There are cycles of sleep which repeat every 90 minutes. Sadly, I didn’t remember any of my dreams. I don’t know why, but dreams are quite rare for me, ever since my rebirth. I only remembered a few flashbacks once every week or so. Maybe that’s normal, who knows. After seeing that I had slept for 10 hours and 39 minutes, I nodded in satisfaction. In any case, it was a good amount of sleep. Sleeping in multiples of 90 minutes is the best since sleep cycles take 90 minutes and the closer to the end of the sleep cycle you wake up, the more energetic you wake up.

Tina made me drink the formula and a piece of soft bread dipped in it. After that, we left for the playing area. There were several kids already there. All but three were older than me, and two of the remaining three are kids of the lunch ladies. The last one was an orphan just like myself. But we were far too young to care. I doubt most kids here will have any strong attachments to their parents. We rarely see them. The kids see their mothers every week, while they only see their fathers once every 12, since most of the men were already in the nearby islands looking for work to help the village.

Just as I finished the thought, we arrived at the area for the younger toddlers, aged 1 and 2. Usually I would still be playing with the baby group, but due to my lack of interaction with the drooling, crawling and screaming creatures together with my surprising maturity, I was allowed to be in an older age bracket.

There were 16 kids in the playground. 8 toddlers and 8 caretakers. I tried to socialise with them but it only consisted of spouting unrecognisable words. The awful smells didn’t help. The smells were absolutely disgusting. I would rank it somewhere between fresh vomit and chiwawa excrement. You can’t imagine the torture my overdeveloped sense of smell put me through. But I guess it was just another part of training... Sigh.

After the hour long torture was finished, it was time for the afternoon nap. I stayed conscious for about 30 minutes before falling asleep. I still needed sleep after all. My body must develop well. I cannot deprive myself of it at this early age. It would be pure lunacy.

After everyone woke up, we left for the forest. The butterflies were still outside but had noticeably reduced in number. The kids weren’t too happy about it. To be honest, the whole thing was overhyped by the caretakers to make children look forward to it and stay positive.

[Change of POV - Tina]

“It’s time for us to practise walking!” I said to the child in my arms. “I can’t believe how fast he is learning. He is just amazing. When I talked with the others, they described their experience as taking care of a suicidal maniac with no sense of self respect but little Alan is just like an angel. Besides feeding, bathing and changing clothes there is really no need for me to help him.”

I have long ago stopped treating Alan as a baby. His maturity is unnatural. Besides the occasional episodes and his shyness, he would easily pass off as a polite teen.“

Several hours and a lunch went by as we left the forest.

I was excited! I was finally going to meet my father again! I haven’t seen him in months! He left the island with Richard and tasked me to take good care of Alan. He was Ian’s (Alan’s father) sworn brother. Which would make me his cousin? Anyway I will take care of him regardless. He is my little Alan after all.

After a few minutes of silently carrying the sleeping child in my arms, I could see my house again. It was a small wooden house with two floors. It was worn down by time and looked more like a shack with every year. But it was going to change soon! Or at least my father promised me that the last time I saw him.

I arrived in front of the door and knocked. Soon I heard my fathers voice urging me to enter. I lifted Alan up so he could open the door and he did. He tried to push the wooden door open but it wouldn’t budge. A chuckle escaped me as I opened the door, but not before patting the growing child, now resting in my hands.

After I opened the door, I saw a large and muscular man resting behind a table. He was my one and only father. I ran towards him, but not before handing Alan to my mother. There were emotions in my father’s eyes and he hugged me with full force, making it hard to breathe.

“Shouldn’t you be in the daycare right now? You should take good care of Alan! I can’t have my sworn child suffer.”

“I don’t need to, father! Alan is with me and he is well behaved! He never causes trouble and his shyness is so cute!”.

“Enough talk about him, how are you?” I heard as I was released from my fathers chest.

“Besides being a bit tired, I feel amazing! I started learning to write and it’s really difficult! But not nearly as difficult as math! I don’t understand multiplication at all!” I said and a frown couldn’t help but surface on my expression.

“You are really smart Tina! Never forget that! I believe in you. You can do anything in life!” When I heard that, I couldn’t help but blush...

“Now! Let me see my nephew!” He shouted before lifting Alan into his arms. I could see a few more scars on his hands. ‘I hope he isn’t working too hard…’ I thought as I watched Alan tug at fathers beard.

A few minutes later, Alan started showing signs of fatigue. I took him into my arms as I saw my fathers serious expression.

“Enough chit chat. We need to talk.” Hearing this my heart tightened.

“We found an architect, who is willing to design our town. He can even implement electricity, which will make our lives far easier. But that is the final step away from the village we used to be.” He said as he looked towards the ceiling in sadness.

“But we must do it. Otherwise, we can’t survive. Richard is working hard for everyone. He even lost a few pounds. *Sigh* I hope we can get better. The nearby islands are filled with rare and powerful animals, but if we can endure the risk, the gains will be skyhigh! There aren’t any signs of the big companies eyeing them. so we must take this advantage! Let’s just hope that the rumors of beasts aren’t true…”

I look at my father with a worried gaze.

“Interesting…” Thought Alan before falling asleep.