On my first day at the Kite’s Klub (TM Pending), there was a lot to take in. Before, back at home, I was pretty much just a passenger of life; my parents took care of everything. Of course, by the end of things, I was doing some things for myself: putting food in my mouth, defecating without assistance... Maybe that was about it. But here, there were expectations. Well, perhaps expectations might be a bit of a strong word. You were supposed to take care of yourself, at least up to your current ability to do so. This varied widely as there was a wide range of ages present. Aside from me, at one year of age, the youngest was somewhere in his second year and the oldest was in her 10th, but I got the impression she was a bit of a flunky. Most of the children were between the ages of 3 and 8 with 9-year-olds becoming vanishingly few. Lilac Governess gave me the answers to my questions readily enough but with all the attention and enthusiasm of a factory foreman updating their manager.

Aside from practicing self-sufficiency, this place was pretty much a school, like a Montessori school. Unlike my parents' dwelling, there were many things to investigate. And we were encouraged to do just that. There wasn't anything made for hunting, but it did appear to me that these items were all things one might use in a trade of some kind; I found tools similar to the ones that Mother used for her craft. There were chisels and drills, as well as paint and what looked like white bark. The latter, I presumed, were used for artistic endeavors. I also noticed these were not available off the shelf, so to speak, you had to ask the Governess for them, and she was a bit selective of who she would let use them. After that scene that greeted us, I couldn't blame her. We were encouraged, almost forced, to try and do something productive with our time. She would try and offer tutelage on these pursuits when she could, but it seemed like keeping everyone in line took up a large portion of her time.

As for myself, I can't say if it was typical, but my arrival did garner some attention. I wasn't sure if they were just interested in the new arrival, or that I was very much a baby. I was somewhat inclined to believe it was mostly due to the latter as it was mostly the older kids, 5 years and up, that seemed to take special note of my admission. This wasn't a problem on its face, and indeed with the older children, it didn't seem to advance past a confused curiosity. However, there was one individual who did seem to have a problem with my presence.

"Why is there a baby here?" I heard this thought being issued, and it didn't take long for me to figure out from where. There was a deep and dark red kite that was on the younger side of the age range staring right at me. Now this made me feel uncomfortable. I wasn't sure how to respond. His statement didn't carry any emotional overtones I could use to discern his intentions. His stare didn't exactly exude warmth, but neither was it hostile. It was how you gazed upon an item you hadn't seen before, but were only mildly intrigued. At any rate, once contact was made, he made a beeline right to me. After staring at me with a mostly blank face, he gingerly raised his right hand and with two fingers pushed me by the forehead, compromising my balance and causing me to tumble to the ground.

Well, that wasn't very nice... Was he like some kind of schoolyard bully or something? The fall didn't hurt me, I had fallen quite a bit while I was learning to walk, but this was clearly a personal attack! I stood back up and said nothing. It was best not to even give these kinds of people any feedback. I wouldn't even acknowledge his existence.

…A moment later, I found myself back on the ground. That punk had just gone and pushed me over, again! The NERVE! How should I approach this? Diplomatically? Militarily? Well, I believed it was best practice to always start with diplomacy. Plus, this kid clearly had some years (and size) on me. I might be outgunned in the military department, so diplomacy it was!

I got up again, "Could you please not do that, I apologize if I have offended you in some way..."

"Oh! It talks!" Well, that was rude. He pushed me over again!

Well, that was it! He might be bigger than me, and I wasn't sure what he could do with fox magic, but I've had at least 25 more years of intellectual development on my side! Even if I couldn't settle this now, he couldn't watch his back forever! I stood up yet again, but this time I was ready for his push. I saw him go for it, but then... "Everyone, over to me please" Lilac Governess beckoned us all over to her. Impressively, the "toddler tipper" immediately forgot about me and scampered over to her as if the whole exchange had never happened. This kid clearly had the attention span of a fruit fly, with such a low level of cognitive development, perhaps I shouldn't hold his behavior against him too much. But next time, THERE WOULD BE NO DIPLOMACY.

Now what did the Governess want? "Okay, everyone. I want to talk about the incident we had earlier, can I ask why you felt compelled to throw ash around the den, even though you know it is expressly forbidden?" Was this how she debriefed the children after incidents like the show we had earlier? No wonder she was having problems keeping these kids in line.

One of the older girls spoke up, "I tried to tell them that they should not make a mess with the ashes and that you would be most upset with them, but they didn't listen." Your rank and file suck up it would seem.

"Thanks Dawn, for your support." I could see Dawn beaming with pride as she stretched herself taller with a haughty tilt of her chin. "Dry-wood, Gale, what do you have to say for yourselves?"

"It was fun."

"Yeah, lots of fun. Especially Dawn's face, all covered in ash!" Dawn was now shooting a scowl over at them.

"It most certainly was not!" Dawn huffed. "Do you know how long it will take to get the ash out of my dress?"

"No."

"Nope." Neither of them seemed to care, and only passively answered as their attention seemed drawn to other things. What those other things were, I could not say. From what I could tell, the older of the two was Dry-Wood and the younger Gale. They looked to be on the older end of the age spectrum.

"Shame on the both of you, especially you Dry-wood. You really ought to know better. How many times do I have to tell you, you are setting a bad example for the younger children, and it is me who will have to deal with them." Judging by the look on their faces, they didn't really seem to care. Furthermore, I felt they had already been told this many times. I didn't think she was cut out for this work.

The children were about to meander off, "Oh, one more thing." The children's attention was once again drawn. "We have a new addition to our group today." She plucked me up with her magic and dropped me down in front of her. She introduced me with both her hands resting on my shoulders. "This is Indigo. He is very young, so I expect you to be nice to him and show him the ropes." I couldn't help but grimace. I was certain she had just put a target on my back.

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I was right and wrong. That one kid, once attention was placed back on me, made his way over again, I'm certain to push me over, but he clearly wasn't playing with a full deck. Miss Lilac Governess's hand hadn't even left my shoulder as he tried to push me over again. "Dusty! Seriously child!" She barred his attempted toddler toppling. She rubbed the portion of her mask where her forehead would be. "Why did you try to push Indigo down?"

"He's a baby." Was his only answer. He didn't seem to find this answer at all controversial as he stood there shamelessly.

"We don't push people Dusty, do you understand?"

He looked up at her and in all seriousness said, "Why?"

It seemed I was mistaken about this child. He was clearly a philosopher, contemplating the deeper mysteries of the universe. Do I exist? What is a soul? Is there free will? Why shouldn't I repeatedly shove some random kid I just met to the ground? Schopenhauer had nothing on this kid!

"Because it's wrong!"

"...Why." Oh boy... Lilac Governess, began to explain why it was wrong, but she had no chance of winning a battle with this master Socratic. I made my way away while their attention was otherwise occupied. I got the thorough impression that it was going to be rough for the foreseeable future.

"Hello there." I turned my head to see who was addressing me, and found the girl from earlier, Dawn, addressing me. "Do you talk?" She was asking seriously and not as an insult. Considering my age, it was a reasonable question.

"Yes, I talk."

"I thought so. You need to be able to talk to come here. River thought you couldn't." She looked over at another girl who was perhaps the same age as Dawn. Their eyes met, but I didn't pick up on anything, I was pretty sure they were using the Whisper.

"Is that River over there?"

"Oh, yes. She is my best friend."

"Oh... Okay." Good to see I'm as awkward as ever.

"Try to stay away from Dusty if you can. He is trouble."

"But he comes to me."

"Yeah..." She looked away in thought for a second. "If he is bothering you, you can come to me!"

"Okay!" I said with all earnestness, fists pumping in front of me. I couldn't help but feel a bit delighted at her offer, it was like I had made a connection here.

"Come on Dawn, what are you going to do? That kid is as dense as (She references an animal that looks like a wild hog with an elephant's trunk) stool." River had come over and inserted herself into the conversation.

"You don't know what we are talking about, River. I wasn't broadcasting."

"Yeah, but I know you. I saw you glance at Dusty, and I knew exactly what you would say." Dawn throws her hands up on her hips and glares at her friend.

River kneels down next to me. "Don't worry, If he starts to bother you, you should come to me." She swung her hand around so that her thumb was pointing to her as she flexed her other arm. "I will put him in his place. Dusty is impervious to Dawn's lectures." Well, that did seem to make sense.

"Hey, I offered first! You didn't even think he could talk!" Dawn seemed to be calling dibs on me.

"Yeah, but if he actually wants to be protected, he should come to me!" Sparks flew between the two. I have to admit, I kind of liked the idea of girls fighting over me, but this wasn't productive.

"It doesn't have to be one of the other, I can rely on both my big sisters." Those last words were a bit of a gamble; I wasn't sure how they would take them. But it paid off. Stars were spilling out of both of their eyes.

"He is so cute!" Dawn was absolutely gushing.

"Don't worry. We won't let anything happen to you." River wrapped a protective arm around me. Well, it seems I have gained two allies here, perhaps things would be okay after all.

I now had two protectors, they were among the "big kids." Dawn, the diplomatic one, was an airy yellow with light blue eyes and cherry blonde hair. She wore it with bangs that came down just above her eyebrows, and the rest of it came down to mid-jaw level. As for facial markings she had just a twinge of black that streaked just lateral to her eyes. She was very neat and tidy in appearance as one can imagine, and wore a lilac colored cape. As a side note, capes were pretty popular.

On the flip side, River was an airy blue color with yellow eyes and light green hair that was combed back and rested around shoulder level. There was also a black spot surrounding her nose. She was wearing a simple long-sleeved white shirt. Unlike Dawn, she seemed like the kind to use more direct methods to settle issues.

It was interesting that the two of them were friends since they seemed almost like complete opposites in terms of demeanor, but perhaps the old adage that opposites attract goes beyond just romance.

Seeing as I had acquired two friends, I felt it appropriate to partake in their knowledge. More specifically, what the Kite’s Klub (TM Pending) was all about. Furthermore, they were both seniors in terms of the group, both being 7 years of age and soon to be "graduating" as I would later find out. So it seemed like they would have the greatest insight.

As it turns out, the Kite’s Klub (TM Pending) was pretty much what I thought it was. Basically, a place where you could learn the fundamental skills needed to be a functioning member of the tribe, as well as a place to socialize with people close to your own age. Everyone would live here until they graduated, at which point they would move back in with their parents until they found an apprenticeship, but they didn't know too much about that. It did seem that the reason we lived together was basically as a daycare, to free up the parents to focus on their work. Personally, it didn't seem like much of an issue for my parents, but perhaps it was different for other people? At any rate, it wasn't as if parents couldn't visit, or even help the overwhelmed Lilac Governess out by offering a hand. Some parents would make nearly daily visits, while others were rarely seen.

Well, that was all well and good, but what did they actually teach you here? Well, as I previously thought, the Governess pretty much just tutored you in whatever you showed an interest in. Of course, there were some foundational skills that everyone needed to know, and short lessons scattered throughout the day to impart such instruction. What kind of instruction? well, mostly life skills, hygiene, grooming, cleaning, the things that you had to do as a matter of course. On the academic side, there wasn't much... I hesitate to call my people stupid, but they were quite ignorant of various kinds of learning. There was no writing system, guess that made sense, as they didn't technically have a language. That naturally axed the entire language arts discipline. The Governess did teach basic mathematics, Counting mostly, but also addition and subtraction, whole numbers only of course. I didn't know if they taught some higher forms of math later on. I would have to ask her about it.

On a positive note, it sounded like there were stories about the history and culture of the village. I would have to look forward to that, as I always did enjoy an overblown historical recount. Plus, maybe I could learn more about the world at large. At present, it seemed like my entire world consisted of the "Two-Trees," what I started calling the village.

Dawn also pointed out a few children to stay away from because they were troublemakers, Dusty obviously, Dry-wood and Gale as well, and another kid named Gray-fog. River didn't see the problem with him, saying he was harmless. To which Dawn said, "Only if you don't have a nose."