Pov: Our protagonist

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Waking up the next morning to the sun's rays shining right into his face was not the best way to wake up, but it could be worse. Shifting in his crib to move into the shade, he realizes that he is once again wrapped in the same blanket he woke up in the previous night, leaving him stuck firmly in place.

Dammit, of course I'd be wrapped like a burrito again! Get me out of this thing!

Rolling back and forth to loosen the blanket, he eventually unwraps the top half and frees his arms. Once his arms were free he siezed the opportunity to pull himself out of the harsh sunlight. He reaches his right hand out to one of the bars of his crib and puts his other hand againt the bed and pushes himself to one side. With his limited strength he only managed to pull his upper body slightly to the right, but it was enough to keep the sun from blinding him.

Now that he was fully awake and alone with his thoughs he did the only thing he can do: think. His mind kept going back to last night, there wasn't really much else to think about after all. Anything related to his previous life was now mostly irrelevant. There was no reason to start regretting what he did now either but try as he might, everything that has happened within the last 24 hours has been a wild ride and this was the perfect time to think about it. At this point he had nothing but time, didn't he?

... I realy died, didn't I? I mean, that's not hard to figure out, I did it with my own two hands after all. It's just so weird how this body doesn't feel foreign to me, it feels like it's mine despite never having lived with it before. To say that last night was an interesting experience is a huge understatement. Not only were my suspicions about death confirmed, but to realize that you are no longer human would mess with anyone's head. Not just that, but when most people think of isekai, they imagine that the main character either 'awakens' a few years after their rebirth or their soul gets plopped into someone else's body. Hell, there are stories where the main character starts where he left off just in another world! Unfortunately, reality doesn't care about expectations and it is often frustrating and dissapointing. I should've known I'd have to start from infancy, but I guess it wasn't at the top of my 'things to expect' list either. Dammit, this is going to suck so much!

He sighs as he calms his frustration, reminding himself that complaining won't change anything so he tries to look at his situation from a different perspective.

Let's look at the silver lining, I was always good at that despite how annoying it was for others. If I'm starting from this early in my new life, I could easily learn more and become stronger than anyone else around me! I could blow past any hurdle that comes my way since I would already have the knowledge and mental capacity of an adult, the only problem is trying to lay low... If I got Isekai'd, there has to be others is the same situation as me. I just hope they aren't a dime a dozen...

Steeling his resolve, he starts to think about what he should do next.

Okay, youv'e prepared for something like this to happen, so it's time to make a plan. Step one: develope my senses as fast as I can. Right now I can only see about... three feet in front of me? I'm not really sure, but it doesn't change the fact that I can't see much. Step two: gain enough muscle to start walking. The faster I can move on my own, the faster I can learn about my surroundings. Step three: Learn how to communicate. Being able to speak, read and write will open so many doors that are currently inaccessible to me. After that things should become a lot easier and I can start speedrunning life. It's important that I don't rush past these first steps though, they're things that I can't cut corners on.

His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of infants starting to make their discomfort known, one by one they woke each other up just to start crying. Thankfully he didn't have to listen to them for too long as three adults entered the room a few minutes later. They were picking up other kids, moving around and doing things he didn't have the eyesight to see just yet, but he had a pretty good guess nonetheless. Eventually one of the adults came over to his crib and picked him up, carying him to a table that all the others had been taken to. After a quick change of 'undergarments' and being fed, the adult started carrying him out of the room.

That's another thing that threw him off, the fact that his entire existence was solely reliant on the people around him left him feeling vulnerable at all times. He hated it, but there was nothing he could do about it, he would just have to wait until he was strong enough to start doing things on his own. After leaving the room the adult carrying him turned to the right, deeper into the building. While he was being carried down the hall, passing door after door, he starts to observe his surroundings out of boredom. There's not much else you can do when you're a half blind baby.

Looking to his right he could look behind them, the front door at the end of the hall wasn't close enough to be within his range of vision, but he knew it was there. Looking everywhere else he noticed thart the entire building was made out of wood, not plaster and paint, but solid oak. After sneaking a few touching passes against the wall with his hand, his observation was proven correct. Gathering nothing new about the place other than what it's made of, he starts to look at the many pictures that line the walls of the hall. After the first few glances of what he could see, he was able to piece together a few things. Many if not all of the people here were not human, if the red skinned adult carying him wasn't proof enough. The photos on the walls all seemed to be group photos with only one or two being that of a single individual, some of the people in these photos even had protrutions that humans definately did not have. Horns, wings, tails, some of the people in these pictures were also much more blurry. The only explanation he could think of is fur, he has it so why wouldn't others?

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

When they reached the end of the hall they passed through a door to a large, open room. The moment they entered he was hit with a cacophony of sounds. Running water from the kitchen on his left, laughter and playful screams from the open space at the back half of the room, and the sounds of silverware on plates from his right. This seemed to be a very chaotic space and he wasn't sure how to feel about it. He took in his surroundings for a moment before shifting his attention to the person carying him as they started to talk to another adult.

Everything is muffled like it's underwater... It must be my closed ears that's causing this. Just how loud would it be if my ears were open? ... You know what? I'm glad that's not the case, Having hearing better than what I had on Earth would probably be bad given how loud it is right now. Even with my ears closed I can hear so, so much! It's bearable, but almost overwhelming.

As the adult continues to talk to talk to their coworker, he listens in to see if he can even understand them.

"Was he really that quiet?" The female voice said. The adult that had been carying him replied almost instantly, "Yeah! it's strange, right? even when I was changing him he only made a few fussy sounds, but nothing else! I just hope he becomes a little more talkative, I've never been good around silent kids." The female voice replied with reassurance, "Nah! I'm sure it will be fine, I was a pretty quiet baby but then I started babbling like crazy! I don't know how my parents managed to tolerate it!" "I hope so..." The male voice reponded.

With their conversation seemingly over, he gets carried over to the table and put in a high chair while contemplating what he just heard. He was completely thrown off by the fact that he could understand them.

Despite it sounding drowned out like they were underwater, that was unmistakably English! There was no way it should be possible! Even if it wasn't a coincidence there should be some linguistic drift or alteration, but there's nothing! The only 'logical' explanation I can think of is either that this language was pre-installed in my brain, or there's some fancy translation benefit I got when I died. Their mouths moved and spoke in a way I'm all to familiar with so there's no way it can be translation magic, if that even exists here, so the second notion is going right out that window immediately. It's a useful tool in stories and makes it convenient for the plot to progress but there's no way stuff like that is happening here! This is real, not some comic or anime.

He sighs internally, trying to make sense of what he whitnessed. His mind going in circles with the limited inforation he has, scrambling to make sense of it all. He would dwell on it more if he could, but he gets the feeling that he wouldn't be able to solve it unless he got more information. Which meant even more waiting.

After a while two different people come by, one is an adult but the other looks way too small to be one too. The smaller figure was pretty blurry, and he could only assume that meant she was covered in fur like him. she was very dark, likely black with dark gray on her face as that part was sliightly brighter. There wasn't much else he could discern except for their bright red eyes. The larger figure on the other hand, had red skin, two large, black horns starting at her forehead that swept backwards--

Wait... Is that the same person as the woman that brought me inside last night?

He tunes into their conversation to see if his hunch was right.

"You found his last night?" The smaller one said, her voice was noticeably young making it a dead giveaway that she was not an adult. The Taller figure responded in a nonchalant tone, "Yeah, someone dropped them off, I'm surprised that their crying didn't wake anybody else up!" "What are they?" The child asks.

She responds to the little girl with a sigh, "I'm not sure. They look like a fox but I've never seen any fox-like demons before. Not that I know of, at least." She continues with a more cheery tone, "But who knows? it's a big city, there might be a few lurking around and are probable a minority. No idea what their kind would be called though."

The little girl seems to accept that answer and moves on, "What is his name?"

I would like to know the same thing, I haven't even thought about that! I hope it's not something cringe like Tyler or Kyle.

"I haven't decided yet, There wasn't a note saying what his name is so a nickname will probably be in order until we can figure something out." She responds.

Well that's unexpected. I had assumed they would've just given me one. It's not like babies can understand the concept of names at this age. Though it's something I should work on, and it would give me somethig to do. I wonder how names work in this world?

As he was deep in thought about what kind of name he wants, he's lifted out of the chair he was in and gets carried deeper into the room. When he pulled himself back out of his brainstorming session, he found himself in a walker surrounded by other infants. Not only was he stuck in a bungee jump chair, but everything around him was surrounded by baby gates. From his point of view the relatively short plastic holding them in seemed like giant white walls, a part of him wondered if a titan was going to show up. But with a bit of free time on his hands now, he decides to watch how people in this world interact with each other.