As time passed I was awake and alert for longer and longer periods of time, and I was starting to adjust to my new life and routine.

Another month soon passed uneventfully, until one night my new parents had a particularly loud conversation. Well, actually more like a series of conversations over several days, and they were only so loud because of my purple-haired mother.

I truly hoped she never turned that temper on me, but dad weathered the storm like a gigantic boulder in a stormy sea. He seemed firmer than usual; he usually seemed happy to let her have her way, but this time he was putting his foot down.

On the fourth day of this parental storm, the sun broke through and things were finally back to normal in the evening. Surprisingly, my big-jawed father was home the next morning – this was the first time I had seen him still around when I was taken out of bed. I usually see him come back later in the evening, a few hours before the sun goes down, so I assume he must leave for work (or whatever it is he does) at the crack of dawn.

I was starting to get a basic grasp of the language, but not nearly enough to follow a conversation at full speed, so I didn't know what they had been discussing, or what the resolution was. The sounds were a lot clearer than before, and I was picking up on a lot of patterns, but nobody had really bothered going around naming things for me yet; after all, I was still only about three months old. Now that I was awake and alert longer each day, I found myself getting a bit bored, and solving the language challenge was seeming more and more like an inviting puzzle to keep me occupied.

Therefore I was shocked to see my father the morning of the next day, and my surprise only grew as I was handed off to him - after a quiet speech by mom, telling me a lengthy list of things that I completely failed to comprehend. She then had a few (less quiet) words for my father, to which he solemnly replied before taking me out the door and into the street.

I looked behind me and saw mom waving at the door and I panicked, trying to yell out for her to at least come with us... but, of course, it came out as unintelligible baby sounds followed by a shrill wail. Both my parents stopped and stared at me for a moment, and then mom let out a delighted laugh, breaking into a smile as she waved at me, tears rolling down her face. My father let out a bellowing laugh as he held me up to his face and said made soothing sounds while looking me straight in the eye, and it kind of felt like he was asking me a question.

I decided to reply with more baby babble, and his eyes widened before he grinned widely at mom before turning around and continuing down the street with me held carefully in his arms.

I didn't have a clue what had just happened, but I had plenty of time to think as my father carried on walking swiftly, taking me further from home than I had ever been before. Eventually, I realized that this morning was probably the first time I have made any sounds, or even cried out, in a very long time. I was usually busy just listening, eating, and sleeping.

Mom fed me often enough that hunger was never a real issue. Even when I did get hungry, I recognized it for what it was and didn't panic or start crying as a normal infant might. On top of that, I just generally ignored all the other discomforts because I knew that mom would take care of things before they got serious.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I made a mental note to try and be a bit more vocal, like a normal baby, in the future. No point in endlessly stressing out my poor parents!

After that, I just sat back and decided to enjoy the ride. Jaws was my dad, after all, so I was sure that wherever we were going wouldn't be too bad...

----------------------------------------

The trip to our unknown destination seemed short, but I had fallen asleep at some point so I wasn't sure how far from home we were. Jaws was very of about how to hold me at first, constantly shifting me from arm to arm, and hunching over me protectively as if he was afraid an errant gust of wind would destroy me. He hadn't spent much time with me yet, and he was so huge that he was likely afraid to hurt me by accident.

We arrived at a two-story building made entirely of stone, with several smaller chimnies ringing a larger central stack that was belching a steady stream of either steam or smoke. Jaws used one of his hands and a shoulder to open the massive central doors to the building (I could see a smaller door off to the side). Smoke was in the air, but not enough to make breathing difficult - just enough to get a sense of what this building was for; combined with the echoing clang of metal hitting metal, the glowing red hot furnace in the center, and the stacks of metal all over the place, it was clear we were in a smithy!

Which did seem like an odd place to bring a three-month-old child...

Jaws brought me around to meet a whole host of dirty, soot-stained individuals, all of whom were visibly delighted to meet me. Heck, some of them even remembered to take off their work gloves before touching my hands or my face... Oh, the joy.

I refrained from crying out because I didn’t want to make Jaws look bad, but was not a huge fan of getting dirty for no good reason, and I still had no idea why I was there. I felt confident that this was a temporary thing, and I wasn't about to be sacrificed to a god of craftsmanship or chained to a forge, but I'd have felt a lot more comfortable if mom had come with us.

About forty percent of the Smithy staff was female, but all of them were built like bricks and nearly as tall as Jaws. I had never seen a woman with that much muscle back on Earth, so it left me wondering if it was something to do with the weird traits (mutations) we all seem to have. Maybe the line between genders was a lot more blurred in this world, which was pretty cool.

If the weakest-looking woman in the smithy could tip a car on its side, which certainly appeared to be the case, gender wasn't really a deciding factor in physical strength anymore.

After the meet and greet, Jaws then proceeded to take me all around and point out various parts of the forging process and, presumably, explain how they worked. This part was definitely a bit more interesting, even though I couldn't understand what he was saying, but he had a disturbing tendency to stand a lot closer to the fire than was appropriate for someone holding an infant. At least I didn't get burnt - despite feeling like my eyelashes were about to melt - so I figured he knew what he was doing.

Next, I had the distinct honor of being set in a corner under the (not very) watchful gaze of a young boy with coarse black fur all over his body (maybe an apprentice). Jaws then started working on a piece of iron, rapidly going through the entire shaping process for me. He stopped to describe each step, not that I understood what he was saying. The young apprentice was paying rapt attention, however. Probably never had a lesson this detailed before.

I was starting to enjoy myself more and more as I watched him work the hot metal, but it’s hard to stay awake for very long when you are only a few months old. I fought it off as long as I could, but sleep took me eventually, despite the fantastic din of the shop.

When I awoke I was already back at home in mom's arms, hungry as heck but strangely content. I had no idea why dad decided to show me all that, but I was glad he did.