You Have Been Born.
This message was the first thing I'd seen in what felt like forever.
I'd been floating in darkness, unable to see or hear or feel anything for...well I couldn't even remember the last time I'd done any of those things.
In the beginning it all slipped away like the details of a dream. I could remember something snapping, a metal catwalk going out from under me, falling. Then I was here, wherever that was, and the place I’d been before got dimmer and dimmer as time went on.
Now I was fucking cold. I hadn't really been aware of being warm before, but wherever I was now it was really fucking cold. And wet too.
I was lying on my side without much idea how I’d gotten there. My skin tingled from the cold air running over me. I felt weak and also very stretched out and sore from what felt suspiciously like I’d been dumped onto the ground.
Or maybe I’d been in warm water and only now been pulled out. Was this some kind of new hospital treatment?
My eyes felt sealed shut and it felt like there was water in my ears too. I tried to move an arm to push myself up, or anywhere really, but my body didn’t seems to want to listen. Now I took stock, I found I couldn’t feel my fingers or toes. I tried to wiggle them, and felt some muscles move in what should have been my hands and feet, but still couldn’t feel anything resembling digits.
Very muffled sound was coming from all around. Three different tones, two constant and a bit of what could have been a moaning tune. I couldn’t focus on any of it. I was too busy panting for breath. It felt like I hadn’t breathed deeply in ages.
There were also sharp little things poking into my side I couldn’t place. They couldn’t be needles but I didn’t know what else in a hospital they could be.
Then again, I also didn’t know what hospital would leave a patient panting on what felt more than a little like a floor without doing something about it.
I felt something soft start prodding along my face, like a dogs' nose only not as wet. There was a sound a little like a dog snuffling too, but still muffled by whatever was clogging my ears, one of which felt oddly bent from being under my head.
The soft thing, I was almost sure is was an animal of some kind, was nuzzling its way along my face and jaw. I didn't remember having so much jaw to nuzzle but I also didn't remember having a dog or my own name so maybe I was missing a few key facts.
The soft, snuffling thing, which was actually rather soothing honestly and going a long way towards listening my sense of panic, passed over my left eye. That didn’t seem right to my sense of biology. Why would one eye be facing up if my head was on its side?
Before I could think more about that, the animal got to nudging my lips and then up to my nose, pressing into it a bit. No sooner had it done that I squeaked as something popped into existence behind my still-closed eyes.
Name:
Gertude
Level:
15
Age:
10 Years
Health:
90/195
Class:
NA
Race:
Alpaca
Sex:
Female
Gender:
Female
I wanted to jump, but all I could manage was a weak twitch and wiggle. It felt like I hadn't moved my arms or legs in months. Why was I anywhere near a llama? Or Alpaca, whatever the hell that was.
Also, and possibly of greater concern, why was there a translucent blue box floating in my minds’ eye? That definitely wasn’t normal.
Though, somehow familiar. I couldn’t quite put my finger (which I still couldn’t feel) on it, but somehow it did feel like I’d seen something similar before.
The Alpaca, Gertrude, removed her nose from mine and with it the window disappeared. I felt hands on me then and something being patted across my body. I realized then that I couldn’t feel the texture of whatever it was against me. It was like I was wearing something over my body. I could feel the person’s hands and fingers on me through whatever it was they were holding (a towel maybe?), the warmth of their body, but I couldn’t feel the texture of their hands against my skin.
The hands with the towel started to gently rub up my neck at my face, whipping away the water covering me. Under my chin, over my eye, across my lips and then up to my nose. The moment he touched it another window popped up in my head.
Name:
Matis
Level:
50
Age:
45 Years
Health:
250/255
Class:
Shepherd
Race:
Human
Sex:
Male
Gender:
Male
It wasn’t as surprising this time, but I still jumped a little. The mans’, Matis’, hands were firm on me though as he began cleaning out my (unusually long) ears. That I could feel perfectly and I became sure that the thing was a towel. Apparently whatever it was covering the rest of my body didn’t extend to the insides of my ears.
There must have been something clogging my ears because there was a popping sensation against my eardrum and suddenly I could here the towel rubbing against itself as it continued to rub the inside of my ear. It was strangely loud but it was also the first thing I could properly remember hearing so perhaps my sense of what was loud was off. It was right next to my eardrum.
“There you are little one,” came a gentle, quite voice. The hands lifted my head to get at the ear on the other side of my head. “That’s better isn’t it.”
It was English, but in an accent I was pretty sure I’d never heard before. Of course, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d heard somebody speak at all, but the feeling of strangeness was still there.
"He's a gross little Llama." came a little girls' voice. "What's wrong with his legs?"
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"Nothing Little One.” came the man’s voice as he kept on drying me. “He's only a baby. In a day or two he’ll be very handsome. And he's an Alpaca, not a Llama."
"...What's the difference?" she asked after a second
"They're smaller, they don't spit as much and their wool holds magic better."
"Better than sheep?"
"Yes My Girl, better even than sheep." he said with a laugh in his voice. "Though you'll still need your sheep mind you. Their wool is just as good for normal weaving as Alpacas."
"And he's really gonna be mine?" The little girl voice asked.
"By the time you’re old enough he'll be ready to mate and have babies of his own." The man, Matis I guess, explained as he backed off with the towel, finished drying me. "Then he, the female he chooses and their babies will be yours. And you can start off being an adult with your very own flock."
I heard a sound of footsteps and then a new hand was touching my face. I was more than a little confused why these people were touching me and talking about Alpacas. The only alpaca in the room was a female and this Matis person was, if my guess was right about this level business, an experienced herder. None of this made any sense.
But my confusion was interrupted by small fingers touching my nose and I saw...
Name:
Ashana
Level:
3
Age:
10 Years
Health:
84/85
Class:
NA
Race:
Human
Sex:
Female
Gender:
Female
After a second of petting me she removed her hand and backed off where I couldn’t track her anymore, leaving me with my thoughts again.
If I was reading this right, the father was talking about giving his daughter an Alpaca to start her own heard with, and the petting and cleaning and general gist of the conversation made it pretty clear they were talking about me. The only conclusion to be drawn from that was they thought I was the Alpaca to be given.
That was completely ridiculous. I was a human man, not a glorified sheep.
Except…I couldn’t picture my own face. I couldn’t remember what I looked like.
And anyway, this was a dream. I was clearly just imagining all this.
Wait, I thought to myself. If these two people and the Llama had these little boxes, did that mean I did too?
I wiggled around some more, trying to touch myself with my nose. I felt much like what I guess a fish must feel like on land. My whole body felt alien to me. Finally, I managed to bend my head down to brush against what felt like a knee on my arm (an elbow?) and this pulled up.
Name:
NA
Level:
0 (Infant)
Age:
<1 Hour
Health:
9/10
Class:
NA
Race:
Alpaca
Sex:
Male
Gender:
Male
I kept looking at that one line of text, third from the bottom.
"Race: Alpaca"
I bumped my nose into my elbow again, still ignoring the niggling idea that humans can’t touch their elbows with their noses.
Name:
NA
Level:
0 (Infant)
Age:
<1 Hour
Health:
9/10
Class:
NA
Race:
Alpaca
Sex:
Male
Gender:
Male
There was no denying it.
The truth was right there in front of me.
I was nuts.
My mind was classifying me as an Alpaca.
I tried to moan, but apparently Alpacas don't do that since when I tried all that came out was a high pitch wail like a mix between a horses’ whinny and a birds’ shriek.
"Is he okay Papa?" I heard the little girl say.
"Ye, he's fine. That wiggling is a good sign. It means he's gonna be strong."
I tried to ignore them
I couldn't stop staring at that one word in that one line of text. "Alpaca". I must have stared for a minute or so when this popped up.
Alpaca: A non-sapient member of the Camelidae family prised for the ability of their wool to hold and store magic woven into it.
So... I thought to myself. Maybe I can get more info on things by focusing on the words?
I mentally focused on moving the "Alpaca" window out of the way and just like that it vanished, leaving me looking at my original status window again.
This time I moved my focus to "Level" and a new box popped up.
EXP: NA (Infant)
SP: NA (Infant)
STR: 3
AGI: 1
WIS: 51 {ERROR}
INT: 110 {ERROR}
CHA: 20
END: 3
Status: Infant
As a newborn member of your race your body is not mature enough to gain experience or use skills. This status will dissipate in 7 days.
I hadn't seen info like this before.
I wished I had one of the others’ box for comparison, but as it turns out a Llama (or Alpaca) on their side can move their head much from side to side and less than one hour old Alpacas can't even lift their heads off the ground.
I still couldn’t see but I could feel the Alpaca, Gertrude, was lying down next to me and resting her head on my rib cage. But I couldn’t get to her with my nose to bring up her window.
Still I could keep looking at my box, which hadn’t gone away yet. So I tried concentrating and focusing on one of the words in there to see what I could find out.
I picked the word “error” next to the INT number. It was easily the highest out of all of them but the “error” bits worried me.
Well, all of this worried me, but honestly at this point I was rapidly forgetting why. I was tired and this was a lot of new information to pile into a day after who-knows-how-long of nothing.
After a minute of focus, this came up.
Error: As a member of a non-sapient race, your INT and WIS are capped at 50. Your Mind has violated this restriction. Unknown errors will ensue.
So...I was more than twice as smart as I was supposed to be and that was a problem.
Well, I could see that I guessed. I was pretty sure Alpacas weren’t supposed to think they were humans. Or thinking very much at all for that matter.
But this as all ridiculous. Surely.
I wasn’t really an Alpaca, right? I was in a hospital in a coma somewhere back…wherever it is I come from.
"If he's gonna be yours," I heard Matis say, "he's going to need a name. Would you like to pick it?”
I heard clapping and felt the floor and what I was now sure was straw shake under me a little at what I would guess was a 10-year-old jumping up and down in excitement. Gertrude lifter her head off my flank to look around for the source of the commotion.
"Yes! Thank You Papa!" came the high pitch voice.
The jumping stopped and I heard what sounded like a thoughtful hum from the little girls', Ashanas', general direction.
"Shiri." she pronounced after a minute.
You Have Been Given A Name By A Sapient Being
"Shiri"
You Will Be Known By This Name For The Rest Of Your Life