“Eeei… eeee…hiii… eeee… eeee… aaahph… eeee” I recited these sounds, the closest approximation I could make to the English alphabet, as though I was in a trance. In a way, it was almost like toning. The meditative practice of making a sound in order to have the vibrations of your vocal chords send a sensation through your body, which helped you to relax. It would be very easy to fall into a zen state, but I was getting two things done at once with this, and needed to spare some attention for when the inevitable happens.
It didn’t take long. As broken and nonsensical as it was, it was still way too regular and structured for typical baby babble. And, although it was nowhere close, I’m quite certain the form of the pattern ought to be recognizable enough for any English speaker.
One of the kids was crawling up to me. I looked in his direction. My eyes still hadn’t developed fully, but my vision had at least become clear enough I could make out the darker blurs in the otherwise flesh-toned head that indicated where his eyes should be.
The kid froze as soon as I stopped. They seemed to be hesitating a bit, but he or she finally worked up the nerve to speak.
“Hey, iz dat de alphabet?” the kid asked. Their voice sent a slight jolt of fear through me. I recognized the voice as belonging to the one who seemed to be seriously thinking about hurting us to prove they had to be kept away from the energy-vampire babies.
Well, they were reaching out the hand of cooperation now. I would have preferred the other one, but beggars can’t be choosers. I guess I should have figured the one who showed the initiative to make some form of escape plan would be the same one to first show curiosity in what I was doing.
I took a deep breath and cleared my mind of these distracting thoughts, and then I reached a hand out toward him. “Ahh! Ahh!” I said. “Ahhahheeeida!” Let’s hope he could actually understand that babble.
There was a long moment’s pause, and then… “Oly fuggin cwap!” the kid said, and their lispy baby babbling voice contrasted with the firmly delivered swear in a way that just made it so I couldn’t help myself. A baby giggle that sounded adorable even to my ears escaped my lips, instantly making me feel embarrassed that I’d just made such a sound.
He/she reached out their hand and groped around on the mattress until their fingers finally caught the top of my head. I knew my vision was blurred, but… the way the kid is groping around to find me. The way they’re now feeling their way down to my shoulder… is this kid actually blind? I hadn’t really gotten that impression before.
Eventually, the actions of the more initiative-driven kid caught the attention of the other, and they came up to investigate as well. Now that they realized I was like them, and the more brash one had propped my head up onto his lap, they started trying to ask me questions. But, they quickly gave up as they realized I wasn’t capable of much intelligible speech yet. I would need to start making an effort to practice that, now that I know I have some potential conversation partners.
They introduced themselves to me. The brash one that showed initiative was named Rolwen. Said they remembered that was the name they got from their new parents in this world. The other one followed suit, and introduced him/herself as Levin, also their name from their parents in this world.
They talked excitedly, and my sibling who seemed to want to get in on this too started shouting for attention.
“Uhh… hey! Is she also like you?” the more brash one said as they rubbed my head to indicate they were talking to me.
I wasn’t really capable of the nuance to say “I highly suspect so,” so instead, I opted to just shout “Ah!” a few times as a positive answer, while doing my best with the undeveloped muscles of my body to nod my head. I’m going to have to also start some kind of serious training regime to get myself more mobile.
More immediately important though, this kid had most definitely just used a feminine pronoun to refer to my sibling. She was my twin sister then. Did that mean I was also a girl? I suppose we could be opposite genders if we were paternal twins, but I was getting a sinking suspicion that I very well might be a girl right now. Well, if I am, I guess that’s the way it is. I mean, it would have been a 50/50 chance, right?
It would definitely take a bit of getting used to the idea, but I guess it’s not anything all that terrible. At least, not until I start going through puberty. I think I will just try to set that out of my mind for now.
The conversation from here was very one sided, seeing as me and my sister were both still incapable of talking properly. So, it was really just Levin and Rolwen talking excitedly about how great it was that the two of us were from Earth as well. Somehow though, they didn’t really seem to mention the bit about us eating some ethereal something from them. But, I did feel that they wanted to say something about it. They seemed to have reached some kind of silent agreement not to talk about it, though. Then, we all eventually exhausted ourselves to sleep.
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The next day saw me turning my babbling of the alphabet from an attempt at communication into a proper speech exercise. I kept reciting the alphabet to the best of my abilities, and I was very determined now to become capable of speech. I had to watch out for our caretaker, though. But, I figured that if I just slow it down and focus on the pronunciation more, then she might dismiss it as typical baby babble.
Unfortunately, it did manage to catch her attention. Fortunately though, it seemed to have some success in not arousing her actual suspicions. At least, I couldn’t pick up any unease in what I could make out of the set of her shoulders with my blurry vision.
“Asa!” She said in a tone of baby talk that melted away the last of my concerns. “Usen kweh ir? Usen kweh Asa?” She repeated almost every word twice. Yeah, definitely baby talk. Fortunately, baby talk is an excellent way for a baby to learn a language due to all the repetition of words involved in it. The way she said the word “Asa,” though, had a very different tone to it. It was like she was addressing me with it. Asa… is that my name?
Before I could think much more on this, something new happened. A visitor came from outside, and our caretaker reacted immediately to greet him.
“Ah, Eirlathion Uman. Tiikis-ud ra ii gi ir. Sigdu ii dinu u mein silu ush.” I heard the caretaker say. After getting my mind set on learning the new language through that baby talk, I also decided to pay close attention to what the adults were saying to each other. I hadn’t gotten anything out of that sentence, but maybe that would change if I kept listening.
“Mmm… Tiikis-ud mein sion. Mein maru susu. Sigdu ii dim ohm, trazen mein-ilu.” the much lower masculine voice of the visitor said. After that, I was suddenly placed in the uncomfortable situation of him having walked over to me, and he was now kneeling in front of me.
“Ipar gen sanmah. Mein amar lati la-su. Amin ii kesdar, amin ii lati ohm abzum.” he said. And then, the caretaker came up and grabbed Levin and pulled him, confused and protesting, away from me.
I wasn’t sure what was going on anymore, but I noticed he was starting to lightly touch my forehead and shoulders an awful lot. This whole thing was making me very uncomfortable at first, but then I realized there was a pattern to the way he was touching me. His touch never lingered. In fact, it seemed very business-like, and went to specific locations on my chest that were as though he was trying to examine something beneath my skin, rather than what was on the surface.
That’s when I got it. This must be some kind of medical examination. Maybe some sort of check-up on the babies’ health? Well, if that’s all it is…
“Ah, ra idagal lati sigdu ma.” he suddenly said in a deep and weighty tone. I had no idea what he said, but the tone really was enough in this case. “Mein tumbatu silu ush, asu kisad ohm raru…” *hahhh.* His tone stayed heavy, and he finished off with a sigh. All of a sudden, the discomfort I was just letting go of came back with a vengeance, and was now accompanied by a bit of fear. Did he find something wrong with me?
“Asu absane tamule. Manaar ii rom lulada. Pas, ra irir ohm mein ii iksu.” he said, and then gave me a light touch on the forehead before pushing himself up and moving off in the general direction of where I knew my sister was.
Ok, he definitely seems to think there’s something wrong with me. How serious is it, though? Great. This is really going to start worrying me. Could it be possible that, out of my concern for Levin and Rolwen, I managed to somehow subconsciously find the way to stop myself from eating their energy? Being concerned about a baby not eating enough seemed like a pretty standard thing to call a doctor in for. And, maybe he doesn’t know how to get me to start eating again?
That seemed plausible, but the truth is that I actually have no idea whatsoever about what’s going on. I couldn’t understand a word he actually said, after all. Now I really need to learn this language. If I’m sick, I need to figure out if it’s actually something serious.
As I was on this train of thought, I was suddenly interrupted by the guy I presumed to be a doctor making a very strange sound of surprise and then falling flat on his rear.
“Eirlathion Uman, enkweh!” our caretaker shouted, and then rushed to the man’s aid.
The man seemed to have regained his composure, as he started speaking in a manner suggesting he was trying to calm the woman down. “Pas, amar ii tama irtii. Amar ii ilar mark ipar ohm! En darun ii tamarrin lati ohm ma.”
They continued on with some things that seemed to be final instructions from the doctor to our caretaker. But, by that time, I was sick with worry for myself and didn’t have time anymore to try and make sense of a foreign language that was completely alien to me.
Well, I found out the conclusion of what they were talking about later anyway when our caretaker seemed to bring something over to me and started sticking her finger in my mouth.
This was rather unpleasant at first, but I realized there was something sweet on her fingertip. The thought struck me that maybe she’s feeding me solid food because I’m not eating off of Levin and Rolwen anymore. Well, if it’s not that, then it’s likely some kind of medicine. I have no idea, but it seems I’m going to have to live with her sticking her finger into my mouth from now on. Probably wouldn’t bother a regular baby all that much, but something about it just felt profoundly wrong to me.
Well, I really was a helpless baby, and they seemed to know what they were doing. For the best I could tell, they also had my best interests at heart. Those of my sister as well, she also seemed to be getting the exact same treatment as me.
Well, all the more reason to regain my ability to communicate. Back to reciting the alphabet. I’ve made some pretty good progress. I’m starting to be able to make them sound like the actual letters a lot more, and this is just from one day of practice.
“Aeeei, blblblb…bbb..beei, zu… gu… zmmm…” Damn, that C is tough though. I didn’t mind it as much when I was so far off on every letter, but that one is starting to really become a thorn in my side, now that I’m getting better at the rest of them. My mouth simply refuses to make that kind of hissing sound right now. Well, something to work on, I guess.