The hustle and bustle continued all around me while I seemed to be floating around the room. Wait no, someone was holding me. Everything was too blurry, I couldn’t see what they looked like. Why were they holding me in the first place?

something soft and warm got wrapped around me as they handed me to someone that was laying on the bed. I still couldn’t hear myself but the baby was really loud. I assume it’s a baby anyways, sure sounds like it. Realisation settled in slowly as thoughts started running through my head.

“How small am I that everyone is so big? Where is that baby, why is nobody paying attention to it?” I got my emotions under control and stopped my crying, funnily enough the baby stopped crying too… wait… the absurdity of the situation hit me as my brain finally connected the dots.

The next few hours were a blurry mess of confusion “where am I? Why am I a baby? Who are these people? Why can’t I see properly?” At some point I just decided to close my eyes to try and wake up from whatever dream this clearly was. After waking up I was lost in some primal instinct. I felt my tiny self searching around for something with my hands and face. Once I found the strangely squishy and comfortably warm surface my body was looking for; a delicious substance was deposited into my mouth. Once my body decided I had enough the void of sleep took me once more.

Suddenly I woke up again. As my grogginess cleared; a terrible hunger seeped into my stomach. Involuntarily I felt some noises escape me. my brain was still too tired to sort out the information given to it by my ears. I felt myself get lifted gingerly into the air and a soft warm comfort laid itself over me. Opening my eyes a crack revealed a blurry figure that seemed to be holding me. My new mother I assumed. Her face was just a blur of colorful blotches but I could tell they were very attractive blotches. Inwardly I cursed my underdeveloped eyes for not being able to properly display her.

Time passed and eventually my vision cleared up. About a week if I had to guess. To my horror I discovered later that the thing that sated my hunger whenever it struck was none other than my mother’s bountiful “assets” and I began refusing food, though there were other reasons for that as well. Eventually my new mother showed so much concern that I caved and struggled through the unfortunately pleasant experience many more times until they finally settled on feeding me with a crudely fashioned bottle. I resolved to thank the person that seemed to be my doctor,who had made the bottle, once I was old enough.

I didn’t really remember what happened at the school but I remembered being in a lot of pain. I could only assume I had died at the hands of my old friends in revenge for ratting them out during the court hearings. It was probably for the better, no amount of apologies could make up for what we did to Klank. After saying a silent prayer to my former parents; I steeled my resolve to live this new life I was apparently given. This resolve was quickly destroyed as someone came to change my diapers again. This sucked.

A few more days passed and the woman that was my new mother turned out to be very interesting. So were the rest of the people but my mother was particularly interesting. She had long horns for some reason and super long pretty black hair. It felt very nice to the new and sensitive nerves of my infantile hands. Her eyes were bright red too. In fact, everyone had horns. They looked like Japanese style Oni I had seen in some of the manga I had read in middle school. My father was HUGE, I’ve never seen a bigger person! And muscles too! He really looked like a manga Oni. Much to my annoyance he started putting on shirts that covered his chest more though once he noticed I was looking at the muscles a lot. Is it not natural for a boy to be interested in muscles?

More time passed but I still couldn’t find my voice. I hadn’t cried since that first day either, unless I needed food and my body forced me to cry. I felt a bit hollow. Sometimes I could hear my mother and father talking in concerned voices while looking at me, I didn’t know what language they were speaking though so I just kept playing with the little stick they had given me. It had a little bead that slid to either end and made a clicking noise whenever it moved. It was fun.

“She doesn’t cry.. I wonder if she’s healthy" said my father while poking at me cautiously.

“Doctor Jade said she was perfectly healthy. Everything will be fine, Khudar my dear. So far she’s the opposite of Zenna which has been a pleasant change of pace, even if her lack of appetite is a bit concerning” mother says while chuckling a bit.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Not that I understood any of this. I wondered when I’d get the hang of whatever words they were speaking. But that was unimportant for now. For now: let’s just focus on being a good child for mom and dad.

After what had probably been about a few weeks; the milk I was being given started to lose its flavor. Becoming a mere form of sustenance rather than a food I enjoyed consuming. I had started eating a little less too but it wasn’t enough to be a concerning dip yet. Taking note of the amount I decided to keep cutting a little bit out of each meal. Not being able to stomach the taste, especially when thinking about what I had done in my last life.

More time passed. Life was uneventful. A Much smaller but still quite mature looking Oni started coming to my room every day. He was a good looking guy with short brown hair that looked like Dad’s, his build was similar to Dad’s but his face looked a bit more like Mom’s. Given how they both acted around him I assume he’s my brother. I still have no idea what I look like. There’s no mirrors in my room and I haven’t been outside of it yet besides when we moved from what I think was a clinic to what seems to be our home.

The ceaseless passage of time was boring. I never realised how nice phones are to pass time. The days feel like weeks sometimes. Or maybe they are weeks? I tend to sleep a lot, being a baby and all. My hair is getting long really fast too but they don’t seem to want to cut it for some reason. Mom, Dad, and Brother often just sit and watch me playing on the floor with the various toys they constantly give me. Is it that fascinating to watch a baby? They’re always talking too. I wish I could understand the language a bit more.

Luckily to pass the time I realized that Mother’s hair not only smelled amazing but was incredibly fun to play with for some reason. Once she realized I liked it she let me play with it whenever she was holding me. I just couldn’t get enough of it. The society here seemed somewhat primitive to say the least considering the blanket they wrapped me in sometimes was the only truly soft blanket around. Mother’s hair was on the same level of softness in my eyes though. It was amazing.

After a few weeks some small noises in the dark made themselves known to me. I had allowed myself to fall into the habits of my underdeveloped brain a little bit. But using the logic I had kept told me I was overreacting when the sense of terror settled around me. There was nothing to be afraid of in the dark. I was probably just hallucinating the skittering things in the dark corners of the room. One flashed by in the moonlight streaming in the window high up on the wall. I wasn’t able to see any details besides the fact it was large and the logical part of my brain told me I was now correct in being terrified as I allowed myself to let out a screeching cry.

The next day was gone through groggily as my mother fussed over me, trying to understand why I had been so scared last night. I used the time to stare daggers at all corners of the room to make sure there weren't any holes where creatures could get in. there was none.. Which was mildly concerning. How had such a large creature made its way inside?

It was a few more weeks before the skittering returned; this time much closer to my crib. Waking me up in the middle of the night with a start. Screaming last time had ended the situation as soon as I had made noise. So I readied myself to start crying again. I inhaled sharply and closed my eyes. Only for a sense of danger to join the terror that had yet again settled. Something deep inside me told me that if I made noise something bad might happen. Letting my breath out slowly; I looked to my left through the bars of the crib, nothing. Looking to my right a pair of yellow eyes shone at me through the darkness, no, from the darkness. As if the very lack of light was looking at me. To say it was shining was wrong as well. The yellow eyes did not cast any form of light. As if they were simply there. The effect was quite strange. I locked my gaze with the creature’s and the sense of terror and danger suddenly melted away. As if to apologize for scaring me the eyes blinked once, then twice. Suddenly a little ball of darkness landed on the bed next to me and danced around. Being captivated by the chaotic movements it made I glanced at it a few times. Then after glancing back and forth, they both simply disappeared while I wasn’t looking at either. As if they had never been there in the first place and I had imagined the whole thing.

The next morning was spent contemplating the interaction and whether or not it was even real. The whole thing had felt like a dream. Until I saw the little ball of darkness lingering in the upper corner of the room. My eyes suddenly seemed to stab inwards in pain; a strange sense of energy leaving through them. I woke up some time later to the doctor holding me. The man quietly said something to me while handing me back to my sobbing mother who had been worried sick and bedridden even more than usual. The following few days were full of nonstop doting and a general feeling of guilt for worrying my mother so much. I heard my family talking around me a few days later.

“Isn’t she just so cute!”

“Mom.. you say that every day” said Zenna. Khudar patted him on the back

“Just let Kahni be. She was like this when you were a baby too y’know”

Zenna just sighed. I looked at him and held out my tiny hands, offering him a toy as an escape from the conversation. I couldn’t understand the words but he looked embarrassed about something. Mustering some lung Strength I said my first words.. Well, word.. Word was a strong term even. I just wanted to show my brother some familial support; knowing the pains of parents having embarrassing information about you and not being scared to use it.

“Ba!” echoed through the small room and everyone went quiet. A quiet sniffle as Mom started crying tears of joy once again. holding me close. Dad and Brother started jumping around for joy. I just looked a bit confused, baffled at the overreaction they all had. Unbeknownst to me it had been nearly a year since my birth and I hadn’t uttered a single noise except breathing and crying since then. After I was put to sleep for the night there was a raucous party held in the village square. Mom didn’t attend and spent the whole night next to my crib. It was warm