“Honey, hold on! Puuuuush! The baby’s almost out!” I hear nearly unintelligible murmurs saying something while I am in a dark red, pulsing tunnel. All of a sudden am thrust out of the tunnel into an extremely bright light. My eyes start to water but I can't move my arms to wipe my eyes because I feel weak. I feel a rough towel wiping me down, and then pressure of being lifted up. I am able to hear a woman crying softly behind me as I attempt to see through the blinding light. I can make out silhouettes of a man and a woman. I still hear crying behind me and I try to turn but I am held in place by large hands. It was then I noticed that I was tiny. I opened my eyes wide to try to get a good look at myself. I was a newborn baby, puny and cute.

“Honey! Honey! Its a girl!” The man holding me up says in an excited voice. The language he was speaking wasn't english and had many guttural sounds as he spoke. I could understand what he was saying somehow, but I doubted I could speak this language without learning it. The man has a rather handsome face with slight stubble on a hard curving chin. He had healed scars on his face that signified he has been in many life threatening situations. He was wearing well worn leather armor that also had scars all over it signifying its long term use. He had a huge, happy grin on his face and he looked at me like I was the prettiest thing he had ever seen. “She has your eyes.” He said while looking to the person behind me.

The second person I saw looked quite young but was also of short stature and was wearing a maid outfit. She was staring at me with questioning eyes. “The baby isn’t crying, sir.” she said to the man I assumed is my father.

“Well she seems fine to me.” he said to her while checking me all over.

“Let me see her, if I may.” she said politely while holding her arms out. He handed me to her and she did a very methodical check over my body and made sure everything was in order. “She seems fine, however I have never heard of a child not crying, except when something has gone wrong.” She said quizzically.

“She will be sleeping with us tonight so we will make sure she is okay.” He said while taking me back from the maid. He turned with me toward the beautiful woman that was laying on the bed. She looked exhausted from giving birth to me and I could see pure happiness in her eyes. Her eyes were puffy and had the glint of reforming tears as she looked at me while I stared at her face. She has the most beautiful face I have ever seen. Even with the gaunt look from being pregnant and giving birth, she still has the face any woman on Earth would have craved. Slightly curvy but not fat, just enough to be enticing, and eyes that looked exactly like the avatar I made in Sylph’s plane. Her hair was shimmering between a turquoise and leaf green depending on the light. She had a happy expression with a smile but she was crying while she was looking at me.

“She has your hair, except for that small part.” she said in a lilting voice while pointing to a small patch of my head.”Let me see her, Duncan.” Her arms extended out toward me as she beckoned for me to be passed to her. My father passed me to her and she instantly shifted me so that I would be supported on her arm like a sling. She was staring at my face with an expression of wonder. She started to cry happily and she hugged me to her chest. “I would like to name her.” she said obviously talking to my father though she was smiling at me.

“Anything you decide to name her will be beautiful, Aly.” My father said in a loving voice.

“I think Natalia would be a good name for this little one.” My mother said. My eyes grew larger as she named me with the name from my previous world. “What, little one?” she said while cuddling me. “You are the most beautiful little girl I have ever seen.” She said while taking me away from her chest and holding me up.

“Natalia is a perfect name for our daughter. Just like the Heroine of old, we can hope she will take after her namesake and become compassionate and heroic.” My father said proudly. My mother smiled deeply at me while my father smiled at her. “I think my wife has had a rough day. I would like for us to be left alone for the rest of the day and night. I expect you, as the head maid, to keep the other  maids working in order to keep everything clean while we are not to be disturbed.” He said to the maid that was still standing by the door.

“Yes, sir.” the head maid said as she bowed and backed out of the door while closing it with a soft click. My father lays down next to my exhausted mother and they cuddle me between them on the bed. As I'm laying on the bed between them I start to feel more and more tired until I eventually fall asleep in between their embrace.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1 year later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was finally able to start crawling around about a month ago. I tried to walk around but my motor muscles couldn't handle moving my legs for more than a few steps. So, in order to work out my muscles I started to crawl around the house. While I wouldn't call it a mansion, it is a very large building with 4 bedrooms, a library, an office, a large kitchen, a dining room, a living room, and a enormous basement that had a huge circle in the middle of it. The circle was carved deeply into the wood of the floor. I did not know what it was for, but when I slowly made my way down the stairs to see more of the basement my mother saw and grabbed me.

“What are you doing going down there, you little rascal? You shouldn't go down there, yet.” she told me cryptically. “Lets go get you some food.” She said with a smile on her face. I could tell by her face that she did not guess that I could completely understand her. She kept murmuring loving words as she carried me back to the dining room and set me in a baby seat. She had pre made baby food earlier in the week that she reheated in the kitchen to give to me. As she sat in front of me, she fed me spoonfuls of the mashed baby food. It tasted like a combination of bananas strawberries, and milk; almost like a strawberry-banana smoothie. Unfortunately the blend was a weird dark blue color with purple swirls in it.

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“I l-l-love you, m-mama.” I said while stuttering over the language I could hear and understand, but couldn't speak well. My mother quickly looked at me and stared with amazement in her eyes.

“Did you just speak, honey?!” she exclaimed while standing up and picking me up. “Oh did you say you love me?! I love you too, my little bunny.” she said as she snuggled against me. “Lets just wait for your father to get home and we’ll tell him the exciting news!” She was humming to herself as she walked to put the baby food away in the kitchen and I heard her give some orders to the maids.

My fathers job was a guardsman of the realm, as well as a city guard. While he is not the captain of the city guard, he is a lieutenant. He participates in raiding the local monster dens that threaten the surrounding villages and farmlands. As a lieutenant, he has control of a small group of 5-6 men that will go out and complete small raids against the local wolf packs. Every day he comes back home exhausted and after eating, goes to sleep. I try to respect him when he goes to sleep but, its pretty embarrassing to say, I cannot control my bowel movements yet. So I keep quiet and let my father sleep until I use my portable diaper restroom. When I start to cry out my mother or the head maid is there within moments to change my diaper.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another 3 Years Later ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am now 4 years old. I have learned to walk and was able to fix my restroom problem. I do not miss the diaper I had to wear. I am starting to understand the basics of the spoken language and I was finally able to get a look at the books in the library. All of the books are written in these weird looping runes that almost look like a combination of hieroglyphs and the alphabet. The biggest thing that surprised me was the fact that in most of the books I attempted to read, the ink was grey that looked like it was glowing and shimmering. I couldn't understand a word in any of the books and decided that the only way I would learn is to ask my mother. I grabbed the book that grabbed my attention as soon as I entered the room. It was thick and bound in red, scaly feeling leather and took it with me.

“Mother? Can you teach me to read the books in the library? I am really interested in this book though.” I said while indicating the book I was carrying. I opened the book and started to point to the pages. “I can't read any of the symbols in the book but I would like to learn.” My mother looked at the book I had opened and her eyes shot fully open while staring at the book.

“H-H-How did you open that!” She stammered in a loud voice.

“Huh? What do you mean?” I said questioningly.

“I asked how you opened that!” She told me in a stern voice.

“I don’t know I just grabbed it from the library shelves, walked here and opened it…” I stated with a worried voice. She looked at me with a hard to place expression.

“Only elders of the elven race should be able to open that book, Natalia.” She said gently, noticing my expression. “I will teach you how to read runes and understand them later. However this is important… Did you say or do anything when you first touched the book? Or while you were walking here?”

“No, I didn't do anything.” I stated confidently because I knew that hadn't done anything weird.

“Peculiar, well maybe it is the combination of human and elvish in you that affected the books magical locks. Either way, you are not ready for the words that are in that book. They harness the raw magic of nature and are not meant to be used on a whim. Now please go put that book back where you found it and I shall teach you those when you are ready to learn them.” She said quickly while staring deeply at the red, scaly book that was in my hands. I was not surprised to learn that magic was possible in this world as I had seen my mother’s magic help grow plants in the garden.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Another 2 Years Quickly Passed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am now 6 and I have been learning the rune language that everyone on this planet uses as the standard language for their books. My father was attacked during one of his raids by a band of orcs, and lost an eye in the process. He now has to wear an eye patch, and was discharged from the guard with distinguished service. They graciously allowed him to keep his wage as a bonus for serving the guard nearly his entire life. He never particularly showed any ability in commanding so he was never promoted past lieutenant but I heard stories from mother that he was one of the best fighters in the kingdom.

The day of my sixth birthday my father work me up and got me out of bed. He proceeded to push me into the bathroom while telling me to put on the thick clothes he came in with. I was still half asleep and did what I was told without questioning anything. After I finished dressing he pulled me toward the yard and threw a wooden sword at me. “Start swinging.” He told me ruthlessly. I looked at the sword then back at my father and showed him a sleepy, confused face. “You heard me… START SWINGING!!!” He bellowed. I immediately started to swing the sword in what I thought was the correct manner from what I remembered from Earth. After swinging the sword, and being corrected on my stance, for what felt like forever my father told me to stop. “It will do.” He told me. “Be ready to do this again tomorrow.” He said with a playful grin on his face. I looked at him incredulously.

“It there any other weapon I could learn? I would like to use a weapon that will not kill my opponent.” I said while sneering at the sword.

“Oh, yes there are plenty of weapons that will let you do that. However they are much more difficult to learn and use correctly than a sword. Are you SURE you want to learn them?” He asked menacingly.

“Yes!” I said without even a moments notice.

“Then we will begin the staff tomorrow.” He said gently.