3. Perception and awareness

Suddenly the darkness began to recede, as if it were being brought into focus, and I saw faces bending over me, very similar in general features to Ehayalin. I reached out to them. Oh my God! I really am a baby! I inhaled in amazement and screamed in pain! No, I always suspected that babies always scream in pain right after birth, but I didn't think I would be right. My lungs were burning. I tried to breathe little by little. Suddenly relief came. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I was being held in the arms of a woman almost indistinguishable from Ehayalin. Only the shape of her eyes was slightly different and her eyes had almost normal pupils and whites. Her skin was only slightly grayer than her hair. In addition, when she looked somewhere above me, I saw that her ears were almost half the size - they only protruded a little above her head. I also saw several beautiful earrings on her ears, and in her hair, neatly gathered into a long thick white ponytail, several beautiful jewels of yellow metal, apparently gold, depicting snakes, were woven. Before I could admire the snakes enough, they shoved a bottle into my mouth! And I was already dreaming about a tit... What a sad thing... And the milk (or whatever it was?) turned out to be delicious, and I, unexpectedly for myself, fell asleep.

When I woke up, I thought about the situation I had found myself in thanks to the whim of the beautiful demigoddess. It looked like this was another world. There were definitely no such creatures on earth. That was the first thing. And secondly, I bent my arm and felt my ear. It was long and pointed at the end. The ears were not as long as those of the women I had seen, and certainly not as long as Ehayalin's, but I had a feeling that they would grow even longer. The skin on my arms was even whiter than Ehayalin's. I think it will darken a little with age. I looked at my legs. How small and weak I was... Oh well, I have time to make my body strong. From all this, one can conclude that the demigoddess kept her word, and I really am a newborn. Suddenly I understood why they didn't give me a boob - I have a full set of teeth in my mouth! I wonder if this is a common occurrence? Apparently, yes. Probably, my mother expresses milk into a bottle and, slightly warming it, gives it to me. So, let's remember the conversation with Ehayalin. From it it follows that the beautiful long-eared woman with earrings is my mother. I wonder why I haven't seen my father yet? He's probably coming soon or has already come. Having hardly come to an agreement with my hands, I pulled the diaper back a little and looked inside... Fuuuuhhhh... I'm a boy. Is that good... or not? A-a-ah, whatever. I can't change anything anyway and I won't. And if I were a girl? The answer is simple - I would have resigned myself to it. And when I grew up, I would have become a calculating bitch. Well, well, that's who I am...

Thirdly, we need to find out what path of development the world is moving along. Well, technical, biological, or maybe some kind of magic? Take the same demigoddess Ehayalin - she jumps between worlds and collects (?) souls of warriors. And maybe not only that. She speaks Russian quite well, and is familiar with world culture. It is quite possible that no one will be surprised by technology here, and some individuals are capable of easily replacing a couple of tanks, anti-aircraft guns, attack helicopters, and, to top it all off, an infantry division.

All these thoughts gave me a headache and I fell asleep.

I woke up from a look. Yes, yes. I simply felt like I was under a microscope. Opening my eyes, I saw my mother and another woman. If my mother was wearing a luxurious, overly revealing outfit, then on the new girl I saw much simpler, but, in my opinion, more practical clothes. Looking more closely, I realized that this was some kind of light armor. The woman's face was even rougher than my mother's, and I thought I noticed one long, barely noticeable scar on her neck. In addition, her ears were even shorter, and her skin was even grayer. Her muscular figure was literally covered in a leather suit with many straps and fasteners. If from the position where I was, the mother had no visible weapons, then the new girl seemed to be covered with them: under her arms were sheaths of throwing knives, on her belt were short swords (one on the left and one on the right) and a strange cane or dart, located under her right hand. On her hips were fastened with straps sheaths with long, downward-facing, curved daggers in decorated sheaths, in her hands the woman held something like a combat scythe, only very skillfully made and decorated. I even saw some kind of drawing, either etched or carved on the surface of the wavy blade.

I suddenly got scared, thinking that they were going to drown me or send me to some orphanage, but suddenly my mother and the warrior turned their heads in my direction and smiled almost simultaneously. Aren't they related? Is this my aunt or sister? There is a certain resemblance, but no, they are not similar. Most likely, these are my guards. Which means everything is fine. However, my mother finished instructing the guards and, nodding to someone invisible, stepped aside. I also noticed how she began to nervously fidget with the intricate earring on her right ear. Why?.. I didn't have time to finish the thought.

At first it seemed to me that some kind of whirlwind consisting of arms, legs, bodies and heads had burst into the room. As I dumbfoundedly realized after about twenty minutes of continuous shaking, these were my sisters and brothers. I realized this only when I compared my mother's face with the cooing faces - they were very similar. Only almost everyone's hair was black, except for the two older sisters - their hair was closer to the color of ash. They were more restrained and ... mature, or something? All this flickering got boring to me, and I yawned. Suddenly I felt some kind of tension in the air. My mother took me from my sister's arms and headed for the door. I was terribly interested in everything around me, and I looked around. It turned out that I was lying in something that strongly resembled an ordinary nursery, the source of light in the room were low narrow cylinders located in the corners of the room and giving off a soft yellowish light. The guards were positioned at the wide and high, currently open doors. In them stood a slender male figure, armed like the guards, except for the strange spear-cane, and the swords in the sheaths were of a different shape. Apparently, this was my father. My father took me by the arms and looked into my eyes. And then I realized that everyone I had seen before had black eyes, but my father had blue. Hence the question: what color are my eyes and what follows from the color of my eyes? However, my father did not look into my eyes for long and, having returned to my mother, said a few phrases, then left. The tension disappeared with him.

After my father's visit, other men came, but I didn't understand anything about their status (either guards, or lovers, or both). There were even strange delegations of men and women with even rougher faces and very short, only slightly larger than human, pointed ears. Their skin was even darker than the warriors' skin, its color could already be called gray or even black. And their clothes had practically no decorations, but were clean and even beautiful. As I understood it, the society of the "eared ones" is strongly divided into castes by skin color and ear length (eye color?), but it is unlikely that the division was only by these features. While thinking, I did not notice how I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I found that the diaper had been changed, but the room was quite dark. Apparently, it was night in the house. The baby's routine is simple: eat - sleep, sleep - eat. Shit - lie down, wait for the diaper to be changed. It's scary, of course, but what can I do for now? There's only one thing left - to gain strength and develop my body. So, the first goal is to get on all fours, the second - on my feet, and then the third, and fourth, and fifth will appear...

Fortunately, there was plenty of food and sleep. At first, I simply moved my arms and legs up and down and left and right. I quickly got tired and fell asleep again. However, over time, the breaks between sleep became longer, and my body became stronger. Just a little bit. But when I was able to sleep on my side or stomach, I was terribly happy. I noticed that there were constantly slow-moving multi-colored lines at the edge of my peripheral vision. Once, falling asleep, I opened my eyes and saw them completely. They looked like New Year's garlands. But as soon as I focused on them, they seemed to become transparent again. So another exercise was added to my daily routine - for the brain. Looking before going to bed at the strange multi-colored lines that formed something like a frequent lattice on the walls and ceiling, I thought that this was either an energy pipeline or some kind of guard network.

I tried to count the days, making unnoticeable scratches, marking five days with one scratch. After about two months of training, I tried to get up on all fours, and I succeeded! True, not for long, and I immediately lay down again, but then the Wright brothers' first flight could not even be called a flight. In addition, today I saw several guard energy branches located above my bed, like the branches of a bush. They beckoned to me, like a fire in the taiga beckons to a lost traveler. I even saw myself touching them in my sleep. But the path to them was very long. Only after another three months I was able to confidently stand on all fours.

Okay, now we grab the wall with our hands and slowly climb up, climb up... Oh, damn it - the guard branch is higher than I thought. That's it - I'm exhausted for today. Suddenly, a surprised cry came from the door. Oops, I got caught. Looking at the empty seat of the guard, I sat up in my bed in irritation. I wonder what will happen now? The other guard looked at me in amazement and disbelief. Of course, I was exhausted, but I won't let the girls down. I'll have to repeat it for an encore.

About five minutes later, my mother burst into the nursery and stared at me. What was she staring at? Well, I'm sitting here – am I a man or not? Okay, there are spectators – I'm the only one reflecting. I roll over onto all fours and along the wall, along the wall… A dull thud was heard from behind, turning around, I discovered: unconscious – mother – one thing, in complete prostration – guards – two things. In general, women have always been my Achilles heel. So I was seriously upset and even thought about crying.

When they revived my mother, she was in such shock that she began breastfeeding me out of inertia. For such a reward, all the work is worth it. By the way, that was the first time I saw anything other than a spell that was used to bring my mother to her senses. I tried to remember how one of the guards wove it. Perhaps that was the happiest day of my new life.