Risper's Story

Risper(2): The Second Birth

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...and then, I started breathing and wailed. The first time using my lungs... I was cold and alone. Well, not alone, since someone is holding me, but my new-born eyes couldn't tell.

I seemed to be in a white room. A lot of white... I heard voices. My young baby-brain wasn't able to understand anything what they were saying, though. Both because they were too far away and because they didn't talk with thoughts, which were the only things I was able to understand at that point.

I wailed even harder when I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my little arm. I could just make out a hand with some sort of device (more commonly known as a syringe) in my arm. That thing was probably causing this pain.

Understanding their power, I decided to be their friend for now. As if reading my thoughts, the hand removed the torture-device and transported me to my very own throne. It was a metal throne with a lot of wires leading to it. Not exactly the throne I had in mind...

When my servant set me down, he activated the shield I seemed to have. I could still recognise his figure, but it was vague. This shield seemed to change the way light travels... Just what was this magic? It was matter, but I could just look through it. Fascinating...

I cared little about the slimy fluid that started filling the pod, still too busy wondering how they could make invisible material. Suddenly, everything turned pitch-black for me. Seconds passed. Minutes. Hours. But they were not boring hours. I was fascinated by everything I could think of here.

While I was in the uterus, I was able communicate with my mother. She taught me a lot of things. That is partly how I was that smart. Of course, it was because I was naturally clever too. And on top of that, some forbidden brain-boost drugs were tested on me when I wasn't born yet. Actually, even before I was born, the genes of the ovum (egg) and the genes of the sperm were modified for the best result possible. However, I didn't know that yet.

While everything was pitch black, I was thinking about everything that had happened so far. Humans need air, humans communicate with their mouth, the giants have weapons, matter exists that allows light to pass through them. I tried to remember what they said, and succeeded, but they were meaningless words to me at that moment. I just remembered them.

I opened my eyes and blinked some of the slimy fluid out of my eyes. A woman - mummy? - rushed towards me with a towel. She carried me to a metal thing on a wall and held me under it. It randomly started to rain. Indoors, even! How was this possible! Witchcraft! And it was over.

The woman dried me with the towel and rolled me in it, probably to make it easier for her to carry me and to keep me warm. This woman was perhaps not too bad... I was clean and warm. I decided to forgive her for now. But then, when she held me somewhere, my baby-instinct kicked in.

I began sucking at a part of her body. For the first time in my life, milk entered my mouth. I let it there for a few seconds to get used to the taste, but eventually I swallowed and continued sucking. I looked up. I saw her eyes. Her beautiful pink eyes. She smiled at me. Did I have pink eyes? (I did not, mine were cyan)

I had drunk enough, so I pushed whatever was giving me milk away. I heard the woman chuckle and she hugged me. This woman... She was worthy of being my mother. She whispered something in my ear, but it was still meaningless. I did decide to keep that memory, in case I would know later on.

She then carried me to some sort of bed. I knew I would need to rest, so I closed my eyes and fell asleep. The next morning, I saw some other babies. They were noisy. There were also a lot of peasants with white clothing (lab coats). I, as their princess, kept them company.

That basically meant that I was just sitting on the floor, looking up at them. While my eyes weren't able to see too far yet, I could slightly make out their face. They were talking to each other. I listened and used the context and their body-language to make up for my lack of vocabulary. This way, I was learning English.

After several hours, the queen usually found me to feed me and to give me a new diaper and stuff like that. That's how most days went. First, learning English. Followed by the queen doing motherly things. It seemed like the queen knew I was not a normal baby.

After two weeks, I understood most of what they were saying. Now that I knew some words, it was time to learn how to speak. I began to make some sounds when I was with the queen. I tried making as many as possible. I had to prove them I was more than just a petty test subject (which was what they called the other babies). If I didn't, I wasn't not sure what would happen, but it wasn't good.

I had also noticed that the babies who weren't breastfed looked rather pale. Some had even disappeared. I didn't know exactly what death meant, but I knew it was an ending. The end of everything, perhaps.

Two days later, I managed to say "whisper". When I tried to say it again, however... "Risper" was all I could manage to say. She chuckled and told me that Risper was my name. Name... I had a name! I pointed at the mysterious object she was sitting at and asked what it was.

"That's a chair. If you want to know what something's name is, ask 'What is that?'", she told me. I see... I practised that sentence a few times until I could clearly say it. I kept babbling to practice my talking skills.

Eventually, I started babbling while I was with the scientists, too, which they thought was very cute. They were amazed when they found out that I was able to correctly pronounce a few words, while I was barely a month old.

That was when they decided not to dispose of me. I got more priority, meaning more luxury for me. While my body was struggling to pronounce words like 'milk', my mind was working on advanced grammar. My body just couldn't keep up with my mind's intelligence, which annoyed me a lot.

When I felt that I was ready to learn how to walk, I could say most simple words. I used those to complain about my body. "Stupid body, dumb dumb" was something I would often say.

There was a certain scientist who really adored me. He taught me a lot of words. Ever since I knew the word 'princess', I knew what I wanted to be called.

"I am princess!", I told him, smiling. Ever since, he called me princess. Several scientists joined in, mostly scientists I used to listen to.

He also told me about other languages. He was from some eastern country. I decided that I would go there someday. I already knew one word. 'Hime-sama', princess.

As my intelligence increased, so did my priority. I was taken to an indoors garden. There were even some insects. I was amazed by the beauty of all the plants. I was not alone. There were some scientists, and another girl around my age. I decided to talk to her. So, I walked to the girl.

"Hi, I am Risper", I managed to say. The girl looked at me, but didn't say anything for a moment.

"...hi...", she said eventually. What was wrong with her? I looked at the girl's black eyes. When the girl noticed that, she hid her face with her hands.

"Sorry", I said. The shy girl stopped hiding her face and grabbed a weird, black, small stick, about eight centimetres long, and a white square thing scientists always had. "What is that?", I asked, wanting to gain more knowledge.

"Black stick is a pencil, white square is a notebook", she whispered, loud enough for me to hear. Since she was busy replicating a flower on the notebook, I decided to go back to my servant. I told him that I was hungry, so he carried me to the queen, where I would be fed.