Myrddin's Heir Book 1: "A Wizard of Dreams"

 Chapter 1           The Dancing Bear

All mothers think their children are special, but Gordon's mother had proof.

"Ma-ma," she heard him say when he was just five months old. He was lying on the living room carpet at the time, his rather large head  supported by a comfy pillow.  "He was looking right at me when he said it," she told everyone afterwards, with understandable pride. She had dropped to her knees in front of him.  "That's right, Darling!" she cooed in delight. "Ma-ma..."  She pointed to herself: to be sure he grasped the link between those sounds and the loving parent in his line of vision. "Who's a clever boy, then?"

Gordon beamed back at her. "Da-da," he announced. 

 This was too much! Tears of joy welling, she rushed to the sideboard and grabbed a picture of his father. "Yes, Precious!" She held the picture where he could see it clearly. "Da-da..." 

 Gordon went on smiling. "Zack!" he said. His chubby little left arm came up and smacked into the pillow beside his head. Most of his hand was bunched in a fist, but his index finger pointed at the pillow. "Zack..."

His mother was taken aback for a moment. "No, Sweetheart, pil-low..."

The smile faded from Gordon's face. "Zack!" he said again, very distinctly. It was as if he was trying to explain something to her, something that should have been obvious. It clearly wasn't and he had no idea why.

Well, that was enough progress for one day. "All right, Darling, Zack it is!" After all, there was plenty of time for him to learn to say "pillow".  The smile returned to Gordon's chubby face. "Zack" he said again, and chuckled with delight. He turned and gazed fondly at the pillow next to his head.

Edith gave a little shudder of pleasure as she drifted happily into the kitchen to put the kettle on. What would all the other mothers say when she told them? "How old is he now? Five months! Goodness, he's very advanced, isn't he..?"  She would smile modestly, and say something like: "Well, they all go at their own pace, don't they...?"

The water in the kettle began to rumble. Back in the living room, Gordon's teddy sprang into the air. It hovered in front of his delighted face and gave him a cheery wave.  Edith could hear him squealing and clapping as she dropped the tea bag into her cup and waited for the kettle to reach boiling point. He was such a happy child! And gifted and talented; that was obvious...

By this time, Teddy was doing the can can.  Zack always knew where Edith was. When she came back with her cup of tea, Teddy would be back on Gordon's pillow...

There was no point in worrying her before she had to be.

 Chapter 2           Where's He Getting It From?

When he was two and a half, Gordon told his mum he was going to be a palaeontologist. She had to look it up.

They'd found a splendid book on dinosaurs in a shop called The Works, which sold big books at knockdown prices. This one was for grown-ups really, but it had wonderful pictures. Gordon wanted it, so Edith bought it.

Conversations with him on the subject of dinosaurs then became unsettling...

Not long after they brought it home, Edith found him studying one of the pages. She was impressed by the sheer size of the creature in the picture. "That's a big one!" she said.

"It's a diplodocus," he told her.

She peered at the label: yes, that's what it was. "How did you know its name?" she asked him curiously.