7 Months Later, October 18th, 2:00PM—
Crack!
Crack!
The sound of firewood cracking filled the air with warmth as the fireplace was burning brightly. Even though Syla's house was made out of wood, thankfully the fireplace was still made out of cobblestone. All of her family was in the house that day, her dad was sharpening his hunting equipment, while her mother cleaned all the room in the house, Only Sylan who sat on the wooden chair with a book on her hands.
Snow was starting to fall outside, winter is here, and Syla's family had already prepared for it, food stocks in the warehouse, plenty of dried woods, and warm blankets.
'Many things happened in the past 6 months–' Syla said to herself while looking at the book infront of her, it wasn't the Toxicology book she used to observe, but now it has changed to the 'Simple Weaponsmith' book, it contains a lot of illustration about step by step to make weapons from scratch without actually melting steel or iron, it was a useful book, her dad occassionally reads it when bored, slowly engraving the contents in case of an emergency.
'I finally learned my first step, i can stand up, although not for long– And i can say mom and dad now.. I still find other words quite difficult to say, but im sure my mouth will soon adjust and develop over time–
'I've learned a lot about poisonous plants and monsters using the poison book, though i can't actually read the symptoms they produced or how to cure it, i still now know what sort of things that can be touched or not– My control over my body has increased too, i can freely move my arms now, not just flapping it around, i can crawl easily to anywhere, at this rate, i'll be able to walk when the year's end– Thankfully they still use the same calendar system on earth.' Syla recapped her important milestones in her head. One by one, the memories of each of her progress made her smile in one way or another.
'This spear made out of rocks looks easy to make, i'll have to try that out in the future.'
As Syla was observing the illustrations, a knocking sound was heard from the front door.
Knock knock!
"Yeees!!" Her mother called from the other room before going out and walked to the front door to greet the guest.
When the door was opened, Syla saw one of her neighbor visiting, her name was Ferin, she had been a close friend of Syla's mother ever since she could remember. She also remembered her to be the first person that came over to her house when she was first born. Ferin lives just a few houses away from Syla, and her mom usually greets each other every morning.
"Hello, Yulia." Ferin said with a smile, she held a wooden box in her hands.
"Ferin! Welcome, let's go inside—
Before Yulia could offer Ferin a seat at the couch, she suddenly shook her head and refused on the spot.
"Ah no, i came over to just hand you this, you know, my son was a little bit sick from the winter cold, so he haven't ate much, i made this this morning and have a lot of leftovers, thought you might like it since it's your favorite, i can't just throw it away now can i?" Ferin said while stretching her hands to give Yulia the wooden box.
Yulia accept the gift and opened it right infront of Ferin, and inside was a cooked boar meat that was glazed with honey sauce. It was a clean piece, no bite marks or anything out the ordinary, if Ferin hadn't said that it was a leftovers, Yulia would've thought that Ferin just made it a few minutes ago.
"Are you serious? This looks amazing! Are you sure to give this to me? I feel like you can just eat it later with your husband or son when he feels better.." Yulia said, feeling a bit reluctant to accept such fine delicacy.
"It's fine, i have a lot of food in my stock, so i won't have to worry about feeling hungry this winter, this year has been incredibly good for us, its as if our village was blessed by the gods. Please take it." Ferin responded, her generosity was too much even for Yulia, so in the end, she gladly accepted the gift and they both bid their goodbyes, Ferin walked back to her house and Yulia closed the door to stop the cold wind from entering.
Syla watched her mother smiles in excitement as she can't wait to eat the meat that was given to her, just as she was about to go back to cleaning, she noticed Syla watching her.
"We're eating good tonight!" She said to Syla, flexing the wooden box to her with a huge smile on her face. Syla can only respond with another smile, all she needed was just her mother smile, and that's enough.
"Dear! look what Ferin gave us! She came to our house a few seconds ago!" Syla's mother voice gradually faded as she walked to the other side of the house, meeting with Syla's dad.
'They're sure a good couple.' Syla thought, her eyes gazed back to the weaponsmith book.
.
.
3 Months Later, 9th January, 7:00PM—
"What?" Yulia was having a hard time hearing Syla's request, as if she couldn't believe what her daughter just said infront of her face. "What did you say? Mom didn't quite catch that.."
"I– want to– read!" Syla said, her voice was stuttering, but her words are clear.
"You want to read? You want to learn how to read?" Yulia said in disbelief, she never expected her daughter who's still haven't reach a year old, knew about the concept of reading. Syla's eagerness to learn how to read also amazed her.
When hearing about her mother's question, Syla nodded, her intelligence was definitely way out the ordinary, from the outside perspective, she looks like a genius child, when in reality it's just that her mind is already an adult from the moment she was born.
'Hargal, we might be raising a future prodigy.. Standing still on her own at just 7 months old is already crazy on its own, i heard babies usually need 10 to 12 months to be able to stand up, she achieved that 3 months earlier.. But forming a short sentence at 10 months old, and– Showing interest in learning and reading— she might be smarter than we think.. Should i teach her things way ahead of her time? Or should i just patiently wait..' Yulia was in deep thought, she was wondering about Syla's future, and what it would mean to her if she became too smart than other childrens around her age. If she teaches her daughter stuff that no other children usually capable of, it might cause some unwanted rumors or disturbance. And to her, who wanted a peaceful life, it sounded a bit too chaotic.
After thinking about it for a while, Yulia sighed deeply, looking at Syla's innocent face, she couldn't help but to accept her request.
"Okay, mom will teach you how to read." She said with a smile, brushing off the unwanted future that she thought of as mere imagination or theoretical scenario. After all, her first priority is her daughter's happiness.
"What's with this conversation? are you trying to make Syla laugh?" Syla's dad, Hargal, suddenly came into the room without notice, he was previously outside the house to enjoy the night scenery, but went back inside due to the cold.
"Dear, you won't believe this— Syla said her first sentence, and it was her wanting to read, she wants to learn how to read!" Yulia said in joy.
"What!!? Are you serious!? First she stood up at just 7 months old and now she formed her first sentence at 10 months old? And its her wanting to learn how to read?, oh Yulia.. She's definitely going to grow up as a scholar or a mage.." Hargal said, he couldn't contain his excitement, thinking that he was raising a genius that will most definitely work at the capital.
"We need to give her the best education, if she keep this up, she will not only work in the kingdom's capital, but also work alongside the king!"
"Hahaha, what are you saying!" Yulia laughed at her husband, she thought it was a bit overkill to imagine her daughter working with the king, and it was for a reason too, they're just an average demi-human family, sure Yulia and Syla might be way above average in terms of appearance, but they're no more than a humble peasant in the hierarchy, and usually it was rare for normal people to be promoted. "But i think theres nothing wrong with dreaming big.. Who knows what the future holds."
"Hargal, even though our daughter is a genius, to tell you the truth, im a bit worried about what the others would react if they knew how smart our Syla are, so i hope you can keep this a secret for as long as possible." Yulia said, her voice turned serius all of a sudden.
"— Yeah, i know that risk too.. She's still a child at the end of the day." Hargal replied after a long silence, he understood what Yulia meant, exposing his daughter's intelligence means it would plant the seed of jealousy to others, and if the news went beyond the village, it can possibly bring dangers to Syla.
And so, the couple promised to keep Syla's intelligence a secret.