Then it dawned on him. PUBERTY!!!!
His mood darkened as he thought about going through that period of time again. It darkened further when he realized that Leo was getting close to that age as well… He would have to keep an eye on him and see if this body had the exact same urges as his human body. Maybe he would get lucky and his big feet would make his puberty less… hard…
It felt odd being home with his parents. He could tell they were trying to give him space, but after being home for almost an hour and not having them approach him, he decided to make the first move, after all he wasn’t getting any younger.
“Mom, Dad, we should talk.” He began.
He had walked up to them as they sat in the kitchen discussing something intently, and he could tell he was interrupting something, but they didn’t stop him.
“Xavier, we wanted to give you some space.” His mom said, taking the lead.
Cale winced at the name Xavier. He had gotten used to Maggy always calling him Cale, and he had already figured out how to change his name in his interface. After all that he had gone through, he no longer had the desire to play the dual name game.
“Mom, Dad. I will just start this conversation because for some reason it seems like you two are avoiding it. The reason I was unconscious is because the script I activated gave me a new interface.” He said, matter-of-factly.
Cale had expected a big “WHAT!” or something from his parents, but instead they just looked at him confusingly. Then suddenly he saw a spark appear in his mother’s eyes, he felt like he could see her thoughts running a million miles an hour behind those dark brown eyes.
“A new interface…” She said slowly… “Is it a black or a gold trim?”
“Silver, very shiny.”
“Silver… silver… Wait here!” she yelled behind her, Cale watched his mom sprint out the door, moving faster than he had ever seen her move before. Her large feet making loud slapping sounds that drifted further away as she ran to her destination.
“This seems to have made your mother rather… Excited…” His dad said, looking at the open door that his mom hadn’t even bothered to close behind her. “You know, last time your mom was this excited we had your sister…”
“Ewwww! Dad! Why?! I don’t want to know this!” Cale yelled out and slapped the air in front of him like he could somehow unhear those words.
His dad did a deep belly laugh as he got up and closed the door before sitting right next to Cale, “I am glad you are ok, son.” His dad said, a tear starting to form in one of his eyes.
“When you fell to the ground… I… I…” Whatever words his father had to say remained unsaid as he pulled Cale into a giant hug, tears coming out of his eyes, causing Cale to cry as well. He couldn’t help it, he was glad his dad saved him.
“Thank you for saving me dad,” he said in the cutest voice he could muster, “I want to hear all about it when mom gets back ok?” His dad bobbed his head up and down, obviously in no state to have a conversation.
The door slammed open, his mom stood there with her hair looking frazzled, she held a large book in her hand and was breathing heavily.
“What did I miss?” She asked out of breath.
“A father son moment,” Cale said, patting his dad on his back as his dad hugged him closely.
His mom closed the door and opened the book on the table in front of them. It was full of handwritten notes, doodles, and even some liquid stains.
“Ok, you said your new interface had silver edges and in my notes here it had the text ‘Fire Storm Of Helioni.’” She said as she flipped through the book.
“Correct. However, unsure what the Fire Storm has to do with anything. I haven’t seen anything about that yet.” He mentioned.
“Hmm… I may have some notes on that… yes here we go. I took notes on this in one of my classes back before you were born. It says.. ‘The divine being, Helioni, during times of great need, is rumored to have gifted more than just scripts to its believers, very rarely, it is said that Helioni would gift out a new type of interface. The rumors say that each time a gift like this was given, it would change the landscape of the world. Scholars credit at least four different kingdoms, the Jismine River, and potentially the Domed Mountain as direction creations because of these boons. It is also rumored that the flag of each kingdom contained the primary color of Helioni’s boon. Black, White, Blue, and Green.”
Cale suddenly found himself face to face with his mother, who was suddenly ultra excited.
“Tell me about it, Xavier, I don’t see silver in here, but I must know what you see!” She exclaimed. “I have manuals in my office that go into great detail about interfaces from other divine beings, like ‘Rihnture’ and ‘Lynbor’, as well as our own interface, gifted by the divine being Helioni.”
“You know you have a Helioni interface?” Cale asked, very surprised.
“Of course, though Helioni chooses not to tell us it was them. Our interface matches early descriptions of the White boon that was gifted by Helioni, albeit it seems to be missing a lot of the functionality we found described in some of our findings.” She trailed off.
“Any idea what the colors mean?”
“None, it is rumored that the black one helped build walls and build civilization, the white one is typically mentioned with agriculture, and nobody knows about the last two colors. They are a mystery.”
"Alright, so silver could mean anything, sweet." Cale said, excitement coloring his tone.
"Exactly! Now. Tell. Me. Everything.” She said, putting her face very close to his, her excitement palpable.
“I will, I will,” he said and put both of his hands in the air, causing her to back up. “But first, I must tell you. This interface has a lot of options, and one of these options let me put in details… Like my name… "He paused and looked at his dad, he knew it was going to be difficult, he just hoped it wouldn’t be too difficult.
"I didn’t put in Xavier as my registered name.” He announced, getting it over with.
The room went deathly silent. His mom’s eyes were wide and focused on his father, his dad… his dad pulled away from the extra-long hug he was giving Cale and just gave him a look of horror.
“Mom, Dad. Are you ok?” he asked concerned. Suddenly his dad broke down into tears for the second time in only a few minutes.
“My own son hates the name I gave him. Why?!" He yelled with his head facing the ceiling. "Why do the divine hate me?!” his dad yelled through the sobs.
“Mom, I don’t get it, what is happening?” he asked her with worry.
“Its… It’s a thing in his family, Xavier…. Or... what did you put in as your name? You didn’t say…”
“Cale. I entered the name Cale.” He told her.
“It’s pretty,” was all she said as she tried to console his father who had his head down on the table.
They didn’t get back to talking about his interface until later in the day. His dad hadn’t fully recovered from the shock of his son’s name change, and Cale knew it was going to be a ‘thing’ between them from now on. As much as it sucked to see his dad sad, it needed to be done. He couldn’t have had two names forever, that would just be never-endingly annoying!
When they finally got back to talking about his interface, only his mother was around. He asked her where his dad was, but she just told him he had gone to go, ‘clear his head.’ The conversation was much more productive in his absence.
He drew out what his interface looked like as he explained it to his mother, who confirmed that it looked a lot like some descriptions she had come across in her research. They talked for hours, and Cale was impressed by what his mother knew. Yet he found he had a hard time focusing and he kept thinking about what happened earlier.
Cale felt bad about how upset is dad was. He felt even WORSE when his mother told him what his dad had to go through to save him. The moment his dad came home, Cale gave him a giant hug, and thanked him again for keeping him alive.
His dad was in a better mood and went into detail on the events of his heroism, filling in many of the gaps his mother had missed. Some of the parts, especially the part about his dad flying through a food stall, sounded a bit exaggerated, but Cale was very impressed by the script mechanic his dad used to travel that fast and could see why the military would want to look into it more. He definitely noticed that his dad excluded the whole event with the Duntor Boar.
By the days end, Cale was exhausted, and by the looks on his parents faces, so were they. When he finally ended up in his own bed, he was asleep the second his head hit the pillow.
***
The next morning Cale woke up and realized he still had to go to daycare. He had forgotten to bring it up to his parents the night before and even though they talked for hours, the odds of them still seeing him as a small child was high. He got up slowly, wondering what to do next if his days were not changing.
As he laid in bed he opened up his interface and said good morning to Maggy quick and filled her in on yesterday’s events. He had asked her to be quiet while he was with his parents. Some things he still didn’t want them to know, especially since he didn’t know who this 005 person was.
Before he started his day he decided to get his priorities in order. Previously, he was just concerned about surviving, but now he had to actually accomplish things, like figuring out how to get back to Earth. And how in the world is he supposed to navigate this world at his size!
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Cale opened up the notes he took from during the installation, thankful they were saved. He added a new page to his list and labeled it, “Items to remember to keep me alive,” and copied the items from before into it.
To Do list/Priorities
- Interface, figure out how this damn thing works
- Get previous scripts working again
- 005
- Find out if person or group
- Possible people
- Diana
- Phil
- One of Mom’s coworker
- Joury?
- Greater network
- Find what this means. Going by name and use, I assume it works like the internet. These people did not seem braindead; going to assume civilization had secure backups of their information..
- Pure Matter
- Maggy drinks it like water. What is it?
“I do not!” he heard Maggy yell and the text changed without him doing anything.
- Maggy drinks it like water (when in party mode and it is delicious!), What is it?
“Maggy, stop editing my notes.”
“Look, if anyone ever comes across this, I don’t want them thinking I have some sort of problem.” She insisted.
“Yeah, because that’s what they will be concerned about when they meet you,” he quipped back. He found a smile coming back to his lips as he talked to Maggy. He wasn’t excited about daycare, but he it wouldn’t be so bad with Maggy him.
He didn’t add anything else to his notes, instead he just chatted with Maggy and explored his interface more. He was still going through the first page trying to figure out what everything was, how it fit, and more importantly, WHY everything was where it was.
Back on Earth when he would mess with a new piece of technology, if he got confused when looking for a menu or feature, he could always tell himself How would I design this? And normally he would be able to figure it out. However, this thing, created by alien minds, was a bit more difficult to figure out.
He had two primary concerns with his interface, the first one was that he didn’t want to get pulled into some random program again and die. That would suck and if it happened twice, it would be on him. His second concern is that he just didn’t understand what the operating system was really doing. He felt like he now owned a military fighter jet but didn’t have a manual, or fuel, or even a runway. All he could do was sit in the cockpit, put on the oversized helmet, and admire the flashy controls.
On the bright side, it was not even remotely as buggy as his previous interface. He did see a lot of icons with the crack through it and an icon of a small tower with an orb on top. He learned quickly that all that meant was that the program needed a connection to the greater network to function. He put those icons in a folder labeled “Stupid always connected programs.”
He had hated always connected programs back on Earth, and his hatred was compounding every time he came across something that didn’t work just because someone hundreds of years ago wanted to make some extra money or something. He must have been getting pretty angry because suddenly Maggy was yelling at him.
“Cale, are you ok?” he heard her ask very concerningly.
“Uh, yeah. Just a bit annoyed about something, why?”
“Your soul... it… pulsed…”
“Is everything ok?” He asked her.
“Uh, yeah.. it’s just… I don’t know what it means. I thought maybe you were in danger.”
“Nope, just annoyed at these stupid, always connected programs in my interface.” He explained.
“Scripts Cale, we went over this. Scripts. I don’t know why you insist on constantly using different words for things.”
“Yeah, yeah. So you say.” He said absentmindedly.
The rest of his morning routine went by quickly. He got up, grabbed some food, and stood by the door waiting for his mom. He wanted to argue that he didn’t want to go to daycare but where else would he go? If he just took off walking, someone would see his size and assume he shouldn’t be alone.
He couldn’t sneak off the base, he was powerless without his scripts, and he couldn’t go to work because well, he was a kid! He was lost in thought and sadness as him and his mom left their place. His self-pity distracted him on their journey, and he failed to see that instead of turning to go to daycare, his mom had just kept walking and Cale found himself going through the entrance to his mom’s lab with her, surprise very evident on his face.
“Why are we here, mom? Am I not going to daycare?” He asked.
“No, silly. The healers told us to keep an eye on you for a while. You can’t be out with your dad while he works, so you had to come here with me.” She said.
Cale couldn’t help it, he was excited and he jumped up into the air. “Yes!” he yelled and shadow boxed the air in front of him as he couldn’t contain his excitement.
“Woh, woh, calm down. You don’t’ get to touch anything. I mean it. Don’t. Touch. Anything.” She said, her eyes not leaving his for one moment.
Cale just nodded his head, words would just betray his feelings. Just that morning he was wondering how he was going to figure anything out, and now he is sitting in the very place that is studying scripts! He was sure he could sweet talk his mom into letting him have a peek at some of the stuff they were working on.
As she gave him a tour of their office a voice rang out with an annoyed tone to it.
“Diana, if you’ve come to use the music box again I am going to have to say no. I won’t pretend like I didn’t find some purple gunk on its underside the last time…” Joury’s words trailed off as he came into view.
“Hi, Joury,” his mom replied with a flat tone to her voice. “Sorry about the purple goo. It was an accident.”
“An accident that will not be happening again!” he said with a huff, “Bringing your boy in here will not help you convince me at all!”
“Joury, Xav... Cale.” She said pointing at him, “Our family had a bit of a name change after that latest incident. Xavier wanted to be called Cale after what happened and will be spending his time with me in the office for a few weeks.” She said.
“Okay…” Joury said questioningly. “A lot to unwind there… did you say your son now goes by a different name?”
His mom nodded to him and Joury gave out a loooong low whistling sound. “I bet Phil isn’t taking that well.”
“He isn’t,” was all she said.
Cale didn’t say anything as they talked, he was too distracted by the music box. Joury had polished it so clean that it looked like it was literally shining. Every light source in the room seemed to bounce off it and Cale found it ever so pretty.
He also wanted to get ahold of that song he heard earlier. Now that his connection to the greater network was off, he didn’t seem to get a notification like he got before and it made him feel a little bit more at ease.
After what felt like hours of conversation, his mom finally led them back to her office, where she surprised him with a little desk of his own!
“I got up early this morning and set this up for you. I thought you might want a place to do stuff since you are stuck with me.”
“What am I even going to do here?” Cale wanted to know. The desk was blank and he doubted his mom’s boss would let him actually work there. Right?
“I have pushed you into a journey you didn’t ask for. It is my responsibility, as your parent, to make sure you succeed.” She walked to her desk and pulled out a book from one of the drawers and set it on his desk without saying a word. He walked up to it and noticed that it smelled old, musty even. It was a large book and there was no title on the front, but it had a lot of little pieces of paper sticking out of the sides marking locations.
“Xav... Cale... ugh, it’s going to take me a while to get used to that. Cale, I have set up a little work area for you to learn about your interface. The book on your desk is all of my notes on what I know of interfaces and the divine beings that gift them.”
Cale audibly gawked at his mother’s words. He ran up to the book and ran his finger along the leather edge. It felt smooth to the touch, and it was like he could feel the knowledge begging to be learned. He ran back to his mom, gave her a large hug, and then zoomed over to his little desk as fast as his legs could carry him, the lust for knowledge easily visible in his eyes.
Meliousi
Meliousi looked up from his work to see a light glowing gold notifying him that the King’s people wanted to meet. It had only been a week since he first met with the King, and he had forgotten how fast things could move when people in power put their weight behind things.
Today’s meeting was to finalize their plan and to set timelines. When he first brought the matter up to the King, he had expected months, if not years, before action was taken. But now it seemed that action was going to be taken immediately and he wasn’t sure why the King was so adamant on getting into conflict with their neighbors so quickly.
He finalized his work and headed toward the castle with a few of his attendants. Trips through the town always made him feel better, the people on the street would frequently call out his name and wave to him. He was loved by the people, not feared like the King, and it made him very happy.
When they got to the castle gates, the guards would not let his attendants through and would not give a reason. “The King only wants to talk with Meliousi, the rest of you can leave.” One of the guardsmen said, pointing at his attendants. He waved his attendants away and the guards let him into the castle, where they then thoroughly checked his clothes for anything unexpected.
“What is going on? Why this change? Have I done something wrong?” He asked them as their hands touched parts of him most sacred.
“King’s orders. That is all we know.”
He didn’t push the question since the guards themselves didn’t seem to care, they were just doing their jobs. When they let him out, he was surprised to find the King was standing outside the guardhouse, waiting to greet him.
“My King!” He said in a slight panic, bowing low and getting on his knees. “What have I done to offend you?”
“Oh, quit being so dramatic, Meliousi. I just need to show you something,” the King said with a smirk.
He took off walking without saying another word, waving for Meliousi to follow him. He quickly got up, stumbling after him and doing his best to keep his composure. He had thought they were going to be eating a lot of sweets again today, so he had changed into his fat pants, which after his low bowing, were rebelling against him. He had to awkwardly hold them up as he tried to keep pace with the King.
“A lot has been happening, Meliousi. I have been keeping eyes on the kingdoms around us for a lot longer then you have. After all, it is my duty as King to make sure my people remain safe.” He touted.
They walked into a side building, where the King presented his ring to one of the guards, and signed in Meliousi as his guest. Meliousi was handed a bronze badge and told to keep it on him at all times when in this building. They left the guards behind and went to the end of a hallway, where a door opened up to a closet. The King walked in, motioning for Meliousi to join him.
When he got into the closet, and faced the doorway, the King closed the door and then pressed a few buttons on the wall that Meliousi had not seen, causing the whole room to shake and he saw the door start moving upward as they started going down.
“A lift room,” the King said before Meliousi could ask. “What you are going to see today is secret. Only a select few know, and if you tell anyone, I will kill you.” He said plainly.
“I won’t tell a soul, my King,” was all he could say, gulping, he wasn’t happy about being given a choice on if he wanted to know or not, but it was the King. He didn’t have a choice unless he was ok hanging from the castle walls.
The moving room stopped and the King opened the door to reveal a massive dimly lit room. On the walls were giant, black screens that he recognized as ancient displays. In the middle of the room were rows and rows of desks, all facing toward the far side of the room. In one of the rows, a couple people seemed to be huddled around something glow-y, and that is where the King was headed.
“Steven! Jeremy! How goes it!” The King yelled out as he marched forward.
“My King! It goes well! I see you brought his holiness with you today.”
“Excellent! So we are on schedule then? Good, good, good. Yes! I brought Meliousi with me today. His agents are not watched as closely as mine, and I fear we must act sooner than later.” The King went on.
When Meliousi got closer he was finally able to see what was causing the people to have a slight glow. On the counter in front of them was a smaller version of the displays on the walls. It had wires coming out of it and was attached to something underneath the table, outside of his view. Some of the wires attached to a thin box with buttons on it that were being pressed vigorously and rapidly by one of the men.
“Steven, when you are done with that, can you show our guest what this is all about?”
“Yes, my King. Let me save my notes real quick… and done.” He said.
Steven turned to face Meliousi and shook his hands. “It is good to see you my Holiness! Your sermon earlier this week on the dangers of ignoring the divine resonated with me most profoundly.”
“It is good to hear you say that, yes, there are more sermons like that to come, especially if our neighbors preach the opposite. Our sermons will need to be the light in the darkness they are spreading!” Meliousi exclaimed.
“Well said my Holiness, stopping that darkness is what our work here is all about.”
Meliousi wasn’t sure what that meant, but Steven had turned away from him and was pressing more buttons, which caused the screen to change imagines. Meliousi looked intently as more things came up on the screen trying to figure out what it all was.
On the top left was a thick orange line next to some numbers that were slowly counting downward. In the center of the screen was a blue and green orb that was surrounded by another white orb that seemed to follow a path outlined with a dotted line. The dotted line seemed to intersect with thick, purple lines that connected to the blue and green orb. The lines had big yellow flashing symbols next to them, but he had no idea what any of this was.
“Steven, what am I looking at?” He asked.
“Tell me, Meliousi,” the King butted in, his eyes glowing with the reflection from the screen. He looked Meliousi in the eyes and asked him a simple question.
“How much do you know about our moon?”