Okay, people, I realized how awfully inaccurate "Zelgadis: Growing Up" was, so I went through and rewrote it. I'm keeping up my old one so you can see how awful it was compared to this one. I'd like to this this one's better. But you have to tell me, okay? So, read it, and tell me what you think.
Two proud parents stood around a cradle, looking in on their brand-new baby boy. His hair was soft brown, and his eyes were wide and bright, trying to take in everything around him all at once. He reached out to grab at imaginary things and kicked out wildly. His parents above laughed.
"What should we name him?" the child's mother, Zera, asked after another moment of awed silence.
Her husband, Ladis, hmmed, and when into his thinking stance, with one hand behind his head, and his eyes watching the ceiling. While Ladis did that, Zera turned back to admire her baby. He was definitely their child. He got his dark eyes from Zera, and his brown hair from Ladis. As Zera smiled down at the baby boy, he laughed at her.
"I've got it!" Ladis proclaimed suddenly.
Zera hissed at him, and said, "Not so loud! You might startle him."
Ladis nodded, and said, "But I have the perfect idea for his name."
"What is it?" Zera asked impatiently. "I want to know!"
Grinning, Ladis said, "We will call him Zelgadis." At Zera's questioning look, he said, "It's mixing our two names-- Zera and Ladis --and a little ingenuity to come up with something completely and totally unique. The chances are minimal that anyone will have the same name as he does."
As Zera realized the truth of that, she smiled. "Zelgadis is it, then."
Ladis looked down over the edge of the crib, and said, "Welcome to Life, Zelgadis Greywords."
Zera hit him upside the head, and said, "Don't you go getting deep with him, Ladis. Especially not when he's so young! I don't want our child to sit around and try to contemplate the meaning of life when he should be out playing with his friends."
"Sorry," Ladis said, rubbing the back of his head and adjusting his ponytail he always wore.
After her face softened, Zera leaned over and picked up Zelgadis, cuddling him in her arms. "By the way," she mused. "When are you going to get rid of that silly ponytail?"
"Hmm?" Ladis said. "My ponytail? Why, never! I'm keeping it for sure!"
Zera rolled her eyes, and slowly rocked her baby to sleep.