It was a chilly spring evening. Ironfur the warrior rat was staring into her newborn son's eyes.
"Whatever shall I name you?" She asked him, but as her son was still just a baby, he had no answer for. Instead, he mad a small gurgling noise, and yawned widely. She took the yawn to mean that he was sleepy, and she, being exhausted from the hard labor, could do with a night's rest. They curled up together on the soft floor of her nest. "We'll settle this in the morning," She said to her already sleeping son.
The baby awoke. It was a windy morning, and he liked the feel of the wind on his small nose. A warm scent was being carried towards him on the breeze, a mixture of other rats, mice, rabbits, voles, and the occasional badger. There was also the smell of nuts and grasses, though he had never tasted any of these things, and never met any of these creatures, except for his mother and, of course, himself.
Still, he was curious about these smells. Looking behind him, he saw that his mother was still asleep and deciding that she wouldn't awake for quite a while, he followed his nose out of the nest. It was very low in the tree, and his mother had done that purposefully, so that in the event that her son should leave the nest, he wouldn't be hurt by the fall.
The baby continued to chase the smell. It eventually brought him into a clearing where a large, open-air market was taking place. And a new smell, a wonderful, miraculous one, was being wafted at him. He sprinted through the market, searching, searching for the source of this wonderful, glorious scent. And suddenly, miraculously, he found it.
A man stood behind a stand, yelling, "Cheese, get your cheese here!"
The baby opened his mouth wide said his first word. "Cheese." Then he was off. He bolted up to the stand, screaming the whole time. "Cheese, cheese, CHEESE!" He grabbed hunks of it and thrust them into his mouth, still trying to say the word, though his mouth was full. By now a crowd had gathered, all of them stunned to see such a small child eating with such ferocity.
"There you are! I've been looking all over for you! All that cheese you stole is going to cost me a fortune, but I'm just glad to have you back." His mother exclaimed in a rush. "I was so worried."
"Cheese." Said her son. "Cheese, cheese, cheese."
"You spoke! You spoke, you spoke!" His mother was very excited. "I'm so proud of you, my little cheese thief!" She paused, in thoughtful silence. "That's what I'm going to call you, Cheesetheif!"
"Cheese." Cheesetheif said. "Cheese."