Chapter 2
I go from one prison to the next.
I look up to the ornate wooden bars of my new prison, which just so happens to be a crib.
It didn't take me very long to realize I have been reincarnated. The whole hatching out of an egg and a doting mother constantly showering me with love and affection were all dead giveaways. However that, along with everything else since she saw that strange dream just raised more and more questions.
It turns out I have been reincarnated into some advanced species of raptor, and I live here with my mother. The larger dinosaur-like figure constantly checking on me and tending to my every need, which was quite a lot considering even the most normal of movements like rolling over was exhausting.
The lack of movement surprised me considering not too long ago, I managed to break out of my egg and crawl out, but I suppose I was hyped up on adrenaline at the time.
Unable to properly convey sounds as of yet other than cheeps and whines, I am unable to communicate anything more then simple desires and discomfort.
Not that it particularly matters when my face is structured drastically different to what I am used to and the language appears to be different.
Hearing the sound of hobbled footsteps making their way into the room, I tilt my head to look at my new mother.
The larger form of my mother makes her way into the room, a slight limp in her step as she carries a tray of food toward the crib, speaking in the gruff language that I have heard her speak regularly.
Speaking to me carefully, while keeping the tone high pitched, my mother carefully picks me up and places me in a sitting position.
Placing the small plate of smelly mashed food down next to me, she proceeds to exaggeratedly open her mouth in order for me to attempt to mimic her motion.
I take one whiff of the "food" presented to me, and against my will, my mouth begins to water. It is obviously uncooked meat, but I didn't care as my new little body obviously craved it.
As the first spoonful of food was carefully guided into my mouth, I only had one thought.
I can't wait to grow up.
((*v*)/)
My name is Sohm 'Bir.
It took me a lot longer to piece that together then it probably should have considering mother consistently called me the name, but it had taken me all the way up until I could crawl to learn what my actual name was.
It has been some time since I was… hatched, and I have grown considerably. I began to pick up some words from the language and could communicate small ideas.
Unfortunately I have been unable to go outside or explore, my mother strictly keeping me inside the house. I still didn't know if we lived in a city or out in the wilderness, but judging by the crazy gadgets mother brings into the room sometimes I knew at the very least we don't live in the dark ages.
She even brought in this new blue toy that shot out a blue light. I was confused as to what it does before she placed me in it and I started to float.
I couldn't move around from my new spot in the air, but the feeling of weightlessness and the sight of the floor a few feet away from me kept me giggling constantly. Surprisingly, even though there was a blue and white light that appeared to be wind, I could not feel so much as a breeze.
Cooing at me softly once more, my new loving mother begins to nudge me as I spin softly in the air, causing a loud peal of laughter to erupt from me. I don't care what anyone else says, a toy that makes you hover in place is amazing, and the attention of someone that cares for me filled me with a warm feeling.
Soon after however, my new mom left me to myself in the room to go prepare more food for the two of us.
Hovering in the air with the soft hum of the best toy in existence, I began to look around and found that my new vantage point gave me a clear look outside of one of the windows.
Thankfully, I noticed my senses, including my eyesight, were significantly better than I expected. Even in the house I could pick out details of objects that I was sure I shouldn't be able to.
Flailing my body around in the air helplessly, I attempt to spin around, but with nothing to grab onto I end up just continuing with the motion mother left me with, slowly spinning until I was upside down. Growling a bit in anger, I sat stil and waited until I could clearly see outside.
Satisfied by at least a little bit of progress when the window came into view, I strained my neck to get the best look I could, and greedily took in the sight.
Outside was the sight of a large yard with oddly shaped trees and plants, but beyond the small garden of foliage was a city. Large buildings glowing blue and purple littered the darkened skyline in the distance with small dots of light flying around the metropolis, and I could even see a few flying straight up into the cloudy sky. The city, even from this distance, appears to be a buzz with activity as the occupants continue with their day to day life.
My eyes grow wide at the revelation. Were those spaceships?
Excitement filling me far more than before, I felt a large smile filling my face. I love space! I have always wanted to explore the-
Suddenly a shape out of the corner of my eye catches my attention. I thought it was a building at first, but the shape and horizontal nature of the structure- no, ship caught my attention immediately. It was a shape I recognized from my old memories.
A Covenant Cruiser.
Before I could even begin to comprehend the revelation, the smell of food fills the room as my mother makes her way back into the room, cooing softly at my slowly spinning form.
Unlike before, I only feel dread.
((*v*)/)
The more I thought about, the dumber I felt. There were so many clues before now that I just overlooked over the time I have been here.
Gravity lift toys, purple tones to almost everything, triangular writing… is that a plasma pistol on the wall?
I'm in the Halo universe?
Going over every Covenant species in her mind for a moment, she remembers the jackal race of Skirmishers. They fit the description of her new mother perfectly.
So I have been reincarnated into a Skirmisher, but where? When? Why am I here?
Laying still in my crib, the image of a Covenant cruiser hovering lazily over a city still fresh on my mind. Halo was one of my favorite games, and the story line was one I remembered very clearly.
The image of a ship identical to the one I saw, swiftly moving into position over New Alexandria on Reach before it's cleansing beam wipes a portion of the planet off the map flashing before my eyes, but yet again raises more questions than answers.
I know as I am right now, there is nothing I can do. I don't know the state of the war, if it has even started yet, and obviously I don't have a ship.
I can't even walk properly.
Resigning myself to the treatment of a baby jackal for the time being, I lay down in my crib and attempt to get some much needed rest.
All these world shattering revelations are going to lead me to an early grave. There is nothing I can do about it right now, so the best I can do now is roll with the punches.
((*v*)/)
The first time my mother took me outside was very interesting.
Apparently, she needed to go to get some food, but wouldn't leave me alone in the house, so she decided to carry me.
Lifting me out of the crib, I hear her take in a breath of air as if she is in pain. I have long since noticed that she was wounded. Even when walking alone she has a rather obvious limp, but it seems exaggerated when she is carrying me. Sliding me over to her side, I latch onto her, trying to lessen the burden. She lets out a few of the soft coos before nuzzling me and saying a few words. I still do not understand what she is saying, but I did hear my name which causes me to grow happy.
Even if I had a life before now, having a loving mother care for me is a wonderful feeling.
Slowly making her way to the main living room, she makes a straight shot for the gun mounted on the wall. Grabbing the alien firearm with her free arm, she stares down at it for a few seconds, cautiously examining the device before clipping it to her hip, opposite of me.
Trying not to show my surprise at the action, I try to bury my face in the crook of her neck. If going outside is dangerous enough to bring a gun, I can see why she stocked up and hasn't left the house until now.
Trying to comfort me, she rubs my back and hums a quick song before we make our way to the door. Stepping outside, my senses are immediately overloaded with sensations I have never felt before.
The smell of the damp soil from a recent rain filling my nose immediately, picking up multiple different smells from separate areas. Grass and tree bark becoming the first two to be immediately recognizable, but even then an undertone of different fauna that I couldn't recognize wafting around me.
A bright red bird from a nearby tree flies overhead, switching from tree to tree, chirping animatedly as it looks around. My eyes pick up every movement of the rapidly flapping wings from the fibers of the feathers to the motion of the muscles beneath them.
The world around me became awash in colors, sounds, and smells as I looked around amazed. None of my memories were ever like this! The sheer vibrancy of the world around me was amazing, grabbing my full attention as I excitedly look from one thing to another.
My mom didn't seem to notice any of this however as she began walking down a small path toward a-
Is that a spaceship?!
The first thing I noticed was the small floating ship hovering over our backyard. The light purple craft looked rather small, but the humming blue engines of the craft excited me.
I'm about to go flying!
We entered the vehicle via a small gravity lift on the bottom, causing me to feel weightless as we slowly rose up into a hole in the bottom.
The ship was not one I recognize from any of my memories. It leaves more sleek and aerodynamic then either the phantom or the spirit, but it was definitely smaller. The interior of the craft glowed a deep purple from the walls with no visible light source, causing the room to emit no shadows.
Walking over to a large contraption that looked like a padded woven basket, my mother placed me into it then slid the top shut. I could easily see her but I knew immediately when I heard a metallic click that I would not be able to get out.
Drat, she thought ahead.
Walking over to a few glass panels, she begins to press a few buttons and the craft smoothly begins to move.
Thankfully there were quite a few gaps in the basket large enough for me to look through. Lifting myself up by the side of the basket, I look through one of the gaps.
Out of the front of the view screen, but sadly with the way I am angled, I could not see out the view screen.
Watching my mother pilot the aircraft, I can't see any sort of driving mechanisms. No steering wheel, no joystick, and no buttons. All I can see is a large pink screen in front of where my mom keeps her hands on the screen.
It's a… touchscreen? That doesn't look too hard to drive actually.
Feeling the aircraft twist back and forth in response to her motions, I began to try and figure out how to fly, but before I could even get a basic gist of it, the ship slowed down and we began to descend, and the ship came to a stop.
Standing up from where she was, my mother turns and makes her way back to me, unlatching the basket and lifting me out.
With me on my newfound spot on her shoulder, we made our way out of the small ship, the gravity lift slowly lowering us onto the ground.
The moment we left the ship, I knew we were in a drastically different place. The first giveaway was the stench. Unlike the fresh forest scent of my home, it smelled of body odor and decay.
There were different kinds of aliens everywhere as we made our way down a crowded street towards what appears to be a market. Some of the aliens were easily recognizable from both my memories and my new form. Skirmisher jackals were walking up and down the street, buying food and supplies from one stall or another.
I heard a loud screech behind me and swiveled my head around to see what it was.
Two jackals appeared to be fighting over a scrap of meat in the middle of the street. The crowd seems not to take notice other than giving the two of them a wide berth, causing a small circle to form in the middle of the street.
The two of them struggle for a moment before one takes out a plasma pistol and fires, leaving a smoking hole in the middle of the other's head. The victor of that little fight screeches in triumph before picking up the small meat scrap and eating it. The crowd then returns to normal as if nothing happened.
Red flags beginning to go off in my head, I unconsciously tighten my grip on the only familiar thing around me. I quickly realize, anything that happens to mom also happens to me.
I feel the arm holding me tighten slightly as my mother picks up her pace, the uneven movement jostling me, but not enough to dislodge me from where I am.
Eventually we made our way to a large building with a large holographic sign which caught next to everyone's eye. Four towering behemoths were standing on both sides of the main door leading inside. All of them hold large blunt weapons and are holding back, sometimes literally, a large line leading into the building. Even without any armor, they were immediately recognizable.
Brutes.
We made our way to the front of the line, causing jeers and screeches to erupt from the crowd, which my mother promptly ignored. Walking fearlessly up to the brutes, she flashed a small device I hadn't noticed before now. The two brutes cautiously examined the device before they stepped aside, allowing us entry.
The moment we enter the building, I notice two things.
The first and most important is that the floors appear to be nearly stained purple, and the smell of copper and iron fills the air around me.
The second is that there is another security checkpoint. Inside are more guards, though these ones are heavily armed jackals. They are aiming an assortment of weapons from carbines to plasma rifles. Behind them there is another set of blocked doors leading into the building, which we would need to pass in order to enter.
"Syma!"
Suddenly, a loud voice assaults my hearing as one of the jackals hastily makes his way over to us. Feeling mom twist around to see who called her, arm relaxed around me slightly. I realized that she must trust this person.
The two of them halfheartedly embrace each other before they begin speaking… None of which I could understand, though I did pick up on the fact that he called my mother Syma.
That must be her name. I thought, finally happy to have an answer to one of the many questions that have been on my mind for a while.
After a brief conversation with the jackal, he steps aside and the doors open, the armed guards relaxing a bit.
At this point, red flags have been going off in my head non-stop for a while now. This is obviously a very shady part of town, and judging from the burly guards outside and the small army of guards on the inside, this is no place for a child… and as agitated as I am at having to admit it, I am an infant right now.
Mom, where are you taking me?
The moment we step through the final set of doors however, my thoughts cease as I stare at the room in front of me.
It is a large room filled with shelves leading up at least three stories high. Floating mechanical platforms followed people around as they made their selections, moving in a straight line clockwise around the building. There are large crates and displays of different items and people seemed to pick what they wanted before the cart went up and moved the item onto it using gravity lifts. My eyes widened as I realized that every item in this place had one thing in common.
Suddenly, everything seemed to piece itself together at once. The armed guards, the massive security, the long lines… even the fight in the street.
We were in a grocery store.
((*v*)/)
A small contingent of brutes wielding everything from hammers to plasma rifles walked around the two of us as we made our way back to our ship, the guard that recognized my mother walking beside us as the two adults talked.
The crowd on the street was giving us an extremely wide berth after a brutal demonstration by our escort the moment we left the building left them wary to approach.
The crowd still seemed to be sizing up their options with an extremely large platform of food floating behind us.
It turns out the reason why we were able to bypass the security checks and why one of the guards was so friendly was because she could actually pay for the food.
Eventually, we arrived below our ship without major incident, and the cart was floated into the gravity lift, taking the food with it. After a brief exchange of words with the jackal, we made our way into the lift, following the supplies.
On our way up, we could see the large crowd still greedily following our every moment before the soft purple interior of the craft surrounded us, and the hatch leading to the outside world closed.
Beginning to make her way back over to the basket, my mother began to open the hatch, but I had better plans.
I am still an infant, and it's time I start acting like it!
Rule one of being a baby, cry and whine until you get what you want, and right now I want to know how to fly a spaceship, or at the very least see outside the viewport.
The moment she began to move over to the basket, I began to squirm and whine, gaining her attention as this was not something I regularly did.
Talking to me in the strange language, I could easily tell from her tone that she was asking me what was wrong, to which I promptly gestured in a grabbing motion toward the controls of the ship.
She followed my gaze for a moment before she shook her head and continued to walk toward the basket.
Feeling my victory slip from my small clawed grasp, I decided to pull out my ace. The one thing that is guaranteed to gain her attention, and with it my goals.
I began crying hysterically.
I could see her resolve weakening before my eyes, but she hasn't bent to my will quite yet, so I decided to use my ace. Over time I have been focusing on some words, and trying them out in my free time. She has been attempting to get me to speak for some time now but only rather recently have I been able to make out the sounds.
"Mama!" I chirped out, sniffling as I buried my head into the crook of her neck, nuzzling her affectionately.
A moment of still silence filled the small craft as I sat there, wondering if my plan will work. Part of me was disappointed in myself for manipulating someone who I care about and who obviously cares for me in return in such a way, but hey!
It's a spaceship!
Hearing a happy thrilling sound coming from deep within my mother's throat, she hugs me tightly, almost as if refusing to let go. We sit there for a few moments, enjoying the embrace as time slips by unnoticed around us.
From above me, I could hear her say something, but again the words go straight over my head… before she began walking towards the controls to the ship!
YES! Victory!
Still clinging to my mother's shoulder for dear life, she sets me down on the armrest of the chair she is sitting in.
Pressing a few buttons on the screen too quickly for me to follow, the screen makes way for an interesting jumble of symbols and circles. I watched closely as she used her hands to drag some of the circles around, almost using them as joystick controls as the ship responded.
In obviously practiced motions, she switched from control to control as the ship began to lift into the air and shoot into the evening sky, leaving the marketplace behind.
The clouds whizzed past us as we made our way back home. With my newfound vision, I could even see the hill where our home was in the distance.
Amazed by the view from where we were, I almost forgot I was suppost to be figuring out how to fly…
Why am I learning how to fly before I even know how to walk?
Banishing the traitorous thought, I began to study the controls, and how the ship reacts to how my mother used them.
From the short flight, I could tell that on the screen there were four controls, all represented by a circle on the touchscreen in front of her. One of them represents throttle, one controlling the direction, one controlled altitude, and the last one slowed the ship down. There were many other buttons and glowing notifications, but that was the main gist of it as far as I could tell.
My thoughts were interrupted by my mother slowing the ship to a crawl before stopping. At first I thought we had arrived back at the house, but just a quick look out of the viewport showed that we were still very much thousands of feet in the air.
She pressed a few buttons, causing the console to beep a few times before one of the sides of the ship opened up, letting in a burst of fresh air.
Confused as to what she was doing, I yelped a bit when she lifted me up from my spot and walked me over to the open door, before sitting down a few feet before the edge, looking out.
Stretched out before me was a vast expanse of forest wilderness that seemed to stretch out for miles. The green trees created a large canopy where large birds flew from place to place, my enhanced hearing picking up their soft songs from even this high in the air. In the distance, the sun was setting, causing the sky to glow a bright orange, before it faded to a deep crimson red.
We sat there gazing out to the sky for only moments, but I knew that these few moments here with my mom I would never forget.
"Sohm, jah kahnoh wah."
While I couldn't understand the words, the meaning was clear and I memorized them as best I could.
I love you too mom.
—Authors Note—
Huzzah! Chapter 2 is complete.
I have this fic planned out for the next 13 chapters or so. (Technically this was suppost to be the second half of chapter one, but it had a good ending spot and I didn't wait to post it. Impatient me right?) So expect more. This is my first fic, and the main reason I haven't written anything before now is I always thought I would end up not having a real plan and just spiraling out into weirdness.
BUT I GOT A PLAN! I even wrote it down! Take that, indecisive brain!
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