On Matters Edge

  Chapter 10: Baby’s First Script

  #Crystal Storage connection found.

  Cale’s eyes balked at the notification because he recognized one of the symbols. He had seen the same icon in the config editor, and he was willing to bet they were somehow connected; he was going to have to open his config editor and see what the notification looked like from there. He hoped that maybe he would be able to see more details or learn a secret of this world. His eyes sparkled with anticipation.

  Before he took a peek, he closed his interface and checked to see if his mother was still distracted. Sure enough, his mom and the guy had moved to some display unit and were now pointing to some numbers and taking notes. Cale recognized some of the numbers, but he didn’t have time for that, right now he had a mystery to solve. He went back into his interface, entered the command to get into the config and found the crystal-looking icon. When he clicked on it another window popped up that looked a lot like file browsers back on Earth. I guess some designs are universal, he thought. The crystal only had one item in it, and he was able to recognize the word AIR in part of the text.

  Now, back on Earth Cale would never have tried to open a file on his computer that he did not recognize. But that was adult Cale. This was baby Cale, and baby Cale sometimes gets so excited about something that common sense goes out the window. He couldn’t help himself; his curiosity and excitement overrode any adult sensibility his consciousness had. He had been frustrated by his lack of progress on his interface, this was his chance to learn something new, and it excited him. He clicked on the text to see what would happen and a notification window popped up.

  #Would you like to learn the basic air movement script? ##Yes ##No

  Finally, some text he could understand! He was noticing that whenever the interface interacted with him personally, he always understood it, but foreign items, like the notification from the crystal, were sometimes not recognized or different words were used. He would have to think about that later, for now something much more exciting had presented itself to him.

  When Cale saw the file browser, he had expected some text or maybe a picture. Like those science fiction films where the audience finds a recording to learn about what happened in the past, he had not expected to find a Script. Something he had little to no idea about, but evidently something adults had and his father used on him, a lot. Cale now had an idea that the scanning ability his mother had was called a scanning script. He had wanted a script like his mother and father ever since. It was excruciating for him to be able to see and hear about what was essentially magic yet not be able to do it!

  Even if he couldn’t use it right away, he wanted it. Like a baby that gets ahold of a piece of candy or a toy it cherishes. He NEEDED this. All baby Cale could think about was how cool it would be to move air. He envisioned himself flying around his home or pushing things out of his way with just a brush of wind. He could create windstorms and send all of his future enemies running.

  Any hesitation in his mind vanished and he quickly pushed #Yes. He tensed up his body expecting pain but found that he didn’t feel any different. He pulled himself away from his interface to see what his mother was doing and hoped she wasn’t paying attention to him. She and the guy were still looking at the screen with the numbers, only they were way more animated about it. He was writing down notes as his mother would call out random words. Both of them with smiles from ear to ear.

  Since their attention was still elsewhere, he looked back at his interface and found a progress bar in the top center, the name of the script being transferred underneath it. The little bar had a nice arrow-looking animation. Cale admired it as he checked the progress, which looked to be about 25% complete and would be done shortly. Since he wasn’t experiencing any pain, he wondered what was going on with his soul.

  He let himself fall into his soul view and saw that the little nub was slowly receiving bursts of light from the crystal. The bursts were not coming as fast as the previous time he had witnessed this. Maybe that is why he hadn’t been thrust out of his body this time. He quickly scanned his soul and thankfully he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. He switched back to his interface and watched the bar fill up completely. A few seconds later he received a notification that made him release some tension he didn’t know he had.

  #Basic Air movement Script copy completed.

  Cale closed the notification to see that there was now a new box in the bottom left corner of his vision. He was about to push it when he remembered where he was, and since he did not want to cause a scene at his mother's work, he closed his interface and tried to play it cool, which he was doing a terrible job at since he had a giant smile on his face that wouldn’t go away. It didn’t matter in the end, pretty soon Cale grew hungry and got bored of just sitting in his mom's arms. Cale started to squirm, hoping that maybe his mother would let him on the ground, he wanted to get a closer look at the makeshift device with the glowing wires. He wanted to see how it was able to look so hot but not set anything on fire.

  “Well Joury, I better get going before this little one gets bored and starts tearing apart the lab,” She gave Joury the – you know what I mean – look and patted Cale’s butt a little.

  “Hmm, yes. We wouldn’t want that at work would we,” Joury replied, putting a finger up to his nose and a thumb under his chin. He paused for a second as if wanting to say more, but instead he nodded his head in agreement and turned around. Getting back to work with glee in his step.

  Thanks for using me as an excuse, mom. Cale wasn’t really upset, but he found it funny that he was in his mother's arms again for less than a day and she was already using him as an excuse for things.

  His mother showed him around her office for another hour, which was excruciating to a baby. For some reason, the moment his baby brain became bored, time would slow to a crawl. Part of the slowness problem was that his mother kept referencing the crystal that she was looking at earlier.

  Every time she mentioned it Cale would have a hard time not trying to look guilty. Plus, every time she brought it up, he would get excited thinking about having a script and the excitement was so hard to contain! He broke out in mad giggles unexpectedly, twice! And each time everyone would laugh at him and get really close and call him all sorts of nonsensical things. He didn’t like it, so he pouted a little.

  But he couldn’t be upset for long, he had gotten his first script, and nobody was the wiser. He finally had an example of something he could do with his interface. Finally, a lead that would give him some answers to his question of What is my interface? It wasn’t that he didn’t have theories, Cale had a lot of theories, but he needed concrete proof before he would be satisfied. Tonight, he would wait for his parents to go to sleep, and then he would probe this thing in detail.

  ***

  Cale was flying through the air, amazed at how quickly his night had gone from peaceful to probably deadly. Why tonight of all nights? Was the current thought on his baby brain. The WHAT, that had happened had taken Cale a few moments to piece back together.

  The night had started normal. As he had planned, he waited out supper and evening playtime. He behaved as normally as he could as to not draw suspicion. Once he was laid to bed, he waited until his parents fell asleep. Then, once he had triple checked and confirmed that they were sleeping, THEN did he allow himself to look at his new script. It's beautiful, he thought as he stared at the button in his interface. He didn’t dare push it; he had no idea what would happen if he did. He wasn’t even sure his baby body could handle a script, and he didn’t like the idea of him popping like a balloon.

  He remembered that his interface had unlocked teen-mode early. Just because his soul could handle it, didn’t mean his body could. Cale continued his investigation by opening up his config window. He saw the crystal icon now had the new script permanently stored there. Since he was in the editor, he decided to take the risk of clicking on one of the icons that looked like one of the tools his mother showed him earlier in the day. Like he hoped, it opened up another window that looked a lot like a text editor. The words on the screen lit up in different colors. Blues, oranges, and purples. It was something he had seen tens of thousands of times.

  Cale’s mind reeled in shock. He had expected to find a description of what the spell was and the option to maybe move it around his interface into a more convenient position, maybe even a message from the gods saying, “STAY AWAY!” He had NOT expected to find text that looked exactly like computer code. This raised up as many questions as it gave answers.

  Were the ancients the creators of the interface or did they get in trouble because they meddled with the interface? I hope this knowledge doesn’t get me in trouble...

  Though he had a new question, he finally had an answer to what a script was. Scripts, which worked like magic or gave someone abilities, at the core, were all code. He wondered if his parents could see this view from their interface. He couldn’t wait until he became more articulate, he had so many questions he was going to ask.

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  He stopped his baby style daydream and focused back on the code of the script. Did he recognize any of the words? No, but some of the letters, yes. Cale didn’t have to know how to read the code to know what he was seeing. Like he didn’t understand how the carriage that brought him to his mom’s worksite worked, but he recognized it as a vehicle. The colored words were nicely indented for easy reading and there were sections that looked like comments from the creator.

  Is this why I was clone-napped? To code for some divine entity? You would think they would have sent along a user manual or something if that was the case.

  Cale’s thoughts turned to his future. As a current baby, he had a lot of time to sit and think about the life ahead of him. He couldn’t focus on his larger goal of getting back home to Earth and verifying everyone was ok. That was too far away for him. To even think about going back home he was going to need to understand his interface, which meant the only thing he could do right now was to figure out how to read and write as soon as physically possible.

  A plan was starting to form in his overly packed baby mind.

  If Cale was able to learn the language and figure out how to edit scripts, he would be able to do things nobody else could do. At the very least, his chances of surviving in this world went up just a little. After that he would have to talk to the entity that clone-napped him and see what it wanted to get him home.

  Cale closed the interface and turned his body toward his parents. He thought about his life back on Earth, which was still being lived, just not by him. Cale wasn’t sure he wanted to go and live on Earth again. He did want to verify that his kids were ok and that his original self was doing alright. He didn’t really trust the being that got him into this situation. If it was possible, he would like to confirm their health instead of relying on some scary and sketchy being to be honest.

  As Cale reminisced about his life on Earth, he felt a slow chill run along his back. At first, he thought that it was his memories causing the chill, but he soon noticed that the chill was real and had crept into the night air, giving Cale a feeling of cold unease. To Cale it felt as if the air had somehow turned raw. His nose felt on the verge of having to sneeze, his mouth started to taste sour, and he found that his throat was suddenly dry.

  He saw that the rays of light coming off the moon now shone through the tent cracks with a tint of purple. Normally the moon’s rays were pale white, a lot like the reflection from Earth's moon, but tonight the moon’s rays looked dark and ominous. His ears stood up as the skin on his body became covered in a new wave of goosebumps. The air around them was silent but filled with energy. Like an arrow in a tightened bowstring, hovering with anticipation before it’s let loose.

  Cale looked around with wide eyes and his ears twitched back and forth, listening for anything that could be causing his body to respond this way. His parents were still asleep, but he could see his father starting to stir and the sound seemed more muffled than it should be. Everything else was still, as if waiting for something to change. Cale stood in his crib for what felt like an eternity, his little baby knuckles were white gripping the bars he was holding on to.

  Suddenly, the air around him moved as wind seemed to come from everywhere, creating a loud, whooshing sound as the sudden movement interrupted the night. Loose items were knocked off tables, the tent walls rattled, and dust could be seen flying in the air. By this time his parents were fully awake, which did not surprise him as he wasn’t sure who could have slept through this.

  He could hear shouting outside the tent as the air around them moved back and forth, somehow everywhere and directionless at the same time. It made the shouting sound distant and then very close; he found it disorientating. The air had turned into a frenzy and for the first time since he had been on this planet, Cale felt afraid. The sound of running footsteps could be heard on the other side of their tent door as more and more people woke up.

  Cale snapped out of his terror-stupor as he saw his father walk by him to see what was going on. As his father left the tent, Cale decided that moving to the side farthest from the door was his best course of action at the moment. There wasn’t much room in his crib, but he was doing what he could. After his father had left, the footsteps outside had decreased but for some reason his unease was growing with each passing moment. His mother was awake by now and he saw her getting dressed.

  He watched the tent door intently, waiting for his father to come back through it with some news of what was causing the air to be so chaotic.

  Phwooomph!

  He flinched as he heard a loud thump outside their door, like something heavy had landed on the path between tents. A moment after the thump he heard another noise, only it was a loud scream from someone who happened to be running by their tent. Cale felt himself trying to push himself farther into his crib, but there was nowhere else to go. Their tent door suddenly flew open as a young boy – most definitely not his father – ran into the tent and headed toward the farthest point from the door, right toward his mother. Before his mother could talk to the kid, the side of their tent with the door caved in. Cale looked in horror as the outline of a giant bird type creature was defined by the fabric of their tent.

  The fabric began to rip apart as the creature ignored the door and decided to make its own opening as it chased the boy. Not designed for this level of stress, part of the fabric had completely ripped off the tent and was now draped over the creature's head. His baby brain had locked onto the terrifying sight before his eyes.

  The creature was around seven feet tall, with scaly looking legs and hooked talons. To someone the size of baby Cale, it was a GIANT. As Cale watched on in horror, the scene became more erratic as the beast’s wings were partially tangled up in the tent, stopping the creature from flying around and causing dust and papers to go flying everywhere as it flapped around deliriously.

  Though partially immobilized, the creature had not given up its hunt and it slammed its beak into the ground looking for the prey that had escaped. The beast, unable to find its prey, started to stomp around the tent and move haphazardly about as it struggled against the tent fabric entangling its wings. Its claws dug deep furrows into the ground as it clawed for grip flinging itself in circles with a fury. One of its talons hit the edge of Cale’s crib, tearing off the top screen and causing some of the legs to break.

  Cale held on as he looked up at the bird from his awkward position in the crib. With the legs broken it had collapsed onto a stool that had been pushed underneath his crib during the commotion, causing Cale to fall to his butt with his legs straight out. Almost like he was in a seat. He now sat in his crib and watched the creature flail around the tent, with an excellent, yet horrifying view.

  After a minute of getting nowhere, it seemed the beast had given up on its prey and instead changed its strategy, using its massive wings to attempt to fly out of the tent. Cale was surprised to find that the creature actually managed to get up into the air while still weighed down by part of the tent. Its head was still covered with fabric, and part of the tent was trailing behind it like a cape, as it flew upward.

  From somewhere else in the camp, a ball of fire came from the ground, striking the bird, causing its upward momentum to fail and it started to fall back toward the planet. Cale watched in horror as its body looked like it might land on him. With wide eyes, Cale watched as the bird twisted enough so that it just missed him, albeit barely. The bird came down hard on the outer edge of his crib, mere feet away from Cale’s feet. This caused his crib, which was now teeter-tottering at an angle thanks to the stool beneath it, to launch Cale high into the purple night sky.

  For a second he scoffed at the situation, he had been tossed high into the air, due to no fault of his own, by a giant birdlike creature that was terrorizing his family’s tent, with no way to land safely while the world around him turned purple. What is this crazy place?!

  As he continued to move upward, and away from the ground, his internal screaming stopped as his situation sunk in. He had no control over his landing, he could not fly, or walk on air… or maybe he could? As his little baby brain went through possible ways to survive, his thoughts landed on his recently acquired script. It was the only chance he had, and his only hint was that it had the word air in it. Not much to go on. But I would rather try this than give up.

  Cale’s thoughts refocused as the upward momentum finally stopped and he started to fall back toward the ground. He was able to see his destination and to nobody’s surprise, it was right on top of the creature. By this time the creature had finally gotten the tent off its head, and he could see what it looked like. He recognized the outline of the bird as one of the birds he had seen while on the trip here. This one stuck out since he had noticed the smaller animals seemed to disappear when it was around.

  Cale had no time for hesitation, his fear wouldn’t let him, he opened his interface and activated his script. Since it said something about wind, the first thing he thought of was a wind blade. With no guidance, and the confidence of a soon to be dead man-baby, he tried to think of what his script might do as his script activated... He braced himself, expecting a jolt of energy to flow down his arm, but instead he felt nothing, and a little progress bar popped up on his interface.

  Cale couldn’t believe what he was seeing! His internal screams became outer ones as his chances of surviving just plummeted. “AAAHH!!!” By the looks of it, he would be on top of the bird by the time the script was ready to activate! To Cale, time slowed down as his brain processed the events before him at a rate only possible when one's life was on the line. This is the end.

  This crappy interface is going to get me killed. Who designs a system this slow??!!!

  As he fell down toward the bird, it quickly noticed his descent and a certain predatory glean could be seen in its eyes. Cale could see his mom in the corner of his vision and noticed the look of pure horror on her face. He could imagine how she felt, as she was about to witness something terrible and was not in a position to help. He saw his mother's leg was stuck under a knocked over table, keeping her from moving and he could see the kid that had run into their tent trying to help her up, but it wouldn’t be in time to save him.

  Cale’s focus snapped back to the progress bar. This was his only chance of surviving; he would activate it as soon as it was ready while trying not to focus on the hooked beak that was opening wide to swallow him. The moment before him stretched as he watched the bar move slower than the opening beak before him. During his descent, he tried to flatten his feet in hopes they would act like little air brakes. They didn’t slow him down at all, but they had caused his orientation to change, and his head was now facing downward, giving him a firsthand view of his fate.

  When he was mere inches from being swallowed, Cale’s script activated. He felt his soul pulse; a burst of pure energy erupted from him in a thin cutting slice. Cale barely believed what was happening as he witnessed this energy pour out of him. The bird split in half like someone splitting two pieces of bread. He went through the opening between the bird, somehow getting none of the gore on him. When he got close to the ground, he saw a V shape appear in the ground, then he felt the air rush back up against him, blowing him, once again into the air. Cale knew that he had nothing left to try. His body ached, his soul felt almost empty, and his consciousness was fading. He knew that if he hit something hard, he was done for.

  At least the script worked, he chuckled to himself internally.

  His flight path finally allowed him to see the ground and found that he was much higher up than when the bird had used his crib as its personal playground. With his last few moments of consciousness, he tried to activate his script again. This time it just pulsed twice and didn’t activate.

  Yep. That’s it, he thought. There was nothing left he could do. His options were out, and the ground was rushing toward him again. He closed his eyes, only to find himself immediately reopening them after feeling his body get hit by something soft and reaffirming, familiar even. He saw his father's face backlit by the purple sheen coming from the moon, the ground still very far below them. Somehow his father had caught him before he had landed. With the last bit of energy remaining in his body, he gave his father a tiny thumbs up. And then everything went dark.

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