Before heading back to his pen with the NPCs, Cale found Leo and let him know he had been spotted. Leo smiled at him knowingly and waved him off. He sprinted over to his area while the NPC watched him with a scolding look. Cale didn’t care though, not like they could actually do anything. Once he was let back into the gate, he ignored the chastising words of the NPC and went to go check up on the other kids.

  He had left them in a tizzy and wanted to make sure none of them were hurt. If they were hurt, he would feel bad and he would need to remove that option from his list of escape plans. First, he went to the girls and found that they were ok. None of them were crying anymore and he didn’t see any obvious physical bruises on them, so he went to check on the boys, who were making their own towers now and smashing into them with their toys. He was about to join them when an NPC called out to him.

  “Xavier! Your mother is here to get you.”

  He froze; it felt like his heart was about to explode from his chest! His mother never came and got him early, and only moments ago he had transferred over a script which had never been done while he was in daycare. Her showing up now was very suspicious and he didn’t think that it was random at all. He took a second to calm himself, but he figured that even this second was enough for his mother to understand that he had done something.

  When ready, he put on his best toddler face, turned to face his mother and yelled, “Mommy!” as he ran toward her. The look of shock on her face was glorious. It went from being in deep thought, to shock, to pride, and finally to suspicion. It was so much fun to watch, and it helped him hide his nervousness.

  He ran up to her and held his arms out, indicating that he wanted to be held. His mother, of course, couldn’t resist and picked him up and did a little twirl. Both of them smiling at each other, giggling as they spun. Cale had wanted her to be in a good mood, and it looked like his little plan had worked. Plus, he really loved his mother, and he knew that he didn’t always act his age, so acting like his age was sometimes fun for him because he got to see how much it lit up her face.

  “I’m going to take Xavier out for a snack,” his mom told one of the NPCs once they got done having their fun.

  Randomly, and concerningly Cale found himself leaving the daycare during the middle of the day with his mother. On their way out they stopped at the room where his sister was to check up on her and his mother wanted to say hi. His sister was a little over a year old and still loved to crawl most places. Thankfully they didn’t stay long, but Cale could tell his mother just needed to hold her baby for a bit, so he kept quiet and let her get it out of her system. Otherwise, she might try to hold and hug him all day, Cale liked some affection but that would be too much for his likes.

  They left the daycare and entered one of the main passageways. The underground base was quiet since it was the middle of the day and everyone was elsewhere working. This was his first time out of the daycare during the daylight hours, and he was surprised at how quiet the hallway could be. It made his mother's humming sound ominous as they traversed through the underground maze-like hallways, accentuated by the echoes of their pounding feet. Cale had no idea where they were but after a few minutes they arrived at an elevator entrance and they were soon back up in the tower lobby.

  The lobby had changed greatly since his last visit before the Moon’s Fury. Previously the lobby had a more civilian feel to it with its decorations. It felt welcoming and inviting. Now all the decorations were gone and the lobby looked like it had been prepped to hold off an invasion. There were giant wooden bars next to the doors that could be placed to keep them from being opened from the outside, and the doors looked heavily reinforced.

  The lobby reinforcements were not the only changes. They had added firepower as well. Large crossbow looking devices, which reminded him of ballistas, were pointed toward slits in the wall. Each sat on a pole and had handles behind the bow shaft for easy movement. The ballistas were not armed, but he could see the ballista bolts close by; it looked like it could do a lot of damage. The walls were lined with rows of spears, extra ballista bolts, pieces of armor, rope, and other supplies one might need when manning the lobby during a battle.

  Cale was impressed with the layout and only partially very intimidated by the large and imposing guards they walked by as they left the building. Each one of them looked like they could squash him. Surprisingly to him, none of the guards bothered to stop him or his mother from leaving the building. The last guard even gave her a nod when she left, making Cale question how little he knew about his mother.

  They left the tower, and true to her words to the NPC below, she took them to some food stands that Cale hadn’t known existed. He had been expecting her to confront him on his new script and was very surprised that she was actually getting them food. They perused a few of the stands before settling on a meal that reminded Cale of Fajitas back on earth.

  His mother selected a table in some shade and Cale immediately tore into the food; his day’s shenanigans and his growing body were constantly making him hungry. Plus, his current body had never experienced the delight of a Fajita, and he was excited to experience it for the first time again.

  His mother went with a pizza style food only, it was small and in a single dish, more of a pie version instead of the typical slice style you would see on Earth. As Cale ate, he found himself humming and swinging his legs to a random tune in his head. The food was good, it was beautiful outside, he was with his mother, and he had a new script. He was having a great day, and he was happy.

  “Xavier, I assume you know why we are out here celebrating?” His mother suddenly said.

  Cale looked at her with the most innocent look he could give before responding. “Celebrating?”

  “Yes, we are celebrating your new script.” His mother stated, with a now icy edge to her tone.

  Cale froze. He let his guard down and was now paying for it. For some reason he didn’t want to tell her he got another script. Though he knew he could trust her, there was an internal desire to keep everything as close to his chest as possible. It bugged him because it showed that he still had trust problems with his parents and he wondered if that would ever change or if he would always be paranoid.

  Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

  “Xavier, what have you done?” She said, looking down at him as he sat at the table. Her tone left no room for debate, no room for mistrust, and she wasn’t going to let him stop and think about his answer.

  “I...” Cale hesitated as he tried to figure out the correct words to use. “I found another script." He finally said, with his head down low. He couldn’t look her in the eyes. His shame overriding his pride.

  “Xavier, did you know what the script was before you got it?” She asked, concerningly.

  “I knew the name.” He said, “It didn’t sound very cool, but I wanted it anyways.”

  His head was still down low, so his mother put her hand under his chin and moved his head to look at her.

  “Xavier, I don’t think you did anything wrong. I actually want to help you, but you must start trusting me.”

  “Sorry mom,” he mumbled with a sad tone. “I didn’t plan on getting it, it just showed up!”

  “That is ok, Xavier. We can go into the details later. Is there anything else you want to tell me? Now is the time to get out any secrets.”

  “I don’t like my name. Xavier...” he blurted out then quickly put his hands over his mouth. Instantly regretting it.

  His mother's face was a mixture of shock and anguish. “Oh. Uh. That is a. Uh. Surprise. Yes, a big surprise. But we should talk about that over supper, with your father. Not here. Ok?”

  “Sorry mom...” he mumbled once again with his head down low, he felt terrible, but his name really did bother him, and his mother did ask…

  “It is ok, I am not mad. I am surprised, but not mad.”

  They sat in silence while they finished their meals and then headed back to the underground portion of the base. Neither of them saying much as they thought about their earlier conversation and its awkward ending.

  The rest of his time at daycare went by quickly as the idea of being confronted by his parents for both his name comment and his new script weighed on him. He was nervous they would yell at him or maybe even ground him. His mom had been on his side, but he was worried that now she would change her mind, and he would be punished.

  When supper rolled around, Cale was fidgeting with anticipation. He noticed that his parents seemed to enjoy torturing him as they talked about anything BUT scripts during dinner. It felt like his parents were making him wait on purpose as they talked about the weather, their days, the food they were eating. He even stooped so low as to start playing with his little sister just to distract himself. She seemed to enjoy the game peekaboo, which brought a smile to his face.

  To his dismay, his parents didn’t sit him down for a conversation until late into the evening. First, they had to eat, then he had to help put the dishes away and do his nightly chores. Lastly, his parents put his baby sister to bed. Then they FINALLY found the time to talk to him about his new script.

  His parents sat him down at the kitchen table, a seemingly similar scene to the previous conversation they had had over a year earlier.

  “Xavier,” his mother started, giving him a look while saying his name, “Your father and I have talked about your ability to get scripts, and we wanted to tell you that we are not mad.”

  “A bit surprised though,” his father pipped in before his mother hit him with her elbow.

  “Yes, we are surprised.” His mother continued, “But we understand that you are different than other kids.”

  “Very different,” his dad piped in thinking he was helping with the conversation.

  Fortunately, his mother was used to his antics and just continued with the conversation.

  “That is why we have decided to help you get more scripts.”

  “What!” Phil yelled out before Cale could. “When did we agree to this?”

  “Just now Phil.” His mother paused for a brief moment, “Did you know Xavier doesn’t like his name?”

  “WHAT!” His dad yelled out even louder, “Why would you say that?”

  His mother just pointed to Cale. “He told me. Ask him yourself.”

  Cale’s father looked at him, his demeaner suddenly changing from aloof to serious and his eyes started to get a light glow behind them.

  “Xavier, do you like your name?”

  “Dad, mom just said you were going to help me get more scripts and this is what you want to ask me?”

  “Yes. Now answer the question.”

  “ihatethename...” Cale sputtered out as quickly as possible.

  His father breathed in sharply, holding his breath for a few seconds. “It’s true!”

  His father sat down in his chair, slumped, with his arms dangling off the side and mumbling to himself. “He doesn’t like the name.”

  “Mom, why is dad, sad about this?”

  “It is just tradition for the father to name their first-born son and Xavier was a name he had picked out long before we were married.”

  Cale scrunched up his face, cringing internally. Now he felt even worse.

  “So back to the scripts,” he whispered to his mother, trying not to disturb his saddened father.

  “First, tell me how you were able to access this script in the first place. I wanted to ask you the first time we talked but your ability to speak wasn’t there.”

  Cale nodded his head in agreement since his speech had improved remarkably in the last year. So, he told his parents – mostly his mother since his dad seemed to zone out – about how he got the scripts. He went into detail about his interface, the flashing notification, and how he can open a config mode by doing a command. This opened up even more questions with his mother trying, and failing, to open a config menu of her own. She even mentioned that there were theories that there were hidden functions of the interface, but no one was said to have ever found one.

  When Cale’s story was over, the table was silent. His father had gotten out of his stupor about halfway through the story and had heard the important parts. He looked to his parents for a response, but they both had a distant look in their eyes. After a few minutes, his mother got up and went to the liquor cabinet, poured two drinks, and brought that back to the table.

  “Thank you,” his father said, reaching for one of the glasses.

  “These are for me, I left the bottle out for you.”

  His father didn’t even bat and eye as he got up to pour himself a glass. Cale watched as he reached for the glass, then decided the bottle was a better idea and brought it back to the table taking a swig along the way.

  “One of those nights huh?” Cale said, pointing to the drinks.

  “Yes, it is one of those nights. A night where your toddler son tells you world changing information like he is describing his favorite book.”

  “Ah, yes” Cale responded, not wanting to add more things to their plate.

  He didn’t say a word as his parents absorbed their liquor and just stared into the ceiling. After a while Cale started to get tired, it was way past his bedtime, and he had gotten used to the schedule. He went to scoot out of his chair when his mother decided to say something.

  “Xavier, wait. I do want to say something before you go to bed.”

  Cale stopped his scoot and sat back up in his chair. He could tell his parents were starting to get buzzed, and he wanted to witness it so he stayed.

  “I... We... Will help you get scripts.”

  Cale looked to his father expecting him to object, but his father just nodded along and took another sip from the bottle.

  “I will tell you the next time we run tests on a new divine crystal. We don’t run tests every week and it depends on what the teams bring up from their digs.”

  His mother looked at him, waiting for his acknowledgement before continuing.

  “Now just so you know, based off what you described earlier, there will only be a few weeks out of the year in which we do those tests.”

  Cale nodded his head again to acknowledge what his mom was telling him.

  “Now off to bed you go, it is too late for you to be up still!” She exclaimed with the glass still in her hand.

  Cale scooted out of his chair and started to head to the bathroom to get cleaned up when he was stopped again by his mother.

  “Xavier, one last thing.”

  He looked her in the eyes, expecting more rules or caveats.

  “I love you.” Is all that came out of her mouth.

  Cale smiled wide and ran over to his mother giving her a giant hug, then he moved to his father and gave him a giant hug as well.

  “I love you,” he told each of them. They were great parents after all, and he really did love them.