To Sleep In The Sea Of Time

My paranoia was kicking in hard, but I continued to observe.

The older girl I was with was tying the tall red grass with some other girls who had babies tied on their backs with makeshift harnesses.

It looked like a little community.

Occasionally, the older girl will take me back and clean my basket or feed me.

All in all, I could not complain, although some kids looked at her with dirty looks like she was avoiding work.

When the day came to an end there was a horse and carriage that came around the cul de sac a potbellied Caucasian drawing the carriage would stop and a few kids would take the barrels in his cart and drop them in the middle.

The man stepped out and barked some more orders following which all the children started packing the cart with red grass until it was full and when the man left everyone dispersed taking a barrel each with them.

Back in our house the four of them raided the would-be kitchen.

It seems like these kids eat only twice a day at night and in the morning, I didn't see anyone taking a break in the whole twelve hours we were outside, a lot of these children look very thin and malnourished.

I knew the milk was spoiled but it was my only sustenance, and the shadow of food rationing was looming taking advantage of being a baby I started training nonstop.

I found myself in a peculiar position with my energy core.

I compressed it as much as I could it was threatening to implode and expand all the way out of my body if I continued training, maybe even harming me like before.

It seemed like I couldn't put it off any longer I had to bring it out of my body. I needed to know what I was dealing with.

One night when everyone was sound asleep, I stayed awake purposely missing my training so that I would be at full energy in case something happened to me like it did last time.

The recoil felt like it was going to melt my organs. I know I was being paranoid, but I needed to be.

I couldn't risk going back into the blender when I had opposable thumbs!

But at this point, I couldn't allow myself to live in ignorance either.

I adjusted my body to face the wall and condensed my ball in front of me, I was shocked to see that it was materializing.

It was like a ball of summer haze when fully in front of me but this haze was thick, so thick that it distorted the space it occupied and I couldn't see through it, I was right to be paranoid it is visible.

I had my suspicions thinking back to when I was attacked by those humanoids.

I was attacking the leader at the time some figures shied away from my arrows and they didn't have an energy shield around them.

Now that it was in front of me, I placed my hand on it and felt my hand dip into pure energy that was a part of me. I could absorb it back into myself or have it move around me even push and propel me.

Now came my second plan of action. I had to condense another energy ball. This one was too full and the rate I was growing was disproportional to the energy accumulated.

I needed another energy core to help share the burden.

In theory, I created this ball so why can't I create another?

It is a manifestation of my consciousness energy so it shouldn't be an issue to create another one.

I focused on the very center of the energy ball and started condensing it even further.

It was difficult because if I concentrated too hard at the center the rest of the ball would dissipate and I would be left with a portion of my energy leaving me to accumulate and condense from the beginning.

I maintained this state feeding energy into the center of my energy ball while maintaining its total mass.

It was like writing with one hand and molding a pot in the other.

The night went on like this condensing a portion of my energy every time I feel myself losing focus, I would stop coalescing energy and start over again.

I knew it would be difficult and long, but this was the only way I knew how.

Six months went by like this and although I couldn't train every night, I was getting plenty strong by processing the poison in my body.

I noticed that when I was at my weakest, I could store more world energy in my body, my organs feeding on it hungrily.

Currently, I was crawling around fine by myself as I was a year old. When the older girl was tying red grass, she would let me down from my bucket so that I could crawl around with my makeshift diaper of rags and at times old clothes.

I got a feel for the ground and it was soft, the soil was extremely rich making me wonder just what they were using this red grass for.

I did not dare send out a tentacle to see if it matches any of the material I have cataloged.

My paranoia was strong, at times the little girl would come by my crib every night and talk to me but never when anyone was around.

I began to understand the language although it was minimal, I was picking up quickly. As we waited for the kids to finish loading the horse cart one day one of the boys grabbed onto a bale that was too heavy and came crashing down.

"Damn it you're wasting my time boy hurry and get back up" shouted the overweight man that made the pick-ups.

The young boy was obviously scared but more than anything he was finding it hard to get back up it looked like he twisted his ankle. The boy stayed silent and limped towards the cart, but the portly man stopped him and kicked him back towards the group with a vicious grin "Filthy, dirt, and lazy is all an Olim will be" a yellow blob of spit flew from his mouth hitting the boy lying on the floor.

He started craning his head around and laid his heavy-lidded eyes on the older girl that I was riding on. Seemingly taken aback since she was pretty.

Licking his lips, he made his way over "Go ahead and get to work picking that up".

She was wearing a brown dress made from rags and could still catch his eye, there was a twinkle of excitement in his eye like he found a new toy.

The girl looked horrified but immediately covered it with a bowed head and ran to the cart not wanting to keep his attention.

She quickly helped the rest of the boys to load the cart and get back to the crowd as quickly as possible.

But it was too late, I could tell.

I remember the lion and how it licked its lips before snapping my neck with its iron-like jaw, and he was licking his lips the exact same way.