"Singing is a way of escaping. It's another world. I am no longer on earth."

Edith Piaf

After our morning or rather our nighttime sailing, I would be tuckered out. I often fell asleep by the time we arrived in our hidden blue cave with our haul of fish, oysters and sometimes snails. The oysters and snails would be left there for Des and Sinis to deal with while father would carry me back home through the winding paths within the mountain. I could walk once more but who didn't like being carried particularly if I was struggling to stay awake.

We still lived in Grandfather’s home despite the gradually growing palace that was being carved from the mountain. One more layer of deception to defend us our paranoid ‘grandfather’ had us believe. Personally, I thought he had just gotten used to having our company and was loathe to give it up now that it was a choice rather than a compulsion.

Once Father had deposited me back into bed. A bed! They had upgraded me from my box now that I was a little longer and no longer fit in it quite so easily. He would make his way back to the cave before he sailed out across the lagoon to sell the fish with the rising of the sun. I was sure that someone must have noticed that he was a little more regular and prompt with his deliveries but no one had commented on it yet. At least not to him or the family.

I would sleep in after our nighttime excursions. But while I was draining my stamina quicker than I used to the amount of vitality and endurance meant that I only needed a short power nap of an hour or two before I could be up and at them again. I wouldn’t say that it was an early start to the day seeing as I fell asleep with the rising sun but it wasn’t too slovenly either.

Once my morning training, sailing and simply hanging out with my father was over I spent the rest of the morning with my mother. First, we would weave for a while. Well, my mother would weave. I would sit at her feet practising my knots. Father might have left to sell his catch but he had left me the two-year-old homework to do each day which he would be testing me on the next day as we sailed or in the evening when he returned.

I had a long list of knots that I had to do. The bowline knot, clove hitch, anchor hitch, sheet bend, double sheet bend, Carrick bend, figure 8 knot, half hitch, square knot, cleat hitch, rolling hitch, overhand knot, stevedore knot, thief knot, handcuff knot, scaffold knot, marlinspike hitch, bowline on a bight, butterfly knot, monkey's fist. Whenever I had mastered another knot he gave me another one to learn. I felt like he was just making them up on the spot almost. Having learned all of the above the two that he had added today were the fisherman's knot and the double fisherman's knot. There were now so many it was more a task of remembering the correct name as much as it was remembering to do the right knot. It made it slightly easier in that he would use a different knot for different jobs and I remembered them more by the different jobs they were used for than their names.

Once I had run through all the knots again, then came my sewing, stitching and hemming with my mother. The family had decided that just because I had managed to become balanced once more there was no reason to tempt fate twice and neglect my physical stats. I continued to practice under the watchful eyes of my family all the little tricks of the trade we had developed to advance my dexterity. The only difference now was that I was expected to continue them until I fell asleep from lack of stamina rather than my dexterity elixir running out.

I sometimes wondered where my childhood had gone seeing as I supposedly hadn’t left it yet. However, I understood the reasoning behind their regimen and having already fallen afoul of the hidden rules of the system I was loath to try my luck again at acting in blind ignorance once more. That is not to say we didn’t have fun though and if you are enjoying your work is it really work at all.

Mother loved to sing and that hadn’t changed. I now got to join in along with her fully now that she had accepted me for who I truly was and I could sing once more. I had gradually grown out of my burbles and churbles although the year of being crippled had slowed my progress. No, I still hadn’t told them everything but neither had I hidden my abilities from them either. We would spend our mornings singing and sewing. I had already learned all of her songs but I enjoyed adding counterpoints to her melodies or adding their harmonies. I was in two minds about teaching my family new songs from my world. Some melodies maybe I could manage but so many songs were dated by their lyrics as much as their melodies and in this world, it was not that they would be dated by the lyrics but exposed by them.

It was all very well singing such songs as “Are you going to Scarborough Fair?” and replacing the fair you were heading for with one of our own but modern songs or in fact any song that referenced my world’s technology, would give too much away if they ever spread outside of our family. That and the fact that a baby singing about his true love would possibly be equally worrying.

I knew all my mother's songs having listened to and learned them before ever being born and she had always been happy for me to keep humming along with her but as with everything that we were doing now it was aimed at the continued balancing of my stats. It had never been difficult to level my Mental stats so every effort and every activity had to be one that worked towards either vitality strength endurance or dexterity.

Stitching was an activity that focused on a skill that was hopefully helping me to level up my dexterity but we hoped that singing too could be used that way as long as I sang quick enough or was dextrous enough in the melody. I was a long way from being able to sing flight of the bumblebee or play it for that matter but it was only a matter of time in a world of stats and magic.

We started off slow with a song that we knew well and then just got faster and faster until we were tripping over our own words. I say we but it was mainly me. Mother dredged her memory for new songs to learn and sing at speed.

Kingdoms round a compass

Whichever way you wander

Watch out for your whereabouts

Les' they waylay and end you

(Ring a ring a roses)

We mainly worked on this world's nursery rhymes and their simple songs but we worked them up to a blistering speed and the skill seemed to level from it. I just hoped that this was adding to my next point in dexterity not another point towards my charisma although I wouldn’t say no to a point in each if that was an option.

Throw your stones on the floor, on the floor, on the floor

Throw your stones on the floor stone staff wizard

Pick them up and try again, try again, try again

Pick them up and try again, death or glory

(London Bridge)

Much like the nursery rhymes of my own world, they seemed fairly morbid in their endings but there was some wisdom in each. Even if some of their meaning had to be explained to me. The kingdoms 'round a compass nursery rhyme warned of the dangers of wandering in various directions but I felt that it could have given a little more information about what to do in each direction rather than warning all children off wandering at all. But maybe my mother was missing some of the verses which would enlighten us on the particular dangers. Furthermore, I supposed for most children 'not to wander' would possibly be the best advice after all wandering off rarely ended off well for those who did in the stories of Grimm.

Sail the circle sea

Sail the circle sea

Reef, pull, trim and lean

Watch out for monsters

Watch out for fish

Watch out for pirates

Less you be a dish

Point to the north

Point to the east

Point to the south

West for a feast

Trim your sails tight

Set the course

Head off for home

In boats of stone

(Wind the bobbin up)

Nowhere seemed particularly safe for children at least and even despite my inflated stats, compared to any normal infant, I was still limited by my vessel. The body of an infant.

Apparently, biology still had a part to play and even if my points in strength were accelerating my growth of muscles, my points in dexterity the amount of possible fast-twitch muscles and endurance my stamina I still had to spend time to simply grow up. Fingers crossed we had the time to do that. As we got better at singing faster we added complexity to it by singing the songs in rounds in harmony and finally adding in counterpoint. That was the most entertaining part of the morning for me. I would hold the tune while my mother took her voice in flights of fancy to make the simple nursery rhymes so much more.

That wasn’t to say that we didn’t do any stitching while we were at it either. My mother was able to time her stitches to the songs plunging the needle and thread through the cloth in time to the music and so quickly I was sure she was using a skill. I had an advantage I believed with my traits and perks able to think watch and act on my thoughts quickly but they only stacked up so high against pure stats and skill levels which my mother appeared to have plenty of.

We would keep up at this till my fingers and voice grew sore and my stamina dipped and it was time for another nap. It was not long till I drifted off once more to the sound of my mother's voice weaving the world with her words.