Mom's Pouch

Special delivery, my ass! thought the wayward soul as she woke with a start.  Where the hell am I? And why is it so cold‽  She shivered.

She tried to look around but couldn't see anything. After a moment of turning her head in all directions, she realized, Oh, Gods! I'm blind!  She tried to cry out in fear, but no sound came out. Desperately, she squeezed her throat while breathing heavily, but she couldn't make a peep, cheep, or squeak.

DON'T PANIC! she thought to herself—while panicking.

What do I do? WHAT DO I DO‽ she thought.  What CAN I do‽

She moved every part of her body to gain some proprioception and realized she had a head, four limbs, hands with four fingers and opposable thumbs, feet with opposable thumbs—wait, what?—and... something else—a downward drop from her derrière.

I was just born and I already have junk in the trunk‽  She laughed internally at herself.  Damn, it's cold!  She shivered again.

She calmed her breathing as best she could and listened carefully.

I hear something!  She thought to herself. It was a very gentle sound. It sounded like...

BREATHING!

She turned her nose toward the source of the breathing, and a very powerful scent instantly took over her thoughts.  That smells amazing!

She couldn't resist the allure. She had to get to that smell. With every fiber of her being, she desperately crawled her way up what felt like the tallest hill in existence to reach that scent. To her nose, it was heaven. To her muscles, it was agony! And it was so cold!

Oh no, I went past it! she realized as the scent faded from her nose. She turned around.

There it is! YES!  She could nearly taste it now. It was so close! Wow, was she cold. Every bit of her body was shivering.

She moved toward the smell slowly—carefully this time—and realized it wasn't coming from the surface. It was inside... something. She pressed her nose against the surface of the hill and felt something like the edge of a blanket. A blanket that had been tucked in tight.

Instinctively, she pushed her nose right under that blanket and kept pushing until the rest of her body was inside. It was so warm! So nice in here! Now to find the source of that smell...

I felt something under me as I entered this blanket space. Is that what this is? Have I entered the blanket dimension?  She thought, as her mind started to become lost to the comfort. She reoriented herself to face back toward the way she came in, and that's when it hit her. The tiniest drop of...

HEAVENLY FLUID! IT SHALL BE MINE!  She thought as she latched on and began to suck it out.

SO GOOD! was the last thought that entered her mind before she fell fast asleep.

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Wakefulness came and went many times. She would often hear people talking—or at least that's what it sounded like. One voice was much, much louder than the others.  That must be Mom, she thought.

Despite her best efforts, she could not seem to let go of the nipple she had latched onto when she first entered Mom's pouch—or "the blanket dimension," as she had named it.

After what felt like ages, she started to understand some of the language being spoken near the blanket dimension. Words like "attached," "she," and even simple phrases like "my god" and "in trouble."

Before long, she was understanding entire sentences, though many words still eluded her. When she got out of the blanket dimension, she was going to have a lot of questions—like "What's a 'Proscribrarian'?" and "What's a 'kad'?"

Then, one magical day, it happened: The nipple that had been lodged in her mouth forever had finally come out! She was free!

I can move around! Woohoo!  She thought, as she energetically stirred about the blanket dimension.

"Oh!"  Mom startled, looked down, then closed the book she was working on.

The now-embodied soul triumphantly pushed her head out of Mom's pouch and opened her eyes to see a well-lit room with shelves of books on every wall.

Does my mom work in a library?  She thought.

She looked around and noticed that a gentle white light seemed to be emitted by several wide, flat rectangles of what looked like wood? stuck to the ceiling.  Very similar to fluorescent lights, she thought.  But how are they powered, and where does the light come from? she wondered.

She couldn't read—yet—but noticed that the shelves of books seemed to be divided into sections with clear labels for each. Many of the books had strange proportions, with some looking weirdly squarish and/or wide, with way too many pages between the front and back covers. She thought many looked like they could be flipbooks.  Maybe they ARE flipbooks, and that's their equivalent to movies in this world?  She pondered.

Mom had a huge, proud grin and said, "Welcome to the world, Maizy Debugger! Happy emergence day!" Then she reached down, pulled Maizy out of her pouch, and held her up in front of her face for a close inspection. "Oh my gosh! You're beautiful!  Look at that pretty white fur!" She beamed.

Apparently, my name is 'Maizy Debugger,' Maizy thought.

"By the gods! YOU HAVE TWO TAILS!" exclaimed Mom as she noticed the two very long, very fluffy tails attached to Maizy's behind. Then she paused and stared off into the distance for a moment, as if thinking of something.

So that weight above my rear is a tail—no, TWO tails? WAIT—was I born with a deformity‽  Thought Maizy as she tried to move them. It was difficult, but it felt like she got them to curl up slightly.  Oh! Are they prehensile? Maybe I can use them to pick stuff up!  Maizy thought that would be neat.

"I need to schedule an appointment with the doctor right away," Mom spoke her thoughts out loud with a nervous inflection.

Oh good, they have doctors in this world, Maizy thought.  Hopefully not witch doctors!  She chortled internally.  Why does Mom seem so... scared? Surely, if it IS a deformity, they can just cut the extra tail off. Oh gods!  Maizy thought.  I hope they have anesthetics in this world!

Maizy then tried to say, "Hi," but again, she couldn't make sounds. Fooling around with her tongue—which was now free of the nipple—she quickly realized she could make clicking sounds. So she clicked! And clicked and clicked.

She then tried making a "ki" sound by pressing her tongue against the back of her mouth, and that worked too. She thought to herself, Hah! That sounds a bit like laughter, then proceeded to laugh at herself in "ki": "ki ki ki ki." She even tried a dramatic laugh: "Ki. Ki. Kiii."

She tried making every sound she could, and further experimentation resulted in a shushing sound, a hiss, and a "tsk."

Am I going to have to communicate with body language‽ she pondered.  Hopefully, I don't need to find true love to get my voice!  Maizy thought, then laughed at herself, "ki ki ki."

Looking more than a bit worried, Mom smiled and said, "Don't you worry! You'll start learning Kad Sign Language tomorrow. We'll have you communicating in no time!" She then held Maizy to her chest in a hug, and Maizy thought she saw tears in her mom's eyes.

Kad Sign Language?  She thought about it.  It must be normal for my species to be unable to speak when we're this young.

Maizy then remembered she'd heard that word before—kad.  What does "kad" mean?  She tried to say the word—"kad"—but could only make a sound like, "kih' tuh."

Mom seemed to grasp what Maizy was trying to say and held her up. "Are you trying to say 'kad,' sweetgum?"

Maizy nodded, hoping that also meant yes on this world.

Mom smiled. "That's what we are!" she said. "We're kads! And we..." She started spinning around with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, holding Maizy up as high as she could, which caused Maizy to smile too. It felt great to be spun around like this! Wheeeee!

Then Mom made a strange, pained face and shouted, "GLIDE!" Properly yeeting her child across the room toward one of the bookshelves. She then returned to where she was, glanced down, and reopened her book.

"For now, just explore and learn how to use your body. I'll be right here when you're ready for a nap," Mom stated, with only the slightest hint that she would be counting on that nap.

AH! WHAT THE HECK, MOM!  Maizy thought as she instinctively spread all four of her limbs out as far as she could and...  glided? Toward the bookshelf—before clumsily smashing into it and latching onto a book with her claws. It didn't hurt at all!

GODS! I CAN FLY‽  Maizy thought excitedly as she climbed to the top of the bookshelf, looked for a good gliding direction, then leapt forward. She then very ungracefully smashed right into the floor with her limbs splayed.

Okay, maybe there's a trick to it, Maizy thought as she collected herself next to what appeared to be a pile of rolled-up scrolls.  I probably need more momentum or something.

Maizy then turned to look at Mom to get a good look at what their species looked like. Mom had white fur on her front, greyish-brown fur on her head and back, with a black stripe on her forehead that looked a bit like an arrow pointing at her nose.

Maybe she's an air bender?  Maizy mused to herself.  Wait, what does that even mean? She mentally shrugged.

On her face were two very large, black eyes, each surrounded by a ring of black fur. She had two large, roundish ears that stuck way up and out from both sides of her head.

I know this creature! Maizy thought.  Mom is a sugar glider. That means I'm a sugar glider!

Maizy considered this for a moment.  Does that mean I'm back on Earth? No, Earth ended a long time ago...  She wasn't sure how she knew that, but she was certain of it.

Kads must be creatures that simply  resemble sugar gliders.  She then continued looking at her mom, quizzically.

Mom was wearing what looked like a maroon... poncho? With strange, pale yellow symbols embroidered all over it. It was fastened around her neck, with both sides of the hood loosely stuffed into what looked like a brass woggle or ring. The brass woggle had an insignia of a book with an X over it, as if the book had been Xed out.

Around her neck was a wide, pink ribbon tied into a great big bow, which felt out of place compared to the very fancy poncho.

Compared to Maizy, Mom seemed huge, which made Maizy feel incredibly small and, suddenly, very vulnerable. She glanced at the enormous book Mom was reading—it was about twice as big as she was—and watched a tear fall from Mom's face right into it.

Maizy gave a warm smile and thought to herself, Moms can be so emotional.  She tried to remember her mom from her past life but found that she couldn't. Yet, for some reason, it didn't bother her. She shrugged.

Surely this double tail thing can't be THAT big a deal, Maizy thought. Then she remembered her ordeal with that dreadful god, WHAT, and wondered if the extra tail had anything to do with her "preference" for being much faster than normal.  Or perhaps the extra tail is what gives me powerful magic?  She pondered.

As she tried to remember her trials, she found that she could recall them very clearly—much more clearly than seemed possible. Her memory was astounding! She could play back, rewind, and even zoom in on everything that had ever happened to her since waking up in the body of that doll.

While Maizy was fooling around, trying to remember things and testing the depths of her memory, Mom noticed a faint blue light that seemed out of place in the library. She looked up from her book and, almost instinctively, reached into one of her poncho's many pockets as quickly and quietly as possible. She suspected someone might be trying to break into this sacred space—or that one of the books in the Taboo section was acting up again. Either situation would require swift and decisive action.

Her wobbles of training to become a Proscribrarian had drilled self-defense—and how to hide from her instructor—into her very bones. Mom didn’t panic. She didn’t flinch. Her hand had already grasped the object it was seeking, and her muscles were ready to leap into action with well-trained, lightning-fast reflexes. She was prepared for anything.

Except for the cutest creature she had ever seen, sitting upright on the floor, smiling and staring wide-eyed in her direction, one of its tails glowing with a gentle blue light. In actuality, it was the blank stare of someone not paying attention to the world around them—but close enough.

Mom relaxed, pulled her hand out of her pocket, and went back to reading her book.

Only out of the pouch for a few moments, and she's already discovered her gift—whatever it is, Mom thought to herself.  I've never seen blue before.

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After laughing ("ki ki ki ki")—repeatedly—at WHAT tripping on the skateboard in her memories a few times, Maizy yawned.  Is it nap time already?  Maizy thought.  I've only been out of the pouch for a short while!

Maybe looking through my memories like that uses up a lot of stamina?  She wondered.

Maizy then sniffed around for Mom before realizing she already knew precisely where she was.  Why did I do that? Maizy thought.  Must be an instinct.

She lazily crawled across the floor in a straight line toward Mom, and Mom seemed to just know—in the way all moms do—that Maizy was sleepy and needed a nap.

That wasn’t very long, Mom thought as she held out her hand for Maizy to grab, then gently guided her into the pouch. Without hesitation, Maizy dove straight into the blanket dimension, latched onto a nipple, and fell fast asleep.