Cale looked over the handful of scripts listed in his inventory like badges of honor with a sense of pride. They were the proof of his hard work, trickery, and straight athletic ability. With his parents honoring their side of the agreement, he was soon to start learning how to use them and it was all he could think about!

  Over a year earlier...

  Cale was not having a good time. It had been over a year since he had talked to his parents about his script, but it seemed like nothing had changed. Yes, he was learning to read and write, super early by every standard, but the rest of his days were the same. Every morning, he would open his interface and try new commands to open new menus, but nothing was working so far. He would get up, eat the food his mother had prepared, then he would go to daycare and sit with the kids his age and listen to the adults talk about the most asinine of topics.

  He had decided long ago that most of the daycare workers were not worth remembering. The two people that were supposed to watch over him, Clarence and Boyancy, were extremely boring and he found himself calling them NPC1 and NPC2, never in the same order. Nobody knew what NPC was, but they did understand that he didn’t care for them. Was he pretentious? Yes. But he had his reasons, not good ones, but reasons nonetheless.

  When he first met them, he thought that since this was a place of research, even the daycare people would be well learned. He quickly found that was not the case when he watched one of them take a full five minutes to tie their shoes. I’m going to have to reinvent Velcro; was the first thought he had after seeing them struggle with a simple knot. They did have their uses though. They had no idea how well Cale could understand them, so they frequently gossiped about the latest happenings.

  Some days they talked about things going on at the base, like different beasts that had attacked the base or when someone important was visiting. But today they were talking about their favorite brand of pants and which store in the city made them. PANTS! Cale didn’t enjoy conversations like this on Earth, and he most definitely did not like them here, so he zoned them out and went to see what the other kids in his daycare were doing.

  His section of the daycare contained five other kids his age. Two girls, Sarah, Sareen (her twin sister) and three boys, Boanmar (the poor fella), Ximta, and Dave. These names made no sense to Cale, but he assumed that some were old names and some were new.

  He still had no idea how his mother had come up with Xavier. He didn’t bother asking her anymore because every time he would she would just say “Because I liked it.” Which was a very unsatisfying answer for him, but he needed her help, and because she was his mother he didn’t push the issue. One day, when he finally figured out how, he planned on changing his name from Xavier to Cale, after all he still saw himself as Cale and not Xavier. He wasn’t looking forward to that conversation with his mother

  As he approached the other kids he observed as they played looking for an opening. The twin girls were making some tower out of blocks while the boys played monsters and rangers with the stuffed animals. He looked out past their play area to see other kids, easily twice his age, playing on the amazing playground. He saw some of the kids playing hide and go seek, others were playing tag, and a bunch were playing with balls on the court. All of the games were tantalizing to him, and he greatly desired to be out playing. Yes, he was an adult in a kid's body, but he loved to run, jump, and be competitive. Even more so in his toddler body. He figured there must be some hormonal thing in play, or it could be because his adult consciousness was running on toddler hardware. Regardless, he wanted to play and not be stuck in this little pen.

  He looked over at the two NPC’s guarding the gate. He would need to get them out of the way first. He could just climb over the fence, but they would easily see him and bring him back or chase him until he came back. After all, he was barely three. One time he got out and made it to the playset where he was able to evade the male NPC for almost an hour. Eventually they just called his mother, and she was forced to come down there. She had taken away his books for a week! It was not worth it, but he didn’t stop trying. He found that as long as he came back within a reasonable time, the NPCs would be happy and not call his mother on him. It wasn’t perfect but he got away with it.

  His plan to leave was simple and all he needed was for the kids in his group to make a scene. As soon as the two daycare NPCs left their post at the gate, he would escape into the jungle gym and hide amongst the other kids. He would eventually be found, or he would come back when he got hungry. It was not the first time he had escaped, and it would not be the last. At first the NPCs used to freak out when he would leave. But they did learn a little and usually knew where to find him. Since he didn’t make a fuss when he was found nor was he ever hurt, he suspected they would sometimes let him leave just so he could burn off some energy. Or they were really bad at their jobs. Either way, he was getting out.

  He went over to the boys and joined them in their toy play session. He grabbed a giraffe and pretended it had the power to fly. After all, who doesn’t want to fly? Once all the boys had realized how awesome flying was, he got them running around the little play area making zooming and swooshing noises. The girls were not paying much attention yet and they had started to work on their 3rd tower. He ran past the girls, letting his giraffe get close to one of their towers but not hitting it. The girls obviously started to freak out and started yelling, which was perfect. Once the other boys saw that the girls didn’t want them close to the towers, it was all they could think about. Soon all the boys, with the exception of Cale, who conveniently had decided that looking at the coloring books was much more exciting, were zooming around the towers, getting dangerously close to knocking them down. It took only a minute before one of the boys got too close and hit one of the towers, knocking it over.

  From there, it was all chaos. The girls tried to cover one of their towers to protect it, only to accidentally knock it over. The boys, completely misreading the situation, quickly demolished the third tower with their flying animals. All Cale could see were flying beasts, blocks, and tears. One of the girls got upset and threw a block at one of the boys, nailing him right in the head. He started to cry and threw his animal at the girl, missing her. With his anger not abated, the boy pushed the girl, who pushed back. Soon all the kids were biting, yelling, and wrestling with each other. It was pandemonium. Perfect. The NPC’s rushed over to break up the fight. Cale imagined they were upset that their pants conversation got interrupted. Good.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  As soon as both of the NPCs were distracted, Cale ran up to the gate and saw the new lock they had put on it. He laughed because he didn’t ever need to undo the lock, instead he would just jump up, grab the top of the fence, and pull himself over. Simple, easy, and quick. Within moments he was over the fence and running as fast as his legs could carry him. He had learned that his large feet liked to make a slapping sound when he ran, but if he only ran on the balls of his feet, it would be a lot quieter. When he got to the jungle gym, he quickly ran up a slide and got into one of the suspended play tunnels to get out of sight. He looked through one of the holes to see if the NPCs had noticed him; they hadn’t and were still trying to calm the crying kids. His escape had been perfect.

  “Escaped again, did you?” he heard from behind him. Cale recognized the voice as his best friend, Leo.

  “Yep!” Cale beamed with pride. “The NPCs won't miss me for a while.”

  “Xavier, nobody knows what that means.”

  “Yeah... Well. Doesn’t matter. What game is everyone playing?”

  “Hide n’seek. We were about to start another round, but I had them wait when I saw you running. Want to join?”

  “Yes!”

  Cale followed Leo out of the tube and down to the group of kids on the ground. At this point everyone recognized him and since this wasn’t his first time escaping, they let him hang around them without complaining... Mostly.

  “Can I be first finder?” Cale asked when he got to the group.

  “No!” a few of them said at the same time. They all looked at each other, smiling. Jinx, owe me a soda. Cale thought internally.

  “Why?”

  They eyed each other before one decided to speak. “You are too fast at finding. Hard to get away.”

  “Fine,” Cale responded with a sigh. It didn’t matter either way, it was just that finding was more fun.

  A finder was chosen, and they were given twenty seconds to find a place to hide. Cale looked around at his options. There were kids running all around the jungle gym and some were heading to the edges of the bounds, hoping to be able to escape instead of hide. Cale liked being up in the jungle gym though, with his size he could fit through some of the bars that others couldn’t, and he could hide in small corners that others dismissed. He ran up the nearest slide, his bare wide feet coming in handy as they gripped the usually slippery material. He got to the top and headed inward toward one of the towers that was connected by a couple of rope bridges and tunnels. He only had a few more seconds before the finder started looking and he had to be quick.

  He looked at one of the tunnels leading away, but there was a kid there. He looked at the other rope bridge, but that would be too loud at this point, plus there was a kid hanging off one of the railings near it, poised to drop if they were seen. All of the usual spots he liked were taken, and he heard the finder announce his start. He crouched in the corner of the tower. Watching the finder to see where they would go, the tower he was in had walls on two of the sides instead of railings, so he was able to take a peek without being seen. He saw the finder head toward another group of kids that had tried to hide behind the ball holders, which meant he had a few more seconds before the seeker came looking.

  As he crouched down his eyes darted around the tower he was in looking for any option in which he could hide. Normally he would stay on the move but his options this round were limited thanks to others taking spots he would normally use. The longer he looked, the more desperate he got and soon his eyes were looking up at the peaked ceiling of the tower. He had never noticed that there were rafters in this tower before, not big ones and they looked like they mostly just helped the tower keep its shape more than support it, but in his desperation, they looked like the perfect hiding spot if he could get up there.

  He hurried over to one of the tower corners that had a railing. Since the railing didn’t go all the way up, he was able to climb on top of it using a tower pillar as support so he wouldn’t fall down. Then, while still holding on to the pillar, he reached up with a hand and grabbed a rafter. Once he had a good grip, he moved his other hand to the rafter and used his grippy feet to brace against the pillar as he finagled his body upward. It was at this moment he heard footsteps below him and he knew he had to hurry.

  When he reached the top of the pillar, he wrapped his legs around the rafter that his hands were gripping. As quickly and as quietly as possible he shimmied along the rafter upside down like a little spider monkey. He went just a little ways past where the rafters crossed in the middle of the ceiling and hooked his legs around the cross, he then used the rafter behind him along with the leverage of his leg to pull himself up. Once he settled in the center, he found that his little boy butt was small enough where he could sit at the rafter crossing without falling down. A smile crossed his face as he realized he found a sweet new hiding spot.

  He probably couldn’t have pulled this move off if he hadn’t used his childhood home as a personal training gym. With his foot anchored to keep him from falling down, he pulled up his hips and got his body flat enough so he could push himself directly over the tunnel. He could still be found if someone looked up at him, but he was above them, and he hoped he could remain unseen. As he sat up there – uncomfortable – but still hidden, he noticed his interface icon start to blink. With nothing else to do, he clicked it and up popped a notification window.

  #Crystal Storage connection found.

  “Sweet!” He yelled before clapping his hands over his mouth, remembering that he was supposed to be hiding. He waited a few seconds to see if anyone showed up. He could hear kids all over the place yelling, so he figured nobody had heard him. He quickly opened his config editor and opened the storage icon. He remembered the steps he had taken last time perfectly.

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

  Cale looked at the prompt, mildly disappointed. He had hoped for a fire skill or maybe something earth based since he was underground a lot, but he would still take a movement skill. After all, a skill is a skill. He pushed #Yes and watched the transfer start in his interface. It was noticeably slower than the last time he had done this, which wasn’t ideal since he was still hiding and he could hear the kids below him start to yell out his name, which meant his time was running short.

  He didn’t want to move until the transfer was over. He knew his mom’s team did some sort of testing every day, but this was the first time he had ever gotten a notification while at daycare. It was also the first time he had ever been up this high. Which meant that he probably had never been in range of the crystals until now. It wasn’t like he would miss a notification trying to show up on his interface, at least he hoped he wasn’t missing them.

  Footsteps pounded along the rope bridge as the finder came flying into the tower at full speed. “Where are you, Xavier! I know you are around here somewhere!” The finder said, looking over the railings and in the tunnels, everywhere but up.

  Cale held his breath and tried to slow his heart rate, afraid to make a sound. He didn’t want to lose this script! If they found him now, he would have to get down and potentially lose his connection to the crystal. After a few seconds – but what felt like an eternity – the finder took off down the other rope bridge in the direction that Cale had come from. He sighed in relief as the connection remained stable, and the transfer slowly completed.

  As soon as it was done Cale closed his interface and looked around, he could hear the kids still yelling for him below and there was a good chance the NPCs were going to start looking for him soon if they heard the kids saying his name. He scooted his hip off the ledge and slowly let himself hang there, a few feet off the floor. He then dropped and threw himself into the tunnel he had just been on top of. If he was found here, he could just play it off as being quick, hopefully keeping his hiding place a secret. He got to the other end of the tunnel and quickly took a slide down to the ground where he was spotted by another kid and tagged. He was going to play another round, but he looked over at his daycare area to find one of the NPCs staring at him with a very cross look on their face. His adventure had come to an end.