The Baby Grows

Since the birth of Priya, Taksh's behaviour changed. Instead of running around the mansion, or regularly visiting the garden and Training grounds, he started to spend most of his time with Priya, probably even more than Isha herself.

Whenever Priya would stay awake, he would talk about random stuff with her, when she would sleep, he would stay nearby her and play with his toys, and when she would cry, he would always somehow know whether she was hungry or she wet her diaper or it is something else.

Within some time, probably even Priya started recognizing him because she would start laughing when she would see him after some time, and would make some cooing sound when he would talk to her, like she was replying to his questions.

For Priya, her biggest toy was her brother Taksh. Whenever he would be within her arm's reach, she would grab his hair, nose or ears and would pull them here and there, like was her stuffed toy.

When Priya started crawling, Taksh would always try to clear her way so that she wouldn't step on something sharp or pointy.

Once, while Priya was under the watch of Isha and Dhruv, and Taksh had gone on a walk, Priya had gone too close to the flames of a candle nearby. Fortunately, Taksh came back at the right time and was able to save Priya's hands from burning. That day, Isha's and Dhruv's ears became sore because Taksh continued to lecture them for more than two hours continuously.

The first wobbly steps Priya took at about eight and half months of age were not towards her mother or her father but towards Taksh. Watching Priya take a couple of steps was a big thing for the whole family. But the one, who seemed happiest out of everyone, was Taksh. He literally kept on jumping and running all over the Mansion for Hours and Hours.

Taksh's sixth birthday came and went without anything big happening. Sure, the family had some celebration on this occasion, but it was nowhere close to the level they did on his fifth birthday. As I have explained earlier, the fifth birthday is a big deal in Zario. That's why it is celebrated in a bigger fashion than other birthdays, except the tenth birthday. That's an even bigger celebration than the fifth one.

Even Taksh was more excited over Priya's first birthday than his sixth birthday. Apparently, he had even planned some gift for Priya on her birthday, which he was making together with Neru. To be more specific, Neru was the one making the gift. He had just suggested to her how it looked.

On the day of her birthday, he revealed to her and the entire family, the toy he had been working on, together with Neru. It was a giant stuffed toy, about 3'6" high, which looked very similar to a Panda. Almost too similar to be just a coincidence. But obviously, nobody knew about the real Panda.

Taksh hadn't seen, or even heard about any Magical Beast, similar to this. Even Dhruv or Arvind had never seen anything like this. Taksh was not sure how this idea came to him. It was almost as if he had been sleeping, and when he woke up, he had the perfect idea for Priya's birthday. He had even named the toy Teddy.

But Priya must have liked his birthday gift a lot because from that day onwards, her 'Eddy' was more necessary for her sleep than her parents and their lullaby.

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, but Priya had started to talk, barely. The first word she had said was MAMA. That was not a surprise, since everybody was telling her to say the word Mother. But the next word she said was BABA, referring to Taksh as her brother. That day, Taksh was much happier than when Priya had first walked. He literally danced in front of Arvind and Dhruv for half an hour, rubbing salt on their wounds for losing to him in making Priya call their name.

As Priya grew, it became clear that she was just as energetic as Taksh. Both would run around the mansion, bringing a calamity when both would remain together without any elder's supervision for long enough. Scattering their toys would be their least, they would often draw on the walls or play hide and seek with everyday objects, resulting in losing some important objects most of the time.

It looked like even Taksh became a small kid along with Priya, although a naughtier one than he was in his childhood. But even then, Priya was a bigger prankster out of the two. After all, it was her company that ruined Taksh. Once, she filled Arvind's boots with dirt and ran away. Unfortunately for Taksh, he was found not far away from the site, when Isha saw the dirt-filled boots.

She started scolding Taksh without even listening to what he had to say, dismissing everything as just an excuse. When Priya saw that her mother had been scolding her brother without any fault of his, she was enraged.

"MAMA! You are scodlding bwother without any miskate. He didn't do anythink. It was my prank. Now say swory to bwother." (These are not writing mistakes, but Priya can't talk properly at this age she currently is.)

Isha was so embarrassed that she apologized to Taksh and left the scene, without scolding Priya this time.

Things continued to go on like this and soon it had been more than four years, since that interaction with Mr. Lonwell, with Lonwell still in the prison, suffering because of his mistake. Taksh had more or less forgotten about that day and had accepted the fact that he would never be able to use affinities.

Then one day, an insufferable pain began in his chest, just where his Solar Plexus should be.

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