They grow up so fast

Once the commotion of the visitors in Brecia receded, time flowed by quickly again. In the blink of an eye it was already young Elrion's first birthday. Taking a quick peek into the home of said birthday boy, carnage as far as the eye could see. Toys and books were thrown in every direction and if one were to look closely, you would see that many of these inedible items had tiny bite marks. Two adults were running around frantically lifting, moving and turning objects and furniture alike as if searching desperately.

"Where are you now, Elrion?!" Lee found a voice somewhere between a yell and a whisper as he called out to the missing young boy. The two parents stopped in their tracks, quiet as a mouse, as if listening for a response. And soon after, they received one in the form of a burp from inside one of the cupboards. The two looked at each other with horror in their eyes. A one-year-old child could barely eat food at all, much less whatever he could find in the cupboards underneath the sink. As they rushed toward the kitchen where the burp came from, and opened the door, they were greeted with a sight that they would never forget in their lives. A small, chubby child surrounded by bottles that were once filled with chemicals used for cleaning, each one with the top missing and completely empty. The strangest thing, however, was that it wasn't just the cap that was missing, but the entire top of every bottle. Elrion took a glance at his two parents before going back to what he was doing. There was the last unopened bottle in his hand, and, under his parents horrified gazes, a mouth with an eyeball inside quickly formed, like a hologram that could interact with the world. Before his parents could even digest this development, the eyeball inside the mouth retracted and the mouth stretched wide, before biting cleanly through the bottle. As soon as the bottle was decapitated, Elrion sniffed the contents before making a sour face and leaving the bottle alone. Elrion then started crawling toward his parents like his mission was done. Petra looked at Lee like she had seen a ghost.

"At least he didn't drink it." Lee was trying to be optimistic since he could tell that Petra was truly worried this time. Unfortunately, his words backfired immediately as the sound of a burp snapped their attention back to the floating mouth that had just finished drinking whatever toxic chemical was in the last bottle. The sound of the burp alone nearly caused Petra to lose consciousness from anxiety, but seeing that Elrion was fine and wasn't actually the one that drank it, her sense of unease was replaced with contemplation, followed by revelation and excitement.

"This must be his ability! Anything that is normally inedible can be given to the floating mouth to eat, which has some kind of benefit to Elrion." As she said this, she lifted Elrion and spun him around quickly in excitement, causing his face to turn from rosy to green and soon came vomit. Elrion's birthday celebration came and went successfully with Trago even giving a gift of a pacifier made from a sacred tree from his territory, which was promptly eaten in one bite by the mouth that showed up once more behind Elrion. Whenever the mouth arrived, the eye on Elrion's forehead would also show up and the two moved around in sync. Whenever the eye on Elrion's forehead closed, it was like neither had existed to begin with, fading away into nothingness. Time flowed by once more and his second birthday arrived before long. Two years of eating has culminated into this moment.

"Lee, honey. I assumed that because it was his ability and because he wasn't the one eating all those things, it wouldn't affect him, and it hasn't, he hasn't gotten sick no matter what or how much that floating mouth eats. But..." Petra paused as if confirming what she was about to say, "Is Elrion getting fat?" The large hoof paused in midair with a whole cake that was headed straight for the widely hanging mouth beside slightly older and significantly bigger Elrion.

"Nonsense!" Trago scoffed, "The boy is still growing and I won't have you interrupting that with your human standards! My grandchild will grow to be as big as me-ah!" Trago was cut off by a biting pain in his suspended leg. He looked over to see that the cake as well as his whole hoof was inside the floating mouth. The mouth was still chewing at the leg as though it was offended that it couldn't pierce through the hide of the Godbeast. Trago laughed heartily with a few snorts mixed in. The parents looked at each other awkwardly and shook their heads simultaneously.

Time seemed to pass endlessly during the period after his second birthday, nothing but eating and troublemaking. In the now silent city, in the quiet house everything was serene. There was snow piled up on the roof, threatening to fall with every breath of wind. Suddenly, a resounding boom broke the silence and the few rodent-like animals that weren't yet hibernating scattered as fast as they could. Inside the house, Petra slowly covered her face with her hands, looking much older than she previously had. After a moment of recovering from her own thoughts, she called out "Elrion, are you okay?" She waited a while but heard no response. Worry flashed across her eyes for an instant. No matter how many times something like this had happened before and turned out to be nothing, a mother would always worry. She quickly made her way up the stairs and down the hallway, arriving at Elrion's room. Opening the door and looking in, the worry and exhaustion in her eyes disappeared and as if by some miracle, she even looked younger again for a moment, due to the tenderness she suddenly exuded. "Sigh. When will this boy stop making trouble for us?" A warm smile spread across her face despite her contradicting mutter. The sight of Elrion's room was reflected in her eyes. The room was relatively clean except a few toys and books scattered about, a large mirror hung on the wall at one end, nearby a small closet. Besides that closet was a desk and beside that desk is a, now collapsed, bed. Inside the bed was a very, very fat young boy, seemingly in his early teens now. Petra was about to wake Elrion from his clearly deep slumber when, very abruptly, an eye that seemed even more sinister than before, despite his less intimidating appearance, snapped open on his forehead. Drool started dripping faster down his already covered face and his regular eyes shot open, in perfect sync with a voice that came from the window. "Elrion! Today is apple pie!" The charming voice of a young girl was like a match that lit a fire beneath the large butt of the now wide awake boy. He shot at inhumane speeds to the window, leaving a trail of drool in his wake. Standing next to him and looking down from the window, Petra shook her head and had to hold Elrion back from jumping out the window. Downstairs, Lee opened the front door to greet the young girl. "Calis, I know you're practicing, and I can tell you will make a great wife in the future, but can't you slow down a bit on the food? I'm not sure we can afford to keep getting new beds like this." At the mention of the word "wife" Calis's face turned bright red and she tuned out everything else that was said to her. "W-w-w-wife?! Don't be silly, we're too young for that Mr. Verita!" Before Lee could respond, Calis quickly walked by and with great familiarity spread out plates and utensils on the table.