Oh good heavens it is cold out here. Maybe I should have stayed put a bit longer; inside was nice and cozy, and I kind of miss the lovely, soothing drumming sound of heartbeats and the way everything else was muffled and muted and soft. Still, the breath in my lungs feels good, and the oh so warm and cozy, much larger from the outside form of my momma smells so safe and right and wonderful, and goodness but sounds are so much more than I thought they’d be! Bigger and clearer and brighter and oh look at the pretty lights! I stare as colors play in the air around us, dancing with just as much delight as is washing through me. I reach out to touch them, but there’s nothing to feel, just the shifting patterns coming to dance on my nose and making my eyes cross trying to see them.

“They’re auroras, my tiny little moonbeam,” Momma murmurs, rubbing the very softest part of her nose along my shoulder as the light follows her movement and trails down the crest of my neck, my withers, the line of my shoulder.

“‘Rora?” I ask, wrapping my lips and tongue around what is fast becoming my favorite word, the sound of magic in the air and on our skin and lighting the world around us. Momma’s eyes light up and she glows just a little bit, a soft sparkly new radiance that I want to bathe in, to burrow into, to rub up against until it clings to me too. She pulls in a soft, shaky little breath, almost a gasp, as the not-quite-word shimmers in the air around us too.

“Rora,” she says with a smile brighter than anything I’ve seen yet, and she reaches out and touches her nose to mine. “Oh, that’s perfect, isn’t it, Rhory? Our little Rora.” Ohhh that’s what she wants to call me? It makes my chest all warm and happy, like those magic lights are dancing inside where I can’t see them but I can feel them. And I smile too and nod, my eyes wide with delight and--wait.

Ohh wait.

Momma was talking to--ohhh goodness goodness, I turn to look, and a slow, lazy little half-grin makes my lips curve open when I see blue eyes full of awe looking down at me. And where a moment ago I was perfectly happy lying next to Momma forever and ever even if my tummy was getting a little rumbly and poking at me to move, well now I just need to be up, up, up! Lips pursed, brow furrowed, I look down at my legs and try to puzzle them out now that they’ve got sooooo much space to stretch and move and go every which way they want.

It takes a few tries. More than I know how to count, which doesn’t take much since...well, since I don’t know how to count. But eventually, with a teensy bit of help from Momma steadying me with a touch of her nose to my side, I finally make it to my feet! ‘Course, I sort of forgot that I don’t know how to make them work properly yet, and it turns out that’s an important to step to figure out. Launching myself at my daddy without taking the time to learn that part miiight be why I quickly wind up back on the ground, grunting as I get caught up in a heap of tangled limbs.

Oops.

Okay. That’s alright. I can do this! I try again, and the getting up part is easier now that I’ve done it once. Also this time Momma’s standing next to me and keeping a steady guiding touch on my shoulder, making it easier for me to sort out how to make my feet go in the right order to move me forward. THEN I’m cuddling my daddy, all wriggling joy and merry smiles. “Rora,” I tell him, because that’s me now and I want him to know forever and always, and I snuggle as close as I can get. Ohhh and then Momma’s on my other side and I’m almost as cozy as I was before this whole adventure started, so I rub my face against each of them and wiggle happily.

Ohhh and then my tummy rumbles much, much bigger than before, and Momma breathes out a happy, quiet little laugh and nudges me toward food. Warm, creamy, delicious food that fills my belly with sparkly cozy delightful quiet that makes the rumbling go away. And makes me sleeeeepy. As soon as my belly is full of warmth, my eyelids get so heavy it’s hard to keep them open, even though I want to look around at the whole wide world and see everything and be awake and get all the cuddles from my momma and my daddy and oh everybody warm and snuggly and happy. Momma laughs again, a sound I already love, and snuggles me up in a cozy warm ball of light and cuddles surrounded by her and Daddy. Mmm, that whole wide world part might maybe need to wait a teensy bit though. Just a little. Til I...can...