The Lightning Kid and the New Healers

The Lightning Kid had gone from being able to sit when placed to being able to raise himself into sitting from his belly.  He’d become so proficient in the latter that the King had even seen him prop himself into a sit while technically asleep - much to the King’s over-fatigued, under-slept chagrin.  

Still the young prince’s progress was pleasing to everyone and was very much in keeping with his previous track record as a ‘superstar’.   Yet his 10 month birthday came, and he was still unable to crawl.  While this was by no means a great delay for any child, even a typical one, the King and Queen could not help but worry a little.

He had been developing fantastically, and had a personality that was dynamic, active and inquisitive.  The Lightning coursing through his system was not only powering his hair, but all his movements - he had a wild dance where he’d swing his head from side to side to greet or entertain people he liked, to his ability shoot out a hand like a snake and snatch things that seemed out of reach, to his freakish strength when grabbing things or trying to squirm out arms that were trying to rock him to sleep.  These were remarkable even in a land of Shark Boys, Two-Headed Monsters and Magical Bubbles.

Crawling was something he would need, but in his case, the sooner the better.  The King and Queen hoped to curtail any of the delays that were anticipated with his condition; whether this was an actual delay or not.  They had the means and resources to pursue the assistance of an extra healer, and resolved to tread lightly and carefully - a subtle touch is sometimes the most powerful.

They took the Lightning Kid to a House of Butterflies and met with a healer.  The healer couldn’t help but be impressed with the prince’s attitude and energy, which surprised the King and Queen since they’d had the bad luck of picking a day where he hadn’t napped well and was bound to be tired.  The healer mentioned that her own children had hair like his and went about assessing him.  The Lightning Kid went on to demonstrate all of his collected skills, and the King and Queen were pleased to find out that the healer agreed to a schedule of a half-hour every two weeks.  They’d heard that more work was common in other lands, but they found this schedule was more in keeping with their beliefs to integrate new exercises into their existing lifestyle, rather than burden a baby with chores and drills.  They were given tips to get the Lightning Kid to use his legs more, including not only to propel himself forward, but also to bring himself into a supported stand.

A week later the prince would be assessed for signs that his speech was progressing well by a different healer. They noted how he was aware of his own name, and who his parents were, and how he expected action from those in the room. They catalogued his sound "Baba", "Eh!" "Bada" and of course blown raspberries. The healers suggested playing with sounds in front of a large mirror which they lent the King and Queen (it was made of a material that the two princes would be less likely to break...). The next morning the King tried it out and the Lightning Kid had fun doing his head swinging dance and generally having fun with his own reflection. Within days his sounds had expanded to "Uh!" and "Mada". The King and Queen knew it would be onward and upward with the new exercises for the next little while.