Unfortunately I couldn’t study the world right after feeding. I would get tired after Mama put me back in the crib and end up falling asleep right away. That was the routine for the first few weeks.

Now that I’m a month old, I can actually move around a little bit and am not restricted to just sleeping and eating. In that time, I learned quite a bit about my family. My parents are Eric and Bluebell. Yes, that really is Mama’s name. The oldest child, my echidna sister, is named Daffodil. After that, it’s my brother Andrew, my kitsune sister Katrina, and then me.

Which still leaves the issue of my species. Laying on my back in the crib, I decide it’s high time I get this over with. 

I start by raising my arms. The first thing I notice is that my hands are covered in scales, which means I am some kind of reptile. Then I notice that there are feathers covering the ends of my sleeves. That narrows it down a lot. Only one species I could think of has feathers coming from their wrists along with scaly hands. 

A basilisk, huh? I muse. There certainly could have been worse outcomes. I squirm onto my side, then curl my head towards my lower body. Instead of legs, I have the same kind of lower body as Mama; the scaly length of my tail is a deep green with two thick wavy lines running down either side. The feathers at the end of my tail look like they belong to an owl; they’re a light brown that gives them a soft and quiet look. 

Now that I think about it, one thing leaves me wondering. I’m a basilisk, but there’s no evidence of my natural ability. My eyes are uncovered, and neither Mama nor Katie have shown any evidence of being affected by my venom.

How is that possible? I panic. Hopefully it develops with age or something, but what if I never get my venom? Would I really even be a basilisk then?

Maybe it just doesn’t affect Monster Girls, I conclude. I hope that’s the case. But that would mean they would have to blindfold me in order for Dad or Andrew to visit.

I’m honestly hoping they visit soon. It’s been quite a while since I last saw a human, and the males were the only humans I knew in this world.

Well, I guess technically I won’t see them, I muse. Since I haven’t had my eyes covered at all yet, I have next to no idea how to see without using my eyes. I know that I can use heat sensing and mana detection in theory, but I have zero experience.

How am I supposed to use my other senses to see my dad and brother if I’ve never done that before? Then it would just end up being them seeing me without me seeing them. The idea that that could happen upset me.

I take that resolve and form a plan. I would hold my eyes closed and practice using my heat and mana detection to replace my lost vision. I shut my eyes and concentrate.

…Nothing. With no idea what to concentrate on, I’m stuck in inky darkness. I remember that the mana-sensing was often described as a form of smelling the different traces of mana. I sniff deeply, and, clear as day, I could pin down Mama’s demonic energy. There is also a faint trace of Katie’s mana as well.

Then I pick up on something else. In the background, hidden behind the other scents, is something else. Another scent. I can almost feel it flowing past me, constantly shifting and swirling. As I concentrate on it, I sense every object in the room.

That must be the ambient mana, I realize. The subtle energy carried a silhouette of everything it touches, like how a stream flows around a rock in the riverbed.

Okay, part one figured out. Now how do I sense heat? Instinctually, I open my mouth and breathe in, before closing it in embarrassment. Really?! I’m going to have snake habits?!

I start freaking out about the ridiculous quirks I might develop before realizing something. Before, when I breathed through my nose, my perception of the room was comparable to twilight–not enough to navigate by, just vague colorless shapes. Now, after breathing in through my mouth? My surroundings come into crystal-clear focus. The difference is almost literally night and day, even if it was just black shapes with white outlines.

Using my eyes to see? Ha! I think. I’ve got something better. Blind spot? Never heard of it!

Before I can get too full of myself, however, reality slips back in: I’m just a baby, stuck in a cradle. That thought makes me frustrated. I want to do something, darnit. There just isn’t much I can do. 

Maybe I could practice crawling around, I muse. The sooner I start moving, the sooner I can get used to my new lower half. After all, you gotta learn how to walk before you can run, right? I giggle at my joke, seeing as I would be doing neither as a lamia.

After more attempts than I care to admit, I manage to flip over onto my belly by pushing with my lower tail. Now that I’ve managed that, I try to get my arms under me, with zero luck. I realize that I’m trying way too soon; my body is still too weak. 

My emotions were still high from figuring out my heat-sight, and that quickly swings into utter frustration with being unable to do anything. As tends to happen with intense emotion, I can’t stop myself from crying.

Now, I’m certainly not aware enough at the moment to notice a soft swishing sound approaching me, but I certainly do notice when a pair of gentle arms picks me up and rocks me back and forth. With nothing left to think about, I quickly succumb to the warm embrace of sleep.