“Door?”
The door was open.
Retvik had seen the door open before, but every time it had been open, they had been carried through it and the door had been closed behind them. Whenever Retvik was in this room, the door was closed. Whenever Retvik was not in this room, the door was closed.
But right now, the door was open.
“Door!”
The other younglings weren’t really awake. They were drifting off to sleep. They’d had a busy day being inspected by the big scary doctor person. That had stressed them out, and now they were going to take a nap to sleep away that stress.
Retvik wasn’t sleepy though. They were curious. About the door.
“Door…”
Retvik had never been outside the door on their own before. And now their curiosity was spiking. They couldn’t see much past the door. There was just a blank wall on the other side. But there had to be more past that wall. Retvik needed to know.
The first thing Retvik did was sit up from their cot. They had a new cot now. A bigger cot. Because Retvik was getting bigger. But Retvik noticed that this cot was like the old cot they had at home. The cot that da got rid of, because Retvik had made holes in it. It suddenly occurred to Retvik that they could make holes in this one too. It was the same cot but bigger. With the same material.
Curiosity took over completely. Retvik needed to know what was past the door. The door was open. This was their chance.
Retvik started making holes in the wall of the cot, using their sharp claws. They could climb up and over and then go over. But a new thought took over.
“No climb. No up. Da say no.”
They remembered the last time they had tried to climb. Had they fallen? Whatever had happened, da had been scared. Da had taken them to the play pen in the big downstairs room. Then da had bought a new cot that Retvik couldn’t make holes in.
This cot though, Retvik could make holes. Actually, Retvik could make one big hole. One so big that Retvik could go through it.
So that was what Retvik did. They made one big hole at the bottom. That meant they were closer to the ground. The cot wasn’t very high. But now that Retvik had made the hole and was peering through it, they realised they couldn’t reach the ground. Retvik didn’t want to fall. But maybe if they went feet first, they could land on their feet and cushion the fall a bit, then crawl towards the door.
That sounded like a good idea. Retvik laid on their stomach, then wiggled their way towards the hole they had made. Retvik’s tail was very long though so they had to put their tail through the hole first. Apart from that though? Their plan seemed to be working. Retvik managed to wriggle backwards then land on their feet somewhat, leaning against the edge of the cot to stable themselves. Once they were stable, Retvik managed to slide down onto the ground.
Everything suddenly looked different. Everything looked bigger. Retvik didn’t understand it. But it didn’t matter. They were on the ground. And the door was still open. Retvik needed to know what was past that door. So they started crawling towards it. It seemed so far away, but with every plod, it slowly got closer and closer. Up until Retvik noticed that the ground ahead was different.
“Ick…”
There was a metal strip on the floor. It was cold. Retvik didn’t like it. It felt weird. But that was the only thing stopping them from going past the door.
Retvik though was still curious. They were nearly past the door. They couldn’t stop now. So Retvik held their breath and awkwardly crawled over the metal strip as fast as they could.
“Wa…”
Realising they were now past the door, Retvik looked around. Everything was still very big. And they didn’t know where to go. Both ways looked the same. A colour Retvik didn’t like but couldn’t explain. There were other doors too, but they were closed. One direction (Retvik didn’t know which, the concept of left and right was still somewhat foreign to them) though looked brighter. So that was the direction Retvik decided to crawl.
Retvik seemed to crawl for a long time. Everything was huge. Normally things moved a lot faster when Retvik was being carried or when they were in the pram. But Retvik was curious, and they weren’t going to let a bit of tiredness stop them from exploring.
As they reached the bright thing though, they realised that it was a window. The bright thing was the sun shining outside, slowly setting. But Retvik was small and they couldn’t see out of the window.
There was a bigger problem though. There was only one path to go. And it was a set of stairs going up. They were huge stairs. Bigger than Retvik. It was possible that Retvik could climb them eventually, but they weren’t sure how to. Also, there was a big Rethan standing at the top of the stairs, talking to another big Rethan just out of sight.
“Big!” Retvik squeaked.
Both adult Rethans immediately looked around. The one at the top of the stairs spotted Retvik first.
“Big! Big big!” Retvik squeaked again.
“Uh, how did that baby get there?” one of the nurses asked.
“Oh no. I forgot to close the door… But I do not know how they got out!”
The nurse made their way downstairs, then scooped Retvik up in their arms.
“How did you get here?” the nurse playfully whispered. “You are supposed to be in your cot!”
“Door!” Retvik chirped, not really understanding. “Door door. Big.”
The nurse glanced down the hallway. The room where the younglings were sleeping in was definitely open. With a sigh, they carried Retvik back to the room, then inspected it, abruptly realising what had happened.
“Is everything alright?” the other nurse had joined in, to see what was going on.
“Yes. Do we have another cot for the baby?”
“We always have spares.”
“We are going to need one.”
“Alright, put Retvik to bed, get them to sleep, and I will sort it out.”
“Yes, captain.”
The nurse placed Retvik back in their cot. Retvik looked up at the nurse, then waved.
“Please do not break out again.”
“Break?” Retvik squeaked. “Out?”
“You need to stay in your cot and go to sleep.”
Retvik thought for a moment, then giggled. “Yes, big. Sleep!”
“Yep, it is sleep time.”
“Sleep.”
The nurse looked at Retvik, covered them in a thin blanket, then smiled. “Good night.”
“Nini!” Retvik chirped, before swiftly falling asleep, having worn themselves out from their big adventure.