Leon took the next couple hours to observe the room he was in. It wasn't small, but wasn't huge. Three walls were plain white, the farthest with a gray double door. That was where Mira and Doctor Gray and the food-person entered and left. He gazed at the black metal things on the two side walls, trying to fathom their purposes and failing entirely. Every so often, one of them would beep quietly and a light would flash.

The fourth wall had a strange image on it. Leon frowned at it, wondering what it was. The walls in the image were dark gray and the depicted room was shadowy. In the center of it was a large tube, full of a glowing greeny-yellow liquid. Around the tube were machines similar to the ones in his own room.

Leon thought there were small circles cut out of the wall, but he wasn't close enough to see them clearly. He remembered how Mira and Doctor Gray had walked, and decided to try and get closer to the wall.

Slowly, Leon reached off his bed with his foot, gasping as his toes made contact with the cold white floor. He brought his other foot down as well, not surprised at the temperature this time.

Balancing on the smooth surface, Leon mimicked the action of Mira and Gray's walk, tentatively at first, but quickly mastering the simple action, making adjustments for the configuration of his legs- a more catlike arrangement of the bones than the others'.

Leon walked over to the strange wall, gazing at the small circles. They did not seem to affect the image in any way, as the scene continued unbroken behind them. Curious, Leon stuck one of his fingers through a hole- and pulled it out quickly when he found he could see it clearly on the other side.

Carefully, he extended the digit beyond the wall again, and found that he could see right through the wall. Putting his face to it, he examined the edge of the circle cut out of it. What he could see warped, and the room the wall let him see continued behind the wall, becoming more three-dimensional as he looked at it.

A clear wall. Curiouser and curiouser.

Leon looked up. The ceiling was white as well, decorated by long glowing beams. What are those?

Leon walked over to the wall, finding a close light beam. Carefully, he climbed up the smooth surface, the tips of his fingers, toes, and tendrils sticking firmly.

The light beam was bright, so bright Leon couldn't look directly at it. He reached out a finger tentatively, hesitating before touching the white glow. The area around the light beam was warm, uncomfortably so- Leon stopped just before touching the light, the tip of his finger threatening pain. He climbed down and continued exploring what little there was to explore.

The machines along the walls were intriguing but unfathomable; the marks on them had some meaning that Leon couldn't comprehend.

He sighed, not seeing very many interesting things, and went back to the bed. He pushed the blankets to one side with a tendril, jumping up onto the springy surface...Springy...

And that was how he almost missed the food-person's next intrusion completely- he was bouncing up and down on the bed enthusiastically, letting loose sounds of delight he'd found himself making.

The food-person smiled, setting down a tray.

"Having fun?" it asked him.

Leon stopped jumping and tilted his head questioningly.

The person smiled and waved away Leon's confused look.

Leon continued jumping until Mira entered.

"Hello-"

Jump!

"-Mira!"

Jump!

Mira smiled as Leon finally stopped jumping, sitting with his feet tucked under him and panting slightly.

"Hello, Leon," it laughed.

"Mira teach Leon speak?"

"Yes. I teach you."

Leon blinked and smiled. New words already!

"I?"

Mira pointed to itself. "I," it said. It pointed to Leon. "You."

"You is Mira, I is Leon?" Leon asked, pointing to Mira and himself.

"Yes. I am Mira, you are Leon."

"Am? Are?"

"Am is are, are is am, am and are, like is."

Leon blinked.

"I... am Leon..."

"Yes."

"You are Mira..."

"Yes."

Leon raised his eyebrow. "Why?"

Mira blinked in surprise. "Speaking is..." it sighed. "Is..."

"Is like extra words?"

"Yes," Mira said. "Speaking is extra good, extra words."

Leon sniffed, still wondering. "Why 'are', why 'is'?" He stopped and waved a hand. "No. Words is 'are', words 'is'... Why?"

Mira held out a hand, one finger extended. "Finger. Is."

Leon nodded.

"Fingers. Are."

"Aaah." Leon nodded slowly. "Leon fingers are...? Two and two?"

"Good."

"You are... You are one!" Leon frowned. "You is."

Mira shook its head. "You is one, and you is one and extra."

"And?" Leon asked, in blatant disbelief.

"Yes," Mira laughed. "And."

Leon rolled his eyes, but curiosity won out and he had to ask. He got up and walked to the clear wall.

"Is...?"

"Is what?"

"Is what?"

Mira walked to the wall. "Glass. Glass is clear."

Leon touched the wall. "Clear?"

Mira placed a finger through one of the holes in the wall and mimed still seeing its finger. "Is clear," it said.

"Is glass?"

"Yes."

"Glass is clear."

Mira nodded, then stopped and pulled something from its pocket. A thin card, that flashed in the white light.

"Clear," it said, showing how the edge of the card had the same properties as the glass wall, "No glass."

Leon nodded, then climbed up the wall again, pointing to the light. "What is? Why...?"

Mira looked a little surprised, but it walked under the light and pointed up at it. "Light bulb. Light."

Leon frowned and beckoned it to climb up, for closer examination of the light.

"No," Mira said sadly.

"No?"

"Leon climb good. Mira no climb good."

Leon snorted. "Climb is-?" he scampered a little further up the wall.

"Yes."

Leon flicked his tail. "Light bulb is- is-"

"Gives light."

"Gives?" Leon climbed down.

Mira nodded. "I give you words, light bulb gives light," it said.

Leon nodded, then pointed at the door. "Is gives food," he said.

"That is Alex," Mira laughed.

"Alex," Leon murmured. So, the food-person had a name. "Alex is?"

"Alex gives food," Mira told him.

"Alex gives you food?"

"No," Mira laughed. "I get food, no Alex."

Leon sighed. "Speaking no good. I- I..."

Mira put a hand on his arm.

Leon looked up at it. He sighed again.

"Why am I? Why Leon, why human and no human, why-?"

Mira sighed and shook her head. "Speaking," it said. "Then why."

"Then..."

"Yes, no, then fingers and Is and Am and Are..."

"Oh."

"I, you- he, she, it."

"He-"

"Alex. He brings food. Umm..." Mira stopped, pulling a small, shiny device out of its pocket and tapping on it.

"What is?"

"It," Mira added. "What is it."

"Yes," Leon said. "What is it?"

"Phone."

Mira put the phone back in its pocket.

"What is phone?"

"It..." Mira grimaced. "It talks."

"It talks."

"I talk... Dr. Gray and phone-" Mira stopped. It smiled and put the phone back in its pocket.

Leon frowned. "Is talks? Why... is...?"

"How?"

"How! How is phone talk?" Leon tilted his head in curiosity.

Mira pulled the phone and the card out.

"Phone," it indicated the phone. "...Like-phone," it held up the card. Leon raised an eyebrow. "Phone," he pointed at the card disbelievingly. Mira shook its head. "No... In talk, it is phone." Leon kept his eyebrow raised but nodded to it to continue. Mira handed him the card. "Leon phone," it kept its own phone, "Mira phone." It held the phone to its ear. "Mira talk, Leon phone hear-"

"Hear?"

Mira pointed to its ear. "Hear. I talk, you hear." Leon nodded.

"Leon phone hear Mira talk, Leon phone talk."

Leon rolled his eyes and gave Mira its card back.

Mira sighed. "Is not phone," it held up the card.

"Duh," Leon applied the first sound that came to his mind.

Mira laughed, but continued. "Not. Is not phone."

"Not."

"Yes."

Leon nodded. Not was easy enough.

Mira stood up and walked to the door, then turned around and beckoned for Leon to follow it. Leon hopped off his bed and walked somewhat steadily over to Mira.

"Why?"

"I show you something."

"..."

"Show- I show you phone," Mira pulled out the device, "Something is... Bed, light bulb, food..."

Leon shrugged, wondering at the persons's crazy ways.

Leon followed Mira through gray corridors, brightly lit, with many people rushing past in both directions. He followed around corners, past sheets of glass that showed people in white garments huddled around tables, past gray doors like the one in his room. It's so big...

Leon almost ran into Mira as it stopped in front of doors with strange light coming through the small windows. "...What is?" Leon asked. Mira only smiled and opened a door.

Leon stepped from the gray doors into a bright space. He shielded his eyes as they adjusted to the strangely-tinted light- and gasped.

It was amazing. Spreading above him, branching, arching over his head, strong, dark arms with bright, light-filtering clusters forming a canopy above him...

"What is it?" Leon asked, his voice hushed.

"A tree," Mira said behind him.

Leon gazed up at the magnificent plant, awestruck.

"It... It is..." Leon struggled with a word he did not know. "I see it good, is good ..."

"Beautiful?"

Leon nodded, words gone.

He walked across the soft ground- the same color as the canopy, forming a surrounding of the same color- to the main trunk of the behemoth oak. The bark was rough under his fingers, almost sticking to their wide pads. Leon gripped the trunk and hauled himself up, bringing his feet up to help him. Scrambling up the tree, Leon quickly found a sturdy branch to sit on, surrounded by clumps of bright green leaves. He grinned down at Mira before clambering higher and higher, where the branches thinned somewhat, until he poked his head above a cluster of small green sheets and caught a view of a wide expanse, brilliant, white figures dancing so slowly across it, and the tree all around him... He reached up to touch the expanse...

His hand hit glass. Leon recoiled from the unexpected contact. He half-scrambled, half-fell away from it and further down into the tree. Shaking slightly, he clambered down, trying to stay out of sight as Mira walked under the canopy.

Leon dropped down behind it as it walked past his branch. Mira smiled at him, and beckoned him to the door.

Mira led him back to his room. Leon looked around at the bland walls, the oily machines, the pale, weak light.

"This is not good," he announced.

"What?" Mira asked.

"It is not- not good, not right, it is not Leon!" he tugged slightly at the collar of the garish thing he wore.

"Leon, what?"

"I is not good, not this! I- Words-"

Leon growled in frustration as he once again was unable to convey his meaning.

Mira was looking at him, its eyes conveying a strange emotion, and Leon turned away and sat on his bed.

"Leon...?"

"No," Leon said softly, refusing to look at Mira. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched it turn and leave the room.

Leon sighed, bringing his feet up onto the bed. The tree's image was strong in his mind, as was the shock of the clear glass barrier between him and the great blue expanse.

"Not good," he muttered again, looking at his suddenly close, ugly surroundings.

"You did what?!" Dr. Gray roared.

Valento held her ground, unfazed by the man's shouting. "I showed him the tree. I've been teaching him to speak, and I thought it would make a good conversational topic."

"A conversational topic! You brought an untrained subject to a low-security area for the sake of conversation?"

"Doctor Gray, I do not believe questioning either my actions or motives will be productive here," Valento said, still calm. "Let's review Leon's file instead. I have a few new notes for it."

Gray was still fuming quietly as the file was brought up on the computer screen dominating the room. The Board of Directors chambers' were empty on weekdays, and this was where the scientists now sat, utilizing the high-quality display equipment. The enormous oval room was tall enough for its balcony to have high ceilings, the walls decorated in dark wood and shining metal, as befitting the nature of their esteemed establishment. The seats around the long elliptical table looked plush, but as Valento sat in one, it seemed no more comfortable than any other chair she'd sat in.

Leon's file could have set a record for most information gathered since the subject had gained consciousness. In just three days, Leon had mastered an unprecedentedly large vocabulary, twice as large as the next most advanced subject had. He was unique, however- no other subject had been allowed to mature to such a degree before being woken. Leon was the physical equivalent of a seventeen-year-old human, with the mental capacity to match.

"Look," Mira said, pointing to the live video feeds in Leon's room which accompanied the text of the file. "He's figured out that the bed isn't one solid mass."

Gray rolled his eyes. "Amazing. He knows how to hide stuff under the mattress now. One more place for the security guys to check."

Valento smacked him in the arm. "Stop being so negative. Isn't this what we wanted? A hybrid intelligent from its first day, ready to solve puzzles?"

Gray grunted in affirmation.

"Well, then," Valento said, turning back to the screen, "Let's see just what puzzles he can solve."