13. The first thing that Melonne ever learned was her mother tongue. She was held with her mother's flicking tongue that clicked and spat and wrangled her into a fathomable form. Then she was protected from the terrible excess she witnessed at the break of birth, something that is responsible for all fear in the world.

The light that shone from the horizon of Melonne's mother's legs weaved an endless, yellow ribbon. The baby chewed at the ribboned manna with all her might, softly and quietly. Then her mother flooded her ear with spit, watering her ear wax and wetting her eyes. Melonne could only wail and cry while a fragment of ribbon dissolved bitterly in her body.