Somil (updated! click for link to full story!)

The day I turned fourteen, I had a picnic in the plaza west of town with a couple of my friends. It was a very small gathering - just me, my friends Janson, Bell, and Alice, and my mom. "Thanks for coming, everyone!" she said.
Our house isn't that big, so even though I was only having three people over, we decided to go outside. (In fact, there are only three rooms in the whole house: my bedroom, the bathroom, and the main room, where we spent most of our time. My mom even sleeps out here. I've offered her the bedroom before, but she won't have any of it.)
"I've got a present for you," she said. She lifted up a large sword, worn from decades of use. "This is the sword your father used to wield. I don't want you to use it, but you know it's the law. Now that you're fourteen years old, you have to prepare for battle."
Our town, Somil, had always had problems with the monsters who lived nearby. But in the past few decades, more and more monsters had been appearing, from all sides. In response, the town's king decreed that every man of fit age had to take up a sword and shield and defend the town against monsters.
Of course, by "defend," he meant "track down and kill."
"Your father was an obedient citizen," Mom had told me. "He lived for this town. He died doing what he thought was right... I'd like to thing his death meant something, that there was some higher cause he died for. But it only seems to get worse each year."
(My mother took good care of everyone in the village, but she was never the person you went to if you wanted someone to cheer you up.)
The sword made me uneasy. I didn't want to think about going to war. Bell was clearly impressed with it. "Man, boys get all the coolest stuff!" Janson, who was my age, already had one. "It's a brand new one, though. Not an old one like that." (I know he didn't mean to brag. He had no tact, but his honesty had made him a reliable friend.)
Alice chimed in too. "That's a beautiful sword, Cory!" she said. "Happy birthday!" She gave me a hug. "Good luck," she whispered into my ear. "I'm sure you'll be fine."
Janson looked over at Bell. "Hey, I just remembered. Daniel leaves today! Let's go and see him before he goes!"
Daniel was a young man, a few years older than myself. He had sometimes been a bully towards me, but I felt sorry for him. His father (a single parent like my mom) often struck me as a cold, uncaring man. Daniel seemed to have inherited his father's brash manner, but I felt like he still had some good in him.
Daniel's rough, gritty manner of battle had made him a celebrity, or as close as you can get in a town our size. He was hailed as a future hero, sure to save the town and get rid of the monsters for good. Today was the day that he was to leave on his quest.
- - -
The next day, I felt awful. I was so nervous about training for war that I couldn't get anything done. I needed to find somewhere quiet to cool down, so I decided to go to the church sanctuary.
There were kids outside in the yard, playing, running around, and having a lot of fun. There was probably some sort of party going on. I went through the crowd and went inside the church.
The light coming in was colored by the stained-glass windows. There was only one other person in the church: a woman behind a table, cloaked in dark blue robes. Her voice was strong, yet gentle.
"You are going to help change the world. But first, you yourself will change, and you will see things that others cannot. If you want to be a force for good, you must never give up."
There was a flash of light, and suddenly, the mysterious woman was gone.
- - -
I stumbled out the door. There were a couple of kids right in front of me, waiting to get in. They seemed to be speaking a foreign language. I couldn't understand them.
"BbUq ubrb ,q'a3fr t," one of them said. They went past me through the door.
"Jvng," I heard the other say. "GfquY u lrn ra ez ebvrr roa.2'b." They came back out and walked away.
I looked around. It wasn't just them. Everyone, everywhere. I couldn't understand any of them. My heart started to pound. I laid down on the grass.
So that's what she meant. I could no longer speak the language of humans. But I didn't expect it to happen so suddenly! I was cut off, entirely, from the only world I knew. I would no longer to be able to speak to Alice, to Janson, to my mother...
"Get off my tail, you jerk." It was a squirrel. He gave me a mean look and ran off.
And now I knew that animals could talk! If they were as intelligent as us, then... I was forced to rethink everything I thought I knew about the world. It was too much. I started to cry.
Bell came up to me. "Jajnhtu be2ngerq guy b2rqlv v2ba?" she shouted. "Thlorcbng,ho3l." She pushed me a few times, and then decided to just lift me up and carry me back home. "Vr'nL ul2yezbfng pvrrhrau nr3rqv aignpzya 'rutn rt g rrag3 j .'bn2orf g a," she said, exasperated.
- - -
Bell took me to my house.
"V fubu2g va2gufatP urbt b vez je arrjvl x'geg," he said. "Uanb r'y3gxz j2r bgg."
My mom looked into my eyes. "Pphe2bn fz eahgr l an2,lqa3brq?" she asked.
I didn't say anything.
"Nlgrebu rhr3e?"
"I can't understand you," I said, just so she would know I could hear her voice. I was sure sure she couldn't understand me, either.
"Vqorbb3y2b fcluuz ue vv2bbgzf2hon3 ynxge," said Bell. She took me to my room, and I sat on my bed. Nothing in the room had changed since that morning, but it no longer felt like home when I couldn't talk to anyone.
Except...
I rushed outside, to the doghouse. My dog Skip was, oddly enough, awake.
"Thanks for the meal yesterday," he told me. "That was delicious."
"You're welcome," I told him.
He jumped. "Huh? You understand me?" he asked, tilting his head. "Wait... this means you can't talk to humans anymore, doesn't it?"
I nodded my head yes.
"Don't worry," he said. "I'll help you get back to normal. Come with me."