Orin

Page 6

"Accident?" the king says on a scoff.

"Yes. Accident." Altair struggled and stood.

"Then you took precautions to prevent getting pregnant by him?" Altair said nothing.

"Humph, as I thought. You might not have done it deliberately but neither did you try to prevent it. What exactly do you think you're future will be with him? An Ice Elf and Orc. You think you will be accepted anywhere."

"I thought my family at least would accept us. Perhaps I was over confident in my trust of you." the queen stepped forward.

"Think before you speak husband. You are angry, disappointed and hurt. Do not let your emotion drive him away from you. You know when your anger and hurt subside you will want to know the first of your great grand children." the king takes a breath and paces away from us. Little Ilia goes over to her grandfather and tugs on his robes. He smiles and picks her up.

"You told me you'd love me no matter who I mated when I grew up. Don't you love Altair that much?"

"It's not simple little one. Your big brother had expectations of him and I had hopes for his future. Dreams I wanted to see of him. With these as his new family. None but one will happen."

"What's the one?"

"That I see great grandchildren to love. Your grandmother is right. Disappointments aside I love your big brother and will of course accept his mate and children into our family."

"See. So you should go hug him. Can I talk to Orin now." he laughs.

"If you'd like." the little girl wiggles down and hurries over to me. She was grinning widely at me.

"Hello." I say smiling.

"Hi. Can I see your braids." I kneel on the floor and let my braids hang down so she could touch them.

"Wow there are so many."

"Yes there is. Each braid is a battle I fought. Each bead is an enemy I've been against."

"Did you kill them?"

"Yes." I say.

"Wow. Mother braids my hair sometimes."

"I bet you look pretty like that." while I continued to chat with the little girl who was entranced with me I heard Altair talking to his family. Slowly the other kids start got come over and talk to me about being an Orc. Bruce stood back and was laughing. Then I saw Ilia run over and tug him down so she could start talking to him.one of the older ones finally came over and broke up the little party.

"Off to bed. You can bother him again tomorrow." I stood stretching my back from crouching for so long. Bruce walks over a sleeping Ilia in his arms.

"Dad is never going to believe this." I chuckle. The older sibling takes the little girl and they all walk off leaving only the adults. I assumed the one talking to Altairs father was Fren the next in age he looked it. For all that he looked so much like Altair, he had an aloofness that didn't inspire me to want to talk to him. Altair managed to get up and come to me.

"How are you feeling?" I ask.

"Tired." Fren came over to us. "Fren I don't think you had a chance to meet him yet." Fren raised an eyebrow.

"It's a pleasure. Ilia is quite taken with you."

"She's a delight."

"It's getting late." Fren looked at his brother. "I"ll be here tomorrow. Grandfather wants to speak with us about the transfer of title."