"This is Galia," he says with a smile wider than I've ever seen on him. His happiness makes my face fall into a deep frown. He has no right being happy. None of us do.
I follow his arm down to the toddler holding his hand. I was expecting to see a baby. How old are kids when they start to walk?
"How old is she?" I shout. I've only been gone like six months. How can this kid be so big? Weird Ashra stuff? No, I've seen elf kids. They age slowly like most things. Magic? Dathid should've warned me.
"You can wipe the horrified look off your face. That's no way to meet someone's firstborn."
I yank my face back up to Dathid's angry one. I quickly shut my mouth, but I think we both noticed it was hanging open. I need to focus my thoughts. I'm offending Dathid, and this could end our friendship. I turn my attention back to the little girl.
What is she, like two? Ugh, I wish I knew more about children. Slow down, think. Say something! I plaster on the biggest fake smile I can. It's been so long since I smiled, I think my cheeks might shatter.
"Hello there," I say in my sweetest voice. I get my face low, so were eye to eye. Galia drops her father's hand and wobbles over to me. I pick her up and put her on my lap.
"Now, I see why they're called toddlers." Okay, that was good. How can I ask why she's so old. Maybe it's an elf-faerie thing. I look over her perfectly chubby face and deep into her slate-grey eyes. "She's a beautiful girl. I love your little nose."
She grabs my face with both of her hands and squishes my cheeks together. I feel Dathid sit beside me. I need to pull it together. A terrifying thought is forming, and it's taking everything I have to block it out.
Galia lets go and flops back over to her father, who instinctively puts her in his lap and bounces her like they have done this a million times before. Because he has. She is two, or whatever.
I force another smile at Dathid. "Sorry. I thought she was a baby. Do faerie and elfish children grow faster than human children? She is a very pretty girl. Very sweet. She smells nice too." I need to stop talking, but he needs to answer the first question. They did something to her, and that's why she's growing so fast.
Dathid laughs. "Thank you. I don't know how human children age. She's about where she should be. Why did her age surprise you?"
"I was expecting to see a baby. The last time we saw each other, your wife was pregnant." I don't add, and if Galia aged that much, then I've aged that much.
She slides from his lap, and we both watch her wobble toward the hallway. She barely has one toe peeking out the doorway when she's swept up by a servant and carried off. His smile fades as soon as she's gone, and the familiar shadows return. I'm a terrible friend. I prefer the haunted warrior much more than the happy family man.
His face is a mask of pain and regret. "Galia was born before we returned from the Salt Mines."
The room spins, but I right it quickly. "That can't be right! Elf pregnancies are lengthy like human ones, in fact, they might be longer. If Galia was born before you came back the first time, then I was gone for a lot longer than I thought."
Dathid looks confused. "How long do you think you were gone?"
"Like six months?" my voice is weak because I've stopped breathing.
Dathid is looking at his knees, deep in thought. He's going to make this all make sense. I just wish he'd hurry up. "Jonah would probably, know the exact amount, but it's more like twenty-two months.'
YOU ARE READING
The Lost Knight (Volume IV) The Lost Prince
FantasyWIP Would love some Beta Readers
