Morph: Book One

| 34 |

Ryn's POV

"What are their names?" I ask. My voice was barely above a whisper.

"My lifemate's name was Dejah." Ezic pointed to a Zorr woman in the photo with long, beautiful white hair and black curling horns. Dejah held a male child in her arms while two female children stood on either side of her. The children took after Ezic. I couldn't help the sad smile that plagued my lips at the sight.

"My children's names were Iriel, my eldest, Jaina, and Aeryn, my youngest." Ezic pointed out who was who before gently taking the frame from my hands and running his fingers over the glass. He placed the photograph back on the shelf before looking down at me with a sad smile.

"Im sorry for intruding..." I genuinely say while looking down at my now empty hands. Ezic's hands shot out to cup mine in his. This action caused me to snap my head back up to meet his eyes.

"This is your home now. You arent intruding." He released my hands before stepping back from the shelves to better view the family portraits that sat among them. He stood there with his hands behind his back, gazing over the photos for many minutes. Every minute that passed, I felt my heart restrict painfully.

"Tell me about them." I whisper. Ezic didn't respond and only stared at the wall with a thin glaze over his eyes. Finally, he spoke.

"Dejah and I met when we were mere kits. Our parents were friends." Ezic paused. He breathed in slowly before closing his eyes. "We were quite a minice back then." A small smile made its way onto his lips and his eyes sprung open.

"We went our separate ways for many years once we entered adulthood but after the deaths of my parents, we were reunited. Soon after we were expecting out first kit."

"Were you married?" I asked, stepping back beside him, and he cocked his head to the side and stared oddly at me. It took me a moment to realize that he probably didn't understand what I had asked. "You know. Where there is a ceremony that is held with friends and family...?" I trailed off and I watched his eyes become detached as he thought.

"Yes, we had a coupling ceremony that friends and family attended." Ezic said in realization. He offered me a small smile before looking back over to the shelves. "At the time of Dejah's death we had been together for nearly fifteen revolutions."

I thought back on the lifespan of Zorr. They lived for centuries, yet Ezic's lifemate—and children—had been taken from him while he was still so young. He experienced a lifetime of grief in such a small fraction of his life.

"She would have liked you." Ezic whispered, and my eyebrows drew up in surprise at his statement. I looked from the photos to Ezic and found him staring down at me with an unreadable emotion in his eyes.

"I would have loved to meet her." I responded numbly and turned to stare back at the photos. A feeling of longing sprouted in me. It felt bizarre to mourn for people that I barely knew.

"Come with me." Ezic suddenly said.

"Where to?" I question. I look between us and see Ezic's hand, beckoning me to grasp it. Without hesitation, I grabbed it. Ezic quickly led me out of his office, treading through the house.

"It's a surprise," Ezic said. We passed the living room where the rest of the girls resided, and they perked up as we entered and headed toward the home's front door.

"Stahl and Glee, watch over the kits for me. Ryn and I will be back later tonight." Before another word could be uttered, we had exited his flat. We entered out onto the spire that was his home. Above us and below us were hundreds of stories. In front of the flat was a personal docking area that could fit anywhere between one to four transports no larger than a small school bus. The homes that resided on the spire could only be accessed by personal transports or vehicles and were closed off to the belt by a large mechanical door.

Ezic guided me to the dock and over to a small two-person craft that reminded me of a hamster ball. The craft itself was encased in a translucent shell. In its center sat two seats side by side. The seats and internal machinery were supported by a thin ring of metal that ran along both sides of the craft. At the front of the vehicle was a console with a steering wheel.

Ezic brought me to the craft and ran his hand across the surface of the shell. Seconds later, a large hatch beside one of the seats hissed open. Ezic gestured me into the craft and I hesitantly stepped up onto the exterior lining of the shell before awkwardly pulling myself inside.

"You'll want to strap in." Ezic stated as he reached between my feet and pulled up a harness. He drew it over my thighs before reaching a hand back over my head and drawing down another harness. He brought both harnesses together and suctioned them to one another, forming a seal. He swiped across a scanner near the roof beside my head as he finished strapping me in and the door closed. Ezic strode to the other side of the vehicle and swiped his hand across its outer shell, causing it to hiss open. He effortlessly pulled himself into the craft before swiping his hand across the roof near the opening, closing the door behind him. He quickly strapped in before laying his hand on a scanner on the center console between us.

The vehicle roared to life, and the metal rings began to spin around the ball. The ball started to turn from clear to a radiant blue. Ezic skimmed his fingers across the console in front of him, and after a few moments, the entire structure, even the console, turned completely translucent. This allowed us to see outside the craft without anything obscuring our view.

Symbols and characters appeared on the shell in front of Ezic, and I saw him type something into the console. The latch leading out of the dock clicked and the mechanics lightly screeched as it shimmied open. After typing in one final command, the steering wheel unlocked, and we began to levitate. Ezic gripped the wheel in both hands before gently guiding it forward. As we began to move toward the ledge of the spire, I could feel a lump start to form in the pit of my stomach. When we were nearly about to breach the barrier of the latch, Ezic didn't hesitate and thrust the wheel forward. We raced out of the dock and appeared out over the edge of the spire.

"Whoa!" I screamed as I caught sight of the view around us. Blue and red lights projected onto the shell of the craft as we entered the airspace. Pathways illuminated our way, disappearing as we passed them and reappearing ahead, directing us onto its path. Other transports joined us as we lowered closer to the city's surface, all following on their own designated paths. I could quickly decipher that the red lines were other people's predicted paths while the blue ones were our own.

"It's so cool!" I looked down past my feet and watched as people congregated on the streets below.

"I figured that we both needed the distraction." Ezic said, casting me a sideways smile. He focused back on navigating the craft as we drifted multiple stories above the streets, going nowhere but somewhere.