Castlevania Nocturne: A Sneak Peak

Mother and Son

"Iris! Rosie! Don't run too far!!" Emma called after her daughters. "It's all right dear." Cyrus took her hand. "I will watch them." Emma sighed and nodded, watching them race up to their children and playfully catch them." Giggles erupted from the girls as they tackled him.

"Race you Dad!" Iris challenged.

" See if you can't beat us!" Rosie laughed.

The girls sped off with their father running off with them.

I swear Cyrus is a little kid in a man's body. Emma chuckled to herself. She couldn't have asked for a better husband and father.

"Mother." The small child tugged at her wrist. "May I race with them too?"

"Not yet, Lyudmil." Emma held his hand. "You're just getting over a cold, I don't want you to be sick again."

"I won't get sick." Lyudmil complained. "Grandfather told me you can't get sick that way, it's from the germs. They get into your body and make you sick." Emma wanted to chew out her father for being such a genius. They were lucky they lived in the city of Belmont, where advanced knowledge of her grandfather's castle, the Belmont Hold, and the Whisperers Guild made their people the most intelligent and well learned in the modern world. Elsewhere the four year old boy would've been beaten, chastised for 'madness', or worse.

He's already smarter than most kids his age, and more of a handful.

"That's true, but you also need to give your body time to recover, so it can be strong enough to fight off the germs again."

"I feel better already." Lyudmil insisted. His sniffle revealed otherwise. Emma wiped his nose with a kerchief. "You need to give yourself time to recover without overworking itself."

"But they'll get to the lake before us." Lyudmil sighed glumly. "We'll be left behind."

"Not if we catch up with them." Emma smirked, kneeling down.

Lyudmil tapped his feet excitedly, hopping onto Emma's back and holding on tightly. His arms wrapped around his shoulders and feet around her waist. Emma stood up. "Are you holding on tight, little monkey?"

"Yes!" Lyudmil squeaked.

"Okay! Here we go!!" White wings burst from Emma's back and she sped forth! Gliding above the ground, breezing past the trees and his surprised sisters! Lyudmil cheered and giggled, raising his fist to the sky when they reached the pond before his sisters could. "We won we won!!" His nose ran like a flooded river.

"All right little sniffle-snort. Here, wipe your nose." Emma gave him the kerchief which Lyudmil cleaned his face. "Can we fly when we go back home, Mother?"

"Maybe." Emma folded and dispersed her wings. "You know, your grandmother used to do the same thing with me when I was your age. Sometimes' she'd fly me up to the top of the castle!"

"Can we do that!?" Aiden happily flapped his arms the way Emma did as a child.

"Maybe one day." Emma mused. Emma already knew how to fly on her own by then. "When you're a little bigger." And I know for certain you're strong enough to hold on and have your own wings.

"I wanna fly!" Lyudmil giggled, jumping around and waving his arms pretending they were wings.