Bastian's Song [Complete--Editing]

[ 5 ]

"Bastian!" Melodia called out as she relaxed into her favorite seat. Gently, she massaged her tail fin as it throbbed. Too much swimming had worn her down, but her day was finally nearing its end.

"Yes?" Her son peeked his dark head around the doorway that connected their sleeping chambers, his warm golden eyes looking curious. Melodia couldn't help the smile that spread over her face.

"What's this? Have you forgotten how doorways work, son of mine?"

Bastian's eyes closed a fraction as he smiled. "No, mother." He assured her. "I just thought you might want to be alone. Militum said you have been swimming about all day, hardly pausing for a break."

Melodia lifted one dark eyebrow in quiet skepticism. It took less than a minute for her son to break under her silence. He sighed and pulled himself through the doorway, revealing the greenish tint that was spread all over his magnificent tail and in his hair.

She sighed softly. "You've been hanging out with Zareb and Lachlan again, haven't you?"

Bastian's tail wiggled with guilt. "I don't understand why you don't like them, Mother."

No. He wouldn't.

"That Lachlan boy isn't so bad." It was an evasion of sorts.

"Zareb is a good friend, Mother. And his mom is very kind." Bastian was too young to understand the intricacies of the clans. Or maybe he simply felt compassion for Zareb, as only a boy without a father could. He was not too young to notice his mother's careful evasion.

Melodia noted his observance and inwardly sighed. Bastian was only thirty years old, still twenty years from adulthood and the weight of the crown, yet sometimes he seemed much older.

Despite his apparent maturity, she didn't have the heart to explain that the Wata clan only lived in Nereus when they were exiled from their homeland. Their revered goddess was very particular about her followers. Zareb's mother had done something unforgivable. Though the specifics were unavailable to Melodia, she knew enough to be wary.

As if that weren't reason enough to dislike the child, there was the matter of his missing father. Those details were available to everyone who saw the boy's muddied tail. The muted color had very little to do with his mother and everything to do with his father. Melodia shuddered just thinking about it. Zareb's father was no longer part of the picture, but he was a source of constant discomfort for the former queen.

"Bastian, I don't doubt you. I just..." Melodia hesitated a moment and decided neither she nor Bastian were ready for that conversation. "Never mind that for now. What, in the gods' name, are you covered in?"

The young prince smiled sheepishly and folded his hands in front of himself as though they could shield him from his mother's gaze. "Poseidonia." He muttered.

Melodia blinked. "You've been rolling about ...on the rooftops? Whatever for?"

"We were playing warriors and mages, mother." He straightened his back and lifted his chin, eyes bright. "I won."

He had won. Her son was covered in the smashed remains of a bright green plant that grew all over the tops of their homes, and he would probably be tinted green for days. Yet all he could say in his defense was that he had won a silly little child's game.

Melodia lifted a hand to cover the smile that threatened to break free of her control. Never in all her life had she imagined she could be so full of love for any person as she was for her son. Her beautiful little boy.

She cleared her throat gently. "Well." When she was reasonably sure she wasn't going to smile, she lowered her hand and laid it on her tail. "I called you for a reason, Bastian. Do you know what will begin during tomorrow's day cycle?"