In Your Arms

Epilogue: A New Beginning

Algol paced the yard back and forth, attempting to calm himself down while he waited for the birth of Isen's children to take place.

A tall spirit dressed in dark armor and wearing a jack-o-lantern for a head laid on the grass, taking in the moonlight as if he were sunbathing on the beach. After a few minutes of silence, he sighed dramatically and stood right up, yawning and outstretching his arms.

"This is so boring. I could be tormenting worthless humans right now, yet instead I am here waiting for the birth of some hybrid."

Algol turned toward his companion, "Well you can't exactly leave Catarina here, Hallow. This is a whole other dimension. She won't be able to find her way back."

Hallow groaned loudly, the fire in his pumpkin head growing dim as he sat back on the floor with a whine. Another moment of silence followed, and with it, a second dramatic sigh.

"How is it even possible?"

"What are you talking about now?"

Hallow held up his hands, leaving out two fingers on each like scissors. With a confused expression on his carved head, he brought his hands together and intersected them both, "How in the world did they ever have intercourse? I mean...Isen was fairly huge...not that I have seen his- ah-."

The sound of a door opening in the small cottage beside them distracted the two. Algol was the first to walk up to a thin woman carrying what appeared to be a large blanket in her arms. She peered up at him with glowing eyes, the cat ears on her head twitching with amusement, "Farrah has given birth to two beautiful children. Would you like to hold them?"

Hallow barged in, pushing Algol to one side with his arms outstretched, "Hand over those little devils! I want to see the grotesqueness of the hybrids!"

Catarina rolled her eyes as the spirit plucked out one of the babies in the rolled up blanket. He held it out before him, the grin on his face turning downwards as he scoffed in shock, "Wh-what is this? Ugly and ordinary."

Algol snatched the baby from him, sniffing it without a word. "Well. She's surprisingly normal." He paused when the little girl's short fingers reached out towards him, resting on his metal lower jaw.

Silence followed as Algol gently rubbed the babies cheek, compassion running through him as he let out a relieved sigh.

"This child has a bright future ahead of her. Her kind and understanding nature will make her loved by many."

Algol could feel a deep sadness taking over as he glanced over where the other child remained hidden underneath the blanket fold. "I only wish Isen were here. He would've been so..."

Both Hallow and Catarina exchanged a look as Algol returned the baby to her. She glared at Hallow, urging him to say something despite knowing he wasn't very good at giving anyone comfort.

"Death is- ah- such an unfortunate event for many. Not for me, of course. I think Father Death is quite lovely."

Catarina let out an exasperated sigh and shot her companion a nasty look.

"What I am trying to say is, despite me being comfortable with passings, Isen's death has unsettled my soul. He was one of the powerful, strange, nice to a fault sort of being you only meet once in a lifetime."

Hallow's throat began to tighten and he felt he had said enough. He threw up his hands, motioning for Catarina to give him the other baby.

She paused for a moment, as if hesitating. With a quick mutter, she went back inside the cottage and didn't come back until a few minutes later. This time she only had one child in her hands.