Lowell

Chapter 7

Hanna rubbed her belly as she laid next to Lowell. "What do you think he'll look like?"

Lowell tilted his head. "Him?"

Hanna nodded. "I keep thinking he'll be a boy."

Lowell's face broke into a large grin. "A son. I like that idea." He ran his hand through her hair and smiled. "Hmm. I'd hope he'd take after you."

"Me too." She said as she rummaged through one of their supply packs for dry rations. "No offense, but I'd like our child to be normal." But, Hanna doubted that the poor child would ever be normal. It is a secret they couldn't hide and would chew at their hearts. Their kid would grow up not like anyone around him. Or maybe it wouldn't be born alive. The thought made Hanna's stomach turn. No, her child would be strong and beautiful. "If he's like me… will it ever show?"

Lowell had to ponder this. He'd never heard of cases like this. He doubted the other Entelexeia could tell him what to do. As wise as Lowell often pretended to be he was still young and foolish. "I hope not. It wouldn't be fair for him. Humans don't take kindly to us."

Hanna laughed. "Yeah, we don't. I almost ran you through on my sword."

"I almost let you run me through with your sword."

"Just admit that you didn't see it coming."

"No, I did." Lowell leaned down and kissed her lips. "The kiss is the part I never expected."

She ran a hand through his long hair. She loved the silky feel it had. "No matter what you'll always be the man I love."

It took two years for Flynn and Yuri to reach the point where they no longer claimed to hate each other. One more and the boys reached a state where they could comfortably refer to each other as friends. It is sad to say that in the many years that Yuri lived with Flynn that the nun Merlwe would never receive punishment for her acts. In the end, the woman got away with it, but sometimes that was life. Yuri did outgrow his trauma for the most part and had a good life living with Flynn and Norien.

Finath, while a good man, never quite accepted him. Yuri had come to understand that at this point some would just hate him. It was the state of things. He never met the Krytian woman again either. He heard her when she left though. It scared him because now he could hear the voices of the Krytians who wandered through Zaphias. All asking things about his home and parents. They knew him and shook fear in his heart. It was sickening. He felt like he was going insane.

And, when he was ten…

To the people who lived in the Lower Quarter it had been strange to witness the changes that had come over the resident halfer. The boy who liked being alone and growling disappeared into a youth that was a little needy and for the most part kind. It seemed like a miracle and Norien developed a reputation as beast tamer with children. The real credit on taming Yuri came down to Flynn.

The night it happened was four months after Yuri turned ten. They've never been able to explain why it happened. Thinking back, maybe he was just at that age.

He'd been tired all day. Not sick. Just tired and sporting a headache. Norien put him to bed early and left him in the room. Yuri doesn't remember much about that moment. He remembers the cold and the way his body shook. The splitting pain in his head and the way he screamed.

The new moon looking down from that window.

Norien had rushed into the room first and had seen the sight. It chilled her. The child she lovingly cared for was writhing on the bed in pain. Blood dripped from his head and he growled. It wasn't Yuri's usual hum of displeasure. This was the cry of an animal.