AN: Hello, everybody! This will be the sequel to The Unwanted, and will focus on Khalis, one of my original characters from that story. In this story, Khal will be about 16, whereas when The Unwanted ended, he was about 10 years old. I just want to make sure you guys are aware of the time skip I have in here. Explaining the time skip should also let you guys put Khalis' brothers' ages into about the right spot. Lastly, I hope you all enjoy this story as much as its prequel. Now on with the story.

It was early in the morning, and Hvarekhshaeta had just pulled the Sun over the sand, so that it was just beginning to shine into the windows of the large house shared by two families that had long before become one.

But such a morning was never quiet for this bonded family, and on this day the chaos began with Khalis the fifteen-year-old son of Hephaestion and the last King of Persia, who was long dead, Darius III. The boy had awoken a few minutes before and stood and stretched, ready for a day's work in the fields with his father, his six brothers being too young as of yet to work, and so staying home with their Mam, who was Hephaestion.

Khalis went to dress, as was his morning routine, and so bent down to pull on loose-fitting pants before going to the washroom down the corridor. By doing this, however, he glimpsed the bed from the corner of his eye, and so saw that something red was on the bed. Confused, he turned so as to see it better, and saw after a few minutes of inspection that it was in fact blood. Then he became aware of the heavy tug low in his belly, and the burning between his legs.

"Mam! Fa! Help, I hurt! Mam!" he began to call as his eyes became wet in response to his fear. His legs being weak from the pain, he collapsed onto the floor, calling out for help once more.

The next thing Khalis knew, his Mam and Fa were rushing into the room, panicked beyond belief when they found him on the floor with blood staining the bed, his pants, and the floor.

"Khal! Khalis, Love, can you tell Mam what hurts? Did you hit something when you fell?" Hephaestion joined him on the floor before helping him to sit up and taking him into his arms comfortingly.

"I'm bleeding, Mam. I woke up and I was bleeding! Am I dying?" Khalis' voice shook with his tears.

Hephaestion turned to share a quick, stunned stare with Faris before Khalis took their silence as a bad thing and wailed, his head in his hands. Hephaestion understood his son's confusion and so was quick to reassure him.

"Khalis, Babe, you are not dying. Do you remember when you were little and asked where your brother was?" Khalis shook his head miserably, clinging to his mother and burrowing his head into Hephaestion's shoulder, "I thought not. Come, we'll discuss it while you get a bath. It's all right," when Hephaestion stood up and stepped back a little, Faris knelt down on the bloody floor and gently picked his eldest son up, holding him close while Khalis wrapped his arms around his father's neck and sobbed into his shoulder.

"Ohh…" when Hephaestion helped peel Khalis out of his dirty clothes, "Mam… My belly…"

"I know, Babe. We will get you cleaned up, and then you can have some black cohosh and go back to sleep. You don't have to go out to the fields today."

"Why?" Khalis winced and Hephaestion watched as his arms, which were wrapped around his belly to ease the pain he was feeling, tightened for just a moment.

"Khal, Babe, do you remember when you were eleven? Fa and I had that talk with you about where babes come from. Do you remember that?" Khalis gave a strained nod before letting out a small cry of pain. Hephaestion reached up to stroke his hair comfortingly and Khalis could feel his father's presence next to him and so leaned into him, panting slightly.

"Whatever it is, I don't want it anymore. I feel dizzy, and-" without warning, his stomach twisted inside him while pain lanced between his legs, and suddenly there was sick all over the bathchamber floor, as well as Faris' bare feet, "S-sorry, Fa…"

"No harm done, Khal. I had much worse with you as a baby," and without another word, Faris walked over to the wash tub and proceeded to rinse off his feet before tossing the old water out and placing the tub back down on the floor.

Khalis became sick once more, and Khalis cried out, panicked, "Mam, what is happening to me?!"

"You know that I bleed every month, don't you, Babe?" when Khalis nodded weakly, Hephaestion continued in a calm voice, "I bleed because I have a gift that allows me to have babies. And it seems I have passed that gift onto you."

AN: Hope you all enjoyed! I don't really like this first chapter, but I think writing this story will get easier as I go.