Felinis: Here is a chapter. It is named Harrold.
"So, I was thinking," Lowell said to Hanna who hummed back. She was engrossed with the evil of changing a baby's diaper. "We don't want to give him a name that will get him mocked, but what about something sort of evil." Hanna gave him a stern look. "Hannan Lowell. It's a name that has a bit of both of us in it."
For as much as Hanna loved the man, she had always found he was a well of stupidity. "We are not naming him Hannan."
"That's fine!" Lowell chirped. "I thought of others. How 'bout Hank?"
"No."
"Hansel?"
"No."
"Hanford?"
"No."
"Hal."
"No."
"Havoc."
"No! Try something that doesn't have an 'H."'
"Alvin?"
"Alvin? Are you even trying?"
"It doesn't have an 'H'."
She looked at his eyes and sighed. "Did you sleep last night?"
He just grinned that large-lopsided grin of his. "Not a bit! I was too excited trying to think up names."
Hanna laughed and pinched his cheek. "But, obviously to sleep deprived to think up any good ones."
Lowell smiled and looked at his child laid out on the table. He was just so happy. He'd wanted to be a father for a long time. Sure, the circumstances sucked, but he'd take what he'd been given. "I'm going to spoil him rotten once we get to Myorzo." He pulled her in and kissed her. "And once things have calmed down can we try for a daughter?"
She pulled out and shook her head. "Oh, I don't know. Lowell, could you handle having three brats to spoil?" She jabbed at his arm.
He reached for her and swooped her up in his arms. "Well, if we have a daughter I can just spoil her more. That way Isabelle can know she's my favorite."
She laughed. "So, we're just deciding on Isabelle?" And yanked at the red antennae jutting from his head. He yelled out in pain and dropped her.
He pouted and curled into the fetal position on the bed. "You're easily the most infuriating woman I've ever met." Another thought crossed his mind. "I got it! Yurisily Lowell!"
She snorted. "No."
"Why not?" He whined.
"Because it sounds like you're saying 'you're easily Lowell'." She took the baby in her arms. "But, I think we're on the right track." Her eyes lit up. "Yuri! Yuri Lowell."
Their eyes both lit with joy and sleep deprivation. It was perfect. "But his middle name can be Hannan, right?" Hanna caved in and kissed her poor fool.
On the morning after the death of his parents, it was an elderly nun who found him on her steps. "Just because we're a church doesn't mean we take runts off the street." She smoked her pipe and looked over the kid for any sort of identification. The blanket wrapped around the baby was a decent quality and a name was sewn onto the bottom poorly. Whoever did that was dismal with needlework. "Yuri Lowell." Not a name from around here as far as she knew. And the kid was a newborn. Probably, only a few days old. Damn. Couldn't throw this one out. But, hey, babies were good for business. People liked to donate more if it went towards feeding a cute kid. If they were lucky they could unload the child on some poor sap in a few years.
Four years passed very quickly and the nuns who raised the boy came to think of him as a troublemaker not worth it half the time to raise him. He was what many called a boomerang child. Taken into a home only to return in some cases as quickly as a week. The complaints were always the same.
There's something about him that's unnatural.
The elderly woman who found Yuri, named Olive, thought it all had to do with the blood. Krytian halfling. Kids born from Krytians and humans were bound to be weird. There were so many oddities she found in the child.
He wasn't shy. But, he often took to being alone. He was stronger and more athletically inclined than most kids had to right to be at that age. His hair grew at an alarming rate and had to be cut almost once a month just to keep it short. His idea of play always came down to fighting. And his eyes.
There was something in his eyes. They held a look similar to the Krytian's sharpness, but his were feral. Citizens feared those steely eyes. Cold, sharp, and deep like a sword. Where there should have been innocence there was none.
Yuri was passed around from home to home. People would take him in and be relieved when they could finally rid themselves of him. Eventually, he'd be brought back to the church and it would all start over.
His eyes only got sharper and his nature coarser at five. Yuri started to band younger kids under him. A pecking order that had never been was formed. Yuri's word was second only to the nuns. He took to growling when he was displeased and it shook more fear than any wanted to admit. He was disobedient and made people think more of an animal than a boy.
Yuri Lowell was a mystery that the Lower Quarter couldn't grasp or tame.
On a warm Saturday in June a new family showed themselves at the church sermon. It was an unusual thing for a family to move to the Lower Quarter. Especially, one as nice as them. The family seemed so displaced from the rest of the crowd. They carried an air that spoke of nobility but not like wealth or status. No, this was an aura of honesty, integrity, purity, and righteousness. They wore nothing extraordinary or acted in any way that stood out.
There was a mother with lovely golden locks tied in a high ponytail and the most serene blue eyes. The son was small and clung to her affectionately. The same coloring ran through his features, but his face probably took more after his father. The father had a ruggedness to him. He clearly didn't shave often and his hair was more reddish than his wife. The man was handsome the woman beautiful.
The mother, Norien, pulled her son along with her to Olive. They talked and Olive begrudgingly pulled the son along. Stupid brats. She put him up with the other children who sat in the front.
The boy, Flynn, sat in the pew that was barely holding itself together. He didn't dare move more than an inch on the glorified bench. Most of the other children were about his age or younger and were rather bored by the affair. Flynn was too. Five-year-olds aren't fond of sitting still for long times.
His eyes wandered everywhere till they rested on another child with inky black hair trailing down to the shoulders. Pretty. The raven-haired child seemed the least interested in the whole affair. Feet thumping on the ground impatiently and slouched in a grumpy manner. Flynn found it amusing.
Flynn quietly asked the girl next to him for the name. She shushed him but softly said Yuri's name. The sermon went on talking of the power of the goddess. The speech didn't seem to have changed from the one in their old church. It made Flynn wonder why they left. He didn't focus on the words. He paid more mind to the surroundings. There weren't any tomes or painting. The building was cramped and crumbling. But, the people seemed happy.
When the sermon was finally over he tapped Yuri on the shoulder. The raven-haired boy grasped his hand tightly and looked into Flynn's eyes.
They were steel. The sheen to them was frightening and Flynn struggled to keep eye contact. "Umm... hi." He forced. He heard gasps and whispers from the other children. Yuri shouldn't be frightening. Not with a face that had a delicacy of a China doll. "I'm new and..."
Yuri's eyes told him to shut up. "Don't touch me." Yuri spat. The voice was rougher than Flynn would have thought. He apologized quickly and turned his eyes to the ground. He could feel the steel eyes burn.
Flynn ventured to look back at Yuri. The pretty face was scrunched into an unpleasant scowl. "It's nice to meet you." The hand was tossed aside. Instinct told Flynn to run, but he didn't back off. He rubbed wrist that was sore from Yuri's grip. "Wow, you're pretty strong for a gi-"
Flynn never got to finish that sentence.
A strong fist collided into the left side of his face knocking him to the ground. "What did ya say!" It was less of a question and more of an outright threat. Yuri pinned Flynn to the ground and punched him again while the adults rushed to stop the affair.
The blonde did his best to cover himself and kicked at Yuri and somehow managed to roll on top of him. He was about to back away and run to his mother's arms when he was pulled down again. Flynn punched instinctively which only seemed to anger the other boy. He let out a loud screech as Yuri bit him in the arm with enough force to draw blood.
The adults were finally able to pull the two apart and Flynn started bawling. "Mommy it hurts!" Norien tried to shush her son and calm him down. Yuri was trying to get out of the strong grip of the man holding him down. Apologies were made left and right. None came from Yuri who was forced away with one of the nuns.
Sister Merlwe looked at him with disdain as they sat in the yard. She viewed Yuri as one might a tack in their shoe. "You, fucking, halfer." She smacked him across the face. "If ya gonna act like an animal I'll discipline ya like one," Yuri growled angrily and was smacked in the face again. "Ya disgrace this church. And ya disgrace me." He growled still and she kicked him.
There was a post in the yard that Merlwe often used to punish disobedient kids. With a little struggle, she placed the bulky metal collar around Yuri's neck and left him chained to the post. "Stay like that a few days."
He looked at her with anger and bitterness. This wasn't the first time. Or the last. And he'd be out in a few hours. Merlwe couldn't lock him up for long. Olive would come and unlock him.
He was still mad at that stupid blonde. He hated being mistaken for a girl. If he cut his hair shorter he wouldn't have the problem, but it would be back to this length in less than two months. Yuri also hated it that he had looked away from his eyes. Nobody would make eye contact with him if they could help it. Merlwe said it was because Krytians had cursed eyes. She said the reason they had antennae was because they were descendants of monsters. Humans were born from the goddess and Krytians were beasts who took a human shape. He didn't fully grasp it.
So, if Yuri was half did that make part of him cursed? Were just his eyes cursed? Or were other pieces? He curled in and leaned on the post. He hid his face and bit his lips till they split.
He wasn't crying. He wasn't! He was mad. Why had his mom just left him? That boy had a mom. He was jealous. His mom and dad had left him all alone because he was cursed. Did they even love him? If they did, they wouldn't have left him here. He did what he could to quiet himself. He wasn't crying. He wasn't.
He wasn't...