DES chapter 43
Lloyd walked across the room, his small feet soundless on the hard wooden boards. It was only by the whisper of his breath that Kratos knew that Lloyd had even entered the room. Unmoving the seraphim stared at the fire, watched the flames consume the logs behind the protective grate. Water fell from the heavens, its mark was the steady tap on the roof and the soft hiss from the flames as water made it through the chimney and tried to damp the fire.
"Why are you up? You should be asleep by now, have you any idea of the hour?"
Lloyd didn't hop, was not surprised. He felt, as Kratos imagined all young children felt, that his parent was all seeing and trusted in that. "I couldn't sleep."
"Nightmare?"
Kratos turned that one word into an offer of comfort by tone alone, and it was what Lloyd was looking for. Mutely Lloyd nodded; his wild brown hair fell into his eyes. He crossed the room and clambered into his fathers lap with no more prompting. Small hands held onto his mud and blood stained tunic as the first of the tears came out. He reached with a hand, stroked that chaotic hair and said nothing. It seemed as if his presence was enough, Lloyd fell asleep in his lap, small hands still holding onto him. He cradled Lloyd to his chest as he had so many times before, so many nightmares, it seemed wrong for the gods to inflict such terrors on a child.
Yet in all of his experience the gods were, if nothing else, capricious with when and where they gave a soul happiness. They were also eager to inflict nightmares on the undeserving.
He sat, his son in his arms, and watched the predawn world die in spectacularly uninspiring blur of grey. Instead of that grey drifting away in the suns light it deepened, caught under the bellies of the few clouds he could see and ran like an extended smudge across the heavens. Absently he shifted his son around in his arms as he contemplated the view from the window. One more day, and then that was it, even if this streak of foul weather did not break they would only remain one last day. Staying here so close to where Anna had... He suppressed that thought, focused on the practical reason. Cruxis might find them, they had tempted chance too much by lingering in one place, they had to go on the run yet again.
"I will not let them kill you, I will keep you safe." The seraphim whispered, bending his head and gently kissing his son's head. "I'll stop this madness and give you what bit of a normal life I can." Kratos' voice became thick with pain. "No matter what, I will give you this. I swear it."
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"Daddy, Mr. Irving!"
Both men jumped, startled by the fear in the boy's voice. Kratos abandoned the map he had been brooding over and the dwarf ran out from the kitchen, a heavy leather apron more suited to the forge then the kitchen wrapped around him. Lloyd had been sitting down by Noishe staring out a window, now he was hiding behind the massive protozoan. Kratos didn't even bother with the window; he opened the door and stepped out into the cold grey world beyond the dwarf's home. He didn't need Lloyd's whimper of terror or hand pointed at the forest to know where to turn. He'd spent hours outside already and had memorized the area so he'd know how it looked, so he'd know when something subtle was out of place.
He stared at the faintly human shaped creature and had this uncanny feeling that it was looking at him. Then it was gone, obscured by the drooping branches and mess of trees, there was a flash of lightning, and it was gone. It had not walked off... if had just disappeared.
Closing his eyes Kratos. The Aionis in his blood allowed him to touch a world that would over throw the sanity of most human minds. He brushed against the weave, felt it caress his skin, his eyes, and fought down a wave of nausea. As he let go of his mortal senses allowed himself to feel the pulse and energy of everything around him. He extended that sense, stretched it out like one would stretch a hand and reached for where the monster had been. Monsters, being products of the mix of stagnant mana, negative emotions, and hapless creatures that wandered into those places, left a mark. One that he could see through the pulse of mana all around him once he had let go of his mortal senses.
He snapped his eyes open with a curse. This was another nasty surprise of the day it seemed. Whatever the hell it was no normal type of monster because it left no mark, it was like nothing had been there at all. All Kratos could tell was it was hungry and cold, and it was looking for something, and that information came from the residue of it's thoughts.
Kratos clenched the hilt of his sword as the implications came down. Unable to sense it he was helpless to protect Lloyd from it until it stormed whatever camp site they had set up. He dared not leave his son behind to hunt the thing down, not with a dwarf who had sheepishly admitted to him that he had enough trouble fighting the wolves in the region. Snarling another oath Kratos went back inside, slammed the door behind him, and looked to the frightened dwarf and his cowering son.
"We," The seraphim announced in icy tones. "Have a huge problem on our hands."
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"But you scared it off." Lloyd protested, small feet tapping a rhythm against the chair he sat on.
Three books had been placed underneath him so that he could see. Unfortunately seeing the table and the meal of beef stew in front of him made him want to eat; and while the eating itself wasn't a bad thing -Kratos would have been worried had Lloyd not shown any interest in the food- Lloyd was not a particularly tidy about how he ate. And Lloyd had no more clean clothes after this set for they had all been in their packs. They didn't even have means to do laundry, and while Dirk would have offered...
Even before Kratos could finish the thought Lloyd turned on the food and after one spoonful managed to spill food all over himself. The seraphim heaved a purely internal sigh and considered how to answer without scaring his son farther.
"I may have scared it off, but it might come back."
"You're not scared of a monster are you Daddy?"
Kratos closed his eyes, I am scared it will take you from me, that by it's claws you will die. I am scared that my inaction will kill you, my hesitance. I am scared that my very love will kill you, that what I am will come to you as your grow old and fester in you like a taint and crush that will and spirit that brings me such pride. Am I scared, every moment of every day, but not for myself, only for you.
"Of course not." Kratos managed a grin from somewhere in himself. "I'm just a little concerned, that's all."
"Don't worry, I'll protect you Daddy!"
Dirk chuckled, looked to the seraphim.
"He always this confident?"
"Family trait," Kratos closed his eyes on bitter tears, thinking of another confident person who had walked by him not too long ago. "The idea Lloyd, is not to fight monsters, but to avoid them until you grow up a bit. When you're older then you can fight a few monsters now and then, alright?"
"Yes Daddy..." Lloyd gulped down another mouthful of stew, his mind also wandering. The pain lines around Lloyd's eyes said louder then words that it was not some childish fantasy that was playing in his head.
Seeing Lloyd like this, trying to act normal when a pain festered in him that had brought his own sire down low was almost enough for Kratos to renounce all the gods. To turn his back on all of them, and yet... To even see the next year with Lloyd he would need their protection, he could no longer do this alone. Swallowing back his tears the seraphim turned to Dirk.
"We will leave tonight, hopefully the rains will wash away our scent."
"You're going to take your boy out in that!"
At Dirk's flash of temper Kratos almost exploded. He was Lloyd's father he knew what was best for his son! Where in Hell did this upstart half man get the right to assume that he knew anything? Much less the needs of his son! This creature had no right to say anything to him about what was right or wrong and...
And Martel would be kicking me right now if she physically could...
Kratos winced, seeing that old part of him he had been fighting all of his life come boiling to the surface. He'd never really purged himself fully of his hate, it was always a part of him and whenever he was strained it would rush to the surface. He pushed it down, suppressed it. He had loved Anna enough to destroy the last bits of his own father that had clung to his soul; it seemed as if he had not loved Martel enough to overcome the rest of his hatreds. Yet Martel was not his wife, he liked Martel as a sister, but she was nothing more then that.
"I have ways of protecting him against the elements." Kratos said once he was sure of himself. And he'd be damned if Dirk did not pick up on the rage that had been stirring in his guest. Lloyd had, he was looking at his father as if he was expecting to be yelled at. "Come on Lloyd, let's lie down for a bit."
"But Daddy, Aska's out!"
"Aska?" Dirk mutteredto himself, Kratos decided not to enlighten the dwarf on his son's beliefs.
"I know Lloyd." Kratos sighed. "We need to sleep now because we're going to be up all night."
"Alright..." Lloyd was looking at him as if he wasn't quite sure his father was right in the head.
"Ah, let me get you down Lloyd." Kratos moved to pick his son up from the chair before Lloyd decided to check to see if he had wings yet.
Picking his son up from the chair Kratos shifted Lloyd around so that his son was comfortable. Small arms wrapped around his neck, his son snuggled to him, eyes closing. Son in hand the seraphim left the room and the humored dwarf behind. He managed the door somehow, worked it open while juggling his son. A small kick on his part closed it behind them. As he pulled back the covers and moved to set Lloyd down Kratos was shocked when Lloyd lifted his head up, and kissed him on the cheek.
"I love you Daddy." Lloyd held onto him as tightly as he could.
"I love you too." Kratos freed up a hand, stroked his boy's hair. "Don't ever forget that. Now come on, you need to let go so you can rest on the bed."
"I..." Lloyd looked up at him with fear in his eyes. "When I go to bed I have nightmares. I get alone and I get scared and... and... it rains red and..."
"I wont let it." Kratos whispered. "I wont let it hurt you, whenever you have a bad dream just know I'll be right here and I'll wake you up from it or you can wake me up and I'll make it go away."
"Forever and ever, you'll make them stay away forever and ever?" Lloyd whispered, the fear still not leaving him.
"As long as you need me to." Kratos smiled gently, whipped at his eyes. "Forever, if that's how long you need me I'll be here forever."
Lloyd went to bed with no farther words, he lay down with his eyes closed, a small hand holding onto the edge of his father's cloak. With a soft tender smile rimmed with tears Kratos lay down as well, though sleep would not be coming for him so soon after his last nap. Habit made him lie on the bed though he would not have suffered any if he had sat up the whole night. Habit, being human was a habit for him, and being a seraphim was his reality. It was then, watching his son sleep, seeing the lines of pain and fear that did not even fade away in slumber that Kratos' mind echoed a curse that had often fallen from Anna's lips.
'Damn Mithos for making us into this. Damn him for making us cringe in the shadows like thieves, for making a mockery of our love with his ideals.'
He had a long time to just lay there and think of his mistakes, a long time to think of how he could have done something to save Anna. If only he hadn't lowered his guard, if only they had been more cautious. If only… He swallowed, forced the tears back with stubborn will alone.
He could spend the rest of his life, of Lloyd's life, thinking "if only" or he could do something about it. He sighed, recalled Sybeck and that damned long pile of notes. If nothing else he had plenty of time to think about those papers and their theories on the Eternal Sword. Closing his eyes he let the present world drift away and his memories rushed over his head like a ocean's wave, muffled all thought all sound. Reality drifted away and with a sickening wrench reformed he 'was' in Sybeck he was looking at pages and pages of tedious notes, memorizing while Anna looked on in worry. He allowed the memory to play, for that memory to be reality until he got to the point in his reading that held the most potential. He then with another sick wrench ordered it to stop while he went over the notes on the properties of Aionis. Considering he already knew what the notes said this was an attempt to get the rest of his mind, not the tatters of his sub consciousness, to turn the problem over and over. Ignoring the ink smudge on the page Kratos allowed himself to read that book from his past.
'Aionis while consumed may enable the devourer to make use of mana, as a matter of fact it is theorized that some half elven's have done this to themselves to make them equal to their pure blood relatives. But when a human ingests it Aionis is the most toxic of substances traveling through the blood and attacking the brain. Indeed, when not even ingested Aionis can kill a human, contact with the material is highly dangerous and prolonged exposure makes a human's potential mana careen out of control leading to a total break down of the body's functions. Symptoms of Aionis poisoning are so erratic that it is common for several other diseases to be suspected that the person does not get proper treatment and dies in twenty four hours...
(See page 29 paragraph four for examples of poisoning in our times)
It is theorized that those Chosen by Martel are allowed to take in Aionis and that it has some beneficial causes to those of Angelic status. Such thoughts though are gibberish as we know that hose of Angelic and most holy status do not partake in the base needs of mortals and therefore can not consume sustenance as we do. They live off the good humors which radiate off the souls of mankind.
aside: Aionis is also known by the pagans as Shards of Eternia
Even as a memory Kratos winced at the narrators following spiel about the purity of angels, ad thinking over the whole section –minus the religious rant that concluded it- Kratos knew that there was something there. If Aionis could in fact cause a human's mana to go out of control on contact then perhaps there was some way to tame that effect… He opened his eyes, fought back the memory and came back to his true reality with another of those gut wrenching jerks. Lloyd's hand still gripped his cloak; his soft breath was the only sound in the room.
'I wonder' Kratos mused as he braced himself to go back farther into his past. 'What that stuffy old bastard would have thought if he knew an angel could have a child? That we are more human and more fallible then he thinks? That bastard would be rolling in his grave if he knew that, he'd probably dismissed others from his order when they'd shown even the slightest hints of thinking that angels were anything but pure all powerful, benign, entities of good will. 'Oh we are pure, well our leader is, pure what I don't think that man would want to know.'
Reaching out, he took his son's hand in his own, and with that firm anchor to the real world so lose he would not lose himself to the next jump, which would take him to when Martel had been sick, dying…
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"Daddy!" Small hands pushed on his stomach, he groaned, opened his eyes, and told his throbbing head to stop hurting. "Daddy, Luna's out now!"
"Thank you for walking me Lloyd." Except he hadn't exactly been asleep, he'd been recovering from watching four thousand years of life shift through his mind. He cracked an eyes open as Lloyd plopped down in his stomach. "Lloyd, are we going to have to have that conversation about Daddy's stomach again?"
"Sorry." Lloyd rolled over and got off his father's stomach, and decided to take up as much of the bed as he could at Daddy's feet. Lloyd smiled at the seraphim. He was always so charming in the morning, all smiles and happiness just to be up with those he loved. Enthusiastic, though shadowed with pain and loss, he was enthusiastic to be on the road again.
"All right," Kratos winced when Lloyd poked him in the side. "I'm up already! Wake Noishe and we will be on or way. Can you tell if it's raining?"
Of course he could hear the drops but it was a test. The sound and amount of those drops was minuscule, even to his angelic hearing, and such a thing in all probability would not be able to be heard by human ears. Lloyd scrunched up his face, tilted his head to the side, and then frowning muttered something about Noishe. So that's how he was doing it, the seraphim had been wondering how Lloyd had known the other mornings that it was not raining… Kratos mentally sighed with relief. Lloyd was going to Noishe to check the weather, that was good and a welcome indicator that Lloyd was not becoming what his father was.
He would never stop checking, could never stop checking his son for these symptoms. He would not lower his guard and turn around in a decade to see his son unchanged, untouched by time. As he listened to Noishe's grouchy wake up bark, as he heard Lloyd call Noishe a "grouchy grouch", he lay on the bed, eyes open and mind churning. Time was both against and with him. Time would change and inevitably take his son from him, as time and ill fate had swept Anna from his side. And yet without it he would never had had them, it was limited, his time with his family, so damned limited.
And if Mithos had his way there would be no time at all.
Then he would not give Mithos his way, he would leave Lloyd with Syt for a month or so and then return to Derris Kharlan to steal some Aionis and Syston. Because if he sheathed the Aionis with the Syston then perhaps, just perhaps, it would react in such a way that he himself could wield the eternal sword. After that it was a sort three minutes flight to the holy forest and a five minuets walk to Origin's alter.
And then at that point I do what? I'd have to release all my mana, break the seal, talk to Origin, and then depleted down to nothing fight him, win, and request to use the Eternal Sword.
No… Not the Eternal Sword, the elves called it The Star's Double Edged Blade.
Usn Lloyden Aruionen in angelic if you wanted to be picky.
Suicidal at worst and plain stupidity at best, even if he got the sword Mithos isn't going to sit on his hands and do nothing. He'd be hunting for his traitorous lieutenant every second of every day.
But that hunt would be very hard to do if Derris Kharlan disappears, or better yet drifts off into space and becomes a comet once more. Then Mithos would be trapped, avoiding a fight altogether.
Which in turn lowered Kratos' chances of dying, and once a while he wouldn't have cared either way.
Lloyd squeaked; Kratos heard Noishe's bark in pain as his tail was probably yanked in Lloyd's attempt to wake the protozoan up.
He had a reason to care, despite the pain of losing his love he had a very good reason to care whether he lived or not.
A very good reason.
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"I don't like this!" The dwarf huffed, arms crossed, wisely standing besides the door and not in front of it. Had he been in front of it he might have been stomped into the ground by the seraphim's feet. "It's raining, and I have this chill in my heart that has nothing to do with the water."
"Your liking is irrelevant Master Craftsman." Kratos snapped; his voice filled with anger. It was nice to lash out at someone with his tongue, to have reason to so he could safely vent some of his anger. "We are leaving, thank you for your hospitality I apologize if we've been a strain on your resources, good evening and good luck."
"And what about this... all of this the lies, the truth, what of it man?"
"Do what you will, say what you will, I have given you my recommendations."
"Stay out here and say nothing to no one." Dirk snorted, tromping out in the rain after his guest. "You're daft man, how about the next Chosen, you expect me to do, sit and smile while some poor child sacrifices themselves for a pack of lies?"
"Do whatever the hell you want." Kratos snarled in a quiet voice. "It doesn't matter; this will be settled in a year's time one way or the other."
"If it were your boy they were sacrificing…" Dirk hounded, Kratos stiffened, set the bundle down in the mud and looked to the dwarf with such a deadly intensity that Dirk took a step back in terror.
"Listen to me Dwarf, and listen to me good, if I stay here any longer it will be my son they sacrifice. So go back to your house, sink into this mud, it doesn't matter what you do with yourself just so long as you stay out of my way." Kratos picked up the length of canvas and poles that Dirk had provided for a tent to see them off. Custom the dwarf had claimed; a self made one in the seraphim's mind. He was being cruel, vicious; he knew that, it was deliberate.
I don't like the fact you are so attached to my son dwarf, I don't like it one bit. So while I just may be acting as a possessive bastard I hardly care of the moment. He is my son damn it, mine! No one but me will raise him, I know damn well how to care for him and I don't need your help!
Dirk met his glare unflinchingly, and both men stood in the rain and neither showed any sign of being effected by the cold water.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my son, don't follow me." Kratos whispered his tone chilly enough to turn the rain to snow. "Or I might take it to my mind that you work for them. Is that understood?"
"Aye sir," Dirk gritted his teeth, bit down on his anger. He was reading between the seraphim's lines easily enough.
That too was deliberate.
"Good, remember it." Pulling a wad of his water logged hair out of his face the seraphim walked to the cold and shivering Noishe, dismissing the dwarf from his awareness. He had more important things to think about then that one man, much more important things.
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"It's cold Daddy, Noshy's really cold too."
"I am sorry Lloyd."
Kratos had cast a spell over Noishe and Lloyd to repel the water, to make it not cling to them or their clothes –though in Noishe's case it was fur- but he could do nothing for the cold. It was because he could not feel it, not being able to conceive what cold was the seraphim had been unable to manipulate it. He could have summoned a bit of fire mana, made it pass over Lloyd and Noishe, but that heat would not linger long and the cold would return again in less then ten minuets time. Even if he constantly cast the spell over and over again he would be making Lloyd's temperature drop and rise too rapidly and that in turn would make Lloyd get sick.
No, it wasn't an option; they just had to suffer though this.
"Daddy?" Kratos looked up from scanning the terrain for problems the most dangerous thing he was seeing were a great deal of puddles. "Is Iselia far away like that hot icky place?"
"No, it should be less then a mile from here. And since most towns have an inn we should be able to get a room tonight."
"Oh…" Lloyd seemed desperate to break the silence, it was only then the seraphim really knew how different it was traveling with out Anna. She would point out several things of interest, serious and silly, and badger both of them into talking. Without her both of the males in her family were so serious that they didn't talk all that much. And the silence gave too much time to think, something neither of them needed.
Because if you thought you remembered and if you remembered you bleed.
"I was thinking about going to Luin Lloyd, to pay Syt a visit." Damn small talk was not his specialty this was going to be difficult. "What do you think about that?"
"Luin? The watery place?"
"It's pretty watery now don't you think?"
He was rewarded with a breathless laugh on Lloyd's part that made his heart clench.
"Noshy was a fishy right?"
"Once a long time ago."
Noishe only bobbed his head and flicked an ear as if to say, 'yes and?'
"Can Noshy turn into a fishy now and swim us to Iselia?"
"Hmm I do not know, can you?"
Noishe's pained look said that if he could he would have by now.
"Have you even tried?" Kratos hounded the dog with completely false somberness.
"Whine bark bark whine!"
"No whining Noshy!" Lloyd chirped, tugging on a huge ear. "Turn to a fishy and swim us there!"
"Yes Noishe." Kratos' eyes gleamed with a wicked light. "Don't be shy about it."
Noishe could have killed the seraphim with his glare. Kratos only raised an eyebrow and the protozoan grumbled, growled, and endured for a mile or so his rider's calls to turn into a fish.
"Lloyd that is enough," Kratos reined his boy in when he seemed to be getting a little too hyper. "Noishe is just being a grouch, you know how he is."
"Grouch!" Lloyd leaned against Noishe's back; he worked his father's makeshift 'canvas cloak' over himself and Noishe so that they didn't have to deal with the water as much.
"Whine!"
"Don't argue with Lloyd, Noishe."
"Growl."
"You are only proving him right you know."
"Growl…" Noishe seemed to sigh in defeat and a more comfortable silence descended on them.
After a bit more walking the seraphim frowned, they should have been in Iselia by now and he doubted that he had gotten them lost. Yet having to walk around expanses of mud where Noishe could have slipped it was possible that he had gotten them lost. He ordered Noishe to guard Lloyd and drew his wings. As always Lloyd gasped at their appearance, if the light in his eyes said anything he had inherited Anna's wing fetish. Kratos only stood still long enough to let the ever falling waters wash away the blood then with a slight hop was off of the ground and struggling through the saturated air.
Growing fins might have been more useful here considering the rains, he managed though. He glared through the grey screen of water, and spotting a number of lights a goodly distance ahead he sighed. Lloyd was not going to be up for another hours hike in this, it was time to call it a night and hope that whatever that thing was wouldn't catch them in the morning.
For now that's all he could do.
Folding his wings Kratos dived to the ground, flared them at the last second and drifted down to the road wings flared trying desperately to absorb the force of his dive. He backpedaled the second his feet hit the ground to kill his momentum and slipped in the muck.
"Daddy it's not snowi' you can't make a snow angel now."
He lifted his face, grimaced as the mud slid off of his face.
"I know Lloyd," He whipped at himself and realized he'd just have to let the water do it's job. "I know…"
"Daddy made a mud angel Noshy!"
Kratos' wings flapped, brushed against the muck and the Seraphim found his feet and tried to ignore the yips that were coming from Noishe. They sounded far too much like human laughter.
"Shut it dog!" Kratos growled as he set up the tent under a tree.
Noishe only sat a few feet away yipping, his tail in full waging glory.
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Kratos cracked an eye open when Lloyd slipped out from under his Daddy's arm. Lloyd thoughtfully stuffed the sleeping protozoan's tail under his father's arm so not to wake him with his absence, then slipped out of the tent. The gesture was sweet, but really not necessary. He'd have to talk to Lloyd about that soon, try to explain that he never really slept so that such subterfuge wasn't necessary. But then it might just be useful if Lloyd were to say… slip out when he wasn't supposed to. The only incident Kratos could think about though was if Lloyd were going to slip out to see a girl… and that was in the far far future.
Fourteen years at least before that charming situation came up. It better damn well be fourteen years anyway.
Shame, he mused as he pushed Noishe's tail back where it belonged, that he did not share that cheery demeanor that his son had. He'd look forward to things more then dread them. The talk about what made men different then women… He had meant to shove that talk onto Anna's shoulders, and of course he now couldn't and since Noishe couldn't even talk it was totally on Kratos' plate now.
Unless of course we live in Luin, I could manipulate Syt into doing it.
There was a comforting thought. With a slight smile Kratos closed his eyes. He'd give Lloyd ten minuets to deal with natures call, with all those cursed buttons on their clothes, more gifts from Dirk, it could conceivably take that long to get dressed and undressed. After ten minuets' he'd get up and set about making breakfast. Suddenly a strange tingle took him, it fell behind his eyes and he yawned mightily. Perhaps a small nap was in order, yes… he deiced as his eyes slid shut. Breakfast could wait… just five minuets.
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"Dumb buttons!" Lloyd fought with the 'dumb' things until they clicked back together closed. Granted he hadn't put them on right, they looked funny and his red 'jama's sagged and lumped together in funny places but… They looked fine on second glance, and if his belly got all cold it was the Sylphie and Celiseses people's fault, not his. He waddled back to the tent planning to go to Daddy when something shiny caught his eyes. He turned; there was a shiny 'person' on the other side of the clearing! Not a person with shiny wings like daddy sometimes was but a glowy shiny person!
His mouth sagged open as he realized that the person had wings just like Daddy. He remembered that Daddy had told him to yell out if he saw a person with wings, no mater where he was he was supposed to yell and run and keep yellin', but Lloyd lost his voice when the glow disappeared and he could see the person underneath the glow. He stopped breathing and tears poured down his face.
"Momma?"
That's what he meant to say but he couldn't, but that didn't matter.
Momma was home, Momma was back!
She beckoned to him, at first he managed a few jerky steps, those steps turned into a run and he was in her arms. She held him, smiled and held him but said nothing. That didn't matter, she was back and everything was alright again. He closed his eyes as he rested in her arms. She smiled, kissed him, and funny thing was the kiss kind of hurt, it kind of sung like when he owwed his knee in that hot icky place.
But it was Momma, Momma would never hurt him! He smiled as she picked him up, but why were they going to the forest, shouldn't they go wake Daddy? He tried to say something but his mouth wouldn't make any noise. It was like when that nasty person in the snow place made him be quiet.
He tried to talk and Momma put a finger on his lips, settled him better in her arms and began to walk off. When he looked at her face however he started to shake. Because her lips had owwed him, she had blood on her face. He reached up and his head felt hot and sticky. And suddenly the air smelled funny, kind of sweet and sick at the same time. He frowned, looked around for the nasty smell, but there was only him and Momma. And it was Momma, Momma was back, and that's all that mattered. He closed his eyes, nestled into her arms and ignored how the snell got stronger.
He was with Momma and that was all that mattered, that was it. Closing his eyes he drifted off to sleep.