Wow. Chapter 2! Lookit us go, Matt! Anyhow... I know the last one was kinda weird. I kinda tried to fix it, but it wasn't broken in the first place, so... yeah... anyhow... you know the routine...
In the great paraphrased and molested to fit my needs words of the big blue lovable hugable kitty we all know and love, "Read Story... Review... Wait for more..."
Lordy Lu, I love that Kimarhi Kitty!
(Matt: Smack! Quit being stupid!
Me: Yes, God!
Matt: That's right, knave!)

Story! Now! Poof!

(FORSOMEREASONITWON'TLETMEUSESYMBOLSTOSEPERATETHIS)

In the Summoner's Shadow

Part I Chapter 2

Once, together we were happy and we were so very young; sadly now we have been parted- leaving me quite broken hearted. So many love songs still unsung… So many things still left to say. I did not leave without a care andI hope we meet again some day. I turn around to see you thereas though I had not gone away. Just listen to me my one and onlyshould you hear a lonely sound. Drifting sweet secrets in the breeze; please feel that I am still around. I leave you sadly, deeply thinking,this is really not too fair… so very proud at having known you,finding such sweet love to share. We must bow to a higher power when He comes to call us home, leaving those we love behind usto join us later when they come. Try to think of me with kindness; try to think of me with Love. One day please do come and join me in a happy home above

(Frank Paylor, Shadow)

Quite frankly, I was amazed. Up earlier than the sun herself, Yuna and the nameless child were up and running around the house, playing. Of course, the child wasn't, per se, running, but she was holding tight to her brand new big sister and laughing as loud and as joyously as she could.

Not that I minded, actually; I'd rather be woken up by that sound than any other sound. I got up out of bed and walked into the main part of the house where the pup was barking and jumping up and down while the child was giggling and Yuna was holding her up in the air.

"Look, Daddy! She flies!" Yuna giggled. I couldn't help but laugh at this.

"Does she, now?" I asked.

"Yep! Watch! Ready, Sonja?" she asked. The child laughed and clapped her hands. Yuna threw her into the air and caught her when gravity brought her back down. As I watched my brown-haired beauty hugging the new child, I wondered at what she last said.

"You already named her?" I personally thought I sounded as if I was talking about a new pet dog or something like that.

"Yep! Her name is Sonja!" Yuna declared, her one green, one blue eyes illuminated with happiness and delight.

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, but where did you get that name from?" I posed this question expecting a simple answer, but what I received was not what would be considered ordinary.

"I had a dream! There was this bi-i-ig wolf who came in and picked her up and hugged her and called her 'Sonja,' then looked at me and said, 'Take care of my baby girl,' and left! It was awesome! I told him I'd be nice to her and share my toys!"

I could do no more than stand there, staring in amazement. Not that I believed any of this, it's just that it was intriguing how broad and imaginative the mind of a child is, to the point of being able to create stories like that.

"Alright… but don't you want to name her something nicer? Sonja sounds kind of awkward. What about Ella, or Josephine or something?" I suggested.

"No! Not Ella, not Josephine, not Elizabeth, not anything! She's baby Sonja, and she's my baby sister!" Yuna demanded with that bossy voice of hers. A foot stomp signaled the end of this argument, and anything I said would be the start of a whole new argument. I sighed and nodded.

"Fine! If you insist…" I shrugged. "Although, don't you think baby Sonja is a bit hungry? Aren't you hungry?"

"Yeah! We're both hungry!" She nodded. I held my hands out take Sonja and feed her.

"No! My sister! I feed!" Yuna practically barked at me. I stepped back to keep from being bitten from my rabid daughter.

"Alright! Alright! You can feed her!" I laughed.

I picked them both up and hauled them to the kitchen area where I created more of the fruit slop for little Sonja, then fixed a meal for Yuna and I, throwing random scraps to the pup. I almost choked on my breakfast when Sonja jumped from Yuna's arms and shoveled the food into her mouth with her hands.

"Ahh!" Yuna yelped. "Be careful! Don't choke! Wipe your mouth, you sloppy shoopuff!"

I sighed. She sounded so much like her mother. It pained my heart… I walked to the sink and leaned on it, my back turned to my child… ren… children now… to make sure they didn't see my shed tears.

Anyhow… after breakfast, we gave Sonja her (quite possibly, and most likely) first bath. She loved the warm water so much, she refused to get out, even when we dumped the wash barrel out and she laid in the puddle on the cold ground, still trying to swim around in it. We washed the pup, too, which was so caked with mud and blood when he followed me home, I mistook him for a brown, almost burgundy furred wolf, but was actually the most beautiful shade of bluish silver I had ever seen.

The poor child, Sonja was covered in mud and blood, also to the point of keeping her true skin tone from showing through. She was pale, paler than perhaps even the moonlight in which I found her. Her eyes were the most unnatural color of honey-like gold. On the back of each hand was a small lump. I really didn't know what it was until I stared at them for a while. They were two stones- bright green emeralds- with small swirls of black in them. I was absolutely confused, but paid no heed to it.

Yuna made a sudden law that I "had no choice" but to put her in an old play outfit my dear love made one time, yet Yuna refused to wear on the account that it made her "look like a guy." However, it made Sonja look positively like she belonged in it. Maybe it was her small muscles, even at this age, which had made me start wondering, what had she gone through, and how old was she really to be that strong?

As my baby girl and my big girl ran out of the house to play with the other kids, I dismissed the thought and looked no further into it. I opened the window so I could listen to them as I finished my breakfast and read a book.

It was quiet, though.

I could not hear either daughter, nor pup, making any noise. I looked out the window, and saw the three of them standing there, staring at the other kids who played in a little group away from them, convinced by their parents that my family was nothing but blasphemers and openly proud of contradicting the teachings of Yevon. I think the parents over looked the fact that I was, myself, a devote Yevonite and a missionary for the very religion I was "contradicting." So what? I fell in love and married a non-Yevonite… an Al-bhed… It didn't change me personally… I'm still the same guy… sorta…

"Another child? Out of whom?" a voice of one parent asked.

"Who knows? Quite possibly a whore or something. You know, they say after his wife died, he hit the bottle. Maybe he got drunk with some random town girl and got her pregnant, and she left the child with him. He deserves it. I would have done the same thing, if I were her." Another parent spoke.

I had to close the window and busy myself with cleaning house before I got so mad at them I did something I would regret.

"Ignore them, Braska…" I commanded myself. "They're not worth it… you know all they speak are lies… don't let yourself get worked up."

I sighed and sat down in my favorite chair, looking out the door and seeing Yuna kneeling on the ground, hugging little Sonja and patting the puppy. My poor girls…

(SOI'MJUSTGONNADOTHISIFYOUKNOWHOWTOUSESYMBOLSTELLME!)

Yeah, I know. Kinda slow as of now... next chapter contains the tragic event I promised! I'm so mean! Blame it on Matt, too!

Anyhow, Love Ya! Review time!