Shadow's First Life

Chapter II

Growing Older

13 April, 1955. Biolizard has lost her feet! Chaos degeneration decided her own two eyes were not enough for it to destroy, so it took her feet away as well. The loss greatly hindered Biolizard, yet she is still mobile.

She can still move herself, but only in a very inefficient and clumsy fashion.

17 February, 1956. Fuzzy engaged his sweetheart a little over a year ago. Erich and I got cabin fever and took a vacation to the Earth. An escape from the colony is a blessing I never take for granted. The statement that people do not know what they have until it is gone must be true. I never took the beauty of Mother Nature for granted, but when a monotonous colony of steel and glass trapped my son and me, seeing nature inspired me greatly.

Shadow invited the two of us to his new home. The house is a good size, having four bedrooms and two baths as well as a nice yard in a comfortable neighborhood. I never met his wife. Since Shadow's invitation was a chance to meet her, I found even more reason to go and meet them.

Shadow caught a girl that is a gem in the coalmine. His wife is Katie. Katie is gentle and loving. She has shown loyalty to Shadow in many ways. Katie has never left Shadow and has always been at his side. She is not afraid of hard work, and she always manages to have time to give Shadow.

She is beautiful as well. She has a graceful, curvaceous frame. Her face is soft and boasts clear, deep blue eyes. Long, golden quills on her head shine and sway with her every move. Her soft golden fur is thick and smooth.

She reminds me of my Angel. I always will love her. Death is not great enough to douse the flame of love she left in my heart, and even if the flame dies, the embers it will leave behind will glow hot forever...

I asked Katie if she had dated many men before she met Shadow.

She laughed upon the thought of my question. "I have dated a hundred men, but none of them are as good as Shadow!" I managed to ask her what Shadow did that made her fall into his arms. "A lot of things he does are things I like about him. He is modest and polite. He always cares about how I feel, and never has pushed me into anything I did not want to do.

He is romantic. He is loyal. The fact that he stayed chaste proves that." Katie blushed when she realized what she just said. I tried to break the heavy silence. "Both of you are modest, and that is honorable," I replied.

That statement appeared to take effect, as Katie continued. "One thing I noticed about Shadow is how he respects me. Men that treated me as a toy or wanted me for lust bothered me. Even if they were not after me for lust, I would not satisfy them in bed, because I am not the kind of girl that regards love so lightly." With a sigh, Katie quietly clasped her hands together and her eyes burned brightly with emotion.

"Shadow is the only guy I have ever known that has shown so much respect and admired me for being beautiful." "Few men do that, as I once was told the very same thing," I agreed. Katie innocently asked me,

"Who told you?" Her question shattered me and retuned my dream of bliss to the writhing agony of reality. I looked her in the eye with solemnity and could only say, "I am sorry. I dearly loved a girl. She is... gone now."

Erich and I bid a farewell to the ideal couple as we left. "I know that you are deeply in love and that is something that countless people have missed. A bonus of that love is simply that it has stayed pure. I can tell you both that you will be wonderful parents. You are blessed," I said before Erich and I left that night. In all of the pain I endured through losing my wife, something precious came out of knowing her that I still have. I have a son. As I remembered the gift Annie gave, I stroked my hand through her gift's hair...

One time I had to talk to Shadow before he proposed, he seemed nervous. Of course he was nervous, but he was also worried. I offered to listen to his troubles and he shared them with me. He and I were walking to a docking bay for his trip home. "I am worried about something, and it is not proposing," he said as his deep brown eyes focused on me. I stayed quiet and waited for him to finish. He sighed. "Both Katie and I are virgins."

"Oh. Is that all?" I asked with a grin pulling at my face. Fuzzy paused with confusion as he arched one eyebrow at me.

"That is not bad at all. In fact, I find that to be good." Both of us moved out of the way of a dozen scientists on duty as they marched buy us. All of them seemed serious. I never bothered to find out what they were studying. I asked him a question to try leading towards my response.

"Shadow, you are good and respectable, are you not?" Shadow let his mouth gape open dubiously. "How would you know?" "I see it..." I replied as I approached him. "...In your eyes." I pointed at his glittering brown orbs to support my statement. "You have a pure heart. You are a virgin because you intend to live with decency. You are kind and polite. You have modesty and good morals. The girl you love is a virgin for that reason, and you admire her even more because of her same modesty." Shadow seemed surprised as I got to my reason for such assertions.

"Don't you see? Virginity is not a burden; it is a blessing. It is something that you are only once and something that you give only once. The best thing you can do is give it to someone you trust, someone you love, and someone that you know and sincerely want to be with for the rest of your life. Give it to someone you love and get it in return."

"So many people throw that blessing away in shame, and then they cannot share it with their true love, if they ever do actually find their true love and recognize him or her. In addition, if you were to sleep with someone, you would attach to her more. If you were to separate later, you would have more to loose than you would if you stayed abstinent, and that is more pain."

Shadow relaxed, his muscles loosened and his breathing deepened. "God gave us sex to share it with our loved one and to cherish, and cherish with them only. By not being loyal, by giving your virginity to someone who you are not truly in love with, you throw His plan away. Sure, it will feel good for the moment, but from a moral view, it will be no more special with them than it would with the girl next door." He sighed deeply and smiled at me in thanks. I patted Fuzzy on his shoulder. "Take care, Fuzzy." Shadow smiled back at me with a wave goodbye and walked through the gate to board his flight...

9 March, 1956. Baby Shadow is constantly changing. Ever growing, ever lively, he has a profound curiosity. The little boy has a blanket that he carries everywhere. I do not expect him to be potty trained soon, so he should be wearing diapers for a while...

4 June, 1956. Professor Gerald has decided to start developing another baby. The birth of this clone will probably throw countless questions at us and provide few answers. This clone will be white and have beautiful turquoise eyes, because it shall be born next March. Will it be a person like Shadow? I surely know not...

12 July, 1956. Shadow turned two years old today. Christina made a chocolate cake for him, and he got more toys. Shadow is full of energy. At times, I envy the reliable energy patterns so common of young children.

Their energy is always UP! Down... UP! Down... UP! Down... My energy usually stumbles near the lower middle of the scale. My life would be much easier if I had a child's energy again...

5 August, 1956. The second embryo is developing as expected. The embryo is two months into development. The team has locked down Biolizard in isolation. She had a tantrum and tried to eat one of the scientists in the room with her. The scientist is a rowdy college graduate that bothered Bio somehow. I believe that he kicked her in the face. Ouch. He is like most boys his age, feeling impervious to danger. God knows what would have become of him if he were the Lizard's lunch. Maybe the event pulled him down to reality and off his egotistical throne.

8 September, 1956. Erich is now seventeen. As a present, I gave him an original Mauser 1898 that I used in The War. He needs to get a hunting license so he can use it.

14 September, 1956. Fuzzy will be a father! Katie is pregnant! The mother-to-be has been expecting for two months. Fuzzy and Katie have been married since August 1957. Although Erich has school, he and I will go and see her as soon as is practical. I only hope there is a teacher workday soon. Erich says there is one this weekend. I hope so. If not, we will go on a day when Erich has no big projects he needs to handle.

20 September, 1956. I am spending the night at Shadow and Katie's home. My son is having a sleepover with one of his friends for a birthday. Shadow has changed his behavior. He always waits for his wife and does sweet things for her. Shadow has picked up Katie's slack to be easy on her. The couple overflows with genuine love, and several of Katie's friends I have met are glad for her, as well as somewhat jealous. Her closest friend, Jenny, has decided she will marry a man like Shadow. She has the right idea.

Jenny is a pretty vixen. Really, she is an artic fox! Jenny told me something outside when she left that I will never forget. As she faced me with her large amber eyes, she said, "Shadow is a great man, and Erich, you are a great man also." Her statement startled me. "Thank you, miss... But why?" Curiosity filled me. Jenny giggled softly.

"I say that because I know it is true. You are courteous and modest. You have been respectful of Shadow and Katie, and helped them with their house chores. You also insisted on standing to give me your seat in their living room. That is what I am going to search for in a potential husband. I will make sure that he will never leave me, unlike the so many others that have." Jenny's silky white fur shined under the moonlight as she walked toward me.

Her neat hair fluttered as a breeze flowed around us. Without thinking, I reached and held her hand and looked in her eyes. "Jenny, you are smart and beautiful. Do not let anyone convince you otherwise." She blushed, and then her face neared mine. I smelled her sweet fragrance and felt a soft pair of lips briefly plant a kiss on my cheek. I was shocked. "Goodbye Erich," she whispered. "Good luck, Jenny," I said back as my cheeks burned. She giggled again as she pulled her face from me. She got into her brother's car and the two of them drove away.

21 September, 1956. I stayed with Shadow the Hedgehog for the last day and will leave tomorrow to return to the grim colony of cold, hard metal. I have decided to write down what exactly Katie meant when she said that Shadow was romantic.

Shadow has always done small things throughout the day to display his love for Katie. When he gets home from his job, he sets time aside to spend with her. The two lovebirds hold hands and hug each other often. Shadow holds Katie in his lap. Shadow tells Katie every day that he loves her. Shadow puts his shoulder to the wheel and shares the household chores. Katie loves the attention she gets from Fuzzy.

I hear that many women have little romance that does not involve lust. Sex exists with the purpose of complementing and fulfilling Romance. Romance never has intended to fulfill Sex. That is truly a pity, as there are so many more blessings in romantic relationships than just sex... A romanticist? Me? Absolutely! I am also a strict one at that.

19 October, 1956. The impossible has occurred. Our second clone has a heart... My original beliefs about what makes one human have not changed, but my views of why have been completely undermined and shredded into oblivion. As I stare out the window at the moon, I wonder. Is this God's will? Should this be happening? Should the scientists alongside me clone people? Did God Himself give the new fetus a heart? I stared out of the window. The fetus has a heart that is soft and pure, just like his father and his brother do. Somehow, I foolishly wished God Himself would tell me!

As I watched the moon, I noticed something. A shooting star blazed by the silver lunar face in front of my very eyes! Was I hallucinating? I considered what I just saw. The blaze was not a meteor. I was in space. There is no atmosphere present to burn a meteor out here! Could it be a comet? No, comets take days to move at all...

My mind told me that I was seeing things, but my heart felt that what I saw happened. I was so confused... This must be God's will. If it is not, than my feeble mind does not expect to know what actually happened.

Overwhelmed by the event, I can only decide to pray.

Something unexplainable inspired me to rush to the gestation room and check on the unborn. I answered it, rushing to the laboratory, and I saw a golden light burning within the heart of the fetus. The light made the artificial uterus glow orange, and the shadow cast by the chamber surrounding it threw itself onto the room around it. The glow then vanished, but I felt two hearts burning brightly. One was that of the fetus, the other was the heart of Baby Shadow. I have received an answer.

23 February, 1957. Yesterday is a day worthy of my memory.

Yesterday on the 22nd, Katie gave birth two months premature. Shadow called me the hour she went into labor to join him at the hospital. I went immediately, giving my son the assignment of taking care of himself for this single weekend.

When I had gotten to the waiting room at the hospital, Shadow was there with four other people. All of them were hedgehogs of an older age; they were the parents of both Shadow and Katie. Shadow's own father is a little over my age with dark grey fur and quills that remind me of lead and the same deep brown eyes that Shadow has. His mother has tan fur and quills that hang over her forehead like hair and brown eyes. Katie's mother has the same shade of golden fur as Katie and green eyes. Her father has light blue eyes and distinctive dark blue fur and quills. Everyone was very nervous.

It would be illogical to expect otherwise.

Shadow briefly hugged me when I arrived. "Thank you for coming, Erich. I did not know if you would show up at all," he said worriedly. He introduced me to his parents and his wife's parents. We waited for what seemed an eternity. I do not like the policy hospitals have of making an anxious new father trapped in the waiting room away from his wife! I actually ignored the pleas and orders of hospital staff and rushed to my wife when she called me between rapid breaths during her labor. I have not doubted in my disregarding action even once...

If Fuzzy was the same way, I suspected he would wait only for his own sweetheart's call. I was right. All of us heard her cry for him. It sung out of a storm of yells and screams of her suffering. I pushed the panicked father briskly forward and through the protesting nurses. When we were steps away from the operating room, I rushed him into a nearby bathroom.

"Wash your hands first, Shadow. I know how tense you are," I assured him. We both washed our hands and ran right to the screams of his wife. When we entered, gasping replaced Katie's screaming. Shadow's irises expanded, causing his pupils to become small as his face paled into a lifeless shade of grey. My blood froze stiff. Why was it quiet? I realized in horror the infant was not crying at all. The lead doctor held a twisted mass of slime and black fur in his arms as a cold look remained upon his face. The baby was dead.

Nurses and assistants left us in the room alone after the assistants removed the following afterbirth. Just Katie, Shadow, the doctor, a corpse and I remained in the room. Shadow stayed silent. After a cold and harsh silence, he whispered to the doctor, fear trembling in his voice. "May I hold my baby?" The doctor left us there. Tears started to cascade down Shadow's cheeks as he broke out in sobs. He wandered over to Katie to press his face and the stillborn into her arms and shook with every sob that escaped his mouth. Both of them cried for an eternity, but that eternity was fifteen minutes long.

The four grandparents walked into the room, bewildered by the hospital workers who escorted them to this room that filled with silence. They only stared at the couple that had a desperate grip upon the body of what was supposedly their first child. Shadow's father only started a question. "Is the baby...?" Shadow faced his dad to nod slowly as Katie sobbed.

"Call the doctor back to this room. His help will be appreciated," I commanded. I felt the solemnity in my voice. Katie's mom got the doctor in the room after everyone stared at me doubtfully. "Why did you send for me?" the returning doctor asked reluctantly. "You will see why," I answered. I was in a state of disbelief until I gathered the nerve to ask the two devastated hedgehogs if I could hold their stillborn child. Shadow slowly and delicately placed the black lump of fur in my arms.

I held it against my heart and focused on where its dead heart was. I reached for Chaos energy from everything I could possibly consider at the time. I gathered Chaos from myself, from the heartbroken couple, from the parents of the couple, from every hospital worker in the entire facility. I pulled energy from the very matter around us, from dust outside our room and the air, from far off animals and plants, everything that had Chaos energy inside.

The form of the stillborn started to glow in a bright white aura after the lights in the room seemed to dim themselves. The others that witnessed the spectacle held feelings of amazement and fear as they watched. I could feel heat grow in the heart of the body I held. The heat urged me to keep going, so I kept gathering Chaos.

The heart filled with warmth that became spiritual embers. After a moment, the embers ignited a faint yet steady burn of life. The baby was alive, but it was not breathing. I placed the baby on the foot of the bed with its head facing towards me and pressed two fingers on its sternum bone repeatedly to imitate a heartbeat. The baby's mouth opened and heaved clear, warm slime onto my shirt with a cough. That was disgusting, but I did not care then. Sighs of relief from Katie and Shadow followed the baby's first breath.

The baby cried, and its face reddened and tightened more with each little sob. The doctor lifted the infant into his arms and walked out of the room. Shadow let tears glide down his cheeks. Seeing the tears made me nervous. "I am sorry. I did not mean to scare you," I said. Shadow shook his head and replied, "No, I am fine. These are tears of joy." Shadow surprised me with a sudden bear hug and sobs. I hugged the new father back as he calmed down.

The doctor returned with a wrapped up blanket and an announcement. "Congratulations. Your baby is a girl, and she is quite lively." He handed the bundle of cloth to Katie and stepped back to let Shadow and his parents and his wife's parents gather around their new family member. I looked over them and saw the girl wrapped in her mother's arms open her eyes. "She has her mother's beautiful eyes," Shadow observed. Katie smiled and blushed in pride. The new father softly kissed Katie on her cheek. Sure enough, there were four deep blue sapphires shining in the light...

9 March, 1957. The white hedgehog was born today. He is just as ugly as Shadow first was, and yet he is stunningly beautiful. He has large, gorgeous, bluish green eyes that match the color of his birthstone, the aquamarine. Gerald is amazed as much as I am that the infant has a heart. Gerald has decided to clone the tiny infant and see what happens. The white furry is so little. I will name him... Zephyr. A zephyr is a gentle, pleasant breeze, and that as a name would describe this boy nicely.