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“Separation, Combination: Beial”
by Jade Griffin
7.25.99 to 9.28.99
Their third child, which they had concluded was definitely egg,
did not come softly as Meisá or Beial had. The pains hit sharp and quick,
nearly doubling the Lady over with their immediacy.
“Malcom!” she called on her next breath, then realized he was
out at the pond. Of all places to be now!
But their second child, Beial, ran in from outside to answer his
mother’s alarmed voice. Seeing his mother bent over, a hand on her distended
stomach, the child guessed what was about and his eyes grew large.
The Lady spotted her son. “Beial.” she paused to breathe in slow
breaths. “Do you know where your father is?”
The boy, a blond and powder blue-skinned version of his human
father, nodded and ran out.
Momma’s baby! Beial ran as fast as his gargoyle feet would take
him. He nearly tripped rounding the group of trees bounding the long family
garden. On he raced through grass and over hill, calling for his father in the
night.
“Dad! Daaad!!”
Fishing pole and catch abandoned, Malcom crested the pond hill
in a flat run, stopping dead-halt and nearly ramming his son in his rush to
respond.
“Momma’s laying!”
That was all Malcom needed to hear. A huge grin on his face, he
squeezed his son’s shoulder and took off for the house.
“Lady?” he called when inside, for she wasn’t to be seen.
“Lady??” he called again between catching his breath. Where--... The rookery!
Dodging furnishings, he hurried to the open archway of their
small rookery. Inside, his Lady was bracing herself against the far corner as
instinctive muscles worked to release the egg.
Relief grabbed them both as Malcom took his wife in his arms.
“How soon?” he asked.
“Very.” She managed a humored smile before her body pushed
again.
He immediately took a position to support her and a longer,
straining effort began. Two more muscle contractions and the soft egg fell a
short distance to the rookery floor.
Malcom hugged his weary wife to him. As soon as her breath was
back, however, she pushed up from him and reached for the egg.
“What’s wrong?” Concerned, he leaned forward, too. He saw
nothing.
She inspected the silvery speckled white egg carefully before
answering. “It is fine. Nothing amiss, my love.” She settled back against him.
“But it came so fast!”
He smiled down at her in his arms. “Don’t tell me you wanted the
laying to last longer!”
Her smile grew and she said nothing.
“Momma?” queried their son, standing quietly in the archway.
Both parents waved the boy in. He approached tentatively.
“It’s all right.” Malcom took his son by the hand and urged him
closer. “See the egg there?” He gestured with his eyes, smiling.
Beial nodded. “That’s going to be my little brother or sister.”
“Yeah. We don’t know when exactly but after this egg hatches,
you’ll be able to have someone to play with.”
“I hope it’s soon.” the boy sighed.
Epona reached out to squeeze her son’s hand.
“Does it look like it’s going to hatch tonight?”
Beial was hunkered down beside the silvery egg as his father
turned it.
“It’s only been three months, Beial.”
“I know.”
Malcom watched his son closely while rotating the egg holding
his newest child. That was the sixth time this week Beial had asked. The kid
didn’t have a tail to twitch but he could tell his child was restless, not
quite happy. And he knew why.
“C’mere you.” He pulled his blue-skinned son to him. “I know
it’s tough being the only kid here. And I’d love to have Jade Griffin and Comp
here all night to play with you, too, but they have homes and lives away from
us.”
“I know.” the mixed-breed boy sighed gustily.
“Don’t worry.” Malcom ruffled his blond hair. “It won’t seen all
that long. You’ll see. Give it six more months or so and this little baby’ll
break out and let us see ‘em.”
“Thanks, dad.”
“C’mon. Time to eat.” Malcom rose, the child’s hand in his.
It was during the family’s meal that Beial chose to ask his
question. “Mom? Dad? Do I look more like a gargoyle or a human?”
That paused all eating. Malcom and the Lady exchanged glances.
She answered. “You appear to be exactly half of each. You have a
gargoyle’s fast legs, and five fingers on your human hands. You also have a
human face and a pair of very nice gargoyle wings. Why do you ask, my son?”
“I just... I just wanted to know.”
Both parents could tell the boy wasn’t being truthful. Not
entirely. But he wasn’t sure yet how to bring up what was really on his mind.
The familiar zzZZzz of someone accessing the portal to their
front door spared Beial further inquiry. He immediately jumped up.
“I’ll get it!”
Rushing to the door, he pulled on the aluminum handle. Who could
it be?
In the doorway stood the only gargoyle he knew well.
“Jadegriffin!!” Beial tackled her legs.
“Hiya, kid! Hm...” The dark green gargoyle paused and sniffed
the air, then called into the next room. “Uh... sorry! Didn’t know you guys
were eating.”
But Malcom and the Lady Epona were already entering their
sitting room.
“It’s okay. Are you hungry?” Malcom asked.
“Um...” She didn’t want to impose but they had offered. “Sure! I
could never turn down a good salad.” She grinned as they led her into the
kitchen, Beial still attached to a leg.
“No baby yet, I guess?” she asked between mouthfuls of crisp
greens. Not that she expected it to hatch so soon.
“No.” the Lady answered.
“Unfortunately.” was Beial’s rueful second, using a word he
heard the adults use sometimes. It won him a smile from the gargoyle.
Jade Griffin thought it was a shame that the boy couldn’t
somehow go to her Canada Mountain Clan and play with all the kids there; and
that there were no kids here-- fey, human, or other-- that he could interact with.
She knew just as Malcom and the Lady Epona did that this was his unhappiness.
She just wished it didn’t have to be on the kids; and she didn’t know if they’d
explained any of this to him yet.
Malcom eased away from the archway of the rookery, and from the
watch on his son. He was sitting there staring at the egg again. He’d been
sitting there for over a half hour already.
The father went into the bedroom where his Lady was waiting.
“Is he still there?”
“Yeah.” Malcom stifled a yawn. Sunrise soon, and bedtime for his
family. He crawled in beside his wife. “I think we have two growing concerns
there.”
“Yes. The egg is the first.” She pulled him close, needing to
hold him in her worry. Their little egg did not show any sign of breaking shell
soon, and it had been a year and several months since its laying. “The second
is Beial. I see his sadness and it hurts me.”
“I know. I mean, he’s close to eight now. As close as we can
estimate. And... He’s been asking me about where I come from again, about all
the different places and things and humans. Lady, I think it’s time to expand
his education.”
“You think we should take him out?” She didn’t like the idea.
“Yeah. I know he’s young but we can’t keep telling him the same
things. He wants to see, to hear.”
“He has asked?”
He looked into her eyes, trying hard to tell her that he knew
somehow this was the right thing. “He didn’t have to ask, Lady. I know he wants
to go. You heard all the questions he asks nowadays. He’s dancing around the
topic because he’s afraid to ask.”
She nodded, eyes on the bed. “I have also seen this.”
“The ‘cyberverse’ just isn’t what he’s wanting.”
“I know.”
“I’ll tell him tomorrow, so I can get him ready.”
She merely nodded. “And our egg?”
He let loose a deep sigh. “You and Dr. Barnes can’t find
anything wrong with the egg. It looks like this baby could be more gargoyle,
and that it just has to be in the egg longer. I’m not happy about it either but
there isn’t much we can do. All we can do is keep watching and hope all’s well.
I mean, nothing seems wrong with it, right?”
She nodded, having tried her horn at the stubborn shell. Her
sensing had only revealed that she could detect nothing amiss. However, she
knew her abilities were limited so this comforted little.
“We just have to wait. Not even Comp can tell us.”
The Lady sighed with him but soon snuggled close. He wasn’t the
only one worn out.
Malcom checked the boy’s costume over one final time. “Ready?”
His son nodded, nearly jumping up and down in excitement. He was
gonna go! Dad was taking him! The human world outside where dad was from...
Malcom smiled at the obvious excitement emanating from the boy.
“Okay. Here we go.”
Taking his son by the hand, Malcom opened the door to their
home-- A door Beial had never before been allowed through.
On the other side... There was another door. And after that....
A room! It was small and disappointing to the boy. It looked a lot like the
sitting room at home.
“This is where I used to live.” Malcom said to lighten his son’s
obvious disappointment.
“But it’s so small!”
The father grinned. “There’s a lot more to my world that this,
Beial. Come over here.”
He led the boy to the window.
The child gasped at the view. “We’re off the ground!”
“Uh-huh. And look at all
the lights. We’re gonna go out there so take a good look from up here first.”
Beial nodded, realizing how big it all was, and why they
wouldn’t let him go alone,even if it was night, when most humans were asleep.
“How high up are we, dad?”
Malcom beamed inside. He’d never tire of hearing that word. This
was one of the few times he could give something to Beial’s education that Lady
couldn’t. He didn’t like the idea that he couldn’t contribute something
substantial, and fatherly, to his children. Silly, but that’s how he felt
sometimes. But not now...
“Five stories. How many feet is that?”
Beial frowned. “Seventy?”
“Nope. Try again. If each story is ten feet...”
“Five stories... multiplied by ten feet each... Ff... Fifty.”
“Right.” He smiled with unadultered pride.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“How do they get the building to stand so tall?”
“Iron, son. And brick.”
“Oh. Are all buildings made like that?”
“Pretty much.”
“What about pavement?” He glanced own at it. He’d heard about it
but this was his first time seeing it.
“Rock and cement.”
“Will I get to see some?”
“Yeah... Son, a human city is a lot different than anything
you’re used to.” Malcom warned. “No, I mean beyond what you smell and hear right
now. There aren’t many living things here except humans.”
Beial gave a thoughtful nod. “I’m ready to go see.”
“Okay.”
Malcom led his son out, trying to imagine what the boy was
thinking as he looked about from his coat-hooded face; which had flesh-colored
make-up applied so he would look totally human. The hood was mainly to hid his
little forehead horn. And as they walked down a street, what few people were
out saw nothing unusual.
Malcom was impressed with Beial. His son had many questions and
was very eager but also knew how dangerous what they were doing could be--
being out where someone might see him. They’d drilled both of their children
with that most important of lessons; thought for Meisá, fearing humans was in
her blood. Beial, on the other hand, was fascinated by any story or
conversation concerning human places and things. To ignore such an interest may
inflame the boy to independent exploration, and almost certain trouble. Better
to show him now what it was like before he thought of doing so without them.
Beial certainly had the drive. Malcom thought himself lucky that Beial was a
child who did listen to his parents. Not that driven, thankfully.
“So, why do they cover the ground up?” the child asked. His feet
felt funny in the special boots dad made him but he wouldn’t complain.
“They wanted to pave it over to have flat places to walk and
drive.”
“But you can walk on ground fine.” Beial reasoned.
“Right. It’s just the way humans think, Beial. It’s called
modernizing. When you make something better.”
“Better than what? It smells here... Do you think like this?” He
pointed out the streets and buildings.
“...No. Just because people think easier is better, that doesn’t
make it so. Humans are all pretty lazy as a group.”
“Oh...” A lit sign caught the boy’s eye. Molly’s Used Apparel.
“What’s apparel, dad?”
“MALCOM!”
The father’s answer was drown out by the shout as the woman
responsible pulled her Chevy Nova to the curb beside them.
Beial had ducked behind him and whispered, more than a little
worried, “Dad?”
Red-tail stared at Malcom a moment, then glanced at the small
person hiding behind his back. She grinned and put the car in park.
“Long time no see.” She leaned to the passenger side and looked
the pair up and down again. Malcom was grinning ear to ear.
“Sure has. How’s the bureau?”
Beial tugged at his sleeve, eyes ever on the woman. “Dad, who
izzit?”
“Good. Is this who I think it is?” She pointed to the very
human-looking boy.
Malcom’s grin doubled. “Yep. It’s okay, son. She’s someone who
knows.” He led the boy closer to the car. “This is Ann Red-tail, Bureau
Director for the Susan City FBI. Ann Red-tail, this is my son, Beial.”
Yeah, he sure talked like a father. “Hi.” she greeted the boy,
not sure what to say around such a child.
Beial blinked at her. “Good evening.” This was one of the people
dad talked about! Wow...
“You two goin’ somewhere? Need a lift?”
“What do you think?” the Lady Epona looked expectantly at her guest.
Jade Griffin looked up from her examination of the silvery
speckled egg. She’d seen more of ‘em hatch than either parent but that didn’t
mean she had any answers for them. “I... I don’t know. I’m sorry but I can’t
tell you when it might hatch. I can’t even make a guess.” She settled back onto
the rookery floor with a sigh.
“My mother answered similarly.” the Lady replied, worried by her
most recent offspring. “I do not like it, this waiting.”
The gargoyle chuckled. “Hey, if the baby is mostly gargoyle, the
wait may have only begun.”
The half-ki-lin/half-gargoyle nodded. “But it is odd...
It has been nearly two years since the laying. And... It took much longer to
conceive this child than I had imagined possible. And then the laying came so
fast. As though the child could not wait to be out of me.”
Jade Griffin blinked at her. “That... is odd, but I wouldn’t
think that far on it. Don’t worry. I’ll bet it hatches soon.” she said by way
of cheering the Lady out of her anxiety. “Hey, do you have a name picked yet?”
Epona gave a little laugh, her hand returning to the egg. “No. I
am forcing Malcom to come up with one on his own this time. I believe his
indecision comes from thinking that I do not like human names.”
Jade Griffin laughed, too. “Really?”
The Lady nodded. “But I do like--” Her sentence was cut on a
gasp, her eyes shifting quickly to the egg her hand rested on.
“What is it?”
She smiled to dispel any of the gargoyle’s fears. “It moved.”
Malcom glanced down at Beial. “This is your first night here.
What do you say, Beial? Wanna go for a little drive?”
The boy’s mouth came open. “You mean... in a car?” He glanced
from his father to the woman.
“Uh-huh.” He grinned at his son’s amazement, glad to be with him
for these experiences, and glad Red-tail happened by.
“Can we?” The boy’s longing was becoming clear.
Malcom turned back to Red-tail with a smile. “We accept your
offer.”
He stepped up to the car door and pointed for Beial. “This is
the door handle.” He demonstrated how to open it and got in. Beial gingerly
climbed in to sit on his lap. This was no problem, as the boy seemed lucky not
to have inherited any fey blood from his mother, or a tail.
Beial watched her every movement as she worked the fantastic
machine. Nothing in the city impressed him as much as cars so far.
“Where to?”
“My old apartment. It’s almost time to go home.”
“But can we come back again? Maybe tomorrow?”
“We’ll see.”’ Red-tail
glanced over at the boy. “Do you know what I do, Beial?”
“Yeah. You help with human problems, and make sure bad people
are caught.”
“That sounds about right, but don’t forget that bad people do
get away, and that they hurt plain old ordinary humans. I wouldn’t be so eager
to be out here.”
“But you’re a good person. You won’t tell, will you?” the
thought suddenly occurred to him.
She pulled them into the parking lot and, taking no offense at
the query, answered, “Nope.”
Malcom cast her a thankful smile for that little reminder before
opening the car door. “Thanks for the ride.”
With Beial out, he shut the door. Red-tail turned the car off
and got out, too.
“Anytime. Malcom?... Can I come up for a moment?”
“Sure!” He had a feeling he knew why. Stupid of him not to
offer, especially when he knew all of it secretly fascinated her.
Beial smiled grandly at the answer, because it brought the human
world a little closer to his own.
“Have ya ever been here before? It’s small! But you can see down
all fifty feet from a window!”
Red-tail cracked a smile at the boy’s chatter as they mounted
the stairs.
“...and she comes over to play with me a lot!” the boy finished
as the apartment door was unlocked.
Red-tail followed father and son in, wondering not for the first
time about this ‘Jade Griffin’ gargoyle she was hearing about again. Malcom
knew her but said little. Maybe he wasn’t at liberty to discuss her.
The boy frowned. “Do you think she came over tonight, dad? She
lives out here, you know.”
“Beial,” he father warned lightly. “Jade Griffin doesn’t want us
telling people about her.”
The boy looked startled at his unintentional slip.
“It’s all right. Just don’t forget next time. C’mere. We can
take this stuff off now.”
“Good! It itches!”
Red-tail’s anticipation was almost noticeable beyond her usual
passive, hawk-like stare. Malcom grinned as he helped Beial out of his costume.
Stretching out his gargoyle wings and feet, make-up removed from
most of his face, Malcom’s powder blue-skinned son caught Red-tail’s watch of
him. He turned reservedly to face her. She was still a stranger, and one who
didn’t know what he really looked like.
“Red-tail? This is my second child, Beial.”
“You’re a very striking person, Beial.” the woman complimented,
breaking her perhaps too long a look. She grinned to soften the mood. “Your dad
is very proud of you.”
Beial beamed at such praise and looked to Malcom or
confirmation.
“But Beial’s only your second? I thought the Lady wanted a lot
of kids.”
“She does...” Malcom didn’t think this was the time or place to
explain gargoyle physiology to her. “We have our third on the way.”
“And it’s taking forever to hatch.” Beial slumped with a sigh.
Red-tail’s brows shot skyward. “Hatch??”
“Yeah.” Malcom answered. “Beial hatched out of an egg, too.”
She looked the boy over again as if just seeing him. “How soon?”
“Don’t know. It’s been in the shell a year and eight months
now.”
Her eyes rounded.
“We don’t think anything is wrong. It’s just taking a while.”
“And what about your first?”
“A girl, live-birth.”
“You mean Meisá, right, dad?”
“Yep.”
“But she doesn’t look at all like me.” Beial explained to the
woman. “She’s got grey fur and dark hair and a tail and four legs.”
“Four legs?!” Red-tail looked Malcom up and down as if he’d just
grown two more. “Unbelievable...”
Malcom just shrugged.
“Why?” Beial queried. “Ki-lin have four legs and mom’s ki-lin.
“Point taken. But I think I’ll go while I’m ahead. Nice meeting
you, Beial.” she inclined her head to the boy. “Nice seeing you again, Malcom.”
“I’ll try to stop in sooner next time.”
Still wearing a little smile, the woman departed.
“Good-bye!” Beial called after her.
“Don’t worry. We’ll come out here again soon.”
“Really??” The boy’s face
blossomed.
“Yep.” Out of curiosity, he asked, “So... Now that you’ve met
your first ‘real’ human, what do you think?” Beial never thought of himself or
Dr. Barnes as ‘human’. He’d said so when asked. The boy replied the reason why
was that he knew Dr. Barnes, and Dad was Dad. The humans in the stories were
something entirely different.
Beial thought about it a moment before giving his reply. “She is
quiet, but she’s neat!”
Malcom yawned, stretching for a second time. Dawn. Beial was
finally home and sleeping from being out all night with Jade Griffin, so he and
the Lady could sleep, too. It was real good of her to volunteer taking him out
to see a gargoyle’s view of the world, and Beial thought Jade Griffin was the
best. She was the only gargoyle his son could see often, unfortunately. He’d
have to think of something special to do for her.
He passed the rookery’s open archway but paused, then turned
back and through it. Hafta turn the egg.
He knelt down beside the shell holding his third child.
Twenty-two months and it still showed no sign of hatching. Rubbing at tired
eyes, he wondered if this is what a parent felt like for a ‘midnight baby
feeding’. What a funny thought, but they never had anything like that with Meisá,
and certainly not with Beial who stone-slept. If this baby was a lot gargoyle,
as they suspected, they wouldn’t be doing any midnight feedings this time,
either.
A second sigh turned into a yawn as he put his hands about the
egg to rotate it. Just wish the kid would hurry up!
Malcom’s right hand met a discrepancy in the smooth surface and
he frowned. Turning the egg revealed it. The shell was cracked a good length,
and through a tiny, fractured hole stuck a short, ivory cone... A horn! How long...?
Gently, he touched the one-inch horn but it shrank back inside the hole and the
cracks grew wider.
“Lady! Lady, c’mere!!” he yelled out.
His wife came running in, at first alarmed until she saw his
excitement.
“Look!”
Thought the egg did not much move, she saw the long split, and
the hole. It was true! She met her husband by their egg to await the child’s
coming. But... She turned to him. “Malcom, it is past dawn. Beial is sleeping.”
“Then...” If the egg was hatching past sunrise, “The baby
doesn’t stone sleep!”
The little ivory horn poked up again, a few small pieces of
shell falling. The Lady inhaled sharply. A horn... The split widened greatly
and both saw an overall dark gray body. Could... could this child be as ki-lin
as Meisá? Epona dare not hope that far.
A second fissure broke the smooth surface and cracked the egg
open farther. A little foot kicked out, gray-furred and damp and unmistakably
human in design. A second similar foot came out, breaking half the eggshell
apart and giving the parents their first real look.
The baby lay mostly curled on its side in the remaining half
shell. It appeared bipedal and completely furry, with no wings or visible head
hair. Not liking its current position, it kicked and uncurled arms free of the
confines of shell. Malcom looked at his Lady.
“Go on.” she urged him forward.
When Malcom walked on his knees over to pick up his newest
child, he bent down low to see the face. It was furrily scrunched up as the
baby looked about to wail. And it had little versions of its mother’s brow
ridges, except fur-covered! He reached in and picked up the baby.
He took a good look at the child beginning to fuss in his arms.
There was so much fur, he couldn’t tell what it was! But then it moved, and
Malcom found his child’s sturdy caudal appendage wrapped around one arm. His
brows rose and his grin broadened to the max.
“She’s got a tail!”
“A female?”
He nodded, moving carefully back to his wife with their new
baby. “Yeah!”
But when he tried to hand her the baby, the tail held firm. He
literally had to unwind the appendage, which got her hollering immediately. She
didn’t quiet until her tail had found the Lady’s arm, and in that settling
moment, she opened her eyes. The two parents staring back received quite a
surprise, as the baby’s eyes were an almost neon yellow-green color. But then
began the short search for her first meal and the eyes closed.
“And look; she’s got five-fingered human hands, too!” Malcom
marveled, uncurling the furry digits.
“I only wish Beial could be here, too.”
“Yeah. Jade Griffin and Winter Green are gonna be sorry they
missed it. And where’s Comp?”
“I don’t know...” she frowned. It was odd that he hadn’t
appeared. The guardian fey never missed their children's’ births.
The little one sighed and recurled her tail about the Lady’s
arm, getting a firmer grip with her hands, too. Both parents stared down at the
little darling with pure amazement and pride.
“I’ll call Dr. Barnes in a little while.” Because right now, he
wasn’t going anywhere. Malcom settled back against the rookery wall and beside
his wife, sighing with the greatest of joy.
“She is beautiful.” The Lady was all smiles. She glanced
grinning at her husband. “Have you found a name yet, my love?”
“Uh...” He sat up again, put on the spot like that. “I... I was
thinking maybe... Mara?”
“See? The name is well-chosen.” she said to bolster him on the
selection. “What did you choose if the baby were male?”
“I... couldn’t think of one.” he admitted sheepishly. “It’s
okay, Lady. She can have a different name.”
The half-ki-lin/ half-gargoyle sighed patiently. “Malcom,
her name is Mara.” and she put emphasis on the choice.
“You really think it’s good?” Because of the importance of names
to ki-lin, he’d feared that nothing he could come up with would be good,
to the ki-lin or to the Lady Epona.
She shook her head and gave a little laugh, hugging him to her
as his answer.
“Okay. I’ll stop. But you get to tell Beial.”
Dr. Barnes had left several hours ago, after staying half the
day to examine Mara and be totally enraptured by the unusual baby. The Lady
waited in the sitting room, her eyes on their stone-sleeping son. As he had no
tail for balance, his position was kneeling with wings spread nearly
horizontal.
The cracks started and grew, breaking and flying with a squeaky
roar as Beial awoke. He yawned, then smiled when he saw his mother.
“Good evening, mother.” the powder blue boy greeted, walking
toward her.
“Swift sunset, Beial.” she returned it with a smile. “We have
great news tonight. You have a little sister.”
The boy stopped dead in his tracks. “A little... The egg
hatched??”
A big smile covered her face and she nodded. “Mara hatched
during the day.”
The boy let out a high whoop of joy but his mother hushed him.
“Shh... Your father is sleeping. Let’s not wake him yet.”
“Oh... But can I go see her?”
The Lady smiled and nodded again. taking her son by the hand.
He’d been awaiting the baby’s arrival as much as they.
She took him into their bedroom, where Malcom was asleep half
propped up, holding the baby.
Beial crept up for a look inside the little blanket. His eyes
got real big. “Oh, wow... She’s got fur like Meisá!” the boy exclaimed as
quietly as he could manage in his excitement.
The baby awoke, her bright-colored eyes opening to see what the
sounds were.
Beial blinked at the sight, amazed.
The baby blinked back.
“She’s so neat!” Beial nearly squeaked it out, he was so
excited. “Her name’s Mara?” Gazing back on his new sister, he asked, “Does she
have wings like me? Are they furry? Does she have gargoyle feet?”
The Lady’s face displayed her silent pride. “She has no wings,
and her hands and feet are furry but human. She does have a tail.”
“A tail... I wish I could see it.”
“Soon, child.”
“She really is neat-looking, mom. I’m glad Mara finally
hatched.”
Epona hugged the boy to her. “I am, too.”
Awake now, and most likely hungry, Mara contorted and tried to
move about, making squeaky little frustrated noises.
Malcom woke at the fuss. Noticing the two on-lookers, he sat up
fully and handed Mara over to Lady, rubbing at his eyes and smiling at Beial.
“I see you’ve been introduced.”
“Uh-huh. Mara’s a good name, dad. She’s so neat! I--”
The familiar sound of someone at their door cut his sentence.
Lady and Malcom exchanged glances.
“It couldn’t be Comp or Dr. Barnes.” Malcom said.
“It’s Jade Griffin! I know it! Can I tell her, mom, dad?” He was
half-way out the archway already. After a nod from Malcom, the boy let out an
exultant whoop and ran all the way to the door.
Fin
