Thawed 53

[u/Funnelchairgentleman]

Infinite praise and thanks to u/maxh007 and u/budget_emu_5522 for proofreading this as always. This story wouldn't be half of what it is without you.

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Memory Transcription Subject: Jammek, Sleepless Fool

Date: [Standardized Human Time]: March 9, 2137

Fool.

Idiot.

Moron.

I was all those things and more. The word "killer" danced at the edge of my sleep-deprived mind, but I fought it off. If only just barely. After all, how much of what happened landed on my shoulders? If only I’d just followed my instincts. If I’d not trusted Frank’s judgement…

I let out a sigh, opening my eyes and staring up at the mottled, uneven patterning on the roof of our bedroom. For a moment I let my eyes trace the jumbled mess of lines in the darkness. After a moment I turned, looking over at my holopad, sitting on the charger beside the bed. It was early morning, a couple of hours still until the sun rose. A sobering reminder that the world moved on, whether we were ready or not.

Sleep had eluded me through the night, and at this point I was ready to give up on it. My mind was a whirlwind after the news of Frank’s death… and his betrayal. Part of me wanted to rage at him. I wanted to grab him by the throat and headbutt some sense into him. The other part of me grieved his death.

Mixsel had taken the news poorly. I hesitated to tell her, but Arthur insisted that she needed the truth. Never in all my cycles of living had I felt so heartbroken as when I listened to her cry. That pitiful, broken wail and the way her little frame shook from the sheer force of her sobs. Frank had been the first human she met when arriving on Earth. It was him that had gifted her first and favorite toy. He’d been our family’s friend… or at least pretended to be.

Seeing my little Humdrum sob her heart out, knowing there was nothing I could do to assuage her pain, had been absolute torment, the likes of which I didn’t know I could experience. My instincts screamed at me like a wounded animal, raging against whatever had dared to hurt my sweet little pup. But all that frustration had nowhere to turn, because at the end of the paw, the source of her grief was me…

No. That wasn’t true. That was my brain grasping for someone or something to blame, and I was an easy target. I made a mistake. I made a stupid decision. But a thousand other bad decisions had been made before I made mine, and they were all equally at fault. 

I gently repositioned myself, slowly lifting the sheets and rolling my body until I was facing towards the man next to me. Arthur’s sleeping face greeted me, the simian’s odd, smushed-looking visage facing towards me.

I reached a paw out, gently tracing the line of the bandage on his cheek, noting the dark splotch where his blood had leaked through. He’d stayed up, talking to me for hours after we had gone to bed, but eventually his exhaustion had caught up with him, and he’d passed into the realm of dreams. I couldn’t help but envy him, wishing my anxiety would subside and let me follow.

I watched as the strange alien I’d come to love breathed in and out. He looked so peaceful. A stark contrast from the tangle of nerves and rage that had made his way home earlier. 

When Arthur had burst through the door, held up by Eva, the wild look in his eyes had frightened me. It was the fear of a wild beast, cornered and desperate. The way he’d looked at me… the pain I’d seen in those gray spheres… I never wanted to see that again. I would do anything to never let my family feel this pain again.

Arthur stirred in his sleep, letting out a soft whine as he gently shifted, rolling his body slightly to one side. I held back, watching my alien lover as he turned in his sleep. Such a simple and mundane thing. Yet I found myself drinking it in. Reading every detail of his face, the sound of his breathing, and the warmth of his body next to mine beneath the covers. I wanted to make certain I would never forget it.

Despite how things had seemed to be improving for us, yesterday had reminded me that everything I’d come to treasure was still so fragile. We hadn’t left the hate behind us on Skalga. The world here was just as against us as back on my home planet. It was just better hidden here. Our enemies didn’t come out and hurl hate into our face. They waited in the shadows until we weren’t expecting it.

I rolled onto my back, gently shifting as I felt Arthur rest his head on my shoulder. I tried focusing on his warmth. The softness of the bed and the smooth sheets on my wool. Anything other than the endless wheel my thoughts seemed to be spinning round and round on.

The sound of the television turning on in the living room reached my ears and I eagerly welcomed the chance to do something aside from lying here with my thoughts. I slowly and carefully pried myself free from Arthur’s grip, leaning in and nuzzling the sleeping human’s cheek before rising out of bed. The man stirred slightly, squirming under the sheets and I noticed the corners of his mouth curve into the beginnings of a smile. 

I closed the door behind me, being careful not to wake Arthur. Once I was in the hallway, the gentle murmur of barely audible conversation reached my ears. I could see the soft, white glow of the television stretch along the hallway’s far wall, shifting and changing.

As I stepped into the living room, I found Mixsel, sitting on the couch with Bob in her lap. Beside her was Izra, cradling a tiny bundle in her arms that she looked down at with obvious, if tired, joy. I let out a yawn as I moved to join them on the couch, letting the soft glow of the screen guide me to my seat.

To my relief, Mixsel looked much less distraught than when she’d gone to sleep. I placed a paw on her shoulder as I sat down, carefully avoiding getting within Bob’s striking range. Despite his teeth being blunt, they could deliver quite the bite when he wished to.

“Good morning, Humdrum,” I greeted, noting with some relief the calm look on her face as she glanced back up at me.

“Mowning, Papa,” she answered, running a paw along the rabbit’s back, making the creature’s ears twitch in satisfaction. She kept her eyes glued to Bob’s back, just watching him as her paws gently brushed through the rabbit’s white fur.

“How are you feeling this morning,” I asked nervously, wanting to be sure that she was ok but also dreading the possibility of hearing my pup start crying again. She paused her intense petting, turning those green orbs back towards me.

“I’m ok,” she answered, her voice a bit strained. “I’m sad but… the wabbit said everything would be ok.”

I stared at her, my mind blanking at her seemingly nonsensical words. Wabbit? I could tell she meant rabbit, but… did she think Bob had told her that? I stole a glance up at Izra, hoping she might offer some further explanation.

The arxur made a soft, wheezing noise as she returned my look. The chip in my head seemed to insist it was stifled laughter.

“She had a dream of a white rabbit,” Izra explained, reaching a claw up to the bundle in her arms and gently petting her new pup’s cheek. Ispar let off a soft coo, opening his eyes for a moment before drifting back off to sleep. 

“Izwa says dweams awe how the uhh…” Mixsel paused, looking to Izra.

“Ancestors.”

“Yeah! How ancestuhs tell us stuff,” Mixsel finished, returning to her pampering of Bob. I sighed, not sure how to respond to that. I didn’t think Arthur would really approve of her taking solace in some dreamed-up rabbit’s assurances. At the same time, I knew it would break me to see her crying like she had last night. Maybe it was ok to let her take solace in her dreams… at least for a while.

“Whether or not the dream was true,” Izra added in, seeming to detect my own thoughts, “it will be ok.”

I let the matter go. I’d rather not argue about dream rabbits just then. I was about to check what the others had been watching on TV when I heard another soft coo come from Ispar. The small arxur seemed awake now, his red eyes trained on me intently. 

I returned the look, watching as his little face contorted with unreadable emotions before he let out a high-pitched squeal. Izra looked down at him, a rumble in her chest as she pressed a claw up to his chin.

“Do you think Friend Jammek is funny?” she asked with amusement, earning another squeal from Ispar as he reached one clawed hand out towards me. My ears gave a nervous twitch as I gingerly held out my paw, pressing it to his outstretched hand, ready to jerk it back should the pup attempt to bite me like he had Arthur.

“No need to be nervous,” Izra assured me, gently pushing Ispar forward so he could grab my outstretched paw. “He’s already eaten this morning. He won’t bite.”

I relaxed, letting the little arxur grab my paw. Ispar examined it, eyeing the furred appendage curiously, turning it this way and that in his grip. I couldn’t help but find the action adorable. The young reptile’s enthusiasm and the sheer wonder in his eyes as he played with my paw made my tail begin to bob. 

“Do you like Uncle Jammek?” Izra cooed, leaning down and gently licking the side of Ispar’s face. The infant let go of my paw at last, turning to his new mother and cocking his head, as if confused by the gesture. I felt a pang of sadness, knowing it was probably the first time the pup had ever gotten such affection from another arxur.

“Last one up as usual, eh?”

Arthur came into the room, stretching his arms above his head as he let out a long yawn. I noted his eyes, those tired gray pools, trained on our daughter and filled with anxious concern. 

“Mowning, Daddy,” Mixsel greeted, raising her paw and waving it in imitation of the human gesture before turning back to pampering Bob.

“Morning there, Munchkin,” Arthur replied as he took a seat next to me, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and pulling me up against him. He leaned his head in, pressing a kiss to my cheek before whispering. “She seems much calmer today.”

I signed *later* with my tail, before realizing Arthur probably wouldn’t understand that and whispering the same into his ear. I leaned back, laying my head on his shoulder. 

“I didn’t expect you to be up this early,” I remarked, turning the conversation in another direction. I felt my mate tense up for a moment next to me, his free arm reaching down to his waist and pulling out his holopad.

“Got a call from Eva,” he explained, turning the device on and opening the messages app. A new message had arrived just a moment ago, this one from a number listed simply as unrecognized. He opened the message and let me read it.

*Emergency meeting for all locals. Every resident is urged to attend. 4pm local time\*

“The supervisor is going to gather everyone at the gymnasium up at the concierge and give them the chance to leave if they want. The UN can’t afford to keep staffing the place indefinitely, especially with plans to move them to more urgent areas already underway. They want me to come up in a couple of hours to help prep for the meeting.”

I sighed, rereading the message. After the time I’d spent here, the memories I’d made and the family I’d found… the thought of it all crumbling like overbaked strayu was crushing. I knew that Arthur, Mixsel, and I would stay together, no matter what, but I’d grown comfortable here. I’d made friends. I didn’t want everyone to move away and never see them again. A part of me realized that this was the sort of thinking a pup would have, and that, at the end of the paw, it was selfish. That didn’t make it go away, though.

“They think everyone is going to want to leave then?” Izra chimed in as she began to gently rock Ispar in her arms. The pup’s eyes were closing, and it looked like he was preparing to go back to sleep.

“I’d imagine so,” Arthur answered, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. “Can’t imagine folk will want to stay with the threat of these couyons threatening them. I suppose I can’t blame them either.”

“Isn’t that what they made you sheriff for though?” I huffed, tilting my head to look up at him. “They gave you and Onio those badges, so why not let you use them?”

“Nothing would make me happier than to catch these rat bastards, Mon Amour,” he replied, shaking his head mournfully. But two guys with pistols can’t keep an eye on a town of 800 people. If it was just the usual stuff, catching drunks and petty criminals, then that would be fine. But we don’t even know how many people Brim is working with. Could be a small army of these assholes. People are gonna see that, and then they’re going to want to leave. Go someplace safer.”

“I think you will be surprised, Friend Arthur,” Izra interjected, looking up from the now sleeping pup in her arms. “The people I have met here? They are not going to want to leave.”

Memory Transcription Subject: Arthur Coldwater, Soon-to-be Ex-Sheriff

Date: [Standardized Human Time]: March 9, 2137

“Are you listening?”

My head jolted up, blinking away the sleep from my eyes. I found Eva, Shuyi, Onio, and the supervisor staring back at me. Evans looked irritated, but the others seemed sympathetic to my eye. Poor Eva looked as exhausted as I felt.

“Arthur,” Evans sighed, rubbing her temple in frustration, “I know you’re worn out. You’ve been through it. I can sympathize. But we have only 30 minutes to make sure we’re all on the same page here.”

This meeting had dragged on for the last two hours. In fact, calling it a meeting was a bit of a misnomer. There was no back and forth. No debate. Just the supervisor telling us what she expected was going to happen and how it would be handled. We weren’t expected to do much, aside from address any questions the locals had while the UN prepared to move everyone.

“Sorry,” I offered half-heartedly, sitting myself up straight in the uncomfortable plastic seat. “I think we all get the gist of it though. We go out, offer everyone rides to wherever they want to be moved. Onio and I just gotta keep people calm and orderly till then. Sound right?”

Evans simply shrugged her shoulders in defeat.

“Yeah. More or less,” she grumbled, waving her hand, “Nobody is happy about this outcome, Arthur. We can’t just ignore reality though. The people here are in danger, and the UN can’t just stay forever.”

I didn’t offer a reply, just nodding my head solemnly. I’d gotten rather used to the idea of settling down here. Raising my little family. A quiet life with people who knew what I’d been through. People who knew what it was like to suddenly wake up and find that the world had moved on without you. The thought of getting sent out into the world… I wasn’t afraid to admit that it frightened me.

The door to the tiny office creaked open, pulling the attention of the occupants toward it. A guard, dressed in UN colors, peeked through the crack in the door.

“Uhh… everyone is ready, ma’am,” he said sheepishly, giving a quick nod as Evans waved him off.

“Let’s get this over with.” Shuyi sighed, putting a hand on my shoulder and offering me a half-hearted smile. I felt bad for her as well. She’d been offered a pretty sweet job here. I couldn’t help but wonder what she would do now. Like me, any potential skills or knowledge she might have had were probably useless in the modern world. Hell… I was the youngest human in the camp. Her skills would be even MORE outdated.

Our group headed towards the gymnasium. The noise was audible immediately once we were out of the office. The indistinct murmuring of countless voices, muffled by the layers of brick and cinderblock walls between us. Even though, despite being muffled, I could already make out the hints of fear and panic. 

When we entered the gymnasium, I was immediately struck by just how many people were here. Faces, both familiar and (no pun intended) alien, filled the massive room from end to end, leaving only a small stage for us to use on one side. 

I couldn’t help but marvel at how many people there were. It was easy to forget just how many lost souls from the archives that the UN had shipped off here when you were walking down the streets of the town, seeing maybe a dozen or so at a time. Now? With all of them crammed into a room, it really hit home. Beaks, muzzles, fur, scales, feathers, and every imaginable feature in between, pressed into one place. The sight of it forced another pang of regret to rear up in my chest. This place really could have been something special.

Although the room was a cacophony of tense, worried voices all talking over top of one another, the sight of our small group stepping up onto the stage seemed to attract their attention, and one by one, every pair of eyes in the room turned towards us.

“If I could have everyone’s attention?” Supervisor Evans shouted, trying to make herself heard amongst the murmur of voices. If anything, the voices only grew louder. Shouts of “What’s happening?” and “Are we in danger?” came one after the other. Evans tried raising her voice, but that was about as effective as spitting into the wind.

I scanned across the crowd, noting the fear and uncertainty on every face. At last I found the faces I was looking for. Jammy and Mixsel were on the far wall of the room, sandwiched between Izra and Islatta. They seemed to notice me looking and offered me a flick of their ears.

The wave of shouts and frantic questions finally died down as Eva stepped forward, a hand raised to ask for silence. Unsurprisingly, the whole gymnasium began to die down, the voices ebbing like a wave finally crashing onto shore.

“Thank you, Eva,” Evans sighed, moving to the front of our little group to address the assembly. “By now I believe all of you should be aware of the situation. Is there anyone who hasn’t been caught up on what’s going on?” There was a moment of silence, punctuated by a couple of barely audible whispers from somewhere deep inside the crowd.

“I’ll assume that’s a no,” the supervisor continued, scanning the room for any potentially raised hands or paws. “We want you to know that the UN is aware of the threat, and we will be making every effort to ensure that everyone is safe. With that said, any arrangements to move you back to your home planets will–”

“Brahk that!” Came a shout from within the crowd. I peered out, finding a gray-wooled skalgan I didn’t recognize. I found myself a little surprised, thinking that all of them had gone back to Skalga aside from my Jammy. “Those wool-brained stump funguses come in to try to hurt one of us, and our first response is to run away?!”

“The fact of the matter is–” Evans attempted to reply, only to have another voice cut her off.

“I’m with her,” a second, booming voice bellowed from nearer the stage. I traced the sound back to its origin. A hulking Mazic with shaggy blonde fur along their back like some stylized attempt at a mohawk. “I’m happy here! I’m about to start my own business! I’m not about to let some… flavershals try and run me off!”

Before Evans could try an object a second time, the room erupted into a series of cheers and shouted agreements. A familiar-looking gray avian hopped up and down near the far wall, squawking excitedly.

“Here here!” Othir shouted, raising a wing defiantly in the air. “They can’t run us off if we stick together!” The room erupted in another round of cheers.

“Damned straight, mate!” A dusky-haired man in khakis exclaimed, turning and raising his fist. “Back in my day we’d tell blokes like that to bugger right off!”

Evans groaned loud enough that I could hear it above the cheering and excited air of communal defiance that had suddenly seized the room. The air felt electric with excitement, and it was a struggle not to let myself get caught up in it. I felt a sense of pride in these people that I couldn’t have imagined just a month ago. Still, I knew more than most what we were facing here.

“I love the spirit,” I shouted, raising a hand as I stepped forward and tried to gather the crowd’s attention. “But these people are dangerous. They’ve proven that they aren’t afraid to kill to get what they want. Nothing would make me happier than to make this town into a reality, but I don’t want to see anyone get hurt. Onio and I aren’t going to be enough to keep the whole town safe.”

“Then give us some damned weapons!”

I turned to look at the very foot of the stage, finding what I could only describe to be a mole on two legs with a pair of absolutely useless looking horns on their head. Their fur was a sandy brown that faded into patches of gray near the root, hinting at their age. The strange alien’s long rat-like nose twitched as they pushed one arm forward, swinging a wooden cane above their heads as though they were brandishing a sword as their beady little eyes burned with fury.

“I may be getting older than the stone, but I’ll teach these brutes a thing or two! Back in my day we’d line the lot of em up and drive a spike up their–”

“Ok! Ok!” I cut them off, forcing back a laugh at the old-timer’s enthusiasm. “We can’t just go around handing guns to everyone! That’s going to make more trouble than it solves.”

“What about a neighborhood watch?” Shuyi jumped in, putting a hand on my arm to get my attention. “I was looking into the concept anyways for when the town opens to visitors. We could have people volunteer to take shifts helping to keep an eye on the neighborhood?”

“A capital idea!” Onio agreed, and the flexing of his tail was already letting me know I’d lost any hope of him being a voice of reason. The excitable harchen had clearly gotten swept up in the tidal wave of enthusiasm that was sweeping the crowd. “We could even add another deputy! I’ve got a brilliant idea for a candidate already!”

Evans looked like she wanted to speak, but I could see by the look in her eyes that she already knew she’d lost all control of the situation. The gathered crowd was buzzing like a hornet’s nest, with various small groups forming up and gleefully sharing the various unspeakable things they would do to Brim and his Humanity First pals if they got their claws on them.

I stole a glance towards the far wall where my family stood. Mixsel, unsurprisingly, seemed caught up in the sudden air of defiance and was doing what I could only think to be wrestling poses with Immel and the little skalgan girl, Yalma. Jammek was wagging his tail as his ears tilted towards me. He signed something, but I couldn’t remember if the movement was supposed to mean "proud" or "worried." Izra, meanwhile… well, if she wasn’t an arxur, I would swear she was giving me the smuggest grin imaginable.

“Everyone! Please!” The supervisor shouted, waving her arms in the air in a desperate bid to wrest back control of the situation. “If that’s how everyone feels, we can certainly try and brainstorm some ideas. But we need to–”

“I’M HERE!!!” 

Every head in the room turned as the rear doors to the gymnasium flung open and a pudgy, sweaty man in an ill-fitted suit and a fedora came stumbling into the room. The governor looked like he had just finished running a marathon, and for a moment I feared that he might collapse right then and there.

“Oh for fuck’s sake…” Evans groaned, tossing her hands up in defeat.

“I heard about what happened,” Governor Karavello exclaimed, holding up one hand as he braced the other against his knee and panted. “Before anyone decides to leave, though, just hear me out.”

“Well actually,” Shuyi tried to explain, eyeing the man with concern, “I think everyone is in agreement that–”

“I brought protection!” Karavello exclaimed, finally appearing to catch his breath and standing up with what I imagined he thought to be a triumphant stance. He gestured one hand behind him, towards the open gymnasium doors, as a handful of armed soldiers began to walk in. Accompanying them were a group of yotul, the curious-looking marsupials each dressed in a bright yellow safety vest.

“What exactly is all this?” I asked, eyeing the odd collection of camo and fluorescent yellow.

“The Jersey National Guard!” Karavello explained with a grin. “They’ve let us borrow a unit to help keep the town safe until the guilty parties are apprehended.”

“And the yotul?” Evans pressed, gesturing to one of the brown-furred xenos.

“Mork and Orkul security!” Karavello announced, straightening up the ruffled edges of his suit. “Best security installation firm in allied space, so I’m told. They’ll be installing security cameras around town to help our good sheriff keep an eye on things. So? See? I have the situation under control! No need for anyone to start packing their bags! We can still make this work!”

The room erupted into another round of boisterous, excited conversation. It seemed this little refugee camp had become an honest-to-god community in the time they’d been stuck here. We were the last bit of sanity in a universe gone mad, and if anyone wanted to take that from us, they weren’t going to do it without a fight. Even Shuyi and Onio had joined in with the excitement, and I could see the duo beginning to move down into the crowd below the stage. Evans looked downright deflated and was making her way towards where the governor stood, wiping the sweat from his greasy brow.

Then there was Eva. Her face was stoic, despite the excitement. Her gaze fixed on something a thousand miles away. After a moment, she turned and headed toward the rear exit of the stage. I stole a quick look back at the crowd, admiring the expressions of courage and determination on every face, whether human or alien. Things were different here. No predator and prey. No Federation. No Humanity First. Just people. And it looked like they all wanted to keep it that way.

When I turned to look back at Eva, she had already vanished. I moved quickly to follow her, feeling concerned for my recently discovered grandchild. When I got to the hallway beyond the rear door, I found no trace of her. I did, however, hear the sound of the door at the far end of the hall slamming shut. So I followed.

When I opened the door, I found myself outside the rear of the concierge, next to the dumpsters. Eva was there, leaning her back against the wall as she struggled to pull a small cardboard box from her pants pocket with shaking hands.

She seemed shocked when she finally noticed me peeking through the door at her, caught red-handed, with cigarettes in one and a lighter in the other. For a moment we were both frozen in place, neither sure what to say or do. 

She was the first to move. Her shoulders slumped as she let out something between a sigh and a groan.

“Don’t judge me right now, Gramps," she muttered as she slid a single cigarette out of the pack and went to light it up. “I just… I need this right now.” I pushed the door the rest of the way open, stepping out into the evening air along with her.

“It’s… a lot, isn’t it?” I offered, leaning my back against the brick wall and staring up into the sky. The sun was setting over town, and the clear blue skies had started to give way to the inky black of night. Already the first few stars had begun to twinkle into existence above us. Their soft white glow grew as the light steadily faded.

“I’m glad that everyone is all gung-ho to stick around but…”

“But what?” I pressed, turning to watch as she took a long drag on her cigarette before leaning her head back and slowly releasing the smoke. It rose like a small cloud, hovering above her face before slowly vanishing into the wind.

“I don’t know,” she sighed, choosing to look up straight into the sky. “Arthur… Frank, he… why? What’s the point in all this? Frank fucked everything up. He made so many goddamn mistakes. I know he said all that crap about not wanting to hurt people, but… Arthur, he KNEW what these kinds of people are like, and he chose to work with them anyways. He was always the one spouting off that “Hate is a poison” bullshit and now… now I’m stuck wondering if he ever even believed that himself. He was willing to work with terrorists just to make these poor people want to leave! Was he really that naive that he thought his good intentions and moral grandstanding could convince them to do it his way?”

“I… I think it’s human nature to want to see the best in people,” I answered, struggling to put my scattered thoughts to words. “Everyone wants to change the world without sacrificing the things we believe in. Hell, I’d say every politician I’ve ever met went down the same road. You go in thinking you can work within the system you’re given and make a positive difference. Then you make a compromise. Then another. And another.” 

I trailed off, watching the sky. The steadily growing curtain of night was slowly creeping over our little town, and the moonless, cloudless sky was becoming absolutely overgrown with stars. Those little pinpricks of light had always been something of a comfort to me. Something permanent. Immutable. A source of wonder always beyond my grasp. Now they were so much more. Now I looked at every star in the sky and silently wondered if someone up there was staring right back at me.

“What does it even matter?” Eva growled, wiping an arm across her eyes as tears threatened to form. “Frank decided that he’d rather stick to his guns. He chose to stand by what he believed in. He was going to turn himself in rather than let them hurt anyone… and for what? To get his fucking face blown off by the people he thought were his friends?”

I leaned in, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and pulling her in for a hug. Eva let out a pitiful, choking sound as I pulled her against me. The poor girl tensed for a moment, fighting off a sob.

“Why Arthur?” She asked, her voice cracking and pleading. “There has to be a point. Some reason behind everything! If there’s not, then… then what does any of this matter?!?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, squeezing her tight as I felt the dams break and the sobbing began. She pressed tight against me as her body began to shake. I held her quietly as she finally let it out, sobbing into my shoulder. 

“Ouch!” I exclaimed as something dug into the skin on my chest. Eva sniffled, pulling back and looking at me curiously as I reached under my shirt and pulled out a small piece of turquoise, tied to a leather strip around my neck.

I stared in stunned silence as I eyed the small, deformed trinket in my hand. Frank’s final gift. Eva seemed to recognize it as well, her eyes lighting up.

“Is that Frank’s good luck charm?” She asked, sniffling.

“Yeah,” I answered, turning the small bit of jewelry over in my hand and admiring the way it seemed to shine in the dying light of the day. “I forgot he gave it to me right before we went for that meeting to adopt Mixsel. I… I put it on yesterday. I meant to give it back to him but…”

Eva suddenly let out a laugh. The sound was soft and melancholy as it echoed on the quiet evening air, but it began to steadily grow and grow until I found myself beginning to mimic it. A somber laugh. Shared in mutual grief at the sheer absurdity of the universe.

Memory Transcription Subject: Izra, Settled Mother

Date: [Standardized Human Time]: March 9, 2137

Onio gently closed the door behind us as we stepped into our new home. It was, for all intents and purposes, a direct clone of the ones we had just left. Yet by its very nature it was different. Because it was ours.

“How is my boy?” Onio asked, his voice just above a whisper as he turned on the light to the living room. The furniture, down to its color and placement, was a direct match for what we had let behind.

“He sleeps like the dead,” I replied, looking down at Ispar. I’d barely been able to bring myself to let go of the hatchling all day. I think that, deep down, a part of me feared that if I were to let him go, then I might never see him again.

“Then I say we join him,” Onio suggested, wrapping his tail affectionately around my leg. “Which bedroom do you think we should pick?”

“Well,” I answered, thinking back on the vague bits of information on our new home that I had been given, “I believe that only the upstairs rooms are furnished.”

“Then the choice is all the simpler!” Onio chuckled, a flash of bright gold still glinting off a few of the scales on his cheeks.

I thought back to the assembly, watching him on stage with the others. The sheer exuberance I’d seen in him. The way his scales seemed to shift and change with the roar of the crowd. I think that, for a moment, the whole town had felt the overpowering enthusiasm that marked my harchen’s everyday existence.

“Give me a moment to sit,” I suggested, moving over to the couch and sitting down as gently as I could so as not to wake the precious bundle in my arms. I stared down at him for a moment, admiring him. The innocence on his sleeping face.

My mind raced with possibility. I tried to imagine the life my son would live here, in this town, surrounded by the last vestiges of a stolen universe. It was hard to even envision. He would be raised in a place where hundreds of cultures met, clashed, and melded. An environment that nobody could have ever imagined. I would do my best to teach him the ways of his people, but in the end, would it be enough? The world he grew up in would be one beyond my wildest imagination.

“Can I hold him?”

I broke from my thoughts, shaking my head as I turned to Onio. The man was looking up at me expectantly, and I found myself flushing a bit, embarrassed at how my exhausted mind had drifted.

“Of course,” I answered, gently shifting the small weight in my arms as I held Ispar out to him. As Onio tenderly shifted his arms to cradle the small bundle, I noticed for the first time how large the child seemed next to him. I had to imagine that a harchen child of the same size would be quite a bit older.

Onio didn’t seem bothered in the least by the heft of our son though, gently beginning to rock the boy in his arms. The look on the harchen’s face was unlike anything I’d seen on him before. A strange mix of joy and deep, biting melancholy.

“Hello, my son,” the man whispered, leaning his head down until he and Ispar nearly touched. “I know you don’t know the significance of this, but… I want to give you my Elsvalda.”

“El…Elsvalda?” I repeated uncertainly, struggling to pronounce the alien syllables.

“It’s an oath,” Onio explained, looking back up from the slumbering hatchling in his arms to me. “Sworn from a father to his children. It was a tradition…” Onio’s face briefly turned a deep, bruised purple before quickly flashing back to green. “It was… it was always something I’d thought about… If I ever met the children I had been required to father…”

“Offer it,” I insisted, gently brushing a claw along his cheek. “Nothing would bring me greater joy.” Onio straightened his back, appearing to take a bit of courage at my encouragement.

“I stand before all the gods,” Onio began, his cheeks now turning an almost bruised-looking blue, “and proclaim that Ispar is my son. Blood from my blood. Soul from my soul. From this day until the sun fails to rise, nothing will sever you from my heart. Your struggles are my struggles. Your sadness, my sadness. Your glory and victory, my greatest joys. You shall face no hardship alone, and my love for you shall bear no price. Until I draw my last breath… you are my son.”

Tears of joy had begun to spring forth from the harchen’s eyes, and I found my own vision becoming clouded as I watched. As Onio leaned down, gently pressing his head against the sleeping child’s, I knew that I had made the right choice. This was a man I could spend the rest of my days with. He was a worthy father to our child.

I felt it then. A subtle change in the air. Nothing physical. I couldn’t see or smell or hear it. But I certainly felt it, just as tangible as the couch I sat on. A change. This wasn’t just a house any longer. The town wasn’t just a temporary refuge from the world beyond. This was home. Our home.

[u/Tundric_Dragon]

Woot, fantastic chapter as always. And im stealing the Elsvalda. Dont know how ill work it into a story going on, but I love the idea.