Partner

I keep meaning to re-read Partners. Really should do that.

Enjoy this. Might be the last for today. But I think that's pretty good. Like three or four updates today. Better than yesterday when I kept spelling bone, bown, bwo, bon, boen, nob, wone and such. Sad but true.

Meh.

I've had one contact for a beta. I've put off responding for a few hours incase anyone else was interested, but if no one else contacts me by tomorrow morning I'll have an easy choice.

Read, review and enjoy.





It was a very long night. The males eventually went about the motions of making a soup. They left it to simmer on the stove and went about their various activities. Koln and Edno read their books. Souse tended the food and checked on the women, watched the other men when he wasn’t off doing something else. Mik picked away idly at the gouge in the table, turning it into the face of a nymph, peering out of the wood.

The hours ticked away and still Mik could not decide whether or not he wanted to raise a child. By the time midnight rolled around, Mik had give up trying to figure out what he wanted. Instead he turned his thoughts towards the face that was emerging from the wood.

As the sun began to rise, a child’s wail stopped all four men in various motions. Koln had one hand on the bridge of his reading glasses, pushing them back up his nose. Souse had a smirk on his face, one finger reaching out to take Koln’s reading glasses from the man. Edno was in the middle of licking his finger to turn the page of his book, tongue stuck out finger hovering so close to it. Mik was testing the tip of the pairing knife he had used to carve out the face.

The result was Koln jabbing himself between his eyebrows, Souse sliding out of his seat, Edno nearly choking on his own finger and Mik bleeding from the pad of his thumb. The men dropped what they were doing immediately.

Koln went to the dehydrator and checked the flower. Edno moved to turn the soup up and boil water for tea. Souse move to the bedroom door and back again, pacing back and forth, back and forth. Mik stuck his thumb in his mouth.

Ten minutes later a second wail was heard. Essuan.

Souse flew into the bedroom, kicking the door closed behind him. Koln snatched up the phone and dialled a number, ordering an emergency crew to be ready to step in at any moment. Edno very calmly went through the motions of making tea, and then putting on a pot of coffee to simmer.

Another hour, the three men were in the kitchen with nothing to do but worry and fret, before a second child’s cry was heard. The same child, or a second one?

Edno pulled out several bowls from the cupboard and an equal number of mugs. Mik helped the man ladle out the soup into the bowls and pour tea. Koln pulled out a loaf of bread and cut thick slices from it to cover the bowls of soup. Spoons slid under the slices of bread and all was laid out on the table.

Time ticked away.

It was almost another full hour before Mari left the bedroom and headed straight for the kitchen sink. The woman washed her hands thoroughly, dried them and then turned on the men.

“Is that soup? Food?” She jabbed a finger at the table as Violet left the bedroom.

Violet headed straight for the dehydrator. She pulled out the blue flower and crushed it into the empty mug that Edno offered her. The girl took the cup in both hands as Edno poured freshly boiled water into the mug. Violet swirled it around, sniffed the steam rising from the cup and made a sound at the back of her throat. She held the mug in one hand, snatched up a bowl of soup with the other and entered the bedroom again.

“Well?” Mik asked Mari.

Mari dropped into a chair, tossed the piece of bread to the said and growled, “eating.”

“Eating? All you did was deliver the baby, you’re acting like you haven’t eaten in days,” Mik growled back as Mari began spooning the soup into her mouth.

Paw left the bedroom a moment later, dragging a very haggard looking Lillow with him. Lillow dropped into the seat beside Mik. Paw dropped into Mik’s lap. Both snatched up bowls for themselves and began eating.

“Did you run a marathon?” Mik asked Paw.

“Mind of all. Lapsing over time,” Paw stopped talking and took a bite of bread sopped in the soup, “together as whole of the equating of existing.”

“… something went wrong and you had to gather the child from the communal mind?”

Paw nodded vigorously. Mik sighed out, “but Paw, you live in the communal mind.”

A headshake, “see world through communal mind. Child appears in communal mind when issue. Mother not supposed to give birth yet, something in diet make her. Body formed but mind not ready to commit to body. Paw make mind commit to body, even if it mean dragging mind back.”

“Back from the communal mind?”

“Somethin’ like that,” Lillow responded, dunking her bread into her soup.

“How many children are there?”

“For moment,” Paw muttered, finally turning to look at Mik, “there are two.”

“Is either sickly?”

“No. But we thought one lost to the womb,” Lillow muttered, “First one born, then afterbirth come. Second finally come.”

“How long before,” Mik frowned as Paw tossed aside his spoon and picked up the bowl, drinking the contents instead of spooning it into his mouth, “it is known if one of the children needs to be … put into the care of a guardian?”

“Few days,” Paw muttered.

“Okay. How long until we know the sex of the child?”

“Sixteen years,” Paw responded, “No one ‘loud to have sex with child. Bad. Pedo. Bad.”

“No. The. Gender.”

“Oh…” Paw set his bowl down on the table and Edno immediately replaced it with a full bowl, “five years. Name in year or so.”

“Or so… depending on how healthy the child is.”

“Yeah,” Paw ate the second bowl more slowly, adjusting his hips in Mik’s lap, “all of the same, seem. Though eyes not open yet.”

“Why does the gender wait longer than the name?”

“If boy and girl of five years young wear pants and no shirt, both have long hair. Can Mik tell difference of gender?”

“I… don’t know.”

“Mesa, mean…” Paw put down his spoon once more and contemplated, “Mesa what child under five called. Like saying, this is it. But only refer to child under five.”

“Can… I… ehm… ‘call’ it,” Mik made air quotations, “Mesa? Well, both of them Mesa, but if one is given to our care, could I say ‘Mesa needs changing’ or ‘has Mesa been changed?’”

“No capital.”

“I didn’t even…”

“Can hear capital letter. Capital make it name. Just mesa. Not Mesa.”

“Right.”

“How long was all said and such?”

“Ehm,” Mik glanced at the clock, “fourteen hours.”

“Ewwwww. Oh,” Paw shook his spoon at each of the people in the room, “no mention to bit of communal mind thing. None. At all. Not less want strange questions and freaking out. They got ‘nough to worry about with two mesa than they would with one and not need worrying of other types. Yeah?”

“Is there… an issue, being with the fetching?” Mik asked.

“No,” Lillow said a bit too quickly, “Not bad, just sign. Need consult with Whisper to find what sign mean and star alignment and groups of sixes. Very complicated. But just sign to look at signs.”

“Okay then,” Mik muttered.

“Come on, sleep time for all of us,” Paw muttered, yawning, “still got few hours before absolutely have to get up.”


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