Aunt Eve refused me to turn on the TV, just as mom had instructed her to. Even though she had no mouth, her being some sort of clone and all, her telepathic messages were clear as day. She learnt me a bit about how to better focus my own psionic abilities. It actually worked. It was way past my bedtime, but aunt Eve didn’t have the heart to put me to bed, not when she knew what my mom was up against right then. I was only 5, but I wasn’t stupid. Even I could sense danger in the air when she put on her clothes from the time she and my dad were on Tellus, and let’s not forget uncle Zaz and aunt Eve.
The thing was that uncle took mom downstairs to his “study”, where I may only enter “when the time is right”. Mom and uncle both wore trenchcoats, and they were making noise when they walked. The kind you get when two pieces of metal bump against each other. Aunt Eve said that she only let me stay up so late because she knew that my mom would be happy to be met by me, “win or lose”. I didn’t understand what she meant by that before afterwards. I fell asleep in her arms on the couch, she was soft and warm and snuggly. Safe. We both had our pyjamas on… I recon she somehow tampered with my dreams. My dream was filled with images of mom, dad, Zaz and her on their adventure on Tellus. I never knew mom was such a good fighter… But there was more to my dream, I guess they were future visions of me and my sister, Star. I didn’t really catch all of it, but one phrase stuck: “The future belongs to you,”
Aunt Eve woke me. She smiled at me, well, her eyes did at least.
“She won,” she says and takes me to the door.
The sound of thousand voices came nearer and nearer, and it scared me. I grabbed hold of aunt Eve’s leg. The door went up, uncle Zaz carried mom in and put her right inside the door. The flashes of thousand cameras were right in their heels. “Mommy!” I said and went over to her. Her frown of pain forced into a smile as I put my arms around her neck. She was bleeding and couldn’t stand upright, her trenchcoat hid many gaping wounds. My favorite pj’s were stained with blood, but it didn’t matter, it was mom’s blood. Blood is thicker than water. Uncle Zaz goes out again to confront the masses, I almost didn’t notice because I was too happy to see mommy. She was crying, panting, “we won, we won…” Aunt Eve could only stand there and watch our joy, but she too was of course glad to see mom in, dare I say, good shape. Uncle Zaz comes through the door and locks it behind him. I notice a sort of mirror hanging from his belt. He too is bleeding, from his mouth and from a big cut across his chest. Aunt Eve takes me upstairs to brush my teeth, and get into a clean pj. Uncle Zaz took mom to the kitchen to bandage her wounds, and stitch the worst parts. Aunt Eve went down to check on mom and Zaz while I brushed my teeth and took a leak. She soon enough came back and caught me staring at myself in the mirror. She knew what I saw, and smiled. She tucked me in.
I heard uncle Zaz carry mom into her bedroom, and shortly after he came into my room. “Fredrik?” he says. “Mommy wants you to sleep in her bed tonight,” he came over and picked me up. His strong arms bore scars, I could feel it through my pyjamas. He was like a titan to me. He gently put me next to mommy. She put her arm around me and kissed my forehead. She was soft and warm and snuggly… But not like aunt Eve. She was my mother, so she was even softer, warmer and snugglier than aunt Eve and uncle Zaz together. I can understand why dad loves mom. I feel mom is hurt, and the bandages on her knuckles tell me that too, but still she’s happy. I fall asleep in the corner of her arm. She sheds tears, and I don’t blame her. The pain she must be in, and the joy of victory.
The morning after, aunt Eve woke me. Mom was too battered and bruised to even move, and the bandages were red. I couldn’t help but wonder what someone had done to her. Aunt Eve gently woke me with her powers. Somehow she had received two of my father’s bloodstone rings, one for me and one for mom. That’s when I noticed it. Her original was missing, not even ten Dust-Whirlers could’ve gotten it off her finger! Instead, a small patch of gray fur was in it’s place… Reminded me off my father… I studied the ring, how it seemed to shimmer, pondered how my dad could make these from his own blood. Eve slipped the ring on mom’s finger, without waking her. Her face showed she was in pain, but the ring seemed to soothe her.
Eve took me out off bed, to get me some breakfast, and show off a few tricks. She loved toying around with me, she hoped it would inspire me to not let my gift go to waste. It didn’t. She flipped pancakes with sheer will, that amazed me, then she tried to teach me how to do it. Uncle Zaz carried some food up to mom and just shook his head, “Kids…” he would sarcastically remark. Somehow this made Eve sad, I understand this now, but all I could do was try to ask her, and at least comfort her. She denied me an answer, but not a hug. No one could deny me that, just because I was 5 and cute…
I could however, from the hug, feel that aunt Eve wanted something, and it was like a shadow upon her otherwise sunny soul. It was strange, I thought. Uncle Zaz saw Eve was sad. He later asked if I knew what it was, I said it might have been something he said. I also told him she wanted something.
“Kids…” He circled around with it a second. “She wants a child of her own…” he says a bit discouraged. That’s when I pop the ever so typical “Where do they come from?” That was a mercy blow to his brain, I’ve asked him tons of things, but this was obviously a blow beneath his belt. He was pathetic!
“Uhm, well, uh, you see…” he’s “saved” by something beeping on his belt.
It was my mom paging him, or something. Got time to finish my breakfast though… Uncle Zaz set aunt Eve to the thing he couldn’t. He was strong and smart, but this was just not his field. Besides, he had to get to work.
Eve asked my mom first what I was allowed to learn, I was by her side as she asked my bedridden mother.
“Well,” she would say “If he’s anything like his father, he would eventually find out anything with your training. I think he’s mature enough to understand the truth. If not, then he at least has a little something to piece together.” She smiled and coughed a bit.
Well. Aunt Eve sat me down on my bed, paced a bit back and forth.
She sat down beside me. She crossed her legs and laid me across.
“Relax…” She touched one hand to the back of my head. “Close your eyes…” You can pretty much guess what she did from there. There I was, in a dream, I was an adult. Cool. And there was this girl involved, can’t remember her name or what she looked like… but I loved her. I was showed many possible scenarios, I really enjoyed it. Sex was of course a key-feature, but I learned there was so much more to it. The partner was also a person, one with own needs and desires. Aunt Eve was a wise wolf. After that dream I was a new child; I knew why boys have a penis, and girls a vagina and tits. That was a bit shallow… But the rest was of course important too!
Now I had an idea what I was to do, if the girls were to be coming my way.
This scared me, now I knew that girls would play a central role in my life…
Mom wanted to get out of bed, but needed help. Her legs looked like a mess. Bloody and swollen, beneath a layer of bandages. Eve had to carry her. She wasn’t exactly uncle Zaz, but she could get it done. Planted in front of the TV, she would get the news. I was of course by her side. She looks at me, “What has happened to your fur?” That’s when I notice my fur is more gray than usual. We said something about it, but I’ll be darned what. A sudden newsflash interrupted a Red League music video. It was my dad! His markings were not to be mistaken. “Should I become an Alpha, then I will fight for the right of a life not dictated by the <bleep> conservative thinking of dead leaders! I for one am not ashamed to admit it! A Star-Gazer bore my children, and the same Star-Gazer captured my heart! I know there are many other, who like me, wishes free passage physically and spiritually.”
I was proud of my dad. He was on TV for crying out loud!
The crowd behind the camera were in awe of my father’s next move, so was I. The back of his robe ripped as he revealed a well hidden secret. I never knew he had wings! My dad sure is something… Mom had a smile from ear to ear. “This! This is my true form!” He went on a bit on his speech, then suddenly a purple shell flashes in front of him, and a bullet was in the center of it. He picks it out and the field vanishes. “I pity the one who did this. Open your minds and souls! You will see then that we are not that different. Snowen, please come up here.”
Wow! Uncle Zaz up there with my dad!
“I already know a majority of Moon-Dreamers are FOR my plans, as polls have showed.” Uncle Zaz drags a guy up to the center of attention, his guilt was obvious. “Did you fire this?” “I did…” The perpetrator was in for the worst torture. “Why?” “I… I am afraid…” “Of what?” The poor guy didn’t look like anyone to be an assassin. “They are different than us!” “I thought we were supposed to the one’s who were open-minded, Snowen here is a Star-Gazer, but he like many others wishes the walls to fall!”
He went on and on… And I loved every moment of it. The way he raised people’s conscience without raising his fist… “I want to be like daddy,” I said to mom. She puts her arm around me and kisses my forehead. “In time, Fredrik, in time…”
Around noon, aunt Eve took me to Rasha’s Park, I always used to go play with other kids there. Mom used to take me there, but she was in no shape for this today… All my “friends”, as they were at an early stage, were talking about the Moon-Dreamer with the wings. I was a god when I told them he was my father. This was fatal for my future, but in that moment I was too proud of it to care too much about the future. I was young, naiv. Aunt Eve sat on a bench a bit away, she knew what was going on. Somehow, she always did. I could feel it. At some stage of that visit to the park, a couple of punks asked her “You’re a Moon-Dreamer, yeah?” She nodded, then they said some other stuff, then drew knives. I saw this and I was terrified, Eve wasn’t. She calmly stood up and took a few steps away from them, then… Mercy on their souls… they were in trouble. Eve made a swift twist of her wrist, this broke the arms of all 5 of them. She stamped her foot, they fell. She raises her arm, they start screaming while covering their ears. We left after that episode. Aunt Eve told me, when I was powerful enough, I should ONLY do stuff like that in self-defense.
I didn’t want to harm anyone at all, actually…