"Come on, baby! That's it!"
"Romulus, go to your mother."
The child moved his legs uncertainly. Henry was walking beside me, backing up.
[O Supreme One! Has the child already learned to walk?!]
Knock.
"Man, are you serious?! Susannah, take over for me. I have to check if our doctor has damaged anything."
"All right, dear."
Ranon held out her hands to the child. Romulus stopped. His tiny legs trembled. Susannah tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but she couldn't.
[What are you afraid of, Suzanne? That your son will cry? Or that he will fall in terror and shrink? Maybe it's better to leave? I don't want to! I don't want to see my son scared to death right now! My face has already turned white, and my body is shaking so much.
No, I can't.]
Susannah smiled broadly and held out her hand to Romulus.
[What are you afraid of, Romulus?] Come on, take your mother's hand. It will be easier to walk with her!
[El-ludas! El-ludas! El-ludas! I can't even move. My noble ancestors would never have thought that their descendant would be so afraid!] The pale woman stood with her hand outstretched and waited.
The Duum knew perfectly well that she meant no harm. But still the king's knees did not obey, they were shaking.
[Come on, take your hand in return!] The king slowly moved.
[I hate you!] – - an aura of fear wrapped around my heart.
[Just a little more! El-ludas!] but no matter how much the king tried, the body refused [My body itself avoids contact. Yes, there was no such thing in my world. Pain, cutting into the very subcortex of the unconscious.]
[Just don't cry. Please, Romulus!]
Susannah took the initiative. She squeezed her son's small hand tightly. [Pale as death. Last year, he closed his eyes and mumbled. But it still hurts to see his fear!]
Romulus silently flopped down on his coccyx.
***
Dr. Chu was tapping Romulus in the ribs. He mixed special ointments that emit light and penetrate deep into Romulus' body.
"Thank you for your patience, Ser Romulus. You can go now."
"Thank you, Uncle Chu."
Duum chuckled to himself: [For a four-year-old, it sounds quite authentic.]
"Uncle Chu?" the doctor's cheeks turned red.
"Nice kid. Very polite and smart."
"How else, man?"
When Romulus came out into the courtyard, Chu began a report:
"Medicinal soups provide passive protection. But ... the pae of life is unstable. Without constant support from the side, the child will quickly wither."
Henry nodded:
"My baby needs good doctors. How do we do this, friend Chu?"
"I send letters to doctors I know, but they all ask for the child to come to them. No one wants to go to the Mushroom Village."
The man sighed, took a deep breath:
"I've been thinking about it for a long time. So we'll have to move. It is necessary to spend a lot of time on preparation."
***
"Dad, tell me something!"
"Do you want to hear Kela's comedy, baby?"
"No! Dad, I saw how the frogs fly, how you cook soup and how Uncle Chu examined me."
"And what? Remember when you told me about Kela? I think it's called parte, poe?"
"Heh-heh! Pae-gona is the use of parts of existence" Henry smiled broadly. "You're only three years old, kid, but if you want, I can teach you a couple of lessons."
***
A huge corpse. The heavens were pouring rain, washing the dark blood from the white hair. And the forest was silent with horror, for its great guardian…
The kid nodded his head.
"Yes, Dad."
"First we should learn hunting and knowledge of herbs and mushrooms."
A day later.
"Two out of ten, not bad, kid. The bow is surprisingly easy," Henry leaned over and whispered to the Duum. "Don't hold back."
"What?"
"Act in full force. I will not change my attitude to my son if he is different from others in some way" the man's look made the Duum tense up, "You can deliberately miss in front of mom and Dr. Chu, but please, I can smell a substitute from under the ground."
[Which one? El-ludas! Just don't tell me… How did he understand?]
"Okay, Dad."
Romulus pulled the bowstring and fired ten times in a row. All ten arrows bit into the target.
"Pshh, people are afraid of extraordinary abilities. Believe me, baby, we can be said to be similar."
The dense silence remembered the mushroom forest. The Duum became tongue-tied. Henry looked at the child with a mocking smile.
"Do I know your tiny secret? Yes, I know that you are experiencing a second life, but do not be afraid."
The Duum took the bow more firmly.
[So, what do we have? A three-year-old child with a bow and a thirty-year-old man who owns pae.]
The Duum picked up the guts and quickly suppressed his emotions. The muscles on his face smoothed out, and the king smiled easily.
"A normal child would not have survived that pain, right? Listen, does it really bother you at all that your child got my soul?"
"Hehe, there's something like this at every turn in this world," Henry slapped his knee. - Well, seriously, I first wanted to rip your belly and wrap your intestines on a chair, but wisely changed my mind. Born and born. And you bear the name given by me.
[Should I put an onion? No, I refuse to be unarmed. Even if I have a strong opponent against me, I will not give up. He's being friendly, but so what? Any potential enemy is dangerous.
In that case, how can I convince him completely? And what else can a thirty-year-old child do, hehe.]
Cap-cap.
"Dad..." Romulus' eyelids turned red. "do you hate me?"
Henry became tongue-tied, the mocking smile faded.
"For what?"
"For cheating! For stealing other people's parents! Come to think of it, I don't deserve to live."
Henry shivered slightly.
"Don't say that! You haven't done anything wrong in this life. And if it's because of the sins of a past life: any mistakes can be corrected" Henry took Romulus in his arms.
[Now he is extremely vulnerable. So he does not expect a threat and perceives me as a son. The manipulation has completed the task for verification.]
Nevertheless, the muscles of the Duum tensed, preparing to break away from the embrace and escape.
[Although, it is possible that an energetic man is playing along, and now he is going to break all my bones in a suffocating embrace.]
"And now let's start picking mushrooms, baby."
"Yes, Dad."
[The kid's muscles are tense. Quite an unpleasant feeling. I understand Susannah better now. But at the same time, his words were sincere... in part. Perhaps this will turn out to be sideways for me, but let it be-I will not give up Romulus, even if he grows up to be another Father of Sinners.]
(In future...)
A lonely village of the dead. The earth is split in all directions. And a figure whose whitish curls dance in the wind.