"The human smell? Is it a human child?" Cecil asked, looking at the basket in Aurellia's hands. Aurellia took a step back in fear as she knew Cecil kill that baby without even thinking twice. Cecil's eyes were fixed on that basket, she slowly came closer to her to take a good look. Her gaze fell on the baby and her grey eyes met with the blue ones, she immediately took some steps back. Cecil's eyes were filled with fear now as soon as she realized that his son brought a human baby with him. She looked at Mateo with questioning eyes.
"Mother, Let me explain this." Mateo said, looking at her mother who was still in shock.
"There's nothing to explain, Mateo! What have you done? You've put this baby's life in danger. The wolves here will kill her without thinking twice." Cecil said with a fear in her tone and tears rolled down her cheeks. "Take her out of Syrcouse as soon as possible." She said, wiping her tears off, taking some steps towards Aurellia to grab that basket but Aurellia stepped back in fear and held the basket tightly. She shook her head with watery eyes as if she was pleading to Cecil not to take the baby away from her. She sat on her knees in front of Cecil. Cecil was a bit confused at her behavior.
"Please mother! Don't take this baby away from me. I'm begging you, please let me keep her. I will never let anybody know that she is a human." She said, pleading to her mother-in-law, weeping like a baby. "Please!"
Cecil was now in a dilemma as she knew how Aurellia had suffered in the past after her twins died. She knew the pain of losing a child as she herself lost her four sons to these brutal wars. But again, what Aurellia was demanding, it was practically impossible. "Aurellia dear, what you're saying is not possible, the wolves can smell a human from miles, you will never be able to keep her safe. Half of the town might already be aware of her presence till now. How will you keep her safe?" Cecil said, grabbing Aurellia's shoulders gently to make her stand on her feet. Aurellia paused for a minute as if she was thinking about the way out of this situation.
"Mother, I know who can help us." Aurellia said, looking at her mother-in-law with a spark of hope in her light brown eyes. Cecil looked at her for a second and smiled as she knew exactly whom Aurellia was talking about.
"Hector!" Cecil said, smiling at her. "Let's go, he is the only one who can help us."
Hector was Cecil's elder brother who was also the royal Astronomer-cum-doctor for the Syrcouse pack. He had spent all his life inventing different kinds of medicines and potions. Cecil along with Mateo, Aurellia and that Human baby went to Hector's chamber. His chamber was messy as usual, his clothes were all over the place, so many different colored chemicals and plants were placed on a huge table, and the room was filled with a strange smokey smell. Cecil looked here and there to find her brother in that dark room.
"Hector!" She shouted, looking here and there. An old figure of a man, whose hairs were completely white and face was wrinkled, appeared in front of her out of that smoke, looking at her annoyingly with those dull black eyes.
"What?" He shouted back annoyingly, "What do you want?"
"I need your help. We need your help." She said, looking at him and then at Mateo and Aurellia. Hector came closer to Mateo as he couldn't see their faces because of weak eyesight and took a good look at Mateo and Aurellia. A smile appeared on his old wrinkled face, his eyes glowed up as soon as his old eyes landed on familiar faces.
"Mateo! Aurellia! My goodness!" He jumped in happiness, embracing them in his weak shaky arms. "I missed you both, what took you so long to come back?" He asked, breaking the hug.
"We missed you too, uncle Hector." Mateo said, kissing the back of his hand. Aurellia bowed, looking at him with a smile on her face.
"Tell me, how can I help you?" He said, sitting on the couch along with others. Mateo and Aurellia looked at each other for a second and then Aurellia kept the basket on the table in front of him. He looked at the baby, her blue eyes were glowing in that dim-lighted room, he looked at her for a minute without any visible expression on his face and suddenly A smile appeared on his face. He got out of the couch, jumping in happiness. "She is here! Finally she is here!" He exclaimed in happiness.
Cecil looked at him, scrunching her nose, "Yes! She is here and we are all in trouble. We need your help", she said, rolling her eyes at him.
He smiled,"Trouble? She isn't a trouble, she is the solution to all of your problems. She will be remembered in our history for a long time." He said, looking at her sister.
"But uncle she is a human and we don't know if we'll be able to keep her safe or not." Mateo said, looking at him with a strange concern in his eyes.
"She is meant to be here, she was born to be here only. Don't worry, I can make her human smell hide with a mixture of santolxylo and Levanta oil, the fragrance of this mixture will be so strong that it will hide her human smell as long as she wears this fragrance, no one will ever know that she is a human. But trust me she isn't just a normal human being, she is more than that." He said, looking for the chemicals he needed to make that medicine.
"But what is so special about this baby, uncle Hector?" Aurellia asked, looking at the baby with a smile on her face as if she was already so proud of that baby.
"Look at her stars!" Hector said, pressing that baby's hand on a magical book and a constellation appeared on its first page. "She is born with a Goddess star, the star of the Goddess hebe, Goddess of youth and happiness, the gladdening Princess." He smiled, looking at that constellation. Aurellia smiled proudly, looking at Mateo and tears of happiness rolled down her cheeks.
"What should we call our daughter, Mateo? What should be her name?" Aurellia asked, smiling with watery eyes. Mateo paused for a second and looked at the baby.
"She will be the Grace of this pack. My Grace, our Grace, Princess Graciana Syrcouse." Mateo took the baby in his hands and smiled proudly looking at her.