Several hundred years later
"Keep your fingers crossed." Yoher held Fornotia's hand steadily in the waiting room outside the Healer's room.
Fornotia took a deep breath. Her son Luck was having his first baby. It would be sixth generation waryes. She prayed with all her might that luck had the same luck his own name had. Please oh please oh please. Both her and Yoher were so edgy, Luck's lucky lady turned out to be waryes too. As predicted, becoming mixed became very common. Colored tail warnos were disappearing more each year. Fornotia continued to plead in her head. Let my grandchild be normal. Please, let it be normal. She felt Yoher's arm around her. "No matter what, okay? We'll love our grandchild the same. Genes won't matter."
"I always said that." Fornotia bent her head down. "I know, but we were so stupid back then." She felt Yoher hold her closer.
"We'll love it if it's different. Luck will too. It'll be raised with love and it'll be okay." Yoher was clearly trying to convince her. As he said
that, Luck appeared at the door.
"Well." Luck rubbed the back of his head unsteadily and looked at the ground. "It's a girl." He closed his eyes tightly. "Uh, she's a little different."
Fornotia felt her heart ache for him as she saw her son's expression. Luck had not been with him. "Well. Well, is she pretty?"
"Pretty? She's pretty." Luck rubbed his silver hair and tugged at it a little. "She's uh, she's got a different tail. It's uh, it's
the . . . " He covered his eyes up, obviously not letting Fornotia see how he felt. "Healer says they've studied the pink tails more and-and it's not the first in the . . . the family that usually . . . "
Fornotia and Yoher quickly ran to his side and comforted their son.
"She'll be okay. She's a little . . . she doesn't cry much or-or want so much. But-" Luck choked. "She has a smile, she can smile, so-it's
good-it's good it…" He squeezed his nose. "She can smile. She's gonna be okay. The Healer says she's the first rat tail in our family and she's gonna act a little different. But, she's not gonna be . . . she won't be a real fighter yet, it uh-it takes uh-two generations. At least. So they say. She's um, she's gonna live about maybe a um…a hundred years or so."
"Oh honey." Fornotia held her son tightly. A hundred years? Only a hundred?
"It's not like early death though. She grows up faster, she won't die as a child. By the time she's twenty she's going to be considered an adult. So really, I." Luck looked at his parents. "I'll spend twenty years with her or so and um, they say she won't act out half as much so we'll never have to move her to a Den with other k-kids." Luck gulped. "Her kind aren't allowed in the kingdom at all though. We have to move."
"No." Fornotia held onto her son tightly. "No, there's got to be something you can do. She's not evil, just different. Maybe a law will be enforced so that pink tails can't have kids?"
"Did you hear yourself?" Yoher had moved her chin slowly toward his eyes. "Fornotia, no one knows for certain why we started to evolve. Saying that, it might kill us off even faster. The road we are on can't be changed. Removing that freedom is wrong."
"B-but our great grandchildren after her and Luck m-moving." Fornotia held on tightly to her husband.
"They have to go," Yoher said, his voice a little quavering. "It's not like with us Fornot, they're all waryes. His family will be happy, they belong there."
"I'll never see any of them again." Fornotia looked at Luck. "Please?"
"Mom, only ten warnos have seen our little girl so far. Ten. And?" Luck's jaw went slack. "She doesn't belong here. I'm going to miss you, but I have to put her first. I'm sorry."
Fornotia felt her son's gentle hug. "Can I see her?"
"After the reactions, w-we've decided to keep her secret," Luck quivered. "We're not even naming her until we get to the Waryes Kingdom." He rubbed his eyes. "Now, um, I guess this is goodbye. We can still talk on the phone though. Okay?"
Talking on the phone would never be the same. Never, in their lifetime, would they ever meet or see each other again.
"Son." Yoher brought Luck closer and gave him a firm handshake. "Remember what I taught you when you were little. No matter how accepted you ever feel, if war ever breaks out-"
"I'll be on the side of the warnos." Luck hugged his dad one more time. "It's going to be tricky enough getting our little girl out, so we've gotta
move fast. Mom. Dad." He took a deep but choking breath. "I'll miss you."
Fornotia watched as her boy, her son, the one she risked everything for to keep, walked out of the waiting room. Never again, would she ever see him.
"Come Fornotia." Yoher held her hand. "He was a strong waryes, you should be proud of him." He gave her a gentle kiss on the head. "Times are changing. We might see him again one day. Who knows, maybe we'll see him when we're Ancients." He teased her, trying to cheer her up, but it wouldn't work. No
playful joke could ever make her feel better. "Ancient Yoher Marks and Ancient Fornotia Marks. Has a nice ring to it."
"Do you think you'll live long enough to be an Ancient with me?" Fornotia turned around, rubbing her eye one more time. "If anything happens, do you have to go to a losing battle?"
"Hey, now, I thought we agreed that was for the future," Yoher reminded her. "Until that future, we can dwell on whatever future we want." He held Fornotia closer to him. "I dream of being a cruddy old cranky Ancient," he laughed, "who yells at everyone to stay off my property and that 'they're all too young to understand'. I'll be Grampy Yoher and you can be Grammy Fornot." He teased.
"Yoher." Fornotia couldn't help but laugh. "How is it you can see the bright side of things?" She gave him a simple kiss and fell deep into his embrace. She wanted to believe in his dream. That they would live long enough to be Ancients. That they would see their two thousandth birthdays, together, hand in hand. But a feeling, in the pit of her stomach, couldn't quite believe it. In those changing times, she knew things would happen. Awful things. She couldn't think about it though, dwelling wouldn't do any good. She would cherish everyday she could live with Yoher, and who knows? Maybe they'd have a second someday now that the house would feel so lonely. "Yoher, there was something I wanted to ask you-"
"I'd love another one." Yoher grinned at Fornotia. "But we'll have to go through this all over again. They'll leave to another Kingdom, with a child that's most likely pink tailed."
"I know." Fornotia nodded. "It's hard knowing the future for any that we do have, but we can't change genes." She sniffed. "We can't change who we are. All we can do is enjoy our
own lives, the way we want to. Nobody, not even the great warno king could stop us."
Yoher laughed. "Probably not, your own dad couldn't. Remember when he tried to run me over with his car?" He wrapped his arm around her. "We'll give it a few years, enjoy having the house all to ourselves, and then . . . " Fornotia giggled as he tickled her tummy. "We'll see what the future holds."
It was strange. Knowing the future of her next generations. Fornotia knew, deep down, that even having Luck added to the problem, but if they didn't live their lives in happiness, they'd regret it when they were too old. Other waryes would be with warnos. Other waryes would be with waryes. It was a never ending cycle and she knew the days that she had grown fond of would one day come to an end. Her kind would be gone one day, and only the hateful, soulless, blood-driven kind would remain. There was nothing a single warno could ever do though. It was evolution. So if it didn't matter, in the end, if she had one or two kids? Then shouldn't she be happy?
The future could wait. Could wait thousands of years if it wanted to. She hoped it waited until her time on Pagnia ended, but something nagged her in the back of her mind, saying it wouldn't. Enjoy the days while she can…
Enjoy the days while she can…
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PATREON: serenawalken
KO-FI: support
BLUESKY: authorserenawalken