The battle was fierce and though no one lost no one really won either.
Well, that’s not quite true…
The humans. The humans lost.
Bloody scratches and subtle bite marks (“They didn’t feel subtle when I was getting them!”) told the tale.
And all the mayhem, the war, the blood and pain, was caused by a simple sneeze.
“What is the point of this?” he asked, his voice low and even. “Why did you come here?”
She looked down, but did not answer, not yet.
In her arms was a small child, pale all over save for his eyes which were a crimson as dark as her freshly spilt blood. The child looked back up at his mother, quiet and assessing, recording her image into his mind as if he knew even at his young age that this would be last he’d ever see of her.
Finally, she spoke, her voice as soft as the wind on a clear night.
“I need a place, a place for my son, where he will be safe and can learn and grow.”
The man in front of her was silent as he thought over her words, understanding what she was asking.
She did not know his name, did not even know the name of the place they were in nor the name of her child. It was safer this way, safer for the child as well as the one she was leaving him with. Names were power in more ways than most humans were aware.
She would give anything, pay any price for the safety of her child and the man knew it. A part of her was worried, worried about what the man would ask for, but another part of her, a small part that had long since grown silent in her own home, knew that her son would be safe no matter what here.
The ritual she had performed to send her here for this short amount of time had made certain of it.
“Very well,” the man said, “I will take the boy and raise him as my own. I will never speak of you to him, never hint that he is anything but my own. You will not exist within his life if I am able to help it at all.”
She nodded to his terms. He understood and for that she would be forever grateful. Another of her family would be safe.
She hugged the child to her chest once more before handing him over to the man in front of her.
She disappeared without a trace, the blood that had been placed on the boy vanishing just as silently.
Written for this week’s Weekly Prompt from suzie81speaks: http://suzie81speaks.com/2014/04/27/weekly-word-challenge-family/
Breathing In 