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"No, no, no, no, no, Kiefer," Cale warned the little
boy. "That is not a
toy." He picked up
his no-dachi and placed it somewhere else.
"Aw, come on Unky Cale,"
the little boy pleaded, his dad's blue-green eyes
looked up at
him. "Papa never let's me touch his stuff."
"And a very good idea,
too. Why don't you go play with something else? Go
find your
brother?"
"Kieran's with Papa. He's
always with Papa." Kiefer started to pace the
room very much
like Mia when she was either mad or worried.
"Then why don't you go join them?"
"They don't talk most of
the time. Words float by my ear but I can't tell
where they
coming from."
"Float by your ear?"
"Yeah. They don't talk.
They just think. And I can't hear anything. They
talk and I don't
understand what they talk about."
"Okay Kief, I think I get it a little. Then why don't you go find your Mama?"
"But...?"
"I don't want to hear it.
Just go find your Mama and do what she says." The
little boy
turned to the door and turned to face him again.
"You don't like me anymore, Unky Cale?" His blue-green eyes became worried.
"That's not it."
The Warlord reluctantly picked him up before the water
works began.
Not that he would cry, of course. "I just want you with
your mother right
now. I'm about
to leave, you see."
"Okay Unky Cale. I'll go."
He struggled to get down and Cale put him down.
He
watched the little boy go out and down the hall to his parent's
room.
"Damn boy," Cale said
as he shook his head. "You're almost three years old
and you're
giving me guilt trips already. I would imagine what Anubis is
experiencing."
***
Anubis and Kieran stood just
in front of a sea of soldiers. The man had his
arms crossed
over his chest and the little boy was imitating him. Kieran almost
looked
like a miniature
of his father except that he wasn't wearing a subarmor. The little
boy
barely cleared his
dad's knees but looked over the army like he was the one taking
them to
battle.
"When you're older Kieran,
you and Kiefer will take over all of this," Anubis
told his son.
The boy didn't answer and only
looked out over the soldiers. There seemed to
be
millions to him and as far as his eyes could see. He looked up
to his father
and tugged at
his boot. The man looked down at him.
"I want to see Papa."
He raised his arms and Anubis was about to reject the
request when
those eyes met his. It was his mother's eyes that looked up at
him and did
that pleading
look of hers. He bent down and picked him up. "There's
so many of them."
"I know, but you boys will do fine."
"What are you going to do when we take over?"
"I'll be protecting Mama."
He saw Cale approaching. "Okay, time to go." He
let him
down.
"I should have known that the two of you were here," Cale said as he came up.
"Unky Cale, me and Kiefer
are going to take over someday," Kieran told him,
eyes
beaming.
"Are you now? And who told you that?"
"Papa did. And he's going to protect Mama while we do his job."
"That's not a bad idea
Kieran. But right now, why don't you go protect your
mother while
me and your dad do our job." The little boy nodded and went
off. Cale
looked at
Anubis. "Pitching your heir already? Don't tell me you're
planning early
retirement."
"Why not? I know that
Talpa is going to start paying attention to them soon.
They grow
like weeds with no stopping."
"Yeah, I know what you
mean. It seemed like it was only yesterday she was
screaming
her head off for something and now, they're almost three and still
growing."
"You're not getting attached to my kids, are you?"
"You can keep them if that's
what you mean. They bounce around a little too
much.
Made me realize why I didn't want kids."
"Those two are going to
be great. You just don't pay attention to them
enough."
"What are you talking about?
I take care of your rugrats when you're in your
room doing
what, I don't care to hear."
"I'm telling you Cale,
they are going to change this place. Their presence
here is going to
influence everybody."
They started to walk towards
the army, ready to go for another round of
harassing when
something moved into the army. A flash of reddish-brown hair
and red hair
darted
amongst the soldiers without them knowing.