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“What is this?”
It was early morning in the Caria Manor and the —still weak— sun reflected from the dew on the grass and stone. The moisture in the air was ruining the princess’s diligently brushed hair, but casting her usual protective spell was far from her priorities at the moment.
Right now, she was more focused on the random baby crib that had seemingly appeared out of thin air outside her door. More confusing than that, it was the pink-haired baby that calmly starred her in the eyes.
“Blaidd!”Ranni yelled, not taking her eyes off the small creature. It tilted its head at the sound of her voice, but remained calm and curious.
“WHAT?” The half-wolf’s voice sounded loud and annoyed from the room next door.
“Get your tail out here, what is this?”
Despite Blaidd’s uninterested tone, the door opened immediately and he poked his wolf-head out. Despite his own —obviously generous amount— fur, he wore a heavy, red fur coat.
“That’s a crib. For babies,” he answered in a deadpan tone.
“I know that, smart ass,” Ranni rolled her eyes. “Why is it here and why is there a baby in it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ask Iji?”
“He barely gets out the forge nowadays, I doubt he knows anything,” Blaidd said as he began walking through the hall and towards the smithy.
“I’ll watch the creature, don’t be—”
“I swear to the Moon, when I get you…” A familiar, usually gentle voice, angrily appeared from the other side of the hallway, along with big steps quickly approaching.
“Want me to stay?” Blaidd paused.
“Yeah, mom— Mother will know, probably,” Ranni replied.
“Alright, this has gone for long enough!” Rennala’s voice was getting sharper and sharper. “At least bring Meli back, no need to drag her along for your shenanigans.”
A moment later, the Queen appeared from behind the curve of the hallway, her long blue nightgown trailing behind. Despite the ceilings in the Manor having been build for the half-giants ancestors of the current Carian’s, Rennala’s hair still barely avoided the top of the hall.
“Ranni?!”
“That’s me.”
“Good morning, mom!” Blaidd earnestness contrasted Ranni’s artificially bored tone.
“Good morning, Blaidd.”
Rennala’s previously sharp tone vanished in the face of her kids. Yet her frown remained, and grew deeper when she saw the baby crib. She looked at the ceiling and sighed in defeat.
“Ranni, Blaidd. This is Melina.”
The baby’s face was round, with a small mouth and amber, almost golden eyes. Pink hair short hair was quickly growing on her tiny head. The cool air of the morning had been gently hitting her face for some minutes, and her cheeks had turned rosy red.
Blaidd moved closer first, waving at the baby and then yelping with delight when the tiny child grabbed his finger.
“Wow! She’s so strong! And warm?” He turned to Rennala. “She’s not sick, is she?”
“No,” she answered, expecting that reaction. Still, she checked just to be sure. “No, that’s her normal temperature. She’s just a bit warmer than the rest of us.”
“Woah…”
Ranni stood aside still, fixated on the baby’s eyes. Were they amber, a rare but ultimately irrelevant colour, or were they Gold? And what did her mother had to do with it? Rennala was always exited about the rare birth in the manor, but she never had paraded any of them, let alone at the break of dawn and without their mothers.
And that baby crib… She had the strange sense that the furniture was nervous, despite the irrationality of the statement.
She moved closer, looking at the crib as much as the baby inside.
“Who are her parents?”
Rennala didn’t take long to answer, but there was clear hesitation in her voice.
“She doesn’t have any.”
“Hmm…”
She poked the wood with her finger. Solid, a bit cool to the touch. Normal.
Yet the more she stared at it, the more it seemed that it moved, extremely slow, up and down. As if it was… breathing.
More confused than ever, but with a clear game plan —slap the thing until it reacts— Ranni raised her hand, but before she could bring down her palm, Rennala moved and pulled the crib away. It had wheels now, though Ranni could swear it had none only a few seconds ago.
“Ah, I think it’s time for her breakfast,” she said with the same casual tone Ranni used when she was anything but relaxed.
“Is it?”
“It is,” Rennala’s tone sharpened, asking Ranni not to push it.
“Don’t babies eat when they wake up?” Ranni pushed it. “She seems pretty awake to me.”
“Go get your brothers and come to the hall,” Rennala ignored her. “I hear Loretta brought home some Altus berries last night.”
“But—”
“Rykard is at the workshop again, they had to douse the kiln while he slept. Radahn is at the stables.”
“Where else,” the princess couldn’t resist the jab.
“And Iji should be at bed still,” her mother ignored it. “Go on, gather them to eat.”
“But what about Melina—”
“She’ll be there too,” Rennala cut her off again, unrelenting. “Your brothers. Now, Ranni.”
“Fineee,” she finally conceded. “But Melina is weird.”
“Rude,” Blaidd chipped in. “She’s just a baby.”
“A weird baby,” Ranni returned as she began heading for Iji’s quarters. “Did you see her eyes?”
“Yeah, they are a bit like yours.”
“And that’s not weird??” she turned to face him, walking backwards as they moved further and further away from Rennala. “Like, it’s the Gold that makes my eyes like that, why does she—”
As the kids’ voices faded behind the curves of the cold walls, Rennala turned to the baby crib.
“She’ll figure out it was you in a week, at most,” she whispered.
“I wanted to see them,” answered the crib.
“And you couldn’t have waited until I gathered them for breakfast?”
“No.”
Rennala sighed, defeated.
“Well, at least turn into something more inconspicuous at breakfast. I’ll hold little Meli.”