by TS Thornton
the better of him. He carried the cart that he had enchanted to be lighter so he could carry them all.
“Gavin,” Solin said from the shadows. “I came out to meet you, and to help you but I see you may have it all right there.”
“I…” He couldn’t speak as he looked his young son in the face. What was the meaning to all of this? He tried to think when he wasn’t able to focus. He shook his head rubbing right under his right tusk. “Son, Solin is there somewhere we could sit?” Solin created a magickal bench that he sat upon and invited his father to do the same. Gavin sat down next to his son.
Thinking of his end of the life he had in this house. He loved that female for all she was and all she wasn’t. He hated she left him, hated she couldn’t have his child, but that didn’t mean he wanted her to leave. He wanted to love her forever. To try a millions time and not succeed but it would have been with the one he loved. She was the only one who understood his pain, knew how to heal him. He loved her more than the earth and its moon companion. He was a part of her, when she left the final straw broke. Gavin was lost in the sea for years before he floated ashore.
“I met your mother sometime later. I was still very heart broken, but she lit something within me that helped me heal. Slowly I began to mate with her and when I did, I gave her long life with my magick without my full knowledge. I knew that anything could happen but seeing her smile was all I could think. When I realized she no longer aged I didn’t tell her. I think she may have had a clue. But at this point she knew me as I am sitting before you. I didn’t keep it from her long. She took it with a grace that I have yet to see replicated. I loved… love your mother. I believed that she would reject me. That she would reject us when she found out she could not have a human child with me. She was happy during her pregnancy, healthy and active.” Gavin lifted his head to the moon while talking, he felt as if the moon was listening to his confession also. “I left after I asked mother to glamour you for ten years.” Solin looked away now. The pain of the night of his tenth birthday came flooding back to him. He was a man now full grown monster but the feeling of lost and abandonment still reigned. Gavin continued.
“I left after I named you. I couldn’t face you or her as it seems I am more coward than monster. I do not expect forgiveness. I could not face you. I wanted to have a child with another. Someone who would live and love with me, someone who could raise our son to be the monster he should have been. I left you because I couldn’t face you. I didn’t know if you would have magic, but I knew that when you were born it was best for her and the human world to have a human child. I had to leave for my own selfish reasons.”
“We could pass for normal. You would always have to hide.” He nodded. “I guess I could understand, but I never hid myself from Winter. Our experience stripping us bare to the soul.” Solin knew before her vision cleared and she looked into his eyes. She saw him, pained child to lonely man, and he saw her. She was a reflection of him. He was hers from then own.
“Yes you son are no coward. You are more than me and your mother put together, better than I could have hoped for.”
“I would like you to meet my Winter.” Solin stood taking the crate and placing it outside his door. His father sat on the bench a moment more to look at the moon, a view he shared with his first love.
“Yes I will.” He thanked the moon and the stars for his son.
Inside Solin made tea while his father took a look around.
“How are you going to get her electronics to work?” Solin lifted his head from his cup.
“Um, I don’t know anything about human electronic’s.” Mispronouncing the word and making his father chuckle. “I just brought everything I knew she loved. Do you know how to get them to work?” His father had a thought. He smiled at his son who only knew life freely.
“Well we could cast magick upon a…” He looked around as if it was in the room waiting to be found. “Well a car battery powers a car. It’s small enough and may just work.” He turned to look at his son who had a blank look on his face. “I bet you don’t have one of those?”
“Well I don’t know what she has. You can look through the boxes there in the room in the back.” When his father went to the back he went to check on Winter. She lay still but something changed. Her glow was completely gone. Her eyes were shifting as if she was trying to wake. He took her claw in his and waited. He heard his father making noise but nothing bothered her.
“Solin,” A weak sound coming from Winter. She didn’t recognize her surrounding but the items in the room became more familiar. When her vision cleared she turned to see Solin looking right down at her. She smiles instantly feeling a change about her face as well as her body. She sat up, her breath catching as she did so. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a lie she thought completely convinced she was dreaming.
“Winter,” Solin’s voice brought her back from the edge of a panic attack. “Calm now my sweet. I have to explain something’s to you.” She looked him in his eyes those eyes that saw through to her soul, the eyes they calmed the raging river of her soul. “When we meet I change you without knowing that I had done so, for a while. I knew things were different. I wanted to explain but then you slept.” She nodded never taking her eyes off his. “The moon granted you a gift,”
“The moon changed you/me.” They said together. “So I was forced to bring you here where our kind lives.” She didn’t respond the way she would have expected but she began to think of the positive of her new life.
“Will you be here with me?” He smiled at her his tusks always weighing his smile down.
“Always,” Solin took her in his arms and held her tight.
“Son, I think I found something I could use. It’s smaller than a car battery.” Gavin called from the front of the redwood.
“Who is that?” She covered herself with a blanket. She was fully covered in her own pj’s. He smiled at her modesty.
“This is Gavin my father.” She shook her head when Solin spoke.
“A lot has changed while I have been asleep.” She turned to him. “How long has that been?”
“Just a little over five days, I brought you through the crossover and everything else.” She squeezed him tightly.
“Thank you.” Solin kissed her forehead and she froze in his arms.
“Hello my son.” Gavin was at the doorway a moment later. The two separated to greet Gavin.
“Gavin, this is Winter Bluu. Winter this is my father Gavin Summer.” She turned to Solin who was giggling along with his father.
“Why didn’t you tell me what your last name?” She didn’t mean to say that which started their laughter again. She knew Solin was her future, but to be called Winter Summer was out of the question.
“I never thought I would ever get the chance to see that.”
“Edith’s last name was Winter before she took Summer. It’s quite odd that…”
“My mother’s birth name is Edith.” Solin glared at his father who was giving his son an odd look at well.
“No your mother’s names is Judith.” Gavin said to his son in a hollow voice that echoed around the room. Winter felt the chill in the room, when there was none.
“Yes, but her birth name was Judith, she told me.” Solin and his father’s stare down ended when his father spoke quickly.
“Winter it was very nice to meet you.” Then he was gone. The two of them followed even though Winter was a little slower on her feet she would not let him help her or slow down.
“Father?” He called as the door shut behind him. Solin opened the door to find his grandmother holding a big basket.
“Nothing if not polite my son, greeted me goodnight then ran past me with lighting speed.” Solin stared off into the night not seeing anything but the darkness of the island. His grandmother went off into the kitchen.
“Yes, something triggered him to leave at such a rate.”
“It was when you told him your mother’s name. It had
him in a rush to leave, why?” Winter was standing in the threshold. Solin shrugged as he took one last glance outside before closing the door.
“Hello child, how are you feeling?” Winter smiled as she took a seat in the seat next to Solin. He was standing.
“I am adjusting. I don’t know I am different on the outside, I feel the same on the inside. I just have to stare in a mirror for a decade.” She giggled as she smiled. Solin took her hand in his. “I am very happy, I have my bestie and a TV. I don’t know what your dad did but I’m very happy for it.” She was beaming as his grandmother place a small plate of food in front of her. She didn’t even think twice before putting the cheese and meat to her mouth. She hadn’t remembered when she last ate and her body was telling her it was past time. A plate was placed in front of a standing Solin. He was still lost in thought about his father’s abrupt departure.
“I think you should eat,” He looked down at Winter. “There is a plate sitting there with food on it and I haven’t eaten in-“
“Six days and a sunset,” He said automatically.
“And I will eat said food if you don’t sit down.” Solin’s grandmother laughed aloud. He gave her a look.
“She is telling the truth, she is adorable.” Winter smiled at his grandmother.
“Granmother, thank you for your help and the food, it is much appreciated.” She laughed again.
“Child what is mine is yours and yours.” She added as she pointed to Winter. “So I have to ask one question, when are the two of you getting married?” She knew this was the point in which the dams would break but as they watched her then slowly turned to one another she knew that they were thinking of the possibilities of being husband and wife, mates for life.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks later the setting was as the last. Solin was being fed by his grandmother who was teaching Winter to cook. The ladies were closer than Solin could believe, he was happy that Winter had a mother figure who loved her. He was enjoying the conversation about mixing and measuring, he was learning also. When there was a knock at the door they didn’t hear it. The door opened before the knock, it knew the couple well and remembered them. The couple walked inside to the kitchen where they heard voices. They stood a moment watching the three of them candidly. This moment was one they wanted to remember. It was the day their lives changed with more love than they could possibly believe, the two of them glamoured themselves to look human before announcing themselves. At Gavin’s voice the trio turned to face them. Solin was speechless, words stopping in his throat. Love filling him completely.
“Hello all, are you well?” There was a smile on Gavin’s face when the trio turned to face him. “This is Judith, formerly-“
“Mother,” Solin finally got the single word out. It was ripping at the scars (not physical, emotional) he hid from when he was ten, when he left her.
“Yes son. I am your mother.” She dropped her glamour as soon as she could. Solin didn’t speak or even move. Gavin’s mother was at a loss for words herself. She didn’t know this was what had transpired. She didn’t feel Judith’s powers when she delivered Solin. It was human and with little magic that she thought came from her son’s influence. “I am sorry I could not tell you the truth. I was afraid you would blame me.” He was hugging her the next moment. She was still speaking when he pulled her into the closest hug she had ever had from her son. Gavin wrapped his arms around his wife and son. His dream come to life, so long ago lost that he was lost among them. He pulled them closer slightly lifting them. Winter and the Islands Caretaker watched as a family reunited and began to bond from love.
The end…
Copyright 2014 by T S Thornton
About the Author:
TS Thonton has a passion for writing that she is ready to share with the world. TS lives in Wa with family. TS loves to read, as well as talk. TS is funny, a little too animated. TS is a single with a smart young daughter.
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