15. Rake

Chapter 15

Rake

I t's always good to be back at the main ranch where I was born and raised.

The place is full of Flagstones and community members. Many of our employees and their families are here too. It's good to see everyone again.

I always tell anyone who asks that it was completely my idea to leave the main Flagstone ranch to Sten, which is true.

My father raised me as if I was going to stay here. He is now retired, and he and my mother have a small house in town. They come out to the other ranches, and they travel a lot, because they say they never got to see anywhere else. They've become ambassadors for our way of life, being invited to stay with the Queen and with the Fire Lord.

But as I was growing up, there's always an event for the town held at the ranch and even if we're not hosting it here, we're sponsoring it in the town. Family reunions for the Flagstones are held here. My parents were wonderful hosts, always happy to invite Hyrrokin to our ranch.

But early on, I realized that while I was always partially hiding and left early to return to my bedroom, or I'd make up work I needed to complete in the barn.

My dad tried to treat me as the second in command, but he could often not find me because I'd already left. I couldn't handle that much socialization. I eventually would have shut down.

Sten is much younger than me, and luckily, even from an early age, he showed signs of being much more like my father. Agyile always says that I am like his great uncle, the one who left to live on the island.

Luckily for me, there is another brother to choose from, and it just made sense. If I hadn't been given a parcel to turn into my own ranch, I probably would have just stayed and worked for my brother but let him be number one. I could've eventually taken over as ranch manager. It would have been fine, but this is even better.

I appreciate how I'm able to go off and do my own thing while remaining close.

It's an unusual gift.

Today Stella and I have arrived, along with her mother and baby Gavin, at the ranch for a secret celebration. Also, it's a way for us to celebrate another rainy season ending with everyone safe and secure. No cattle were lost, all are accounted for and due to our vigilant efforts to lock down there was a decrease in property damage. Even the fencing was more secure this go around.

The rainy season has ended. We can all reconnect. No one has seen each other for a month, and this is also the first time everyone has met Gavin, the baby.

He's a hit.

My mother has already taken him into her arms and is walking around with him, showing him off. He's sleeping. Gavin is now exactly one month old, and I have bonded with this child even more than I thought I would. I love his mother and I have been here since he was still barely formed in her womb. I've watched her grow large. I tended to her through her pregnancy. I was there for the labor; I even cut the cord and held him in my arms and showed him to his mother.

I suppose the only small thing was I was wondering, probably, as we all were, if a human child would truly bond with a Hyrrokin father. Because it is well known that our appearance terrifies all the other species who, in their mythology and folklore, all seem to have a being whom is considered the root of all evil and somehow always looks similar to the Hyrrokin.

I don't know if this means that a millennia ago, my ancestors were evil. Were we dispersed? I do not know. No one knows, but it does help us in war, and we are not ashamed. We are, in fact, proud of our appearance. We are a proud people.

But could a human child bond with a parent from a species who looks so unlike him and terrifying in a primal way?

I didn't tell this to Stella, but as I held the baby, even from the beginning, when I cut his cord and I would hold him to her breast and I would feed him myself—I was concerned that at some point his little eyes would open and he'd cry out in fear.

But it hasn't occurred.

If anything, she jokes that he seems to like me more than her.

I don't agree at all, but it's nice of her to say.

I think it helped that he was born at a time when I could focus entirely on him. We were all in lockdown together for that whole first week of his life, just her and I in the house, and we had time to bond.

And now I wonder about Stella. We have grown close, and I love her, and yet we have never said that to each other.

In fact my female was by my side earlier, but seems to have disappeared.

I walk through the front hall and catch sight of my brother Sten, who seems to be engaged in an argument with the new human Librarian. She was hired to upgrade our print books to digital so that they can be found on the nets. Sten has never been happy about this arrangement, viewing this as something that should have gone to a Hyrrokin, not a human. I have no opinion either way and do not understand why he would be angry, but he is. I glance at them again, and notice that they stand close for their argument. A bit too close.

Heh.

I make my way through the public rooms downstairs and make it onto the back courtyard. On the other side of the bushes, I hear human voices approaching. I suspect it's all three females, including Stella. When I look around, I realize that from where I'm standing, the beings who are approaching won't be able to see me, and I'm about to step out, but then I hear something that makes me pause.

"You still haven't told him yet how much you love him?"

I suck in a sharp breath. I should tell them that I'm here. I shouldn't be listening like this. But how else am I going to learn? I want to give her what she needs so that she feels comfortable to fully commit, but I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

"I thought you said that your main worry was that he wouldn't accept the baby, but it looks like he does. Has that changed?"

"No, no, he's accepted the baby. And it does seem to me like the baby has accepted him. Well, this is the first time I've seen his family with the baby."

"So far it looks good."

"Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised. And his family is super kind to my mother too, as if she were family too. I guess you know it still seems fantastical to me that I could live somewhere where I don't have to worry. I don't have to worry."

I can hear her swallowing like back tears. I want to go and take her in my arms.

"I don't have to worry if I'm going to be treated as less than because of my weight or because I'm a woman. This whole weight has been lifted off me. I don't stay with him because of the money. I stay with him because of how I'm treated and how I feel. I've been here for seven months now, and I keep waiting for the ax to fall and it hasn't. And then you two have been here longer, and nothing has happened to you. Oh, and then beyond that, there is Riley, who's been here the longest of all of us. She's perfectly happy living here, and the others say that one of the number one reasons is because, again, they are treated like equals."

"It's one of my favorite reasons for living here," Lucy says.

"And the weather," Mica laughs.

"Yes, that too. But I'm also the first to give birth to a fully human baby on this planet, and so, you know, that's been different. I was literally nervous driving up here. I didn't want to tell Rake, because I thought that would offend him, because this is his family, and the thought of me saying that I'm worried his family going to be rude to my baby or reject him because of how he looks…I couldn't say that to him. Could his family handle raising a child who isn't of their species? But then also, what am I going to do about it? I've already locked myself into this by walking with him to the courthouse. I seriously I felt almost sick driving up here."

"I'm so sorry. I wish you'd called us. We could have talked you down. Because you know there's something important that I know, there's a secret, a surprise, that…"

And I suck in a breath, worried that the human is going to ruin everything.

"Ouch. What are you doing?"

"Don't say anything."

"About what?"

"There's a surprise."

"What kind of surprise?"

"Follow us, you'll see."

And then they leave. I wait a moment, and then follow after. I arrive in time and find Stella standing on the lawn, next to the pond, looking at the assembled party. When we arrived everyone was out front, or inside of the house, and they kept this part secret from her.

"What is this?"

I walk up and whisper in Stella's ear, "This is the real reason why we're here."

"But I thought this was for a celebration of the end of rainy season."

Margaret Smith walks up and stands next to Stella "No. We're all here to witness a ceremony that makes Gavin a legal part of this Flagstone family."

"You knew?" she says to her mother.

"Gryce told me."

"It's not just a welcome ceremony, though we always have those when a new infant joins our family," my father says. "Erid and the judge are here to make this one legal."

My mother walks up and hands Gavin back to Stella and then she steps back.

I place my hand on the small of Stella's back and the three of us walk up to where both Erid and the county judge are standing, next to the pond.

They take turns saying the language of the ancients, that ties families in the wildlands together. And then they add language at the end to make it legal for a Hyrrokin to adopt a human.

"Do you, Stella Flagstone, take our family as part of yours and allow us to make your son part of our family?"

"I do."

"Rake Flagstone, did you say the vows when this child was born?"

"I cut the umbilical cord and vowed then to this child that I was his father."

"Gavin Flagstone is now the legal heir to Rake Flagstone."

And that's when I take out the tiny handheld burner I crafted for my son and I show it to the assembled Hyrrokin as proof that my son will have the ability to defend himself.

"What is this?" my female questions.

"This is Gavin's flame. He will never be able to flash flame, but he will always carry the ability to flame."

There is thunderous applause and whistles from the crowd.