Blessed by Night

Anna used her telekinesis to pick the lock with ease and kicked open the bathroom door like a member of SWAT.

As she expected, her mother was seated on the edge of the bathtub with her head in her hands and a rather pale look on her face.

After Anna\'s sudden kick at the door, poor Joanne nearly had a heart attack and went tumbling into the tub.

"Shit, Anna! Why are you just barging in here like that?"

Unfortunately for Joanne, her daughter didn\'t care in the slightest if she\'d fallen and bumped her head or not as she closed the door silently and folded her arms.

"What is your problem? Why are you treating Malachi like that? I thought you liked him!"

"Anna... it\'s not about tha-"

"Then you better start explaining because right now it seems like you\'re letting his changes spook you out of being with him! After he saved you more than once and pulled us out of that fucking hell hole you can\'t just-"

"Anna, please! Just listen to me for once!"

Annalise calmed down a bit, but it was clear that she didn\'t like the fact that her mother had raised her voice at her.

Despite all of her piercings and tattoos, she was still a sensitive girl you know?

Joanne sighed and apologized slightly before she held out her arms and made room in the tub.

Begrudgingly, Anna climbed into the tub and sat between her mother\'s legs.

Though she was unaccustomed to these kind of motherly scenarios, Anna did not at all find this kind of thing to be uncomfortable and all of her earlier irritation seemed to melt away.

"I am... painfully aware of everything that Malachi has done for me and everything that he continues to try to be for me. Just when I thought I could never function normally again he just shows up and says all of these things that..."

"So what\'s the problem?"

"...When I saw him, I was certainly surprised but... I realized that nothing that I feel has gone away. And I think that a few minutes ago was the first time I ever realized just how badly I want him. If him turning into a literal alien can\'t stop me from feeling like this... I\'m already too far gone."

"Still not hearing a problem..."

Joanne scoffed as she gave her daughter a playful nudge.

"The problem young lady is that I... won\'t be any good for Malachi. I let myself fall into his spell for too long but I have to-"

*Yawn*

"..."

"..."

"You asked me to confide in you and now you\'re yawning?!"

"You weren\'t saying anything worth listening to."

"You brat! How can you be so rude to everyone?!"

"My counselor in juvie said being raised without a mother made me terse and unfriendly."

"O-Oh... I.."

"Hahaha! Don\'t be so serious, it\'s already done so we might as well laugh about it!"

Joanne didn\'t find her daughter\'s talent for dark humor very funny, but by now there seemed to be very little she could hope to do to stop it.

"I think that we all had a moment like that at one point... After all none of us are the most healed bunch... oddly enough I think Nadine was the only one who came into this relationship without any trauma attached to her." Anna said thoughtfully.

"...No wonder she\'s so bubbly."

"My point is..." Anna redirected. "Even though we all had our doubts about whether or not we could make this work, eventually we just decided to let ourselves be happy.

Whatever that means and however much work that requires... Malachi is worth it, Mom. He\'s the best partner you could ask for... and an even better father. Not to mention the sex is-"

"O-One thing at a time, Annalise!" Joanne felt her face getting red after she recalled the scene from this morning.

She hadn\'t seen Mal\'s full proclivities since she was distracted by the glowing purple eyes and the snakes saying hello to her, but she would be a fool not to notice the way Bianca, Nadine, or Anna were walking.

But as she let her daughter\'s words sink in, she realized that she was going to have to get used to those kinds of things in the future.

Because Malachi, at the very least, was worth it.

"...Are you sure you\'re okay with this?"

"Yeah, just let me punch you in the stomach once and we\'re good."

"W-What..?"

-

Deep within the nearby wilderness, a newborn faun was drinking from a running stream.

It\'s mother was not to far away, keeping a watchful eye out for any signs of danger.

Out of the corner of it\'s left eye, it saw a strange sight.

Three heads were just barely peaking above a shrub nearby; staring at them like they were some kind of stalkers.

One was an adult human man with glowing purple eyes and grey hair.

The other was a young child, seemingly a young human boy with robotic red eyes.

The third, and final bush stalker was an infant girl that was no older than a couple of months; her eyes and hair bearing a striking resemblance to it\'s first man.

Malachi : \'...We\'ve been spotted, but it\'s not doing anything.\'

Cami : \'Bu..\'

Tsath : \'This is a part of the first lesson that I wanted to teach you. To be N\'Kai is to have understanding with all wildlife, be they what you consider terrestrial or extra terrestrial... Except for dragons. Dragons do not particularly like us.

Malachi / Camille : \'Dragons!?! / Dwa!?!\'

Tsath : \'It is only natural I suppose. In their minds, their sovereignty and individuality is one of the greatest things they value about themselves. Those that know of us usually try to kill us on sight.\'

\'W-What?! / Eh!?\'

\'Later. Now, pay attention new bloods.\'

Tsath stood up from behind the bush and walked over calmly towards the two deer grazing in the wild.

Surprisingly, they neither ran away nor showed any signs of fear at his arrival.

He was able to walk right up to the baby doe and was able to pat her back lovingly as she drank from the stream.

"Animals, no matter what world they come from, are all able to recognize us as their own kin. Like them, we are not malevolent, not violent, we simply have our own role to play in nature\'s cycle and act on it accordingly.

It is the reason why our diminutive forms have so many animal characteristics. By befriending so many of them over the countless millennia, their DNA has become melded with our own, and it is not uncommon for some of those traits to come to the forefront."

Malachi briefly recalled the fact that Tsath\'s true form was eerily spider-like in addition to being the most horrifying thing he had ever seen.

It answered the questions he had about his own new appendages, as well as the reason why he felt so at peace with nature ever since he stepped outside.

It was like having Bast\'s blessing on crack.

He could smell things for miles; using both his new forked tongue and nose.

His sight was unparalleled even without using Nyx\'s blessing, and his hearing was even better than when he was half cat.

He suddenly thought about something and piked up his daughter in her little onesie.

Cami giggled as her father twisted her around in all sorts of manners as he looked for extra appendages on his two month old.

"You hiding anything other than those adorable little wings you got from your mother? Don\'t leave me hangin here, munchkin."

"Hehehehe!"

Tsath hated to interrupt such a tender and friendly moment, but he had something he absolutely had to show them.

"Come here you two. I need you to see this."

Malachi placed Camille on his shoulders and walked toward Tsath with violet eyes filled with curiosity.

Tsath held out his hand and he began to secrete a black, tar-like substance from his palm.

"This is how N\'Kai make things whole. We ask this creature to join us not just because we want it\'s strength, but also because we wish to empower them, and take away all fear and sadness."