To Make a Kinder Children's Tale

44: Inevitable

One morning Esme felt more exhausted than usual-and she spent more time sleeping through this pregnancy than she had her entire childhood-or so she had claimed on quite a few occasions. During this mid-morning nap in the other bedroom, she had fallen asleep almost sitting upright. Althalos had come in and rested his cheek against her bare belly-the position he slept in didn't look comfortable to her, but then her all-too-human spine protested some of the flexibility of her braw Aelif on quite a number of occasions. She was quite used to him resting in positions that made her swear he broke his spine.

She was dreaming of the last meeting she held with Elder Illes, where she explained how a false bond was formed between father and mother. At the time, Illes had said it was an interesting idea-one she wouldn't take on lightly, not without several conversations with the Crystal Queen. But in the dream she was being asked questions about intimacy that required her bearing her personal life to someone other than her Prince, under the guise of her parents-distressingly intimate and wrong on so many levels. She couldn't stay asleep, but shot upright, fully awake.

Or tried to. Something was wrong. Very wrong. "Althalos!"

He sat up groggily, taking a moment before opening his eyes. He leaned forward to kiss her forehead but paused inches from her, taking in the sight of her. "We have to get your clothes off."

"What?"

"You're cocooning, Esme. Your clothes are endangering you." He lurched to his feet-very ungainly, for the man. He pulled her stiffening body out of the bed, had her upright and stripped her nightgown off her as easily as he ever did-but there was no naked expanse of flesh between them. Fine fibers twined around her body, save her head, and even that was starting to be covered-and it made no sense because the source of the strands was nonexistent.

A move across the Frostways, and they were both out in the glaring noonday. Heat warmed her face, but the rest of her felt like ice. He propped her against a wall.

"All, I'm not ready for this."

"I know." He said this as he paced back and forth in front of her.

"Don't leave me alone!" That was all she had time to cry out before her face, too, was covered. Her mind went numb, killing the panic that had gripped her only moments before.

Althalos looked back at her, and murmured to himself, mostly. "I won't. Not for long."

Judging her safe, he went off to have their second bedroom rearranged, hoping to move her back in-suite-with a place for him to rest, as well, as he intended to spend their remaining nights together even if they couldn't interact. He just prayed he slept well.