Child of the Moon.

~Chapter Nineteen~

This is your own fault boy...

You don't deserve to be here...

You should be dead...

Traitor! Traitor! Traitor!

"DAD!"

Varian fell out of his chair flat on his back, knocking several of his supplies off his worktable. The teen panted and held his head in his hands, trying to forget the image of his father being encased in the amber. His raccoon Ruddiger jumped on his boy's shoulder and rubbed against his face in comfort. The voices of the Coronan people eventually faded from Varian's mind and he stood up shakily. He then raced out of his laboratory and out of the farmhouse to try and find his father. The teen knew it had only been a nightmare, but he was worried and scared nonetheless.

Varian almost instantly found his father tending to the pumpkins just outside the farmhouse. Quirin greeted his son cheerfully. The boy breathed a sigh of relief and was just about to go back inside and forget the whole experience when he saw something very strange by the front of the farmhouse.

He hopped down the stone stairs that led up to the house and began to examine what appeared to be one of the black rocks, only... it wasn't black. The large spike glowed a solid bright red color. Varian knew better than to touch it. Instead, he ran over to his father to ask him what he knew about it or if he'd seen it at all. He shook Quirin's shoulder to get his attention. But the words didn't even leave his mouth before he heard terror-filled screams come from inside the house.

Quirin sprinted inside and up the stairs closely followed by his son. He tore open the guest bedroom door.

Hector laid on the bed thrashing and screaming in his sleep. Tears streamed down his face. His body was bruised from hitting himself against the wall and bedposts.

Quirin ran over to the bed and pinned his brother down as best he could to keep him from hurting himself. This almost immediately woke Hector up, though it didn't ease his terror, If anything else he became even more scared. He tried to wriggle out of Quirin's grasp, screaming and panting.

Quirin shook Hector harshly.

"It's me, brother!" Quirin said desperately. "It's me, Quirin! It's just me!"

Hector froze for a moment and stared at his brother, squinting and turning his head to the side as if Quirin was invisible.

"Q-Quirin?" he said uncertainly.

"Yes, yes I'm here," - Quirin pulled his brother into a tight embrace and allowed him to cry into his shoulder. - "I'm right here. You're safe. It was just a dream."

"They- They're never this bad!" Hector whimpered. "I d-don't... I don't understand!"

Quirin shushed Hector gently, running his fingers through the smaller man's hair, soothing him.

Varian remained frozen in the doorway for a moment longer, trying to comprehend what he'd just witnessed. He'd never seen his uncle like that before. The warrior had always been just that - a warrior. A strong, brave, sometimes arrogant but otherwise funny warrior. It terrified the teen to see someone he thought so indestructible, crying into his father's shoulder. It had been different when his father had just been freed from the amber. The two hadn't seen each other in almost thirty years. Those were tears of happiness. These... these were so much different and so much worse.

However, Varian slowly started to move away from his place in the doorway before running to his uncle and wrapping his arms around him as best he could. He intended to stay there for as long as his uncle needed, but he was ever so slightly distracted by what he saw outside of the bedroom window. A long, glowing red spike of rock had appeared just outside of the farmhouse.