The Seahorse and the Spice 🪼🎩✔

8: Children

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The next time I opened my eyes, I felt something on me and I blinked but there was nothing there... but I felt something sitting on my legs heavily.
"Are you awake, Mister?" a voice said.
I looked around but I saw nothing.
"I'm on you! I'm invisible right now but I can't get back..."
"Invisible?"
"Uh huh."
"Why are you in here?"
"I like your belly. Bastion says my mama got this big when she was carrying me. Are you holding babies in there?"
"According to Andrew and Minerva I am..." I said with a roll of my eyes. "What are you doing in here anyway?"
"Mama said that you wanted a paper so I brought it to you. But I wanted to touch your belly again." The voice said with a childish laugh.
"Why?"
"Cuz it's all hard and pokey!" he said, and I felt a finger jab lightly into my stomach.
"Won't Minerva be looking for you soon?"
"Mummy is making dinner with the cook and Bastion is with the horse man with the horses. Eadric is doing something else..."
"I see."
"Mama said that you read all your books."
"Yeah..."
"You wanna hear a story?"
"Uh... what do you mean?"
"I can tell you a story."
"Thanks little boy but no-"
"Once upon a time there was a bug named Piff. Piff liked to fly around and get gifts from the flowers. One day, a big bumble bee named Arnold starting taking his flowers."
He stopped at that and I stared at the blank place where I thought I saw a slight glimmer of the child.
"And then? By the way, what kind of bug is Piff?"
"I dunno, he's just a bug."
"Well if Arnold is a bumblebee then shouldn't you specify Piff's bug?"
"He's a... worm!"
"Worms aren't bugs."
"Uh... then he's a flower bug."
I was getting nowhere...
"Alright, a flower bug. Now, Arnold took Piff's flower..."
"And that's it. He took his flower cuz he's a meanie."
"Give me something else to work on. Some back story... ugh, I'll make it up myself. Go get me some paper and an inkwell with a quill."
I felt the pressure leave me and then saw paper floating in the air as well as ink and a quill in midair coming toward me. I grabbed the quill and dipped it into the ink, getting the excess off and putting the quill to the paper.
"Alright, we're going to change Piff's name. Let's name him Peter and instead of a flower bug he's going to be... a... what do poor people do?"
"Mummy sold flowers."
"Good, good, he'll be a flower seller on the street. Yes... and Arnold will be a duke like me. He is rich like me. In fact, I want Arnold to be me."
"I wanna be the duke."
I jumped at the fact that there was now a child standing there with me. His blond hair was a big of a shock to me but he climbed in the bed with me and leaned against the pillows.
"You can be a nice noblemen. You are going to be the nice nobleman named..."
"Piff!"
"How about your last name be Piff?" The boy nodded. "Let's have your first name be... Jeremy. Do you like that?"
"Ew." He said with a laugh.
"Then what's your name?"
"Xerxes but Mummy calls me X."
"Then we'll call you Xavier, fair?"
"Uh huh."

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Minerva
"Bastion, what on Earth's name are you doing?"
He gasped and looked up as I walked down the hallway toward the duke's room. Bastion wasn't like that, to spy on someone.
He pointed to the door. "You have to see this."
"Why are you spying on the duke?"
"I wasn't trying to. I was looking for X but this is what I found."
I moved him out of the way and looked in the crack of the door. I heard giggling and a slight chuckle and looked toward the bed. My mouth dropped. The duke was doing something on some paper with Xerxes but it wasn't just that that made me so surprised. It was the look on the duke's face, his body language, everything. He looked as if he were a devoted father sitting with his son and X looked as content as a son playing with his father. The duke reached over X's shoulder and I realized that he was in the duke's lap. Tears welled up in my eyes and I moved from the door.
"Mum?"
"I'm fine... I just... I didn't think I'd ever see something like that again. Your father used to be so proud of you boys, always so devoted and caring. It's like a flashback..."
"I thought you said the duke was a selfish prat."
"I guess if someone would leave him alone, then he's just a lonely child... Let's leave them alone for a bit. I'm sure X will tell us all about his time with the duke."
I closed the door and put my arm around Bastion as we walked down the hall.
"Hey, Mum, why don't you call the duke by his given name?"
"It's not polite to call those in a higher class by their given name unless instructed to. When he decides that I am worthy enough to call him Mr. Barma then I shall."
"I don't mean 'Mr. Barma'. I mean Salem."
"Oh, sweetling, a first name basis are for married couples, those who are engaged, or lovers. And I am none of those things to the duke."
"Would you, though, if he asked you?"
"No... I am a cast off of society. Doing that to the duke would only mean heartache for him. I couldn't bring someone down like that, even if he is the obnoxious Duke Barma."
Bastion nodded and moved so I would take my arm from his neck.
"Well, I still want to see you in one of those pretty gowns. I'll do it for you, Mum. I'll make you fit into society and we'll go to all sorts of balls. I'll be like 'Come, Mother, let us go get some fresh air at the balcony' and I'll hold my arm out like this." He held his elbow out to me. I slipped my arm through. "And we shall prance our way to the balcony so that you don't get faint, eh, Mum?"
I laughed as we skipped down the hall like a couple of loony birds.