Twisten turned as the crunch on gravel grew louder. Wilok smiled judiciously as he caught the boy's glance. "You alright?" the man asked, eyeing the back alley they were in. "Don't like the new children?"
"It's not tha'," Twisten said. "I do not like th' new people, but it's..."
The man waited.
"It's tha'...we, well I, made us both leave home," Twisten said slowly. "I don't ken how we got into the Waste, but there was a storm, an' then yeh saved us. Mikal an' I...can't go back home. There's nothing there left." Twisten tried to hold back his tears, but they flooded down his cheeks determinedly. "Darmo, he left years ago an' ne'er came back. I always thought he would come back for us. But he didn't." His face screwed up, and then Twisten burst out angrily, "He just left me! He just...I...why would he do tha'?"
"I'm sorry, boy one," Wilok said quietly, closing the distance an' hugging Twisten to his chest. "I don't know why he left you, but I'm sorry for what you had to go through. Now, you can cry all you want. I'll tell a story, fair? So me and Wana have always wanted children. The day we met you, we were offering this very prayer. In an instance, we had both gotten this inexplicable urge to go out into the storm. Into a sandstorm, if you can believe it. When we found you...it was like a gift sent by the goddesses. If you and your brother have nowhere else to go, we would love for you to stay with us for as long as you want."
Twisten nodded.
"Well then," Wilok said, smiling, "we'll have to know your names. No more boy one and boy two, right?"
"Right." The boy gave a wobbly smile, embarrassed at his own mistrustfulness. "I'm Twisten. Twisten Dunarason. Me brother's called Mikalen, but I just call him Mikal."
"Hullo Twisten," Wilok said. "My name's Wilok Felikson and my wife's is Wana Bewirkson. But you already know our names – they're quite a mouthful, aren't they?"
Twisten nodded again and used a hand to wipe the tears away. "Adam called his parents ma an' pa."
"Adamen? Dragon! We're not trying to replace your real family," Wilok exclaimed, mildly horrified. "But calling us by our use names does sound weird. Of course, it's only if you want." Wilok paused for a moment. "If you don't want to sound weird, don't say ma an' pa. It's pa an' ma. We Rams are quite different from what you're used to, stuck in the Empire. It's just another thing you'll have to get used to, I suppose."
"Pa an' ma," Twisten repeated dutifully. "Better?"
"Better."