Chapter 28
Empress Anita paced in her main room. She had a lot of work to do, but she couldn’t concentrate. The palace had become unusually quiet and calm since her sons had gone on a trip to Olhoe. She worried about her boys, expecting them to have come back by now. They had been gone for the twins’ birthday, which they both had looked forward too. Maybe they had a nice party on Olhoe, with their father, she thought. She hoped that they’re being gone so long was due to them having a good time, and not because they were in trouble. She was thinking about taking a trip herself, just to make sure they were okay.
The guards and warriors she had sent to watch over them regularly send letters back, saying how much fun they were having, and how Joshua and Rick had made new friends. She was glad they were having fun, but she really missed them. She had been losing weight due to having to eat alone. She no longer had the chefs prepare small feasts, since she was the only one who would enjoy it. Instead of dinner being a family event, it had become more of a chore. Some of the servants had suggested that she go out and meet new people, maybe even find a nice man-friend, someone to enjoy dinner with. She had tried that, but no one could ever replace her sons, especially Orion.
Orion, she thought, sighing and plopping down on the couch, what a handful, just like his father. She remembered how moody he had been at first, prepared to fight his way out if he had to. She seen his face in her mind when she introduced him to his twin brother, and when he realized that he could live there as a lunimorf prince. Rick and Joshua had taken to Orion like a charm. She was so pleased that the three of them loved each other so much. Orion quickly let the other two know who was boss, and experimented by bending all the rules as far as they would go before they snapped. He even bought a pet zupzie on his first day in the city, without knowing anything about it.
She glanced over to her stuffed chair, where Orion’s zupzie lay sleeping. The little furball had grown ten times it’s size since Orion brought it home. She was surprised that he didn’t take it with him when he left for Olhoe. He probably didn’t expect to be gone so long, she thought, walking over and stroking the animal’s soft fur. The zupzie yawned and stretched, turning over onto it’s back for a tummy rub. Empress Anita obliged. She wondered what had happened the night of the twins’ birthday, when the zupzie began wailing again. The last time it wailed like that, Orion had just been attacked. The animal wailed for hours, finally settling down around midnight. A few days later, she got a letter saying something about some transformation, and that the boys were fine. She didn’t pay too much attention to the letter, and was about to go to Olhoe herself to rescue her boys. The letter she got the next day told her about how excited the boys were about the transformation, and that a young lady and a young man, who had gone through the transformation, were teaching the boys all about it.
She picked up the zupzie, making it squeak in protest, and sat down, placing the animal on her lap. She wished her sons would return soon. The palace just wasn’t home without them. She held the zupzie to her breast and cuddled it like a baby. The zupzie didn’t appreciate being turned on it’s back and squeezed, so it cried for freedom and hopped out of Empress Anita’s arms. It pranced over to the rug in front of the warm fireplace and curled up for another nap. Empress Anita sighed, wishing she could be as relaxed as Orion’s pet.
“Your Majesty!” a servant burst through the doors, out of breath. A startled Star bristled, hissed, and ran to another room to hide. Empress Anita jumped in her skin and looked up at him. He didn’t even knock. She was about to tell him off for scaring the wits out of her, but he continued, “They’re back! The princes are back!”
“They’re back?” she asked, jumping up, “Really?”
“Yes, Majesty,” he panted, “Their ship just landed in the dock.” Empress Anita didn’t wait another second. She rushed out of her room and ran down the long halls to the dock. There was already a crowd gathered around an unusual looking ship. Probably a telblec ship, she thought. It certainly seemed out of place among the other lunimorf ships.
The crowd parted for her and a handful of guards who flanked her. Looking up at the open door of the spaceship, she didn’t see her sons, like she had expected, but a man she had never wanted to see again - Roger. Memories of him began flooding her mind. She remembered meeting him for the first time and falling in love. She remembered how odd he looked, with dark, sandy-colored wings and a tail covered in fur. His eyes were huge and red, and his ears were pointed. She couldn’t believe that he had come back after all this time. After almost four years together, she had screamed at him, and he had taken off in a spaceship, swearing that he’d never return. He left her with a broken heart and a two-year-old son, Rick. Her heart stopped as she watched him descend the ship’s ramp and head straight towards her.
“Roger, what are you doing here?” she asked, whispering. She was appalled that he would come back, and think so lightly of it.
“‘Roger’?” he said, confused, “Who’s ‘Roger,’ Mom?”
“Yea, Mother,” the other winged man standing beside him said, “Who is he?” Empress Anita blinked in surprise. She looked closer at the man she thought was Roger. His hair was too brown, and so were his wings. His eyes weren’t bright red, but a reddish-brown. She recognized the small scar he had beside his nose, a scar that he had gotten while trying to slide down the palace stairs when he was five years old.
“Rick? Is that you?” she asked, looking into his eyes. He smiled.
“Who else would I be?” He shrugged playfully.
“She thought you were someone named ‘Roger,’” the other winged man spoke up. Rick scowled at him.
“And you’re Joshua?” Empress Anita blinked in amazement as she grabbed her son’s shoulders. “What happened to you two? And where is Orion?” She turned him around, pulling at Joshua’s wings.
“Ow! Mother, stop that! They don’t come off,” he exclaimed when Empress Anita pulled one of his wings hard. Rick chuckled, but regretted it because it turned Empress Anita’s attention from Joshua to him. She circled Rick, poking and prodding his wings, running her fingers up his ears, and pulling his tail.
“Mother,” Rick said, irritated, “Mother, would you stop that? It’s us. We’ve gone through the jisbae transformation, that’s all.”
“Well, actually, Orion and I went through the transformation. Kelia just shape shifted you back to what you’re supposed to look like, Rick,” Joshua corrected.
“The what transformation?” Empress Anita asked. She vaguely remembered reading something about some transformation in a letter not too long ago. The boys proceeded to tell her all about it on their way inside.
“So what about Orion? Why didn’t he come back with you?” she asked after they had reached her rooms and made themselves comfortable on the couch. Rick and Joshua exchanged glances.
“He’s got a new girlfriend,” Rick said slyly. Joshua chuckled.
“Yea, there was this girl, Kelia, who taught us how to fly and all,” Joshua asked, “Well, Orion fell in love with her. You should have seen him. She put us through some pretty humiliating exercises, but she could have made Orion eat the dirt from her shoes,” he laughed out loud. Empress Anita couldn’t see how Orion, who had always seemed prouder than her other sons, would have subjected himself to such things for a girl. But then again, Frederic was pretty easy to tame, too, she thought, remembering how often she made him kiss the floor she walked on.
“Hey, Mom,” Rick sat up, “Guess how big my wingspan is,” he stretched his wings as far as they would go. Empress Anita gasped in amazement. Except for being a few shades darker, Rick’s wings looked just like Roger’s. “Sixteen feet!” Rick exclaimed, not waiting for an answer.
“That’s nothing,” Joshua stood and spread his red-orange wings, “Mine are eighteen and a half. That’s two and a half feet bigger than Rick!”
“That’s because you’re taller than
me since you’re half telblec. Your father is really tall, too,” Rick pointed out. “Orion’s wingspan is a full twenty feet, and guess what, Mom? His feathers are all pure white! Even Kelia was impressed by that. She says that white wings are rare.”
“And we met another jisbae, too,” Joshua folded his wings and sat back down, “His name is Alex. His skin is as dark as a telblec’s, and he has black wings. Black! Just the opposite of Orion, but they’re good friends.”
“And his father had made Orion a warrior, too! Orion told me during his birthday celebration,” Rick added.
“Yea, he also gave Orion a horse and his own dagger, too,” Joshua said with a note of jealousy. The two boys rambled on about everything that had happened while they were on Olhoe. Empress Anita listened as best as she could, but the boys kept jumping off topic and interrupting each other. She sighed, wondering how Orion was doing back on Olhoe, and wondering if she’d ever see him again.