55

Chapter 55

Flange Orphanage, City: Three Prongs Fork, Republic of Shantu, Continent: Barat, the Year 2022, Planet: Grimoire

Why was he still awake? This was aggravating and ridiculous. Even his cousins finally conked out. The fact that he was still awake was rather annoying to Grifton. Something else occurred to him.

How had all of this come about? Grifton was extremely tired. I don't see anyone recovering from this shock so easily, no matter if they knew it was coming or not. Grifton hadn't been able to do anything he felt was remotely useful.

The adults were finally working around in their various roles. None of them were monitoring the children but that wasn't a surprise. Amid all the chaos, more supplies were delivered so all of that had to be sorted out and likely put through some kind of purification process to prevent the spreading of diseases and the like.

Not only that but this whole traditional business seemed awfully drawn out, Grifton shook his head wearily, and extremely draining emotionally for everyone involved. When would anyone take time for themselves if possible? From what he could determine, roughly half the staff of the Orphanage must've been related to the butler. His senses detected mainly blood relations because they were his siblings, nieces, nephews, children, and grandchildren.

The other relationship had to be through marriage. Either way, all the management was thoroughly disabled for the time being. Grifton was pretty sure that Doyle was extremely paranoid in safeguarding the privacy of all inhabitants, not just the children, within the Orphanage boundaries. Not only that but now it was chronically short-staffed to begin with. He fretted unhappily.

This latest disaster would possibly put it out of business. So how would the Director handle the situation? Grifton didn't doubt that whoever the stand-in butler would be able to do so, but if related, she or he would also be burdened with the personal side of things. Well, that meant some outsiders would have to come in. He was pretty sure that wasn't something that the director wanted happening.

Grifton couldn't see any way around it. Unless of course, the Director knew someone who could be trusted and likely knew people, subordinates or otherwise, who could be used as temporary employees while the others went through the grieving process.

His body began shivering again and his nose clogged up making it hard for him to breathe. He began choking, squirming and something finally coughed out of his lungs, making a mess.

"Blech!" Grifton squalled from sheer frustration and discomfort. "Bligh!"

It looked as though it would take longer than normal for him to recover from the latest illness. After all, babies weren't always known to have extreme resilience when it came to severe illnesses.

"Oh goodness."

"This poor child."

"He is the noisiest of them all."

"When will he be quiet?"

"Hush, can't you say that his temperature has risen?" This time it was the widow speaking. "He's become sick again, with the fever rising."

Anne murmured. "Check all the other babies' temperatures quickly." She suggested. "Otherwise, the others will set up an unholy cacophony as well from just hearing him."

It occurred to Grifton that he was lucky to have survived this long. He'd already had a couple different fevers, almost frostbitten, severe dehydration, and then came close to being poisoned at least once, though it hadn't been Madam Murray's fault.

So, was it any wonder that Grifton was wiped out? No matter, he drifted off and this time he wasn't in a dreamscape, just in a very deep slumber, the healing kind for once.

Ah, crap, who cares anymore? Grifton finally fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.

~*~

Seated near the fussy child, Anne Greaves and the widow were rather concerned about his health and mental state. He was very distressed right now and with good reason. They just found his general fortitude rather puzzling.

"Is this infant truly one?" The widow Shamus looked from Grifton to Anne Greaves who'd been in the forefront of caring for the four newcomers. "He sure doesn't act or speak like one." She was eyeing the boy. "Not only that but his growth is exponentially faster than the other three as well."

Neither of them knew what to make of Grifton Tinroy or his relatives. What they could tell is that he might be a prodigy. If that was the case, he wouldn't remain in the confines of the orphanage for too long. They already knew what kind of future would likely occur for him, and it wasn't the greatest either.

Prodigies of geniuses were snapped up by the military as soon as they could walk and talk properly. None of the women wanted that to happen, they gained the distinct impression that Grifton, whatever he may be, hadn't truly experienced any form of a good childhood.

"Honestly? I don't know." Anne shrugged and shook her head. "I'm beginning to think the child was a full-grown adult." A sigh escaped her. "Not male originally though from what I gather." She rubbed her nose and glanced at the window. "I established contact with him when he was still at the Murray Veterinary and Medical Clinic."

The widow nodded. "I see, so were you able to gather that part of him originally being female through stray thoughts?"

Anne hesitated. "No, more through imagery." She tapped her head. "He is a powerful projective telepath and empath." Anne shivered and the widow frowned.

"This is just a hunch, but I think the telepathy and empathy are innate traits that he's always possessed." Anne sighed. "The latter, which is the empathy--more powerful of the two innate traits--is more of a problem than he'll want to acknowledge."

The widow nodded. "Aye, which is going to be tricky to corral and turn into a strength. I think this time he'll be able to do it." She tapped her jaw. "Well, we'll just have to bring in more helpers, that's all there's to it." She glanced out the window and gaped for a moment before chuckling. "Oh my, looks like the Commander finally got his hands on Moline, though I doubt he wanted it like this."

Anne snorted softly. "Well, I'm sure if it is that man, we might get capable help, not infiltrating spies trying to sabotage our existence."

Anne grunted. "I wonder when a physician will arrive." There would be quite a plethora of patients to be examined after all. No one had thought to quarantine the four arrivals from the other infants. Now this was going to be quite the issue.