Risk Part 2

Yoher and Fornotia continued to date despite what others said. Yoher had been right though about Fornotia's popularity. Whispers and rude remarks were made in the hallway about Yoher and her all the time. Every time someone said something bad about Yoher, he ignored it. When anybody said anything bad about Fornotia though, he fought back. He fought hard too, waryes' were made for battle. They would go everywhere together, hand in hand, or Fornotia underneath his arm. She felt so safe around him all the time. They continued to date for two years before Yoher had to ask an important question.

"Fornot, we've been dating for some time now," Yoher began one night. He looked above at the stars. "We've gone through a lot together, and I know you're the only one for me. I want to ask you something."

Oh no, oh gosh, he is going to ask! Fornotia began to panic . Okay, deep breath. All you have to do is say yes. This is so perfect, I can even tell him the great news afterward!

"Fornotia?" Yoher looked over at her. "Could you stand to be a childless mother?"

"What?" Fornotia squealed. "A childless mother?"

"You've seen us waryes, in our purest forms by now. We've heard about them on TV," Yoher reminded her. "Say what you will, you know the same as me. They aren't the same. Once a waryes gains that pink rat-like tail, their eyes turn pure pink and they're unstoppable. They're soulless marching creatures." He bit the bottom side of his mouth. "If we have a kid, there's a chance it could be one of them. I-it's the only reason I haven't asked you yet to marry me. I don't want you to give up your future for me."

Fornotia started to tear up and she rubbed her eyes. "I can't, I just can't."

"Oh. O-okay," Yoher looked away. "I understand."

"I'm not childless." Fornotia looked away as well. "Not anymore."

"What?" Yohers jaw dropped and he stared at her blankly. "When?"

"I was gonna tell you tonight. I know, I couldn't believe it, we were always so careful." Fornotia looked at her belly. "It's too late." She heard

Yoher bang the steering wheel as hard as he could. "I'm sorry."

"Not your fault, I should have waited. We should have waited. Aw hell, we never should have in the first place." Yoher covered his face. "We should never have, ever, even if we got married."

"I couldn't take that and you couldn't either." Fornotia grabbed his hand that was clinching the steering wheel. "There's a good chance it might not be soulless. It might be like you. Science is still trying to figure out the details."

"Fornot, my great grandfather was waryes, my grandfather was waryes, my father was waryes, and I'm waryes! How many generations does it take?" Yoher hit his head on the steering wheel. "No one knows. Everyone's different."

"Well, I can't reject it." Fornotia pointed out. "Yoher, there's still like maybe fifty percent?" She was yanking the figure out of the air.

"You could be carrying a rat-tailed soulless demon thing," Yoher grunted.

"I might not be," Fornotia reminded him again. "Either way, what's done is done. Maybe if we raise it just right-"

"The only thing it'd want to do is kill." Yoher pointed out. "As soon as it's old enough to hold a knife, it'll try to kill. I read about it the other

day when I got a paper from the Waryes Kingdom. They're inviting me to come live there too. We'd be treated as equals, is what they say, but I don't believe them. I would, but those soulless kind are living there too. I don't want to see you hurt."

"Yoher." Fornotia lifted his head and looked into his worried eyes. "I think you need to give it a chance. I know." She felt her belly. "If I had

something with that much evil and rage inside, I'd feel it." She took his hand and placed it on her belly. "You're going to be a daddy of a nice baby. Waryes, warno, I don't care. A nice baby." She chuckled. "Give it a chance?"

"How can you see so much positive all the time? You never think in the negative." Yoher placed his hand on her face. "All right, I'll give it a shot. There's nothing else to do but try."

As the months passed by, several things happened. Fornotia was shunned and thrown out by her family. Yoher's family was disappointed for him not thinking

things through and evicted him. Both were accepted into a family that lived between them that had always treated everyone with respect. Her friends stopped talking to her, Fornotia and Yoher had been rejected for future schooling and some old 'friends' even tried to push Fornotia down a flight of stairs. Evil eyes, evil whispers, everything increased dramatically as gossip spread about the warno having the next soulless child.

Fornotia and Yoher stood strong. When the time arrived, they were ready. No matter what the outcome, they'd do the best they could for their child, no matter who it turned out to be.

If it's a rat-tail, I'll change it. I'll find a way, I have to! Fornotia screamed in her mind as her physical body bared the burden of birth. In seconds, a cry was heard. She felt Yoher's hand tightly in hers as she waited for the results. She tried to read the healers face, to see how it turned out.

"Well?" Yoher managed to squeak.

"Congratulations," the healer breathed a sigh of relief as he handed over the baby wrapped in a blue blanket. "It's a boy waryes. A good boy waryes."

Fornotia gasped as she stared at her newborn son. His eyelids were closed and his fingers were so small. A complete innocent, a beautiful soul. She looked behind the back of its leg and saw its smooth silver tail. Just like his father. "Everything's going to be fine." She looked over at Yoher who had his own look of awe.

"You see? It turned out fine. No pink tail."

"Yes." Yoher touched his son's hand. "I think we should name him Lucky."

Fornotia laughed until she realized Yoher wasn't joking. "Oh. Well. How about Luckavich?"

"That'd work." Yoher sighed and looked back at Fornotia. "We're lucky too." He looked back at his son. "He may not be. We might be grandparents of a soulless rat tail. Or great grandparents. Somewhere along our line, we'll stop being lucky." He smiled and touched his son's tiny nose. "For now, we are all the luckiest waryes' in the world." He looked at Fornotia. "And warno."

"You've come to your fifth generation," The healer announced as he looked at his charts. "According to this, you have to live over in the Waryes Kingdom."

"No." Yoher shook his head. "No, Fornot's all warno, she won't be respected there."

"You aren't respected here," Fornotia reminded him. "You and Luckavich will be mistreated here."

"That is nothing compared to what would happen to you," Yoher said with hardness in his eyes. "Fornot, you don't know waryes. Warnos will whisper and they'll say mean things, but over there you could be more than mistreated. I could lose you. No, we have to stay here."

"No, you have to go," the Healer insisted. "You are all living under the roof of a four generation waryes family. By law, you have to go."

"N-no we aren't," Fornotia said quickly, "we're living with the Cattral's. They took us in, everybody else said no."

"Friends of the family, but they're family," Yoher insisted. "More family than mine or Fornotia's ever were."

"Hm. Well, if you make yourself legally tied to the Cattral name, technically you don't have to go." The Healer put the papers away. "You two watch yourselves. This is a dangerous time to be mixing right now."

Fornotia nodded and went back to staring at her new baby. "He's so tiny and helpless. It feels like a million things could happen if I didn't hold him just right."

"One day, I'm going to have to fight."

Fornotia looked up at Yoher. "What?"

"One day, soon, the warno and waryes are gonna go to battle." Yoher looked over at Fornotia. "I'll fight on the warnos side."

"What? After everything my kind have said? After the way you've been treated here?" Fornotia looked away.

"Warnos don't fight." Yoher put his hand on her shoulder. "One day they'll have everything taken away if they don't. It'll be a losing battle, but I'll fight anyhow. Dangerous waryes are the future. I don't think there's any way of stopping it. Mixing might be seen as bad right now, but I

bet in the next hundred years no one even bats an eye."

"Stop being so negative." Fornotia smiled at him. "Cheer up. Our son was just born. He's happy, healthy, so lighten up already." She laughed. "The future's not here yet, let it stay in the future. We'll deal when we have to."

Yoher sat beside Fornotia as he stroked his son's cheek. "Alright. I'll save it for the future." He looked back at Fornotia. "I'll do everything I can to keep this family safe. I'll convince the Cattral's to adopt us. I'll lie to authorities if I have to. We'll move out into the country, deep out into the forest wilderness. No one will bother us there."

"A little house in the woods sounds homey." Fornotia gave her newborn son a squeeze. "Your Mrs. Fornotia Marks would have it no other way."