Sylvia Chapter 16 (WIP)
"Morning morning!" Zeta Zelda pounced.
Sylvia oofed softly and stretched, then squeaked with surprise as a second pounce followed, this one accompanied by a cheerful 'rrrowww!'. "Meep! What? Prowl?" She peeked from under her sheet to see the serval stretched out comfortably on her belly as Zeta Zelda sat on the side of the hammock and laughed. "Hey. How am I supposed to get up if you're using me for a bed?"
Prowl perked his ears at her and chirped, then sat up and looked around before springing down onto the floor.
"Silly..." Sylvia sat up, shaking her head and laughing as she looked down at the big white cat. "You're supposed to be Grandfather's friend, but you jump on everyone in the family."
"Lotsa friend friend!" Zeta Zelda proclaimed cheerfully as she crawled over to mooch cuddles. "Lots 'n lots."
"Yes." Sylvia watched Prowl streak out of the room with his tail in the air, obviously in the midst of some feline fantasy adventure, then looked up to where her wall creeper clung contentedly to the ceiling. "...And you were chasing stars again."
"Twinkle twinkle." Zeta Zelda chuckled, then looked up. "School holiday-day. Going to play with friends!"
"Yes. Today I'm going to the promenade with Esther and Hannah. Do you want to come, Zeta Zelda?" Sylvia turned her attention back to her small friend, rocking the hammock gently as she turned to sit in it sideways.
"No no. ZZ homebody. ZZ take care'a baby," said the mechadrone contentedly.
"Are you sure? Hannah and Esther are bringing Piggy."
"Sure sure." Zeta Zelda laughed. "Sure sure sure!"
"Alright." Sylvia smiled and shook her head as she slipped out of the hammock, then set Zeta Zelda on the floor and walked over to turn off the star projector, turn on the wall creeper's spotlight and aim it out onto a part of the ceiling over the lower part of the room, and to mist the blueroot.
"You seem to like it here," she said to the fuzzy little plant as she set the mist bottle down. "You're making so many new flower buds."
"Rower!" Paws caught at her feet for a moment.
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" Her hands flew up with surprise.
"Prowl! Come to me!" came Grandfather's voice sternly from the hall.
"I'm alright, Grandfather," called Sylvia quickly, breathing deeply to settle her heart rate as she watched Prowl bound out of the room again in response to his master's summons. "Good morning!"
"Good morning, Sylvia," he replied from the other side of the door in the lower part of the room. "What would you like for breakfast today?" Then, more quietly. "You are a very bad cat, Prowl. You must not pounce on Sylvia's feet in the morning."
Sylvia grinned, knowing that the pet was probably sitting in his favourite spot on Grandfather's shoulder and getting his ears rubbed even as he was scolded. "Surprise me!"
"Your oma says that I should make something very surprising the next time you tell me that." Laughter flavoured Grandfather's deep voice.
Sylvia just laughed in response, knowing that he would never be able to make himself do anything of the sort.
"So then... Peanut butter pancakes?"
She stopped short, eyes lighting. "Yes, please!"
"Very well. I will see you in the kitchen." She heard him creaking quietly away down the hall.
"Bath bath fix fix," noted Zeta Zelda from where she'd climbed back into the hammock and was arranging Sylvia's two dolls neatly before she covered them with the sheet.
"Yes, the oil bath has made him move a lot more quietly." Sylvia went into the small cleaning room attached to the bedroom and had a quick energy shower, then cleaned her teeth and put on the pretty embroidered top that Hannah had made her, pairing it with a pair of comfortable blue loose legged pants that Oma had bought for her during their shopping trip. The blue crochet Mary Janes went on next, and then she brushed her hair and pulled it back with a simple, faded blue clip carved from the hatched shell of a Tyga dragon. This done, she slipped her personal recorder onto her thumb, grabbed the antigrav disk and her wrist computer, and turned to race down her private corridor toward the upper level of the kitchen. "See you later, Zeta Zelda!"
Grandfather was puttering contentedly when she reached her dining area, his voice a quiet rumble as he explained the pancake making machine and the general dynamic of pancakes to Oma, who was perched on a corner of his table as she watched him. Prowl lay stretched on his side on Grandfather's shoulder, his bright eyes and alert ears catching everything that happened as he panted gently, clearly enjoying the warmth that Grandfather was generating for him.
"And what did you think of pancakes during your time as a human," asked Oma, turning her head to smile at Sylvia in the meantime.
"They were an acceptable food." Grandfather also smiled a greeting. "I was especially fond of them when they contained blueberries and were served with butter and maple syrup.
"Bleh." Oma stuck out her tongue and laughed at his choice of condiments.
"This from the woman who once thought iron rust to be a fine flavouring for energy treats."
"It is," asserted Oma, folding her arms and laughing.
"As you said, love. 'Bleh'." He stopped in front of her, eye twinkling.
Oma promptly poked him on the tongue, her laughter increasing at his startled look. Then she leaned up and pecked him on the cheek before patting him on the chest and looking over toward Sylvia. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, Oma. How was your night?" She leaned on the railing to smile at her elders.
"Oh, as comfortable as anyone can be when they're being treated like a teddy bear." Oma grinned as Grandfather ducked his head and returned his attention to the pancake machine.
Sylvia started to reply, but then stopped to think that over. "Is that comfortable, Oma?"
"Yes." The ghostly woman's expression softened. "Yes, it is. If I still rested I would have rested very well last night."
"Awww," said Sylvia softly, blushing.
"Are you ready to eat?" asked Grandfather gently, though he kept his face turned away from his wife and granddaughter as he worked on lowering the temperature in its plating.
Sylvia started slightly, and then hurried to the table. "Yes, Grandfather. Thank you."
"You will be meeting your friends at their teleportal?" He picked up her plate, moving with greater ease and leaning less on his cane than usual due to the warm oil he'd soaked in the previous afternoon.
"Yes. It seems like the best plan. Because that way they'll have me with them when we reach the new place, and they won't have as much reason to feel nervous or anything like that." She accepted her breakfast with a soft murmur of thanks, and then bowed her head and blushed slightly as she remembered her conversation with Esther two days previous. -I guess I do believe in You, God. I've always talked to You. Now I'm just starting to think about why I do.-
She thanked Him for her meal, and then looked up into the expectant face of her grandfather. "I'll be home at around fifteen hundred hours."
Grandfather nodded. "Be sure to call if you need anything."
"I'll be there if you do," promised Oma, serious now as she tipped back slightly on the table to see past her husband.
"We'll be alright, Grandfather and Oma." Sylvia smiled her shy smile up at them.
"Of course." Grandfather touched her head gently with one finger, then smiled in return and turned his attention to cleaning the pancake machine and munching on a blue plastic treat with glitter.
"Try not to bring back too many gifts." Oma winked at her, then looked around and rezzed out of sight.
* * *
"Vhat? Vas zat us?" Hannah paused, her head turning, as they passed a mirrored panel on the front of one shop
"Ja. It is." Esther went back and paused in front of it, her eyes bright with wonder as she beheld a plump girl with copper hair in a green dress and shoes and standing next to a slender girl in blue and white and a tall girl in a man's orange shirt and a yellow skirt that swirled over brown sandals that went high like boots. "Ach... I've never seen all of me at vonce before."
Hannah swirled slightly, watching her skirt, then absently caught the end of her braid and fiddled with it a she looked at her friends. "Heh. I hadn't vrealized how bright my cloze vere."
"It's alright though," said Sylvia thoughtfully. "Those colours look really nice with the colour of your skin and hair. And I'd thought you'd grown more."
"Ach! I have!" Hannah startled and looked down at her skirt. "Zis isn't too long now!"
Esther laughed and patted her taller friend on the arm, then gently scratched Piggy where the little pet lay in the crook of that arm. "You're going to be taller zen Tante Maria, just vatch."
"She's alvready teasing me about soon vearing my hand-me-downs." Hannah shook her head ruefully.
"It doesn't matter. You're still pretty," said Sylvia. "Both of you are."
"Hah!" Esther chortled. "Zree pretty girls. Ach!" She took a quick look at the old fashioned pocket watch loaned by her father and tucked into her belt. "Und zis vone needs to go home now."
"The teleportal is right there." Sylvia sighed inwardly, part of her feeling tired and ready for the quiet of home, and another part quietly grieving that an honestly fun day was ending. "We missed this mirror on the way out."
"Zere vas so much else to see." Hannah looked around a last time. "Maybe next time ve'll get to explore ze lower level. Zat vone man said zat zere are even more vrides und places to eat down zere."
Sylvia blinked, and then laughed. "I've been here twice, and I still haven't made it down there. Here, let's separate our things."
"Pretty pretty book cards for Opa," said Hannah happily as she took the brightly coloured booklets that contained the cards from the sling on the antigrav disk. "Und a kerchief for Mutter. Nein, Piggy, do not lick ze books."
Esther chuckled and unloaded her own small purchases, then gave Sylvia a hug. "Zank you for showing us avround. Ve'll see you tomorrow?"
"For Bible study." Sylvia smiled, her eyes shining and her cheeks pink. "And thanks for coming with me today, girls. I had a lot of fun."
"Tomorrow, zen." Hannah chuckled and tried to give Esther Piggy instead of the packages she was taking, but her busy friend only tsked cheerfully and wound up carrying the full load of loot. "God bless you, Sylvia!"
"See you soon!" Sylvia waved and watched her friends pass safely through the teleportal, and then checked the chrono readout on her wrist computer and saw that she still had half an hour before her grandparents expected her home. Deciding to have just one peek at the lower level of the mall before she left, she turned and headed toward the staircase she'd seen a few meters back. Down she went, her shoes making soft whispers on the rough rubber texture of the stairs. And then she stopped and blinked as she looked around at the forest of purple tree ferns that was planted around the lower part of the staircase. "Ohhhhhh!"
A flash of movement drew her eyes upward, and she realized with surprise that the birdsong that she'd been hearing all day wasn't recorded, but the product of brightly coloured little cybercreatures who made this forest in the promenade their home. The birds were of no variety that she recognized from her studies of Earth fauna, though she could identify the general families that many of them belonged to.
And then a cheerful whistle of non avian origin caught her attention, and she found herself looking at... an entire shop devoted to history.
She gasped softly, then turned her head from side to side and gripped the railing of the staircase to keep herself from scooting off to explore the other shops that she currently couldn't see for the forest.
"Ohhhhh," she said to herself softly. "I wish Grandfather could come here. He would love this atrium, and looking at that shop. And..." A quick little dart to peek cautiously from the forest. "There are exhibits! This is a museum! And... it's not just Earth history, and... Ohhhh!"
Hands clenched resolutely, she turned and bolted for the stairs, then scooted up them as quickly as she could. A figure at the top recoiled as she nearly collided with it and then gave a cry of angry surprise upon seeing her face.
"You! What're you doing here?"
"What?" She startled and sidestepped, then caught the railing to keep herself from tumbling back down the stairs. "Kaneesha?? What are you doing here? You hate old people."
"I don't hate anything," corrected the taller girl angrily, her eyes flashing under the white wig she was wearing. "Only rejects like you hate."
"Isn't that kind of judgemental?" Sylvia's brows drew together uncertainly.
"You're a Nazi. You don't matter. You'll never be part of the future." Kaneesha flinched, and then sucked in a deep breath before lifting her voice to a near wail. "Great! You're wearing a recorder! You just won't be happy till you get me killed!"
"Killed?" Sylvia gasped and recoiled, again saving herself by grabbing the railing, but Kaneesha didn't hear her.
"It's not bad enough you sent in that recording that made my parents abandon me. Now you have to come sneaking after me and show them where I am. Well I'm NOT going to go to their happy little party at the life management clinic! I don't care! No one can make me do it!"
"Life management clinic? But you're not old." Sylvia tried to figure out what had the other thirteen year old so upset.
"No! I'm not old! They want to abort me! And it's all your fault!"
"Abort?" Sylvia's mouth dropped open with horror. "But..."
"Yes. Abort! After a big happy party celebrating what a wonderful thing I'm doing for the future and society. I only had THREE MORE YEARS to go till I was solid!" Kaneesha was nearly screaming now, and Sylvia could see worried elderly people moving away and pressing panic buttons.
"Kaneesha... I didn't make you break the rules," she tried to reason.
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!! I'M GOING TO DIE, AND ALL YOU CAN TALK ABOUT IS YOURSELF!! NAZI!! TREE KILLING NAZI ARCHAIST!" shrieked Kaneesha, bringing out the worst insults she could think of in her blind, panicked need to lash out at the girl who had caused her so much pain.
"MY MOTHER HAS ALREADY REPLACED ME! THERE'S A LITTLE BUG IN A BOTTLE, AND HE'S THE ONLY ONE ALLOWED TO CALL HER 'MAMA'." Kaneesha's voice dropped as she gasped for breath. "And all my peers are gone. Their parents don't want me contaminating them. Even the girl that said she'd love me forever. She left first! And it's your fault! Why can't you just leave me alone???"
"Kaneesha, I didn't know you were here. I was here with my friends."
"Liar! Liar! You don't have any friends! You're nothing! You're just here to fulfill your perverted little Nazi dream of everybody being washed out albinos!" Tears streaked the former heiress's face, and she sobbed audibly.
Sylvia bit her lip at sight of the other girl's obvious grief and terror, and without thinking she stepped toward Kaneesha, lifting one hand.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!!!" Kaneesha lashed out blindly, her instinctive shove catching Sylvia in the chest and propelling her backward a good three feet.
Sylvia had time for only a short, startled shriek before she felt the world drop out from under her. Then came a tumbled confusion of thuds and pain before a heavy blow caused a sickening crack and knocked the wind out of her. Blind; the world lurching sickeningly around her, she tried to gather her feet under her to rise, but could only curl weakly into a turtle position. There was sticky wetness on her hands and her arms, and she couldn't seem to move one arm properly for some reason. And her chest hurt. How had she gotten a fire in her chest?
At the head of the stairs Kaneesha stared down in stunned horror at the girl crumpled and broken on the landing below- her brightly embroidered clothes now dark with blood and one blue shoe laying a step above her- trying to understand what had happened. She thought that someone needed to try and help, but in her confused state as soon as she registered the thought she longed for that help to be for herself.
And then the glow started.
It started in the region of the chest of that pale and broken girl who lay on the landing, and it spread. Spread relentlessly till Sylvia's whole form was encased in silver light that pulsed like a heart.
Kaneesha stared, gasping.
"Oh no. Oh NO! She's one of them!! I killed a Host!"
Terror stricken past her mental ability, she turned and bolted, nearly slamming into a young man with brown hair and brown, Occidental eyes who was hurrying toward the stairs.
* * *
Sylvia was dimly aware of hands touching her; of gentle words being spoken.
"Don't move her, you could kill her." A woman's voice, aged and unfamiliar.
"It's already too late to worry about that, ma'am." A man, his words archaic, but his voice known, somehow and somewhere. "Even my people can't repair this much damage in a human."
"Oh no! Oh dear. The poor child." The woman's voice held tears. "We need to alert the authorities."
"No. Just give me a moment more for my main body to get here, and I'll take care of her."
"But her next of kin..."
"I'm her cousin. My name is Arcturus... Arther Paxton."
"But... how?"
"That light is her life force. She was a hybrid."
"I... didn't know there were any left."
"There aren't now."
Sylvia moaned as the fire in her chest got hotter, and then the arms that had been holding her were replaced by hands that nearly felt familiar except that they moved more quickly and didn't squeak. She tried to speak, but only managed to cough. Finally getting her eyes open, she stared hazily up into the face of a native man that looked familiar despite being a stranger. Kindly blue eyes that glistened with tears looked into her own.
"I've got you," rumbled a nearly familiar voice gently. "It's going to be alright."
"Grandfather," she tried to say, but it was only a movement of her lips.
"I'll tell him." He wiped blood away from her mouth, the touch infinitely gentle.
She coughed again. And then her eyes closed for the last time.
Sylvia oofed softly and stretched, then squeaked with surprise as a second pounce followed, this one accompanied by a cheerful 'rrrowww!'. "Meep! What? Prowl?" She peeked from under her sheet to see the serval stretched out comfortably on her belly as Zeta Zelda sat on the side of the hammock and laughed. "Hey. How am I supposed to get up if you're using me for a bed?"
Prowl perked his ears at her and chirped, then sat up and looked around before springing down onto the floor.
"Silly..." Sylvia sat up, shaking her head and laughing as she looked down at the big white cat. "You're supposed to be Grandfather's friend, but you jump on everyone in the family."
"Lotsa friend friend!" Zeta Zelda proclaimed cheerfully as she crawled over to mooch cuddles. "Lots 'n lots."
"Yes." Sylvia watched Prowl streak out of the room with his tail in the air, obviously in the midst of some feline fantasy adventure, then looked up to where her wall creeper clung contentedly to the ceiling. "...And you were chasing stars again."
"Twinkle twinkle." Zeta Zelda chuckled, then looked up. "School holiday-day. Going to play with friends!"
"Yes. Today I'm going to the promenade with Esther and Hannah. Do you want to come, Zeta Zelda?" Sylvia turned her attention back to her small friend, rocking the hammock gently as she turned to sit in it sideways.
"No no. ZZ homebody. ZZ take care'a baby," said the mechadrone contentedly.
"Are you sure? Hannah and Esther are bringing Piggy."
"Sure sure." Zeta Zelda laughed. "Sure sure sure!"
"Alright." Sylvia smiled and shook her head as she slipped out of the hammock, then set Zeta Zelda on the floor and walked over to turn off the star projector, turn on the wall creeper's spotlight and aim it out onto a part of the ceiling over the lower part of the room, and to mist the blueroot.
"You seem to like it here," she said to the fuzzy little plant as she set the mist bottle down. "You're making so many new flower buds."
"Rower!" Paws caught at her feet for a moment.
"Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" Her hands flew up with surprise.
"Prowl! Come to me!" came Grandfather's voice sternly from the hall.
"I'm alright, Grandfather," called Sylvia quickly, breathing deeply to settle her heart rate as she watched Prowl bound out of the room again in response to his master's summons. "Good morning!"
"Good morning, Sylvia," he replied from the other side of the door in the lower part of the room. "What would you like for breakfast today?" Then, more quietly. "You are a very bad cat, Prowl. You must not pounce on Sylvia's feet in the morning."
Sylvia grinned, knowing that the pet was probably sitting in his favourite spot on Grandfather's shoulder and getting his ears rubbed even as he was scolded. "Surprise me!"
"Your oma says that I should make something very surprising the next time you tell me that." Laughter flavoured Grandfather's deep voice.
Sylvia just laughed in response, knowing that he would never be able to make himself do anything of the sort.
"So then... Peanut butter pancakes?"
She stopped short, eyes lighting. "Yes, please!"
"Very well. I will see you in the kitchen." She heard him creaking quietly away down the hall.
"Bath bath fix fix," noted Zeta Zelda from where she'd climbed back into the hammock and was arranging Sylvia's two dolls neatly before she covered them with the sheet.
"Yes, the oil bath has made him move a lot more quietly." Sylvia went into the small cleaning room attached to the bedroom and had a quick energy shower, then cleaned her teeth and put on the pretty embroidered top that Hannah had made her, pairing it with a pair of comfortable blue loose legged pants that Oma had bought for her during their shopping trip. The blue crochet Mary Janes went on next, and then she brushed her hair and pulled it back with a simple, faded blue clip carved from the hatched shell of a Tyga dragon. This done, she slipped her personal recorder onto her thumb, grabbed the antigrav disk and her wrist computer, and turned to race down her private corridor toward the upper level of the kitchen. "See you later, Zeta Zelda!"
Grandfather was puttering contentedly when she reached her dining area, his voice a quiet rumble as he explained the pancake making machine and the general dynamic of pancakes to Oma, who was perched on a corner of his table as she watched him. Prowl lay stretched on his side on Grandfather's shoulder, his bright eyes and alert ears catching everything that happened as he panted gently, clearly enjoying the warmth that Grandfather was generating for him.
"And what did you think of pancakes during your time as a human," asked Oma, turning her head to smile at Sylvia in the meantime.
"They were an acceptable food." Grandfather also smiled a greeting. "I was especially fond of them when they contained blueberries and were served with butter and maple syrup.
"Bleh." Oma stuck out her tongue and laughed at his choice of condiments.
"This from the woman who once thought iron rust to be a fine flavouring for energy treats."
"It is," asserted Oma, folding her arms and laughing.
"As you said, love. 'Bleh'." He stopped in front of her, eye twinkling.
Oma promptly poked him on the tongue, her laughter increasing at his startled look. Then she leaned up and pecked him on the cheek before patting him on the chest and looking over toward Sylvia. "Did you sleep well?"
"Yes, Oma. How was your night?" She leaned on the railing to smile at her elders.
"Oh, as comfortable as anyone can be when they're being treated like a teddy bear." Oma grinned as Grandfather ducked his head and returned his attention to the pancake machine.
Sylvia started to reply, but then stopped to think that over. "Is that comfortable, Oma?"
"Yes." The ghostly woman's expression softened. "Yes, it is. If I still rested I would have rested very well last night."
"Awww," said Sylvia softly, blushing.
"Are you ready to eat?" asked Grandfather gently, though he kept his face turned away from his wife and granddaughter as he worked on lowering the temperature in its plating.
Sylvia started slightly, and then hurried to the table. "Yes, Grandfather. Thank you."
"You will be meeting your friends at their teleportal?" He picked up her plate, moving with greater ease and leaning less on his cane than usual due to the warm oil he'd soaked in the previous afternoon.
"Yes. It seems like the best plan. Because that way they'll have me with them when we reach the new place, and they won't have as much reason to feel nervous or anything like that." She accepted her breakfast with a soft murmur of thanks, and then bowed her head and blushed slightly as she remembered her conversation with Esther two days previous. -I guess I do believe in You, God. I've always talked to You. Now I'm just starting to think about why I do.-
She thanked Him for her meal, and then looked up into the expectant face of her grandfather. "I'll be home at around fifteen hundred hours."
Grandfather nodded. "Be sure to call if you need anything."
"I'll be there if you do," promised Oma, serious now as she tipped back slightly on the table to see past her husband.
"We'll be alright, Grandfather and Oma." Sylvia smiled her shy smile up at them.
"Of course." Grandfather touched her head gently with one finger, then smiled in return and turned his attention to cleaning the pancake machine and munching on a blue plastic treat with glitter.
"Try not to bring back too many gifts." Oma winked at her, then looked around and rezzed out of sight.
* * *
"Vhat? Vas zat us?" Hannah paused, her head turning, as they passed a mirrored panel on the front of one shop
"Ja. It is." Esther went back and paused in front of it, her eyes bright with wonder as she beheld a plump girl with copper hair in a green dress and shoes and standing next to a slender girl in blue and white and a tall girl in a man's orange shirt and a yellow skirt that swirled over brown sandals that went high like boots. "Ach... I've never seen all of me at vonce before."
Hannah swirled slightly, watching her skirt, then absently caught the end of her braid and fiddled with it a she looked at her friends. "Heh. I hadn't vrealized how bright my cloze vere."
"It's alright though," said Sylvia thoughtfully. "Those colours look really nice with the colour of your skin and hair. And I'd thought you'd grown more."
"Ach! I have!" Hannah startled and looked down at her skirt. "Zis isn't too long now!"
Esther laughed and patted her taller friend on the arm, then gently scratched Piggy where the little pet lay in the crook of that arm. "You're going to be taller zen Tante Maria, just vatch."
"She's alvready teasing me about soon vearing my hand-me-downs." Hannah shook her head ruefully.
"It doesn't matter. You're still pretty," said Sylvia. "Both of you are."
"Hah!" Esther chortled. "Zree pretty girls. Ach!" She took a quick look at the old fashioned pocket watch loaned by her father and tucked into her belt. "Und zis vone needs to go home now."
"The teleportal is right there." Sylvia sighed inwardly, part of her feeling tired and ready for the quiet of home, and another part quietly grieving that an honestly fun day was ending. "We missed this mirror on the way out."
"Zere vas so much else to see." Hannah looked around a last time. "Maybe next time ve'll get to explore ze lower level. Zat vone man said zat zere are even more vrides und places to eat down zere."
Sylvia blinked, and then laughed. "I've been here twice, and I still haven't made it down there. Here, let's separate our things."
"Pretty pretty book cards for Opa," said Hannah happily as she took the brightly coloured booklets that contained the cards from the sling on the antigrav disk. "Und a kerchief for Mutter. Nein, Piggy, do not lick ze books."
Esther chuckled and unloaded her own small purchases, then gave Sylvia a hug. "Zank you for showing us avround. Ve'll see you tomorrow?"
"For Bible study." Sylvia smiled, her eyes shining and her cheeks pink. "And thanks for coming with me today, girls. I had a lot of fun."
"Tomorrow, zen." Hannah chuckled and tried to give Esther Piggy instead of the packages she was taking, but her busy friend only tsked cheerfully and wound up carrying the full load of loot. "God bless you, Sylvia!"
"See you soon!" Sylvia waved and watched her friends pass safely through the teleportal, and then checked the chrono readout on her wrist computer and saw that she still had half an hour before her grandparents expected her home. Deciding to have just one peek at the lower level of the mall before she left, she turned and headed toward the staircase she'd seen a few meters back. Down she went, her shoes making soft whispers on the rough rubber texture of the stairs. And then she stopped and blinked as she looked around at the forest of purple tree ferns that was planted around the lower part of the staircase. "Ohhhhhh!"
A flash of movement drew her eyes upward, and she realized with surprise that the birdsong that she'd been hearing all day wasn't recorded, but the product of brightly coloured little cybercreatures who made this forest in the promenade their home. The birds were of no variety that she recognized from her studies of Earth fauna, though she could identify the general families that many of them belonged to.
And then a cheerful whistle of non avian origin caught her attention, and she found herself looking at... an entire shop devoted to history.
She gasped softly, then turned her head from side to side and gripped the railing of the staircase to keep herself from scooting off to explore the other shops that she currently couldn't see for the forest.
"Ohhhhh," she said to herself softly. "I wish Grandfather could come here. He would love this atrium, and looking at that shop. And..." A quick little dart to peek cautiously from the forest. "There are exhibits! This is a museum! And... it's not just Earth history, and... Ohhhh!"
Hands clenched resolutely, she turned and bolted for the stairs, then scooted up them as quickly as she could. A figure at the top recoiled as she nearly collided with it and then gave a cry of angry surprise upon seeing her face.
"You! What're you doing here?"
"What?" She startled and sidestepped, then caught the railing to keep herself from tumbling back down the stairs. "Kaneesha?? What are you doing here? You hate old people."
"I don't hate anything," corrected the taller girl angrily, her eyes flashing under the white wig she was wearing. "Only rejects like you hate."
"Isn't that kind of judgemental?" Sylvia's brows drew together uncertainly.
"You're a Nazi. You don't matter. You'll never be part of the future." Kaneesha flinched, and then sucked in a deep breath before lifting her voice to a near wail. "Great! You're wearing a recorder! You just won't be happy till you get me killed!"
"Killed?" Sylvia gasped and recoiled, again saving herself by grabbing the railing, but Kaneesha didn't hear her.
"It's not bad enough you sent in that recording that made my parents abandon me. Now you have to come sneaking after me and show them where I am. Well I'm NOT going to go to their happy little party at the life management clinic! I don't care! No one can make me do it!"
"Life management clinic? But you're not old." Sylvia tried to figure out what had the other thirteen year old so upset.
"No! I'm not old! They want to abort me! And it's all your fault!"
"Abort?" Sylvia's mouth dropped open with horror. "But..."
"Yes. Abort! After a big happy party celebrating what a wonderful thing I'm doing for the future and society. I only had THREE MORE YEARS to go till I was solid!" Kaneesha was nearly screaming now, and Sylvia could see worried elderly people moving away and pressing panic buttons.
"Kaneesha... I didn't make you break the rules," she tried to reason.
"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!! I'M GOING TO DIE, AND ALL YOU CAN TALK ABOUT IS YOURSELF!! NAZI!! TREE KILLING NAZI ARCHAIST!" shrieked Kaneesha, bringing out the worst insults she could think of in her blind, panicked need to lash out at the girl who had caused her so much pain.
"MY MOTHER HAS ALREADY REPLACED ME! THERE'S A LITTLE BUG IN A BOTTLE, AND HE'S THE ONLY ONE ALLOWED TO CALL HER 'MAMA'." Kaneesha's voice dropped as she gasped for breath. "And all my peers are gone. Their parents don't want me contaminating them. Even the girl that said she'd love me forever. She left first! And it's your fault! Why can't you just leave me alone???"
"Kaneesha, I didn't know you were here. I was here with my friends."
"Liar! Liar! You don't have any friends! You're nothing! You're just here to fulfill your perverted little Nazi dream of everybody being washed out albinos!" Tears streaked the former heiress's face, and she sobbed audibly.
Sylvia bit her lip at sight of the other girl's obvious grief and terror, and without thinking she stepped toward Kaneesha, lifting one hand.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!!!" Kaneesha lashed out blindly, her instinctive shove catching Sylvia in the chest and propelling her backward a good three feet.
Sylvia had time for only a short, startled shriek before she felt the world drop out from under her. Then came a tumbled confusion of thuds and pain before a heavy blow caused a sickening crack and knocked the wind out of her. Blind; the world lurching sickeningly around her, she tried to gather her feet under her to rise, but could only curl weakly into a turtle position. There was sticky wetness on her hands and her arms, and she couldn't seem to move one arm properly for some reason. And her chest hurt. How had she gotten a fire in her chest?
At the head of the stairs Kaneesha stared down in stunned horror at the girl crumpled and broken on the landing below- her brightly embroidered clothes now dark with blood and one blue shoe laying a step above her- trying to understand what had happened. She thought that someone needed to try and help, but in her confused state as soon as she registered the thought she longed for that help to be for herself.
And then the glow started.
It started in the region of the chest of that pale and broken girl who lay on the landing, and it spread. Spread relentlessly till Sylvia's whole form was encased in silver light that pulsed like a heart.
Kaneesha stared, gasping.
"Oh no. Oh NO! She's one of them!! I killed a Host!"
Terror stricken past her mental ability, she turned and bolted, nearly slamming into a young man with brown hair and brown, Occidental eyes who was hurrying toward the stairs.
* * *
Sylvia was dimly aware of hands touching her; of gentle words being spoken.
"Don't move her, you could kill her." A woman's voice, aged and unfamiliar.
"It's already too late to worry about that, ma'am." A man, his words archaic, but his voice known, somehow and somewhere. "Even my people can't repair this much damage in a human."
"Oh no! Oh dear. The poor child." The woman's voice held tears. "We need to alert the authorities."
"No. Just give me a moment more for my main body to get here, and I'll take care of her."
"But her next of kin..."
"I'm her cousin. My name is Arcturus... Arther Paxton."
"But... how?"
"That light is her life force. She was a hybrid."
"I... didn't know there were any left."
"There aren't now."
Sylvia moaned as the fire in her chest got hotter, and then the arms that had been holding her were replaced by hands that nearly felt familiar except that they moved more quickly and didn't squeak. She tried to speak, but only managed to cough. Finally getting her eyes open, she stared hazily up into the face of a native man that looked familiar despite being a stranger. Kindly blue eyes that glistened with tears looked into her own.
"I've got you," rumbled a nearly familiar voice gently. "It's going to be alright."
"Grandfather," she tried to say, but it was only a movement of her lips.
"I'll tell him." He wiped blood away from her mouth, the touch infinitely gentle.
She coughed again. And then her eyes closed for the last time.