Updated Partprologue: author's notes
Before I get started with the story, I'm going to tell you all about Sineult's kind. They have no fixed name, because nobody but them knows that they exist; but they call themselves Kindred. There are no females among them, at least not in our sense of the word. They all look like boys, are built like boys with their spigots and all well attached. But they're divided into two kinds: those who bear the offspring, in lieu of 'real' females, and those who father the offspring. No joking, there really is a difference. They may all look like men, but some are regarded as the 'females' of their species. I'm not sure why the 'females' need certain-uhm-male parts attached, but they tell me that they have them, so they must. The 'males' tell which ones are 'females' by their scent. They're a lot like blood-sucking wolves: they do everything by scent, and sniffing each other is considered a romantic and loving thing to do. Don't blame me if you find this weird. I'm only telling you what Sineult told me.
All Kindred have two forms. Their primary form is that of a human male, complete with human thought processes and human emotions. However, this is not their 'original' form. Their original form, the one that their ancient ancestors inhabited constantly, is that of a vampire, with the slightly humanized thought processes and emotions of a wolf. None of them know when it happened that they acquired the ability to transform themselves from their normal form to that of a human, although their more scholarly types claim that it was initiated as a defense mechanism against the fear and the prejudices of their human persecutors, and that at one point they could shift from one form to the other at will. But however it came about, they cannot now choose which form to be in when. There are only certain things that will trigger a Change, as they call it, from the almost constant human form they now possess to that of their native wolf-vampire, one of which is hunger, and the other of which is mating season. I'll try to tackle the hunger one first.
When a Kindred's body begins, for any reason, to feel that it is being starved, it will Change into the original form to make food easier to acquire, because vampires, as we all know, drink blood. They can survive on it with no supplement at all. That's how it is with a Changed Kindred. A Change actually consists mostly of an internal overhaul of the digestive, neural, and reproductive systems, and food becomes, essentially, irresistable. So if the Kindred in question is starving themselves, they won't be able to hold out anymore, and if they are being, say, held captive and forcibly starved by someone else, they will Change, go nearly insane, get this surge of near supernatural strength from the need, and break out. A Kindred just doesn't starve.
The only other reason that a Kindred would Change is if it is their mating season. But they don't do it all at once, like deer; it is more like a girl's menstrual cycle, each individual having their own time, although several may coincide with each other. A Kindred's mating season lasts for about four to six days out of every year, and has no age limit, unlike men and women. Even old Kindred still have their mating seasons. As for Changing, each Kindred, while season lasts, will Change every night and change back to human form upon the sun's rising. Just as a vampire cannot stand the sun, so a Kindred can't, and their ancestors retreated to their caves at sunrise to solve this problem. But instead of burning up or some such drastic thing, modern Kindred have adapted, and now return automatically to their human shapes at the touch of the sun.
This Changing is needed to initiate the desire for a mate. On the first night of their season, a Kindred, whether male or 'female', will set out after their Change to look first for food, and then will begin to feel a desire for company. They will go out and search, until eventually they will find one of the opposite sex who is also in season, and, if a male, they'll begin to court the 'female', or cub-bearer as the Kindred say, that they've found. If the 'female' likes them, the two then conduct a complex mating ritual-they curl up to sleep in the same place, and in the morning, after their change back, the male will leave his new beau to sleep late, and get up and leave. The next night of season, the female will seek the male out, and the next morning, the female will leave. This will go on in turns until season is over, and by then, the pair will know if they like each other enough to stay together. But they must know for sure, because however animalistic they may seem, Kindred aren't polygamous creatures. This mating ritual will only go on for as many seasons as a Kindred goes without reaping a permanent mate from their rituals and attempts. But, as soon as the search proves successful and a pairing is made, they will never leave each other. Even after a mated cub-bearing Kindred dies, their mate(unless very young and still fully capable of creating many more children) will rarely even consider a new partner, no matter how bad the season cravings may get. By the time most Kindred die, their mates will have gotten too used to spending mating seasons in their partner's company, and will be uncomfortable with someone else.
A Kindred, whether cub-bearer or male, comes of age after about fifteen years of life. Often, an adult male Kindred will take a mere adolescent of a cub-bearing Kindred as a mate, and in this case they don't have sex together until the cub-bearer is full-grown, but the situation is quite normal. However in these cases the cub-bearer is not very likely to get pregnant until their fourth or fifth time together, whereas two adult Kindred mating would produce offspring much more quickly. Either way, most births among those of Kindred blood are multiple births; the first result of two full-blooded Kindred mating is likely to be twins, and the number often moves up in the next litters. Quadruplets are considered normal, although not as common as triplets, while twins are the standard. It is also highly unlikely that the cubs in a litter will be all cub-bearers or all males; all normal litters have at least one male to every two cub-bearers. This ratio is said to be a natural defense against what Kindred call the Lonely Sickness.
The Lonely Sickness affects only cub-bearing Kindred, and is a result of leaving them without a 'protector figure', or an anchor, for great lengths of time. In most cub-bearers it only takes a week to manifest, but it is always found in cases where the cub-bearer is certain of facing a much longer period of time, whether months, years, or perhaps even forever, without any anchor to stick to. During cubhood it doesn't manifest because the parents are the anchor. During adolescence, it is staved off by a Kindred custom: cubs leaving their home by litter, the cub-bearers kept safe and anchored by their male littermates. Cub-bearers do not leave their littermates until they find a mate, so they are usually safe for life, always anchored to someone. But in cases where all littermates die or leave them for some reason and the cub-bearer cannot see an end to their loneliness, they will fall into deep depression, after a week or so becoming disoriented, dizzy, unable to stand and overwhelmingly unhappy, and will slowly deteriorate into unconsciousness and then coma, followed by death. Only if someone anchors them again before the stage of coma can they survive it.
A cub-bearing Kindred may actually anchor another for a short period of time, and there have been many cases in which they have, but this never lasts for more than a year. In cases where a cub-bearer takes on another, they have to find a male to hand the anchored over to before the time is up, or the anchored will die of the Lonely Sickness. This short-term method is often used in the few times when the male Kindred out of a pair dies before the cub-bearer does. (It is, however, a fact of life that the male will die first, and rarely fails to be true.) If there are no willing males readily available, a cub-bearing friend of the 'widow' usually takes on the responsibility of anchor until one can be discovered.
Okay, I think that's all. If there's something I've left out, please email me (morpheus_kannon@y...) with your question. Thanks, and enjoy the story!
Title/part: Lost and Found, 1/6
Author: dolphin
Email: morpheus_kannon@y...
Archive: dolphin would be ecstatic for days! Just let him know, if you want it.
Warnings: ummm, there's no sex? Sorry, but I consider that a BIG warning!one: the search
The boy had been brought in by a policeman, who said he had been wandering the streets, lost. He was dirty: thick, golden-brown curls tangled and slightly greasy looking, face and hands smudged with dust and ash, bluejeans and t-shirt covered with grime. The knees in the jeans were out too, the sneakers that had undoubtedly been white at some point now a dark grey with scuff-marks and so worn that his toes peeked out. She had learned his name from the chart begun by the doctor, who had gotten it from the policeman, who had been given it by the very open little boy. Sineult Brady, the chart said. No age on the chart as yet; she had to get that. But the doctor had passed on to her from the policeman that he was 'quite a talkative little thing', so that shouldn't be too hard.
They had continued using the word 'little' for him, and she had hardly believed it when she looked into the room the doctor had directed her to and found a boy that looked somewhere around twelve. But she understood the epithet now, as he spoke. His grammar was bad, and his tone was that of a small child.
"You're Sineult Brady?" she asked him, sitting down in the chair opposite his.
The boy shook his head. "'Nounced 'shin-ult'," he told the nurse seriously. "S'Irish, 's not 'merican."
She nodded, smiling gently. "I see. But that is your name, isn't it?"
"Uh-huh."
"Good. Do you know where your parents are?"
He looked at her quizzically. "Huh?"
"Your mother, or you father."
"M'mum?"
The nurse smiled again. "Yes, your mum. Do you know where she is?"
He smiled back at her then, a bright, sweet smile that made his eyes sparkle. "M'mum's gone an' died. Did it yesterday week, y'know."
The nurse was somewhat taken aback by this, especially accompanied by that innocent smile, but she did her best to hide it. "Oh, I'm sorry."
"She weren't. Sh'liked it," he told her unconcernedly.
"Oh." What to say?
"Wha's y'r name?" he asked, lifting his pointed, smudged little face up to her.
That she could deal with. "My name is Anna." She fingered her nametag. "See?"
He concentrated on it hard, then shook his head again. "Can't read. 'S pretty name. D'you like it?"
"Very much, thank you." She thought over her questions once more, her mind cleared by the impersonal chitchat. Well, cross the mother off, but where else could he go?
"Do you know where your father is, then?"
"M'dad? He's left a lot of yesterday weeks ago. 'Tisn't much good t'call 'im, neither. He don't answer."
"I see. Do you know of any other people who might take you home with them?"
His eyes lit up. "Ooh, yeah. You could, I like you. Y're nice."
She stopped him. "I'm sorry, Sineult, but you can't come home with me. You need to go to someone who has a claim on you. Do you have any family you could go to?"
His head lowered and he shook it, his shoulders slumping.
"Did your mother have any friends?"
Another headshake, but no answer.
"Sineult, I'm sorry, really I am. But I've only just met you. I need to know if there is someone else, who might know you better and be more able to take care of you than I am. Do you understand?"
No answer. She reached out and lifted his chin up to find wide, wet green eyes gazing back at her. He sniffled, wiping his nose with the back of his hand, and said in a quivery voice, "'S'nobody wants me. Tol' th'p'lice guy he could take me 'ome, but he di'n't want me neither. Gave m'away t'doctor guy. I tol' 'im th't he could, but he di'n't want me..." His voice trailed off into a hiccuping sob and he pushed her hands away from him, slipping off of the bench onto his sneakered feet. "Jus' g' 'ome to m'mum..."
"Sineult, wait," she begged. "I didn't mean it that way." Then she stopped short. Wait a moment. Go home to his mum? "What do you mean, go home to you mother? I thought you said she-"
"Sh's died, an' sh'sm'lls f'nny, bu' sh' don't min' 'f I c'me 'ome to 'er. Sh' l'kes me..." He moved as though sleepwalking, turning away from the nurse towards the door. She made a mental note that his speech abilities seemed to worsen when he got upset, then took him by the arm.
"You can't go, Sineult, we need to see if you are all right first." How had this happened? She felt more helpless with this little boy than she had with angry, drunken men twice her size. She should have gotten his parents' names, found out where he lived and how his mother had died, checked if he was hurt, but he just seemed to keep knocking everything she wanted to ask out of her head. "Could you answer some more questions?"
He whimpered and sat down on the floor where he was. "Uh-huh."
"Alright." She took a deep breath and began at the start.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Sineult Brady, age thirteen. Light brown-gold hair, green eyes, 4'5". Mother's name, Elaura Brady; father's name, James Brady-"
She was interrupted by a cry from down the hall. "Anna!"
"What?"
The other nurse stopped in front of her, panting. "That boy that was brought in. He's not in the cubicle, or in any of the others around. I've looked, and he's not here anywhere."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
He drifts aimlessly. Can't go home, they know where that is now. Shouldn't have told them, but they were so nice...But he won't fall for that again. If they don't want him, they won't have him. Not ever. He'll just have to find someone who does.
A policeman, leaning against a brick wall on the other side of the street, catches his eye, and he quickly shies away, moving closer to the walls on his own side of the street. No, not this one. Policemen give him away, they don't want him. Best not to let one see him at all, save himself both time and trouble. And he knows that he can't just walk up to a stranger on the street and ask if they want to take him home. He has to be patient and wait until one of them approaches him.
He fingers the money in his pocket. He's really hungry, he ought to get something to eat before he has to mutate and take someone. That's for free but his mum told him never to take someone if it can be helped. The police get you for that. Maybe that's why none of them want to take him home with them, they think he'll be bad and take someone. Well, he always does what his mum says anyway, so he won't, but he doesn't think that he has enough money left over from the bus ride for food just now. Two nickels won't do it, he knows that. He has to get some more money first.
He scouts out with his eyes the nearest person who looks as though they might have enough money to hold him for a while. The persuasion drains him of energy, so he tries not to do it often. He finds his target, a middle-aged working woman with a long, brown braid and a skirt suit, and bounces over to her, making the persuasion on her as he goes. By the time he gets there, she's wearing that befuddled look that all humans get when he uses it on them, and when he holds out his hand and tells her what he wants, she gives it to him with a dazed smile. He smiles back, waves the persuasion off her, and sets out, down the street, to look for a place where he might find something to eat, leaving her to recover and never suspect that what has happened to her is more than a passing dizzy feeling.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The boy had walked in with the usual bounciness of any child, making her smile despite the bad day she had been having. He was all by himself, which was odd, and he was also very dirty, but he radiated a calm self-confidence as he came over and leaned his elbows on the counter.
"C'n I have somethin' t' eat?"
"What would you like?" she asked, marveling at the childlike quality of his voice.
He gazed over her head for a moment at the advertisements before confessing matter-of-factly, "Can't read 'r spell numbers. Which 'un don't cost so much as th' others?"
She choked back a laugh at the roundabout and backwards way he had of saying things. "You mean, which one costs the least?"
"Uh-huh." He waited expectantly for the answer.
She sobered suddenly, thinking how strange it was that a child should care which one cost the least, and turned to looked. After thinking about it for a moment, she pointed out a sandwich that should give him enough to eat while not being overly expensive.
"That one. See?"
He nodded. "That 'un, then."
"Do you want to sit down at a table?" She gestured to the tables behind him, but he shook his head.
"Nope. 'M goin' t'go back out. Eat there."
That was what prompted her to ask. She couldn't wait any longer, or he would be gone. She ordered for him and then turned back, querying gently, "What's your name?"
"Sineult. Sineult Brady."
"That's a very pretty name." He nodded, and she paused before asking the next question. "Where are your parents?"
He smiled at her. He really had a beautiful smile, she thought. "M'mum's died. M'dad don't want me."
The combination of the smile and the statement threw her off somewhat. "Then where do you live?"
"Noplace. Just anyplace, is all." He indicated the street outside. "Find a spot soon. But nob'dy wants me just yet."
"You mean you live out there?" Shock flooded through her at the thought. "On the street?"
He nodded carelessly. "Uh-huh. 'Til I c'n find someb'dy to take me home with 'em."
"Oh..." She shook her head to clear it, trying to put her thoughts in order. She lived by herself, and she was rather lonely at night; surely it couldn't hurt to bring him home, just until she could call up the police station and have him taken to be put somewhere where he could stay. She gave him a quick smile.
"How about if I take you home with me, honey?"
Green eyes went bright and wide. "Ooh, really?"
Her smile widened at the sheer delight in his eyes. "Yes, really. You can stay at my house tonight. But first," she warned, "I have to finish my work. So you'll have to wait around for a while. Can you do that?"
He nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh."
"Good. Then let me get you your sandwich, and you can sit down and eat over in the corner."
She went around back and got his order, and when she got back, explained to him how much it cost. He fished the money out from his pocket and handed it to her, then obediently went and sat in a corner booth, quiet and unobtrusive.
She checked on him once in a while for the next few hours. Once he had finished eating, he just sat there, waiting patiently for her to be done, not even fidgeting like every child she had ever seen in her life did when made to sit for long periods of time. He kept his hands in his lap, seeming lost in thought, and finally went to sleep curled up against the wall of the booth and stayed asleep until her shift was finished.
She went to wake him up then. He looked so sweet and peaceful there, cuddled up with his hair in his face, and she wished suddenly that she could keep him; but, thinking rationally, she could not support him, and she had no claim on him anyway. He would have to go through a long and hard system first if she wanted him badly enough. She sighed and leaned over to touch his shoulder.
"Wake up, honey."
He stirred and looked up at her blearily. "Hm?"
"Time to go." She smiled, and he seemed to remember, giving her a sleepy smile of his own.
"A'right."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Okay. So, I'll bring him down to you in about a half an hour on my way to work." She hung up the telephone and bit her lip, pausing for a moment before going back into the kitchen for Sineult.
He wasn't there. She checked the bathroom quickly, and, when he wasn't there either, returned to the kitchen. The remains of the breakfast she had given him were still on the table, even though last night at supper he had automatically picked up his plate and put it in the small sink. Her heart sank when she realized that he had most likely gotten up and come after her out of curiousity, leaving his breakfast to wait, and heard where she was sending him and why. She went out into the sitting room and swore under her breath.
The door opening onto the hallway was open a crack, and there was no sign of anyone out in the hall.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
He watches the faces go past his perch on the park bench and heaves a little sigh. He really thought that one would keep him, but it looks like there aren't many people who want him for more than a few minutes. Why do they always give him away? His mum never tried to give him away. But these people aren't his mum, and they don't want him. He'll have to remember to ask next time whether they want to keep him, because he know now that them taking him home doesn't mean much. And now that the food people don't want him, where will he get things to eat?
He thinks for a moment, swinging his legs and watching the green things blow on their big brown stems. Where do other people get their food? He knows from experience that the food people won't give you uncooked food, and he used to watch his mum cook it for him in the microwave, pouring it out of little rustly packets into bowls. The store! Of course, that was where she went. He remembers going there one time, with her; all the aisles of food in neat little rows. That's where he'll go. Maybe someone will want him there, he thinks wistfully, swings his legs again, and sets off to look.