Mother

Two lips kissed the trembling forehead and pulled away, as the sounds of shouting and gunfire outside increased. Pushing a lock of the golden hair away to the side, the golden valanu looked deeply into her sons green eyes.

"Stay here, okay? You should be safe until I come back for you." With another quick kiss and a hug, she was gone.

"Okay, go!" The door was kicked open, and the five troops streamed in, while Ryan covered from behind. Once they were safely inside, the tawny haired saklarian followed suit. He indicated to two of the others, and then began to search the room. The two began to search with him while the other three kept watch.

"Nothing," he announced after several minutes of searching, and the troops proceeded to file back out of the room to search the rest of the building.

The sounds from outside began to grow louder and louder as the boy waited for his mother to return for him. Sitting curled with his blanket in the corner of the room, he put his thumb in his mouth, closed his eyes and thought back to before they'd come here: back when they had their own home , and life was simple and enjoyable. Now it all seemed to be sneaking around and hiding and running. Mother never seemed to have time for him anymore. She was always busy with her new friends now. He didn't like her new friends: they were weird and scary, and mother was beginning to act just like them. Why couldn't life just go back to how it used to be, just the two of them.

Ryan gritted his teeth as they left yet another empty room. This mission so far seemed to be a waste of time and energy. They'd searched nearly every room, and there was no sign of any children, let alone a young saklarian boy, who should look around ten years old. The troops set themselves up around the next door, and he nodded to them, before proceeding to kick down the door, and they all filed into the room, just as with every other. Ryan, and the two others, began the tedious job of searching the room; through cupboards, under beds and tables etc., the same as before. But then, something caught Ryan's eyes. There was something - or someone - moving in the corner behind the bed, covered by a large blue blanket, interwoven with golden feathers. He tried to tug down the corner of it, but whatever was underneath pulled it back down.

"Hey, it's okay. I won't hurt you." He pulled off his helmet and crouched down next to the blanket, "We're here to help you. If you come out, we can keep you safe. We'll find you a nice home, give you a new life, one better than this one."

The boy relaxed his grip on the blanket a little, allowing it to fall and show off his bright green eyes. He peered at the strange man crouching before him, and his blue eyes shone back. He didn't understand why these strange people were here in his room, or why mother had told him to hide from them, but if they could take him and his mother back to how life was before, they couldn't be all bad. The man was smiling at him now, "That's it. See, I'm not that scary, am I?" The boy blinked back at him.

"Y-y-y-you'll t-take me back home?" he mumbled quietly, without removing the thumb from his mouth, but the man still seemed to understand him.

"We'll try our best to find you one," the man replied in a soft voice, "I'm Ryan. What's your name?" The boy didn't need answer, though, as at that moment he heard his mothers voice call out, "What are you doing?! Keep away from my Aiden!" She tried to force her way through, but the troops managed to hold her back. Aiden had jumped up at the sound of her voice, and scrambled up onto the bed.

"Don't hurt her! Please don't!" he cried out, as they wrestled with her to keep her still, and as soon as they succeeded, he jumped down from the bed, rushed over, and clung to her leg, blanket still clutched in his hand.

Ryan stood up and watched as the boy, Aiden, rushed over to the golden valanu. Her feathers were exactly the same as the ones in the blanket. He didn't seem to care that she was covered in blood and dirt, he just buried his face into her leg, and hung on tightly as if he would never let go. It was then that Ryan noticed it: a gun wound in her chest, narrowly missing her heart, and more than likely puncturing a lung. Her breathing was erratic and heavy, and she obviously hadn't much longer left. He had a sudden moment of understanding: a mother had come back to see her son in her dying moments. He looked to those holding her back, "Release her."

"But, Sir! She' one of them!"

"Just do it!" Reluctantly, they did, and she dropped to her knees and held her son tight, the tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Let her have some time with her son!"

Aiden buried his face into his mother's chest. He could taste the dirt, the sweat, the blood, feel the tears dripping onto his head, but he didn't care. He was safe now she was here. Her voice tickled his ear as she whispered to him, "Aiden. My little Aiden. You know I love you?" He nodded, still pressed into her chest.

"I love you with my whole heart. I'm sorry it has to end this way. But remember, I will always be with you." Tears were rolling freely from both of their eyes. Aiden didn't really understand what was going on. What did she mean by that? She gently pulled away, and using the last of her energy, shifted form and pulled a glittering blue flight feather from her wing. She gently tucked it behind his ear, before nuzzling her head against him, and saying, "Take this, and always remember, I love you. I'm sorry it has to be this way. I wish I could have watched you grow up." She turned to face Ryan, and managed to choke out the words "Make sure he finds a good home," and (when one of the valanu in his team translated for him), he nodded sagely in reply, "I will." She curled up next to Aiden, wrapping her tail around him, and singing softly to him,

"In the sudden light of day
No weight of expectation
The hurt begins to fade
As you find a new direction
Been talking here for days
And days, and days"

The sound of her singing soothed him, and soon Aiden was asleep, curled with his mother. She too fell asleep soon afterwards, but she was never to wake again.

"Do you have a family lined up to look after the boy, Major, or do you need to find him one?" Ryan respectfully asked when Major Radeon, when he came to see the boy the next morning. Aiden was still asleep, having not yet woken since the death of his mother, and so the discussion had turned to the matter of where he was to stay. Ryan himself would of volunteered, but he had no time for a child, being busy with his military career. Major Radeon shook his head, "We haven't found a family for him yet. I'd like to find him one soon, though. I don't want him to get settled here and then have to uproot his life all over again." Ryan nodded in agreement: the child had been through a lot already. It would be better for him to go to a normal family as soon as possible.

"I think I know someone who would be happy to look after him," he suggested after a moments thought, "Two friends of mine, Sandi Moonshine and Tom Rhodes, both saklarian. They've been trying to have a child for a while now, but were unable to. They would be ecstatic to finally receive a child, and would do everything in their power to keep him safe and cared for. If you'd like to check up on them, I can provide you their contact details?" Before the Major had a chance to respond, the door to the room slammed open and Aiden stood there, his face drenched in tears.

"Where's mother?!" Aiden didn't care where he was, or how he got there. All he knew was that his mother wasn't there, and he needed her.

"She…she didn't make it…" the man from the previous day, Ryan, replied, turning to look at him.

"Whaddya mean?! Why isn't she here?!"

"Your mother died last night. She was injured and no-one could help her, "the other man in the room replied. Aiden didn't know, nor did he care, who this stranger was, but he couldn't believe what he'd just said. That wasn't possible! She promised she would always be there for him! She wouldn't just die! Ryan looked at Aiden quietly for a while, before nodding his head, "It's true, Aiden. She passed away shortly after you fell asleep. I'm sorry." It felt to Aiden as if the ground had opened up, and swallowed him. In fact, worse than that! Being swallowed would be better than this! Not really knowing what else to do, he began to cry and scream, begging for his mother to come and help him, collapsing sobbing to the floor. Two strong hands suddenly picked him up. Keeping his eyes screwed shut with tears, he initially kicked against the man, (whichever one it was), but soon gave up when he wasn't dropped to the floor. The man sat down, with Aiden on his lap, and Aiden just cried into his shoulder. Why did it matter who it was? His mother was gone, and now he was all alone.

"Don't worry. You'll be safe. We'll find you a home." It was the voice of the strange new man! In his surprise, Aiden stopped crying, lifted his head, and looked at the man. Despite his sorrow Aiden couldn't help but notice his eyes, "Y-y-you have the same eyes as me!" He'd never seen anyone else before who had them, although they were in a different colour. The man smiled down at him, "Well maybe they're more common than you think!"

"Aiden! Come, your new family is here!" Ryan called him, as he sat down with the family. Major Radeon had agreed to have Aiden raised by Sandi and Tom, and now they were sitting here, waiting to meet him, and take him home. Sandi was fidgeting, both from nervousness and excitement, while Tom clutched her hand tightly. Soon Aiden came through the door, sucking his thumb, both hands to his mouth, clutching the feathered blanket between them, his mothers feather sticking out of his hair. It had only been four days since he had been saved, and he was still mourning his mother, but it was better for him to move on now, rather than later. He needed a family structure if he was going to get through this properly. Sandi froze the minuet he entered the room, but she still managed to smile sweetly at him. Tom managed to smile nervously, as he addressed the boy, "Hey, Aiden. I'm Tom, and this is my wife, Sandi. We're going to take you home, and look after you. Would you like that?" Ryan watched, as Sandi nervously bit her lip, and as Aiden shrugged his shoulders. He answered like this a lot, preferring not to talk most of the time. But when you managed to get his mind off of his mother, he would talk with reasonable freeness.

"You'd have a nice home and garden," Sandi blurted, finally able to say something, "And you would go to the local school, and make lots of new friends. We'd look after you and protect you and care for you. We might not be as good as a mother, but we'll be the next best thing!" Aiden just blinked at her, before he wandered out of the room. Tears welled in Sandi's eyes, as she stared blankly at where he had just been standing. She knew it would be hard to reach out to him, but she had expected some kind of reaction other than that! Tom put his arm around her, "Don't worry. It won't always be like this."

"He's right," Ryan added, joining them both on the sofa, "He's still mourning right now. Give him a while, and you'll be able to get to know the real him." Sandi still couldn't help one fat tear escaping from her eye, "I've just wanted this for so long…" For a moment, the three of them just sat there in silence, when the door to the room creaked open again. There stood Aiden, clutching a small suitcase he'd been given, containing the clothes he'd been found in, (as well as two outfits Ryan had managed to get for him), and his blanket, with the feather tucked safely inside of it.

"I'm ready to go now."