Hybrid

This is my entry in the "Highway Song" writing event. These are action/adventure/travel stories. There is much more to be told in this story, and I will add to it, as my time permits. Some chapters will be monster hunts, some will be advancing the plot. Thank you all for reading, Randi.

Thanks to my team: Harddaysknight is my mentor and gives be critical review. Sbrooks103x also gives me a pre-post read. My editors are Hale1, Girlinthemoon, GeorgeAnderson and NoraFares. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.

Chapter one

I'd been watching her for about three minutes. She was struggling along the bed of the stream, headed up the creek and away from the small party of Shai I'd passed a few hours back. I preferred to avoid them, too, so I sympathized with her direction. She had a more immediate problem, though. She didn't know it yet. There was a large dog following her. Dogs are one of the three Mother Planet animals that have thrived here on Eiru. The other two are rabbits and horses. The dogs are mostly feral, and this one was obviously hunting. A small child would be easy prey. She had a stick she was using for a staff but I doubted she could take the dog. I could hear her. She was whimpering quietly to herself as she slipped and stumbled across the stones in the creek bed. Her little shoes seemed more suited as house slippers and she was visibly limping.

I didn't want to get involved. The Shai were following her and that didn't bode well for her or anyone that was around her, but I couldn't let the dog eat her. I have a code, and it doesn't involve letting children get killed by beasts. I wrapped myself in shadow and moved down the side of the valley to intercept her path. I can move almost unseen except in direct sunlight if I wish, and the dog never saw me coming. He came out from behind a rock and growled. The girl turned and it was easy to see she was terrified. She brandished her stick, shouted and threw a rock. It was a good throw. It hit the dog on the back and it sprang forward. I shafted it and it fell to the ground, too close to her as it snapped in its death throes, but she scrambled away. I let the shadows melt away and she looked at me.

She seemed almost as frightened of me as she had been the dog. I knelt and cut out my arrow. I kept kneeling so I wouldn't be intimidating and looked at her. "It's all right, child. I won't harm you," I told her. "Where are you going?"

"Away," she said. "Bad mens are chasing me."

"Do you mean the Shai?" I asked her.

She nodded. "Yes."

I looked her over. She looked like she was maybe three or four; just a baby, really. She was mixed up in something I didn't understand or want to be involved in, but how could I leave her? Her light brown skin marked her as human stock; maybe even Old Stock. Her white hair and pointed ears told me she was Shai. I had heard of hybrids, mostly the result of some kind of political machinations between some kingdoms that married off a daughter to the Shai to obtain peace. They performed some sort of spell and hybrids were produced. I had never seen one before.

"What's your name, child?" I asked her.

"Serisi," she told me. "What you name?"

"Guerin," I told her. "What am I going to do with you, Serisi?"

"Carry?" she suggested hopefully. "I very tired, Guerin. My feets hurt, too."

"Where do you live, Serisi?" I asked her.

"Rose Haw," she said. "I yive with the Sisters. Bad mens came and the Sisters made me go in the ground. They tode me to run away. The bad mens came and hurt them, and I ran away. Why you have yeyyow eyes, Guerin?"

"Yeyyow?" I asked.

"No, yewwow," she tried again.

"Ah, yellow," I said. She had trouble with the "L" sound.

"I'm a mutant, Serisi. Do you know what a mutant is?"

"Yes," she nodded again. "You a Gyoom Wawker."

"That's what the humans call us," I told her. "Gloom Walker means I can wrap the shadows around me and move unseen. Can you do stuff like that?"

"I can put out yights when I want to," she said.

That was interesting. Evidently she had Shai abilities. She was a beautiful little thing. Her eyes were tilted up at the corners, almond shaped and a very light blue. The contrast between her dark skin, white hair, tiny pointed ears and those huge eyes made her look very exotic. I didn't know what to do with her. The Sisters of the Rose had a place about ten miles back in the direction I had come, but it sounded like that was a bad place to be right then. If they survived, an unlikely event, they might be worth checking out at some point, but right now we needed to put some distance between ourselves and the Shai. They wouldn't find me if I didn't want them to find me.

I knelt down. "Climb on my back, Serisi. Don't hurt yourself on the sword. Push it around and get comfortable. Can you hold on to me?"

"Yes," she nodded again and the mass of white curls on her head bobbed. She climbed up on a rock and wrapped her little arms around my neck. I drew the shadows around us and climbed out of the valley. I walked for ten minutes then began to run. Ten miles later, she was slipping as her arms lost strength. I knelt and she collapsed to the ground.

"Pwease, Guerin. I very tired," she said.

"We can't rest here, Serisi. I'll hold you in my arms for a while. I know someplace ahead we can spend the night. It will take us about two more hours to get there."

She climbed wearily to her feet and I scooped her up. I'm sure she didn't weigh more than forty pounds. She wrapped her arms around my neck and I ran again. At some point, she fell asleep and I ran on through the gathering twilight, carrying a sleeping child. I could hear the sound of the waterfall ahead and I slowed to a walk. There was a path behind the falls and a cave at the end I had used before. Serisi woke up when I laid her on the floor of the cave. I built a small fire and opened my bag while she watched. I had bread and meat, wrapped in the skin of the skor I had killed earlier. I had some apples, too, and a wedge of cheese. I fried the skor and then fried the bread in the grease, put the cheese on it to melt and turned to her.

Are you hungry, Serisi?" I asked her.

"Starving," she said. "Thirsty, too."

I gave her a cup and she went to the fall and drank. When she came back I put meat and bread on a plate and gave it to her. She ate like she was starving.

"How long has it been since you ate anything?" I asked her.

"Yesterday in the morning," she said. "I was running away since then."

"Do you want more?" I asked.

She eyed the apples hungrily. I gave her two and she crunched away. When she was through, I rummaged around in my pack and came up with soap and a washcloth.

"Serisi, I'm going to bathe in the waterfall. Would you like to take a bath?"

"Yes. Wash cyothes?" she asked hopefully."

"Sure, honey. We can wash them."

She didn't have anything but the little blue dress she was wearing. I knew it must be getting uncomfortable and dirty. She took it off and she was just a little chubby brown bundle of beauty. Her little brown thighs had a dimple about halfway to her knees and she had a little pudge to her tummy. There was another dimple in her forearms. She really was just a baby. I took the little dress, we got it wet in the falls and I lathered it up. After I rinsed it out well, we wrung it out as well as we could and hung it on a stick to dry near the fire. I washed my underwear and hung that up, too. I wear leathers on the outside and they don't take kindly to washing. We eased into the cool water and let it rain down on us, just relaxing in the spray. After a minute she took my hand and pulled me into the small pool below. To my amazement, she could swim and she played happily for a minute before swimming back and standing in front of me.

"Wash me, Guerin," she said.

I soaped her up and scrubbed her until she was flushed. She dove back in and I made my own ablutions. We went back through the curtain of water and stood by the fire. I showed her how to get the excess water off with the edge of her hand and we stood by the fire until we were dry. I got her one of my undershirts and she ate her other apple while I spread out my blankets. I had a horsehair pad to sleep on, and I laid down on it. She joined me after a minute. She snuggled up against me and put her face very close to mine, our noses touching and our lashes mingling.

"Where we going?" she asked.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked her.

"Want to go with you," she said. "I yove you, Guerin. Thank you for taking care of me."

I could feel a big lump in my chest. She trusted me and at that moment I knew I couldn't let her down. I was going to keep her safe if I had to burn the world down to do it.

"I live at a place called Cliff Keep," I told her. "Do you want to go there?"

"Yes, I yive with you," she said. "You keep away the bad mens."

"Yes, I will. I don't think they'll find us, Serisi. We'll go fast and far tomorrow, and they won't find us. How old are you, child?"

She held up her little hand and pressed her thumb and little finger down leaving three chubby little fingers standing up. Gods, she was a baby!

"Syeepy now," she said. She kissed me and pushed me over on my back so she could lie over me. I wrapped her tiny form up in my arms and she whispered, "Night, Guerin."

"Goodnight, child," I kissed the top of her head.

When I awakened, the sun was shining outside and she was watching me. I fluffed her curly hair and she snuggled closer.

"Are you rested?" I asked her.

"Yes, hungry now and I need to peepee," she said.

I chuckled. "Yeah, me too. I want to squeeze you for a minute, though."

"Okay, but not too hard," she said. "Need to go bad."

I held her for a minute and just memorized how she felt in my arms. She was wiggling, and I let her go with a laugh. She took of the undershirt and ran to stand in the falls. I joined her and we let the water wash over us. When we were through we dried off while I made us a repeat of the meal we'd had the night before. I had some raisins and we munched on them, too. She pulled on her dress and helped me pack up. She put her shoes on and we walked down the path with her dancing about ten feet in front of me. When we got to the top, she disappeared over the hump and I heard her scream.

Chapter Two

My sword was out in a flash and I saw six Shai facing us. I had time to cloak and then they were closing on her. I cut the first one up and he fell screaming over the cliff into the stream. I made an alf sign and two more went down in front of the shock wave. They wouldn't stay there, but that left me three to deal with. I darted to the left and put the closest one between me and the other two. I'm quicker, stronger and faster than humans, or even the Shai. Still, it was likely that we were going to die there. I was determined that they weren't going to be in good enough shape to chase her.

"Run, Serisi," I called to her. "Get away."

I got the one I was facing but her two buddies were spreading out to flank me and the other two were showing signs of life. Suddenly they were on fire and screaming. I killed them all while they were beating at the flames, and it was over. I panted and looked over at Serisi.

"Serisi, did you do that?" I asked her.

"Yes, they were bad mens. They hurt the Sisters," she said.

"Yes they were. How did you do that?"

"Don't know," she said, beginning to cry. "I was scared. They was hurting you, Guerin. I burned them."

"It was well done," I told her. "Don't cry, now. They would have hurt us both if you hadn't done it. Can you do other things like that?"

She shrugged. "Don't know. Yet's yeave here."

I rolled them off the cliff to join their fellow, and we walked until she got tired. I carried her piggy-back after that. We stopped at a spring around noon, drank and ate an apple and some more raisins. She climbed back on my back with a groan and we started off again. We stopped for the night on the bank of another small stream and foraged for a while. I know a lot about plants, and we found some to eat and go with the meat. She found a patch of berries and I gave her my undershirt to pick them in. We had a good meal and bathed in the stream again, hanging our clothes up to dry. She got her undershirt out of my pack and we curled up together. She turned her back to me this time and I hugged her up. She used my arm for a pillow and I could feel her curls tickling me.

"Serisi, who are your parents?" I asked her.

"Don't know," she said. "Sisters took care of me."

"Do you know how you got there?" I asked. "Do you know who brought you to them?"

"No, awways yived there," she said. "What you house yike, Guerin?"

"It's big and made out of stone," I told her. "My order lives there. We're the Ruby Order. There are five of us. We're all mutants. Well, there are ten all together. We have people who work for us: cook, clean, stuff like that. Five like me, though. Do you think you'll like living there?"

"Yes, I be with you," she said. "I yove you, Guerin."

"Yes, I know. You told me," I said. "I'm falling in love with you, too, Serisi."

She sighed happily and scooted back against me closer. "Night Guerin."

We traveled like that for two weeks and she stole my heart. She was the happiest child I had ever met. She giggled and laughed and chattered constantly. She was in love with every flower and every bird. She hugged me constantly and it was hard to get used to that. I'd never liked being touched. Only a few people had ever been allowed to touch me, Lena, who was dead, the women I was intimate with and now Serisi. I had vague memories of my mother holding me, but nothing more.

Mutants are looked on askance by humans and Shai, alike. They hired us to do dangerous jobs they didn't want to do, but they felt like we were different. This sun isn't meant for humans, and somewhere around one tenth of one percent of us are born with mutations. Most of the mutant babies were aborted when they had the knowledge to do that. After that was lost, they just killed us as soon as we were born. Here and there, a mother gives birth to a mutant and loves it. They bring them to one of the mutant enclaves and they either die from their mutations or become something else. Most of us are sterile. The Ruby Order is martial. We hire our services to the highest bidder. We kill dangerous beasts, hunt down missing people, do bodyguard work and scout for armies. Demand is high and there aren't many of us, so we do well financially. Attrition is high, too. Most don't make it through their apprenticeship. I'd been a master for fifteen years, and I'd the scars to prove it. By the time we got to Cliff Keep, Serisi was an old hand at traveling and living off the land. I almost hated for the journey to come to an end.

Halbert and Corwin were the only two members at the keep. Hal took one look at her. "Gods, Guerin, she's a fucking Elf," he said.

My hand was around his throat and he was against the wall before he could move, with a knife at his throat. "Speak to her like that, or about her like that again and it will be the last words you say," I told him.

I could feel Corwin's hand on my arm. "Back off, Guerin," he said.

"I apologize," Hal said. "I'm sorry, child. My words were ill-chosen and I welcome you to Cliff Keep."

He looked back at me. I let him go. "Sorry, Hal. This girl is under my protection. I love her. She's to be my daughter, and I reacted. Yes, she is an Elf. I believe half, to be accurate. She was living under the protection of the Sisters of the Rose. They were attacked by the Shai and they were pursuing her. We killed six of them."

"We?" Corwin said.

"Yes, she did most of it. Tell them what you did, Serisi."

"I burn them," she said. "They was hurting Guerin."

"Remind me never to hurt you," he told me.

She walked over in front of them like a queen. She pulled them down and the sight of her hugging those two shaggy heads was heart wrenching.

"Yove Guerin," she told them. "I yove you, too, if you nice to me."

She ruled the keep from that moment on. They played with her and put up with things I couldn't imagine, letting her dress them in silly clothes and having tea parties with her. They taught her how to read and sew and sing. Corwin taught her the sword and Hal the knife. I taught her the bow and the domestics taught her how to manage a house. She was busy from dawn to dusk and she learned at a geometric rate. At night, she was mine. When she got up from the evening meal she went to our rooms and she became a little lady. She painted pictures and played musical instruments and wore a dress. We sang together and wrote poems. She had a little court of dolls that Corwin carved for her, and we moved them around like real people. She made up histories for them and they carried out romances, plots, had children and got married with elaborate ceremonies.

Every night she would come to my bed, climb in with me and the candles would go out. Every night until she was five she told me she "yoved" me and went to sleep in my arms. When she was five she mastered the "L" sound, then she "loved me."

On her fifth birthday, we assigned it arbitrarily to the first day of the harvest moons since neither of us knew when her birthday really was, we had a big party. All of us but Trina were home and it was a great day. The next morning I told her I was leaving and we had a big argument. She didn't want me to leave, at least not without her.

"I have to work, Serisi," I told her. "This place doesn't pay for itself. You need things and they won't pay for themselves either. I have to pull my weight around here. I haven't worked for two years because you needed me."

"I still need you," she threw herself into my lap, sobbing her heart out. "Don't leave me here, Guerin. I'll die without you. Take me with you! I'm afraid something will happen to you!"

"I can't take you. I'm going to hunt a drakkon. It's too dangerous for you."

"It's too dangerous for you, too, then," she wept. "You'll get hurt and no one will be there to take care of you. You'll die and leave me all alone."

"That's not going to happen," I told her. "This is what I do, Serisi. I'm really very good at it. If something did happen to me, you wouldn't be alone. Don't you love Uncle Corwin? Don't you love Jynn? They'll take care of you while I'm gone."

"Yes, I do love them, but they aren't you! I'll be miserable and lonely all the time! Please, Guerin, take me with you."

I left a very sad and angry little girl behind the next day. It took all of Jynn's ability to keep her from running after me and I felt heartsick as I walked down the long stairs, her desperate cries fading behind me. It took me two weeks to get the job done and they tried to short me on the payment. I had to go to the Baron, and he apologized and promised that it wouldn't happen again. A drakkon is a huge reptile sort of thing with leathery wings and a mouthful of sharp teeth that would bite your leg off if it got hold of you. It was taking livestock and none of the locals wanted any part of it. I never gave it a chance to eat me. I ghosted in cloaked and it was gone before it knew I was there.

When I got home I expected her to be watching, but there was no sign of Serisi. I was afraid she was still mad at me. Trina was home when I arrived and she met me on the stairs up the cliff. "Guerin, we need to talk," she said. "Serisi is sick. I mean physically sick. She began to throw up two days after you left and she's been sick ever since. I don't know what's wrong but you can't do this again. She needs you with her. I've never seen anything like this. I think she would just die, eventually. There's nothing physically wrong with her except you weren't here. You can only do jobs from now on where you can take her with you. If you can't do that we're not going to let you work. We've all talked about it and we decided. We love that girl, Guerin and this can't happen again. Now you go in and apologize to her and make her better. If she's not smiling the next time I see her I'm going to cut off your nuts."