"Never, are you EVER to touch that baby again! Do you hear me? NEVER! You get away from here; stay away...until you learn! This is our child! No one takes it from us! It is not Galar's; not yours! Ours!"
With that said, Loni turned. His temper cooled, even as he returned to his mate.
But Scar didn't know that.
All the one armed twin knew was, he was no longer welcome. But...how many times had Galar said the same words? He would go away now...Galar always took him back again later...
But, I'll get even...just you wait.
Scar rose shakily to his feet, turned, picked up, and slung, his knapsack onto his back. Then, with evident temper, he stomped toward the ladder leading down.
And as Scar disappeared, had he looked up, instead of down, he might have seen Da...descending from above, a listless soft bundle in a pouch around his chest.
Chapter34
Loni was watching the ladder; he wanted no more surprises. He expected Scar to come back with a weapon, and attack. What he was unprepared for was to see Da, first his legs, and belly, then the small lifeless burden wrapped around his middle, and finally, the despondent expression on the dark one's features; Da coughing uncontrollably, as he stepped out into their camp grounds.
His patience gone, Loni sent the thought more sharply than he planned.
"What have you done, Da? What have you got there?"
Loni went quickly into the simple one's mind, and knew in an instant the conditions surrounding. He relaxed somewhat, as he realized there would not be chase given for some time, if at all.
"She won't breathe!" Da thought with panic. "I think she is dead."
"Your baby?" Loni questioned. "This one is Lydia's?"
Da nodded; tears in his pleading eyes.
****
During the ruckus with Scar, Lydia had feigned sleep. No amount of disorder penetrated much into her listless depression. Her babies were both gone; the one back with its father; the second, the Physicians had murdered.
What reason do I have to take any interest in what is going on about me?
Lydia knew, something had happened with Gem's little girl. When the pair returned, Loni was so protective, shadowing Gem and her infant, as if all in the world about them were their enemies.
But Gem has HER baby! It isn't dead!
Lydia knew it was alive; she could hear it suckling noisily at Gem's breast.
She couldn't help it; she felt jealous. As much as Gem was willing to share, that little one did not replace the one Lydia had lost.
She remained quiet through all the following disturbance; the ensuing fight between Loni and Scar, not reacting, whether in sympathy to either or not; remaining immobile, but listening, though she was not privy to the telepathic message Loni projected. Lydia was actually relieved, when the one armed man stormed away in anger.
Scar had always elicited a feeling of unease in her.
In the ensuing silence that followed, after the man left, Lydia had almost drifted off to sleep again. When Da came down the upward ladder, from the nursery area, situated to the left and above the falls, she started awake. He was gasping for breath, coughing , as if he'd been in a smoke filled room...or crying, or maybe both. Da was moaning and groaning over the bundle in his arms.
Lydia hadn't seen him since before Gem's baby was delivered, but in her emotionless state, she felt little enthusiasm at his return; nor sympathy. She remained docile, as if slumbering, on their pad.
As no words were spoken aloud, she had to figure out what was transpiring. It took her awhile to realized, they were fussing over a second infant.
Da brought another baby? Why?
And then that sixth sense kicked in, her mother sense, and it brought her shooting to a sitting position on her bed. Without being told, Lydia understood...Da had found her little one, and...brought it home to her.
Before they reached her sleeping place, Lydia was beside the men, guiding them toward it. As Da clumsily tried to undo the wrapper around his burden, she was impatiently fighting against him, forcing away the cloth, to reveal the limp form within. Expressing verbally, Lydia gave stuttering voice to all the others were feeling.
"Oh, oh; my tiny, little one; my dear, precious baby. Where, oh where, did you find it?"
It would not have mattered if the child was really the one aborted from her womb; it could have been any child. She would have taken it in trade of the one missing. But, Lydia knew, beyond a doubt...this was her infant!
The golden brown color of the skin; a cross between Da's dark, and her own white. The doll-like face, resembling her child left behind, even to the bow-shaped lips; the dark hair. Oh, there was no disputing it...THIS WAS HER BABY! She recognized it.
When it was finally free, Lydia snatched the minute creature up in her arms, cuddled it against her bosom, but...it remained limp and unresponsive.
Why is it so still?
As realization hit her, Lydia cried out in anguish.
"W...why? Why? W...would you bring me a dead baby?"
Her tone was so filled with remorse; hopeless agony, it smote the hearts of those who heard. Even in mind thought, the rending accusation came across as rebuke.
And though Lydia clearly heard Loni's thoughts telling her otherwise, she refused to believe, or to take his comfort.
Then, Gem joined them, clutching her own new born, as if she feared to leave it alone on the other mat, less it be stolen. Gem tried to force Lydia to trade infants, so she could do what was necessary, as she had done, not so long ago, for the mother.
But Lydia was not about to give up what had just been
