It was late and Aellys was still awake, studying. He had moved from his desk to his bed, true, but there was still a book in his lap and a light shining so he could read the pages. Astronomy was fascinating to the Litch, and he often had a hard time putting a book down. Well, that last was true no matter the subject matter. If there was ink on a page, Aellys was likely to be caught reading it. One of the constellations he was reading about got into the mythology behind it, about a mother protecting her child. The bond between parents and their children was something Aellys had often thought about. As an orphan from the cache, he had never known what it was like to have parents. The caretakers at the school and at the orphanage had given all of them what they required, but not many of them were overly.... affectionate he supposed was the right word. It could have been taken as favoritism and sewn discontent within the children.
He had, of course, read books and stories with children and happy parents, or children and unhappy parents. Children with.... less than ideal parents and situations. It had been those stories that made him determined not to be a bad parent. Well, whenever he decided to become one. It would be preferable to him to find someone who would be there to share the parenting duties, someone who cared for him and he cared for. Perhaps someone he could even love. Yes, that would be ideal...
But the more he thought about it, the more there was a tugging in his heart. He had always wanted a family of his own, but had never once thought about going it solo. The mere thought scared him. How could he take care of a child? He had a job, of course, and he was studying to be able to get a better one. But kids needed things. They needed shelter. Which he had, even though his apartment was a little small. They needed food. Okay, so he had plenty of that. And clothes. They would need clothes. Well, he supposed it didn't sound too bad, actually. He would not dare say that parenting sounded easy. They was certainly one way for the universe to perk up and purposefully make things difficult.
He would merely say that parenting would be a challenge, and particularly so if he had to do it by himself. Wait. Was he really thinking about imbuing a stone? And possibly doing it alone? He wondered if he had the skills needed. Just then Menthe fluttered up and sat on his book, blocking the paragraph he had been attempting to read. "Well, hello there. Did you want something?" he asked the curious little flitterat. As if the creature had started something, the rest of Aellys's familiars climbed up into bed with him. Cinna was very careful of her hooves and curled her hooves underneath her as she curled into Aellys's side. Tesni's antlers would have been a problem except she was happy curling up on the pillow he never used. And Paz, his golden wisp, settled itself right next to where his head would lay. "Alright, alright," he conceded. "Time for bed." He laughed softly and slid down in the sheets, careful not to disturb anyone. As he drifted off, his last conscious thought was that maybe he wouldn't be so bad as a parent...
