A sudden, loud pop was followed by a loud clatter of a clipboard, pencils and pens falling to the floor. The light clop of hooves tapped a short staccato on the hardwood floor.
Helena blinked her eyes against the sudden invasion of light. She stretched her arms up and rubbed at her eyes, blinking as she took in the scene around her. To her right was the cabbage from which she had awakened and to her left was a disaster of pencils, pens, a clipboard and about half a tree's worth of copy in various stages of editing.
Moving on her shaky equine frame she stumbled over to the chaos that was the pile of papers and reached into the mess. She pulled out a red click pen, and her short, nubby fingers began to depress the clicker.
Helena giggled as the pen made a loud click noise and the nub slid out of its holder. Leaning over the papers she began to run the pen along the pages, scribbling along the proof-read copy.
Matthew walked into the room then, and his eyes fell on Helena. Standing stock still he stared at the small winged centaur child that had just now appeared. He was frozen in shock for a good minute before he quickly moved over to Helena.
“Liz, come see this!” Matthew called over his shoulder, picking up the child and pulling her away from the pages of copy.
Helena whined and kicked her hooves in the air as she was lifted way from the pages. She chucked the pen across the room as she started to wail with indignation. She had been in the middle of her masterpiece of art and was very insulted that this man would not let her finish!
“Now where did you come from little one?” Matthew asked gently, as he to calm the centaur child down as best he could by trying to find a more comforting way to hold her, which was proving next to impossible. Placing her down gently he took a knee and brushed her hair. “More importantly how did you get into the house?”
Helena looked up at the man and rubbed her teary eyes. She sniffled and hiccuped not really sure how to respond to the question she only half understood. Didn't he know that she belonged here? Her equine posterior slowly lowered itself as her hands grabbed his green-gray tiger-stripped Airman's Battle Uniform blouse and tugged gently. Looking up at him with tears still glistening in her large red eyes she pointed at the mess of marked papers and the pen. She wanted to get back to her art!
“No, I don't think so,” Matt said as he wiped her tears with his index finger and ruffled her hair. “Now let's see if we can figure out where you came from,” He said.
“His eyes scanned the room for a moment until they fell on the cabbage, at which point a sudden realization struck him like lightning.
“Helena?” Matt asked as he turned to the centaur girl. Her eyes brightened and she smiled as she perked up hearing her name spoken by the man she now recognized as the voice that had been with her for so long.
Her Daddy. Her head swiveled around now as she sought the other voice she always heard, the voice of Mommy.
“Oh. My. Go-” Matt said as he quickly scooped Helena up in his arms to go find his wife and show her the new addition to their family.
Helena giggled and kicked her legs in the air as she wondered where they were going. Her eyes took in as much of the house as they could and after a few moments she started to squirm and fuss, wanting to walk on her own.
“What's wrong Helena?” Matt asked the fussy child. Helena looked up at her father and pointed at the ground as she whined petulantly.
“You want me to put you down?” Matthew asked gently. Helena placed her hands on her hips and gave her father a look that shouted.
Really? Really now? “OK, OK,” Matt chuckled and lowered Helena down to the floor gently. “Ask a stupid question …” he said in a self-deprecating tone.
When Helena's hooves hit the carpet of the hall to the kitchen she shot off at a full gallop. She giggled as she began to search high and low for her Mommy. When she entered the Kitchen she skidded to a stop just moments before running into the bottom row of cabinets. She placed her hands on the wooden panels and smacked them jestingly, giggling happily when they made a hollow thud. She turned and looked up at her father and smiled before she slowly moved across the linoleum with slow, deliberate movements.
TBC
Reply
