Forgotten Children

“It’s too risky, Chakora. I won’t allow it.”

He sat on the floor in his room, looking at Chakora where she sat across from him, leaning away from her deformed rear legs. “I appreciate that you’re using your brain to come up with alternate solutions, but this isn’t one that I can endorse.”

“But you really haven’t explained why its bad,” Chakora protested. “I say ‘I have an idea on how to fix my legs,’ and you jump right to a no answer.”

He looked at Chakora sternly and told her, “Your plan is untested, likely not to work, and excruciatingly painful to boot. What needs explaining?” He was getting irritated and knew it. He sighed and walked over to Chakora, putting an arm around her. “Look, you are very brave for facing the world every day with the limitations you have. You have kept a cheerful and determined attitude and I commend you for that. But we need to work within your limitations.”

Chakora pushed his arm away. “But I don’t want to be limited!” Tears welled in her eyes. “Why won’t you help me!?”

From the other side of the room, Roddi replied flatly, “That’s a good question, I think. Do I not remember you telling me that suffering when you are young is preferable?”

“I no longer consider any of you to be young,” he retorted. “And I consider each of your lives precious. So would someone please make a good argument as to why I should voluntarily put any of your lives at risk so you can feel better about the way you look?”

Chakora looked at the floor. “Appearances are everything, you said so yourself. Our life is one of deception. And yet I cannot change fully, like everyone else can. I cannot walk, I cannot do much of anything for myself.” A tear ran down Chakora’s cheek so she raised a hoof to wipe it away. “I don’t understand why you’d want me around. I don’t know why anyone would want me around.”

Roddi stood up to console her but Chakora pushed her back. “I don’t want your pity. I want to be able to fend for myself. And if I can’t do that I’ll save you all the trouble of having to wait for me to die.”

Chakora fluttered her wings and picked herself up off the floor. Both her father and Roddi stared in disbelief. “When did you learn how to do that?” they said in unison.

“When you weren’t watching, which is often,” Chakora said dejectedly. She turned in mid-air and steered herself toward the door.

He stood quickly and pursued Chakora out into the hall. “Whoa whoa, wait a minute here! Come back inside.” He motioned her to back inside his room. “I may have been too hasty. You’re obviously full of surprises and talent, we’ll talk about your idea again.”

Chakora stopped moving but did not turn to face him. “I don’t want to talk, I want to do it.”

He nodded, and said, “Okay, but we need a plan. Let’s come up with a plan so we can get the best results possible, okay?” He motioned her to come back before her sisters started to ask questions.

Chakora turned slowly. She looked pitiful, hovering there with her head down and her useless and malformed rear legs hanging just above the floor. “Okay...if you promise.”

“I don’t break my promises,” he told her confidently. “I promise that we’ll do everything, or, I’ll do everything, to help you walk.”

Chakora brightened a bit, raising her head. She flew back inside the door and again sat on the floor.

“Actually,” he said, “If you could hover a bit longer I’d like to take a closer look at your legs.” Chakora complied and he walked around her rear, inspecting. “The shell over your legs have done a decent job of hardening since you hatched,” he commented, poking at them gently. “There is some hope that we could straighten them out, but my new concern is that they’re not wide enough, and hence strong enough, to support you.”

He stepped away and Chakora settled down on the floor, obviously tired from the exertion. “I’ve thought of that, father, and that’s why I thought we could use these.” She picked up one of the pieces of iron that he had been practicing on and brought in front of him.

“Iron?” he asked, “How is that going to help?”

“Well…” Chakora trailed off. “Lets start with what we know, yes? A incorrectly set break heals crooked. You said it could be re-broken and re-set.”

“With excruciating pain,” he interrupted.

“Yes, with a lot of pain.” Chakora looked at him solemnly. “Do not think that I don’t live in a world of pain already. Some more to lessen that in the future is an agreeable trade to me. So, re-set my legs, and while still soft, use the iron to brace them.”

He nodded. “Ah, I see what you mean now. And, although framing your legs with iron would provide the needed strength, you won’t be able to change its appearance. I don’t know how much that will really accomplish.”

Chakora shook her head. “No, no on the outside. On the inside.”

He blinked in confusion. “On the...what?”

Chakora turned over to Roddi. “Roddi, please go get the book on changeling history, part two, yes?” As Roddi trotted out the door Chakora continued, “There is an illustration in there, it’ll explain better.”

Roddi came back shortly and gave the book to Chakora, who flipped it open and to a specific page. “There,” she said, laying the book on the floor so he could see. “Look here. It says that after returning home wounded, this changeling had metal rods inserted in his legs to stabilize them.”

He picked up the book and flipped through the pages after the one in question. “But it does not say whether it worked or how long he lived. Chakora...really, I want to help you. But this seems more like an experiment with your life.”

Chakora lifted up her hoof to drag the book away from his face. “I’d rather be remembered for my bravery than be forgotten as the one child of yours who did not make it.” Chakora smiled and leaned toward him. “Please?”

Something he had said a long time ago came back in a flash. He smiled and leaned in to hug her. “I understand. We’ll do it. But we need to get some things, er...set up first.” As Chakora’s smile faded he quickly added, “Because we probably will have just one shot, so we need to have everything ready. We’ll need a table, the iron cut and shaped, and both you and I will need to be full and well rested.”

He leaned back from Chakora and said to Roddi, “Please go and find Fici and Thrax and get the sturdiest table you can back here. Take some of the other girls if need be.” Roddi nodded and he continued, “Also get as many sheets as you can find. Steal them if you have to. And…” he paused. “And find something for Chakora to bite down on. A brush or and old book, maybe?”

Roddi didn’t agree with his plan, but she had already convinced herself that it wasn’t her place to question him so she bowed. “As you wish.” She trotted out the door without another word.

“Chakora,” he asked, “I need you to lay on the floor so I can take some measurements. I’ll try to be careful, okay?”

Chakora nodded but used her magic to slide the open book back over to him. “There are some empty pages in the back. Maybe you could, ah, document? Like, what we do so maybe it can help someone else?”

He took the book and flipped to the end, where two blank pages lay. He used his magic to start scribbling in it, and turned his attention back to Chakora. “This is going to hurt more than you think it will, but I’m still doing it for you.”

…

After Roddi returned with a table (of which he would not have described as sturdy), he made preparations in their room as Chakora waited in her room for Chrysalis to come by. They had agreed not to let anyone else in on to the plan, but Chakora felt compelled to tell Acheri.

“I don’t like this,” Acheri said worriedly. “I love your dearly sister, why would you risk something like this?”

Chakora smiled. “Acheri, you have been very kind and I consider us to be closer than I am with any of the others, but understand that I can’t let you keep the burden of taking care of me. I have been considering options for a long time, and this is my best option.” Acheri’s mood did not improve, so Chakora continued, “Its actually a better option, since before I wasn’t sure if my legs would heal again. Hearing father talk about it made the decision pretty simple.”

Acheri shook her head. “Yes, but-”

“But nothing, sister.” Chakora, while normally meek, looked back at her sister with great determination in her eyes. “I need you to know so you won’t be afraid. And I need you to know so that I won’t have to worry about you.”

Acheri looked at the floor and then back at Chakora. “Why...why would you worry about me?”

Chakora’s eyes softened from their determined glare. “I’ve come to terms with the fact that my life is going to be much shorter than yours. You need to know that if I die, then I won’t be sad. I won’t be in pain anymore and I don’t want you to be sad for me, either, okay?”

Acheri shook her head. “ I can’t promise you that I won’t be sad, because I will be.”

Chakora fluttered over to Acheri and hugged her close. “Then get all your sad out now, ok?”

Acheri hugged back but didn’t say anything. From her vantage point she saw their father come into the room. He looked at both and simply said, “Chrysalis will be here soon. Act normal, okay?” He stared at Acheri and getting the hint, she nodded. “And please,” he continued, “The sooner you can start picking up love from her from farther away the less likely this is going to continue to be an issue.”

They both nodded as Chakora started to flutter back out to the main hall but Acheri stopped her, asking, “Can I carry you one last time?”

Chakora smiled. “I’d like that, sister.”

…

After Chrysalis had come and gone, he gathered Roddi and Chakora in their room, along with the things he thought they would need. He patted the table, which Chakora flew up to sit on. “I’m going to seal the door for a while,” he told Chakora. “We can’t be having any interruptions, from either Chrysalis and her followers or from your sisters.”

Chakora nodded. “I know...will you take care of Acheri should something go wrong?”

He sighed. “While I do this for you, Chakora, understand Acheri might blame me and nothing I could say will change that. Are you sure that you still want to do this?

Chakora nodded and laid down. “I do. Don’t stop, no matter what.”

He smiled and leaned to kiss her on the head. “I won’t. But I’m also sorry for doing this to you.” He looked back at Roddi. “Are you ready as well?”

Roddi stepped forward. “What are you going to need me for?”

“You will be doing whatever I tell you, that’s what,” he quipped. “Do we have iron, a bite block, and the book in here?”

Roddi nodded. “Yes. Plenty of iron, in fact. I found this but I don’t know if its going to work.” Roddi used her magic to hold up a carved piece of wood. “I found it in the archives a long time ago. I have no idea what it was for. I also have the book.”

He took the piece of wood from Roddi and walked back over to Chakora. As he did so he examined the carving. It was roughly cylindrical, and the carvings were far less intricate than things he had seen before. He motioned for Chakora to open up and placed it in her mouth. “Bite down as hard as you need to, it’ll help.” As Chakora did so, he noticed that her teeth seemed to fall into familiar grooves on the wood and it occurred to him that it might not actually be carved for decoration.

He turned to the door and cast a spell on it, blockading the entrance with a wall similar to that of Chrysalis’ but not actually translucent. The wall shifted as he finished, taking the form of natural stone. He looked at Roddi who had a confused expression. “Its great for hiding in caves,” he explained.

“Okay…” he sighed, looking down at Chakora. He took a piece of metal from the floor and shaped it into a cuff, affixing it to Chakora’s front hoof and down into the greyed wood of table.

Chakora looked around in confusion. “What are you doing?”

“You’re going to thrash around a lot, and that won’t help anybody,” he said, securing a second cuff around Chakora’s other front leg. “You’re going to have to lie still while I work.” He wrapped a larger band around her waist, and again down into the wood of the table. Chakora struggled a bit but found she was bound quite firmly. “Yes, yes,” he said, apparently not noticing Chakora’s discomfort, “That will do fine.”

“Father, I…” Chakora stopped. “No, nevermind. I still want this,” she mumbled around the wood block in her mouth.

He nodded. Turning to Roddi, he said, “I want you to stay there until I call for you. You’ll need to-” he spun quickly back to Chakora and slammed his right hoof down on her twisted rear legs, shattering them.

Chakora dropped the wood block from her mouth as she let out an ear shattering scream of pain. Her whole body strained against the straps in a instinctive effort to repel the source of her pain. Her father grabbed the wood block from the floor and jammed it back into her mouth to muffle her. “Bite down!” he commanded.

Chakora did so, tears streaming down her eyes and the sides of her face. “I’m sorry,” he said, wiping her tears away. “But I had to do it quick. Bad news is, I missed one of your legs.”

Chakora began to struggle anew as he he moved away from her and brought his weight down on her other leg, shattering it as well.

…

Outside, Acheri paced back and forth in the hall. Hearing the screams from inside made her want to run in to see Chakora but Fext and Lamia held her back.

“Chakora wanted this,” Fext said, standing in front of a straining Acheri. “She asked for this and we need to be able to support her when they’re done. If we’re all tired that’s not going to work well, is it?”

Acheri growled, but Fext held firm in front of her. “Besides which, how are you going to get in there?”

“I’ll find a way,” Acheri growled between clenched teeth. “If he is the death of her I swear I’ll-”

From across the room Mara looked up from the book she had been reading to interject, “You’ll what? Turn him in so Chrysalis can kill us all?” Mara closed her book and walked towards the others calmly. Acheri stopped struggling so Fext took the opportunity to catch her breath.

“You’re concerned, which I understand,” Mara said as she approached. “But we are help to help each other. Father might not be helping Chakora in the way you want, but that’s what he’s trying to do.”

Acheri shook her head. “He should know better. For all he professes to be skilled at, surgery was never one of them.”

Mara shrugged. “Maybe. But why don’t you turn that hatred towards the outside world? They were the ones that injured Chrysalis so that some of her children were hatched malformed, they are the ones who painted us as monsters, they were the ones that forced us to hide.” Mara lowered her gaze to the floor. “I’d love to have some time with a few of them. Find out what they say after a few hours…” Mara looked back up with a blank look on her face. “In the dark, only a changeling sees…”

Kishi ran up and nudged Mara. She whispered to her, “Sister, you’re doing it again. Snap out of it.”

Mara shook her head briskly. “Sorry.”

The combined eyes on Mara moved back to the door as Fext said, “Hey, Chakora stopped screaming. Maybe they’re almost done? Are you going to be alright Mara?”

Mara nodded, so Fext turned to Acheri. “And what about you?”

Acheri sighed. “I’ll be okay. I just hope Chakora will be, too…” She sat on the floor and stared blankly at the shield covering the door in front of her.

Fext reached forward with a hoof and opened her mouth to say something, but not knowing what would be best closed her mouth again. Mara had returned back to her book, and Lamia had sat next to Acheri, so Fext followed Mara for some reading.

Acheri continued to sit, and eventually laid on the floor, still looking at the wall. Hours passed, but Acheri refused to move from her spot. Fext had come over once but finding Acheri unresponsive, left her alone. Bored, Fext walked into her sisters’ room and found Kishi and Lamia there.

They nodded at Fext’s approach, and Lamia continued her conversation, “I think I know what I want to be. What about you?”

“I dunno,” replied Kishi, “But I know sex needs to be a big part of it. It seems like the easiest damn way to make sure I get fed.”

“Are you thinking of what profession you want to go into?” Fext queried them.

“Yeah,” Lamia replied, “I’m thinking of taking a filly’s form and enrolling in a school. Seems like that’s a decent way to get a bit of love from teachers. And I can learn more about equine society at the same time.” Lamia paused. “What do you want to do, Fext?”

Fext shrugged. “Eh, I dunno. I’ll have to think more about that.”

“Hey by the way,” Kishi asked, “Did you figure out a way to make your eye change? I remember you having some difficulty with that.”

Fext shook her head. “No, it appears that’s a part of me. Father said not to be surprised if I couldn’t do it, and it seems that I cannot. I suppose I should spend more time thinking about what role I’m going to take, as there can’t be too many ‘blind-in-the-left-eye’ equines walking around one place at the same time.”

“Or you could wear a hat!” Lamia chimed in excitedly. When Kishi and Fext gave her incredulous looks, Lamia added, “Or change your mane to cover your eye.”

Fext thought about it. “Yeah, I suppose that could work. I’m going to head back out and check on Acheri again. She hasn’t moved in hours. Anyone interested in coming with me?”

Kishi and Lamia both became suddenly interested in the floor, so Fext sighed. “Fine, Whatever. But when father and Roddi finish whatever they’re doing, Chakora will probably be glad to see you.”

Walking back outside, Fext noticed that not only was Acheri not in her spot and that the barricade had dissolved from the doorway. Poking her head inside the room carefully, she saw Acheri and Father standing over a table on one side of the room, and Roddi leaning against the wall opposite them.

Roddi walked over to Fext. “Come in dear, but please be quiet. Chakora is sleeping.” Roddi led Fext over to the bed where Chakora lay on her back.

Fext drew in a sharp breath but her eyes stayed locked on what lay in front of her. Chakora looked even more mangled than normal. Her rear legs looked like crushed stone roughly reassembled to look like legs. Green seeped from everywhere and coated the table, with a small puddle on the floor. Fext leaned in a little closer, and saw that there were narrow bands of steel, apparently under Chakora’s shell as well as small metal rivets poking out of her skin.

Fext gently nudged her father. “Are those...uh, metal things going to come out?”

He shook his head, and said in a whisper, “No, they are going to hold the steel rods in place as her legs heal. Hopefully, they will be barely noticeable once Chakora fully recovers. But its going to be a while before that happens.” He turned to Acheri. “Am I to assume you’ll be staying in here to watch over her?”

He turned to Roddi and put an arm around her, leading them out the door. “Come with me, I’m very tired and I need a pillow. We can crash in their room.”

Fext turned from Acheri and squeaked, “Hey! That’s my room!”

Acheri turned her head and hissed, “Quiet!”

Fext nodded a quick apology and ran out of the room and back to hers where Roddi and her father were already laying down. Fext approached slowly, and asked, “Where am I supposed to sleep?”

He patted the straw next to him. “You can stay with us, unless you’re scared.”

Fext thought about it momentarily before settling down and snuggling up next to them. Her father was laying his head on Roddi’s stomach, and he reached out an arm to bring Fext in close as he fell asleep.

Back in the other room, Chakora had woken up and stared into the smiling face of Acheri. Chakora managed a weak smile of her own but little else.

Acheri sighed, reaching out a hoof to pet Chakora’s head. She smiled and said softly, “I’m so glad you made it, sister. Don’t scare me like that again.”

…

Chakora stayed in bed for several days. Acheri barely left Chakora’s side, moving only to stretch and to let Father inspect Chakora and make small adjustments to her legs. Chrysalis had been coming by less and less as their abilities grew and they did not need her in such close proximity.

Chakora, meanwhile, spent most of her time sleeping and occasionally reading from a book that Acheri would bring. She had been forbidden to practice changing or flying for fear it might disrupt the healing process, but keeping Chakora lying flat and still was becoming increasingly difficult as time went on.

When everyone (save Acheri, of course) had left or gone to sleep, Chakora would sneak out of bed and put a little weight on her legs. At first the pain was too much but as time progressed into weeks she was getting better and better. Acheri constantly praised her for her efforts, but few else would come and visit.

Trying to change one day, Father walked in on both of them. Chakora stared blankly at him. “Oh, uh….hi?”

He smirked. “I knew I couldn’t keep you down forever. Lets see how you’re doing, eh? How’s the pain?”

Chakora walked around the room, albeit somewhat stiffly. “Hardly any,” she said confidently.

He nodded. “Uh-huh, and how about running?”

“Ooh, I have not tried that,” Chakora responded. “But I’m getting better at flying, even with the extra weight.” She fluttered her wings and buzzed about the room for a minute before settling back down.

He nodded again. “So lets see how well you change.”

Chakora closed her eyes and focused. Just like his own method, purple fur sprouted from her body and covered her shell. a bright green mane burst forth from the top of her head and spilled down her shoulders.

He smiled. “Not bad at all. The pins in your leg are barely noticeable. Although, its good habit to always pop in a cutie mark when you do equine forms. Not having one as an adult is a dead giveaway and worse, attracts attention to yourself.”

“Yes, of course Father,” Chakora said, letting her disguise fall away. “I’ve also been getting better at picking up on emotions from farther away. Mother no longer needs to be in the room.”

He smiled again and walked over to Chakora. “I’m very proud of you. You have come so far in such a short time.” He leaned and kissed her head. “Speaking of Chrysalis, I have to go see her.”

Acheri cocked her head to the side. “Why don’t you just wait for her to come to us?”

“A couple of reasons, actually,” he said, starting to walk away from them. “As Chakora pointed out, Chrysalis is coming by less and less often, and additionally I think it would show Chrysalis that we are still very much here and active. And that we need to be given the opportunity to leave.”

Reaching the door, he paused for a moment, looking back at them. “Don’t worry girls. I’ll be back soon.”

With that he opened the doors to their hall, walked through, and shut them firmly behind him.