Aberrant: The Middle Children of History - Spring in her step, father found

[Wakinyan]

A peaceful year had occured since his return, not that he had expected bloodshed but things went along at a pace that pleased him. The fact the U.S. Government had given a large portion of the the Black Hills and the entirety of the Grasslands National Park to stewardship of the Native American Council caused his heart to swell. How many other worlds had he fought for his people it almost became a blur. But this was his birthplace and wars could be won playing the Wasicu at their own game. Ptesan-Wi did not like it but her pride tended to be larger than his own which was something he had to admit. But it was working the determination of a people driven to the brink was slowly turning it’s culture aclimated and strong for the twenty first century age.

The meeting had gone longer than he had liked but it had finally broke at noon. Wakinyan wandered the central routunda of the Native American Museum in something close to what had once been his human form. A few modifications here and there to make him look older since he was sixteen when that form had became his other larger self. Still even changing skin could not hide all of what he truly was his irises still crackled with strands of lightning. Though his simple presence in a room went further to tell people what he was more than any visual display. Some steered clear of him others would pay him a deep respect but over all ‘unapproachable’ seemed the norm in his wandering around the museum. So when he finally took a step outside he breathed a slight sigh of relief. His nostril filled with the scents of Washington. From the thousands of people on the National Mall to the spring cherry blossoms. Even with all that he did not become overwhelmed long ago he had grown accustomed to his senses. With a walk down the steps he turned and walked along the crunching stone walkway toward the Smithsonian castle. People watching was a luxury he did not get much of anymore and he enjoyed it.

Listening to conversations here and there his attention drifted toward a large group of highschool age kids as he neared the air and space museum. Their conversations were what you expected from a fifty fifteen or sixteen year olds but something held his attention in the crowd. A scent? Enough of something to look through the crowd until he saw it. A pretty girl sitting on the waist high wall amidst the chaos of teenagers. Complete in school uniform she was staring at him but that wasn’t unusual what was unusual was her smile a ‘I know something you don’t know’ smile. Her eyes caught his attention immediately. Heterochromia one iris was like his a sparking silver wreath of electricity surrounding her pupil. The other was a lusterous red hue with a slit pupil. Both could be NovaEyez but still it was an usual combination and they now were staring directly at him with an unusual intensity to them.

He wasn’t one to back down from a stare down but the moment his expression hardened the girl looked away. Carefully brushing a lock of her deep red hair tipped in midnight black behind an ear. She was a Nova, he told himself before he even used his senses to double check it. She was supressing her node but he could still feel it. Her odd eyes flitted back to him and she smiled again hoping off the rock wall and coming toward him. He could sense an apprehension to her like she was on the verge of doing something. Attacking? No, something.... 'Hopefully not a Juri' he thought to himself as she stopped short of him by only a step and found the quartz gravel they stood on very interesting. “Hi...” She said cheerfully getting the courage to look up into his eyes. The cheer then mixed with an uncertainty as the next word followed.. “Dad.”

[Ptesan-Wi]

There was a time when the young woman who lived in a cave would have been shocked to hear what she now heard from the mind of her mate. She and he had certainly seen their share of squabbles in the past regarding his tendencies toward infidelity. Indeed, she'd placed his moccasins outside the hide flap that served as the door to their home on more than one occasion.

But that was before. Before she felt him fly off like the wrath of Wakan-Tanka toward Wounded Knee. Before some damned wasicu had pointed billions of dollars of hardware in his direction and swatted him and the land itself so hard that the blast could be seen from space. Before she'd spent long seasons alone, mourning, trying to continue to guide the Lakota to a bright new future without their great protector. And before he returned, like a miracle, his mind once more with hers, the wild and beautiful mind she'd first seen when she was just a child.

Now, Ptesan-Wi felt his surprise with a hint of a smile showing at the corners of her lips. While she knew that Wakinyan was too stunned to quite realized it yet, her own mind was faster by far, and knew that now her nova mate had something that he'd sacrificed long ago to be with her: a nova child.

Hand-made bowls and various ingredients were already moving through the air around her when she sent to him, *I'll set another place for supper, mihinga-ki. I'd like to meet the new addition to our family.*

[Wakinyan]

It took a lot these days to catch him off guard. Maybe that was part of the experience of getting older or because of all that he had saw in the time he had been a nova. Still, the pretty young girl looking at him with an expectant hope in her two very different eyes had actually made him miss a beat. But he would not let her wait or wonder or fill with doubt.

"Hmm, you like coffee?" He said pointing at a starbucks in the dining annex of the Air and Space Museum. "Something cold I am thinking today since it's so warm."

*One step at a time.* He noted to his wife as he watched the girl nod happily. He turned and took the girls paler hand which seemed to shock her. "Wait, just like that?" She said brushing her hair from her eyes again. "Just like what?" He said as he started up the steps with her in tow. "I mean some strange girl comes up says daddy and you just accept it." Wakinyan laughed his bright eyes looking at her with amusement. "You think I cannot tell who you are just because we had not met until now. I can see you are mine just as I can see you are hers. Though honestly I am impressed I did not know you existed until this moment." He sighed as he opened the door for the slightly bewildered girl. "Of course everyone thinking you are dead might make it difficult for someone to tell you you have a daughter."

The girl was much more cheerful than he imagined she would be. One would think the offspring of such beastial Novas would themselves be that way but she wasn't. "I do have a lot of questions though and I am sure you have a few for me since you sought me out. Oh wait..." He looked back over his shoulder. "Were you really in that school group? I had not even thought about it." The teenager smile and nodded. "Yep I wanted to go to school so I am. Don't worry though they think I am still there it's a trick I learned for days I don't really feel like being there."

With a shake of his head Wakinyan turned to order. "I am guessing Mocha with chocolate drizzle." He said eyeing the board. "You haven't even asked me my name yet dad." The girl scolded and then sighed. "Yes you are right." Clicking his tongue he ordered and then turned back. "Well then. What is your name 'Beautiful daughter I didn't know I had until five minutes ago'. We won't use that as your tribal name though so don't worry."

Those eyes came to her fathers once more and she smiled with more knowing than a child of her age should posses in her features. "Kwekwaxawe Bennu. People just call me..."

"Raven..." The father finished his daughters sentence as she gave him a happy smile and a nod. Wakinyan suddenly realized he might not have ever been in this much trouble in his whole life.

[Wakinyan]

He watched her stir the straw. Her eyes watching him with a happy expression that touched on relief and apprehension. "So..

" She said trying to show a sudden interest in the iced coffee in front of her. "Why did you and mom get together in the first place."

Wakinyan smiled, "I tried to do a lot of getting together in those days." He paused taking a drink of his own beverage. "That's not being honest to you though is it. No your mother was... is, very special to me."

"How can she still be its been over a decade since you saw her?"

He clicked his tongue. "Come on.. Feelings don't evaporate like that, true feelings anyway. Your mom and I have something special. Despite our appetites for others it always came back to us. And... She helped me at the beginning, only a few people did. Most told me to hide what was inside me. She was the first person to tell me to embrace it. Her and your great grandfather."

Raven took this in with nod her brilliant eyes focusing on nothing.

"Well while you chew on that. Why did you decide to come to me now?"

"You were dead dad."

"Sure but it's been over a year since.."

"I had to be sure it was really you..."

"Fair." He acknowledged. "And why did you never introduce yourself to Ptesan-Wi?"

Giving a goofy expression the young girl crossed her eyes. "Hello wife of my dad. I am the love child he had with the psycho snake girl he kept on the side! I am sure it would have went over well."

Wakinyan chuckled then broke into a laugh. "Well I think it would have gone over better than you thought, but I understand."

[Ptesan-Wi]

*Her apprehension is understandable,* Ptesan-Wi's "voice" said in his mind, *but I am not so naïve as I once was.* A brief shared vision showed the landmark Las Vegas strip, and he could as much feel as hear the chuckle that followed.

*She should come here to visit. She is of the People, and should come to know what that truly means.* More than Wakinyan ever had, his mate pursued the Old Ways, and it was no surprise that she would want his daughter - her step-daughter - to learn of them at the heart of the Lakota nation.

[Wakinyan]

Wakinyan acknowledged his wife's intention without a word as he watched the young teenager finish her drink with gusto. Once again she brushed her red and black bangs from her eyes still flashing her brilliant grin.

"Well I suppose we can meet now right. I mean she won't hate me..." She fished for an answer he knew. "Oh no. She has already made it clear to me she wants you to come out to the house." The father said taping the side of his head.

Nodding again Raven seemed to flow onward the way young person does from one question to the next. "So how come you aren't in your big bad form?"

"Big bad?" He snorted. "Well let me ask you this. Why aren't you in your true form. I can tell that's not it." She shuffled her feet amd Wakinyan continued so she knew he was not mad. "It's hard to fit into meeting rooms and..." He gestured. "Coffee bars when you are half as big as the room itself."

"That makes sense." She agreed as he himself finished his drink and stood. "Well I tell you. Why don't we go outside and you can see your true father."

The lightning in Raven's eyes sparked brightly as she hoped to her feet. "I would like that a lot!" Tossing her drink away the girl was at the door and outside before Wakinyan tossed his own cup away, following her with a bright smile of his own.

*Far more chipper than I would have expected. I will invite her soon. Let's see how this plays out.* He said to his wife through their link. Wakinyan followed his girl onto the broad green grass of the National Mall about to cause a commotion.