There are about 1200 words left in this story but there was no even break. So, this one is a little shorter and the conclusion tomorrow will be a little longer. Such happens.

I finally have two days off in a row from DayJob; I swear those people do not know what “part-time employee” means. I also now have two more short ideas to round out my next collection. Oh, yes… it will be called “Imperial Entanglements.” That title is, of course, borrowed from somewhere else. I invite guesses.

Enjoy my content? Buy me a beer! 

Her eyes opened.  A hospital bed where Daddy works.  Looks like dusk outside.  Uh, oh… he really looks mad.

“Aurelia,” Gary Hartmann, demi-human and doctor, said.

“Father,” she replied.

“What you did was reckless, both in attacking those two and also taxing your nervous system,” he said in a tone neither good nor bad.  “Your heart could have exploded.”

“I understand, father, and promise to be better.  Next time.”

“You think this will happen again?” he asked, still motionless next to her bed.

“Of course.  I shall follow your sister’s path and lead armies.  But, being a girl, I must have recourse to my lines and chemical improvements if faced with personal combat.  I shall make myself older about such things,” Aurelia replied.  “Was there anything else?”

“I, well, all of us are very proud of you, risking your life to save your friend,” he allowed.  “However, your mother told me something disturbing.”

“That I loved it,” she admitted.

“Yes.  Even for all of Fussy’s, er, the Empress’ campaigns, it was always a job, yes, a calling, for her.  But she never had bloodlust.” He sat on a backless rolling stool.  “You disobeyed a direct order from the head of your Sisterhood.  And, in doing so, scared some of them very badly.”

“Wait,” he said as she opened her mouth.  “There is talk of you being expelled.  That is almost unprecedented.”

“But,” she shook in astonishment, “but… they are my Sisters!  I love them!  I just fought for one…!”

“Which is why,” the gentle voice of her mother, Henge, said from the doorway, “you must make them older.  It is a completely internal matter for you twelve and we grown-ups shall not interfere.”

With her burnished gold eyes and long, purple hair up in twin-tails, she was remarkably beautiful.  Because of what she was, in the low light of the room and the darkness outside the window, her skin gave off a pale, ethereal glow.  She took a few slow steps to the other side of the bed.

“You stopped me,” Aurie almost accused.

“Yes.  You are too young to feel what you felt,” her mother smiled.  “Your father, my beloved, and I have already had a spat over this.  And shall again, I’ve no doubt.  You have a great destiny, my daughter.  But it does not involve biting people.”

In a hospital bed with her parents next to her, that memory made her stomach flop a bit.

“Yeah, that was kinda gross,” she admitted.

“You shall rest here tonight,” her father announced, standing.

“But I feel fine!”

“And if I allow it,” he continued, ignoring her, “you will be discharged in the morning.  As your mother said, you have relationships to repair.  Come, Henge.”

“Wait!” Aurie cried, opening her arms.  “May I have a hug, please?”