Through the Looking Glass

Chapter 2: Welcome

Hush little baby don't say a word,
Mama's gonna buy you a mocking bird.
If that mocking bird don't sing,
Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring.
And if that diamond ring turns to brass,
Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass.
-Ancient Earth children's lullaby

Kallianax hummed happily as she walked though the ship not noticing the odd looks she was receiving from the crew. Walking into the briefing chamber she found her husband going over plans. He turned when he heard her approach and had to do a double take at the creature she held in her arms.

"Kal...what is that?"

"It's a baby."

"And where did you get a baby?"

"I found him."

Thor shook his head, "And where's its mother?"

"Dead."

"And did you kill her?"

"Yes, but that was before I found about him. Isn't he sweet?"

Thor winced as the child let out a shrill yell and started crying, "It's loud."

"'He', not 'it' and I think he's hungry."

Thor raised an eyebrow as he watched his wife dumb a diaper bag on top of his papers.

"Where'd you get that?"

"I found it."

He rolled his eyes, "Yes, you find a lot of things, now where?"

"In his room."

Thor pulled open the bag wider as Kallianax went through it. She had packed it with clothes, diapers, powder, and bottles. He watched as she took a bottle and held it to the baby's mouth which he started suckling immediately.

"See? I told you he was hungry."

"What do you want?"

"Can I keep him?"

The Fleet Marshall folded his arms and looked down at his wife, she was giving him that innocent honey sweet smile of hers.

"You want to keep a child from another pride?"

She smiled, "Think of it this way, we could raise a child from another pride as one of our own. Think of him as our own little experiment. I mean: do the other prides really breed for specific traits? How much of him will be genetic and the other learned? Nature vs. Nurture, my love. I'm kind of curious...besides it's not like I'll have children any other way. And I want children Thor, this could be my only chance...and just look at him, he's too cute to kill."

"No he's not."

"Oh be nice! Besides he's roughly the same age as Cuchulain, give or take a month or two, that boy could use a new playmate."

Thor rubbed the bridge of his nose. This is what he got for taking a sterile wife, if she couldn't have children of her own she'd take one from somebody else.

"Fine, but he's your problem," said Thor watching Kallianax, this answer rewarded him with a huge smile and that laugh he loved so much. He ran a hand through her hair before leaving to the bridge. He had the rest of a planet to take over.

Kallianax was in heaven, she finally had a child to call her own. A child she could raise according to her own morals and guidance instead of going by the other co-wives ways of disciplining their children. Thor had made her so happy like he always did. She took the empty bottle from her new child.

"Did you hear that Telemachus?" she said as she raised him to eye-level, "Welcome to Drago-Kazov Pride."