Lena stopped folding the cloth.
She looked at Valerie with a flat expression... then clicked her tongue softly.
"Seriously?"
Her tone shifted into sothing halfway between teasing and disbelief.
"What exactly have you been doing all these months?"
Ethan, who was standing near the window, imdiately let out a short laugh.
Lena continued in the sa tone.
"Your stomach has been growing bigger every week, you knew this baby was coming, and you didn’t prepare even a single na?"
Valerie lowered her gaze slightly.
Her hand slowly stroked the soft fur along the baby’s back.
Her movents were very careful... as if she feared the small creature might be too fragile for this world.
"I thought of a few nas," she said quietly.
"But..."
Her sentence trailed off.
Lena narrowed her eyes a little.
"But?"
Valerie was silent for quite a while before finally speaking again.
Her voice was so soft it nearly disappeared beneath the sound of the fire in the stove.
"I once dread..."
She looked down at the small baby.
Her eyes began to glisten.
"...that his father would be the one to na him."
The room suddenly beca very quiet.
Ethan stopped moving near the window.
Lena didn’t respond imdiately either.
Valerie gave a small smile a smile too calm for sothing that carried such quiet bitterness.
"I dread that one day... I would stand in front of him while holding this baby."
Her arms tightened slightly around the small furred body.
"And he would see his child for the first ti... and give him a na."
The little baby stirred slightly, letting out a small whimper before curling back against her chest.
Valerie closed her eyes for a mont.
Then she opened them again, looking at the baby with a gaze that was both gentle and sad.
"But it turns out..."
Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
"...that dream will never co true."
Lena looked at her for a long mont.
She knew Valerie was not saying everything.
But she also knew... so wounds did not need to be forced into explanation.
At last Lena let out a quiet sigh.
"Then we’ll give him a temporary na for now," she said.
Ethan imdiately turned.
"A temporary na?"
Lena shrugged.
"Yes. Until his mother stops dreaming about his father."
Valerie let out a small breath.
But this ti there was a faint trace of laughter at the end of it.
The small black-furred baby suddenly lifted his head slightly.
His faint gray eyes opened wider.
And for a mont... he looked directly toward the window.
As if sothing in a very distant part of the world had just called to him.
The days after the birth passed slowly, like a winter reluctant to end.
Snow still covered the small village almost every morning. The rooftops were thick with white, and a thin mist often lingered between the old trees at the edge of the forest.
Inside Lena’s wooden house, a new life began to form with a quiet rhythm.
Valerie was still recovering. Her body had not yet fully regained its strength after the long struggle of giving birth to Morvex blood, but day by day she could sit a little longer, walk a few steps farther, and breathe without the sharp pain that had once pierced her chest.
Most of her ti was spent in the chair beside the window.
And in her lap there was always one small creature that never strayed far from her.
The baby.
A child of Morvex blood.
His small body was still covered in soft black fur like a moonless night. His tiny ears often twitched whenever he heard a sound, and his little nose constantly sniffed the air with endless curiosity.
But the strangest thing the baby seed to... understand.
Whenever Valerie spoke to him, his small eyes would lift.
Whenever Valerie smiled, the baby would make a small sound like a soft growl that almost sounded like a response.
Sotis he even crawled slowly across Valerie’s lap, then curled up there like a wolf cub that had found its den.
And within those quiet days, Valerie kept thinking about one thing.
A na.
She often stared at the baby for a long ti.
Sotis whispering a few nas that ca to her mind.
But every ti she tried one, it never felt quite right.
As if the na had not yet been found.
One morning, when the pale winter light slipped gently through the window, Valerie sat in her chair with the small baby in her lap.
His black fur glimred softly under the morning light.
She stroked the little back carefully.
"Lena..."
Valerie’s voice broke the quiet.
Lena, who was mixing sothing at the kitchen table, looked over.
"What is it?"
Valerie hesitated for a mont before finally asking,
"Will he... stay like this?"
Lena raised an eyebrow.
"Like what?"
Valerie looked down at the baby.
"Furry... and shaped like this."
The question lingered in the air for a few seconds.
Lena was silent for a mont before finally sighing.
"No."
She walked closer, wiping her hands that still slled faintly of herbs.
"I don’t know when the change will happen," she admitted honestly. "But you can see what his father looks like now."
The na was not spoken, but everyone in the room knew who she ant.
Demian.
Lena continued in a casual tone,
"He looks like a proper human."
Valerie lowered her gaze slightly, looking at the baby again.
The little baby suddenly lifted his head, his ears twitching slightly, then he made a short sound that sounded almost like a protest.
As if he did not like being discussed.
From near the window, Ethan who had been cleaning his fishing tools suddenly spoke.
"To be honest..."
He looked at the small black-furred baby with a half-confused expression.
"Maybe this is why the baby should actually be with his father."
Valerie and Lena imdiately turned to look at him.
Ethan shrugged.
"I’m serious."
He pointed at the small black-furred baby.
"How are we supposed to know how he’ll grow if we don’t even know what’s normal for a Morvex baby?"
He scratched his head.
"At least if he were with his father, we could see how those changes happen."
The room fell silent again.
Valerie didn’t answer imdiately.
Her hand continued to stroke the small back of her baby.
Then slowly she lifted her face and looked at Lena.
"Is there soone I could ask?"
Lena tilted her head slightly.
"Soone?"
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