Page 47 of His Human Rebel

“Follow us, you’ll see.”

And then they leave. I wait a moment, and then follow after. I arrive in time and find Stella standing on the lawn, next to the pond, looking at the assembled party. When we arrived everyone was out front, or inside of the house, and they kept this part secret from her.

“What is this?”

I walk up and whisper in Stella’s ear, “This is the real reason why we're here.”

“But I thought this was for a celebration of the end of rainy season.”

Margaret Smith walks up and stands next to Stella “No. We’re all here to witness a ceremony that makes Gavin a legal part of this Flagstone family.”

“You knew?” she says to her mother.

“Gryce told me.”

“It's not just a welcome ceremony, though we always have those when a new infant joins our family,” my father says. “Erid and the judge are here to make this one legal.”

My mother walks up and hands Gavin back to Stella and then she steps back.

I place my hand on the small of Stella’s back and the three of us walk up to where both Erid and the county judge are standing, next to the pond.

They take turns saying the language of the ancients, that ties families in the wildlands together. And then they add language at the end to make it legal for a Hyrrokin to adopt a human.

“Do you, Stella Flagstone, take our family as part of yours and allow us to make your son part of our family?”

“I do.”

“Rake Flagstone, did you say the vows when this child was born?”

“I cut the umbilical cord and vowed then to this child that I was his father.”

“Gavin Flagstone is now the legal heir to Rake Flagstone.”

And that’s when I take out the tiny handheld burner I crafted for my son and I show it to the assembled Hyrrokin as proof that my son will have the ability to defend himself.

“What is this?” my female questions.

“This is Gavin’s flame. He will never be able to flash flame, but he will always carry the ability to flame.”

There is thunderous applause and whistles from the crowd.

Chapter 16

Rake

My tablet blinks red with a vid message from Erid. “Rake, there’s a whole contingent of male and female humans who have arrived at the transporter station. They claim to have leave to arrive, free of charge, due to legality? They are here to find Stella Smith.”

We are still at the main ranch, but it is now later in the day. Many beings have left, returning home. Many have returned to work. But I am now sitting in chairs with family, in front of a fire pit.

Heh. I let out a deep grunt. “There is no Stella Smith here any longer.”

“Do you want me to play dumb and get rid of them?”

I glance over at my bound who was listening in to this conversation. “What do you want to do, Stella?”

“This is so weird. I can’t believe they are people here from my former town. It’s got to be the mayor and town council. Possibly members of the school board and maybe even the principal. They don’t scare me. I wouldn’t mind them coming out here though and seeing how this life they thought that would be awful for me, has turned out so well. Also, I’m curious why they’ve come all this way. It’s been about seven months since I left so what do they even care anymore? Well, it is close to the start of the next school year. That’s all I can think of as to why they’d care to come out here and find me.”

I hand the baby back to her to hold. “I’ll go get them. You stay here.”

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