Originally Submitted to FurAffinity.net on June 2nd, 2013 04:27 PM. Before it was transferred to Inkbunny it had 179 views and 10 favorites.
It had been nearly nine years after that day with the feline mage. Saldura found hirself heavy with his child, but shi did not search for him. Shi wasn't the first single mother in the wastes, and those that have tried looking for their child's father often find a corpse, or someone not looking to be found.
Saldura was lucky to have found a wandering medic when shi became too gravid to go searching the streets on hir own. Weeks later, shi birthed a healthy baby girl, with hir stripes, and the mage's spots. It wasn't known if she had any magical abilities (Hell, Saldura still didn't know that the person shi laid with was a mage), but she was healthy and alive, more than enough to bring tears of joy into any mother's eyes.
Of course, the medic wasn't about to keep the badger around forever, and a few days after the birth, Saldura was back out on in the wastes. Shi found hirself going between parties of scavengers, needing a few extra eyes as shi found hirs more more preoccupied with hir child, Brynhildr, named after the Valkyrie. Bryn never spoke, though her muteness was from no physical deformity, and as far as anyone could tell, she didn't show any mental retardation, she just was quiet.
But, one day Saldura was out alone with hir eight year old child. They were checking a new town, seeing if there was any old tech or new growths and food around the place. Unfortunately the two triggered a bandit ambush. Saldura pushed Bryn into an alley, fighting off the main waves as hir daughter ran into the back streets.
A secondary wave of bandits were closing in through those back streets, ready to flank the badger, but first coming across the child. "Hey, she looks good. Bet we'd catch quite a haul for this one," an ermine bandit grinned. They weren't normal bandits, these were slavers, ready to put Saldura in hard labour for the rest of hir days. Brynhildr? Well, children often fetched a very large price from certain sick individuals.
Three slavers made their way to the unarmed child, zipties at the ready. Something unseen started to grow from her head, something not visible to the naked, normal eye, save for an inkling of an appearance of something that defies sight. Those with the gift can see the manifestations of psychokenetic limbs easily, but for the three bandits, they could only see the outcome. The first one, the ermine, his head was squeezed like an orange, messily sending brain and gore through the magical fingers. The other two bandits stood in shock before one was picked up, thrown against his compatriot into a wall, the sick sounds of their spines snapping against each other like twigs was the only noise before they slumped to the ground in a heap.
Saldura made hir way back, finding hir daughter, standing quietly before the three bodies.
metal
