She stared at him. He cooed back at her.

She poked him. He started to frown.

“Oh, no, hush, hush, hush,” she whispered, picking him up and clutching him to her chest. He made a few cackling cries before groaning a bit and quieting down.

“I don’t know what to do with you,” she said aloud. Heartless rummaged through her bag and pulled out a water bottle, offering it to the baby. The baby drank a bit and started to cry again.

“I don’t have any milk,” she muttered, “I just don’t.”

She had cloistered herself and Seren on the third floor of a building in a back room with a broken window, long blackened from dirt and grime. The only door to the room was carefully shut, a random occurrence in a long hallway. The room itself had been emptied, and there were only some remnants of a carpet that might have been blue once.

Wind whistled through the buildings and drifted into the window. The rain had long stopped, and the air was growing colder into the early morning. The sky was still dark.

Heartless held the baby close to her, feeling the burning heat of his body. She took out some of the hard bread in her bag and sucked on it, moistening it with her saliva.

“Here, try this,” she said, dribbling a little bit into his mouth. He was so little; he had no teeth. Heartless sighed.

“I don’t know…I don’t know how to help you. I don’t know where Peter’s Square is.” Seren cooed at her and nuzzled her finger for more bread mush.

She fed him until he refused more.

He fell asleep as she held him.

Heartless touched his nose. She traced his hot fingers with her cold ones, producing a wisp of steam.

“Just like Aeneas…” she murmured, “All ten fingers. No hooves though. And a lot smaller. Weaker. You wouldn’t survive either.”

Her ears twitched. Footsteps were in the hallway.

She set the baby down at her feet carefully and stood with morning star in hand, facing the door.

One set sounded heavy, slow and large. Two more sets of footsteps were light and skittish. Or, it was one creature with six legs, but Heartless heard speech.

“…Too many times….”

“What?...I don’t…

“Shh….” Heartless bent her knees and drew herself up to her highest height.

“Did you hide it in this one?”

“No, no, I don’t think so. But…maybe.”

“You have to remember next time. We don’t want to be searching every room in these places.”

“At least I remember the floor.” Air went still for a brief moment.

Two heedless lizards swung the door open. They froze and lifted their eyes up to meet hers. She snorted.

“Fuck. It’s a unicorn.”

The two dragons backed up slowly towards the door, pointing their sharp sticks towards her.

“Bill! Bill! Better call the team!” one of them cried out behind them. Heartless stood, poised with her morning star in hand, eyes wide and darting. She snorted loudly and stomped repeatedly.

“Hurry up! I think she’s calling the rest of ‘em.” Her hooves blocked the infant concealed in her shirt right behind her. She glanced down at him, sleeping and stirring and shifting. She glanced back at the dragons and glared.

“Stay there, you damned creature,” warned the lizard on the left. He was blue colored with two ridges over his head. The other one was green with infantile wings hanging loosely on his back.

Heartless jerked her head to one side and watched the window to her right.

Up behind the dragons appeared another dragon, a gryphon, and a golem.

“Aw, damn. There’s gotta be more than this one, then. Unis never travel alone.” Heartless slammed the butt of her morning star against the wall behind her, causing light debris and dust to fall from the ceiling. The golem started towards her, but the green dragon pulled him away.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing with his spear to the bundle at her feet. Her eyes went wide, and she slammed the butt again at the wall.

“Cowardly lizards, so afraid to fight me that you need a golem to help?” she cried out, stomping her foot on the ground so hard more dust and debris fell. Seren started to cry, steam rising up from the bundle of clothes. Heartless glanced at the window again and back at the group.

“Is…is that a baby?” the green lizard asked as the other two dragons moved in closer to her. Heartless stepped forward, brow furrowed, nostrils flared.

“Do…hey, unicorns don’t bring babies with them. I’ve never seen one. Never seen a baby,” the green lizard murmured.

“Screw it. Let’s just kill her and get out of here.”

“No…look, that isn’t a unicorn baby.”

“What? It looks like…is it?”

“Do you think?”

Heartless snorted.

“Are we waiting for something? Let us battle!” she cried, but she took no further movement. The green dragon lowered his spear.

“My name is Ryuu. What is your name?” he asked.

Snorting, she replied, “I am Heartless of the Bloodfury clan. Daughter of Bloodthirsty and of Terror of the Bloodfury clan. Which of you shall I take on first?”

Ryuu cocked his head, farther than a normal person’s neck would allow, and lengthened his neck.

“Heartless, you’re alone…aren’t you? No normal unicorn would have a phoenix baby with them.” Her lips twitched.

“What’s the baby’s name? Did the fairies send you?” he asked, raising his spear again. Heartless spat on the ground.

“Drug abusing, nasty lot of them. Fairies…I would never mingle with such creatures.” Ryuu nodded and gave a signal to the golem.

“Seri…ously?” the golem asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Yes, yes. Let’s do it,” Ryuu replied, motioning towards Heartless.

“We battle?” Heartless asked, stepping forward again, glancing back at the window. The golem reached out his arms, and Heartless lodged her morning star into the golem’s arm and could not pull hard enough to thrust it out again. She abandoned the weapon, scooped up Seren, and leapt to the window, but the other dragon had blocked it. She kicked out at him, swiping his side, so he tripped towards the door, but he managed to stab her with his spear.

She roared and clutched Seren tightly in one arm and pulled the spear out of her side. And she jumped down the window, free falling towards the ground. Pulling the baby into her chest, she used her opposite hand to claw at the walls, grasping ledges, window hangings, anything she could see. She bent her legs as she landed on the ground, flopping to the side.

Tears fell from her eyes as she pulled herself to her feet, her opposite arm limply hanging, and she ran further away from the building and through an alleyway across the street. Head whipping around, she threw open a door and dashed inside, knocking over empty chairs and broken pots.

She tripped, covering the baby, and crashing to the ground on her loose shoulder. Screaming, the baby was ripped from her arms. A gryphon bound her arms as she wailed. Something like a rock hit her in the head. Her mind went dark.