Flashback: while Rex goes off on his own, Bellsi reminisces

As Bellsi watches Rexus leave, she thinks back to when she first met her adopted son. Humans really do grow so much faster than elves, she thinks, kneading her hands. Not so long ago, he was...

It all started one day when Bacchus came home with an unusual basket in his arms.

Looking at the oddity her husband was carrying, Bellsi cocked an eyebrow. "Did Mrs. Do'Pat bake too much bread again?"

Bachus shook his head. "I found this near the edge of the forest. Just take a look," he replied, handing her the basket with care.

Her eyes widened as she looked inside the basket. "Oh my... He's... Beautiful," she gasped as she gazed upon a human infant. He couldn't have been more than a week old... So soft and fragile--He looks as though he'd break at my touch.

Bacchus smiled as his wife gazed fondly at the child, but then his look turned more solemn. "Now... Don't get too attached, my dear. We need to at least try to find his parents--"

"NO--No," Bellsi almost started shouting, but stopped short for fear of waking the sleeping child. She looked at her husband like a child whose parents just said they can't keep the stray kitten.

Having expected that response, Bacchus continues: "He's a human, my love. Probably Avarian. Even if we don't find his parents, it might not be the best idea to raise him in an elven village."

"B-but I'm sure we can make it work. We can't send him back to parents that already aban--"

Bacchus cuts her off: "We don't know for sure what happened, and... And..." His resolve begins to wither under his wife's pleading gaze. "...Look, that Avarian merchant's in town. We'll send a notice with him, and if no one responds after a few months, then... We'll ford that river when it's upon us. Agreed?"

Bellsi's face lit up at this, as she had no doubt that no one would come for the child. Surely the Goddess must have left this child to us? And now that he's ours, she'd never take him away? Her mind was made up as soon as she'd lifted that blanket: she was now the boy's mother.

Bacchus was infertile due to wounds he'd suffered from a bandit attack in his traveling days. And while the couple had talked about adopting, opportunities were rare in elven society: elves had few children, and rarely abandoned them. Outside of wartime, orphans were practically unheard of in most elven settlements.

As Bellsi dreamed about motherhood, her eyes widened at a certain realization. "Bacchus, dear? How... How do we feed this child?" The boy was clearly too young for Solid food, and Bellsi wasn't exacty brimming with milk.

A few houses down the road, in a shop full of bottles of all shapes and sizes, a red-haired elven woman was in deep concentration. Her steady hands hovered above a bubbling pot, poised to tip a vial full of glowing fluid into the--

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

"Sikadun," the woman swore, just barely catching the vial before it fell into the pot. Sighing and placing it aside, she walked to the door. "We're closed for today--"

"Nono, please--Nol, it's me!"

"Hm? Is that you, Bell?" Opening the door, she raised an eyebrow at the far-taller elf. "What's wrong?"

"I have this baby--A boy, a beautiful boy, and I--I need milk. Or something like milk," Bellsi stammered, hurrying inside as soon as Nol opened the door further. "Do you have any?"

"What? A baby? Oh dear--Right, yes, of course. Come in. And calm down," she finished with a smile, patting Bellsi on the shoulder.

Bellsi followed her friend deeper into the alchemy shop. Nol was the closest thing she had to a sister, and the only person she could trust with this kind of situation. While the alchemist appeared to be much younger than Bellsi, she was in fact several years older: while elven alchemy was typically more advanced than that of humans, it was not without risk. Nol took those risks eagerly and often, and one such experiment left her looking less than half her age--She appeared to be an elven thirty-year-old, roughly equivalent to a human of no more than twenty.

"You can set him down there," Nol said, gesturing at the table as she began searching her shelves. But as Bellsi placed Rexus on the table, she glanced over and raised an eyebrow. "Bell... I know how upset you were when I couldn't fix Bacchus's infertility, but..."

"But what?"

"You can't just go around stealing human children!"

"No, that's not--He came to me. I swear it." She stroked Rexus's head gently.

Nol gave her a sly grin. "Okay, okay. So you found this human boy, and now you need milk so it doesn't die, but... Then what?"

"Then I raise him, just as the Goddess intended."

A bemused smile still on her face, Nol opened her mouth to tease her old friend more--Then reconsidered. She was adopted herself, after all, taken in by Bellsi's parents when she was only six. "Sit tight, Bell. We'll figure out something to feed the whelp."

"Like... A milk substitute?"

"Not exactly." Reaching into a box on a low shelf, Nol pulled out a large pearly-white bottle.

"Wait, wait--You're not going to turn me into a cow or something, are you?"

"There's an idea... But no," Nol chuckled. "Just a little lactation aid."

"And you just have that lying around?"

"Of course," Nol replied with a shrug. "I've done it plenty of times... Wet nurses, orphanage staff, mothers who need a little help... A few perverts... It's no healing potion, but it's common enough to keep in stock." As she talked, she twirled the oblong bottle deftly between her fingers.

"Well..." Bellsi looks down at the baby. "I bet you'll be hungry when you wake, mm?"

"One drop every two hours works like a charm. I'll give you, say, four crates--Enough to last until he's on solid food." She paused for a moment, then shook her head. "No, wait--He's human! Just a few bottles should do it. They age quick, and he's..." She stares at Rexus for a moment, then shrugs. "You should be fine after a month or two, I think."

Nol offers Bellsi the bottle, and the apparently-older woman takes a sip. "Thank you, Nol... Really. You've saved me again," she says, picking Rexus up. "How can I--"

"Don't worry about it," she says, tucking two more bottles into her friend's arms. "Just leave me to work, mm? And keep that boy out of trouble."

"Thank you very much. Say thank you, Rexus!" Bellsi moved the baby's hand for him, making a little wave.

"...Wah," Rexus cooed softly, eyes half-closed.

"I think he likes you, Nol!"

"Of course he does! Now remember: if he wakes up hungry, feed him. Then burp him. Then... Well, I'm not quite sure about the rest. Maybe we'll have to find you a book on raising humans?" She grinned.

"I'll manage," Bellsi replied with a smile of her own, before leaving the shop.

Her arms and heart full, she returned to a home that was forever changed.