Chapter 7

• Lyre watched them as he tried to understand why she was crying for his sake. It confused him to see someone acting sad over him.
• "Stop, you are making him nervous." The husband was the first to notice how uneasy he was.
• "Oh, I'm sorry, my dear." The wife forced a smile, "your state made me shed tears for you. I'm sorry, my darling."
• ********
• The next day, things were hectic for the family as they went from one police station to another.
• And the odd thing was no one knew who Lyre was.
• There was no record of his birth here.
• "What are we going to do?" The mother glanced back at Lyre, who has been busy admiring the things around him.
• Before he entered the car, it took him close to an hour, before he decided the car wasn't a shark.
• "He looks older than eighteen, we can't take him to an orphanage."
• "Yes." The mother glanced at Lyre, who wasn't paying attention to them but at the people who were walking around.
• He wondered if this was the human land his brothers spoke of.
• It doesn't seem different from theirs if you minus the humans' inability to turn into MERS and the strange things around.
• "Let's take him back to the hospital, and leave him there. His family might—"
• "How heartless can you be?" The wife narrowed her eyes at her husband. "How can you ask me to leave this poor, helpless boy at the hospital? Aren't you ashamed of yourself for thinking like that?"
• "What else do you propose we do? Our kids are waiting for us at home. There is no way we can spend another day in town looking for his family.
• It's late already, and we need to leave."
• "Let's take him with us." The wife glanced back at Lyre, who wasn't paying attention to them.
• His entire attention was focused on the window, and not on them.
• She felt sad for the mute, abused boy.
• "How can we take a stranger home when none of us knows who he is?"
• "Do you propose we leave him here? It's either we take him back or we continue searching until we find his family.
• Although, I don't want the family who did all this to him, to take him back. I think taking him home is the best option. At least, we can take care of him and make sure he's safe."
• "We are not taking him home. He's a stranger, love. We don't know if he's as innocent as he seemed."
• "What do you mean?" His wife narrowed her eyes at him. "How can you accuse someone as cute and harmless as this—"
• "Exactly! Do you think all those psychopaths who commit those hideous crimes you see on TV are hideous looking? No, they are as sweet and innocent looking as he is. And that's how they lure their victims!"
• "That's not true. This boy is harmless. He doesn't seem like one who can commit a crime." The wife glanced at Lyre, "we are taking him home, and that's final. If he turned out to be a serial killer, I will bear the brunt of all accusations."
• "Hmm."
• The husband looked like he wanted to argue more, but the expression on his wife's face, made him decide to keep things to himself.
• "Come on, let's take him home. We can't just leave him out here. Don't forget how we found him. He seemed to be running away from someone."
• "And that's enough reason not to take him back. What if he was running from the cops? Don't you think it's dangerous to take him in without knowing a thing about him?"
• "I don't think so. He doesn't seem like he's running from the cops. If so, they would have detected it from their systems.
• The boy was running from terror. It will be a crime if we don't help him out. He's helpless, and can't fight for himself."
• "Do you know the type of batt—"
• "I don't care. All I know is I can't leave him here. He's too precious to be left here. We are taking him back."
• ********
• And that was how Lyre found himself in another city, away from the city his kingdom was close to.
• It was as if the mother had known what would have happened had they left Lyre back there.
• Not a few minutes after they left, Lyre's brothers entered the city, to seek their prodigal brother.
• However, they were late. The brother they went to seek, was already halfway across the state.
• Getting to him now is more than an impossible feat for them. There was no way they can be able to locate him unless they knew where to search.
• "What should we do?" The youngest among them asked.
• "What else? We will go home and report to mother. She will know what else to do."
• "And what of Veryn?"
• "We will bother about him later. He may be out trailing Lyre." The third brother answered.
• "Let's go." The eldest prince turned to leave, and the others followed his lead unquestionably.
• They searched the entire city without finding a trace of Lyre. He wasn't in the city like they thought he will be.
• *******
• "We are taking you back to our house. Don't be afraid, okay?" The wife glanced at Lyre, whose entire focus has been on the window since they started the journey.
• He was still marvelling at the strange things around him, to bother with the family.
• However, when the mother spoke, he became aware of where he was.
• "Don't be afraid. We won't hurt you." The wife said when she saw the scared expression on Lyre's face as she hugged his knees.
• Lyre tried to make himself small as the woman kept on looking at him. However, it was an impossible thing to do in the car.
• "Don't be afraid, we won't hurt you. You can continue looking out like you were doing earlier. Don't mind me at all."