SHAPESHIFTERS
The Part 29
The atmosphere in the house was quite calm, even arguably very calm, and comfortable.
Seba poured red bean soup mixed with pieces of meat on each plate in front of each member of his family, as well as for Marco to plate.
A small basket of hard bread, also placed in the middle of the dining table, by Seba.
"Do you have a partner?" ask one of Adaline's brothers, all of a sudden.
"Copy! What's wrong with you?" snapped Adaline, with a look of annoyance.
"It's okay." said Marco, calming Adaline down.
"Yes, I already have a partner" Marco continued.
All the eyes of the Sums family members were fixed on Marco, with curious gazes.
"What's the same as us? Or just ordinary people?" ask Flints.
"Ordinary man" replied Marco.
"I can already guess it." said Seba.
Marco looked at Seba, who was now handing out the hard bread to all those who were there.
"How can you?" ask Marco wonder.
"Hmmm... It's not that easy, members of the runaway family, can get the same partner as us" Seba replied.
"Please, eaten!" seba continued, then sat in one of the empty seats there.
"Thank you!" said everyone sitting there, including Marco, together.
They started eating their food slowly.
"How was your life in your hometown?" flints asked, breaking a small piece of hard bread in his hand, and dipping it in red bean soup.
"It feels probably the same as most people, which I used to see there," replied Marco, who also cut a small portion of the bread, and dipped it in soup, then fed it into his mouth.
"Does your partner know you're different from him?" ask one of Adaline's brothers.
Marco could not tell the difference between the two young men, who were either Fint or Fent.
"He knows" replied Marco.
"Then? He didn't mind that?" ask the young man again.
"Copy! Enough's enough! Instead, let Marco eat quietly" Seba said.
"No. He wants to accept my situation" replied Marco.
"Mommy! I'm looking for a partner in another city!" said the young man with a clear face.
"Me too!" said one of them again.
"Copy! Fent! You think it could be that easy, you could survive somewhere else?" snapped Seba.
Fint and Fent fell silent, though they put on disappointed faces.
Seba looked sad, and could hardly eat his food, and only stirred the soup with a spoon.
"I'm sorry! Maybe my arrival, just bothers me," said Marco, who felt guilty, looking at all the members of the Sums family, who looked sad and riled up.
"You're not the problem." said Seba slowly.
"Fint and Fent, it's almost thirty years old. But, they haven't found any of our kind here who would accept them both" Seba continued.
"So does Adaline... This year has been twenty-five years, and just like his brothers, have not found a member of the tribe who wants to be his partner" continued Seba again.
"Mommy! No need to talk about it! I didn't think too much about it," said Adaline, with a frowning face.
Now, everything looked sad, and it was as if it was losing its appetite.
"With these kids... I don't know how to find a partner for them. Because we are the last family of escapees, still left here" continued Seba.
"That's enough! You guys really make our guests feel uncomfortable!" flints said suddenly.
"Let's just eat! Marco ate his food before the soup went cold!" continued Flints.
"Good, Sir!" replied Marco.
Flints, and the rest of his family, resume their lunch, and Marco continues to eat the food he has served.
Until everyone finished eating, none of them spoke anything anymore.
All chose to remain silent, and only feed their food into their mouths.
After finishing eating, Fint and Fent walked out of the house, after saying goodbye to their parents, and greeted Marco.
Left behind Adaline who still washes all the tableware and cooking, in the sink.
When Marco wanted to help, both Adaline and her parents, forbade Marco from doing the work, and only invited Marco to talk to them in the dining room.
"What's your family name?" flints asked, then as if he had mispronounced, the man looked riled up.
"Just for free! Your parents must have changed the clan under a pseudonym" Flints continued.
"Babit!" replied Marco.
Both Flints and Seba, as well as Adaline simultaneously staring at Marco.
"My family, Belmont!" marco said again.
"What do you know about our people?" ask Flints.
"Hmmm... Besides if there's this place? Not many... My parents didn't have much to say. Maybe because at that time, I was too small" Marco replied.
Flints looked mangosteen, as if understanding Marco's intent.
"Relancers like us, can't move freely in this place. We were ostracized because of status" Flints said.
"Did Marco know that?" ask Flints.
"Little bit... Adaline told me about it, even though I didn't really understand it" Marco said.
"We can only go to the main settlement on certain days. Like on a trading day, or there's a big shapeshifter event," Flints explained.
"Where did Fint and Fent go then?" ask Marco.
"They usually play the forest here, then to the beach on one side of the island," Adaline replied suddenly.
"The beach you came to yesterday, and it was!" adaline.
"Only in that area, we can freely roam." continued Adaline again, after a long silence.
"It's all my fault." chirped Seba.
"Don't start again!" flints.
"None of us is guilty... Buyut we made a mistake, and we only bear the consequences," continued Flints.
"Yes, but we should have left again, from this place a long time ago." said Seba, who looked very upset.
Seba then looked closely at Marco.
"Flints took us away from this place before Adaline was born. But, since I knew at that time that the Alpha heir was born, I insisted on staying in this place" Seba said.
"I am absolutely convinced of the ancestral story, that the most formidable heir to Alpha among all shapeshifters, will reunite all the peoples, and no more, members of the race will be considered escapees, he said, or cowards like members of the people here call us," continued Seba.
"It turns out, to date, Alpha's heir has not yet appeared... Our children, we are forced to get status like our parents... A coward!" continued Seba again, who looked sad, disappointed, mixed with the look of the face he showed.