Now the child looked, not only unhappy, but enraged.

     Utilika's hand got to within an inch of the child when it stopped as if time itself had stopped. 

     Adama went to make a grab for the child. She, too, found she couldn't move. 

     Tindriss found she couldn't move. No! In her entire life, she had never been restrained in any manner. She roared. This could not be allowed to happen!

​     Trevor, Niki and Cole, Abby and her family, no one could move.

     The child turned bright white.

     His features dissolved into brightness. 

     He opened his mouth even as it, too, dissolved into what became a sphere, an egg, of bright white.

     He uttered a single word, the first word the child had ever said in his life. 

     That word:

     "Francis." 

     Apparently, his name was Francis.

     Francis Forwarder.  

CONTINUE