From: briana@nas-kan.org   
      
   A Golden Bel   
   By: Brian W. Antoine   
   August 24, 2007   
      
      
   "That is not a normal pelt color," grumbled Wythdandis with just a bit of   
   an edge to her voice.   
      
   "I know it isn't, or at least it isn't these days" I said with the same   
   edge.  "It hasn't been seen on Velar in over five millennia thanks to the   
   genetic manipulation that kept your race from killing itself off." Dropping   
   my voice to a whisper, I looked down at my daughter as she shifted slightly   
   in her sleep, trying to get comfortable, but never letting go of the grip   
   she had on my own pelt.  I'd fed her earlier, and she'd nodded off even as   
   Wythdantis and I had argued.  "Kalindra and I like it so don't suggest   
   trying to hide it to either of us again."   
      
   The latest addition to the Family nas Kan gave a tiny burp as if to put in   
   her own word on the subject.  Bel, or Bel dal Kan as she would be known   
   when Kalindra finished registering her birth with the Central Library,   
   looked almost like a small Gold Tribble when she curled up in her sleep,   
   and that was the problem.  Gold was a very recessive color for Velan's, and   
   the genetic manipulation done to tame their ferocity had occurred on a part   
   of their genome that had essentially masked the gene for Gold fur.  It   
   still existed in their genetic pool, Bel was proof of that, but since both   
   parents always contributed the gene that shunted their anger into other   
   channels, it couldn't express itself.   
      
   The fact that Bel's pelt was Gold upset Wythdantis for any number of   
   reasons, but at the top of the list had to be the fact that my daughter had   
   inherited only one copy of the aggression shunting gene, I'd left it out of   
   my own Velan genetic mix when I'd created the form I now wore.  A close   
   second was the fact that except for the Healers, a few scholars and one   
   nosy alien, nobody remembered or cared what they'd asked one of their   
   ArchMages to do to their race five thousand years earlier.   
      
   And the Healers wanted it to stay that way.   
      
   They were terrified of that change ever becoming undone.  One of the   
   secrets they were sworn to when they became Healers was exactly what part   
   of their genome that change resided in, and the most important tenant of   
   their profession was to never manipulate any gene even close to that area.   
   They'd rather a patient died then take the risk that offspring of a healed   
   patient might not pass on the alteration.   
      
   And my daughter was just that risk now.   
      
   "You have no idea if it takes both copies of the gene to be effective," I   
   said after looking up and seeing how intensely Wythdantis was watching Bel.   
      
   "And you have no idea of the risk you're taking," she said in reply.   
      
   "Actually," and I paused to adjust the harness that I'd been using to carry   
   Bel around, "I do.  You were there, you didn't see Kalindra, untrained and   
   suffering massive blood loss, wipe the floor of that bar with the armed   
   rednecks inside it.  I can just imagine what your wars were like when   
   trained soldiers went at each other."  It would have been a slaughter   
   actually, if I hadn't managed to keep Kal from killing indiscriminately,   
   via the bond we shared.   
      
   "She's going to have to be watched, and closely, especially as she   
   approaches adulthood.  If she shows signs of actually being capable of   
   anger towards her own race, you're going to regret your decision."   
      
   I snorted in amusement, "Like a member of my family won't be under constant   
   scrutiny by half this universe?  Sometime when I've got a few free months   
   I'll have to tell you what living in a glass house is like."   
      
   Bel gave a tiny sigh in her sleep and buried her face deeper into my chest   
   fur.   
      
   "No, I don't think this universe has anything to fear from my daughter, my   
   small golden Bel."   
      
      
      
      
   Author Note’s   
      
   Bel dal Kan translates roughly as "Bel, female child born of the Family   
   Kan".   Dal, de and das are similar to nal, ne and nas, but they reference   
   the birth family, not the family created by mated adults.  Yes, for those   
   paying attention, Family nas Kan actually translates as Family Family Kan,   
   but early on I decided that "Stories of the Family nas Kan" worked as a   
   series title better than "Stories of the nas Kan".  I cheated, sue me. :)   
      
   Also, the version of Kalindra’s actions at the Bar after “War” is not how I   
   ended up deciding that night should go, the version is Slow Learners won   
   out.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)