In the middle of a brilliant summer day some two months later Aidan was awakened by Flame Song’s voice calling his name. “Aidan, Aidan! Wake up!”

“Huh?” he responded groggily.

“Wake up!” Flame repeated. “I think the twins are coming.”

“What!” He blinked sleep out of his eyes and turned to look at his wife, an expression of panic beginning to form on his face

She smiled a feline smile at him and said, “Don’t worry. Everything is just fine. I just thought you might like to be awake for this.”

“I… yes, of course. Everything’s fine? You’re sure?”

“Yes, I’m…” she paused for a long moment, sharp teeth bared in a grimace of pain, before continuing, “I’m sure. This is easier for firecats than for humans too, remember.”

“Yeah. Sorry. I just worry too easily.”

She grinned. “Maybe I should have just let you sleep then. But I wanted some company. I’d have you hold my hand if I had one to hold right now.”

He reached out and stoked her head. Every now and then the sheer strangeness of his wife’s dual nature hit him all over again. “That’s all right. I want to be awake for this.” She shifted into a more comfortable position, resting her head in his lap. He stroked her head and spoke softly to her of whatever came into his mind. As her contractions came closer and closer together she concentrated on breathing deeply and evenly. Aidan found himself breathing regularly in sympathy and nearly laughed.

It wasn’t long before the first boy emerged into the world. Flame Song cleaned him up with a rough tongue, which Aidan shook his head at. Back on Earth it would have been thought unhygienic at the least, but then nearly every facet of his current life would have been odd if not impossible on Earth. Once Flame had finished, Aidan picked up the little baby. He was tiny, a humanoid but not human child covered in fine white fuzz and with a little set of featherless wings sprouting from his back. His eyes were open, though unfocused. They were a brilliant green, like Flame’s. Aidan stared at him, mesmerized by the wonder of a sudden new life. Only a few minutes ago there had been just the three of them, and now there were four. Soon to be five, he reminded himself, and looked over at Flame. She was panting heavily.

“Soon,” she said. “He’s almost here.”

And indeed he was. A moment later Flame was licking a second white ball of fur clean. Other than the white fluff, the second boy looked nothing like the first. As Corinne had said, he was all cat, a fuzzy kitten about the same size as his brother, with big ears, a pink nose, and tiny little wings covered in pale orange down. His eyes were also open, and Aidan was surprised to see they were a golden yellow color.

“That’s weird,” said Aidan.

“What?” asked Flame tiredly.

“His eyes are yellow.”

She looked at the little kitten, her eyes widening. “A phoenix child!” she said, something almost like awe in her voice.

“Phoenix child? What’s that?” asked Aidan, somewhat mystified.

“An impossibility,” replied Flame. “Though it may explain what Corinne was saying about his aura.” At Aidan’s questioning look she explained. “My clan, the phoenix clan, is unique among all the firecat clans because we’re not pureblooded. Several thousand years ago one of my ancestors fell in love with a phoenix. Their children were yellow-eyed firecats with phoenix wings. They intermarried with other firecats, and most of their descendants are completely unremarkable, but there are a few like myself that have the green eyes that mark the phoenix blood mixing with the firecat. All pureblooded firecats have blue eyes. Very, very rarely when two green-eyed phoenix marked firecats mate they will have a phoenix child, a throwback to our original half-breed ancestors. And this little one is a phoenix child, no doubt about it.” She shook her head. “But it’s impossible. You’re not phoenix-marked, you’re not even a firecat.”

“Well, I was for a while,” he reminded her.

“But it doesn’t work that way. If the form you were in when your children were conceived mattered, Littlespark would be an aerian-human mix, not an aerian-firecat mix.”

“You’re right.” He looked again at the little ball of white fur, cuddled against Flame’s side and apparently falling asleep. “But what other explanation is there?”

She smiled softly. “There isn’t any. I guess you could call it a miracle.”

Aidan smiled back. “Phoenix child or not, I’m sure he is a miracle. They both are.” He cradled the firstborn boy gently in his arms. The baby closed his bright green eyes and joined his brother in slumber. “They both are,” he repeated.