The Solvers

"I don't care if she's a Solver! She's still our daughter, Laura!"

Wyatt's voice bounced off of their new home's steady stone walls. The wind was howling and shaking the rickety makeshift door which he had constructed a few hours ago. The two lanterns which he had received as a gift hours earlier were shining dim yellow rays of light throughout their new home.

He knew that he didn't have a say in whether or not their daughter stayed with them. The law states that every child who displays any signs of being a Solver, has to be sent to a different dimension where they can train and become the problem solvers that they are destined to be. This law has been around for hundreds of years, ever since the first Solver was created, and there is no way to rewrite what has been written by the Designers.

He knew that once their daughter started displaying the signs, it wouldn't be long until she would be discovered. She's barely a year old, yet she should start showing signs in two years. They had about two years until she would have to leave them and grow up without them having any say in how she lives her life.

And his wife was just alright with it.

"Do you truly believe that I want to be apart from her!? That I don't want to be there for her! That I don't want to be her mother?"

Laura could feel the tears welling down her face as she clutched her precious sleeping girl to her chest. Small red scratches appear on her skin as pieces of hay scratch her arms.

She slowly stretched her arms out so that their sleeping daughter could clearly be seen by her husband.

The baby's left cheek had a small scratch on it from when she rolled over onto a piece of the exposed prickly mattress.

She lowered her voice, now remembering that their child was sleeping.

"Look at her. Is this really what you want her life to be like? We don't have our own home, Wyatt. We live in whatever shelter we can find and the best things that we can offer our daughter is an old blanket, a broken mattress and a cooked meal at least twice a week."

Wyatt stepped forward and crouched in front of the chair that his wife was sitting on. He into her cold blue eyes which stood out against the redness surrounding them.

"But we can also offer her love. No Solver will love our daughter as we can, no Solver will do what we did in order for our daughter to live."

"She won't live Wyatt, she might survive, but she won't experience the joy of actually living. Look at us. We're living in a cave which you can barley stand up straight in and it takes less than six steps for me to walk from one side to the other, we're running away from my family and winter is approaching. You and I both know that our daughter will suffer unless we come up with a solution, and now look, she's a Solver! She can have an actual life."

"We don't even know if she's a Solver Laura! Just–"

He was silenced by the bundle in his wife's arms. The tiny being had woken up and was looking at him with big ice blue eyes, the same eyes as her mother. He was expecting her to start crying, but he was astonished when his little girl let out a laugh. A tiny baby giggle escaped her lips, as small chubby arms reached out towards him, her fingers grasping the air in front of her. He automatically reached out with both hands and felt his anger disappearing as the little one squeezed his two index fingers. The makeshift hood over her head fell off and her dark hair made an appearance. He smiled. Now that she got from him, yet he found himself hoping that her hair would be alot easier to tame.

This thought led him back to thinking about not being around during her childhood and his smile slowly fell. He wouldn't be able to advise her on how to handle her hair, he wouldn't be there to chase away the boys, to spoil her on birthdays or be there to teach her what his father had taught him.

Laura watched this interaction with a small smile on her face, the sight of the man that she loved and their daughter sharing a moment brang some joy into her life. She saw all of the emotions flitting through her husband's eyes. First joy, then pride, then sadness once again.

She already had an entire year to sort through all of these emotions. A week before their daughter was born, she had a dream where her daughter's fate was revealed. In this dream the Designer of their world, named Medifal, appeared and informed her that her child is a Solver. One of the few, well....by few they meant one of the two born every three years. She first heard about what the dream meant, while strolling around the market, she had once heard a mother bragging about her child who ended up being a Solver. She said that a Designer appeared in a dream a few days before she gave birth and told her that her son would be a Solver.

Laura doubted the dream at first, in fact she feared it, but their current situation wasn't going to end on a positive note, of this she was certain, and now she would not hesitate to report their daughter to the authorities once she turns three years of age. The age at which all Solvers say farewell to their parents.

Laura was pulled away from her thoughts by a sound she hadn't heard since they had first begun their escape. The low humming of her husband brought back memories of simpler times. She always lay comfortably in his strong arms, with her head on his chest, feeling the vibrations from his humming as his hand slowly rubbed her swollen stomach. He'd always insist on humming a song for the little one before they went to sleep. She closed her eyes as she remembered how she had enjoyed those times.

Wyatt looked up at his wife and saw that she was falling asleep. Their little bundle had also fallen asleep, the vice grip that she had on his fingers loosened and her laughter had disappeared.

He carefully removed their daughter from his wife's arms and put her down on the pile of torn cloths which he had been sitting on earlier. Without waking her, he then picked up his wife and laid her down onto the better looking side of their old mattress.

He had found it in an old, broken down barn when he went out hunting earlier. After two hours he hadn't found a single deer or rabbit, but he did return with whatever dry wood he could find, the mattress and a bunch of old pieces of cloth. He considered it to be a very fortunate find indeed.

After ensuring that his wife was comfortable, he picked up their daughter and gently put her down next to her mother. He walked towards the lanterns to blow out their small flames, but then only blew out the one, so that he wasn't left in complete darkness.

While standing next to the bed, he picked up his daughter and held her to his chest as he lowered himself onto the mattress. He then threw one arm over his wife's shoulders and pulled her closer so that her head rested on his chest. He moved their daughter so that she was lying on both himself and her mother, before he took the most intact blanket that they had and threw it over them.

He looked down at his wife and daughter lying peacefully on him. He couldn't help but wonder if his daughter actually was a Solver and what that would mean for their future. He felt guilty for the situation that they were in, knowing that he played a big part in how things turned out.

He shook his head at these thoughts and decided that he should focus on the people in front of him instead. For now he was happy with how things were. He had everything he loved with him and for that he was eternally grateful.

He sighed, and it appeared as if the wind felt the same as he did, since it let out a sigh with the exhausted father, blowing out the last candle and leaving a man alone with his sleeping family and his thoughts.