Paul stepped outside and walked though the suburban area. It was sunset when he started walking and an hour later it was nighttime. He caught glimpses of Nostradamus peeping on him through the bushes. Paul approached the bush and said, "You don't need to watch me."
The crux shook his head. "Sorry, Oswald ordered me to keep an eye on you in case you get harmed or kidnapped or something else bad."
"But I thought cruxs are mischievous and know when to cut loose." Paul said.
"Oh, we do that, but protecting children come first." Nostradamus replied.
"Does Alexandria feel the same way?" Paul asked.
"Oh, yes, if we had children we would take upmost care of them." Nostradamus replied.
"Have you ever considered having kids?" Paul asked.
Nostradamus said, "Yes, we have thought about that. We agreed to but not until we are able to find a safe place to raise our kids." Nostradamus said. "You see, Alexandria are the only two cruxs with a gender and that means we have no clue what to expect from crux offspring. While you humans have books and experts on raising children, we don't have anything like that."
"I see." said Paul.
"Besides pregancy, birth, and babies, we don't know what to expect from crux children or how mischievous they can get." Nostradamus said.
"Did you think about crux teenagers and how naughty and rebellious they can be?" Paul said with a smirk on his face as he conjured up images into his head about crux teens acting mega disobedient to Nostradamus and Alexandria as they got drunk, drove cars without their parents knowing or without driving licenses, tattoos on their bodies, wearing jewels in their bellybuttons, dyed their hair, got nose piercings, sneaked their way into nightclubs, and starting protest groups. Paul snickered and then bursted into laughter about Nostradamus kid's giving him a hard time.
Nostradamus scowled at him. "You're mean!"
Paul shrugged, "Hey, I just started puberty and I didn't turn out bad."
"Your girlfriend tried to rob a bar." Nostradamus reminded him. "Last I heard, she attempted shoplifting."
"Oh, what did she take?" Paul asked.
"A friendship bracelet."
"For who, a fellow girlfriend?"
"No, for you." the crux answered.
Paul blushed, "She didn't have to do that to show our friendship. What happened to her?"
"Her older sister, Kiwi, grounded her."
Paul scratched the back of his head. "Yikes! I am going to have to talk to her myself. She'll listen to me. She can be reasoned with."
Nostradamus heard a clopping noise. "I have to hide in the bush. Don't talk to me, I can't have anyone knowing I'm a male crux or Oswald's secret will be exposed!" The crux's head disappeared into the bush.
Paul looked in the direction of the clopping noise and a hooded figure ran towards him. Paul thought it could have been a mugger so he ran in the opposite direction. The hooded figure ran faster and eventually caught up to him. Paul was ready to kick it in the shins when the stranger dodged his attack. A police car drove towards them where the police rolled down the window. "Anything wrong here?" the policeman asked.
"No, no, everything is okay here!" a woman's voice came from the stranger.
"You were chasing me!" Paul pointed.
"I wasn't going to hurt you!"
"Oh, yeah, prove it!" The figure pulled a paper out of her cloak and showed Paul a letter with his grandfather's signature.

Dear Mildheart,

My grandson, Paul Jacob, needs someone to watch him. I am older and close to retirement and in case something happened to me I need someone to watch him until he turns eighteen. There is another lady in the house who resides there but she is going to need someone to help her because she is job hunting and in need of a driver's license. Your profile says you already have a driver's license and know how to keep house. Our house address is 1435 Oakdale Drive. You can't miss it. I have provided you a place to bunk and keep your belongings.

Yours sincerely,
David Jacob

Paul looked at the letter. "Alright, then why were you pursuing me?"
The woman replied, "I was being chased by a thug and I was running in your direction without knowing you were there. The person in question was a deranged occultist."
"Why would they come after you?" Paul asked.
The lady took off her hood revealing a goat's head. "I'm a nanny goat earthwalker and goats are typically associated with dark occultism."
"I'm sorry about your situation." Paul said.
The goat nodded, "That's alright, I left the psycho's house and called the police. He vanished and I haven't seen him again until tonight! Maybe I should have left earlier when I could have arrived at your place in the afternoon."
"I'm okay, officer." Paul nodded. The police car drove away.
The goat woman put her hood up and held out her hand, "Can you show me where you live?" Paul nodded.
"What's your name?" Paul asked.
"Mildheart." she answered.
"Nice to meet you, Mildheart." Paul took her to his house without any run-ins with a deranged occultist. Paul knocked and his grandpa answered. "Oh, hey, Paul. I see you brought our newest resident. I sent you a text a few days ago about her coming over."
"Shoot! I forgot about that! Sorry, gramps!"
Phoebe shook Mildheart's hand. "Pleased to meet you. Here, I'll give you your pajamas. I'm sharing with you until we buy you some clothes of your own since you wrote to Mr. Jacob that you didn't have much. The name's Phoebe, by the way." The elephant woman said. After Mildheart got into her pj's (which was a pair of shorts and loose-fitting girl's top) came to see Paul. Paul saw she was very curvaceous with sizeable breasts and thick hips.
"Good-night, Paul, I am hoping to get to know you better than how we started." Mildheart said.
Paul noticed on her left shoulder was an inverted pentagram on her shoulder. "Did the cultists brand that on you?"
"They did." Mildheart confirmed. "They bought me at a secret auction at Nautilus Labs when I was nine years old. Once I turned sixteen they branded me with this as a mark of ownership." A few tears ran down her face. "I don't want to talk about what happened back there."
"I am sorry about what happened to you." Paul apologized.
"You're good." the nanny goat replied. He hugged her and she embraced back. "Now you need to go and get some shut-eye."
Yep, tomorrow is the weekend and the science expo. I am hoping to go there to buy some new computer games." Paul said.
"Hmm, maybe I'll take you there myself as our first trip together." Mildheart suggested.
"Awesome!" Paul smiled. He hugged her again and disappeared off to hid bedroom.
"I'm already liking that boy." Mildheart said to herself before going to her new room.

End of Chapter