Barely a week had passed before the twins could form sentences in French. While Delphine struggled to make sense of simple words in their language, the boys made quick work of her own tongue. It was mystifying to Delphine. She had taught children much older than them for nearly eight years and never before had she seen such aptness and discipline.

"Mémé?"

Grandmother turned in surprise as one of the boys entered the kitchen where she stood kneading dough. Delphine looked back from where she was busy plucking one of the last of their chickens. His brother entered the room after him and they both approached the old woman with palms extended.

"Sweet?" One of them asked quietly.

Grandmother shook her head with a chuckle. "I fear we've spoiled them. We are almost clean through our ration of sugar for this month."

"I cannot believe how quickly they have learned our language." Delphine shook her head, perching a hand on her hip.

Grandmother turned to the clay pot on the hearth and unwrapped the rice paper containing the last of their sugar cubes. Delphine smiled to herself to see Mémé so extravagant with what little they still possessed. With a censuring look, she handed the boys each a cube.

"That will be the last of your sweet, do you understand?" She crossed her flour streaked, bare arms over her chest imposingly. "There will be no more for quite some time."

The children nodded and Delphine knew by the look on their little faces that they comprehended her perfectly. She chuckled to herself and turned back to the chicken. It was a thin bird with very little substance. However, in a stew with some meaty bone marrow it might sustain them for the rest of the week.

Mémé had found a couple of Delphine's old winter hats from when she was a child for the boys to cover their ears. She had knitted them for her only grandchild from the rough, warm wool of their sheep. Those had been rich days when they had plenty of food and peace in the countryside.

Following the invasion of 1940, the Demarcation line between occupied France and the Vichy province was laid just miles away from their little village. However, Mémé had refused to travel south. Delphine agreed, especially now as it seemed there was no difference between occupied and "free" France.

Delphine glanced over her shoulder. The boys were playing with the cat by the window, sucking on their sugar cubes and licking their sticky fingers. She wondered if they would be safer in the Vichy south. Perhaps, like with many issues, it wouldn't make a difference.

"What are these boys called?"

The question struck Delphine dumb. She realized that she had never tried to find out the names of the twins. She glanced over at Mémé who arched an eyebrow expectantly.

"You haven't tried to find out?"

"I hadn't thought of it."

Mémé chuckled lowly to herself as she pounded the mass of dough into a flat cake.

"They seem sharp enough to our language," she said, rounding out the edges of what would be a loaf of horsebread. "Why don't you ask them?"

Delphine nodded and set down the chicken. She approached the boys by the window. They turned to her keenly. The cat stretched leisurely and meandered away, bored with the scene. Delphine knelt and took each of their hands in her own. One of the boys reached up and took a white, chicken feather caught in her dark hair.

"Name." Delphine gently squeezing their hands and then pointing to herself. "Delphine."

The boys studied her. However, the light in their eyes brightened as they quickly realized the game. One of the boys whispered to the other one in their own secret tongue.

"Delphine." The child pointed to her with a smile. "Delphine."

She nodded, smiling broadly. "Yes, yes. And you? Name."

She pointed a finger at his chest. The child nodded solemnly.

"Eluréd." He laid a free hand on his stomach before turning to his brother and touching his shoulder. "Elurín."

"I've never heard such names before," Mémé said quietly behind them.

"Neither have I," Delphine replied without looking away from the boys. Her brow furrowed as she studied them, her delightful mystery.

"Delphine," The smaller twin called Elurín said with a shy smile to her.

Both boys looked towards her grandmother almost at the same time and pointed towards her.

"Mémé-Sweet!" Eluréd cried pointing to her, his brother agreeing enthusiastically.

"Mon dieu, I truly have spoiled the little cherubs, haven't I?" Mémé bemoaned dryly.

Delphine couldn't stop the deep belly laugh that rose up in her. It was the first time in months she had laughed like that. Impulsively, she pulled the boys into her arms in a tight embrace.

"Oh, mes poulettes!" she exclaimed between breaths. "My little chicks."

Mémé chuckled to herself, her gaze trailing over to the grey weather outside. Snow would be falling soon with December coming on. Perhaps, if the weather were bad enough, it would isolate them from any unwanted company. She shivered, her gaze resting on the dark mass of trees across the barren pasture.

She prayed that whatever darkness that felt so very present would be kept at bay for just a little longer. Just until they figured out what to do with their little runaways.

***

The frigid night that Delphine found the twins in the wood, the explosion on the train tracks had been a success. The Nazi supply train was derailed and the members of the Résistance scattered into the forest. Delphine had limped towards her home and fatefully encountered the lost twins on the path.

On the opposite side of the burning tracks, another figure emerged from the wood.

A young German soldier, who had escaped the inferno, approached cagily. His breath came fast as he held his rifle up at the figure.

"Sie!" He cried out, motioning for the massive figure to hit the frozen ground. "Sie! Runter auf den boden!"

The young man cocked the rifle, trembling from shock. He could hear the faint voices of his comrades as they struggled to put together what had just occurred. Hopefully, reinforcements would come soon.

The strange figure turned towards him as another explosion ripped through one of the rear cars, shrapnel bursting in every direction. The Nazi held up his weapon as the sky filled with fire, illuminating the towering figure of a man. He was like nothing any German soldier had seen before, from the Russian border to the Mediterranean coast.

He wore a black cloak over what looked to be steel armor. It jarred the soldier with its anachronistic quality. The layered metal wrapped around the man's massive chest. The young man almost laughed at the strangeness of it.

The stranger centered his sharp, narrowed gaze on him. Long, blood red hair trailed behind him in the heated, smoky air. The German swallowed hard as the man drew a long, heavy sword from his side and started towards him.

"Stoppen!" He warned shrilly, tightening his grip on the trigger. "Stoppen!"

The warrior kept his steady gait towards him. Panicked, the Nazi fired. He heard the bullet ting as it sunk into the warrior's arm but still he came at him, his expression fierce yet terrifyingly calm.

"Stoppen!"

A final explosion lit up the night as the Nazi soldier was run through by the warrior's blade.

***

Delphine burst from her blankets, gasping as though she had been held underwater. She swung her legs over the side of the couch. The wound on her shin throbbed dully. Her head spun and sweat cooled uncomfortably between her shoulder blades.

"Delphine?"

She looked over from her make shift bed by the fire. Elurín was sitting up, his brother breathing evenly beside him. His dark mop of hair was cow-licked from the pillow. Taking a deep breath, she made her way towards the bed. The scant, half shadowed moon shivered between the branches of the tree outside.

"What is it, child?" she asked, her heart beat steadying as she smoothed back his hair.

"Monster."

It was a new word they had learned by accident that day. The cat had attacked Delphine's wounded leg as she had entered the house and she had called it a monster before kicking it away. The boys, inquisitive as ever, asked her immediately what the new word meant.

Delphine smiled quietly. "Do not be afraid, child. No harm will come to you while I am here."

Elurín's pale face grew grave. "Fire monster."

His brother sat up next to him. Delphine had not realized that he had been listening to their conversation.

"Fire monster." Eluréd confirmed before taking Delphine by the wrist. "One hand."

Delphine's smile dimmed at the vehemence in the boys' voices and the look of faded terror in their eyes. They were too young to carry such nightmares. She could only imagine what horrors they had seen to conjure up such a detailed imagining as a one-handed fire monster.

With a sigh, she crawled onto to the bed, positioning herself between them. They cuddled into the sides of her thick wool sweater. She kissed them each on the crown of the head.

"Sleep now," she whispered, keeping one eye on the darkened window as the three of them drifted off.