3.
"We'd better go down!" warned North.
"All right," Morn agreed, and they swiftly landed.
"Why are you so tired?" North asked.
"I'm a little heavier than you," Morn told him "for a long time they feared I wouldn't be able to fly, but I'm also stronger, and I swore I would learn because it would please my father. So I made myself practice 'til my muscles ached. Now I fly fairly well."
"Wow!" cried North, "How strong are you?"
Morn held out the hard, air filled ball in his hand, and with only a little effort crushed it until it burst.
"By The Lord Holy!" came the gasp from North, "I'm never going to fight with you!"
Morn began to laugh with a strange high tone no one on Haven could match.
"I hope," he said, "we never have to. I would not like to fight a friend."
Both boys laughed. North's mother called to him and said it was time to leave.
"Will you be coming here again?" was North's parting question.
"I hope so. I enjoyed today."
"So did I," agreed North. "I will see you later." He ran back to his mother, and they started back for their apartment. He noticed the angry looks from the other women and boys as they went passed.
"Did you enjoy your game with the Hashon?" his mother asked. "The other were very angry that you played with him."
"He's not a Hashon, mother," North told her, already protective of his new friend. "His father's The Lord God. That makes him as Haven as I am, and I don't care if the other boys like me or not. I'd rather be with Morn, than fools. I wouldn't treat a Lower the way they treat him. You and father taught me better than that."
His mother looked at him, stunned.
"Where does my little child get such command of language? You talk like one five times your age, and far bolder than most would dare! You are your father's son."
"And my mother's child!" put in her son, looking proudly at her.
His mother stopped and hugged him, then they continued on. That evening they discussed what had happened in the playground with his father.
"If you want this Morn to be your friend, North, I would in no way condemn you. He is the son of The Lord God, and that he likes you,