I woke up properly after a moment. I glanced out the window. The sky was dark, so I figured Imust have been asleep for a couple of hours. I heard voices downstairs. Mother was home, and someone was talking to her. Mother was crying. I got out of the bed and crept down the stairs. Mother and Gran were sitting in the armchairs in the lounge. Mother was covering her face with a hanky. I sat down on the bottom step, listening. I wasn't the type to eavesdrop, but perhaps I could help, I thought.

"I was talking to Jack about half an hour ago, when I heard the fence rattling," Mother said between sobs. "It was broken with a ball of lifeforce. Millicent was practising with her powers, he said." Was she really this upset because of the fence? (I was going to mend it!) I didn't think so. There was more to it.
"I don't know about this. I don't want this life for anyone, especially at her age! She has to practise after school in case a monster attacks! No child should have to live that way!" Gran walked over to Mother's chair to comfort her.
"Listen dear," she said, "it's what she is. A Guardian, I mean. She didn't have to protect the kingdom but she did. I suppose it was a little unfortunate that she transformed a bit early, but really, you don't need to worry. That kid's always been a strong one."
Mother was silent for a moment.
"Listen, dear. I know you're worried for her. I know you think she's changed a lot in a short time. She's strong, and she's still the Millicent Hall-E'Strange you've raised for the last fourteen years. Trust me."

I still didn't believe that me changing and adapting to my new life was why Mother was so upset.
There was more to it. There had to be. She hadn't said anything like this or gotten upset since I transformed, so there had to be a deeper reason for her being so upset now. I thought about going back to my room and forgetting the whole incident, but if there was anything I could do to help Mother feel better, I wanted to know about it. So I kept watching and listening.

"You know...she's not human anymore. The child I have raised for the last fourteen years...she was the same species as me. Now I'm one thing and she's another. She doesn't have an actual heart anymore. Just metal. Does she...still love me? Can she? After the transformation that day I thought that what she was made of made no difference, but now I'm not so sure."

I gasped. So that was what was eating away at her. She had never been a whizz when it came to technology, so perhaps it made sense that she didn't completely understand what I was. I knew for a fact that I did have a heart. It ticked, instead of making the usual ba-bum, ba-bum noise that human hearts made, but I thought the steady ticking was lovely. It was steady, never changing pace. No matter what happened, it would always be there. Tick. Tick. Tick. Mother didn't know that, of course. I had constructed a stethoscope-like device because I had been curious about that myself. I had been afraid that when I put the earpiece on I wouldn't hear anything. But as soon as I put the device on my head, I was comforted by the steady ticking noise that my clockwork heart made.

Once Gran was gone, I went up to my room and, after digging around in my desk drawers and invention boxes, found the stethoscope device. I took it downstairs. Mother was still in the armchair. I walked up to her with the little contraption. "Hi," I said. I didn't want to let on that I's heard her conversation with Gran, not until I had assured her that I was still somewhat human, even if I was made of different stuff to the average human.
"Hello, dear. What on Earth have you got there?" She pointed to the thing in my hands.
"Listen to this," I said, putting the earpiece on her. I then moved the microphone-like part over my chest, trying to put it where I had heard the ticking the first time. I must have had the right spot, because she gasped. She had heard it. She had heard that comforting tick, tick of my heart.

"I suppose you heard what I said, then. I hope you didn't mind. I mean, I have never raised a, um, half-automaton Guardian before, you see. Thank you."
"Yes, I heard it. After I woke up from my nap."
"Nap? I suppose all that Guardian power practise-and fence breaking-" she added with a grin, "must have tired you out. Have any dreams?" She often asked that. Perhaps it was because I was a daydreamer and found myself dreaming weird things at night.
I simply replied, "yes. I had a dream. I have a lot of dreams."
"I know." Then she began to sing that song, "I have A Dream" by ABBA. Whenever we discussed dreams we found ourselves singing it. She started, and then we took it in turns singing lines:

"I have a dream,
A song to sing,
To help me cope
With anything
If you see the wonder
Of a fairy tale
You can take the future
Even if you fail."

I had not noticed that while we were singing Julian had arrived and had let himself in. He joined the song at this point, and Mother stopped, so Julian and I sang the next lines together:

"I believe in angels
Something good in everything I see
I believe in angels
When I know the time is right for me

I'll cross a stream,
I have a dream."

That was when I noticed Julian's presence. Mother left the room after saying hello to Julian, as well as "isn't it a bit late to be visiting your friends?" She was smiling though, so she wasn't being serious. Julian and I went up to my room. We sat on the bed for a while, before I interrupted the awkward silence. "I do, you know. Have a dream, I mean."
"What is it?" Julian asked.
"For Animia to be peaceful. For there to be no need for Guardians."