It was late one autumn night, the sky was dark and inky, only a few stars speckled the deep endless surface. Fídi lay in bed exhausted cradling her new born son. She pressed his soft brown scales against her pale white chest and held him close, stroking the thin dark hair which covered his head.

Then Torin walked in. The two snakes couldn't have been more different. Fídi smiled at him from the bed, her blue and red eyes both full of happy tears. But Torin was not smiling. Slowly he stepped towards her.

"F-Fídi.." he stuttered "How could you..?" the words chocked him as he stared at the child in her arms which couldn't be his.
Fídi gasped, "Oh Torin," She sighed shaking her head "didn't you know?" she paused staring down at her white and orange scales and her son's black and brown scales before returning her gaze towards Torin "I have albinism," she smiled "that's why my eye is red and my hair is white."
He just stared at her in shock, unable to answer. He opened his month to say something but no sound came out.
Fídi looked back at the child in her arms "This is what is I should have looked like..." she sighed as the boy looked up at her "He looks like my dad." she told him, her lip wobbling a little.
"Oh Fídi" Torin ran over to her and took her hand "I-I'm so sorry". She just shock her head and kissed his nose "You didn't know."
Then, she pat the space in the bed beside her and Torin snuggled down picking up his son for the first time. The baby's eyes opened wide revealing his bright blue irises and a smile cracked across Torin's cheeks, spreading wide across his face.
The whole couple spent their night huddled close together, with their son safe between them. For the first time in what must have been twenty years, Fídi now had a family.