Omen: 9, 18

“Look, this is my adorable little sister I told you about,” Adam said, holding Lanarot up to the older man, Strom.

Strom leaned in slightly, staring at the girl, causing her to squirm as she looked away, shyly. “I see. She is as adorable as you say.”

“No, no,” Adam said. “She is even more adorable than words describe.”

Lanarot continued to squirm, trying to hide from the stranger.

“You are right,” Strom said. “She is more adorable than words can describe.” The older man reached forward to tickle her cheek. “My, my. What a cute little sister you are.”

“That’s right,” Adam said, pulling Lanarot back to his chest as she began to hack and cry. “You are a cute little sister, aren’t you? Lanababy, he’s a strong guy. Even the Chief can’t beat him.”

“Who says the Chief cannot beat me?” Strom asked, narrowing his eyes, trying to hide the smirk on his face.

“You can’t trick me,” Adam said, raising his brow incredulously. “With the way you’re treated in the Iyr, there’s no way you can’t beat the Chief.”

“Well, I’m certainly not weak,” Strom said, half chuckling as his cheeks wiggled.

“Why are you being so shy today?” Adam asked, kissing her forehead. “Look, I’ll hold you, don’t worry.” Adam brushed her cheek and fixed her hat. “Should we go explore the festival?”

Lanarot looked up at him, half laying in his arm. She babbled up at him, before reaching up to his collar to play with it.

“Alright,” Adam said, before leading them forward to explore the festival. “Let’s find some pizza.”

“Pizza? Is that a type of food?” Strom joked.

“Yes,” Adam said.

“Oh.”

Adam found a stall handing out pizza, which he grabbed, before heading towards the nearby fights. There were Experts fighting today, so there was quite the show. Adam settled down somewhere off to the side, with Strom beside him, having swallowed a slice in one go.

“Don’t eat pizza like that,” Adam said, telling the old man off. “You eat it one bit at a time, like you would eat an Elephant.”

Strom narrowed his eyes at the young Half Elf. “How do you know how to eat an Elephant?”

“I don’t,” Adam said. “It’s a saying.” Adam nibbled on some of the pizza, before offering some to Lanarot, breaking a small piece for her. She began to chew as he sat her up on his lap so she could watch the fights.

Strom bit into a second pizza slice, slowly chewing it. “Is that… bread, cheese, and sauce? Cooked together?”

“Yep,” Adam replied.

“Oobaba!” Lanarot squealed, clapping her hands together excitedly. She leaned in to bite some more pizza, Adam allowing her to bite the tip, before taking a bite himself.

“It’s some of the most delicious food I’ve ever had,” Strom said.

“It’s good, right?” Adam smiled.

“The Iyr is truly incredible,” Strom said.

“Yeah, but I was the one to bring it to the Iyr.”

“You are such a frightening young man,” the old man said, continuing to eat the pizza as the fights continued.

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Lanarot sat up straighter, clenching her fists, screaming as though a demon possessed her.

“Yo,” Adam said, surprised by her blood lust. “Chill.” He picked up some snow to tickle her cheek with it, causing her to twitch and look up at him. “Are you okay, Lanababy?”

She squealed and babbled in response. Adam kissed her forehead, before breaking a bit of the crust for her, letting her eat it.

“Make sure you eat all the numnum, okay?” Adam said, brushing her hair again, before taking a bite of some more pizza himself.

‘Is he her father?’ Strom thought. ‘They do not smell the same. That woman is definitely her mother, and her brother is certainly that young man with the same tattoo.’

As the fights continued, Lanarot yawned, rubbing her eyes. She babbled quietly, slowly leaning back against Adam’s chest.

“You want to sleep?” Adam asked, picking her up and resting her head against his shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Strom asked.

“It’s nap time,” Adam replied.

“Nap time?”

“Yeah,” Adam said, kissing the girl’s cheek as she started to fall asleep. “Since my little Lanababy is tired, I’ll go take her to nap.”

“Hurry back quickly,” Strom said. “I’m sure you have more stories to tell.”

“It’ll take as long as it requires,” Adam said, before walking off.

‘He’s not going to nap with her, is he?’

Some time later, Strom went to find Adam, which wasn’t difficult in the slightest as he followed the boy’s scent. Well, not quite his scent, but the scent of Phantom, as it was far more powerful.

Adam held Lanarot in his arms as she napped against him, leaned back against the wall. He was thinking about how much he should smith in the Twilight Month in order to enchant the next year for the year, and for the plans he had in mind.

“Isn’t the festival more fun than napping here?” Strom whispered, looking at the youth.

“I’m more at ease with her,” Adam said.

“Who would dare to snatch her away from you?” Strom asked. ‘How possessively you cling to her…’

Adam narrowed his eyes. “Plenty of people will try. People, and more.”

Strom sat down beside him. “You remind me of my youth.”

Lanarot stirred, groaning as she heard their whispers. She looked up at them, her sleepy eyes blinking away the tiredness. As she groaned, making to cry, Adam brushed her hair, soothing her with soft whispers. “Hush now, Lanababy. Back to sleep sleep.”

‘I apologise,’ Strom sent into Adam’s mind.

‘You could talk telepathically all this time?’

‘A trivial matter for me.’

‘Yet you still decided to wake my adorable little sister up?’ Adam replied. ‘I don’t care if you can beat the Chief, do you think I can’t take that tongue away from you?’

Strom raised his brows in surprise, having not been threatened in some time, especially not by a boy. ‘I will keep that in mind.’

‘So why are you here?’ Adam narrowed his eyes at the older man.

‘Don’t be so distant.’

‘I’m not. I’m just wondering why you’re here with me instead of enjoying the festival.’

‘Are you not the most interesting person here?’ Strom asked.

‘Am I?’

‘You have died twice, living in another world, and a shadow, a mirror, of this world,’ Strom said.

‘Yeah. Fair enough.’

‘Your relationship with her is close.’

‘Well, yeah. She’s my little babby sister who I love so much.’ Adam smiled the smile of a proud father. ‘Such a cute little babby, right?’

‘You love her so much, enough for three sisters,’ Strom accused.

Adam’s smile turned sad. ‘Yeah.’

Strom smiled. ‘I fussed over my first daughter so much when she was young. This was back then, back when…’ Strom paused for a moment, thinking of that time. ‘I became King after seizing the throne, which couldn’t be done without the help of my friends.’ He smiled a knowing smile.

‘I married the most beautiful woman in the world. We had a child. My first child. My first daughter. It was around that time the first rebellion started and let me tell you, the first ten to twenty rebellions are such a pain when you don’t know how to deal with them.’ He sighed, shaking his head.

‘My daughter had been caught up in the first rebellion, but being who I was, I managed to save her in time. She was sick, though, constantly. The stress of the rebellion had gotten to her little body, and even after I had my first son and second daughter, I doted on my first.’

Strom looked down to Lanarot. ‘They called me the Foolish King, back then. I would take her everywhere with me, and we would never be more than a room apart. Eventually, though, as children ought to do, she outgrew me. She left my lap in the blink of an eye. She explored the world, traveling from land to land. She met a man.’ Strom paused, doing his best not to make a face.

‘She… she married. She had children of her own. One day I was flying her through the skies as she held my neck, pointing to the birds and asking me what they were called. The next, she was showing me her beautiful little son, my grandson. Where did that time go? I’m still wondering now, how did she grow up so quickly?’

Adam nodded his head too, unable to help but think that the old man was just a father.

Strom fell silent for a long while. ‘She… she was killed, crossing the ocean.’

Adam raised his brows, having not expected him to say something like that. Considering how overprotective he was, her dying was the last thing on his mind. ‘I’m sorry for your loss.’

Strom shook his head. ‘She was meant to be safe crossing the ocean. When she died, I made sure to kill a hundred bastards for each drop of her blood.’

Adam blinked.