Omen: 1, 8

“Papa,” Lanarot called, stomping her way to Adam, before grabbing his leg. She reached up with her arms.

Adam picked her up, holding her to his chest. “Did you miss me?” He kissed her forehead before allowing her to rest against his chest.

Sonarot wondered if Adam had become close to Lanarot on purpose, but seeing the way he curled the girl’s hair with a finger, those thoughts quickly slipped away.

Adam decided against working out that morning, though he did take his little sister to bathe quickly, stopped by an Iyrman, only for him to flash Elder Gold’s token which allowed him to bathe in peace.

“It’s so hot, isn’t it?” Adam asked.

Lanarot splashed the water in her tub, laughing wildly, splashing the water all around them.

Adam smiled, looking back towards the ceiling. He wondered if his children would be raised in the Iyr like Lanarot. ‘No. I can’t do something like that.’ The thought had caused his stomach to ache slightly. ‘I’m already taking advantage of them.’

He dried the girl off before carrying her back to the shared family estate, where breakfast was being cooked. The Kan family had grilled all manner of fish, meat, and vegetables.

Adam placed the girl down, before stepping away to sit with Jurot, but Lanarot cried out, reaching for him. “What’s the matter?” Adam asked, letting her grab his finger. She continued to groan, and made to cry, but Adam sat down beside her. “You silly girl.” His lips twitched into a smirk.

Lanarot chewed on her fruit slowly, the juices of the fruit spilling down her chin and onto her bib. Adam ate the grilled meat, before glancing around the women, who were each quite pregnant.

“I’ll help to cook,” Adam said.

“You do not need to,” Sonarot replied. She wasn’t sure the other Iyrmen would appreciate him cooking with them.

“It’s at times like this you need to leave it to us lazy bones,” Adam said, simply. “I have enough time to cook in the morning. I can enchant after, and then help Churot in the evening.”

“You will enchant and assist Churot?” Sonarot asked, not surprised, but worried.

“Sure,” Adam replied. “It’s not like it’ll kill…” Adam narrowed his eyes. ‘Bell, can that kill me?’

[Yes.]

Adam raised his brows. “Oh.”

“What?”

“Apparently, it…” He fell silent once more, feeling Sonarot’s piercing gaze against his eyes. “Nothing.”

Sonarot sighed. She was glad she wasn’t pregnant, otherwise how would she be able to handle his stress.

“Where’s Lady Shamia and Tariel?” Adam asked. “I haven’t seen them around since then.”

“They are to remain with other families,” Jurot replied.

“Why?”

“Too many people already know your secrets,” Jurot said. “It would be dangerous for them to know.”

“Would it?”

“Yes.”

“Fair enough.”

Lanarot slapped Adam’s leg for his attention, and held up her empty cup to him. Adam filled it with some cool water, which she thirstily slurped, half of which fell across her bib and lap.

“Lanarot, are you drinking the water, or are you wearing it?” Adam asked.

Spell: Tricks

Adam cast his Tricks trick to try and clean the girl’s clothing, which caused her to look down at where the water had once been. She continued to search, trying to find the wetness, but it was gone.

“Silly girl.” Adam broke some bread for her, and offered it to her. She ate it from his fingers chewing slowly.

“Cousin Adam,” Turot called. “Will you enchant today?”

“No, I’m not feeling very lucky.”

“Can we play Warriors and Wanderers, please?”

“Sure,” Adam said, smiling. “We still need to save our companions, don’t we?”

“Yes!”

Adam prepared the game for the children, though he had done so outside. The adult Iyrmen were watching and listening, though only subtly. They would each look after Lanarot too, who was enjoying her time with her aunts.

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“I, Taygak,” Taygak declared, rolling her dice, though she had unfortunately missed her blow against the manticore.

Saygak managed to spread flame all across the manticores with his spell, before Raygak, who had taken a particular type of Fighter, managed to critically hit.

“Ooh!” Raygak gasped, rolling a true strike against the creature. He picked up another die to roll it.

“Raygak, what are you doing to my precious monsters?” Adam asked. “You’re doing too much damage! It is not right, not right!”

Raygak snorted pridefully at Adam, a smug smile on his face.

Adam checked the hit points of the creature, noting the boy had missed by a single point. “Raygak, your sword pierces through this creature, and it lets out a terrible cry. When it falls silent, you find that the blood sticks to your sword.”

“I wipe it off,” Raygak said.

“It does not wipe off, but instead, the blood covers your entire blade, and once it does, it seeps into the blade.”

Raygak looked at Adam, his brows furrowed in confusion. “It does not wipe off?”

“Raygak, it is now a magical sword with a basic bonus.”

The children gasped.

“Bloodsword?” Taygak asked.

Adam tore a sheet in half, and once more, before quickly writing up the statistics of the weapon. “Here you are.”

“Bloodsword,” Raygak whispered. “I have it? Really?”

“Of course,” Adam replied. “You can draw the sword on the back.”

“Okay,” Raygak said, brimming with such a radiant smile, Adam had to glance aside.

‘Truly, my Cousins are the cutest.’

“Taygak play?” Taygak asked to Raygak, as though it were a real blade.

“Well first, we have two more manticores to kill, so let’s have the Kans go next,” Adam said.

Damokan and Kalokan both rolled, but only Kalokan had managed to hit with her greatsword, cutting a manticore lightly with her blade.

“Katool, Turot, what do you two do?” Adam asked.

Katool looked down at the name of the spell. “Deathhand?”

“Go ahead,” Adam said, allowing the girl to roll, as Turot waited.

Katool rolled her die.

10.

She counted the number to add to her roll. “Thirteen?”

“You’re good at magic aren’t you? You need to add this number?”

“Twelve?”

“Twelve add three,” Adam said, smiling at her.

She used her hands, but realised she didn’t have enough fingers. Turot held up his fingers, and she counted them, before adding five. “Fifteen.”

“Well done,” Adam said, after waiting a long moment to allow her to count. “Fifteen is good.”

Katool made an explosion sound as she rolled her dice, rolling to damage.

“Oooh that’s six damage, well done,” Adam said. “You touch the manticore and it cries in pain because you punched it with your Deathhand.”

Katool threw out a fist. “I kill!”

“Not quite,” Adam chuckled. “So close!”

Turot then began his own roll. Nine and…” Turot paused. He held out five fingers, and counted from nine, before touching each finger. “Fourteen.”

“Well done,” Adam replied with a nod of his head, all the while Mirot listened intently, wondering how Turot had managed to get so good with maths.

“Turot, you manage to cut this manticore down, and seeing that its companions have fallen, the other manticore begins to fly away.”

“No!” the Iyrchildren cried.

“Do you have anything to stop it?” Adam asked.

Taygak looked at her sheet. “Javelin!”

“I have javelins too,” Raygak said, and the others confirmed.

“Flame Bolt,” Saygak said.

“Punch?” Katool asked.

“Do you have any spells with a circle next to them? Remember, circle is ranged.”

Katool looked at her sheet. “Guiding Bolt?”

“Yeah, Guiding Bolt works. If you want to Guiding Bolt first, it could make it easier for the others to attack,” Adam offered.

“Okay!”

Unfortunately, the girl had missed, causing her to gasp and groan. “No!”

“It’s okay, sometimes you miss, but send your good luck to everyone else, okay?” Adam asked, placing his fingers against the sides of his head. Katool followed suit, narrowing her eyes as she tried to send good luck to the others.

“With javelins raining down, and beams of magic shooting out, somehow the manticore manages to fly away,” Adam said, noting that only Kalokan had managed to roll above a 10 on her die.

“No!” Katool cried.

“You still killed two and you get the full XP from each manticore, and now Raygak has his Bloodsword,” Adam said. “So you can begin to cut the manticores up, and Katool, you are best at that.”

“Where?” Taygak asked.

“Where is it flying?” Adam asked.

Taygak nodded.

“It’s flying north, to the mountains.”

Taygak wrote down the words. “We go kill, okay?”

“Do you want to kill it, or do you want to follow the bandits west?” Adam asked. “Remember, you still need to find aunt Sonarot and cousin Jurot.”

Taygak huffed at the choice.

“We can kill manticores for more magic swords,” Raygak said.

“Save family,” Taygak said.

“We can kill the manticores later?” Saygak asked.

“You know where it went, and maybe after you save aunt Sonarot and cousin Jurot, you can probably try to find it.” Adam smiled. “If you roll well.”

“No good rolling,” Katool said, sighing.

“What do you mean? You did so well, Katool,” Adam said. “Remember? You punched it so hard and almost killed it.”

“Okay,” Taygak said. “We save.”

Turot puffed up his chest. “Let’s go save aunt and cousin!”

“You don’t want to butcher the manticore?” Adam offered.

“It will take too long,” Turot said.

“No butcher?” Katool asked, ready to roll her die.

“We must save them first,” Turot said.

“Okay,” Katool said, slightly disappointed.

“You can at least cut off the fangs of the creatures really quickly, or maybe tear off some spikes,” Adam offered. “Then you have to run.”

“Okay!” Katool rolled.

12.

“That’s good enough, you manage to grab some fangs and spikes, and you can quickly follow the tracks of the bandits to the west. Next time you’ll get to their fort and maybe you can talk to them, or fight them, for aunt Sonarot and cousin Jurot.”

“Okay.”

Raygak held his card in front of him, staring at the statistics of his Bloodsword. He quickly stood up, rushing off, but stopped. “Thank you, Cousin Adam,” the boy said, before rushing off to go draw the weapon.

“Thank you, Cousin Adam,” the children all said.

“Any time,” Adam replied, a smile on his face. Playing Warriors and Wanderers with the children filled his heart with a calmness. ‘Yeah. This is the life.’

“You have given Raygak the Bloodsword?” Lavgak asked.

“I gave him a Bloodsword,” Adam replied, confused.

“You know what it does?”

“It’s a basic weapon,” Adam replied. “I just made it sound fancy so he thinks it’s cooler than it actually is.”

“The Bloodsword is not a basic weapon.”

Adam furrowed his brows in confusion. “Wait. Are you telling me there’s a real Bloodsword?”

“Yes,” Lavgak replied. “Is that not why you gave it to him?”

“No,” Adam replied. “I just made it up.” He had created the Bloodsword to give him a reason for the young Raygak to kill the manticore and gain a magical weapon.

Lavgak smiled. “You must teach me how to play this game.”

“You want to play?” Adam asked, staring up at the Devilkin woman who was Jaygak’s mother.

“It seems fun.”

“It is,” Adam said, smiling. ‘Now it’s time to seduce my Aunts.’ He winced.

“What is the matter?” Lavgak asked. “You do not wish to.”

“It’s okay, I can, and I will,” Adam said, quickly. “I need to go help Churot.” Adam quickly retreated. ‘I can’t use that word when it comes to my heavily pregnant Aunts.’ He shuddered, feeling so dirty.

He stopped. ‘Damn. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to Lanababy.’