Summer 44, X008

It’s Marge’s birthday now, and I’m crossing my fingers that everything goes well.

I made the accessories: a necklace and a bracelet. The necklace features the round object with some shells to complement it, while the bracelet is mostly made up of shells.

I almost forgot to mention—our birthdays always happen at a secret spot that only the five of us know about. Daelan found it. It’s the opposite of the forest where we first showed off our skills. That’s the southern forest, the one with the wolf incident. This spot is in the northern forest.

The northern forest is considered safe, so the villagers never worried about us going there, even when we were kids. They’d just tell us, "Come back before dark, or we’ll send a search party and punish you severely."

To get there, when you enter the forest, you’ll find a trail. Follow it for a bit, then head east. We’ve marked a few trees along the way to make sure we don’t get lost.

The place where we celebrate birthdays is an open clearing with a single massive tree at its center. It’s as if all the trees that should have spread out across the space somehow grew together to form this one giant tree. We even carved out the inside to create a kind of makeshift house, so we can still gather there even in the winter.

I got to get going, Daelan and Hank should already be there getting the surprise ready.

Perhaps, this won’t work after all. Seeing it first hand, yep this won’t work. No- no, think of the positives… Yeah, this will work.

I could see Daelan and Hank so proud of their work that’s it’s hard to tell them. I meant they did a great job. It’s um very creative.

Well, whatever happen happens, time will decide.

It already looks like this is going to be a complete disaster. Haley’s reaction pretty much confirms it. When they arrived, Haley already had her hands on Marge's eyes, covering them, but now it looks like she doesn’t even want to remove her hands from her eyes after seeing the surprise.

I could hear Marge asking if they were there yet, and when they stopped moving, she asked if she could see it now. But now she’s getting irritated with Haley for taking so long. It’s only a matter of time before she forces Haley’s hand away from her eyes—she’s still struggling right now.

I'd already dropped into a seiza position, bracing for her lecture, when I glanced over at Daelan and Hank. They were looking at me with confused expressions. Well, they’ll figure it out when it happens.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Wait... it actually works? Well, sorta, I guess. And just to be clear, I wasn’t talking about the plan Daelan and Hank came up with—that was a total disaster. I meant the accessories I made. They kind of helped calm her down.

So, at first when Marge finally breaks free from Haley clutches, and saw Daelan and Hank plan, her reaction was much expected. She just blurted out, “What the fuck is this?”

Daelan and Hank explained proudly how they’d searched the village, eventually finding a shady merchant selling fresh fish straight from the sea. They went on about how expensive it had been, and how, after they bought everything, the merchant just took off without a word. They even cooked it themselves, since they didn’t have enough money to hire a chef. So, that’s why the food is in this state, they cooked it themselves.

Marge facepalmed and yelled at them, "None of these fish are even from the sea! Most of them are all freshwater fish!" She stepped closer, glaring at them. "Which means they came from a river or a lake." With a look of pure disdain, she added “You guys got scammed, and honestly, you shouldn't have bothered cooking them—they all look awful."

Both Daelan and Hank curled up into the fetal position, sucking their thumbs. Marge then turned to me and walked over, crouching down to face me. I couldn’t keep my eyes on her and looked away, but in a sadistic tone, she said, "Look at me." It was like instinct—I couldn’t help but obey and forced myself to meet her gaze.

In that same cold tone, she said, "I expected more from you, Deilos." But before she could say anything that might break me like it had with Daelan and Hank, I quickly offered her the accessory I had made, then lowered my head to the ground in submission.

I stumbled over my words, trying my best to explain. "Aft-after we finished e-eating, we w-were planning to gi-give this to y-you." The silence hung heavy, and I braced myself for a barrage of insults—but they never came.

That’s when I looked up and saw her admiring the accessories, though what really caught her attention was the necklace—specifically, the round object. I called out to her, and she flinched slightly before taking it. She acted like she hated it, but it was obvious she loved it as she immediately put on the necklace and bracelet.

She huffed, crossing her arms. “Alright, I forgive you three... this time.” Her atmosphere from that time was gone and she is somewhat back to her usual self.

After a while, Haley came over, asking if I was okay. I had noticed her earlier, standing off to the side while Marge was tearing into the two of them. She was shaking, clearly terrified of Marge.

I asked her to hold out her hands and placed an extra necklace I’d made into her palms. I’d found two of those round objects and still had some shells left, so I figured, why not make another one.

She seemed taken aback, her voice rising in a bit of panic. "Eh? Why? I’m not upset with you three, and I didn’t really help enough to deserve something like this." As she tried to hand it back to me.

I replied calmly, my tone in stark contrast to her panicked state. "It’s for everything you’ve done for us. No need to hesitate. And if that doesn’t work for you, let’s just call it a late birthday gift." I gently closed her hands around the necklace.

She gave a small nod, a bashful smile tugging at her lips as a blush crept up her cheeks. "Thanks!" she said, her voice soft and sincere.

I think my heart skipped a beat in that moment, but I quickly brushed it off, reminding myself that I’m into busty girls—definitely not her.

And that’s how the day ended—Daelan and Hank still in that state, and the three of us reluctantly ate the food they’d cooked. Surprisingly, it was edible—just needed a little salt or something.

Also, Haley’s birthday was on the 14th of Summer, which we just did the usual tradition.

End.