“Ok everyone, I want to try something,” they all looked at me intently, “None of you seemed to have reached any of your 'Vaettier' or 'Player' milestones yet,” I began and was quickly cut off by an annoyed voice.
“We cant wead them! How are we suppose to do dem if we don't know what day are?” Makadian said in a huffy tone, chubby arms crossed over his chest. I raised an eyebrow at him, annoyed at the interruption, he was unfazed. I cleared my throat and began again.
“You're right, we can't see them until they're completed. Which means normally, you would just have to hope you stumble into the right thing or action,” I gave a sideways glance at Makadian who had a rather smug look on his face, “but that is where we have a slight advantage. I've managed to complete one Vaettier and one Player milestone,” I stated triumphantly. My brothers gawked at me, Makadian pouted his lips and looked angry.
“How did you do it?!” Malkadian asked me excitedly.
“Like I said, its mostly stumbling onto the right thing. My Vaettier milestone was 'witness inscription and runic magic coinciding together', so I reached that one from watching mothers story about the gods,” the others nodded and Malkadian furrowed his brow.
“But we all saw it an noting happened fo us,” he replied and I nodded my head.
“Your right, which means that wasn't a milestone for any of you,” they all looked glum at this proclamation, “So we will have to put the Vaettier ones aside for now and look at the Player list,” at this they all perked up again.
“What waz your Player won?!” Drazahar asked excitedly, I smirked at them.
“Understand Prana, Qi, and Energy!” I stated triumphantly. They all looked at me blankly. I sighed a little, “Its the energy we move through our bodies? When you all started walking you should have seen a notification that, at your age, it requires qi to walk and when its drained you wont be able to continue until it replenishes,” I explained, at that I got a few nods of understanding and murmurs about remembering seeing it mentioned.
“So how do we do dat?” Dahkan asked, my smile broadened. I directed them to sit with their legs crossed, hands resting on their legs, and to close their eyes.
“Take a deep breath and let yourself relax. Visualize your body,” I watched as they all had their eyes squeezed tight, “Relax every muscle in your body, breathe deeply, focus on this moment and let your mind clear,” I heard them all take a deep breath and watched as the tension began to drain from each one of them, “Picture the energy that flows through every part of your body. Let it flow through you, down to the base of your spine and into the ground beneath you. Watch as it spreads like roots, grounding you to this place and the energy around you.” there was silence as they continued to breathe. Then one after the other their eyes shot open and they began to exclaim.
“I ded it!”
“It says I weached da milestown!”
I watched as they each grew slightly and excitedly began padding around, pointing out their growth and what they saw and felt during the meditation. I smiled and let them get their energy out for a moment, then clapped my hands to regain their attention.
“Good job! So, it looks like we all share the same 'Player' milestones, that's good to know,” I looked around at my, slightly less little, brothers and smiled, “With that out of the way if each of you completes your 'Corporeal' milestones all of you should grow from 'toddlers' to 'children',” they all began to move around excitedly.
“So wew be big like you?” asked Dahkan eyes twinkling with excitement.
“You will. And growing to a child has a lot of advantages,” at this they all began to chatter and exclaim that they wanted to do their next milestone. I settled them again and we went over everyone's milestones once more, this time focusing on what they each needed to do. We found that Malkadian, Drazahar, Dahkan and Tasar all had the same milestone as me, “Use a weapon”, so I brought the four of them over to the cooking pot, unfortunately I had already pealed all of the Lamot roots. I searched around the bags near the cooking area and stumbled upon another root-like vegetable. This one was long, thin and gnarled looking and was a grayish-white color. I gave one to each of my brothers and instructed them to slice the roots with the knife. They all took turns. When they had finished Malkadian and Drazahar both grew significantly, having reached their fourth milestone, and assumed their 'child' form. Dahkan and Tasar also sliced the roots, growing slightly larger, but not reaching the same size as us. I looked Malkadian up and down and smiled.
“What?” he asked, his words were clear with his toddler slur no longer present.
“I was right, we do look like twins,” I said, he looked at me then smirked.
“I'm taller though,” I was surprised.
“What? No you aren't! Come here,” we stood shoulder to shoulder and sure enough, Malkadian was actually a few inches taller than me. He smiled at me smugly.
“Don't you have one more milestone than me? Why are you so much smaller than me 'big sister',” he chided and ruffled my hair, I swatted his hand away.
“I'm still older than you!” I said giving him a shove, he shoved back and we both laughed, “Lets help the others finish their milestones,”. From there we found that Dahkan and Makadian shared a milestone “participate in combat” it seemed simple enough. The two proceeded to roughhouse and wrestle, after a few minutes of trying to pin one another, they both announced they had gotten the notification they had achieved the milestone. A moment later they both grew and their bodies morphed into their taller and slimmer 'child' forms. With that, the only one left was Tasar, I turned to my little brother.
“Ok Tasar, its just you left. What's your last milestone?” he shifted back and forth looking at the ground. I tilted my head in confusion and he scooted closer to me, motioning for me to lean down, I did as he asked and he whispered in my ear.
“'Cowect a hewb',” I whispered then looked back at the ground. I smiled at him and patted his head.
“I think I know just where to find some,” I smiled and lead him over to some of the larger sacks near the cooking pot and pointed at them, “There's plenty here, collect as many as you need,” he smiled and began delicately picking herbs from the sacks, carefully holding them in his opposite hand. A moment later he let out a small gasp and stood up, growing to his 'child' form as well. He smiled at me shyly.
“Thank you. I didn't want to say it in front of the others, because they all had milestones that had to do with fighting or things like that,” he looked down at the ground and I patted his head again.
“It's ok. We all have different milestones, I think they might show us what we're good at or maybe what we can offer. You're a little different from the rest of us, but I think that's a good thing. Too much of one point of view and we can't see anything new,” I smiled and took his hand, leading him back to the others, “Come on let's show the others you reached your fourth milestone,”.
We returned to the group where I found Malkadian wielding the wooden soup spoon and fishing around in the cooking pot, Makadian standing beside him.
“Malkadian, what are you doing with the soup?” I called out. Makadian turned to me and cocked his head to one side.
“I'm not doing anything,” he protested, I rolled my eyes.
“I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to Malkadian,” I said again, at the mention of his name for a second time, the owner finally turned around.
“Oh, I thought you were calling him too,” I looked at them in disbelief.
“Your Malkadian,” I emphasized while pointing at him, then I turned to the other, “He is Makadian. How do you two not even know your own names?!” I exclaimed placing my hand's om my hips. The two exchanged looks and shrugged.
“They do sound really similar,” Tasar said sheepishly, this was followed by agreements from the others. I sighed and threw up my hands.
“Fine! You're Mal,” I said jabbing my finger at Malkadian, “and you're Maka,” I moved to point at Makadian, “Does that make things easier?” I asked and they all nodded, “With that out of the way, Mal, what are you doing with the stew?” I reiterated my question from before.
“Serving up some more food for everyone. We've done a lot of growing and we need food to keep us going,” he stated as one of the other boys held out a bowl and he began to fill it. I felt my own stomach grumble, we had been working at this for a while and I was getting hungry again as well. I picked up a bowl for myself and got in the forming line, behind Dahkan and Drazahar, Tamar followed behind me. As Drazahar was filling his bowl Makadian shoved him, grabbing the bowl from his hands.
“Hey, that's mine!” Drazahar exclaimed, “get your own Maka!” Maka sneered at him.
“I'm taking this one, you can grab another bowl. I'm hungry right now!” he shouted back. I stepped forward and separated the two.
“Enough! No fighting!,” I shouted and grabbed the bowl away, “This is Drazahar's food Maka. We're all hungry, you need to wait your turn! Go to the back of the line!” Maka's face went red and he glared at me.
“Or you'll do what?” he asked growling at me. Before I could answer he received a swift knock on the back of his head from the wooden spoon.
“Or you won't get anything,” Malkadian glared down at him, “Do what Idika says Maka, back of the line like everyone else,” Maka glared at us, but said nothing as he walked to the end of the line, cradling the back of his head.
“Thanks for the help Mal,” I told my brother smiling at him, he gave me a nod.
“We're the oldest right? We have to keep these guys in line,” I laughed and was about to make my way to the end of the line as well when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over and it was Drazahar, holding his soup bowl out to me.
“Thanks for the help, here you should have some while its still hot!” he proclaimed, I shook my head.
“No, that's your food Drazahar. You eat, I can get some more,” Drazhar pouted and held the bowl out.
“No way, I want you to have it. You aren't gunna make me beg, are you? Come on Mal is making me a bowl already! If you wait any longer it'll get cold and that would be a waste!” he shot off retort after retort and I could do nothing but smile as I took the bowl.
“Thanks,” I took my food and sat at my previous spot by the cooking pot. The rest of my brothers quickly followed suit with no further incident. As we ate we began talking about our milestones, our growth and speculated on what some of the hidden milestones were. We decided amongst ourselves that if any of us reached another, we would share it with the rest of the group and try to help one another grow stronger. Talk began to drift to questions about our home, the outside and our mother. As the first to become a child I had more information then the rest of my siblings, and I enjoyed how they hung on my every word as I described the things I had seen and done. When I talked about the fat bath a few of them gagged or shuddered.
“D-do we really haft to do that?” Tasar asked looking like he was going to be sick, I nodded my head.
“Mother said it's traditional when we become children. Its to wash away our impurities and our weakness,” I stated, trying to sound authoritative and reverent at the idea. But mostly I was trying not to laugh at the disgusted looks on my brother's faces.
“Gross! That has to be the worse thing that will ever happen to me,” Drazahar exclaimed, making a gagging noise. I scoffed.
“You won't think that after an encounter with mothers paddle. I'd take a thousand fat baths over that,” my brothers questioned me about 'the paddle' and I took great pleasure in educating them in detail. At my description of the large nail-studded board, the unbelievable pain as it connected with my backside and what I was certain was blood, the color drained from their faces.
“You're just trying to scare us, there's no way that's real,” Malkadian countered, trying to sound confident but I could see the fear in his eyes. I smirked.
“Think what you will. I guess you'll find out soon enough,” we continued to talk, speculate and laugh. We went back and forth from the cooking pot filling ours and Sha'ree and Suu'der's bowls. I made a point of leaving some for mother for when she woke up. We passed the night talking, eating and laughing into the early hours.