After the younger Haarthuu had left, Elizabet and I simply sat a while, discussing the decidedly odd interaction.

“I mean, she certainly seems nice, but I worry that she may try to come between us. I know you say that she won’t, but the fear is still there,” Elizabet said, hugging her arms.

“Hey, now,” I said softly. “The word is can’t. She can’t come between us. I love you, Elizabet. Not anyone else. Don’t forget that,” I said, gently stroking her arm.

She smiled and leaned into my chest, and I lay down, holding her to me. “There’s no force here that will keep me from loving you. Nobody could possibly come between us. That’s not a worry you should ever have,” I said, running my fingers through her auburn hair.

She sighed softly and snuggled close to me. “I will trust your word. I still think we will have to tread carefully when it comes to her. I don’t want us to unintentionally hurt her,” she said softly.

“Neither do I. Let’s get some sleep, okay?” I asked.

Elizabet sat up, removing her habit. I gazed longingly at her beautiful body, and undressed. We curled up in the bed, and she pressed my face into her warm cleavage. Sighing contentedly, I snuggled in, and let my exhaustion take me into dreams.

*********

The next morning, I was so stiff and sore that I could barely move. My back hurt intensely from pulling my new bow as much as I had, and my shoulders creaked and protested loudly every time I tried to move them. Ullr was correct. I was extremely sore.

“Well, that’s the last time I do that,” I said.

“Do what? “Elizabet asked as she bent over to retrieve her habit. I tried unsuccessfully to grab her ass, my arms seemingly being several hundred pounds of dead weight.

“Shoot like that. I can barely move. I’ll be alright in a bit, I just need to get myself up and moving,” I said, standing slowly.

Several joints in my body protested, creaking loudly and popping even louder as I stood beside the bed. I slowly dressed myself, planning to accompany Elizabet to breakfast. As I stomped my feet into my boots, we heard a knock at both doors.

Elizabet and I looked at each other, shrugged and we each opened a door.

“Hi Mr. Ivor! We brought you some breakfast,” Ahte-tan said.

“Hi, Elizabet. I brought you guys some breakfast. Would you mind if we all ate together?” Liss-ran said.

I started laughing and Elizabet covered her mouth in an attempt to stifle her mirth. Ahte-tan looked confused until he peered around me to see Liss-ran at the other door.

“Hi, Liss-ran! Have you come to have breakfast, too?” the child said happily, a broad smile on his face.

“Hello, Ahte-tan,” Liss-ran said sweetly. It looks like we all had the same idea, huh?” She looked up at Elizabet, smiling. “I say we should all have breakfast together. What does everyone think?” she asked.

“All of us, Liss-ran?” I asked.

“Sure! I’ve not had much chance to even get to know Talah-ma’at, much less the boys, so why not?” she said happily. “Also… I’ve not gotten to know much about you or Miss Elizabet. I think that would be a smart thing for family to do, right?” she added, somewhat embarrassed as her skin flushed.

“Absolutely, Liss-ran. Where would be the best place for seven people to eat?” Elizabet asked.

“With any kind of privacy? Outside. Unless one of you knows of somewhere more secluded?” Liss-ran posed.

“Well, it’s kind of cold out right now. I’d be fine, but the rest of you might not be.” I said, thinking. “How about my workshop? It’s not very far, and it’s more than big enough. What do you think, Elizabet?” I asked.

After a moment, she nodded. “Talah-ma’at?” she called, “We’re all going to Ivor’s workshop for breakfast with Liss-ran. Are you coming?”

“Absolutely! I’ll pick up a bit more food, and meet you there,” Talah-ma’at answered.

With that settled, I grabbed my bow, using the stave as a staff and we slowly made our way towards my workshop, my muscles and joints protesting every step of the way. My boys kept up a veritable torrent of chatter with us as we slowly walked.

After a few minutes, I opened the door to my workshop, pausing to remove the shield from the lamps I had installed. Liss-ran set the food she had brought on the central table that Loki had made, and looked around.

“So this is your workshop? What do you do here?” she asked as she walked around, inspecting each station, pausing to look at what would become my new Bag.

“Well, as you can see, I’m making a new bag there. It’s taken me a couple weeks to get this far. It will replace the one I have here” -I set my smaller red Bag down next to it- “as it will be several times the size of this one,” I said.

“This one is big enough that I could fit in it. Why is it taking so long to make? I don’t understand,” she said.

Elizabet chuckled lightly and watched. “It’s taking so long to make because I’m trying to figure out how much energy it’s going to take to replicate this,” I said as I reached into my Bag and pulled out the Dire Bear pelt.

“How did… Where did that come from? What is that bag?” Liss-ran asked, her eyes wide.

“This is a Bag of Holding, and I made it the same day I arrived on Chaia. It’s about full, and I need to replace it. It currently holds three of these” -I stuffed the pelt back into the Bag- “pelts, a full set of camp gear, several bundles of firewood, a bunch of stones, about my bodyweight in raw and dried meat, a couple of knives, both of my guns, and some fingers,” I said, and Elizabet recoiled from the Bag.

“Fingers? Fingers, Ivor? Why do you have fingers in the Bag?” she asked, horrified.

“Remember the idiots in Nogogard? The one that wanted to eat my boys? I took his third and fourth fingers from both hands. Stuffed them in the Bag, and kind of forgot about them,” I said sheepishly. “I should probably send those back to him,” I mused aloud.

“Ugh. No, just… just forget they’re there, okay? That’s morbid,” she said, holding her hand to her stomach.

Liss-ran had paled at the mention of the fingers, and stared at me in shock. “You… why did you take his fingers?” she asked.

“To put it bluntly, he wanted to eat Ahte-naah. I threatened him and warned him off, but he decided to press his luck. Along with a fellow Guard, they broke into the room we were sleeping in, and I beat them back, shredding my right arm in the process, when I punched through the floor. They got in a few good hits, though. I was extremely lucky that night. I took the one man’s fingers, making good on the promise I’d made earlier that day. I was going to take his hands, but I decided to be kind. He can still feed himself,” I said.

Liss-ran stared in shock and horror. “People do that?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“Some do, yes. It’s something I had heard of while I was in the Guild underneath Gnok. I thought it was disgusting even then,” Elizabet said, barely repressing a shudder.

“Yeah. I was pretty incensed that it was even a thought in his head. I nearly killed him on the spot, but I was trying to be a bit more calm. We see how well that worked out,” I said wryly. “Anyway, let’s see about making some more space for my family, yeah?” I said, looking around.

Since the workshop was more or less a rectangular affair, I had some room to work with. I looked at the table and decided it would be best if I simply expanded it. I Shaped the table to be a bit lower in order to better accommodate the kids, then added another four feet to its length. I Duplicated the wooden chair several times over, and set them around the table. As an added flourish, I decided to Shape a lamp in the center of the table, complete with little designs in the shade, depicting a large, happy blended family sitting around a table for a meal. I walked outside, picking up one of the rounded waste stones, made a Light that was about as intense as a pair of candles, and made it flicker like fire. Setting it in the holder, and placing the shade over it, the designs were backlit to great effect. It almost looked like they were laughing and talking in the light.

“There we are. A table and chairs for my entire family. There’s room for Blainaut, Thaddeus and any partner they may decide to take, as well. Maybe we can make this our dining area for larger, more private, family meals?” I asked.

The kids were in awe of what I’d done, as was Liss-ran. Elizabet simply smiled as she watched me work, as she’d seen me do things like the before. The others hadn’t.

I was looking around, deep in thought, when Talah-ma’at came in, accompanied by Blainaut and Thaddeus, each carrying a tray of different foods.

“Oh! I see you’ve expanded the table. Good move, Ivor,” the lithe Lizardfolk woman remarked as she came in.

“Welcome! Blainaut, Thaddeus, this is my workshop. And, if everyone agrees, how about we make this our family dining area? I can find a way to cover or hide my work, if needed,” I said proudly.

Nodding appreciatively, Blainaut said, “Well! I’d no idea you were this industrious, my friend. Or that you had interests and skills this broad. I think this might be an excellent place for us to have meetings and family gatherings. What do you think, Thaddeus?”

Thaddeus looked around and smiled. “Ah say t’would be a right nice place. We should do this more,” the younger man said.

“I’ve a few more touches, and it’ll be done. Don’t worry, it won’t take much out of me to do,” I said excitedly.

I picked up the few sconces I had abandoned in my search to make the blacklight solution. Since they were made of mostly clear crystal, I figured they’d make decent windows. I took them and some waste stone to my open window, and Shaped window panes out of the sconces, and fittings out of the stone, and set them in the wide window I’d made previously, Fusing them in place. I figured I’d make a sign while I was at it, and across the top of the window panes I Shaped the words “Ivor's Workshop”, and in two of the side panes I put the words “Open” and “Closed”, respectively. Hollowing out a small recess above each letter on the top, I placed a low-intensity blacklight stone that would illuminate just the letters, and did the same for the “Open” and “Closed” panes, as well, but only making one stone that I could switch to the correct pane as needed. I set the stone in the “Closed” position.

“There! Now I’ve got a proper shop and can take orders. What do we think?” I said, turning to my family.

They all stood or sat there, in open-mouthed shock.

“What? What’d I do?” I asked in confusion.

“You know, he never ceases to amaze me?” Blainaut said to Elizabet.

“I know. Me too,” she replied. “Ivor, just how did you come up with this? I would never have even thought about using the crystals here in such a manner, let alone with the blacklights. Just…how?”

“I dunno. I guess I wanted a taste of Earth here. It isn’t the same, not quite, but it’s similar” -I sat down in one of the chairs- “to almost any storefront you’d find in most cities in my world. I always wanted my own shop. Now I have one,” I said simply.

“So, you mean to tell me that stores on Earth have crystal windows that are lit by these blacklights?” Blainaut asked.

“No, the windows are glass, and they’ll have lights made of neon tubes or something similar,” I replied.

“All the windows are glass on Earth. Most signage that is meant to be seen at night is neon or lit up in some way. Here. If it still works, I’ll show you,” I said, reaching into my Bag, removing an old backpack.

I sighed. I’d not thought about my phone or headset or anything technological from Earth since I’d arrived. Hopefully, it still had some charge to it. Or my backup power pack did, at least. I walked over to one of the workstations, setting the backpack down. Digging through the bag, I pulled out my kilt, and unrolled it, revealing my phone and power pack. I pulled a power cable out of a pocket of my kilt, and turned on my phone.

While it booted, I walked back to the table and sat down. I laid the phone down, screen up, on the table, and waited. The screen went magenta, and I heard the familiar T-Mobile jingle, which startled everyone around me. I smiled, and the phone completed its cycle, coming up to my home screen. I still had almost a full charge after a couple months of not being used. That would change in a few minutes, but it was good to see.

I waited a couple seconds, seeing that no service was found. My heart sank in my chest as the last hope I had of telling my mom and sisters, friends and relations, that I was okay evaporated like smoke in the wind.

“Well, I don’t know why I expected any different, but here we go,” I murmured as the entire group crowded around me.

I opened my pictures, finding a series I had taken of a cousin’s business shortly after he had set it up.

“This is Louisville. A city in my home state. This is my cousin’s storefront on the day he opened. The windows are glass, and that sign there is a neon sign. When electricity -or caged lightning, don’t ask- is fed into that sign, it excites a very specific gas inside those glass tubes, and they glow.” I swiped to another picture, “And this is that same sign at night, lit up,” I explained, sniffling.

Elizabet laid her head on my shoulder, and hugged me gently. She pointed at a car, and asked, “What’s that? It looks…mean.”

“That’s a car. My car, specifically. Blainaut, do you remember when I told you I had things that could travel forty leagues in a couple of hours? This is one of them. My world doesn’t have magic of any kind. We rely on technology, such as this object in my hand, to help us in our daily life,” I said, tears flowing down my cheeks, getting lost in my beard.

“Ivor, you didn’t have to show us this. It’s okay. I believed you, you know,” Elizabet said softly.

“I know,” I sniffled, “I guess I wanted to see my home world again. Even if only in a picture,” I said, smiling.

“A picture? You mean, like a portrait?” Blainaut asked. I nodded. “Can that device make a portrait?” he asked, his hand rubbing his chin in thought.

“Yeah. I can take a picture or a video -a moving picture with sound. Why?” I asked.

“Make one of us. We’re your family, right? Take a picture of us all. That way you have both worlds,” he said softly.

“Heh. I’d never even considered that. Part of me wasn’t going to ever get my phone out again, but I guess that part got overridden. Let me make a stand for it. This time I’ll be in the picture,” I said, rising.

I explained how the picture taking worked to my family, warning them that they may have a bright light in their eyes, then shaped a stand to hold my phone at the perfect angle, set it up to take a picture on a delay, and pushed the button. I raced back to my seat, put my arm around Elizabet, and told everyone to smile at the light.

CLICK

The flash momentarily blinded everyone at the table, and I got up to see my picture. There we all were, one big, happy, smiling family. Sitting at the table, about to have a good meal. I sighed, and brought it back, showing everyone the photo.

The Lizardfolk were almost terrified at how real it looked. They were intensely curious, however, and got over their fear quickly. The Humans at the table were in awe at the technology, and said as much.

“Ivor, this is incredible. Something like this would revolutionize our world. Do you know that?” Blainaut exclaimed in wonder.

“Yeah, I know. Which is precisely why I’ll never let it be Duplicated. Chaia isn’t ready for this. Chaia may never be ready for this. It would require a special network of towers and machinery just to make it work. I can’t, in good conscience, let it loose upon this world,” I said somberly.

“You told me when we arrived in the Lizardfolk territory that you had music on this device. Could we hear some?” asked Elizabet.

“Music? On that thing? I’d like to hear that, actually,” Blainaut said.

“Really? Well, I guess so. Would you guys please set out the food while I see if I have something that would be okay?” I asked.

The others nodded, and I sifted through my vast library to find something that would be pleasant, and not angry-sounding, like the majority of my music. In the end, I settled on a selection of classical guitar pieces to play. No lyrics, just pleasant guitar in various styles.

“Here we are. Some calm breakfast music for my family,” I said as I pushed play.

Immediately, the room was filled with beautiful music coming from my phone, and I began getting myself a decent helping of breakfast. The rest of the group were too busy staring at my phone. I smiled, waiting for the first song to finish, then paused it.

“Well?”

“Ivor… That was simply beautiful. What was that?” Elizabet asked, her voice soft and emotional.

“Old ballads from a country called Ireland. I had a friend that played guitar, and he gifted me a copy of some of his music. He couldn’t sing worth a damn, but he could play a guitar as easily as ringing a bell. Would you like to hear more?” I asked.

A chorus of affirmations later, and I had pressed play again. I began to eat, and the rest of the group did the same.

We ate and I told stories from my home, in good spirits and even better company.