Time passed in a blur. Peter and the others went back to their complex after a few more years after Minato and the others had grown up a bit. Minato was following in his mothers’ footsteps and stepping up to try to lead the others out in the fields. He was never one for his studies, and mostly seemed to enjoy farming and playing with his friends. Enjoying the rustic life and causing all sorts of havoc and drama once he got to the age that he started pursuing some of the local girls.
He was quite the catch, the rumors went, and he had grown to be quite handsome as he aged. Several girls had bribed each other to do each other’s chores in exchange for letting them swap for work shifts where Minato would be there so they could talk and flirt with him.
Minato certainly liked all the attention, even if he complained about his life being so complicated sometimes at their family meals with Luna, Fumiko, Emily, and his sister Aurora as his relationships and exes grew into a tangled web around him in the small village as time passed.
Emily and Minato’s parents all found his complaints rather amusing, much to his chagrin. Not many of the girls had any hard feelings, it mostly just made things awkward with them for Minato after his relationship with them ended for whatever reason.
Unfortunately Emily and Minato’s parents didn’t really have any good advice for him on any seduction techniques or dating. Or how to handle his exes for that matter. Emily obviously hadn’t had much if any practice with dating, and Luna and Fumiko’s relationship had just sort of formed naturally with them falling in love almost immediately once they started exploring their feelings for each other.
But based on how successful Minato had been these last few years, apparently he had figured it out for himself. He was almost twenty three now, and Emily was sure he’d find somebody to settle down with eventually.
It was some of the best years of Emily’s life as she worked at the nursery and spent time with Minato, Fumiko, Luna, and the growing Aurora. Spending time with her family and watching the happy village grow steadily around her.
Aurora had maintained her distant and detached personality and seemed to struggle with connecting with others initially. But once she gained a few friends she bonded deeply with them and her little group was practically joined at the hip from that day forward.
The only time Emily had seen the girl truly angry growing up was when one of the older girls had shoved one of her friends while the two were arguing about something. Emily and everyone else had to hear about the incident for weeks as Aurora kept retelling the story of how she’d shouted at the older girl who hurt her friend and put the bully back in her place.
Normally Emily and Aurora’s parents would have scolded her for being so harsh, but Aurora was just so passionate about something for once that none of them had the heart to stop her mid rant and ruin her excitement about defending her friend.
Right now all of them were preparing for the Reunion Festival as they had taken to calling it over the years. When all of the villages would come together and have one big celebration and catch up on what had happened in the last year. It originally had been just the two villages, but over the last ten years five more small hamlets had been established on top of that.
Each of the hamlets had less than ten or fifteen people total and all were within ten miles of one of the two main villages. But they provided even further space for anyone who found even the new less populated village more crowded than they would like.
Both villages' natural births as well as their incubation machines had been hard at work increasing the population to the point that this Reunion Festival would be attended by over six hundred people now, even if it was mostly children and younger teenagers.
Luna and Fumiko looked both harried as they ran around organizing everything as they prepared for all of their guests for the next few days. Luna and Fumiko were organizing the sleeping accommodations with the older adults while Minato was setting up long wooden tables and benches outside and directing the younger generation in setting up the lawn games, competitions, and other things they’d prepared for the festival.
It felt like a renaissance fair, and the mood was upbeat as everyone looked forward to catching up with the people who had moved away and enjoying the upcoming party. A harried Alem came up to Emily looking exhausted as she sat there watching the proceedings. A group of children stood in a huddle in the field behind him all looking over at the two of them expectantly.
“Emily, could you entertain the children for a bit? They’re relentless today. They’ve been begging for you to play with them for a while now. I’m exhausted. They’ve had me playing monster all day.”
“Alright, Alem. Take a break, I’ll go,” Emily promised and stood from her chair, “You look like a tomato, go get a drink and sit down. Relax a bit.”
“A tomato?” Alem asked in confusion.
“Red. Bright red, it was a fruit. Sort of like a berdun fruit, but with a soft outside and a lighter shade of red.”
“Ah, okay. I’ll go see if I can go steal a few drinks from Lucy.”
Alem walked off, still panting slightly and drooping as he went. Emily started walking over to the crowd of children in the nearby area observing them and they all cheered.
“Yay! Momma Emily! Play with us!” They all said as the group of over forty children of various ages came over and crowded around her in a big huddle.
“Oh no!” Emily said dramatically, “You better watch out! It’s time for monster tag! Big monster Emily’s coming out!”
“Noooo, not monster Emily!” The children cheered and started scrambling away in all directions from her. Emily raised her arms above her head and made claws with her fingers.
“Rawr! I’m gonna eat ya up! Nom nom nom!” Emily said as she slowly jogged forward and picked up a squirming Jessica with both hands off of the ground where she’d fallen in the stampede away from Emily.
Little seven year old Jessica screamed in laughter as Emily lifted the girl high into the air and then brought the girl close to her stomach. Emily whirled around fast in a circle with the girl held in her arms so fast that the girl’s legs swung outwards almost horizontal from the ground from the speed of Emily’s spin.
“Grrrrr!” Emily said as she put down the little girl who wobbled a bit as she was placed back onto her feet. The other children lined the edge of their play area on the field and watched the two of them closely.
Jessica raised her arms in front of her and made her own claws with her fingers.
“Grrrrrr!” Jessica giggled back.
“Let’s get them, Jessica!” Emily said as she reformed her own imaginary claws, “Now you’re a monster too!”
The two of them worked together and ran around to isolate people from the crowd and tag them. Whenever someone was tagged they’d grab each other’s forearms and spin in a circle and turn the other person into a ‘monster’ or new tagger. Some of the older children tried to lift each other as they did it and it became a sort of smaller game to see if they could make it around in the circle without the other person throwing them to the ground if they were around the same age.
Only Emily did the whole routine of picking them fully off the ground and whirling them all the way around when they were caught. With her endless stamina she was able to keep playing as long as she needed to, and could pick up even the heaviest children without her arms tiring or trembling in the slightest. Some of the children intentionally dodged all the others just to let themselves be caught by Emily so they could have a turn of being whirled around by her during the game.
Kimiko was the last one being chased, with a bit of an advantage since she was thirteen and one of the oldest of the children. But she managed to dodge all the ‘monsters’ charging her for a few seconds before she was overwhelmed, so she earned her victory fair and square despite her age advantage over the others.
Everyone stopped after Kimiko was fully spun around and the game ended. They all sat down for a few minutes to rest before Kimiko stood back up.
“My turn! My turn! Now I start!” She said.
“Okay! Kimiko’s the monster,” Emily said, “Everyone ready?”
Everyone stood up quickly and prepared for a second round, and the tired ones wandered off to the side lines at the border of the field to rest for longer.
“Three, two, one, Go!” Emily said.
Kimiko raised her hands and formed them into claws and started charging at the nearest boy who had tagged her last game.
“Rawr! Rawr! Nom nom nom!” Kimiko shouted as she chased after the fleeing ten year old boy and ignored everyone else so she could get her revenge on him. After a few seconds and the boy getting blocked by the tight mass of the rest of the fleeing crowd, Kimiko grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Ha!” she shouted, “Got you!”
The two of them locked forearms and spun in a full circle and Kimiko managed to throw the boy to the ground as they competed in their spin.
“Hah!” Kimiko gloated even as the boy released his grip as he fell, causing her to stumble backwards before drunkenly trying to recover her balance from her dizziness from being spun around.
The boy stood up and Kimiko turned to stare straight at Emily and pointed at her.
“C’mon Ethan! Let’s tag Emily! We’ll get her this time!”
Ethan gave Kimiko a skeptical look but raised his own hands into claws as he stood next to her.
“Rawr!” they both shouted before charging at Emily at full speed. Emily jogged away, going slow enough that they were just barely behind her and she had to dodge away from the swipes of their hands.
Finally after nearly a full minute of chasing Emily, the both of them were panting and looked exhausted even after forcefully recruiting another four children as monsters to help them in the chase.
Finally Emily felt a hand brush right across the left side of her butt and looked back. Emily saw Kimiko lying on the ground, having dived forward with her whole body to tag Emily before Emily could manage to dodge away again.
“Got you!” Kimiko said victoriously as she looked up from the grass.
Emily stopped and after Kimiko stood too grabbed the girl by the forearms. The two of them spun in the circle as the rest of the ‘monsters’ stood in a circle watching them.
They finished their spin and Kimiko wobbled on her feet as Emily let her go. There was a short pause before both of them raised their arms in the air again in a clawed gesture towards each other.
“Rawr!” they both shouted at each other simultaneously while making funny faces. All of the monsters turned outwards and the game continued, with all of the taggers running around and tagging whoever they could now that Emily had been defeated and finally joined their team.
The time passed as Emily watched over the crowds of children with other helpers from the nursery scattered around the perimeter and watching over the children who were resting from the game.
Alem came back at one point, although he seemed relieved that the children didn’t draw him in to be the ‘main monster’ again like they had before to run him ragged. They didn’t need to now that Emily was filling the role. Emily hadn’t meant for that to be part of the game, but the children seemed to think it was critical to have an adult playing the game with them since Emily had first taught it to them while joining in herself at the very start.
The adults kept setting up things for the festival, occasionally calling away a pouting child to help them with some task or other before the kids quickly returned and rejoined the fun again.
Eventually the children had used up all of their energy running around playing the game until when the person who lasted longest called for a new round and no one answered them.
“Awww…” Ethan said, “I wanted to go first… I made it all the way to the end too…”
Emily swept him up in her arms and spun him around three times fast before putting him back on his feet from which he promptly lost his balance after taking a single step forward with crossed eyes.
“Looks like everyone’s tired,” Emily said as the boy rolled over on the ground and stared up at her, “Everyone’s taking a break now.”
“It’s not fair, mom Emily,” the boy complained as he sat up, “How are you still not tired yet? Why can’t any of us have your cool powers? I want to play all day and not get tired too!”
Emily reached down and brushed some dirt off from the knees of the boy’s pants before leading him over to where Lily had brought some drinks over on a table with Alem that the tired children were all gathered around.
“That’s just the way it is, Ethan. Lily has some drinks set, you should go get some with the others.”
“Emily? Is it true you don’t have to eat or drink? Or even sleep? I wasn’t sure if Minato and dad Alem were making fun of me or not when they told me that…”
“Yes, Ethan. It’s all true. Just like how I can’t get tired. I can do all of those things if I want to, but I never have to do any of them like you do. It’s part of my healing powers.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks for playing with us, mom Emily.”
Alem overheard their conversation nearby and straightened up.
“Did you kids think to thank Emily for playing monster with you for so long?” he asked the group loudly.
All the children froze and turned to Emily.
“Thanks for playing with us, Emily!” they all called out quickly before Alem and his other helpers could scold them for not doing so earlier. Emily smiled and nodded and the children turned back around to keep drinking from their cups and eating the granola-like snacks that Lily had just returned with and put on the table a few seconds ago. Lily was one in the original group and had just turned forty years old a few days ago.
Ethan ran off into the group to get his own share.
Emily walked around the groups of children who had mostly chosen to sit on the grass nearby as they ate and drank and stood by the other side of the table where Lily and one of Alem’s helpers from the nursery stood, making sure no one got greedy when taking anything from the table.
“Lily, thanks for the help,” Emily said.
“Oh, not at all mom,” Lily said as they shared a brief hug, “Not at all.”
“How’s it going out there? They need any help?” Emily asked.
“No, I think Minato and his admirers have it covered I think,” Lily said with a smirk. Emily rolled her eyes.
“I’ll tell him you said that,”
“Go ahead,” Lily said lightly, “I’m sure he’d just take it as a compliment.”
“Yeah, probably. He’s really coming into his own, leading everyone in the work. Even if the ones working closest to him are the girls out in the fields. Actually, not as recently, now that I think about it. His current girlfriend seems to have captured his heart for now. We’ll see if it lasts…”
Lily chuckled and nodded, but didn’t reply.
“Lily, can I have another?” one of the small girls asked as she approached the table and reached for the crumbly granola like snack that Lily had out in a bowl hidden in the crowd of others coming up in ones and twos.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Did you already have one?” Lily asked the girl sternly.
“Yeeeessss?” she replied reluctantly.
“Then you’ve got to wait until everyone’s got some before you can have more,” Lily said, “I think there’s a few that haven’t gotten any at all.”
“Okay, Lily,” the girl said in disappointment before going off, clearly annoyed that her attempts to get more snacks had been thwarted.
“I’ll help you with the drinks when we’re done here,” Emily declared, “I think that should be out of the way enough that I’m not accidentally hovering over Luna or Minato as I help…”
“Sure, mom,” Lily said, “Things just get crazier each year, don’t they?”
“Yep, they sure do.”
— — —
“Hah!” Minato’s broad naked shoulders rippled as he finished lifting the heavy wooden log above his head with both hands. He was only wearing long shorts and boots and wasn’t wearing a shirt at all as he huffed and puffed with a red face as he grunted with effort.
“Yeah, you go Minato!” One of the women from the sidelines cheered and the boy gave her a roguish grin despite his clear strain as he held the wood log above his head with trembling arms. His distraction made him wobble a bit as he almost lost his grip on the log before stabilizing his stance again. With one final heave, he threw the log to the ground in front of him with a massive thump as it sank into the grass in front of him as it hit the ground.
“And Minato wins the log lifting contest again!” A forty six year old Luna announced cheerfully from the edge of the crowd, “For the third year in a row!”
Everyone clapped and cheered, the cheerful festival in full swing now that all of the villages had come together for the big Reunion Festival.
Emily watched as the sweaty Minato went over to the girl who had cheered for him. She looked weak in the knees as she looked up at him and they talked and flirted on the sidelines. Emily snorted. Minato’s current girlfriend seemed more than happy with their relationship at least based on how she was acting right now. Although now that Emily thought about it, it had actually been more than six months since they first got together, so maybe Minato felt the same way? Huh. Usually something came up and he had already broken up with his partner by now.
“Mom, you see Minato out there?”
Emily looked to the side and saw Anna standing there.
“Anna! I didn’t see you before. It feels like it’s been so long,”
The two of them hugged briefly and then released.
“Yes, I’m so sorry,” Anna apologized, “I got terrible luck being chosen by the random draw twice to stay back home so I had to miss the last two years of the festival. But luckily I made the cut this time, so I could come again. Anyway, look. At. Minato! He’s gotten so strong! I can’t believe he won twice while I wasn’t here!”
“Yes, he’s quite the champion,” Emily said, “Look at that girl swooning in his arms. Just like you and John were back then. I’m sure you’d have loved watching him competing out there with Minato back then.”
“He was a man worth swooning over! Still is!” Anna said with a quick comeback, “There was a reason I was the first person to have a natural pregnancy. Ah, such a shame John only made it to the semifinals. All these young men out lifting their elders so disrespectfully!”
“He did pretty well though,” Emily said thoughtfully, “Semifinals is good considering how heavy those logs got near the end.”
“Maybe you should compete, mom,” Anna said lightly, “Show everyone your full strength for once like you used to for us.”
“It sort of defeats the spirit of the competition, doesn’t it, if I just win it all every year?” Emily said.
“Still. It could be fun just to show them. I think most have forgotten just how strong you are after so long since you’ve really showed off everything you have.”
“Maybe next year,” Emily allowed.
“Great, I’ll have to make sure I don’t get forced to stay behind again so I can see it,” Anna said, “Alright, nice catching up mom. I think I see John looking for me. Come and talk to you later?”
“See you later, Anna,” Emily said. The woman walked off again towards where John was looking at them across the way.
— — —
It was the second day of the festival, and Emily was sitting on the sidelines and watching another competition again. This one was axe throwing. There were large wooden boards mounted on logs that had been driven into the ground as posts and painted out for targets.
The event hadn’t started yet, everyone was still a little sluggish from the well cooked lunch that everyone had just made.
“Hey, you’re related to Chief Luna, right? I’m Richard. Nice to meet you.”
Emily looked up and blinked at an unfamiliar voice to her side. Unfamiliar? She peered at the face of the nineteen year old in front of her. The boy’s eyes flickered down to her chest before coming back up to her face and he blushed slightly in embarrassment at the unconscious look and her expression that made it clear that he’d been caught.
Emily was flabbergasted. What? What was going on? She knew Richard as a boy when there was only a single village. Surely he must have seen her before? She hadn’t raised him or even talked to him much before, since his parents had lived on the outskirts of town, but still…
“Y-You must be, right?” the boy continued as she didn’t say something, “Aurora? Her daughter?”
“No, I’m- I’m not Aurora. I’m Emily,” she said, still recovering from what had just happened.
“Well, are you competing in the axe throwing competition? Could be a lot of fun. I bet I’m gonna win the whole thing! Are you gonna cheer me on? With someone as beautiful as you cheering me forward, I’m sure I can make it all the way.”
He shot her a wink and Emily just sat there, her brain not able to take any more input at the moment. How was this happening? How did this kid not know who she was?
How should she even react to someone flirting with her, she’d never dealt with something like this before! Let alone when it was one of her grandkids!
“I’m actually competing myself,” Emily said as she blurted out the first thing that made it through the clogged machinery that was her confused brain right now, “So, yeah.”
“Huh. Well, see you out there… Emily. I didn’t know that Chief Luna and Fumiko had a second daughter… Nice to meet you. Maybe I’ll be… cheering for you,” the boy said suggestively before walking off towards the field where everyone was gathering to start the competition.
Emily just sat there, the little workers in her brain running around in panic while everything was on fire around them. This was possibly the most awkward she’d ever felt in her entire life.
Richard walked off with a swagger, trying to look nonchalant as he left. But he glanced behind him to make sure she was still watching him while not trying to be too obvious about it.
Well, even Emily could admit that he had pretty good game. He had handled all of that surprisingly smoothly besides him fumbling in the beginning a bit.
Emily just didn’t move as she thought about how to handle this.
“Oh! Hey, Emily. You’ve met my son Richard, right?” Anna said as she seemingly popped from nowhere and made Emily jump.
“Apparently. How had I not met him before? I mean since he was little,” Emily said.
“Oh, you know… he moved to one of those small hamlets when he was a bit older. Wanted to get out of the house and make his own way. He’s missed almost all of the Reunion Festivals for quite a while, he was quite stubborn about not coming here until just last year. But now that he’s had a taste of it, he can’t stop talking about it. So, what’d he say?”
“He didn’t know who I was,” Emily said.
“He didn’t know? Oh, that’s… I’m sorry. You know how we were separated a bit back then, out of town. Maybe he just forgot? It has been over sixteen years since we split off…”
“He uh… was flirting with me. Thought that I was Luna’s daughter,” Emily said.
“He— He what?!”
“I know. Checking me out, winking at me suggestively, the whole thing. Your son’s a charmer, Anna. He looked at my boobs almost immediately though and I caught him doing it. That was a bit much from him for an opening. But he recovered pretty well from it after.”
“Oh. My. Gaia. I… I…”
Anna looked tomato red and like she’d just died inside as she sat down heavily next to Emily.
“Sorry, mom,” she eventually said, “I’ll go grab him and set him straight… I’m so embarrassed…”
“It was so awkward,” Emily admitted before Anna could leave to hunt down Richard, “First time someone’s so obviously flirted with me even after all of this time, actually. Even back on Earth. How sad is that? I haven’t aged a day. He wasn’t wrong to guess that I could be Luna’s daughter. I could be these days with how much older than me she looks now. In her mid forties now…”
“It’s fine, mom,” Anna said quickly, “You’ve never needed to. Nothing wrong with that. We all love you and know your real age, no matter how you look. Although it was strange when I first realized that I looked the same age as you when I grew up. Not like you’ll get much chance for love around here.”
Emily wrung her hands for a bit and stared at her palms for a moment, thinking.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and saw that Anna had sat down next to her.
“Mom, what’s wrong? Surely this isn’t about what my boy did? What’s got you so upset?”
“Nothing,” Emily said, “Just a reminder how unchanged I’ve been even with how many years have passed. Luna, you, everyone. You’re all growing older and here I am just the same as I ever was. Even little Minato. I still remember so well when he was a boy and we’d sit together under a tree and I’d help him with his math problems. Now look at him. Strongest man in the world, being a leader of the village. Impressing the ladies. It’s all going by so fast.”
“I– I’m sorry. I never thought that it’d been weighing on you so much. I’ll try to come over more often, more than just for the festival. I promise. I’ve missed you.”
Emily looked up.
“Thanks, Anna. I’d like that. I’ve missed you too. Especially recently with you not being at the most recent festivals. Listen to me, complaining when so many people I love are still around me.”
“Mom, I—”
“Oh, hey mom!” Richard’s voice suddenly said from in front of them, “Have you met Emily before? I didn’t recognize her, you didn’t tell me that Chief Luna had another daughter!”
Both of the women’s gazes switched to Richard and his easy smile suddenly sputtered and faded into a look of surprise and slight fear as he saw his mother’s thunderous expression.
“Richard,” Anna hissed and stood up, “You apologize to your grandmother right now for what you just did! I’ve never been so embarrassed in my whole life! How could you be so ignorant! I swear when your father hears of this…”
“G-G- Grandma?” Richard said with wide eyes as he looked back at Emily, “You’re… You’re… Oh, shit…”
“That’s right!” Anna demanded, “Now you apologize to her right now!”
“I- I- I’m so sorry Grandma! I didn’t know! I’m sorry, I never would have… Oh, Gaia…”
Emily let it continue for a bit as Anna kept yelling and scolding her son loudly for everyone to hear. The onlookers looked extremely shocked once Anna’s angry words reached their ears and turned to the commotion and started listening in.
Richard was looking around wildly and weakly protesting his innocence as Anna verbally flayed him alive in front of the watching crowd who were also shooting him disapproving looks.
“Anna! Anna, enough,” Emily said and put her hand on the shoulder on the red faced woman, “He didn’t know. He didn’t mean any harm by it. It’s fine.”
Anna stopped shouting and took a deep breath.
“And that’s why he’s only getting a rant and public embarrassment!” she finished loudly, “If he weren’t innocent then who knows what I’d be doing to him right now!”
“Hey, what’s the commotion here?” John suddenly asked as he pushed through the crowd, “Anna, what’s our boy done?”
After explaining loudly again in front of the whole crowd John’s face went stony and he grabbed Richard by the arm.
“But, Dad! I swear I didn’t know,” Richard rasped weakly as he was pulled by the shoulder by John.
“Son, we’re going to have a talk in private,” John said, “And I’d better like your answers.”
Richard gulped but let himself be dragged away through the edge of the crowd and away by his father.
The crowd dispersed after a few minutes as it became clear there wouldn’t be any more drama and Emily waved them off after providing some brief explanations of what had happened. Seeing her largely unaffected by the incident, most of the anger the adults had for Richard seemed to mostly fade and they wandered off. Some even started laughing at the massive misunderstanding and talked about how they would tease Richard mercilessly about it later.
“That did seem a bit much,” Emily said after someone got Anna a pitcher of water to cool off from her rant and to help her calm down now that all the commotion was over. There wasn’t anyone left in earshot of them anymore.
“I know,” Anna admitted, “Sorry, I let my emotions… get away from me. It’s not his fault that his flirting with you… made you feel so terrible, I suppose… I might have to apologize to him later. I meant it though. Before. I’ll try to see if we can come a few times a year at least. We’ll make the most of our time together.”
“Thanks, Anna. That means a lot. And maybe teach your son better about their elders next time.”
Anna let out a half whine in her throat.
“Oh Gaia, and everyone heard about it too. This is going to be just the worst… I’m getting so embarrassed just thinking about it, how am I going to talk to anyone from now on?”
“Did I ever tell you about the time I kissed a girl to stop her from attacking me?”
“Wh- What? Who? Where? You?”
“On Earth. You know about Luke Astas, who was my best friend. And how he was a bit of a player. A little like Minato, but more subdued and interested in his studies. And as much as I hate to admit, not nearly as handsome as our little Minato is. None of the girls liked that Luke was still my best friend even when he was dating them. There was one though… Alice. She was a real bully, did all sorts of things to try to bully me and push me away from him.”
“Like what?” Anna asked, fascinated. Emily had never told many people this story before. She hadn’t even told Luke about it, it was one of her most embarrassing memories of that time. Still was, honestly.
“She threatened me, told me to back off of her man. She shoved me into the lockers at school.”
Emily saw Anna’s brows scrunch in confusion and she quickly clarified.
“School was the building for learning. We all went there instead of learning on the datapads in our own homes. Or in those rooms in the main hall like the kids do now. Lockers are like… a big metal box with a door to store things in. Like a closet or cabinet made of metal.”
Anna got a distant look as she seemed to imagine it.
“Okay,” she said, “I think I remember you talking about something like that before.”
Anna’s flushed face started relaxing and the red blush started to fade as she took another drink of water and calmed down more.
“Well, she’d grab me by the shoulders and shove me into the lockers. Go right up to my ear with her bright red lips and whisper all sorts of threats to me right into my ear.”
“What? Really? She did that? How’d you respond?”
“I didn’t. My brain completely shut down. All I could think was hot woman, woman, woman, over and over again. I didn’t hear a word she said to me.”
“No—” Anna gasped.
“Yep. So when Luke broke up with her, she cornered me into the lockers. I tried to run away but she shoved me against the locker again and was threatening me. More seriously than before since she was upset about the breakup. So I just kissed her and ran for it. Man, she really did hate me after that. But I did get away with only a few bruises at the time, so I guess it was the right thing to do. It could have gone a lot worse.”
“Mom, woah. Are you serious?”
“Yep. That’s what actually happened. I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone but Luna that story before actually. Maybe Fumiko, not sure if she was there to hear it or not… We’ve all got things to be embarrassed about. I’m sure you’ll make it through this fine.”
“Oh,” Anna said as she seemed to remember she was still supposed to be upset and embarrassed from before, “Thanks, mom. You didn’t have to tell me that just to cheer me up.”
Emily shrugged.
“You know…” Emily said eventually, “Maybe I will join the axe throwing competition. Show off my skills a bit like you said.”
“You will?”
“Yeah…” Emily said, finalizing her decision, “I’m doing that.”
— — —
“And the winner of course is our dear mother Emily,” Luna said loudly, “She’s absolutely shown her grandchildren their place, landing perfect hits on the targets almost every time to beat them all. Now that that’s over… Let’s see how far she can go! Our farthest target so far was at twenty feet away. Minato? Let’s set up some farther for her!”
Minato waved to get some people to help him after a short nod to Luna and Emily. With his group they carried out more posts and targets and used large hammers to drive them firmly into the ground at intervals of twenty feet apart. They kept going until they went over a hundred and forty feet away.
After they were finished they left and Emily shifted her grip on the axe. While she had stood outside at night defending the children in the beginning she’d brought a spare axe with her and practiced her throws. It had been an easy way to pass the time as she just stood there as a guard for them.
So she was pretty good at this.
She drew back the axe, adjusted her aim… and threw. The axe spun in the air for a moment before the blade sank into the wood of the target forty feet away.
“And she’s got forty feet!” Luna shouted.
Emily threw again at the next target, the axe sailing through the air longer this time as it traveled.
There was a crack of splintering wood and the post she’d hit tilted and fell over, ripping up some dirt where it hadn’t been firmly rooted down. There in the target Emily’s axe lay.
“And sixty feet!”
Emily threw again and hit.
“Eighty feet!”
The last hit had been off center and barely buried itself in the edge of the target. Emily took a deep breath and prepared to throw for the next one.
She threw… and she missed. It landed ten feet to the right.
“Awww! So close! Go again, mom!”
Emily had her second throw and missed again to the right, but only by a few feet now.
She threw another axe one final time, watching it spinning through the air… Then with a faint thunk of blade into wood in the distance the blade buried itself into the target!
“Who hoo! She did it! A hundred feet in only three tries! Does anyone else think they can hit one that far?”
All the other challengers looked suitably impressed with Emily’s skill, and all took their own crack at it.
Most weren’t even able to throw their axe a hundred feet, even when they ignored the target and just threw it with all of their strength. Several of them landed the forty foot away target, and a few of the most skilled of them hit the sixty foot target. Including Richard, who had finished third below Emily despite keeping his head down and looking like he just wanted to leave rather than participate.
Minato was surprisingly bad at the event, it was clear he hadn’t practiced this skill too much and he looked proud of himself when he hit one of the targets that was only ten feet away while the others did their more distant throws.
After everyone finished all the competitors rushed up to Emily and congratulated her on her skills, and Emily told them the story of how she practiced her throws during the night while standing guard over the original kids dormitories.
Emily was surprised to learn that many of the second generation people didn’t know the story at all. It seems their parents had never thought to tell them that part or had been too young to remember things as clearly as Emily did.
Usually Emily was laid back and relaxed during the Reunion festivals and took in the action. But this year, she was the center of attention by everyone in the second generation.
She even told the story of her defending Luna from the predator, and not glossing over the wounds she’d received from the creature as much now that she was telling an older crowd, unlike how she’d censored it a bit when telling Minato when he was young.
The rest of the multi-day reunion festival went well, and Emily’s spirits were thoroughly lifted by the end of it like they always were every year.
Anna promised to visit more often, and while Richard was mercilessly teased for his mistake by nearly everyone, no one seemed to hold it against him or have as extreme a reaction as his mother had initially.
Life was good, and Emily was happy.