Emery waved her arms, directing her symphony of flying knives like a musical conductor, even though she really didn’t have to. It was fun and she enjoyed it; that was enough reason for her.

The flying knives danced around the kitchen cutting vegetables, trimming meats, peeling fruit, and slicing bread and cheese. As she twirled around the kitchen as if she was dancing, her eyes eventually landed on her wife Avuri, who was busy beating away at a new loaf of bread dough. Emery spun across the room, letting the knives continue to do their work without an active conductor as she hugged Avuri from behind and lifted up on her tiptoes to let her chin rest on Avuri’s shoulder.

Avuri stopped her rhythmic punching of the dough and turned to face Emery, pecking her on the lips. “How’s dinner prep going?”

“It’s certainly going.” Emery said, grinning happily. “Just about got everything chopped, peeled, or sliced.” She glanced back over her shoulder at the rest of the kitchen practically doing the lion’s share of the work with minimal actual effort. “Could you imagine needing to cook for our entire family without me?”

Avuri laughed. “Of course I can, considering you’re not always on kitchen duty.”

“I can confidently say I count as twelve people, all by my lonesome.” Emery said haughtily.

“And that’s why when you’re doing something else, we have a full team in here.” Avuri said, returning to kneading her dough a bit gentler, now that Emery was hanging off her.

“I was thinking of sandwiches for dinner.” Emery said, getting the conversation roughly back on track. “We’ve got enough bread at the moment for everyone, but it’ll probably clean us out.” She glanced down at the bread dough Avuri was currently still working with. “We’ll probably need that loaf too.”

Avuri sighed. “Yeah, I figured as much.” She glanced up at the shelving before her to look at their ingredient stores. “We’re going to need to go into the City soon. We need more flour and yeast. Probably other stuff too.”

“I think we need to get a few more chickens for the coop. They didn’t hatch as many chicks as usual this year, so we ran down their numbers a bit.” Emery added. “To be honest, we probably need a pretty sizable shopping trip this month since we haven’t gone in a bit. Should probably look over everything first and make a list…” She trailed off as she heard a scream from outside.

Emery and Avuri both turned toward the kitchen door as more screaming and excitement joined the initial shout. As they were quickly stripping dirty aprons and putting down knives, all four of their kids came barrelling down the stairs and ran past the kitchen door at full speed.

Avuri managed to catch Stena by her collar, causing her to violently jerk to a stop with a loud “Urk!”

“What’s going on out there?”

Stena quickly looked back at her mother, clearly wanting to keep running down the stairs. “Uncle Vale is back! And he’s approaching in full dragon form!”

Avuri let her go, and Stena darted forward continuing her dash to the outside.

“I suppose that would be exciting. Most of the kids haven’t ever seen him in that form.” Avuri said as she and Emery more sedately followed their kids down the stairs toward the outside.

“If he’s flying in like that either something is wrong, or he’s got passengers.” Emery said, but remained unhurried. “I would bet on passengers.”

“You think he brought Talya back with him?”

“The timeline would fit.” Emery answered with a shrug. “And it would make even more sense that he’d be carrying them if you guessed right and she’s pregnant.”

Avuri snickered. “Excited to be an aunt?”

Emery laughed and shrugged. “Sure, why not? I get to spoil the kid rotten and not have to worry about discipline.”

“No, but you have to worry about twenty-seven other kids getting jealous if you go overboard with it.”

“Ah. Good point.” Emery said laughing, as they finally made it to the wide open grass-and-dirt playground. Emery tried to get a good look at the approaching flying shape through the holes in the Wisteria canopy.

“Well, that’s definitely Vale.” Avuri said, having found a clean view. “And he doesn’t look hurried or anything. You might be right with the Talya guess.”

“Told you.” Emery muttered, then she whistled loudly to get all the kids’ attention. The shrill noise cut through all the excitement, and just about everyone stopped and turned to listen.

“Alright everyone, you may not have seen him like that before, but that’s just Uncle Vale.” As Emery spoke, the few remaining stragglers popped their heads out of their houses and started walking to the field. “He’s probably bringing some guests, so you all need to play nice, okay?”

As Emery was trying to keep the peace, Avuri was busy counting heads. “We’ve got everyone here.” She said, as Faye appeared carrying Luc, the last two kids that hadn’t appeared yet. She tried not to laugh at the eleven-year-old Faye carrying her four-year-old brother. It looked a little silly given their not-so-huge size difference, but Faye’s increased strength as a Cultivator - even only in the Human Realm - was enough to let her carry him rather easily.

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As Vale flew closer, Emery kept an eye on him waiting to see if he needed any assistance. It didn’t take long for him to cast a large portion of the playground completely in shadow, blotting out what little sunlight made it successfully through the thick canopy. While Vale hovered there for a moment, there was a sudden and short shriek of panic from above as someone leapt off Vale’s shoulder.

Gray landed neatly on the ground a few paces away from Emery and Avuri, carrying Talya princess-style.

Gray was a well-kept but unassuming looking man. He had kind eyes with the start of some laugh lines, and a neatly cropped mustache and beard. His brown hair was long and tied into a long tail at the nape of his neck with a rather expensive looking hair tie. And likely thanks to his Earth Realm body, he was able to carry his wife Talya with ease.

As he set her down on her feet, Emery nodded in conclusion upon seeing her distinct baby bump. It wasn’t overly noticeable yet, but there was enough that she was just beginning to show. Behind Talya and Gray, Vale lightly touched down, having assumed his familiar jolly human appearance.

Emery and Avuri approached the group first, while the kids all impatiently waited their turn. Emery greeted her sister first, with a big hug while Avuri said hello to Gray.

“Hey, Sis. I’m glad you could make it.” Emery said, squeezing the other woman around her shoulders. “It’s been too long since you were here.”

Talya laughed, the warm sound familiar and calming for Emery. “I see that. There’s a whole bunch of new faces around here.” She said, looking around the gathered crowd. “Dad told me that two of them are Wiria’s?”

Emery nodded. “Arek and Astra.” She said, nodding toward where they stood with their older sisters. “I’m sure you’ll love them just as much as we do.”

“I’m sure I will.” Talya said with a grin.

“And it seems like I might owe Avuri some money.” Emery said jokingly looking down at Talya’s stomach.

“You didn’t actually bet on whether I’d be pregnant, did you?”

One side of Emery’s mouth rose in a half smile. “No, because I didn’t want to take the bet since I thought I’d lose. Looks like I was right.”

Talya sighed and shook her head. “You were. I think I’m something like five months along. Maybe a little more.” She said, and rested a hand on her stomach. “But things are going well enough, I suppose. At least in this regard, anyway.”

Emery raised an eyebrow in question, but Talya shook her head. “I’ll tell you later.” Then she smiled. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing about me or Gray. Just some trouble that I think is headed your way.”

“I see…” Emery said, willing to let it go for now. She stepped to the side to swap with Avuri and take her chance to greet Gray. As she stepped up, he offered her a hand.

“It’s nice to see you again, Emery.” He offered a smile and leaned a little forward. “Is Emery alright? Would you prefer something else?”

“Emery is fine, Gray. It’s nice to see you again. I’m glad you’re treating my sister well.”

He laughed. “I do my best, but I’m pretty sure she’s the one in charge. I just do what I’m told.”

Emery smirked. “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“She keeps me on my toes and happy. That’s more than enough.” He said, glancing toward Talya with a huge smile on his face. Emery couldn’t help but mirror it.

“It’s good to see you’re still just as smitten with her after a year.”

“I doubt it’ll ever change.” Gray answered with a shrug, then pointed back over his shoulder. “Why don’t you say hello to your father before he stops pouting and starts complaining?”

“That is a great idea.” Emery said, patting Gray on the shoulder. “We’ll take you around to meet everyone soon.”

“That sounds good. I can at least say hello to Cierra and Stena in the meantime.”

Emery nodded and stepped past him to hug her father. He squeezed her back tightly enough that she struggled to get out, “Hey Dad.”

“Hello again, Merri. It’s been too long.”

“You’ve been gone for like two months.”

He laughed. “And I missed you every minute of it.” The followup squeeze would’ve been enough to break a normal person’s bones. Perhaps even a weaker Cultivator’s.

“Don’t you ever want to bother your other kids? Kota? Or Mimi?” Emery squeaked.

Vale finally let her go and stepped back. “I actually saw Kota before I made it to Talya. He’s doing well, and is still living in Deep Well.”

“Really?” Emery asked, shocked. “I would’ve thought for sure that he’d move after the chaos we caused there.”

“I thought so too, but nope. He bought a house and started a smithing business. Oh! That reminds me. He gave me a sword he made just for you. Remind me later and I’ll give it to you.”

Emery nodded, intrigued. “Is it impressive?”

Vale made a so-so face. “It’s certainly a beautiful weapon. It’s like a work of art. But if you’re talking about battle, then nothing is going to be anywhere close to your Qi weapons.”

“I know.” Emery said sadly. “I keep hoping that one day I’ll manage to find some kind of legendary artifact that could channel my Qi or something.” She sighed with an overexaggerated shrug.

Vale laughed again and patted her cheek. “You’ve been reading too many bedtime stories for Astra, Merri.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Emery muttered. Dangerous and awesome artifacts like that did exist, but they were far and few between. And probably not something she would ever get her hands on.

“Right then!” Vale said finally, putting his hands on his hips and looking out over the gathered crowd of children. “Who wants their presents?”

The instant he said those words, everyone started jumping and screaming trying to be the first one to line up for Vale. Surprising no one, Cierra and Stena were the first ones, using their superior speed to be first in line. Emery would’ve told them to wait, but they immediately went to work trying to calm the crowd and get everyone to line up and wait their turn.

Soon enough, the procession of kids were slowly taking their turns to talk to Uncle Vale and receive whatever they may have asked him for before he left. It took some time, but not too long, as he kept the line moving efficiently.

The very last one to say hello was Shara. She looked a little shy and maybe even apprehensive, probably remembering her goodbye last time and Vale ruining the braid her siblings had done for her.

Vale crouched down, which put him actually under her eye level. He pulled out three lovely combs from his storage ring; all three matched and were clearly part of a set. They were fashioned from some kind of wood, and were colored to mimic the colors of the sky at dawn, sunset, and at night respectively. Even from a fair distance, Emery could tell they were gorgeous.

With a smile, Emery watched as Shara broke into tears again and gave her Uncle Vale a huge hug.