Tom’s memories continued to settle inside him and, as they did, his immediate needs consolidated themselves. He had to get his eyes on one of the isolation rooms. He desperately needed a training sanctuary. It was necessary for his psyche that these rooms could act as one.

In the meantime, everything about being four and acting that age was enough to make him scream.

He moved the toys around.

Then they broke up for a potty break. Bir went from playing happily to running off urgently.

Since they had left the fort, they switched to playing with the bubbles. Even his cynical mind had to admit it was fun, at least for the first ten minutes. His coordination was as terrible as he had feared, but he had to admit the physical play was nice. It was useful to determine firsthand how restrictive the new body was. He successfully popped one of the floating bubbles, jumping in front of Pa to do so. It let him float for about twenty seconds. He only had moderate expectations, but even against them the magic was underwhelming. It was especially so due to the fact that, in his previous life, with the help of his stone domain, he could effectively fly.

The other two children, however, were having an amazing time, so he pretended to do so as well.

A purple bubble flashed into existence. It was heading toward him. He rotated away, pretending he hadn’t seen it.

“Ta, look out.” Bir yelled.

He turned to face her - and then he felt the energy from the bubble strike him.

It was a letdown. Tom had expected it to feel like his calf had been chewed on to the point of the bones getting teeth imprints, but instead it was like being kicked by a horse. Nothing worth worrying about.

Bir’s mouth opened in shock.

Others were regarding him similarly, and then Tom remembered what he was supposed to be doing. Instantly he entered the system room to allow little Ta to start the waterworks. On the screen, lots of kids crowded around him and collectively they moved him away from the dangerous bubble machine.

He recovered. They played with the bubbles some more and then, growing hot, tired and sweaty, they had a break. There was sparkling lemonade, which was yummy but not refreshing, and he finally got a sausage.

It was kid’s food, and thus disappointingly bland.

More than anything, Tom wanted to train, but he knew that he couldn’t do so because of the threat of the assassins. Little Ta would do everything in his power to avoid the isolation rooms, so he had to do the same.

At Bir’s insistence, since she was their de-facto leader, they retreated into the fort.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

It had been less than half a day and it shouldn’t have been affecting him as much as it was. But he knew what the two were planning, and it made him scream internally. Tom liked to spend time fighting and not playing with figurines, but he suppressed his feelings and laughed along with them, pretending this was the best afternoon ever. Unlimited party food and no compulsory isolation sessions or lectures meant it was a special holiday. That was the definition of fun for a four-year-old, so he spent a couple of fate points to help him act the part and hide his inner feelings. The fate points would shift probabilities to help him achieve his aims. Bir was even more amped than he was. Pa remained subdued, but that was just the sort of a child he was.

They scrambled upward, climbing vertically, then using small, body-length mini slides at the dead ends before finding another way up. As they went, he paid attention to the construction. At the first glance, it appeared flimsy and made by kids, but it had been clearly built by adults who knew what they were doing. Everything meshed together too perfectly. There were always multiple routes available and a variety of obstacles to pass. For a four-year-old, getting high up, which they all wanted to do, was a decent workout.

There were other unimportant details that gave it away. The load-bearing spears had metal fused at the joints to keep them together, and the monster hides located in key spots had a neat stitching that a kid would have been incapable of.

It was like a kid’s play center, just built larger and with magic. There were regular artefacts that released glowing globules of light; those would float along the ceilings of the various tunnels. You could even pop them if you wanted, though that made the passages dark and gloomy, so, following Little Ta’s memories, he avoided doing it. Then there were the clear windows fused seamlessly into the hides. The windows let the light flood into areas the globes couldn’t reach, and, of course, there were the various magical inclusions to make everything more interesting. There were self-resetting boom traps that would knock you backwards, and trapdoors that would cause you to fall a few meters before magically slowing you down so you wouldn’t hurt yourself. The latter were apparently well-known, as Bir and Pa started giggling in anticipation while approaching them. Tom pretended to be ignorant and overly surprised by the fall. The other two loved that.

Exploring the giant structure was kind of fun, but Tom knew it wouldn’t last.

Bir puffed, pulled to a halt. She went to the side and flicked a hide up to reveal a gap they could see through down to the gymnasium. Pa had an eviler plan. He got Cam out, then opened a pocket on an inner wall and started pulling out monster figurines and two hero ones. These weren’t stuffed dolls like the ones from before, but instead hard statues that looked like they had been created out of monster bones. Artistically, the detailed sculpturing itself was merely impressive, but the artwork and the colourful paint lines added to each model made them look downright real, especially if you glimpsed them out of the corner of your eye. It was like they were waiting there, preparing to pounce.

Tom’s heart sank when he realized what the two of them were going to make him do. Since it was his turn, he took the hero figurine. It was Thunder Fists, and the guy looked ridiculous, bulging muscles and a goddamn cape like a blond superman.

“Pow pow.”

He and Cam fought the monsters. The other two appeared to love every minute of it.

His stomach rumbled.

They switched to playing invisibilies again, which was easy because they were already in position. As he watched, there was a flurry of activity and a lot of golems activated. They went over to the party table and the hot dishes from lunch were all removed and new ones, suitable for dinner, were delivered.

“I’m hungry,” Bir said immediately. “Let’s race to dinner.”