[744] – Y03.044 – In The Red IV
“It’s not my stah, is your stah, okay?” Jirot asked, though in a way which was more like a statent than a question. She pointed up towards the evening sky, watching as the stars began to fall across the Iyr. She laid beside her younger brother, who was also enjoying the sky.
“Okay,” Jarot, gently nodding his head in response. He pointed up towards the sky, before pointing out other stars, but tried to find the sa star as before, though they had slightly shifted position. “Is gone?”
“Is gone?” Jirot narrowed her eyes and stared intently at the stars. “No, is, is back.” Jirot pointed to the side, where she noted the stars with the sparkling colours, which shifted within her eyes at every passing mont.
A tiny girl, clutching a bottle of milk, stumbled her way towards the pair, before she fell to her bottom, drinking her milk.
“Jitoo’, co,” Jirot called, patting beside her.
The girl shuffled on her bottom to beside the goblin girl, before she eventually lay down, drinking from her bottle as she stared up at the stars with the pair.
Konarot sat and stared down at the board, narrowing her eyes towards it. Tonagek stared at the board opposite her, though sotis his eyes pulled away to watch her tail sway from side to side.
“How far can the knight move?” Tonagek asked.
“Two,” the girl replied, looking at the knight pieces on the board. She picked up the knight and moved it. “One. Two.”
“You have claid the peasant,” Tonagek said, allowing her to take the peasant off the board, to place it in the small pile of pieces on her side. “I will move the sorcerer beside your priest and pin him.” The Iyrman placed his sorcerer beside Konarot’s priest, freezing him in place.
Konarot inhaled sharply, sitting up taller and straighter, annoyed by the move since the priest was going to move towards one of his pieces to shift their allegiance the turn after. She reached up to her mouth as she thought deeply, in the sa way Tonagek would do on his turns, her tail swaying from side to side.
Kirot ran around the courtyard, with Karot following her, the pair counting to five each ti they did so, and once they were done, they sat together to toss a ball towards one another.
“Hoo!” Kirot would grunt, as though she was lifting a heavy weight while she lifted the ball, before tossing the ball towards her brother. The ball was made of leather stitched together, and rather than a ball, it was more like a cube, one which landed and rolled perhaps only once depending on if it landed on a corner.
“Hoo!” Karot grunted in a similar manner, tossing the ball back towards his sister, panting lightly.
“They are working so hard,” Mosen said, sipping his wine. His young daughter sat on his lap, drinking her milk from her bottle as she lay her head on her father’s chest.
“They wish to grow so big and strong,” Sonarot said, sipping her wine, while Lanarot slowly chewed her bread nearby. “Adam will be displeased.”
“That nephew of yours is so queer,” Mosen stated. “Chisen, you will beco so big and strong, yes?” Mosen reached down to his daughter’s cheeks, rubbing them gently. “You cried so much to co and now you are so quiet and drinking your milk. Go, sit with your aunt.” As Mosen raised his daughter for Sonarot, Chisen squird and coughed, making to cry as Sonarot gave Mosen a look to take back his daughter. Chisen stared up at her father, clutching at his shirt so he couldn’t rid of her easily.
“Must you distress your daughter so much?”
“She must learn to live without her father, no matter how strong he is!” Mosen replied, gently rubbing the girl’s head.
“I thought it was because you wished to see her cry so you could soothe her.”
“Sister, you should leave such things unsaid.”
“Since when did you beco so Aldish.”
Mosen turned hot red with rage, gritting his teeth as he ford a grin. “Chisen, do you see this? The trouble your aunt always causes.”
“Unlike you, I clean up the sses I make,” Sonarot replied. “Lanarot, do you clean the ss you make?”
Lanarot’s head snapped up as her mother called her. She chewed the bread slowly. “Yes, I ohway-,” the girl said as she chewed the bread, before her mother rubbed her head.
“Swallow first before you talk,” Sonarot said. “Do you see, even my daughter knows to clean her sses.”
Mosen rubbed the side of his neck, his entire body no longer red with rage. “I am useful because I can make sses, not because I clean them.”
“This is why you cannot be the Family Head.”
“If my family requires as the Family Head, then it is dark days ahead for the Sen family,” Mosen replied, chuckling lightly.
“Bloodblade is Family Elder?” Lanarot asked, her entire body shifting as she swallowed her bread quickly, before she reached for her cup, sipping the emptiness before, holding it towards her mother. “Mama, milk, milk please, mama, milk.”
“No, he is not,” Mosen replied, reaching over to brush the girl’s head, causing Chisen to squirm and cough once more, but Mosen pulled her closer to his chest. “Why must you be so jealous when I am your father?”
“Has Adam’s influence reached even your estate?”
“It is not your nephew who influences us so,” Mosen replied, his eyes falling to Tonagek. “Had I suffered the sa, I would be the sa.” The sight of Tonagek holding his son’s body during the outing was seared inside Mosen’s mind. To think that Tonagek, the Tonagek, would have beco like this, it was unthinkable. “We should have been more careful.”
“It was not a mistake you made,” Sonarot replied, though she was unable to offer more.
“Sad?” Lanarot asked, holding up a piece of bread to her uncle.
Mosen smiled, taking the bread from the girl, offering it to his daughter, who bit into it without thinking, before the man ate the bread. “My niece is so kind.”
Lanarot smirked. “Yes. I am.”
Adam also confird the young girl was kind to Mother Priest, gushing about all the children.
“Of course, then there’s Gurot, who is such a chonky boy. His older brothers, Turot and Asorot, are looking after him well. I’m sure they’re playing with him every day, since they’re both good kids. If Turot can’t even play with his brother, then how can he beco Elder Peace? He should do at least that much, shouldn’t he?”
“Of course Katool is also looking after Jitool well. She’s protecting her so much, too much. She won’t even let hug her for more than a minute! Why can’t I hug her for more than a minute? She likes playing with Jirot and Jarot, but shouldn’t she also play with ? I’m her cousin too, aren’t I? They keep saying I’m their cousin and not their Cousin, so shouldn’t I be able to do that much? I have permission from the Chief! In writing!”
“Kavgak’s such a good girl too, she’s so chonky, and her heart is even bigger. You know, she was the first one to give a gift from my adorable little cousins. She gave a stone, the best stone, let tell you, if you want so nice stones, I know just the girl to find you so nice stones.”
“What do they an they’ll beco monsters? What, just because I’m hanging around them? Just because I want to-,”
“Adam,” Vonda called, quickly cutting the half elf off. She was surprised Adam hadn’t already slipped up, but he had grown dangerously close with the last few statents. If he was ntioning them becoming monsters, it was too close to that particular secret of his, and once Mother Priest knew, it wouldn’t be long until such ssages were spread across the temples of the land, and even the lands beyond.
Adam stopped, twitching slightly as he threw Vonda a look, before his face rapidly shifted into realisation, until he finally hid his face behind his hand. ‘Did I really just go on a tangent about the kids? Baktu damn it, am I actually an idiot? This is so embarrassing, holy. I should drop a Fireball on myself.’ His entire face turned red hot with embarrassnt.
“It was wonderful to speak with you both,” Mother Priest stated, smile gracefully.
The pair stood, making their way out. Adam stepped out first, almost stumbling into the corridor as the land around him seed to shift once more, throwing a look at the older acolyte who had guided them there. He smiled awkwardly, fixing the scarf around his head, clearing his throat.
Vonda didn’t step out just yet, instead turning back to face Mother Priest. “It is always a pleasure to speak with you Mother Priest.”
Mother Priest continued to smile. “If you ever need an ear to listen to you, I will lend mine to you, Sister Vonda.”
“I hope you will keep my words in mind, and take my words to heard, of all the matters we have discussed.” Vonda’s eyes stared deeply into the priest’s eyes.
Mother Priest smiled slightly wider, bowing her head, watching the young woman leave. Once she stepped out, the older woman held up her hand, and the door glided to shut, light flashing across the outline of the door to denote it had been magically locked. She reached into her pocket, pulling out the string she had gently pulled from Adam’s sleeve, before she raised her hand towards the wall, which shifted slightly, as a book floated over towards her. She opened the book, which held Adam’s na inked against the spine, and tucked the string into the back of the book, where a little sleeve had been ford to keep a person’s possession to allow for the priests an easier ti to cast their magic.
Mother Priest thought about what the young woman had told her about Adam.
‘He is dangerous, but he has a good heart.’
She sighed, before reaching out her hand once more, and a long strand of hair floated towards her. She thought to replace the item within Vonda’s book, but a strand of her was not quite as clean as one of the threads of the woman’s scarf she had claid years ago.
Dun dun dun!
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