“Hmmm,” Adam said, his eyes dartiween the pair of young men. Not quite men, they weren’t even ten years old yet. “Jurot, I reise this ourot, but who is this handsome young man?”

  “That is Aso-,” Jurot began, allowing himself to fall for Adam’s joke.

  “Asorot,” Sonarot called, wiping a bowl for him. The young boy quickly darted over to his aunt, before taking the bowl from her, fused since he already had a bowl, but his aunt passed him another bowl, and he uood, returning with two bowls. However, he didn’t uand what had actually happeoo young to uand what Sonarot had sigo the pair.

  Adam narrowed his eyes slightly, looking to Jurot. Jurot nodded his head, as if that was that.

  “Thanks, Asorot,” Adam said, accepting the bowl from him. “I almost didn’t reise you.”

  Asorot sat opposite them, beside his brother, Turot. Adam retty sure that wasn’t the case when he left. ‘Did the world ge when we passed through the realms or something?’

  “Asorot is Mirot’s son,” Sonarot said, pointedly.

  Adam’s eyes twitched, and he looked to Jurot. “Jurot,” he whispered, and then he looked to Asorot, who squirmed slightly. ‘…’

  “He has been adopted into the family?” Jurot asked.

  “Yes,” Sonarot firmed.

  “Okay,” Jurot stated, more so for Adam’s be than his own.

  Adam raised his brows. ‘Just like that?’

  Jurot nodded his head in response, before reag out to rub Asorot’s head. “You will grow well.”

  “Okay,” Asorot replied, squirming slightly. He looked down at his bowl, squeezing the bottom of it with both hands. He shuffled awkwardly beside Turot.

  ‘He doesn’t seem to like it much,’ Adam thought, reag out with a hand to pat Asorot’s shoulder. “Why don’t we start giving out gifts, eh?”

  “Oooh,” the children replied, eager to respond now that the babies were gone.

  “I’ll save some of the gifts for the ky boy and the other cuties, but let’s start with my Konarot, Kirot, and Karot.” Adam brought out small strips of golden cloth. “Do you know what this is?”

  “Safi gold,” Raygak said, pointing towards it.

  “That’s right, Safi gold, from Yellow Turban,” Adam said, before tying the ribbon around Konarot’s arm, doing the same with the rest of the triplets. “That’s one of yifts. I’ll give you the rest ter.” Adam embraced his triplets one by one, kissing their cheeks too.

  The twins were staring at their older siblings, and Jirot pointed up to the ribbon and pined, groaning quietly as she looked at her nana about su injustibsp;

  “What do you mean?” Adam asked. “I already gave you your first gifts.”

  “No,” Jirot pined, narrowing her eyes at the Half Elf before her lips formed a wide frown and quivered.

  “Okay, fine, fine,” Adam said, before finding another pair of strips for each of them, tying it against their arms gently, causing the pair to stop whining, their eyes glued to the ribbons. Adam also quickly pulled them up to kiss their cheeks quickly, letting them down beside their older siblings, each of them showing off their little ribbons to one another.

  ‘You punks, who gave you permission to be so cute?’ Adam thought, ruffling their hair.

  “Daddy,” Konarot informed Jirot, pointing up towards Adam.

  Jirot looked up at Adam, still with narrowed eyes. “No.” She smirked wide and cackled up at him, before rushing up towards her nana, hugging her leg. Jarot followed after her and hid beside his nana too.

  “You see this?” Adam sighed, shaking his head lightly. “They think they bully me like this because they’re cute. It’s nht!” Adam huffed, and looked down at his children. “Just this once I’ll five them.”

  As much as Adam was pining, Jurot hadn’t seen his brother smile like this in a long while.

  “Before we give out too many gifts, and spoil the surprises, why don’t we have someoell the story?” Adam asked. “Before Konarot sniffs it out, and Jirot bullies it out of me.”

  “Yoo?” Jirot asked.

  “Yeah, you. You see another Jirot around here somewhere? You watch it, you little brat, otherwise daddy’s going to throw you into the air!”

  Jirot cackled at her father, before staring up at her nana. “Nooo!” She tio cackle.

  “Is that her favourite new word?” Adam asked.

  “Yes,” Sonarot said.

  “No!” Jirot cackled again.

  “No!” Lanarot added, cag with her niece.

  “Okay,” Sonarot said, wiping Jirot’s face lightly with a hand, before her some raw vegetables to eat. The girl was soon distracted by eating the vegetables, some to her brother, who ate from her fingers.

  ‘Why are my kids so grown up now?’ Adam thought, staring at the twins. He looked to the triplets, with Konarot food to her younger siblings too. “Didn’t I tell you not to grow up too quickly, you silly children?” Adam sighed, feeling his heart ache.

  Jurot begaory, speaking of their tale. How they vely met with Korin and Sara, and the a group of Aswadians. Adam recalled he o sort out the ons for the Aswadians, rubbing his forehead. Jurot mentiohe Ertas, the dying woman, and then their rather uful jourhrough Deadwood and Hill Grave, before mentioning the Chimeras and Nobby’s duel.

  Of course, it seemed quite a b affair sidering Adam was involved. That was, until, they went north from East Port and made their own little fort.

  “Hydras?” Sasped. Not just one, but multiple?

  “Yeah, hydras,” Adam said, before reag into his leather satchel. “Suckers came out from nowhere. Adam didn’t see them ing. Tore him apart, killed him right then and there. Puy.”

  Kasped as she looked at her father, narrowing her eyes as she pouted at him.

  “I know, I know,” Adam said, brushing her hair. “One day your father will e back to the Iyr alive.”

  “No!” Konarot pointed up at him.

  “Don’t you start.”

  “That is not what happened,” Jurot said. “You are still alive.”

  “I am?” Adam gasped. “Oh, Baktu. I am!” Adam chuckled. “Of course I came back alive, you silly girl.” Adam brushed her hair and rubbed her cheek, squeezing them gently. “Speaking of Baktu, wait until we get to that part.”

  Jurot tihe tale, speaking about how they defeated the hydras, and the might of the teen Iyrmen.

  “Yep,” Adam said, revealing a rge, thick scale, easily the side of his head. “I had to wrassle this bad boy away from a Demon Lord, you know?” Adam rubbed along the hydra. “Found the biggest, baddest scale for someone special.” Adam looked to Asorot. “e here.”

  Asorot fihe st of his soup whilst Adam shimmied away from Jurot, pig up Konarot to sit on his p. Asorot quickly sat between the pair of them, gng up betweewo who had killed hydras. Hydras!

  “I got this for you because your…” Adam held out the scale to Asorot, before looking to Jurot. ‘Wait. If he’s a Rot now, that means his grandfather… did he still kill a hydra, or is the story no lohe same?’

  “A hydra scale… for me?” Asorot asked, looking up at Adam ily.

  “I got you more than that, Asorot,” Adam said, brushing his hair. “I heard it was a young man’s birthday a few months ago. First of the sixth month. I don’t quite recall exactly whose birthday it was…”

  Asorot flushed slightly, looking down at the scale. ‘My birthday.’ It was a thought that he was too shy to state.

  “Ah, well, maybe as the story tinues, I’ll remember?”

  Jaygak tio speak the tale, revealing the fact they dealt with wyverns and trolls too, and not just a small number of them either. “When Adam returned from the temple, it was found that Baktu chose him personally.”

  Adam tapped his amulet, causing the children to gasp up at him, while the adult Iyrmen exged gnces between one another.

  Of course he did.

  Though it erhaps the most signifit event, it was glossed over quickly, so that they couldn’t ruminate ohoughts for too long. They mentiohe aurochs, but before Jaygak tinued speaking the tale, she looked to Adam. He nodded, reag into his leather sack, unbuttoning the side of it since he was going to be giving out most of the items from within it.

  “So there I was, within the depths of a byrinth known as the East Port Market,” Adam whispered, as though it was grave news. “Through the gentle fog, I could see a beast like no other.” Adam slowly pulled out the item from his leather sack. “I fell in love the moment I saw it. The greatest shield that I had ever seen, that day and in that particur moment. One might say it was the only shield I had seen that day, but no, I saw a few more, I just wahe best one.” Adam pulled it onto his p. “A shield as strong as this, it should be able to help someoh their older sister bullying them.”

  Jaygak narrowed her eyes. “I also found an item.” She reached into her owher sack, revealing a long bde. The cross guard was wider than typical and curved slightly upwards. It was a well built sword, that was for certain. Jaygak pulled it out of its scabbard, revealing the faint waves along the bde’s edge. “I already have a sword though, so you have it, Raygak.”

  “Don’t say it like that!” Adam s her, holding out his shield. “You have to tell him its for his birthday. Raygak, you see how she bullies you like this? That’s why you his shield.”

  “Sister, you must not bully me,” Raygak said. “I am a big boy now. You are not allowed to bully me.”

  “I bully you if I want!” Jaygak held out the sword, but her eyes fell to the top of his head, and she readied herself to noogie him, but she could feel her father shift nearby, ready to do the same to her. “I’m not even bullying you, I bought you such a nice longsword for your birthday.”

  “Thank you,” Raygak said, taking the sword from her. He looked down at the bde, and then to the shield, taking it from Adam too. “Thank you, Cousin Adam.”

  Adam smiled slightly, doing his best not to allow it to creep across his fay wider. ‘You little punk, how you be so cute when you’re her little brother? You should be my brother instead.’

  “Adam, Raygak is my brother,” Jaygak said, hugging her brother, causing the young Raygak to flush deeper.

  ‘Damn, she really does know me that well…’

  Okay. So I rolled for the children's stats when they were born, as you might have expected me to do sihis is a DiceRPG where evehor is at the whims of the dice. 4D6D1. I roll four did drop the lowest, so if I roll 1, 3, 4, 5, that's a 12, because the 1 is dropped. 12 is basically the average for the stat. Sometimes you'll roll 8 and 16, but the average is usually about 12.

  Set A, Gurot, Kavgak, Tavgak, Inakan, Minakan, Jitool, Maool, rolled a little bit worse than average. One baby rolled really great and will probably end up as one of the stro across the nd.

  That baby would be sidered the sed weakest i B.

  Set B, Murot, Maygak, Faygak, Mokan, Alykan, Minool, Jazool rolled crazy. I think we o take drug tests for them.

  That doesn't sider how much Adam is going to spoil them.

  Chapter 6,000 these kids are going to pop off.