636. The Tale II

636. The Tale II

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

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

“Asorot,” Sonarot called, wiping clean a bowl for him. The young boy quickly darted over to his aunt, before taking the bowl from her, confused since he already had a bowl, but his aunt passed him another bowl, and he understood, returning with two bowls. However, he didn’t understand what had actually happened, too young to understand what Sonarot had signalled to 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 recognise you.”

Asorot sat opposite them, beside his brother, Turot. Adam was pretty sure that wasn’t the case when he left. ‘Did the world change 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 confirmed.

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

Adam raised his brows. ‘Just like that?’

Jurot nodded his head in response, before reaching 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, reaching 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 chonky 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?”

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

“That’s right, Salafi 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 your gifts. I’ll give you the rest later.” 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 complained, groaning quietly as she looked at her nana about such an injustice.

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

“No,” Jirot complained, 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.

Asorot finished the last of his soup whilst Adam shimmied away from Jurot, picking up Konarot to sit on his lap. Asorot quickly sat between the pair of them, glancing up between the two 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 longer the same?’

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

“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 continues, I’ll remember?”

Jaygak continued to 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 exchanged glances between one another.

Of course he did.

Though it was perhaps the most significant event, it was glossed over quickly, so that they couldn’t ruminate on the thoughts for too long. They mentioned the aurochs, but before Jaygak continued speaking the tale, she looked to Adam. He nodded, reaching 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 labyrinth 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 particular moment. One might say it was the only shield I had seen that day, but no, I saw a few more, I just wanted the best one.” Adam pulled it onto his lap. “A shield as strong as this, it should be able to help someone with their older sister bullying them.”

Jaygak narrowed her eyes. “I also found an item.” She reached into her own leather sack, revealing a long blade. 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 blade’s edge. “I already have a sword though, so you can have it, Raygak.”

“Don’t say it like that!” Adam snapped at 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 need this shield.”

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

“I can 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 blade, 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 face any wider. ‘You little punk, how can 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 since this is a DiceRPG where even the author is at the whims of the dice. 4D6D1. I roll four dice and 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 strongest across the land.

That baby would be considered the second weakest in Set B.

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

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

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