653. Number One

653. Number One

Omen: 1, 19

Jirot lay within her father’s arms, drinking the milk from her bottle. She held it tight with both hands, having learnt not to let it go, otherwise it would fall and she would lose the milk. She looked up at her father, pausing for a moment, before returning to drinking.

“Jurot, today, would you mind helping me with something?” Adam asked, while scooping up some porridge with his spoon, and feeding his youngest son, who somehow managed not to wear his food, unlike his uncle Gurot.

“Okay,” Jurot replied, cleaning Gurot’s face with a wet cloth, the boy closing his eyes and wincing, before looking up at his cousin. The boy smiled, before finding a piece of bread had suddenly appeared in front of him, not realising it had been Adam who had placed it before him.

Adam hugged each of his children, placing a kiss on their forehead, before walking off. He stopped. He returned to the children, picking up Gurot, with a noisy grunt, before hugging him close too.

“Oboo?” Gurot asked.

“Of course I can!” Adam placed a kiss on his forehead, brushing his hair. “Be good for your mother and aunt, okay? You can bully cousin Kitool, though, she’s tough. Jaygak... you have to be nice to Jaygak since she helped me out, do you understand?”

Gurot blinked, before smiling up at his Cousin.

“I’m glad you understand,” Adam said, brushing his hair once more, before placing him down. “If you all grow up too fast while I’m gone to work, I’ll give you a good talking to. No, a bad talking to, bad. Do you understand?”

All the babies were busy playing, completely ignoring the Half Elf.

“Good,” Adam said, walking off to go and smith that day.

“Daddy?” Konarot called as she followed him.

“What is it, princess?” Adam asked, lifting his daughter up without meaning to.

“Working?”

“That’s right.”

“Working?” Konarot asked, pointing to her chest.

“No, no, you should go and play with your siblings,” Adam said, rubbing his cheek against her forehead. “Okay?”

“Okay.” Konarot’s tail drooped, but she returned back to her siblings to play with them.

“Jurot,” Adam called

“Yes,” Jurot agreed.

Smithing (Intelligence)

D20 + 6 = 9 (3)

Smithing (Strength)

D20 + 8 = 13 (5)

Omen: 1, 19 -> 1

19 + 8 = 27

Adam plucked a Thread of Fate, and Jarot refused to return to the Iyr, choosing to die on the battlefield, and thus Fate was forever changed.

“What do you think?” Adam asked, staring at his work.

“It is large,” Jurot said, staring at the axe head. It was a little too large, more for using with two hands, but if the wielder was strong enough, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue.

“What is that, Jurot?” Adam asked, staring at the long, thick, piece of wood. It stared at Adam angrily, with such beautiful curves, a heaviness that he had never seen before on such a piece of wood.

“The handle,” Jurot replied.

“Have you been holding out on me?” Adam asked, reaching out to hold the hefty handle. There were smooth patterns within the wood at the bottom and at the top. The middle would be wrapped with leather, but Adam had requested words to be etched across the surface.

“I do not know what that means.”

“I mean, you made something so special today,” Adam rubbed his fingers along the words etched along the middle.

“Yes.”

“Thanks, Jurot.”

As the smell of food permeated through the air, Naqokan spoke a tale of her family. It was the tale of Dragon slaying, a classic in the Kan family, and the rise of a Great Elder within their family, more than likely a Chief considering their heritage.

“What a great story,” Adam said, clapping his hands, with his triplets also clapping their hands beside their father. They didn’t seem to mind hearing about the Dragon slaying, since it was about slaying a Red Dragon, and not a Silver Dragon, which was totally different.

As the food was passed around, Adam cleared his throat and then opened his mouth in order to speak.

His mind went blank.

He had completely forgotten all the things he had prepared to say. ‘Damn it.’ He noted all the looks that he had gathered, since they had noticed he wanted to say something.

“I’ll try to keep it short and sweet, just like my-,” Adam raised his fist to his mouth, and closed his eyes as he tried to stop himself from being cringe. ‘Just this once.’ “I wanted to say thank you to everyone here. To my Aunts and Uncles, to the rest of my family, and to my friends, and those who decided to follow me for whatever reason. I only get to live with such joy because of you all.”

Adam’s cheeks turned red and he cleared his throat again, quickly moving on from saying something so embarrassing. “I wanted to specially note someone who trusted us early. Someone who we came to meet by pure Fate, though, then again...” Adam glanced around to all of his companions. “Okay, so maybe the Fate thing isn’t that special, but with him, it’s a little different, since he was fated to meet not me, but my brother, Jurot.”

Slowly, the attention turned to the giant of a boy, who was technically no longer a boy to Adam, though he had long been a man to many of them. “Nobby here has been a member of our motley crew for a long while, since the first few months I arrived in this land.” Adam paused, realising he had said way too much. ‘Oops.’

Nobby turned slightly red from all the attention, and stopped eating, too conscious from all the gazes.

“Jurot, did you have fun training Nobby?”

“Yes.”

“Then there’s not much more to say, other than perhaps, that we’ll take good care of you Nobby, as we have so far. I’m not sure about you, but I’m glad that you came with us, Nobby. Today, you turn eighteen, and...” Adam paused. “Nobby, you do turn eighteen today, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m not so good with the numbers,” Adam admitted, shrugging his shoulders. “The only reason I know my children’s ages is because it’s less than five.” Adam smiled, chuckling at his little joke. ‘Damn it! Just one time, Adam! One time!’

“Anyway, I just wanted to say it was a pleasure Nobby, and that I hope you’ll continue to work with us. Well, specifically me, since I need you. Well, I need all of you in one way or another, but Nobby, you’re a little special. It’s not that I need you for myself, but I need you for my children, and the business too, I guess. You might be an Expert, Nobby, but I hope to see you fly a little higher, and to help you with that, I had to speak with Elder Zijin, and he gave me some nice steel to work with. I had a little bit of wood from helping the Iyr previously too.”

“Stormwood,” Jurot confirmed, as Adam reached back to the sack he had brought with him, revealing the axe they had made together.

Laygak nodded his head, unable to control himself, noting the stormwood and stormsteel together.

“I hadn’t worked with stormsteel before, and didn’t realise it was so heavy when I was done with it, that’s my bad,” Adam said, before holding out the weapon. “Under the leather, there’s a little statement I left for you, but you can read it later.” Adam smiled.

“I can’t read,” Nobby replied.

Adam’s smile faded. “Oh. I’ll write it down for you lat-,” Adam looked to Jaygak, raising his finger towards her. “Yes, I understand what I said.”

Jaygak had her brows raised, and she had leaned forward, ready to snap at the bait, but she pulled back and held up her hands innocently.

“I’ll tell you it later, Nobby.”

“Okay.”

“That axe, it’s mundane, but it’s our gift to you. It comes with a promise, too.” Adam held out a piece of paper that had been tied by a ribbon.

Nobby blinked, sure he had stated he couldn’t read only moments ago.

“In the future, you can bring this to have your axe enchanted,” Adam promised. “Happy birthday, Nobby.”

“Thank you,” Nobby replied. Receiving such an axe caused him to turn warmer, glad that Adam had remembered this time. The axe itself was perhaps the best present he had received on his birthday, never mind the offer for enchantment. No, perhaps it wasn’t the best birthday present since his family wasn’t here?

Adam chatted with Nobby later, about his ideas for what to pay the young man in the future considering his status, as well as what was engraved onto the wood.

Nobby lay in a guest room in the shared family estate, his entire body warm, with the smallest of smiles as he stared up at the ceiling. Sure, he could have gone to work for someone else for fifty gold a month, perhaps even more, but...

Nobby thought about the axe, and what was engraved on the side. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, still smiling.

This time he didn't forget!

Thankfully he used his Omen and nothing horrible happened.