Chapter 2194: Bonding with Children

Now that the Elyssian stone was fixed in Alterra, the babies at least had an enhanced amount of aether in their environment. They could, in theory, use their powers without getting sick, provided that they remain in the territory’s scope.

"Ma hosteyg!" Meatball said, his sword up, along with his crew.

The other team, led by Theo, dressed as a knight, tried to negotiate. "Pirate King! If you give us the princess, we will give you a bag of milk chocolate balls."

Meatball paused, his previous enthusiasm flickered for a moment, and the ’enemy’ crew kindly waited for him to decide.

"How manee?" he asked, with a very solemn expression on his tender face.

"..."

Althea’s eyes were filled with her energetic children, full of life and vitality. For a moment, it overlaid with the image of those horrendous days when they were weak and dying.

She was blessed to have found so many of the required ingredients with relative ease, considering how impossible the task seemed to be at the start. Hopefully, the last leg would be just as lucky.

Althea quietly watched the children play from the side, not disturbing them. Whenever she didn’t think about her research and her mountains of tasks, she would watch the kids play for hours without getting tired.

Since coming back from the long trip, she and her husband decided to be leisurely for a few days before preparing for the next leg of the trip. Her people were already preparing a mountain of consumables she could bring, especially when she and Garan had enlarged spaces.

After Princess Pepper successfully escaped the pirate ship on her own and became the queen, they finally found their mother and asked her to play with them. It so happened that the other kids had to go home, so Althea had the babies all to herself.

Meatball, the loser of the previous game, was ’it’. Little Meatball was now covering his eyes with those chonky hands (though Yana wiped his hands off the chocolate).

The two-year-old faced the wall and counted very seriously. "Wan...! Tuu..! Tee...! Foooow! Fayyvvv...! Seeksu...! Sebun...! Eyuttt...! Nayun...! Ten!"

He then cutely turned around, narrowing his glittery round eyes around him. His little feet lifted and he headed to the nearest potential hiding spot.

daddadada~

Althea chuckled. The babies, while she was outside, learned how to count to 10. Well, it seems to be a bit more, but ten was the perfect score.

The baby went around for a couple of moments, but he saw none of his playmates. He pursed his lips but wasn’t discouraged. Hide and seek was supposed to not see them immediately!

No matter. Little Meatball would find them!

His short legs headed to a random direction, the squeaky sound of his little shoes mixing with the rustle of leaves as he searched for his targets with those large green eyes.

Then, at some point, his little feet lifted off the ground.

With the Elyssian’s stone enhancement of aether around Alterra, the babies could use their powers here and there now. Since people knew their abilities, they no longer had to hide them so much. On the contrary, it was a chance to train their control from a young age.

Goodness knows they need to.

By this time, he no longer needed tethers. He floated above a meter. If he went above 2 meters, the adults would receive an alarm.

They would then use the tool the Golds gave during the kids second birthday to determine where he was.

Anyway, there would always be adults there and their levels would be more than enough to jump up and reach a baby flying above two meters.

Playing hide and seek as a baby was definitely a handicap since they had a shorter line of sight. Flying a bit like this certainly helped, and he flew above a meter, which was just around the eye level of teens.

Anyway, the play area was the garden only, and damaging Althea’s plants was a big no-no. They can still hide there, as long as they did not destroy a plant.

The first person Meatball saw was his sister. They just had a deeper sense of awareness between each other, and he instinctively knew the direction she was in.

He found her even when her hiding spot was actually among the best; she was sticking on a branch like a koala.

When she was found, the adult overseeing them, Lola, reached out to Pepper to put her down, but she was an independent little baby, and she appeared on the shrubs a few moments later.

Though she targeted landing on the grass...

Fortunately, Lola was used to her occasional mis-transports. Before the baby girl was ’buried’ into the dense shrubs, she was scooped up by the armpits and placed below, soon joining her brother to look for the last ’player’, their mother.

Two pairs of little legs—one waddling on the ground, the other on air—headed in different directions while they looked for their mother.

Althea played fair and hid at a decent spot. She decided to tease them a little and used her [Camouflage] ability. Even if she didn’t activate it, in fact, her position was a very good hiding spot.

Unexpectedly, a minute later, two pairs of rounded eyes were staring straight at her.

"Mmamaaaaa! Founddyouuuu!"

Althea was inwardly surprised, but seeing her children’s proud faces she couldn’t help but directly compliment them.

"Wow, my babies are so amazing!" she said with sincerity as she scooped up one baby on each arm and gave them a smooch on their tender faces.

"How did you find me?" she asked, curious, as she carried them back home for dinner. After all, the [Camouflage] skill had been activated at the time. She was even wondering how soon she’d deactivate it, though they found her before she could decide.

The babies looked at her with innocent eyes. "We saw you!" they said as a matter-of-factly.

Althea couldn’t help but wonder if stealth skills in general couldn’t escape from these two pairs of round, shining eyes.