[1712] – Y07.212 – The Darkness In Their Hearts II

“Hyat! Hyat! Hyat!” The children exclaimed with each punch, each palm strike, each kick. They had already completed their walk, their run, and they completed their various forms, their powerful yells filling the air. Once they had completed their training, their greatuncle brought them food.

“Jarot, you must eat to replenish your strength, okay?” Malfev brushed his greatnephew’s cheek gently, feeling how soft it was, though his face was much thinner than his sister’s. The old man squeezed his greatnephew’s cheeks gently.

The boy flushed, feeling his greatuncle’s rough hands, which scratched his cheeks lightly, like sandpaper. Little Jarot sipped on his little gourd, sighing, all the while his siblings ate their meal of fish and potato, the fish tender, having fallen off the bone, the spices gentle on their tongues, the potato equally as gentle. Little Jarot took a small bite of fish and potato, while Jirot devoured her potato, and the triplets their fishes.

“Look, Jarot,” Jirot called. “You see? Westrout, mousefish, and fass. There are multiples fishes, even though the plural of fish is fish, because there are so many different types, the plural is fishes.”

“Different fishes for different dishes,” Jarot replied, quoting their teacher.

“Oh my gosh! My brother is so smart! My brother eats so well! My brother is so handsome!” The girl reached up to his hair, but instead leaned in to kiss his cheek. “Babo! You are so lucky your greatnephew is so smart, and eats so well, and is so handsome.”

“I am so lucky!” Malfev agreed, reaching out to pinch the flushed boy’s cheek gently.

“Babo, you see how well we are behaved?” Jirot called.

“I see.”

“We are so well behaved, and we work so hard, and that is why, babo, you must be grateful, and just like how you are so strong, and you are so kind, we must be grateful, okay?”

“I understand.”

“Since you are the elder, and we are the young, you must show us mercy, and because we are young, and you are our elder, we must show you respect.”

“You will show me respect?”

“Of coas, babo!”

“Of coas!” came the echo.

“What of your greatfather?”

“Babo, babo, we are still young, how you can say such a difficult thing?” Jirot replied, holding out her hand and waving it, as if to refuse his words. “We are just children, babo, little girls and little boys, babo, and babo, I say it, you must show us mercy, how you can say such things?”

“Ah, of course.”

“Of coas!”

Once the children had finished their meals, they made their way to take a dip, a cold bath for the triplets, a warmer bath for the twins, and their elders assisted them, and for the twins, assisted them with their clothies.

“Babo, soon, I will learn to walk on leaves too,” Jirot said as she held his hand on the way back to the main estate.

“I shall wait patiently.” The old man smiled.

“You do not have to wait long, for I am a genius, babo.”

“Ah, of course.”

Jirot side eyed her babo, but the rest of the children echoed the words, and they snickered.

As they approached the estate shortly after noon, the children all joined their families, and ate small snacks alongside them. Jirot and Jarot glanced around, but were unable to find their mother, remembering she had started to work, while their father was doing secret stuffs for the Iyr.

‘Even though we are so close, I miss mummy and daddy…’ Jirot thought. ‘Mummy and daddy will come back soon and then I can bully them.’

Konarot began to read to her siblings that day, and once she was done, they would go about their own business, with the triplets snoozing, as Jirot read some more, and Jarot listened, cuddling within his babo’s chest, the boy almost threatening to sleep, but he listened well to his sister’s reading.

Adam returned later in the evening, slightly paler than usual, and though he had healed himself, he could still feel the ache of taking so much of the burden onto himself. Thankfully, however, Jaygak was responsive to the deal he had made in regards to the enchanters, or rather, the request that should the business need it, the enchanters, even after the ten year period, will assist the business to make sure it does not bankrupt itself.

He held out his hands, finding his children reach out to him, and he picked them up one by one, planting firm kisses on each of their cheeks. As he peeked towards his youngest, the boy remained fast asleep, his body half swallowed by pillows, sleeping not upon his back, but on his front, as though he had partied far too hard last evening.

“What did you do to my poor Xarot?” Adam accused, looking towards a particular child.

“Have I shown you too much mercy?” Jirot asked, motioning from her eyes to his.

Adam smiled in return, and as he settled himself, he found his wife with Virot, who was trapped within her arms. “What happened?”

“She is upset.”

“Why?”

“The sky is blue.”

“Ah.”

Virot held out her arms towards the sky, then turned to her mother. “Mummy! See? Blue! Blue! Mummy!”

“Oh my, oh my.” Vonda kissed the girl’s forehead, calming her with a swiftness.

‘My daughter is a genius,’ Adam thought. “Technically, the sky isn’t blue, it’s a reflection, or something.”

“Then why does it become purple when it’s evening, because the sea isn’t purple?” Jirot replied.

“I suppose because of the way the sun’s lights reflect off the…” Adam paused, furrowing his brows. “Hmm. I don’t know.”

“I can’t check because looking at the sun is not good.”

Adam raised his brows towards the girl.

“I was not looking any more, daddy, I promise!”

“Have you been eating dirt?”

“Mummy, I am going to beat daddy up now.”

“Have you?” Vonda asked.

“No!” Jirot replied, clenching her fists, pouting. “Mummy, I told you I will not!”

“Yes, but you still ate dirt.”

“Mummy! That was one or two times.”

Vonda raised her brows.

“Mummy, I cannot remember, I was such a little girl, and I am such a little girl, you must show me mercy, mummy.”

“Then are you going to show daddy respect?”

Jirot turned towards Malfev. Malfev smiled slowly. Jirot turned to her father, who was pretty sure he knew the joke.

“You’re funny,” Adam whispered.

“I know.”

PATREON FOR 30+ CHAPTERS!

Jirot, our sweet Jirot. I need to focus on the other children, but Jirot is Jirot.