“Nano, I look so booteafull?” Jirot asked, her amber eyes so bashfully gleaming towards the old woman, her lips puckered up so expetly.

  “You always look so beautiful,” Gangak firmed, brushing the girl’s cheek with a thumb.

  “Just like mummy,” the girl whispered shyly, her lips f a long smile. Jirot wore a blue, sleeveless dress, the frilly skirt like ripples in a pond. Atop her head she wore a long hat, made of light straw, with a ribbon she had picked out sewed to the wide brim. A gourd hung at her side, full of water.

  Little Jarot beamed up towards his grandmother, within his blue sleeveless shirt and his grey shorts, cut at the knee. He also wore a pair of gourds at his side, ohat was full of water, and the other, with the bck lid, full of chilled berry milk. His father had already warhe boy that the milk would taste different during the noonval festival.

  “I almost did nnise my little Jarot, but you are always so handsome, like your father, yes?”

  “Yes…” The boy flushed, hugging his nano’s khe ulling the twins close.

  “Buu,” Virot grumbles, strapped within the leather and cloth traption, wainst her father’s front.

  “What’s this? You love me so much? I love you too, my Virot.” Adam pnted a firm kiss on her forehead, but the girl gnced over to her mother, who checked the triplets gourds, making sure they were full. “You silly girl, mummy ’t wear you, she’s already got a baby iummy.”

  “Huu,” Virot pined, but she squealed with delight as her father blew a raspberry against her neck, kig out her legs.

  Jurot threw a gnce down at his son, who stared up at the man shyly, before hiding his head against his father’s chest. After a few moments the boy gnced upwards again, smiling, before hiding his head against his father’s chest once more.

  Jurot ed an arm around his son’s back, holding onto the back of a leg, rubbing it gently. He held the boy close to him, lost within his thoughts.

  Pam smiled sadly as Jurot held their son so close. Jurot, who previously found it difficult to uand, only knew what to do after the deaths.

  The gehrum of music guided them all through the roads of the Iyr, until it was eventually repced by the smell of food. Snacks of heavily fried dough, skewers of meat aables, thick, fluffy bread. Thankfully, many Iyrmen offered cool drinks. Gangak carried a basket of food, adding little bits of the various foods into it, while some of the children nibbled on the food as they walked.

  “Jarot,” Jirot called, holding up her little , but the boy gnced away. “You do not want to eat?”

  “No…”

  “Okay.” Jirot bit into the food, trailing her brother’ side as they followed their nanh the festival.

  A mass of Iyrmen remained he stream, sitting beside it, resting their feet withier. It was no deeper than a pinky at its deepest, and to one side, the Iyrmen pulled up the buckets from the wells, filling the gourds for the children.

  “Don’t drink the stream water, it’s too dirty to drink, okay?” Adam said, allowing the children to rest he stream, each sitting at the edge of the stream and rexing. The triplets all y around their mother, who sat within a rge chair, the ends of their tails dipped into the water.

  Lanarot tore a piece of bread and shoved it into her mouth, chewing it slowly. She gnced up towards her sister, holding up a piece of bread for her. “Kaka Pam.”

  “Lanarot,” Pam called, reag down to hoist the bread from the girl’s fingers, before bringing it to the girl’s lips. “You should eat this bread.”

  “Kaka, you must.”

  “I will eat ter,” Pam assured, while Lanarot gave in to her, eating from her fingers.

  “Mmm. This bread is so good, so yummy, but I like kaka’s bread more.” Lanarot tio eat the bread, dipping it into the red sauce, which was sweeter than it icy.

  Pam smiled, reag down to wipe the girl’s face with a cloth, using some water from her gourd to wet the cloth to wipe away the sauce from the girl’s lips. “I will make you bread ter.”

  “Your father will make bread too?”

  Pam smiled slightly. “I will ask him to make you bread.”

  “With jam?”

  “With jam,” Pam assured. “Did you like it?”

  “I like it. Jarot does not?”

  “No,” Pam said, smiling sadly. “He did not.”

  “Mmm.” Lanarot bit into her bread. “I will eat it since he will not.” She sighed, uanding this was a sacrifice she will o make as his aunt.

  Adam stared out to the stream, smiling slightly as the memories returo him. “Lanarot, e.”

  The girl’s head shot up towards her brother and she smiled, rushing up to her brother. Before she could grab her bread, Adam helped her wash her hands, wiping off the stone and dirt, before accepting a piece of bread from her fingers.

  “Do you remember baba Strom?”

  “Baba?”

  “He’s the ohat gave you the armour.”

  “Armour?”

  “Ah, well, anyway. There was a baba. He used to let you ride on his shoulders and he used to fly you around when you were just a little baby.”

  “I am so big now.”

  “You are, but you don’t remember, do you?”

  “Sorry…” The girl pouted, slowly tilting her head downwards.

  “No, you don’t have to apologise. He knew you wouldn’t remember, since you were so small, but you liked him a lot. He liked bread a lot too.”

  “Baba Strom is a good man,” Lanarot said, nodding her head lightly, assured of the statement.

  “I suppose he was,” Adam replied, thinking about Strom’s tales, about the mass murder he itted for the sake of Umbra. “There are so many people scared of him, but you? You were so fearless.”

  “How I be scared when I am s?” Lanarot asked, sighing as the burden filled her heart. ‘I must eat more bread.’

  Adam smiled wider, rubbing the top of her hat as she shoved the st of her bread into her mouth. “He liked you so much.”

  “I like baba too.”

  Adam gnced around, towards his triplets, and then to his twins. Larot had been stolen away from him, but he supposed he did mao steal Lanarot from her mother. Adam gnced down at the girl once more, who wiped her mouth with her wet handkerchief, before sipping her gourd.

  It was Lanarot who had allowed Adam to live such a good life.

  ‘He left you so many gifts before he left, but I ’t let him outshine me when it es to spoiling you.’

  “Brother,” Lanarot called, holding up a small bun full of melted cheese. “You must eat too.”

  Adam dropped down to his knees, allowing the girl to feed him with her fingers, her eyes full of a childish joy. “I love you so much, Lanarot. Do you uand?”

  “I uand, brother, I uand,” the girl said, reag up to pat her brother’s head. “I must uand because I am so smart.”

  “That’s right.” Adam leaned in to pnt a firm kiss on her forehead, before pulling her head to his chest. Adam’s heart ached, and his throat clogged up, the half elf shutting his eyes tight “You must uand, because you are so smart.”

  The purple threateo ihe sky as the Iyrmen gathered together in the evening. The children paiheir papers, each assisted by their elders, from their siblings to their grandparents. Lokat assisted little Larot, who drew a simple curve across the paper, before Lokat tied the paper to the sticks, and formed the ntern.

  “Oop!” Adam said, snatg his daughter’s hand, dunking it withier. “That’s not for eating, you silly girl.”

  “Haa!” Virot gasped, before the swirls of blue withier distracted her.

  “You are doing so well!” Turot praised, helping little Gurot while Asorot helped little Murot.

  “Papo, I do good too?” Little Jarot’s expet eyes met Turot’s.

  “You always do so good,” Turot assured, ruffling the boy’s hair, before he turned his attention back to his younger siblings.

  Nirot helped the triplets, each who paihe papers lightly, though Karot remained focused upon the paper, holding the brush like a dagger. Nirot waited for him to begin painting, but the boy remained pletely focused on staring at it, as though a viper poised to strike.

  “Booboo,” Damrot said, staring at his father.

  Jurot pced a hand upon the boy’s bottom. “You wish to talk?”

  Damrot stuck his hand inside his mouth shyly, before he turned onto all fours, crawling away to his mother. Jurot remained uain of what to feel, but in his heart, he uood his son crawled so well.

  “Brother!” Lanarot excimed, holding up her ntern. It was pletely blue, save for one face, which in, the ntern always taining a single bnk side. “You see?”

  “As vast as the sky, as deep as the o, my sister’s smartness knows no bounds,” Adam said.

  Lanarot blinked. “It is blue, silly brother.”

  “Ah, of course,” Adam said, resisting the urge to hug his sister and spoil her with so many kisses. Instead, he picked her up and kissed her forehead, huggiight. “What a lovely ntern you have made. Did you have fun?”

  “I have so much fun,” she firmed.

  “Daddy, look,” Jirot called, showing off her ntern, which was covered in lines of all manner of colours, and little dots within of more colour. “I use all the colours!”

  “Wow! Amazing! My daughter is an artist too?”

  “No, I am not artist, I am your daughter.”

  “Ah, of course.”

  Jirot reached out to her father’s leg. “Daddy, you are lucky you are so handsome.”

  “I am?”

  Jirot huffed, gng over to her mother, who returned a tired smile. “So lucky.”

  “Kaza,” Mokan called, the boy pouting.

  “What’s wrong, Mokan?” Adam asked, pg his sister down, before rubbing the boy’s cheeks.

  “Tolleh.”

  “Ah, of course.”

  Ah, of course.