The days began to pass, Darthañan and Frigglene were reunited with Helvella and his 5 older children, Darthañan had decided to explain to his wife the existence of the guardian families, the secrets they knew and the great work they carried on their shoulders. Helvella included some details, such as the sworn alliance that these families had under the table, at first glance nobody could notice this great alliance that spread throughout the four kingdoms of the empire.
It took Frigglene several hours to digest all the information, she could not believe that even the emperor and his court belonged to the guardian families, but more troubling was the fact of knowing that the more powerful alliance within the empire had a traitor in its higher ranks.
“I'm going out with Fusca and Brevi. Albella, you are in charge of Vorpiax in my absence” Helvella ordered.
"Understood" the three replied at once.
He quickly addressed Darthañan and Frigglene. " Don't leave the castle just yet, no one can find out that you are still alive. Something tells me that this is much worse than we think”
Helvella rose from his chair and motioned his sons to follow. All three disappeared in that instant.
That night Darthañan and Frigglene had a long discussion in their room, in which they finally decided that they would stay in the castle to fully recover. They would remain in Lhimkio for a maximum of one year and regardless of how things would unfold they would leave with their children for the imperial island.
The days continued to pass and soon two months had passed, in which Helvella and his sons had not yet returned.
That morning Elizabeth and Theodor were awakened by Frigglene.
"Good morning sleepyheads, it's time to get up" said Frigglene opening the floral curtains in the room that the two children were sharing.
"Hello mommy" Elizabeth said opening her eyes and stretching.
“¡Mmm!” It was the only noise that Theodor made, grabbing the covers of various sheets to roll up on them.
"Honey Eli is already awake" Frigglene said with a smile.
Elizabeth sat on the edge of her oak wood bed to watch her brother ignore their mother.
“Tod if we arrive to Mr. Crispa villa late again, my face will fall from shame”
“¡Mmm!”
"Well, you leave me no choice, Theodor"
Elizabeth's eyes widened as she saw the reddish aura emanating from her mother. Frigglene grabbed the covers and yanked them away from Theodor, who spun three times in the air before falling back onto the bed.
“¡Ouch!”
"Don’t Ouch me" said Frigglene, clutching Theodor by the waist "it's time to bathe"
"No, I don't want to take a bath" Theodor began to yell as his mom took him out of the room.
Elizabeth got up and followed them without saying anything. By the time she got to the bathroom her mom had already undressed Theodor and put him in the shower. Frigglene also helped her take off her pajamas and let her in to bathe.
The bathroom, like the entire cabin, was made of wood and the shower consisted of a rock with a magical formation, which with the help of circular branches allowed proper operation.
Frigglene sighed as she saw the two children in the shower thinking how lucky she was that she could bathe them in a batch. She went out for a moment and arranged the clothes they would wear today. The dresses in Vorpiax were mostly made of fiber from different plants with the primary colors as the basis of the different clothes (Red, green and blue). When she returned she found the two little ones singing and marching around one of their toys.
"It's time to go out" Frigglene said, getting the towels ready.
"A little more mommy" Elizabeth replied.
Frigglene sighed again. Every day it was the same, no matter if it was her or Darthañan's turn, they were starting to make trouble for everything.
After five minutes the three of them came down groomed.
"Good morning, Daddy" Elizabeth said, reaching over and hugging Darthañan's leg.
“How did my little flower woke up?” Darthañan asked lifting Elizabeth and filling her with kisses.
“¡Gross! Kisses are for the weak” Theodor shouted, standing on one of the dining room chairs.
Frigglene caught him in her arms and kissed him on the cheek making as much noise as possible.
"Now you are a weakling"
“¡Noooo!” Theodor screamed trying to wash his cheek with his hand.
"Breakfast will be ready, go and sit next to your brother and your mother" said Darthañan, lowering Elizabeth.
As they ate, Darthañan and Frigglene's eyes met, and both could see the happiness that filled them. The recent days could have not been much unrulier, noisy and chaotic, but the satisfaction, they both felt inside, to be sitting together as a family at the table, was an emotion that could not compare with anything else.
When finished, both parents left with their children to take them to the villa of the private tutor in the castle. Theodor was running everywhere and hurrying his parents to walk faster because he had just remembered that today, after class, Mr. Crispa would take them to the stables to see the animals in the castle. Elizabeth, on the contrary, was walking carefully because she did not want to dirty the beautiful dress that her mother had put her today. It was yellow and pretty so she didn't want to ruin it for anything in the world.
When they got to Mr. Crispa villa they could see how the other three children were already playing in one of the gardens. It didn't take long for Theodor to give each of his parents a short hug and run to his friends. Elizabeth took the time to kiss each of them on the cheek, then run off like her brother. The excitement of seeing her friends made her forget her intention not to dirty her yellow dress.
"Good morning, Mr. Crispa" both parents greeted as they approached the tutor.
"Good morning" replied Mr. Crispa with a smile.
The tutor of the castle was a Krisyll, the same race that had made Darthañan curious when they were inside the cable car. This one, unlike the ones he had seen in recent days, was very delicate because instead of looking strong as a rock like other crystal beings, it looked as if it were made of glass and could break in any moment.
Its four rear legs were the same as what they had seen, but the two front ones that in other Krisyll looked imposing, were quite thin almost like the four rear ones.
"Thank you very much for taking care of our children" said Darthañan.
“No problem, education is my vocation and all these children have incredible potentials. Nothing makes me happier than knowing that I am educating the next generation” Crispa replied crossing the two fine and delicate arms that came out of his neck.
"We leave them in your care" Frigglene said, taking Darthañan's hand and leaving the villa.
It had happened to her several times when she let Crispa and Darthañan start a conversation, every time it happened her morning was wasted by the conversations of those two. And she wasn't going to waste the time she had to exercise her body and her magic.
Meanwhile in the garden the little ones greeted each other.
"Hello Theodor, Elizabeth," said the Lepiota twins.
These were Helvella's youngest children, who were one-meter-tall and looked fat as a mushroom. While still immature, their hats and bodies were still completely white.
"Hello Mushi, Hello Shimu" Theodor and Elizabeth greeted.
The story of the names of these two little Lepiots was quite peculiar because their mother had had to go down to the lower island of Morgrum to deal with some spiritual beings that were getting out of control and could not be there for the day when they were going to germinate. So their father, Helvella, with his lack of ability to name called one Shimu and with the other one he just inverted the syllables.
Many of the castle's servants saw these two unfortunate saplings with regret as no one expected that their father, who they all believed to be good at practically everything, would be so bad at naming his children.
“¡Tod! ¡Eli!” Said a female voice much more immature than the other four.
"Hello Lutza" Theodor said.
“How are you Lutza?” Elizabeth asked.
"I, well, I, happy" replied the huge crystal gorilla.
Any stranger would think it impossible that this three-meter purple gorilla was the daughter of the little thirty-centimeter crystal gorillas Anya and Kolia.
But this was the peculiarity of the strange race of the Pikmi. The mother lays a 5-centimeter egg that over twenty-six months grows to two meters. From where is born a baby with overdeveloped physical abilities, but with a fairly low intellect. Over the course of its life, the energy of the body concentrated in physical strength will migrate to the mind, making them smaller, but smarter.
A spectacular example of the evolutionary extremes that life reaches to survive in dangerous environments.
“What are they doing?” Elizabeth asked, approaching the twins lepiots.
"We found a dead cat" Mushi replied.
"I think Lutza killed him" Shimu added.
“¡I do not!” Lutza yelled angrily hitting the ground hard.
"I'm almost sure you killed it like that" Shimu said again, but this time in a much lower voice.
"Let me see" Theodor said, pushing his way through the twins.
In front of him he saw a small red panda lying on its side. His golden eyes sparkled for a moment without any of the children noticing. He grabbed the small animal by the neck, opened its mouth, then put his hand in its mouth.
“¡wow!” The other children exclaimed when they saw Theodor put his hand in the mouth of the dead cat.
Theodor didn't bother and took a half-eaten fruit from the animal. The red panda began to sneeze and vomit immediately creating more commotion among the children. Mr. Crista, who had already said goodbye to the parents of Theodor and Elizabeth, approached the children when noticing the commotion and seeing what had happened, he said.
“You've saved a life young Theodor”
