There were, unsurprisingly, a lot of worries about Elena being a mother but most of them came from people who truly did not know her at all. Or people who had only met her briefly when she was younger or had only heard stories from back then.

 

Elena had calmed down quite a bit since marrying Andrei. Some people referred to it as Andrei taming her but in reality, it wasn’t like that at all. Both of them had changed as a result of being with one another.

 

Andrei was not nearly as unsure of himself as he had been as a teen but his confidence and decisive attitude made him seem like he didn’t care for anything or anyone when that wasn’t the case at all. And Elena, after dealing with her husband who took 95% of things at face value,  had become a whole lot more patient and less riddling.

 

Andrei wasn’t the only reason for Elena’s change in overall maturity though. After over 100 years, many incarnations of the other 4 had come and gone. The only remaining person from Elena’s ‘generation’ was Vermillion Bird and he had already revealed that he intended to leave this world sometime soon.

 

These deaths weren’t all exactly impactful to Elena though. The first death definitely hit the hardest though.

 

Despite their vast age difference, the white tiger from when Elena was in her teens was one of Elena’s closest friends. When she chose to pass away Elena didn’t quite understand why she would do such a thing.

 

Sometimes the 4 decided to pass away in private and sometimes they decided to pass on in the central temple while surrounded by the followers of all 4. She had chosen to pass away in the central temple.

 

“Why don’t you wait?” Elena asked, staring down at the woman sitting down on the White Tiger throne. Except for the other members of the 4, everyone in the temple was bowing toward the woman.

 

“Immortality is just within human grasp so why don’t you wait and attain it?” 

 

Elena seemed like a child, asking a curious question but in reality, there was a bit of hurt in that question.

 

“….” White Tiger was partially transformed but she was relaxed, at peace, ready to go.

 

“You would never understand, Elena.” She whispered and smiled a bit sadly at her.

 

—

 

After one more White Tiger incarnation, Aylin was born. She came into the custody of the White Tiger temple at a young age so she was only 7 when she attended her first meeting of the 4. Of course, that was very different from little 3-year-old Elena creeping everyone out as she attended her first meeting. Everyone had no choice but to consider Elena a fully adult member of the 4 because of her own maturity and just the way she carried herself and spoke but Aylin was much more normal than Elena so everyone softened up and treated her like a child.

 

Throughout that first meeting, Aylin was very distraught. She couldn’t have her followers with her and her parents weren’t exactly in the picture so she didn’t know what to do at all. She was also the first one in the temple so she was very confused. She walked toward the center of the 4 thrones very confused about why it was empty.

 

“Well, aren’t you cute?” 

 

Aylin jumped as she suddenly heard a voice behind her. She turned around and was completely stunned. Elena was covered in gold jewelry and wearing a black off-shoulder dress and a black mask as she bent down a little to look at her. Aylin was in shock, she’d never seen a woman as tall as Elena! And when she looked right past Elena she saw Andrei who was even taller and she was even more surprised.

 

The remaining members appeared and seemed to have similar reactions to Aylin. Azure dragon was curious and went up to join Elena in staring until Vermillion bird advised that they stopped terrorizing the poor girl.

 

Throughout the whole meeting, Aylin was very confused and everyone could tell. At the end of the meeting, however, only Elena offered to explain it t her more simply. And by that, she meant that she would have Andrei and Anya explain it to her more simply.

 

Elena ended up teaching her a lot of things and until Aylin reached adulthood their relationship was more like a teacher-student relationship than a friendship. After she became an adult they became more friendly and they became much closer. Though it took Elena a while to stop looking at Aylin like she was still the child who would hide behind her.

 

That was part of the reason why Elena was so easily influenced to have a child. She kind of missed having the little tiger cub following her everywhere. 

 

–

 

Natasha took after Elena. Very obviously too. She was not like Andrei was when he was a child and she certainly wasn’t like Aylin. She didn’t follow Elena, she practically dragged Elena everywhere SHE wanted to go. Elena was surprised but she enjoyed it.  Of course, she was a handful but she actually ‘calmed down’ a lot sooner than Elena did. By the time Natasha was 10, she was already starting to be less reckless while it took Elena….almost 50 years.

 

Because they had their first child at around 150 years old, Elena and Andrei both didn’t really expect her to grow as quickly as she did!

 

“How is Tasha already almost halfway to 20…” Elena murmured to Andrei as they walked to the ballroom where Natasha’s 9th birthday party was being held. They had stepped out for a second, it was a kid’s birthday party and not a truly formal event so no one seemed to mind.

 

“...Time has flown by..” Andrei murmured.

 

They both re-entered the ballroom and looked at the children playing around, of course it wasn’t anything overly brash but they were kids who had too much cake and other sweets so it was obviously chaotic. Even Natasha was joining in and she usually would brag about being too mature for little kid games.

 

Natasha noticed that they’d returned and she grabbed another kid’s hand and dragged him over to where Elena and Andrei were standing.

 

“Mommy! Daddy!”

 

“Yes, Tasha?” Andrei asked with a smile as he watched how she scurried over in her little blue dress. He paid absolutely 0 attention to the boy she was dragging along. That was all that Elena was looking at though.

 

“I’m gonna marry Alyosha, Okay?” 

 

“Oka–what?”

 

Elena just laughed, she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Alyosha—a certain boy from the Chernyshevsky family— seemed to be shameless agreeing with her as they held hands. His parents on the other hand… had almost spit out their wine when they heard that.

 

“That’d be great, Tasha!” Elena chuckled.

 

From afar Irina was trying to keep Alexander from running up to them and ripping Alexei and Natasha’s hands apart.

 

“It seems this runs in the family…” She murmured with a sort of ‘what can you do’ expression.

 

– months later

 

“Looks like I’m going to have to have another one.” Elena chuckled as she had tea with Anya–who was on vacation– and Aylin.

 

“Well If the first child is already engaged…not much of a choice, she’ll leave  before you know it.” Aylin chuckled.

 

“She’s just like you…Maybe the next one will be just like the lor–Andrei.” Anya giggled. Elena hated when she called them by titles when she wasn’t working. It felt so rigid for someone who was practically her sister.

 

“I hope so, I love my mini-me but I want to baby at least one of my kids and they have to be like Andrei for me to do that.” Elena chuckled.

 

“Oh right…speaking of babies…” Anya murmured, looking away a little.

 

Of course, Elena immediately could guess what this was about, “Really?!”

 

“Not yet. But…I like him a lot…so maybe soon.” Anya murmured, she had recently gotten married to a mage from the Black tortoise temple near China, they were–surprisingly– not too far apart in age. Anya pretty much gave up on finding a lover after a while, she didn’t have much of a desire to have one and after she turned 100 she figured it’d be hard to find another person who was both immortal and around her age but she met him and suddenly the option was up in the air again.

 

Elena’s baby fever was 100% back in action after that and it wasn’t too long before she had to once again spell out to Andrei that she was pregnant. Natasha was very happy with the news–although she had been hoping for a sister.

 

—- In the present—-

 

“My Lady!” 

 

Elena and Andrei looked toward the door in unison. One of the maids was in a rush as she entered the room.

 

“Miss Anya says that a dungeon has appeared in the black tortoise temple! And no one can enter it!”

 

“What..?”