21- A Good Compromise Leaves Both Unhappy
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          “Now, what did we learn today children?” I beamed at the obedient reformed crew before me, they were so easy to teach when we got down to it!

          “Life is precious” Their eyes were focused and fervent, though their words were a little monotoned..

          “Very good, and why is that?” Encouragement and reinforcement was the key when learning new things.

          “Life is precious” Not even a twitch passed the expressions on their faces.

          “…I think you might have gone bit too far, Boney” Blackie waved his hand in front of the doctor’s eyes, but without getting any kind of reaction from the man, or the other children in neat, orderly rows.

          “Life is precious”

          “I know not of which you speak.” When in doubt, deny, deny, deny.

          “Life is precious”

          “Can you make them stop? They’re getting on my nerves. And look, you scared the kids.” Borin was hiding behind our little doctor who was trying his best not to look alarmed himself. At least they weren’t interrupting us when we were talking, just…in between each sentence.

          “Life is precious”

          “They’re fine, it’s good to have a healthy dose of fear for authority.” As my mother always said. Her, or it was my division leader…it was a long time ago in my defense and they were very similar to each other.

          “Life is-”

          “Quiet, please.”

          “Who put you in charge?” As if he really wanted to know the answer…I had to stop my eyes from rolling. Besides, we had more important matters.

          “I’ve been thinking about a name for our new little one. The name of the first child is very important as they set a pattern for the naming of the rest. How about Horace?”

          “As in the four-legged mount? No. Veldar would be a much better fit.”

          “That’s hardly a name for an aspiring doctor unless he plans on becoming one who conducts wild and terrible experiments. I think that-”

          We ended up arguing for quite some time, until finally our little one stepped between us.

          “I thought of a name, so please stop.”

          “Oh?” We turned to him

          “Combining your two first suggestions, Velris?”

          “…that still sounds more like a demon name, but if that’s what you’d like.” I sighed.

          “Fine.” Blackie seemed a bit unsatisfied as well, which made me feel better.

          With that settled, we looked at the extra child who needed to go home.

          “I believe your name was Borin, little one? Do you know where your home is, dear?”

          “Across the sea!”

          “Which continent?” I patiently interrogated. Blackie shook his head and talked to Vel quietly. It warmed my old heart to see them bond so quickly.

          “What’s a continent?”

          “The islands then?”

          “Yep, I grew up on islands!”

          “Which one?”

          “One?”

          “An archipelago then. What is the weather like?”

          “It’s warm all the time, I just learned what snow is! Do you know about snow? It’s rain that’s cold and frozen and fluffy! Also, there isn’t any lava here, isn’t that weird?”

          “Crater Islands.” There were only a few places in the world were lava, or blacksmith’s rivers as they were also known, could be found. Among them only two were island groups and between the two only one never saw snow. I may not know math well, but I dare say no one has traveled the world more than I. …Except maybe that old monster of a Demon Lord…

          “That does sound familiar…”

          “I believe it was an island called Getry, I saw the ship manifest when we picked him up. We were trading some feathers for supplies.” Vel chimed in, interrupting whatever conversation he was having with Blackie.

          “Do you know the place?” Since their conversation was off track anyway, I asked Blackie. I may be more well-traveled, but I haven’t been to the Craters in a few centuries and the names seem to change every few decades.

          “Yeah, I was summoned there a few years ago by a woman who couldn’t figure out how to keep her son from getting lost so I made a charm that would always jinx the child into getting home whenever she tried to get rid of him or joked about doing it. I thought it was rather clever myself.”

          “I’ve got a good luck charm too! I lost it right before I wandered onto a slave ship though… I wonder if I met the poor kid who kept getting lost since we came from the same island…”

          “…” Three pairs of eyes turned to him with varying emotions.

          “… you lost it?

          “What?”

          “…no, never mind. I still remember the place as it was only about a year ago. I’ll take the brat to his house; you take ours back home.”

          “Awww, did you hear that Vel-boy, he said you were ours…..” I hugged my new child, completely ignoring his stiff reaction. Little ones who didn’t have a lot of love needed to be smothered.

          “…if I have to be hugged at least have a soft chest…urk

          Smothered.

          Blackie chuckled before picking up the confused child on his way to tear a hole into hell.

          “Wait, were did they go?”

          “Hell. He will make another tear in the dimensions to the island. It makes for very convenient travel, but it isn’t recommended for close travel. Something about spiritual pressure and something collapsing.”

          “…Spatial Collapse?”

          “Yes, that.”

          “…oh, that’s…worrying…”

          “Yes, I suppose so. I got yelled at a lot when I was younger for causing one. I actually think that was around the Crater Islands area, though at the time it was know as the Center Continent…”

          “…Wait, does that mean you-”

          “We should head back now! We wouldn’t want your father to come home to an empty home after all!”

          “Wait, did you- were you the one that-”

          “Up we go little one.”

          I lifted the scraggly fellow with one hand supporting his back and the other under his knees as my wings stretched. I decided to throw caution to the wind a little as there was an actual wind blowing and launched straight into the air. To his credit, he only screamed a little.

          “Humans don’t fly! We don’t flyyyyyyyy!

          “Silly child, of course you don’t! You don’t have wings…But look! Isn’t the world beautiful?”

          “Don’t look down don’t look down don’tlookdowndontlookdowndontlookdown”

          …I may have not thought this through all the way…

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