The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 89

Part 14

“Actually, you don’t have anything important planned for the rest of the evening, so you might as well take care of Balen here and three more of her friends tonight.” Alilia laughed as she and Talia stood and put their jackets on.

“Oh? And where are you going?” Mark inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Girls’ night out.” she told him with a smile and a quick kiss. “We’re going to the pub to get drunk and flirt with young men. Don’t wait up!”

“You kids be good, we’ll be back in four hours.” Talia called into the living room.

“Where are you going?” Valentia yelled.

“To the pub to get drunk and flirt with young men!” she called back, grinning at Mark as he blushed.

“Can we come?” Helemia asked in an exaggerated pleading voice.

“What?! No!” Talia laughed in shocked surprise.

“Aww, we never get to go to the pub to get drunk and flirt with men.” Helemia whined in the most spoiled, irritating manner she could. “You’re mean!”

This was so out of character that Talia just stood there for a second in outraged amazement with her mouth hanging open, before she realized that her daughter had to be teasing her, and she broke up into hysterical laughter.

“Okay, whatever, take care, love you, bye!” Alilia laughed as she half-dragged Talia’s hysterically laughing form out the door.

“Ah, I’ll be busy for a while kids.” Mark called out as he met Balen’s smoldering stare. “If some girls come by, have them wait in the kitchen.”

“Sure Father.” Reggie called back.

“My time doesn’t start until we’re both in bed!” Balen told him in an intense whisper, and Translocated both of them into his bedroom.

Five days before the call, as the family was sitting down to the twins’ birthday supper, Reggie announced; “When we leave the time-bubble, I’d prefer that I not be referred to as Reggie anymore. On formal occasions I’d like to be introduced as Markhan Longstrider The Sixth, and the rest of the time I’d like you and everyone else to call me Six. Similarly, they’d like to be referred to as Val and Fire.”

Mark smiled as he appraised his children. The twins were seven, and looking more opposite every day. Reggie’s… Six’s, he reminded himself, Six’s blond hair and blue eyes both seemed equally lightened by the sun, and his growth seemed to be ever-accelerating. He was already a hundred and fifty-eight centimeters tall; the size of an average Finitran twelve-year-old. Fire’s black hair and violet eyes only seemed to get darker and richer, and she was still only ninety-one centimeters tall, the height of a four-year-old. Val’s white and black locks were thick and grew very quickly; she tended to tie a knot at the base of her pony-tail to keep the ends off the ground, and her violet eyes now seemed a touch lighter than Helemia’s. She was a hundred and one centimeters tall, just a touch taller than average for human girls her age.

“That’s fine.” he smiled. “You’re outstanding and accomplished citizens, and I’m sure you already know yourselves well enough to define you own identities.

“Have I told you lately how proud I am of my children, and how much we love you?”