"Not even going to say hello?" Cain teased.
"From a distance. Misha gets mean if you try to take things from her." Remi replied with a grave dignity that belied her years, no make that year, since she probably hadn''t seen her second birthday yet, even with the time differences.
"I think that only applies to food. Or maybe it does apply to dad too." Reika, the Cleric added.
"I''ve only ever seen her hold onto the bag of Chocte Hazelnut bites that tight. It totally applies to him as well." Remi agreed.
"Why don''t I get dinner before I get yelled at some more? I know Cain has been upset with having to go on a whole mission toplete quests before he could get to see his twins, but since that time is here, we should be prepared.
They are going to be hungry when theye out, and everyone else has had a long journey." Nya informed the room, then promptly vanished.
Cain could still sense her in the kitchen, grabbing prepared trays of food for a buffet that she had prepared in advance, likely in thest hour since their arrival, while she was keeping her thoughts hidden.
When she came back in, she had a whole party with her. Buffet tables, balloons, streamers, decorations, and more were floating behind her, arranging themselves all over the room. Most conspicuously, all the balloons were bright pink and blue, and there was still an enchantment on them, which Cain suspected was supposed to put a message on the surface but wasn''t activated yet.
Pink and blue were a baby shower theme, not a weing party color set, and Cain rocked Misha gently in her sleep, expecting she would go intobor any minute now.
The Ancients had dozens of incredibly powerful seers in their numbers. There was no way they would get the entire theme of a party wrong, which meant that this was the time.
The Ancients brought around tes for all the guests, who looked somewhat stunned at their current surroundings, which were clearly adapted for human use in a building built for Ancients tofortably move around in. It was a strange feeling like you were suddenly tiny, and all of the Disciples were unconsciously remaining silent and unintrusive like they didn''t fully belong here in this strange ce.
Cain set Misha''s te on the end table while he snacked on meat and crackers. He was about to pop a puff filled with peach jam into his mouth when the pastry suddenly vanished and appeared in the tentacles of a tiny naked creature floating in front of him.
"Yes, I got it, first try." The girl cheered in a gurgling voice, then spit a mouthful of fluid out of her mouth.
Cain reached out and wiped her down with a cloth from his inventory, then took her in his arm and settled her against Misha.
The second appeared only a few secondster,nding on the end table with a victorious smirk and promptly tipping forward to nearlynd on his face before he was lifted into the air.
"Sorry, I didn''t see the second one right away," Nya whispered.
She ced the second child in front of Cain for him to clean him off right before Misha woke up, clutching her now empty stomach.
The firstborn reached out the dozen tentacles that made her two arms and pulled herself up Misha''s dress to nt a kiss on her face, then slid back to her position, panting with exertion.
"That was harder than expected." She mumbled, as much mentally as out loud.<novelnext></novelnext>
"Give it time. You''re still getting used to your body." Cain assured her while Misha stared at her children in shock.
"Is that it? All this anticipation for them to teleport out of my body and steal snacks? They really are your children." Mishained, still a bit delirious from her interrupted sleep.
"They''re our children. I heard the thoughts about how you get when there are chocte-covered hazelnuts around."
"What are these two lovely youngsters named?" Nya asked, directing the question to Misha.
"Ca and Mikhail," Misha responded with confidence.
They were good names and a bit of a nod to their parent''s names, using the first letters with the Genders reversed.
Ca looked mostly human, except for the tentacle arms, but Cain noticed when she ate the puff that her jaw hinged all the way back to her spine, letting her drop things directly down into her stomach if she wanted.
Mikhail looked a lot more like Cain''s ancient form, with facial tentacles, one normal and one tentacle arm, but he had blue-scaled legs and hooves as well as cute little blue-scaled wings.
The disciples were looking at the two with awe on their faces. The birth of an Ancient being wasn''t something you got to see. No outsider had ever seen them before they were grown enough to be out in public and defend themselves, even before the war.
"They''re adorable," Tena whispered, staring intently at the two who were now wrapped up in Misha''s arms while Cain fed them bits of random stuff off the trays.
A few bites in, Ca turned to Misha and opened her mouth impossibly wide.
"Milk, Please."
There wasn''t much Misha could do with a child in both arms, and Cain was too busyughing to help right away, so the infant closed her mouth for a moment, then contemted her options.
"Wait, there is an instinct for this. Maybe a memory? I''ve got this." She dered, digging tentacles into Misha''s dress.
"I will take these three to somewhere morefortable than a couch surrounded by everyone, and I will be back in a bit." Cain managed between snorts ofughter, but he didn''t forget to grab a tray of food when he picked them up.
"Is it just me, or was that the most surreal experience that you have ever had in your life?" Sra asked nobody in particr.
"It''s up there, but we''re fairly used to it. Our children can almost always speak when they''re born. It''s just that the Ancient bloodline messed with their human infant instincts a little, so they had to think about what they were supposed to do to obtain food." Nya exined quietly to the group.
"At least they didn''t take all the snacks." Luna shrugged, detaching herself from Hera so she could grab the full tray off the end table to rece the one she had already emptied.