Now that the greenhouse was dry, Theanore was painting it while humming to herself. She painted it in a nice beige color because she had read that beige brought out the home feeling in a room, and she wanted her strawberries and quick shot raspberries to feel at home.

She didn’t know how long it would take Luca to make her the hoses with holes, but she imagined he was not going to make them in the next six months, as he had other things to make. The seed drill and the magical hoe machine.

Theanore imagined how much better it would be once she had such machines. Sure, the ants were excellent at turning the soil and planting, but she had only 10000 of them at a time.

Her builder ants still held to their belief that they had to be sent to war-minded dungeons. And so, only those that loved her best stayed. Theanore didn’t mind. She wanted her ants to be happy and if they were happy antennas deep in gore, then, well, at least she was not going to see it happen. Or hear about it.

Some of Afriga’s gremlins liked it in the grotto so much they applied for citizenship for the Dawn Empire. Theanore had agreed to become their sponsor, and they all claimed relation to Darion, who, to be entirely truthful, was their distant cousin. Very distant, almost not a cousin at all.

It was fascinating to Theanore that all gremlins were related. But, wouldn’t it be bad when it was time to get married and have children? Grandpa Thinker’s essay Breeding and other husbandry tasks stated that closely related beings should not have children together.

But maybe the gremlins only said they were cousins and were, in fact, not related at all? They even claimed relations to their neighbors. They were incredibly weird, these green skinned halflings.

As Theanore painted, she saw Mary coming over with a bag of seeds and a determined look on her face. Theanore had tried to talk her daughter out of painting flowers in the greenhouse, as that would be a waste.

When that had failed, she had negotiated that Mary could plant a tea plant that had blossoms. She would be given a single flower bed and that was that. In the future Theanore was going to make more greenhouses and give Mary her own to tend to, but for now, she needed to find a way for the grotto to become independent, food wise.

Mary entered the greenhouse and pulled out a seedling from the bag. It was an Ogre’s demise. Theanore groaned.

“Mary, that will need more than one flower bed. We spoke about this, dear.” Said Theanore, and Mary looked at her pleadingly.

“But mommy, it has the prettiest blossoms! I will prune it, and it won’t take much space. I will keep it tine. So tiny, that it will have a single blossom at a time.” Said Mary, and she raised her hand over the seedling to show a high no bigger than fifty centimeters.

“Well, fine. You can have the flowerbed closes to the stove. That way, your cactus will be in a nice and warm place.” Said Theanore and Mary hopped towards the back of the greenhouse to plant her cactus.

Theanore continued to work, the pixies above her doing the same. Then, she heard Mary speaking.

“Hi, Freddy. It is me, your mommy, Mary.” Said Mary, and Theanore wanted to giggle but reigned herself in. Her daughter was thinking that she could make a male nymph appear out of a cactus. There were no male nymphs, Theanore had checked when she had first made a trip to the nearest village.

“I hope you wake up soon, so I can hug you and tell you that you are very much loved.” Continued Mary as she petted the soil around the cactus. “We will do everything together. Go to lessons and sing and plant many plants so that our family can become bigger!”

At this, Mary giggled excitedly and blew a kiss towards the cactus. She petted the air above it and sighed.

“Of course, maybe you will be a dud. But I hope you are not. I will be a dungeon core one day, just like mommy. And then I will make you the boss of my dungeon, and then you will bring fear in the hearts of all adventurers who think they can plunder my halls!” Said Mary with a little raised fist.

Theanore did a double take at that. Her daughter wanted to be a violent dungeon core? Oh, no, …where was she going wrong with raising her? Perhaps she needed to pay her more attention? To teach her the value of life?

Oh, Theanore knew! She needed to make her promise that she would be good, similarly to how Theanore had promised to her father. Then Mary would be honor bound not to be a violent dungeon.

Theanore stood up, paint and brush forgotten, and called out to Mary.

“Mary, come over here. We need to speak.” Said Theanore, and Mary turned to her. With a final smile towards Freddy the cactus, she went slowly towards her mother.

“Yes, mommy?” Asked Mary when she reached her.

“Mary, do you want people to be happy?” Asked Theanore. Mary nodded with a smile.

“Then, why do you want Freddy to hurt people?” Asked Theanore, ready to guilt-trip her daughter into oblivion.

“Because some people are mean. Like Emperor Casimir, who said he will have you whipped if you let any mermaids in the grotto. If you had a boss of the fearsome dungeon, he wouldn’t have dared to threaten you.” Said Mary, her lips set in a thin line.

“Some people are mean, yes, but all life is precious, Mary.” Said Theanore, and she reached out and took her daughter’s hand in her own. It was so weird for Mary to look the same age as Theanore herself. Mommies were supposed to be older. Just like Esmer was.

“When I grow up, no one will dare to threaten me.” Said Mary, and then she ran off out of the greenhouse. Theanore bit her lip, worried about her daughter’s future.