A massive green dog ran around the lush fields of one of her master/parent’s personal-worlds. On her back was a gaggle of screaming, squealing children. A casual observer might say that the dog was carrying the children away, but a closer inspection would show that the children and the dog were wrestling.

Rough-housing in that way children and pets sometimes do. With the dog taking care not to do any actual harm to the hairless pups of its master and mistress. Her ugly, yet still adorable, siblings and packmates.

The children crawled over the building-sized beast like it was a massive, moving, jungle-gym. Using its shaggy, grass-colored, fur for traction. Then the dog sneezed and rolled over. Crushing all the children beneath it and shaking them off like an ordinary dog might try to shake off fleas and other stinging, biting, pests.

It was all good fun though. Nevermind that the lineage of the children was such that even the smallest of them would be able to survive a universe’s end without taking damage. The dog was actually careful in its movements, and the planet as a whole had been child-safe. Made into a play-world and enchanted so that taking any kind of serious damage there was impossible.

The dog shrank and became a green-haired young woman, with tan-skinned, and big, bright, green eyes. She was wearing blue overalls and a yellow t-shirt, and she stood with her hands on her hips and the biggest smile on her face.

“That’s it! I win...You lose... and that means! The ice-cream flavors for the day are either pecan or chocolate-mint.” said Mint Kaylan.

Her little packmates groaned, but the groans were mostly feigned. The pretend agony of pretend warriors after a grand make-believe battle. No one actually minded the flavors of the ice-cream they ate during snack time. Besides, even if they did mind, there were other snacks besides ice-cream so it was no big deal.

Mint was babysitting. Apparently, her master/parent was never able to get those bothersome folk in the House of Antipodes to take back the mantle of Mister Gray. Instead after a bit of back and forth, he accepted a massive bribe, made them agree to do most of the work, and in turn agreed to do the very barest minimum that would be expected of one of the House’s heads.

At first, Mint couldn’t believe a group like the HOA would take that kind of deal when she learned about it. All she could say that even when her Master was being shameless he was magnificent.

It was on these like this when her Master/Parent and his four mates were away that either Mint or her packmate Filomena, would be called to babysit. The six little packmates being fobbed off into their hands as well as a frankly ludicrous amount of money that was used as both payment and expenses.

The years had been kind to Mint. She’d gone from roaming the wilds on her own, to a life filled with love and family. Her Master Monty was basically a second father to her, and she’d made lots of friends while growing up as a humanoid.

Now, the current Mint had already graduated from one of Terminus-Earth Prestigious Universities with her bachelors, and was mid-way through getting a quadruple masters in Ecology, Sociology, Psychology, and Economics. At first, Mint didn’t want to go back to school, immediately just wanting to help her Master with his work, then she realized that there were a lot of things that she still didn’t know, so she changed her mind.

Mint had no clue why her family was so surprised when they found this out. Did they think she was dumb just because she was cheerful most of the time? That was a little hurtful.

Mint was actually a smart girl. Her unique decentralized nervous system meant that her muscles and guts also doubled as auxiliary-brains. Which was why she was always careful to balance working hard and studying hard.

After snack time, it was cultivation time. The little ones were like her, in that they were born knowing pretty much everything that they needed to know about using their own powers. Actually, they might have been born better off, because the memories they had were like the memories in her master’s libraries, the ones that could make one an instant expert in any subject.

They weren’t just given a bundle of instincts and impulses like she was given. They had concrete knowledge about how to use their powers. Which was good, because they’d been born with far more power than she was born with. Enough power to make the world ‘asplode. Enough power to make their heads ‘asplode. Since it’d be a serious problem if either happened, it was important for the little ones to cultivate and practice using their powers to make that inborn knowledge their own.

As Mint teleported her little packmates to the castle where the cultivation rooms were held, and saw each one set up in their own specialized cultivation-chamber, Mint sighed. Remembering her own experiences with cultivation and learning magic.

It was hard but fun, but also super hard, because bending eldritch energies, and the very laws of physics, to one’s will, was never going to be an easy thing. She hoped that the kids didn’t have too much trouble and reassured herself that she’d be there to help them, and if anything really troublesome happened she had the numbers of her Master and his mates in her smartphone.

Once the kids were all settled in, Mint was pretty much done with the evening. All she had to do was keep an eye on the kids now. They’d eaten, they’d bathed, they’d played till they were satisfied. Now they’d spend the rest of the night cultivating. They were born at the higher stages, and thus could sleep while cultivating, and vis-the-versa.

So Mint turned her attention to other matters, like the huge report she had due tomorrow for school. Homework was always hard for Mint because she had to sit still to do it. The only times where she was good at sitting still was when she was ambushing prey. So, Mint had learned to reward herself for completing more tedious tasks. By getting herself little snacks afterward, cookies, pies, doggy treats, jerky, etc…

Mint quickly cranked out a second draft for her paper. The first draft was finished days ago because Margot had taught the girl the virtues of getting her work done on time. While Mint was busy with the editing process she got a call.

It was Margot. Her Master’s first Mate. The one who was quietest but held the most amount of influence in the household.

“Hi, just wanted to check in and see how the kids are doing,” said Margot.

Mint gave Margot a quick summary of how the evening went and told Margot that the kids were already started cultivating for the evening. After that, they shared a bit of small talk. Then Mint went back to work.

The phone rang again and this time, it was Filomena. Filomena was already satisfied with her Masters in biology, runology, astrophysics, and Mathematics, and had moved on towards getting her doctorates.

“Call me back in like ten minutes…” said Filomena. Hanging up immediately afterward.

Mint furrowed her brow at the phone not sure why Filomena would ask her to call back when they were already talking. Still, she did as she was asked, and then annoyingly enough was hung up on again.

Filomena then called her back a few minutes afterward.

“Phew...Thanks,” said Filomena.

“What was that? Are we fighting someone again?” said Mint. Her tail slightly wagging at the thought of glorious combat and a possible before dinner snack.

“Huh? Oh. No. No, sorry. I was on a date, but things were heading in ‘that’ direction and I wasn’t sure if the guy was going to suck or not, so I just needed an excuse to leave if it looked like the evening was going to drag on. It turns out he was just nervous, but whatever…” said Filomena.

“Oh...Well, hi?” said Mint. Not sure what else to say. Mint and Filomena were still quite close, but as they grew up it became increasingly clear that the two were very different people.

For instance, Filomena’s public persona was more subdued, then Mint’s bigger brasher outward personality, but Filomena was bolder when it came to certain things like her romantic pursuits or her career plans.

This sometimes left Mint feeling a little left behind because she’d only kind of, sort of, had a date once, and while she knew she wanted to help the Master she didn’t know exactly how she wanted to help him yet.

“Hi…” said Filomena. Chuckling at her sister’s awkwardness. The two women then began to discuss how their days went. With Mint texting Filomena pictures that she took of the kids that evening, while Filomena texted her pictures of an advanced spell diagram she thought up during the dessert course of her date.