“Look! I’m greying!” Yao pointed out to his friend.

“Oh, you’ve been greying for years,” Shijen laughed.

“But now I have patches of grey. I think it makes me look distinguished.”

“I looked in the mirror this last week and decided that my hair is officially white. What do you think, Yao?”

“You’re a regular silver fox, my friend,” Yao chuckled. “How’s the cider today?”

“It’s a little different. Did you change the spices?”

“Yes and no. I’ve just sourced some of them differently. The Dragon Tribe started producing spices for trade again. I think they have some slightly different plant breeds than the Phoenix Tribe, so the flavor is a little different.”

“Interesting. And what news have you heard about the Dragon Tribe from your new suppliers?”

“Oh, let me think,” Yao said as he sunk into the chair across from Shijen. “It’s been, what, seven years since the war?”

“Seven years this October,” Shijen nodded. “So six and a half.”

“Eh. Close enough,” Yao waved his hand dismissively. “So going on seven years. The Dragon Tribe leader, obviously, has been working the last few years to reestablish trade routes between the other main tribes. Dragon Queen Yudha had their second baby girl this winter. I’m not sure what the succession rules are in the Dragon Tribe, but I think the dragons still have a patriarchy system. That would mean more royal dragon babies until a son is produced.”

“This generation of tribe leaders seems to be having a lot of girls. The Alpha already has three daughters. Fortunately, our tribe is not a patriarchy. King Ukhaan managed to produce a great-granddaughter for the Old Phoenix before he passed away two years ago, and, of course, last week’s big news was the announcement that his queen is expecting again.”

Yao laughed. “Did you hear that the phoenix primordial has been hounding King Ukhaan to adopt succession rules similar to the Bear Tribe and declare his daughter the crown princess?”

“She would,” Shijen grinned. “Frankly, I’d be surprised if she weren’t challenging the patriarchy. That is kind of her thing.”

“I just think that she enjoys conflict. She’s very intentionally remained unmarried, and she seems to pick fights wherever she can find them.”

“Not exactly. To be fair, her fights all seem to have the common theme of advancing women in society, treating them as equals and all that.”

“That’s true. I hadn’t really thought about it that way as that's not really an issue here in the Wolf Tribe,” Yao nodded. “ But now that I think about it, there’s certainly been a distinct lack of conflict between her and the Wolf and Bear Tribes where women are routinely in positions of power. Either way, King Ukhaan and the Phoenix General certainly have their hands full with that one.”

“Did you hear that King Hospes’s daughter, Audaxa, is entering the exchange this year? She’s an early admit, no surprise. I know that Lion General Arum had a hand in training her for the entrance exam.”

“The exchange is being held at the Dragon Tribe this year?”

“That’s right,” Shijen said and guzzled down more of his cider.

“And the primordials are doing their reunion thing this next week,” Yao remembered. “It’s mid-May.”

“Oh, that’s right! Ming Lang must be excited to have the whole family together.” Shijen’s forehead furrowed trying to remember. “Apart from the Alpha and the Dragon Tribe leader, who else had babies this year? Remind me.”

“A couple of the other Lang princes, but I think that’s it.”

“Hm. I thought there were more.”

“Four babies aren’t enough for you?!” Yao laughed.

“No, I just had it in my head that there were more than that, but I might be thinking of the ones that haven’t been born yet.”

“There’s been a bumper crop of babies the last few years. That’s for sure. It’s hard to keep track of them all.”

***

Vertigen and Xiwang Tragen ran as fast as their little five-year-old legs would carry them to the front gates of Pack Hall to hug their grandfather. They’d been looking forward to this trip for almost a month. Ming Lang was hardly less excited to see his oldest two grandbabies and allowed the twins to tackle him backwards.

“Oh my goodness! Vertigen, you’ve gotten so big!” Ming Lang sat up to observe the height difference between the twins and chuckled. It was obvious which one was host to a bear spirit and which one was host to a wolf spirit.

“Yeah! Dad says I’m bigger than he was when he was my age,” he grinned and puffed out his chest proudly.

“I’ve grown too, grandpa!” Xiwang was eager to point out and got up to twirl around in her swishy blue dress for his inspection. She looked just like her mother at that age, except her eyes were shaped like her father’s eyes and her snaggly hair was a little lighter.

“Yes, you have!” Ming Lang smiled and caught her to give her a quick hug and a tickle.

Xiwang screeched and laughed, and Vertigen was quick to come to her rescue by tackling Ming Lang back to the ground. Of course, he got tickled for his heroism too.

“Alright, you two, let grandpa stand back up,” Huo Lohse smiled. “I need a hug, and look! Your uncles are waiting for you.”

Vertigen and Xiwang looked up to see their uncles Qingchi and Zizai standing in the open gateway. Obediently, they rolled off their grandpa and got up to attack their uncles instead.

“Hi, dad!”

“Princess, how was the trip?”

“Oh! Short, but I’m tired! Keeping up with those two….” Lolo laughed. “I don’t know how mom did it with seven of us.”

“She had lots of mother’s helpers."

“It’s not as though I don’t have help, though. Philige, Standig and Jadu did most of the chasing while Milderna and I talked.”

Ming Lang turned to Jadu’s wife and smiled. “It was good of you to make the trip out here. Remind me when you are due?”

Milderna smiled. “Five more months, end of October.”

“That’s right. It’s been hard to keep track of all these babies!”

Milderna laughed gently.

“So who all is here?” Lolo asked.

“Obviously, your brothers are all here with their families, and Tamkhee and Nishpak arrived this morning with their girls. The only ones missing are Ulana and Fortus.”

“... and Fortus’s girl! Alkalma? Does that sound right?”

“I believe so,” Ming Lang smiled. “She’s from the Turul Tribe; I know that much.”

“Rongyu!” Xiwang was happy to have a female playmate. Rongyu had just turned five and was the closest cousin in age to the twins. Despite the fact that the cousins were both wolf spirit hosts and that Rongyu was only seven months younger than Xiwang, Rongyu was tiny by comparison thanks to her half Sphinx Tribe genetics versus Xiwang’s Bear Tribe genes.

“Dad, can I go play now?” Rongyu asked Zhongyan.

“Did you finish your schoolwork for today?”

Rongyu pouted. “Almost.”

Zhongyan chuckled. “I think it can probably wait another day. Go play.”

The cousins took off giggling to do girl things, leaving Vertigen behind to complain about his sister always abandoning him whenever Rongyu was around.

“But with the girls out of the way, we can go do guy stuff,” Zhongyan winked at his nephew.

“What kinds of guy stuff?”

“I’ll show you.”

Zhongyan took Vertigen to the kitchen to collect some supplies before hunting for an unsuspecting uncle or two to harass. They found Lingdao and Rensui chatting on a bench in the courtyard.

“Alright Vertigen, you know what to do,” Zhongyan nodded.

Vertigen walked up to his uncles with his hands behind his back.

“Hey, big guy! How are you?” Rensui asked.

“Good.”

“Whatcha got there?” Lingdao got suspicious too late.

Vertigen’s hands flew out from behind his back and plastered whipped cream all over his uncles’ faces.

From the sidelines, Zhongyan busted up laughing. “Yeah!! Go Vertigen!!”

“Oh, it is ON!” Rensui jumped to his feet as Vertigen ran cackling maniacally back to Zhongyan.

The whipped cream fight was epic and ended when Et’zana and Huo Lohse walked into the courtyard carrying Rongyu’s two little sisters.

“Boys!” Et’zana was quick to scold the lot of them.

Meanwhile, Lolo found an unused bowl of cream to share with her two-year-old niece, and the pair of them started the fight right back up again.

“General Baatar! What are you doing here?” Lolo was happy to see him but very confused.

“Surprise!!” Ulana laughed.

“Surprise?”

Ulana raised her eyebrows at her friend and waited for Lolo to make the connection.

“Wait! You’re dating?!”

“Engaged, actually,” Ulana bounced on the balls of her feet.

Lolo’s eyes darted back and forth between Ulana and Baatar. “Really?!”

“YES!” Ulana practically squealed as the general blushed a little.

“General,” Lolo grinned, “you actually want to put up with her forever? And outside of work too?”

“Hey!” Ulana protested.

“I’d rather put up with her than set her loose,” Baatar laughed then dropped his voice. “She’s far too dangerous.”

“Hey!” Ulana feigned offense and smacked Baatar on the shoulder as he laughed.

“See what I mean?!”

Lolo grinned and left Ulana and Baatar to their playful squabbling to turn instead to Fortus and his girlfriend. “You must be Alkalma.”

Alkalma nodded bashfully. She was about Lolo’s height, pleasant to look at with warm brown hair, grey eyes, and freckles dotting her cheeks and nose.

“Well, welcome to the family chaos! Tell me a little bit about yourself….”

Fortus smiled as Lolo took the time to introduce Alkalma to the family, helping her warm up and feel comfortable. Pretty soon, Alkalma was happily chatting with the Lang princes’ wives, and Lolo returned to sit next to Fortus for a minute.

“So, what do you think, Lolo?”

“About Alkalma?”

He nodded.

“Not what I expected, but, first impressions, I like her a lot. She seems sweet, gentle.”

“Not what you expected. How so?”

“I don’t know. I think I expected you to go for someone a little flashier? Alkalma is reserved, shy even, but she has a good head on her shoulders.”

Fortus chuckled. “She’s quiet but tough. Her family breeds horses and raises livestock. Ulana introduced us a few months ago on one of those blind date things that I hate. I’ll admit, I wasn’t impressed initially.”

“So what happened?”

“Oh, I took a closer look when she started a brawl with a few jerks for harassing another young woman. She actually held her own pretty well! I was less than subtly reminded of Ulana’s temper and your protective instincts. Put her in the right situation, and she’s a bit of a spitfire.”

“Now that sounds more like the kind of girl you’d go for,” Lolo laughed.

“She’s smart and a hard worker too. I’ve been training her so that the next time she’s inclined to teach someone a lesson, she’s got the skills to do it properly.”

“Maybe I’ll give her a lesson or two this week,” Lolo grinned.

“Uncle Standig, when are you going to get married?” Xiwang asked with all the innocence of a child as the pair of them wandered around picking wild flowers.

Standig snorted. “What do you mean?”

“Well, all of mommy’s brothers are married. Uncle Zizai even married aunt Shanti last year. And aunt Ulana is getting married, and uncle Fortus is getting married….”

“Fortus isn’t getting married.”

“No?” Xiwang looked confused. “I thought he was going to marry aunt Alkalma. She’s nice, and,” she lowered her voice, “I saw them kissing!” She giggled behind her hand.

“That doesn’t mean that they're getting married.”

Xiwang was clearly disappointed. “Oh. But when are you going to get married?” she repeated.

“When I find the right girl,” Standig shrugged.

“You mean woman!”

“What?”

“I’m a girl. You can’t marry me. You need a woman.”

Standig grinned at his niece’s sass. “Right. A woman.”

Xiwang scowled. “Is it hard to find a woman?”

“It’s hard to find the right woman.”

“What would the right woman look like?”

“I don’t know.”

“That does make it harder,” Xiwang nodded thoughtfully.

Standig couldn't hold back his laughter and scooped Xiwang up onto his shoulders to spin her around and run through the field while she shrieked and laughed.

“Dad, I’m hungry.”

Philige had to chuckle as Vertigen had already eaten three large meals and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. “You take after your uncle Standig. You must be growing again.”

“I really am hungry, dad,” he whined.

“I believe you. Can you wait an hour for lunch?”

Vertigen pouted but nodded.

Qingchi rounded the corner carrying a fistful of freshly picked apricots. “Here, kid,” he offered a few of them to his nephew.

Looking to his dad for permission, Vertigen accepted the fruits gratefully and skipped away to eat them.

“There’s nothing worse than feeling hungry all the time.”

“And there’s nothing better than an uncle that always has food,” Philige laughed.

“Well, I have to maintain my status as the favorite uncle somehow,” Qingchi grinned.

“Lolo, you’re not getting sick, are you?” Philige asked.

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“You’ve just gone to bed early every day since we got here. Are you not sleeping well? Are you having nightmares again?”

Lolo smiled. “Come sit with me.”

“Alright.” Philige sat next to her on the bed. “Is something going on?”

“I actually confirmed my suspicions with Jadu this afternoon.”

“What suspicions? Is everything ok?” Philige was getting worried.

“Everything is ok. I’m just pregnant.”

“Oh. Well if that’s... wait. What?!”

Lolo laughed.

“You’re pregnant?!”

“Yes.”

“Like, we’re going to have a baby?!”

“That is what being pregnant means.”

“When?!”

“It’s still pretty early. Sometime in late December.”

“You’re serious?!”

“I'm serious.”

Philige helped Huo Lohse lie down so he could kiss her tummy. “Did Jadu tell you anything about the pregnancy?”

“What do you mean?”

“Last time, he was able to tell you that you were having twins. One boy, one girl, one bear, one wolf.”

“Ah. I didn’t ask. I thought that maybe you’d want to be there for that.”

Philige was grinning from ear to ear. “You’re really pregnant?”

“I know we weren’t exactly trying, but is it really so hard to believe?”

He shook his head and kissed her. “I’m just excited.”