Chapter 16: Growing up

It's been two years since I met Naku and Fortuna, my two fiancees. At this time, I love them even more. I may be only eight years old, but I can say those words with certainty, perhaps it is thanks to my life on Earth, I can say that it is the first time that there are this kind of feelings in me.

I wonder how I'll be at age 15, which was the age I died last time. Will I have a curse and die at the same age? I hope not, I want to get married and live with my two wives.

I have such kind of worries at such a young age, but I'm not the only one.

A year ago, Fortuna came to the village with tears in her eyes and apologized for something called 'The Curse of the Ages'.

The term is used to describe the relationships between couples with different longevity.

In Maltras, perhaps by the action of the gods, the Hetros, or the evolution itself, the race of a person is determined by the mother. For example, the baby of a human male and a females dwarf will always be a dwarf... If the father is an elf and the mother a human woman, the baby will be human. And in this case, it would be a naga father and a human mother. Now, what is the problem of a long-lived Naga having offspring with a girl with a life expectancy of a third he has?

The result would be a child with a lower life expectancy than the father himself.

That is the curse of the ages.

Well, I had already suspected something about it, so I started to investigate and discovered that there was a way to prolong the life of a human enough to that of an elf, that is, close to that of a Naga: a medicine Called 'Elixir'.

If Fortuna drinks this medicine, not only will she live longer, but our children will also.

I'll take care of finding or creating the elixir even if I have to lift the planet's crust.

After a long conversation with Fortuna, I managed to get her out of her depression. She became more lovely since then... Your fiancé will do his best, Fortuna!

And speaking of effort, my training and studies have borne much fruit in these two years. I recently concluded the individual training with father and mother and get to overcome both in combat. Now both of them train me at the same time with the occasional help of my grandparents; The difficulty increased in a short period of time ... And the strangest thing is that Naku is still stronger than I am.

As for my studies, I have graduated from the teachings of Dr. Spencer. In his words, the one who must give the classes now is me. As a gift to finish my studies, he gave me several blank scrolls, ink and various equipment to process ingredients. Because he became sentimental after my graduation, I suggested that we could buy more scrolls and continue studying, this time as collaborators, an idea that he gladly accepted.

About ink, when I was younger I thought the writing technique was very primitive when I saw the wooden blocks my mother used to fill the orders, but it turns out that these blocks are prefabricated and used to save ink and parchments...

Even with all this training I feel that I still have a long way to reach a desirable level.

...

"Aruh, would you like to go hunting?" (Naku)

"Sure, let's have a date in the meantime." (Aruh)

"If you're still so cute I'm going to faint." (Naku)

Naku and I flirt while heading to the woods to get some preys.

I look calm, but every time I'm with Naku, my heart races.

There is ... something to mention about the body growth of a Naga. Even from the times before reaching Tulser and receiving the blessing of our protective spirit, the great serpent Nagur, the Naga had the distinctive feature of maturing in two lapses while young, and only becoming old shortly before dying close to the 300 years of age. Calling a Naga ‘elder’, is just a formality, because all of them look young.

A naga reaches puberty at age 10 reaching to their maximum height and also getting secondary sexual characteristics in a matter of months. At the moment, Naku reaches about 1.70 meters in height and has a beautiful, voluptuous body.

This is wrong, gods! This is wrong, fantasy world!

On Earth, if someone saw us flirting the way we do, innocent as it may be, Naku would get in trouble.

Hurry to grow up, body of mine!

And the strangest thing is that reproductive maturity begins in men at 19 and in women at 23, which is when a naga can be called an adult... But the libido wakes up before that and that gives rise to sex without risk of pregnancy. It is during this period of the beginning of libido and that the naga seek a mate while having several sex partners until finding the one. Although in my case, I already have two fiancées.

"Hey Aruh, how's the egg you got from Fortuna?" (Naku)

"It will not be long before it hatches... Probably in the next three days." (Aruh)

"Then you should be careful to be present the moment that it hatches. Animals are especially docile with the first person they see at birth." (Naku)

Many people separate creatures into monsters when they can not be tamed and animals when they can be. I am curious to see what classification this creature enters.

When we reached the forest, Naku and I prepared to hunt. With me being able to perceive the location of the monsters, it is easy to prevent attacks and to take the initiative.

Today's prey is a group of huge cicadas covered with a hard green shell with metallic luster: Metal cicada.

I have some experience hunting them, but it is problematic when there are many together, so it is good to bring someone along.

Naku and I parted, while she hides to prepare an ambush, I had to act as bait.

After arming myself with several stones, I approach as fclose I can to the cicadas and stoned as many as I could.

This attack must not hurt them that much, their shells are quite precious and if I used a lot of strength I would pulverize them. The goal is to knock them out.

Got eight out of combat, I'll go back and eliminate them later.

The remaining twelve cicadas take flight to me, emitting a very low hum... So more than listening to it, I feel it.

They are fast monsters and can cast air magic in mid-flight, although such magic is weak and does not produce much effect on me. However, as part of a self-imposed training, I do my best to avoid the attacks.

When I arrived at the designated place, several stones were hung from the trees held by ropes. I passed between them without difficulty, but the cicadas struck with the stones or were entangled with the ropes. Five more cicadas were left out of combat, and the rest were wiped out by Naku, who jumped down from the trees, and with swift movements, cut the shell of the monsters with such precision that they were dismembered mid-air.

As Naku finished his share of the preys, I returned to kill off the other cicadas I left unconscious.

The wings and shells have been in high demand lately, the magic stones are small but of good quality so they are also collected. The meat is chewy, so it is usually discarded by burning it with a stinking oil so as not to attract predators, although this time I have decided to collect it as well.

"The meat as well? Do not tell me that you plan to eat it." (Naku)

"It's not for me, it's for the 'little one' that will come out of the egg." (Aruh)

If everything goes well and I can tame it, its help would be very useful to us in the future.

Especially now that a war started.

Now that Eralgia has entered into combat with Timancera, its northern neighbor, the situation has become somewhat tense. As Lord Allan had predicted, the kingdom of Eralgia has remained victorious and has begun an invasion campaign against the enemy for the first time in a long time, but due to this, many men and women have been called to arms. Even in Tulser, several humans, elves and dwarfs were enlisted in the army, while the Naga increased their vigilance in the mountains to prevent spy infiltration or incursions from other opportunist countries.

And it is also due to the war, that the demand for various combat-related products has increased, such as armors made from metallic cicada’s shells.

When we finished putting everything together, we left everything that could be sold in the warehouses at the square, and everything else, in my house. After that, Naku and I had a date near the river, where she let me rest in her lap.

...

The next morning my mother woke me up earlier than usual.

"What is it, mother?" (Aruh)

"It's the egg you bought, it's hatching" (Mura)

Wow, it was faster than I expected.

When I went to see the egg, it was moving a lot, but there were no breakings yet. Since the time I bought it, it has grown in size, at first it was an egg the size of an ostrich’s, but now it is 3 times larger. When I touched it, I could feel its need for more hot water.

"That should suffice." (Mura)

My mother helped me by heating the water while I removed the one it still had.

*Crackkk*

The egg began to break.

"Fortuna's father said it was a bird of burden, I wonder what it will look like." (Mura)

"Mother ... Do not get scared." (Aruh)

""Huh? Why do you say that? "(Mura)

A small piece of shell fell from the egg, revealing a completely black eye. As more pieces fell apart, the appearance of the small creature was revealed.

"Guuuuuriiiii" (?)

A small, humanoid body with deep blue skin and some black parts, gray silky hair, two large and lovely eyes accompanied by three smaller ones .... and a lower body with a spider shape.

"This... This is..." (Mura)

My mother's face seems to have cramped. I expected that reaction, without my psychometry, the same thing would have happened to me.

A creature half human and half spider, there were some beings like that in different mythologies at Earth.

"Guuuuriiiiiiiiiiiii" (?)

The little being lifted its two lovely hands covered with exoskeleton in my direction and I picked it up.

I could immediately feel a connection between the two of us.

"Aruh? Is it okay to hold it?" (Mura)

"Yes, nothing bad will happen, mother." (Aruh)

"Guriii" (?)

It is hungry, I hope it likes cicada meat. They are insects after all.

"I must give you a name..." (Aruh)

There is one that comes to mind.

"Arachne." (Aruh)

"Guri? Guri!" (Arachne)

That good! It seems to like it. I'll be depending on you from now on, Arachne.