***

Astrid PoV

***

It has been two weeks. Only two weeks since my little Egil was cured of his illness, but seeing him giggling full of life as he eats his birthday cake with a spoon, getting his face all dirty makes my heart at ease.

It really was a very close call, if I had no medicine left, if the priest was not brought fast enough forcefully by Baldr or Beata was out of town, even if one of those events happened differently it is highly likely Egil would not be here, it is a blessing of the gods he is too young to understand any of this.

His birth happened rather smoothly, the first three months everything was normal, Egil was acting like any other baby of our neighbors. Everything changed then he learned to crawl at the age of four months, that's at least few months too early!

Since then he would dislike being held in our arms and would crawl at fast speeds inspecting everything in our house, strangely he never put anything in his mouth like other babies allowing us some relief. I even had to sew him new padded pants for he would crawl till the skin of his leg would start to scrape.

His exploration was fast getting out of hand, not only he would quickly get out of sight, he would get his hands on everything that was not nailed down of too heavy to lift, inspecting those items from every angle.

One time I got such a fright it felt like my heart dropped to my heels as i saw him going down to first floor on all fours, even if our stairway is closed on both sides and have wide stairs, should his hand or a foot slip and he drop down, injuries would be the least of our problems. Baldr even said he saw Egil looking up the ladder to the attic and had him crawl into his armory while he was maintaining his weaponry. Since then we bought iron locks for more dangerous rooms even if it cost us a sum, that place is the same as a room full of bear traps for a baby.

Since then I had him nearby at all possible times, when I had to go out entrusting him to Baldr, even if he is a bit on the slow side he loves our child at least as much as I, even if he does a poor job of showing it.

Fortunately for us Egil got very interested in my alchemy crafting and would obediently remain nearby looking as I work.

Books seem to attract him even more, it is my collection that grandfather started to collect as he traveled east and is probably bigger than even the one in town hall, Beatas personal library excluded it is probably biggest in all of Schnell.

He even made puppy eyes and indicated he wanted to see them, I was a bit hesitant but the look on his face as I relented blew all my doubts away. After we went through a few of them his sparkling eyes did not disappear, but he had a bit of a disappointed look, unfortunately I have no picture books for children, maybe if I found some cheaper ones in the market I will buy one.

Another thing he liked was to look Baldr train in the yard, with weather still warm I let him to be in the veranda and watch.

Another unusual change was when he learned to walk unsteadily at the age of 7 months, he even started to form some basic words.

Everything goes too fast, neighboring wives even started to make him out to be some kind of a genius in the making, what kind of genius would start to weep uncontrollably and piss his pant from seeing our horse Arajev, true, he had an eye infection and was a bit irritated, but that was a bit too strong of a reaction.

I am afraid that the label of a genius might be a bit too big a burden to carry for my little boy and he might be crushed under the expectations of his surroundings.

After he learned to walk more steadily he soon exploded with energy, running around the house, and strangely wiggling on the floor(Note: he was making exercise). All this energy came at a price, he often fell and had bruises all over, scraping his knees and arms, I feared an infection, new gossips(Note:Child abuse) were the least of my concerns.

Such irresponsible behavior of mine soon called for a retribution, one day with the return of Baldr I was making our lunch, while Egil unseen slipped trough the door outside, thankfully outer gate was locked and he only ran around the house.

That helped little as he was lightly clothed and ran few times around the house until exhausted collapsed into a pile of snow. He fell terribly ill.

That brings us to now, even if he was cured I cannot let it happen again, better he be genius than dead, I shall teach him things in small amounts for him to absorb the knowledge and make Baldr train his body and discipline him mind.

***

Baldr PoV

***

My son is already one year old. After recovering from his illness Egil resumed his life as normal, but I still feel it was my biggest mistake in life.

From early days Egil was different, Astrid only saw it later, but I always new, his eyes had spirit, resolve, he was one of my blood, of warrior blood, but I saw more in his eyes, was it a heroic soul, or a blessing of a god? That I know not, but from the moment he was born Egil was different.

I saw him struggle with his feeble body, and the joy then he finally was able to move by himself, my wife worried herself that it was too early, but I saw desire, the wish to be the top, to reach the heavens, so I let it be.

His exploration of surroundings made my heart jump in joy, his willingness to brave the danger to reach for things new. He even was able to surprise me by coming to my armory during maintenance, the look in his eyes then he saw my armor was the same I had in my youth, he seemed to even been able to get the significance of the mythril star of authority and tried to reach it with his hands, should others knew of it chaos would ensure, that star alone could probably buy out half of this town.

When Astrid heard that Egil came to my armory she freaked out and told me to buy iron locks for it, cellar and attic, her fears of injury were not completely unfounded and additional security to my gear would not hurt so I agreed and done so.

When Egil would look at me train I tried to slow my movements and repeat basic forms so they would take root in his mind.

When one of the newer recruits came to let me know about possible upcoming winter raids of Krom Tribe barbarians in their months of starvation he startled Egil enough to make him wet himself, it was the same with Arajev, I saw his body defeated, and his spirit wept for it, so I encouraged him to overcome this weakness.

I made him meet the recruit face to face and ride atop Arajev through the city, both times he overcame these challenges and became stronger. He became confidant, I was pleased.

In his confidence he became active, he moved his body, he fell, then rose and fell again - that is the true way to becoming strong.

And here comes my regret, while he got spirit, there was no discipline, he pushed his body too much, too fast, he was, after all, a baby of less than 1 year of life, and I forgot that.

One day then I returned from patrol I forgot to lock the door, and in this moment Egil got outside and crossed a line he should not, he overexerted himself and got sick.

While my wife made him drink medicine I rushed through the city as fast as my legs could go, running to the church, riding a horse in darkness on the cobblestone streets of town center would be too risky.

After rushing into the church and taking hold of the priest saying "Need healing, NOW!" I dragged him back home, he was slow and I had to drag him up on his feet a few times.

But the healing did little. I was sent to find Beata, and old Ancient Elven friend of the Astrids family, she was in the western tower like always then in town, with her help in casting [Sleep] and [Cure] we were able to save my child.

Since that day I resolved myself to train Egil, to discipline him as a soldier, not as my son, all for his own future, even if this will make me hated by both him and Astrid. But to my surprise Astrid came to the same conclusion, if he is to carry the burden of a genius, Egil will carry it even through the flames of hell and live if needed.

So we decided to make the beginning of his second year the starting point of this planed training, just enough to reach the same line as before, but not cross it. For the last day of this carefree life we even bought sweets that are a rarity here in the north to make this celebration a thing to remember.