“I believe I understand. So you were implanted in Liam’s body when he was an infant, and none of the gods, who were all present, knew that this would cause you to form a consciousness? That's rather insane.” Teafa said after a lengthy conversation. They had resumed walking, as Liam wanted to get home before it got too dark, which was possible now since Teafa’s Ethereal Flora magic allowed them to have something she called “Forest Walk” which meant they traveled at a ridiculous speed with almost no effort, and even without them really noticing. Liam couldn’t tell they were moving any faster than normal, but he had to believe it was true since they had crossed into the deep forest in a hundredth of the time it should have taken at their current pace.

Yes, but I wouldn’t imagine that they would have done it intentionally. It’s far too much a risk.

“I find it really hard to believe it was an accident,” Teafa replied.

I’ll admit that I don’t know for a fact since the minds and actions of deities are things I can’t see, but it doesn’t make sense for it to be intentional. If they knew I would become conscious they should have also known how much it would limit the information I can access, and I refuse to believe that they would allow that intentionally.

Teafa sighed. “I understand your point, but did it ever occur to you that they had a purpose in mind beyond what you were originally intended for? They are gods after all. Their reasoning is beyond mortals.” Teafa said, trying to argue with Astra.

Now it was Astra’s turn to sigh, not that anyone but Liam could tell she was doing so. He had stopped paying attention to this conversation once it had devolved into Teafa and Astra arguing back and forth about her ‘birth’. It was a conversation he had had with Astra many times since it seemed to help her feel better about what she saw as her lack of usefulness.

You think that the gods have some higher form of understanding, which is what your argument is based on. But even though I can’t see their actions, I can see the results and extrapolate backward. Based on that, they’re all either a hot mess or intentionally making terrible choices.

Teafa huffed at that. “I think we just need to agree to disagree,” Teafa said, obviously wanting to be done with this conversation.

Yes, please disagree with the font of all knowledge and truth.

“Who, by her own admission, is now filtering all that information through the mind of a formless seven-year-old girl!” Teafa shot back.

Deciding this was officially going nowhere, Liam clapped his hands, drawing both of their attention to him.

“Ok, this is going nowhere. Firstly, Astra, not that I don’t agree with you, but you are arguing against a fundamental belief of Teafa’s faith, and it's making her feel angry and attacked. I know because I can smell it, and if you were paying attention to my senses you could tell too. Secondly, Teafa, you are being really mean to Astra, and I’m not ok with that.” Liam cut into their argument. He didn’t want Teafa to start off on the wrong foot with Astra, since she was apparently a friend of his mom’s.

Whatever.

Liam could feel a prickling sensation on his arm from Astra’s anger. Teafa’s last comment was essentially a direct attack on her own insecurities and she had every right to be angry and upset.

Teafa bowed her head. “Right, that was wrong of me to say. Astra, what you have been saying is very much against everything I’ve been taught since I was a child, and I reacted badly. Please forgive my comment.” Teafa said, snapping out of her anger and apologizing. SHe had not realized her convictions were so deeply held, to bring out such uncharacteristic anger. She also realized how offensive what she had said was to Astra, and she was mortified that she had essentially psychologically attacked a child. She lost sight of who she was talking to considering Astra didn’t have a traditional body. She genuinely felt deeply terrible.

It's fine. I wasn’t being very considerate either, we can just let it go.

Liam smiled. He wanted these two to get along for some reason. Another gut feeling.

“To change the subject,” Teafa said after a brief pause. “I was so wrapped up in our… argument… I didn’t even ask. Why did the gods implant you into Liam anyway, Astra?”

Liam’s smile vanished. He clenched his hands, digging his nails into his palm in an effort to overcome his sudden anger. Both Teafa and Astra noticed the obvious shift in Liam’s mood.

Liam doesn't like to talk about it. Maybe another time? Astra responded. She very deliberately wrapped around Liam’s hand and squeezed as much as her limited ability would allow.

Teafa, not wanting to cause either of these children, who had obviously been through far too much for their age, anymore distress, immediately agreed. “That's fine. We should be getting close now anyway, right?” She said sympathetically.

Liam drew himself out of his own head to look around. The trees around them were quite different from where he had fought the greater arboreal ape. Teafa had been intensely shocked to see a sixth tier beast out that far, even more so when Liam had said he killed it. Liam smirked at the memory. The trees back there had only been roughly anywhere from twenty to a hundred feet tall. The trees here made those look like saplings and they were getting taller the farther they traveled. Some of them were approaching a thousand feet tall, and their canopy cast a massive shade over everything. These behemoth trees were all a respectful distance from each other. This meant that if Liam stood in the right spot he could see for miles.

He had once asked why the forest here was so different, and Astra had told him these trees were completely different from the ones outside the deep forest. This had made Liam roll his eyes. It was obvious these trees were different. Astra had gone on to explain that these trees were so old and steeped in mana that they had managed to gain a level of sentience. Coming from thousands of miles around, these trees had actually carefully moved themselves ever closer to the highest concentration of mana they could find.

This wellspring of mana was now at the very center of what had come to be known as the deep wood. It was also what caused higher tier Beasts to congregate in this area. Liam had been enthralled with the idea. He could hardly imagine, a force so great an entire forest that spanned hundreds of square miles formed around it! Seeing that he was actually following along for once, Astra had explained that this source of mana was actually the corpse of a Transcendent Beast so powerful, even after thousands of years its power drew in lesser Beasts from all over. It also happened to be where Lorna, the Queen of the forest, made her den.

Liam smiled at the memory. It was what he thought of every time he made his way home. The world was a majestic place full of hidden wonders, some that even lay beneath his very feet. It stoked his desire to go out and adventure again while reminding him of home with every hidden secret he discovered in this massive forest. Coming back to himself, his reminiscing lasting only a few moments, Liam saw that they were indeed very close to home. He was glad, seeing as he had managed to collect more herbs and such for his siblings, and things like this were best consumed fresh. So, it was good that with Teafa’s Forest Walk, they had managed to make it here in much less time than he had originally predicted. “We’ll be there in maybe ten minutes at our current pace. Sound about right?” Liam questioned.

More like eight, but you’re only off because you’re not used to Ethereal magic. Liam shrugged. He wasn’t worried about it really. It was something he would have to learn through doing, unfortunately. This wasn’t the first time Astra had told him he wasn’t ready to go up against Ethereal magic. Even worse, according to her, there wasn’t something any of them could do to prepare him for the way the sentient races used magic. It turns out that even though Lorna had Ethereal magic, it wouldn’t help because the way Beasts used magic was different. Lorna had Ethereal Stealth magic. She could essentially disappear in broad daylight and become entirely untraceable by anything less powerful than her own magic, but that was it. Astra had explained that humans and the like used all of their magic, including Elemental, very differently but hadn’t explained how beyond that. Liam was sure she would go over it eventually, even if he wouldn’t understand a word she said.

Speaking of which, Teafa and Astra had lapsed into a conversation about that very topic, talking about spell retention and something called a ‘spatial warp linear power differential’. That was, until they entered a massive clearing out of nowhere. Literally, everything had looked the same just a second ago, and then instantly they were in a clearing that wasn’t in front of them a moment ago. They stopped talking, just taking in the sight.

The trees surrounding this clearing had bark of flowing white and grey patterns and extended thousands of feet in the air. These were not the trees they had been walking past this whole time. No, these trees were special even for the deep forest. The others did have similar coloring to these, but they were obviously much shorter and not nearly so obnoxiously massive. Their sheer size was disorienting, making the clearing seem smaller than it was. In fact, the clearing was over a mile across but didn’t appear to be a fifth of that when compared to the impossibly massive monstrosities surrounding it. Adding to that, the white-grey patterns on the trees glowed and shifted in a mesmerizing display. Astra called these trees the ‘Founders’. There were twelve in total spaced evenly around the clearing.

The clearing itself wasn’t a disappointment. The boughs of the Founders reached a good distance toward the middle of the clearing from all sides. Normally, this would have thrown a vast majority of the area into a shade much like the rest of the deep forest. However, the darkness was easily dispelled by a combination of two factors. The first was the Founders themselves, their glowing bark dispelling some of their own shadows. The second source of light was a sight to behold. Motes of bright white energy floated gently through the air throughout the entire clearing. This was, according to Astra, raw mana. The Founders generated some sort of barrier that kept most of the mana in the clearing. The amount that managed to slip through was still enough to modify the surrounding wildlife for miles and miles.

Liam smiled massively and took a deep breath. All of his troubles from the day faded away. Even the slight ache throughout his body from using Life Eater faded a bit. He was home, and his home was amazing. This whole amazing sight was only possible because of what rested at the very center of the clearing. A massive pillar of stone, thrusting several hundred feet straight up out of the ground. It had the same grey appearance of normal stone, but Liam knew the truth. This ‘rock’ was actually the horn of an impossibly huge skeleton under the earth. Amazingly, Astra said this wasn’t the entire horn, but actually just the tip. At the point where the horn-turned-stone disappeared into the ground, there was a cave carved into the surface. Seeing several lupine faces staring out at him, Liam's smile somehow got even wider.

“I… I had forgotten just how spectacular this place is. Truly a marvel.” Teafa said quietly from beside him, still stunned from the impressive visual.

Liam looked at her and laughed. “And you haven’t even met my brothers and sisters yet! They’re gonna blow you away.” He said with a smirk. Liam was fully aware that every one of his siblings was rare and powerful, even for the children of a Transcendent Beast. This was due in no small part to his own effort to help them improve, and he was proud of it.

“Yes. Right.” Teafa said, coming out of her wonder a bit to respond. “I’m excited to see what kind of children Lorna would have.” As if summoned by her words, several of the furry faces peeking out of the cave were followed into the clearing by equally furry bodies. The first to come out was Heather, obviously. The others followed her lead whenever they were uncertain and Liam was sure that they considered a stranger appearing with their brother, who clearly had been in a serious fight, an uncertain situation.

Their worry would be tempered by Liam’s apparent good mood, so Liam smiled without restraint. It wasn’t because his brothers and sisters were so cute that he was having trouble standing still. Certainly not that. Having convinced himself of his own reasoning, Liam focused back on his far too adorable siblings. Heather was striding toward them at an even pace. Liam figured since it was her coming out and not their mother, Lorna must be sleeping right now.

One of Lorna’s quirks was her extremely unpredictable sleep schedule. She would doze off at any time of day with no warning. Luckily she was easily woken, but if Heather hadn’t decided to wake her, she must feel like this wasn’t a situation that she couldn’t handle on her own. Which was a fair assessment as far as Liam was concerned. Even if he was somehow wrong about Teafa, Liam doubted that she could stand up to Heather anyway. After all, Heather was the heir to a Transcendent Beast and a sixth tier Beast in her own right. It might be a little tough, but she would manage.

"Lorna?" Teafa questioned as Heather approached. It wasn't an unreasonable question. Heather was an almost exact miniature of her mother, horns and all. The only real difference was her slightly smaller stature and longer fur. It was a bit of an anomaly even for an heir, but Lorna’s own transition from sixth to seventh tier didn't cause any real physical changes to her from what she had told Liam, so it made sense that Heather, as essentially a sixth tier copy of Lorna, would look the same. Most Beasts went through radical physical changes from rank six to seven.

In response to Teafa's question, Heather's head tilted to the side, confused. "You know Mom?" she questioned. Her gaze snapping to Liam, Heather asked, "Liam, who is the human woman and why did you bring her here?" her tone was almost an accusation.

"She's an old friend of Moms from before we were born. Astra vouched for her story." Liam said quickly. He had been ready for the question. With that said, Heather's slightly guarded posture relaxed to a great degree. All of them trusted Astra.

“So you must be Heather then. I must say, Liam mentioned you took after your mother, but you really do look just like her.” Teafa said, smiling.

At that comment, Heather fully walked up to the two of them and sniffed. Smelling nothing amiss and deciding that everything was indeed alright, she stepped back. Heather’s wolf form began to shimmer and fade into shadow. After a moment, in her place stood a young woman cloaked in a shirt and pants seemingly made of darkness. As a sixth tier, Heather's ability to transition into a human form was nearly flawless. However, she did look quite exotic even by human standards. She was taller than Liam by a good bit at five feet eight inches tall. She had a slim athletic build with zero body fat and whipcord muscles. Needless to say, she was impressive to look at.

This not even considering that she was very pretty with regal features and high cheekbones. Her skin was only a few tones from the darkness that cloaked her, which contrasted sharply with her bright emerald green hair that almost perfectly matched her eyes. The only obvious signs that she was actually a Beast were the two sets of horns still present even in this form. Instead of having one pair at the crown of her head and another pair along her jaw, in human form, both pairs were coming out of her temple along her hairline, with the black ram-like pair framing the more delicate-looking yellow pair.

“I suppose it would be better to talk like this,” Heather said once her transition was complete. “Talking in wolf form is taxing and this seems like it will be a lengthy conversation.” With that said, Heather turned back to the rest of the kids hanging back. “Everything is fine. Come and meet our visitor and then you can see what Liam brought back.” She called out waving her hands in a particular signal. Turning back to Liam, her words shift to a much softer tone, “Are you ok Li? You look pretty beat. What happened?”

Liam gave her a lopsided grin. He knew he didn’t look great right now. His clothes had several rents in them from scrapes that had occurred as the ape had tossed him around. Unfortunately, he was actually more hurt than he looked. Although none of his bones were broken anymore, several were cracked. A lot of them actually. More than he wanted to count. But he wasn’t going to say that. “I’m all good sis. Had an interesting day and absorbed some stuff, so I’m just tired. I’ll be just fine after a nap.” He said with confidence. Too bad someone had other ideas. Light flashed along his arm, drawing his, Teafa’s and Heather's eyes.

That's a lie. He fought a sixth tier greater arboreal ape that nearly killed him. Somehow managed to kill it, still trying to figure that one out. Then absorbed an entire ability from it as well as a healthy chunk of two of its primary abilities. That's not even mentioning the twelve regular apes he fought before that and meeting Teafa after. He has thirty-four bones that are nearly broken and a truly massive amount of bruising with a little internal bleeding. He’s going to eat a lot, sleep a lot, and not do anything tomorrow or I’m going to find a way to beat him unconscious. Astra listed out matter of factly.

“Dang it Astra. I’m fine.” Liam whined quietly. She always enlisted Heather to shut him down whenever he tried to push too far. It was really annoying. Liam knew he was injured. He could obviously feel it, but he didn’t like it when Heather and Astra tried to baby him. Which is exactly what happened.

“A sixth tier attacked you?! Liam what the heck! You weren’t going to say anything?! This is serious! You can’t just ignore being that injured!” Heather admonished. Her face shifted between anger, worry, and concern. It finally settled on determination. “You are doing exactly what Astra says or I’m going to beat you unconscious.” She said seriously. “Now tell me about the sixth tier. Why didn’t you just run? Why would it even attack you?” Liam shrugged and looked at the ground.

“It didn’t look like a sixth tier at first ok? It did something weird when I almost killed it and went from a fourth tier to sixth.” Liam said quietly, not looking at Heather. His hands clenched. “He threatened to eat everyone.” The last sentence was a strained whisper, Liam struggling not to lose it at the memory. Astra’s light wrapped around his hand and squeezed. Liam let out a breath. “I wasn’t going to just let him,” Liam said in a more even tone. He finally looked at Heather, meeting her eyes. “I couldn’t just walk away.” Heather let out a sigh of her own, her angry posture relaxing.

“It’s fine Li. We’ll figure it out with Mom later. For now, you can show everyone what you got. But after that,” Some of the heat returned to her words, “you are going to sleep after a big supper. It’s late enough as is.” She finished sternly.

“Yes Mom,” Liam replied sarcastically.

Heather reached forward and flicked him on the forehead. “None of the sass. Or I can wake up Mom and you can deal with her.” She said with a smirk, amusement in her words.

Liam smiled back mischievously, rubbing his forehead.

As their conversation ended, the rest of the family joined them, taking the proper form for receiving a distinguished visitor, as Heather had signalled. First up was Ziac, always ready for a fight, and looking the part. As a hellhound, he was visually very different from his siblings. Hellhounds were from Hell after all, and his form proved the exotic origin of his species. His lupine form was short and stocky, being only two and a half feet tall, but almost equally wide. His body was excessively muscular, which could be seen clearly considering his lack of hair. It had always made sense to Liam. Apparently Hell was much hotter than the Mortal plain, so why have hair if it was never cold?

Instead of hair, Ziac had a thick grey hide similar to a rhinoceros. At least, that's what Astra said. Liam had never personally seen a rhinoceros to make the comparison. Nevertheless, Ziac’s hide was a natural armor that fit his more upfront and straightforward fighting style. It was crisscrossed with lines of glowing Infernal and Demonic mana. The former was a burnt orange color and gave Ziac’s skin the appearance of lava where these veins of mana clustered. The Demonic energy, however, was more of a purplish-black color. Both gave off a faint glow and were scattered throughout his body.

As he approached, and seeing that Heather had taken on her sapient guise, Ziac began to change as well. The way he went about it was vastly different though. Ziac was only fifth tier, and neither his personal affinities nor his nature as a hellhound inclined Ziac toward the ability to shift his form. He could do more than most at his tier by virtue of Lorna’s blood, but not much. His transformation was more grotesque. Instead of seeming to fade in and out of reality, transformed in the process, Ziac physically changed. Bones cracked and skin bulged as his body shifted into a bipedal form. When he was done, Ziac still didn’t appear even remotely human. Instead, he was a four foot tall, buff, bipedal hellhound with clawed hands and lupine double-jointed feet. His squat and wide head remained the same as ever on broad shoulders.

Grunting and ignoring Teafa, Ziac turned to Liam. “Hey, brother. Find anything interesting? Get the jackletrout?” He said gruffly. Liam smiled widely. This wasn’t new behavior for Ziac. He was incredibly outspoken among family, but suspicious and reserved around outsiders, Beast or sentient. Ziac took it upon himself from a very young age to be the guardian of the family. He knew Heather would take over ruling the deep forest someday when Lorna was tired of it, so Ziac decided he would be the shield that blocked unworthy usurpers from striking at the family. This was partially Astra’s fault. She had fed both Liam and Ziac, who had very similar personalities and were very close, stories from across the world of heroes and monsters. Ziac took to it more than Liam ever did. While both of them gained a desire to explore the world, Ziac gained an even greater desire to be like those heroes, protecting those he loved and saving the day against peril.

“We did fine. Got the jackletrout, met her.” Liam says, pointing at Teafa.

Ziac looked at Teafa, grunted, and turned away. “Good. Show me all the stuff you found?”

“Yeah, we can do that after introductions. Just give us a few minutes?” Liam responded.

Ziac nodded and moved off towards the cave. Halfway there he turned around and stood glaring at Teafa.

“Did I offend him somehow?” Teafa asked quizzically, a look of confusion on her face throughout the whole interaction.

“Nahh, Ziac just doesn’t like people who aren’t family. That’s a pretty normal response from him, to be honest. HE does this no matter who comes by. Honestly, we just gave up on fixing it.” Liam said. “Don’t let it get to you. He’ll come around given time.” Looking past Ziac, Liam could see the rest of his siblings approaching in age order.

The next to walk up was Aloysia. She was possibly even more exotic than any of the others, considering the fact that she might be the only one of her kind in existence. Aloysia was a Dryad, which wasn’t that rare, but unlike others of her kind, her preferred form was a wolf. That wasn’t odd, considering her mother, but she also wasn’t tied to any kind flora. Astra said that that was essentially impossible, and had blamed Liam. Aloysia walked up in her humanoid form, which was a girl about three and a half feet tall that was made of leaves and vines and flowers, in a dress much the same as the clothes Liam wore. Her eyes were orbs of amber and glowed slightly. She walked up to Teafa and curseyed primly.

“Hello and welcome to our home.” She said in a sweet voice. “I am Aloysia. It is a pleasure to meet someone so invested in the forest.”

“Oh? You wouldn’t happen to be a Dryad would you?” Teafa said, her voice colored with equal measures of surprise and interest.

Aloysia stood back up and smiled brightly. “Yes, I am. You have much Flora mana in you. It feels wonderful.” Aloysia complimented.

“Why thank you. You are very polite.” Teafa said back.

“How nice of you to notice.” Aloysia began. “I try my very best to be polite at a-”

“Ok, Sia. Enough schmoozing.” Liam interrupted a smirk on his face. “I’m sure Teafa could give you some Flora mana even if you don’t try to butter her up.”

At this comment. Aloysia’s face twisted into a pout. She stomped her foot and set her hands on her hips. “I wasn’t! You're just being mean cause I’m nicer than you!” She flashed Teafa a bright smile, before turning a death glare on Liam.

“Yeah totally. It’s not like you’re a mana addict or anything.” Liam said sarcastically.

Aloysia glared at him for a long moment while he smiled back. She finally let out a cry of frustration and stomped back over to Ziac, where she sat down in a huff and pouted.

“Mana addict?” Teafa questioned lightly, not wanting to pry.

Heather sighed, looking at the pouting dryad. “It’s like candy to a Beast. Anything with a concept close to our nature tastes amazing. Unfortunately, living in a forest means there’s an abundance of mana for Sia to eat. She is kinda addicted to it. We try to curb her appetite since too much raw mana is bad for her growth. Unfortunately the Founders,” Heather explained, gesturing to the trees around the clearing, “have a lot to give and are very weak to her cuteness. They are spoiling her rotten.”

“We keep telling them to stop, but they have trouble understanding why they shouldn’t give a dryad, one of the primary protectors of a forest, anything she asks for.” Liam chimed in. “It goes against their nature.”

“Ah. I see. That must be difficult to deal with.” Teafa said sympathetically.

“We do fine,” Liam responded. “Most of the time it’s not a problem. Honestly, she doesn’t eat enough for it to affect her too much yet, and dryads as a species are good at processing raw mana. At least, Astra says she’s pretty healthy. We just don’t want her to get into bad habits.”

“Enough about Aloysia, there are more for you to meet,” Heather interjected. Sure enough, another wolf approached. This one was actually in its full wolf form and was accompanied by a slight hissing noise.

Liam frowned slightly. Jenozelle was coming up, which meant Lorelie was hiding again. He resolved to go find her for a proper introduction later. She couldn’t hide from everything. Nodding to himself, Liam focused on the most mischievous of his siblings. Jenozelle was a blightfiend, a type of Demonic with a very wolflike form. Jenozelle took to her Demonic heritage very well, which was a blessing and a curse. Her body was covered in patches of fur and large armor-like scales, both of which were bright, luminescent green. As the light of the setting sun landed on her, Jenozelle’s scales reflected a rainbow of color, like oil on water. She was a small thing, only two feet at the shoulder, with a very average build. She was neither skinny nor stocky, but a healthy middle ground. Her eyes, slit like a cat’s, were the same deep, rich, purple glowing on Ziac’s hide.

Sauntering up with all the confidence in the world, Jenozelle stopped in front of Teafa and gave a toothy grin. “Hi! I’m Jenozelle. Want to play a game?” Both Liam and Heather’s eyes widened in horror and before they could interject, Teafa responded.

“Oh, yes sure.” She said with a smile. Her introduction to the children of her old friend had been a rather formal and stiff affair so far, with the singular introductions, and she was excited that at least one of them just seemed happy to meet her.

At her response, Jenozelle’s grin became positively predatory. “Yes! You agreed, no going back on your word! We can play after you meet the babies. I have to go get ready. Bye!” With that, Jenozelle whirled around and bolted back toward the cave, right past Ziac and Aloysia, who were still sitting back and watching from a distance.

“What did I just agree to?” Teafa asked, bewildered.

Both Liam and Heather let out a groan. Liam, pinching the bridge of his nose, waved a hand when Heather looked at him. With a huff, Heather explained.

“Jenny… means well. It’s just… Well, most of the games she comes up with aren’t exactly… Safe.” She said awkwardly. “We all just tell her no at this point when she offers.”

“I actually forgot she did that. She stopped asking me after that one time I almost lost a toe. I don’t even know how she came up with the idea of hopscotch around a lava ant nest.” Liam said despairingly.

Teafa’s eyes bulged. “W-Well I suppose I’ll just have to tell her no.” She started to say, only to be shot down immediately.

“You really don’t want to do that,” Heather warned.

“What? Why not?” Teafa questioned.

Liam groaned. “She does this… thing… where she makes you feel like the worst person alive for going back on your word. It’s impossible to get around it.”

“Wouldn’t she have just done the same thing if I said no?”

“Actually,” Heather chimed in, “she doesn’t seem to care if you just say no to start. It’s only if you agree and then go back on it.”

“Well, I’ll just do my best.” Teafa sighed. Looking forward, she spotted two small children just in front of Ziac that hadn’t been there the last time she looked. “And I suppose these two are the last?” She asked.

Apparently hearing her and taking it as an invitation, the pair began to approach. Though they did it in very different manners. Of the two of them, the little girl came flying forward at a sprint. She had been practically vibrating standing still, obviously waiting for an excuse to take off. The boy chose a much more appropriate pace, walking steadily forward. Both children looked entirely human, albeit one’s with some Beast blood, considering their strange hair color. Both had bright pink hair, with the girls worn long and loose, and the boy’s cut shorter around his ears. They wore clothes similar to Liam’s own, made by Aloysia from various plants. These were the twins, Nyx and Tasi. Both were faewolves, which was why they had essentially perfect human forms despite being only fourth and third tier respectively. Polymorph was a fae ability after all, and they both were born with it, being able to transform into any creature they have seen.

Tasi finally reached the end of her run, jumping and wrapping her arms around Liam’s neck and proceeding to talk his ears off in a very high pitched voice.

“Liam, you’re back! Why do you look so hurt? Who is this? Why did we have to do the stupid visitor greeting thing? Did you get the jackletrout? Why were you gone so long?” She fired out, not pausing for an instant to let Liam respond. Following her line of questioning, Tasi seemed to decide she was actually angry with him and promptly let go of him. Dropping to the ground, she put her hands on her hips and pouted. "well?"

Smiling down at her, Liam was unable to contain his laughter. He let out a full belly laugh, which only served to make Tasi pout harder. At this point, Nyx walked up next to his fraternal twin, casual as could be. Equally as casually, he reached up and knocked his fist against the back of Tasi's head.

"Stop bothering Liam, sis. He's obviously had it rough and we have a guest. Get it together." He said with an eye roll. Dismissing his sister, who had recovered from the relatively light knock and turned a ferocious glare on Nyx, he nodded briefly at Liam before turning and introducing himself to Teafa.

“Hello,” He said with a half bow, “my name is Nyx. I am the second youngest of Queen Lorna’s children. It is a pleasure to meet you.” Raising his head, Nyx smiled at Teafa and settled back into his relaxed posture.

Looking supremely amused at the twin’s antics, Teafa answered in kind. “It's lovely to meet you as well, Nyx son of Lorna.” She said with a smile and a curtsy.

The stately and regal air of the two was ruined as Tasi, fed up with her brother, bopped him on the head.

“Don’t just hit me!” She said furiously. She then turned to Teafa and gave a half-hearted and clumsy curtsy of her own. “Sorry, nice to meet you!” She said with enthusiasm. Despite the amateurish execution, her whole delivery came off as immensely cute, probably because of the genuine enthusiasm she injected into her words. Regardless, the situation only caused Teafa’s smile to grow wider until she was on the verge of laughter.

“It's nice to meet you too, Tasi. Your brother has told me a bit about you. I believe he did indeed get that jackletrout you had been asking about.”

With that statement, Tasi’s focus shifted once more back to her eldest brother. With her shift in focus, came another shift in mood, as her frown returned with a vengeance.

“Right. Yes. Astra what happened?" she said, expecting a more informed report from the girl with a perfect memory. Words began crawling across Liam’s face as Astra ran Tasi through everything that had happened on their little adventure. Tasi was a very active listener throughout the tale, especially considering the fact that Astra was an excellent storyteller. She gasped when Astra got to the part about the greater ape and frowned mightily at Liam when Astra mentioned his insistence to continue after the nearly deadly fight. All told, it only took Astra maybe fifteen minutes to tell the whole series of events, but Tasi reacted like she had listened to an epic adventure.

"Next time, no more adventuring after big fights," Tasi said severely. Her serious tone was more or less ruined by her generally adorable appearance and massive pout, but Liam wasn't going to tell her that. He sighed. Of course, his family was going to agree with Astra. Especially Tasi, who treated Astra like a superstar. If he was being completely honest with himself, Liam was pretty sure Tasi looked up to Astra much more than him. After all, she was quick to yell at him whenever he did something stupid, but in her eyes, Astra could do no wrong. Liam felt a stinging sensation along his arm, bringing him back to reality and causing him to realize that he had indeed spaced out thinking about his youngest sister's relationship with his eternal companion. Looking around he noticed that at some point during Astra’s conversation with Tasi and his sister’s scolding, they had drifted over toward the cave that they all called home with Teafa and Heather in tow. He also realized that Tasi was still looking at him expectantly, waiting for a response to his question.

“Ah, r-right yeah I’ll-” Before he could finish his hasty apology, a blur flew from the mouth of the cave and slammed into Teafa faster than anyone could respond. Completely surprised, mouth agape, Liam saw that the blur had been Lorna. She was currently standing atop Teafa’s prone body in her wolf form, her lips curled back in a snarl. In a booming growl, the Transcendent beast yelled

“What are you doing talking to my children!?”

“What?” Responded a very startled Teafa