(Nov 11)

Every couple days for the last two weeks or so, my wife and I would visit William to check on my wife’s Grinch condition and allowed her to transform into The Grinch safely within a special room where she couldn’t hurt anyone.

This would allow her to satisfy her aggressive Grinch urges and allow her to live normally for a couple days before we needed to visit William again.

During this time, William didn’t make any significant discoveries, so I had forgotten and didn’t bother to write about our visits in my journal.

But today though, something did happen.

My wife had fallen asleep after transforming into The Grinch as she usually did, so I left her to sleep a bit in the waiting room as I spoke to with William.

I wasn’t expecting anything since I knew research took time but surprisingly, William had already created some sort of vaccine or antidote that helped fight against The Grinch urges.

“I’ve been studying your wife’s blood for a while and I noticed some faint substances inside of it, presumably from what Gin had injected into her to calm her down. I was able to analyse and recreate a copy of that substance. It’s not as effective as the original, a knockoff basically, but it will still help her control her urges.” William explained as he handed me a container.

Inside of the container were a bunch of pills and syringes.

There was also a small pouch of spice pills for me as well since my last pouch got torn up by The Grinch.

The rest of the stuff were for my wife.

“These won’t cure her, but if she starts becoming aggressive and/or starts transforming, immediately inject her with the syringe. Otherwise, make her take a pill every single day. It should delay her urges. I’ll also be needing more time to do my research, so you guys won’t need to visit as often. Maybe once or twice a month now that you guys have the medication.”

With these instructions, we were sent back home.

I was going to carry my wife home in my arms like a princess, but unfortunately, she woke up and decided to walk instead.

On our way home, we talk about a lot of things, mostly about my wife’s Grinch powers.

She said that she thinks her control is getting better. She’s no longer as stressed as she was before and has more stability and control over her transformations.

While I don’t think she can transform and change back at will yet, she has shown signs of improvement.

Even for several days without transforming, she’s still mostly calm.

When William instructs her to, she can transform almost immediately now.

Maybe in the future she’ll be able to stay conscious while in The Grinch…?

She just needs to keep practising and training and maybe someday it’ll be possible.

That’s when I got an idea.

A few days before I fought The Grinch, I had done a strange thinking meditation exercise where I would allow my thoughts to freely flow in my mind and become aware of myself.

It was very effective; it cleared up my conscious a lot, stabilized my emotions and even gave me a power boost.

Before we reached our home, I suggested to my wife that we visit a nearby park and try meditating together.

This could help her sort out her mind and maybe even enlighten her.

I told her how I allowed myself to relax and let my throughs flow naturally. She nodded, sat down next to a tree and closed her eyes.

I sat next to her and allowed myself to relax.

The warmth of the sun, the cool breeze of the wind and the nice shade from the trees were very cozy.

A lot of things had recently happened with The Grinch, my wife, Mona and Briggs, my relationship with William, the Kenava and how Gin was connected somehow, I had a lot of things to reflect and analyse.

Before I even realized it, time passed by in an instant while I was thinking.

The sun was slowly setting when my wife left to go pick up Gabi from school, leaving me alone in the park. She must’ve not wanted to disturb me.

Honestly, I was so immersed in my thoughts and so relaxed, I slowly drifted asleep.

Even in my sleep though, I didn’t stop thinking. Within my lucid dreams, I imagined myself sitting on a clear lake, with thoughts flowing around me.

By the time I woke up, I felt refreshed, as if all my stresses had melted away.

I didn’t receive a power up like I did when I meditated for the first time, but I still felt stronger.

I even came up with some new… “special abilities and spells,” I want to test out the next time I get the opportunity.

When I returned home, I was greeted by Gabi and the smell of a tasty dinner.

My wife had cooked us a mighty fine meal of cheesy potatoes, fried potatoes, mashed potatoes, potato soup, potato dumplings and other potato themed foods (our neighbour gave us a lot of potatoes).

It was quite delicious.

Gabi, my wife and I then later went out for another stroll around the city until the stars came out.

Today was quite the mildly busy and uneventful day, the types of days where I enjoy the most. I’m content with this.

In the future, I’m sure there’ll definitely be nothing that will disrupt my peaceful happy life.

(Nov 12)

Today, I was moved to a different soldier squad under different management.

When I got to the soldier locker room, there was a notice paper on telling me I was being transferred over to work for a different officer.

This wasn’t a surprise since ordinary soldiers were moved around all the time, it’s just business.

I said my goodbyes to my former manager and then left to go meet my new commanding officer.

That’s when I bumped into a familiar face.

“Heyo Anthony, how you doing?”

It was Sven.

We shared greetings and had a little chat, catching up with each other and sharing some stories.

After a bit, I glanced at my wristwatch.

“Ah, sorry but I got to go now. I got transferred so I’m meeting my new manager and I don’t want to be late.”

I tried to excuse myself but then Sven started laughing as he put a hand on my shoulder.

My head tilted in confusion.

“You didn’t know Anthony? I’m your new commanding officer! You work under my command now!”

My jaw dropped upon hearing this.

Sven had told me that he was promoted to a commanding officer before, but I didn’t think of the possibility of me working under him.

“That’s right Anthony! You take orders from me now! I’m your boss!”

I’m honestly not quite sure how I feel about this.

Sven is my friend, he’s someone I’ve hung out with since I was a kid and I was the one to recommend him to the city, but now he’s technically my “boss” and that feels weird.

Not in a bad though.

This certainly was a surprise. Not a bad surprise, but a surprise indeed.

“Yeah, I was also very surprised when I got promoted so soon. Apparently you have connections with some people of high authority here (probably referring to William or Briggs) which helped me get here, so I decided to get you into my management since it’ll benefit us both!”

Well, this will be handy.

Since Sven is my friend, I should get a lot more leeway in the future.

I was a bit surprised at first, but this is actually really good. This’ll make life a lot easier.

Sven told me I could have a day off today and we went out to go get a drink together at a local tavern.

We had a lot to discuss regarding the recent incidents.

I told him about my wife and The Grinch, sparing some of the confidential and minor details.

Sven liked to be goofy but he upon hearing this, he became serious.

Sven even offered to increase the number of soldiers patrolling my neighborhood to protect my wife and Gabi, which I didn’t refuse.

We discussed many things, some lighthearted, some serious topics and we even talked a bit about what’s going to happen in the future.

All this happened while we were chugging down drinks.

Overall, I’m glad that Sven made it to the city and became a commanding officer.

He’ll probably continue getting promotions in the future, I don’t doubt it.

Maybe someday he might even become an important influential figure in this kingdom.

Maybe he will.

Who knows.