While Lin experiments, I take the drake's corpse out of the backpack and start butchering it. Mulan, Mushu, and Nala are right there cleaning up the blood and scraps left from my work. I cut away several slabs of meat and start cooking them, then I cut free the heart and start eating it.

Devour Activated: Cold Resist +20! Evolution Points +3!

Once devour activates I stop eating the heart and split what's left into three portions. Then I feed them to Mulan, Mushu, and Nala, who have been staring at me with puppy eyes. While they are eating, I get some salad out of the pouch for Albion so he doesn't feel left out.

The smell of cooking meat soon gets distracting enough that even Lin can't focus on her spell. Once the meat is cooked, we all dig in and end up eating more than we should. Soon, the only one that can still move around is Albion, a fact that he takes advantage of.

It is really funny watching him tease his siblings and then run away while they can't chase him. This lasts until Albion wears himself out, at which point putting them all down for bed is easy. Then I create a soulscape and invite the kids, Lin, Myria, and Brightfire.

Myria says "Ash, you are evil!!"

"Huh?"

Brightfire says "What did he do now?"

Myria says "He somehow made it so that all the kids could shrink! Suddenly being attacked by all that cuteness was surprising! That level of cuteness is basically a weapon!"

As Myria complains, both Lin and Brightfire start laughing at her and I join in. My laughter is mostly from relief, for a second there I thought Myria had figured out that Lin and I slept together. While they have already discussed it, that doesn't mean there won't be drama.

However, for now at least, her and Brightfire either don't know, or are pretending they don't. Either way, I plan to avoid that conversation if I can and leave it for Lin to deal with. After all, she was plotting with the two of them and as far as I know this is part of their plan.

In fact, while I am setting up courses for the kids to play with, the three of them go off to the side. They even make a room for themselves to keep me from overhearing their conversation. That's fine, I am not suicidal enough to try and listen in on the three of them.

If anything, I move farther away from the room and focus on playing with the kids. All of the kids are shrunk down, so they are all the same size and can play together. Since it is my soulscape, I shrink myself down to the same size so that I can play with them.

Kechara seems to take it as a challenge and focuses on wrestling with me. It is actually the first time that we have been similar in size, so it isn't surprising that she wants to test me. I am able to have a ton of fun wrestling and playing with all of my kids.

It is so much fun that I decide then and there to make myself a collar to allow me to shrink in real life. That way I can play with the kids on equal terms all the time instead of just in the soulscape. Not only is it a lot of fun, but it is also good training for both me and them.

It is also a really good workout, even I am feeling worn out by the time the kids are all exhausted. When the play finally ends, I spot Lin, Myria, and Brightfire all sitting and sipping tea. It seems they ended their conversation a while ago and have been watching us play.

The three of them seem to still be friends, so at least they didn't end up fighting. As scary as it is to have the three of them working together, it is still better than them fighting. It would be even worse if they start fighting and then the kids pick sides.

Whatever drama occurs, my biggest hope is to keep all of the kids out of it. It is already a miracle that the kids all get along considering they are all different races. I don't want anything to disturb that, I want all of my kids to continue getting along with each other.

So far I have been lucky, but that probably won't hold if I keep adding kids. Of course, that will depend on whether or not I come across any more helpless kids. I will just have to wait and see what happens, but I won't be looking for any more kids.

Since all the kids are worn out, I send everyone out and end the soulscape. Then I give Lin a big smile, pick her up in my arms, and carry her to bed. In the morning, after breakfast, I make myself a collar and enchant it to allow me to shrink.

Before, this kind of thing would have been difficult, but with Lin's knowledge it becomes easy. As soon as it is finished, I put it on, and try it out, shrinking down to the size of a kitten. When they see me small, Nala and Albion also shrink down and the five of us start playing.

The room is huge now and we can easily play and wrestle without worrying about breaking things. In fact, at this size, the room seems really empty and it makes me want to add decorations. When we take a break from playing to have lunch, I have an idea of what to add.

When you enter the cabin, on the left is the gate platform in the front and the bedroom in the back. On the right side, the only thing there is the nest for the kids, the fire pit for the babies, and my forge. The forge is only there because I forgot to put it away and didn't think I needed to carry it around.

The first thing I do after I finish eating is clear out the books from my pouch and put my forge away. Lin takes the books from me and adds them to the pile of books she needs to sort. That is what she was doing while I was playing with the kids and she looked perfectly happy.

After the forge is put away I move the fire pit to the middle of the room. Then I move the nest to the back of the cabin by the windows which frees up most of the wall. However, with the fire pit and the small table in the middle of the room it looks a little strange.

The table is only used when I am eating with Lin or when we have guests. For that reason I hadn't really done anything with it, but now it just looks too plain. Come to think of it, the fire pit is also fairly plain, but it was built with function in mind.

So, now that I am working on things, I build up a platform under the fire pit. I put ramps on each side of it for the babies to use and then decorate it a bit. Then I take the table and make it into a semi-circle around half of the fire pit.