Chương 1048: Day One Thousand And Forty-Six

Dear Diary, Sometimes I think life here and now has wound up making me completely blasé about stuff that should rate higher on the 'what the fuck, Diaz' scale. Shit, sometimes it's 'what the fuck, Fates' too. Maybe it's because of the whole isekai thing. I got shot in the head back at the Camden Aquarium, and everything gets hazy right in there, and when I managed to sort of focus again, I was an octopus in the Camden Yards Kraken enclosure.

I guess what I'm saying with that is that from the moment I arrived here and now, shit was kinda crazy. Seriously, 'I am an octopus, I am an octopus fighting a dragon, I am a giant octopus fighting a dragon, I am no longer an octopus', then waking up in a nurse's office with Marie and Siobhan, who are nominally more normal than Shapeshifting and fuckin' Dragons, but especially in Marie's case are not anywhere near what I'd call 'normal' back in the day. After all that, my 'normality' detector broke, I think.

Sometimes I think I was still in shock back during those first Days. Trying to stay below the radar, while also tryna take whatever advantage I could of the whole 'mistaken for someone important' thing. I still really don't know how I didn't fuck that up. Okay, yeah, I kinda do. Elder Primordial power, activate and shit like that. Mimicking what are probably the two Skills considered 'most important' by the folks with any kind of power and influence at the time.

Seriously, if 'we make our Fighter-Mages faux nobility until they inevitably perish fighting against the shitshow that is The World As The Gods Have Made It' isn't a big fuckin clue about what they look for, I'm not sure what is. Mana Shaping and Close Quarters Combat. At any rate, I don't think things ever really settled down. Every time I think I've found a 'new normal', something rocks that shit.

Okay, sometimes I've been the one rocking the boat, but still, that is not copacetic making, the knowledge that nothing ever really settles down. And then I remember what my fuckin' Primordial Domain is, and I realize that nothing will ever be 'normal' for me. There will never be a placid, glassy pond. Just the constant motion of the ocean. Sometimes the waves will be smaller, sometimes they'll be bigger, but I gotta float or swim or surf or whatever, not bitch about how it's not a skating rink.

Which is kinda my long-assed way of explaining to myself why when we discovered Lindsey's camp in ruins, I didn't panic or throw a shit fit. Okay, I might have gotten a little pissed at the Spartans in general. More pissed, since my current level of pissed off is 'I will Mass Amputate a single Spartan if he pisses me off, or gets in my way, or looks at me funny'.

But I wasn't really worried about any current Spartans on the Homestead, what with a chunk of the Alliance military cruising through like a month ago, followed by Kitten reinforcing all the Wards. Also, and I'm not sure if I twigged to this immediately, but neither Marie nor the kits seemed on edge or even really worried. Yeah, they kinda spread out around their smaller sisters, but I realized pretty quick that they weren't so much 'on guard' for any attacks as they were searching for any leftover dangerous stuff.

The moment I twigged to that I Co-Located a bunch of me around the kits, Blending myself and examining everything that looked disturbed. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I found a couple tripped traps, including one with a dead, half eaten deer in it that I spirited away before Isadora or Menace got a glimpse of it and wanted to eat it.

All of the traps looked like they'd been made of local materials, stuff gathered along the march, and had mostly fallen prey to wandering animals or weather. I slipped one of me over to Marie and asked, "anything dangerous?" She shook her head.

"No Scents." It took me a second, but I realized I couldn't smell any of the things I'd expect if the damage had been done recently. No smell of ash or smoke. Even the most egregious thing, where the asshole had taken a shit right in the firepit, had pretty much stopped reeking and spread out into a lump of slightly smellier than normal dirt. Lindsey still pulled out the little entrenching tool from her new kit and shoveled it into a hastily dug latrine pit. She and Alex even did everything by the book, literally.

They had it out and referenced it while they dug. By the time night rolled around, the camp wasn't rebuilt, but it was cleaned up. We helped the kids set up the tents, including the big one in Lindsey's new pack. Normally we'd have all bundled into those tents, but the night got hot. I think I've gotten used to the vague kind of climate control available to Phileo's traditional thick stone buildings. They're like literal man made caves, what with the thick stone walls.

I think there might be some Wards involved in the Homestead too. I dunno, I didn't do any of that stuff, I just melted blocks and helped put them in place. I think maybe I want to go back to school and really study some Shaping next Season. Not sure. At any rate, it was hot but clear, so we mostly spread tarps out on the ground and sacked out under the stars. We'd hardly had any time to do any fishing, so we just ate rolls and some berries and veggies Sigyn and Loki showed the kids how to forage up.

I mean, Loki caught a fish, but one fish wasn't enough to feed the whole crowd. We made a kind of fish and tuber stew, and everybody got a bit, but mostly we ate bread. Not like any of our kids are malnourished. In the morning, the kids sort of self-organized, with Alex leading about half of them to rebuild the camp, with Sigyn and I helping out when needed.

Not that we really were, since we had multiple kids with really nice knives for cutting shit, and when it came to lifting heavy objects Isadora had enough lifting power to do anything any Mortal might need done. Still boggles me that I requisitioned that from Mittens' kitten mitten. The thought that it popped out just does not compute. Of course I was super proud of why Alex chose to rebuild the camp; because she knew Lindsey's favorite parts of camping were foraging and fishing.

Hunting was a maybe distant third, probably tied with the actual camping out part. Loki and Marie went with Lindsey and the rest of her sisters, who came back to the rebuilt camp mid-afternon. Sigyn showed them how to cover up the fish with clay and bury it under the coals of the fire. I was kinda glad about that, and about how the improvements that made the tents a lot more sturdy, because the clouds coming in from the east were not friendly looking.

Sigyn also showed them how to cover the coals up with rocks to keep some of the water out and the heat in during the brief but thorough downpour that hit us late in the afternoon. Loki relit the campfire, and Sigyn shrugged off the thought that the fish might have gotten wet.

"Of course fish are wet. They live in the water, and we cooked them in clay. It'll be fine." Of course, long before dinner was ready, just as the sun approached the horizon, Siobhan curled around her belly, groaning despite Hailee holding her hand. I hit her with Comfort, and that just reduced the goran to a whine. I extruded an Assess Health.

"Uh... Kitten?" She strolled over from where she'd been talking with Loki about something.

"Yes, love?"

"Guess who just went into actual labor."