Chương 1078: Day One Thousand And Seventy-Six

Dear Diary, Y'know, I think it might say something about me, or my situation, or something else entirely, but the fact remains that I have Skills and even Domains that I just don't think about much. That latter one is the one on my mind right now, because I'm pretty sure everyone out there has Skills they don't think about much. Shit they learned over the course of a week of late nights binging Wikipedia and YouTube for every bit of information both academic and practical on a subject.

Sometimes because the subject itself sounded cool, sometimes because there's a suspicion that the Skill or knowledge will fill some practical need, and sometimes just because I accidentally clicked on a link while I was looking for some ASMR to add to the soporific I'd just applied, then wound up reading up on macro-parasites like those little Amazonian fishes that fly up pee holes. Or is that just an ADHD thing? Bingeing new knowledge and Skills just because, not flying up pee holes. That is not an ADHD thing.

That's a kink thing, and it's called sounding, and you put an anime girl on the thumbnail. Wait, no. That's nightcore. Don't wanna make that mistake again. Anyway, I've got some Domains I don't think about much, but they're more stuff that's sleeping in the background, not seeing day to day use, like my CQC Skill. Music is one of those. Same with the Sun, really. Then there are the Domains that I'm some degree of guilty or worried over, like Disease, Bloodlust, or especially Change.

There are others that are never far from my mind, like Children, Passion, and Ecstasy. Oddly enough it's the ones in that middle category that I forget I have. Or really, I forget that other people absolutely know that I have them. Like, I'm not sure anybody who doesn't have Lily's nose knows that I'm a Goddess of Disease, and I'm pretty low key about being a Deity of Death even despite the Psychopomp thing.

So some of those are things where because I've stolen them and then done my best to, I dunno, deny them I guess, they don't jump up and bite me much. The ones everybody knows about and I Revel in are, y'know, not surprising. Somebody coming to me and saying, "I've made the world a better place, Ecstasy please!" might seem a little transactional, so it's the tiniest bit sus, but it's not at all surprising.

Yeah, speaking of Revels, I did not expect this one to go the way it did, because I forgot two very important facts. The first being that I am in fact known as a Deity of the Sun. The second being that Summer Solstice is, y'know, a big Sun holiday. So yesterday around eighty percent of the Homestead wound up wandering the woods picking up deadfall. Apparently trees or even branches that are already clearly dead count, at least Saffron said they did, and nobody argued with her.

While Lindsey intervened to prevent us from taking any logs that had started rotting, both because they're not great for bonfires due to the moisture and because they're an important part of the cycle of life in the forest, and yeah she actually used those words, along with armloads and armloads of sticks and branches we managed to find a grand total of six full grown dead trees.

Now, despite my many comments to everyone about the dangers of lumbering, we wound up with three very important factors that made our day way less dangerous. Safe enough, in fact, that other than making sure I knew where they were standing I didn't even worry about Davey and Daya. Okay, not much anyhow. I always worry about my kids just a little when they're anywhere outside East House, but that's just part of being a mom, I think.

At any rate, dead trees are generally way drier than live ones, which means they have way less chance of a steam explosion when you slide a Mana Blade through them near the base. Second, I can easily Mana Blade any tree out there cleanly if it doesn't explode.

Third, and most importantly, my big tentacles could lift a redwood like a novelty miniature baseball bat, so the dead trees we found, an even mix of evergreens and deciduous, were no big deal to gently tip over and let the kids snap off any twigs and shit that were likely to snap off while being drug home. Which a couple of us did. Drag the trees home. A dozen of them all told.

Technically I could have just carried them, and I kept tentacles around to make sure nobody got crushed if somebody tripped, but everybody seemed to be enjoying the social aspect of a half dozen people getting under a log and lifting it up to carry it. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Okay, for most of the trees it took more like a dozen of the Homestead women. Yeah, most of them are physical laborers, but it's the kind of physical labor that's more Endurance than Strength.

That meant that after the girls and smaller kits, aided by the rest of the Homestead kids, all teamed up to take one, and the rest of the women took another six, there were five left. Arachne had snuck herself in with the kids, which was just kinda sweet, since she was all hunched over to get her shoulder under the tree without leaving any of them dangling. Sarah and Marie took another one, and Iphigenia and Penthesilea took another, which left three.

I lifted the end of one over my shoulder, waited until everybody in sight was in front of me, and levered the other end off the ground. That's when I heard the other two trees creaking. Isadora had done the same thing I had, but with both of the remaining trees. I did my best to avoid either telling her she couldn't or acting like she shouldn't. What eventually came out was, "way to go, Isadora!" So cute when she blushed and smiled at me.

"Thanks, Mama." Once we got them all back to the Courtyard, we laid them out and dumped them, then let a couple of us went with the bigger girls to gather up any bits that fell off while carrying them back. By that point it was dark, so we called everybody in and fed them grilled sandwiches. Nothing fancy, just like a grilled cheese with some sliced meat added in. Given how the kids mostly drowsed through dinner. Once I got everybody eating, I thought, Karen? Where should I be tonight?

Furtim Cauda requested that you visit her Temple, but... Why wouldn't I do that? Karen's surprise made it clear that hadn't been her intension. She doesn't want you to meet with any particular person; more... Well... A ritual blessing, with the Summer Solstice coming up? How is it I can tell when you're not capitalizing that word? Huh? Never mind. So... What's the problem?

Since you need not be intimate with any of the Worshippers who wish your blessing this evening, I thought it might be acceptable for you to await them at all of your Altars? I thought about that for a half second. Nobody's gonna be upset by that? Hardly.

"Okay then," I said to her as I stepped to my Altar in Phileo, Co-Locating to all my others as I did. In each of them a whole assed line of Worshippers stood waiting, most of them in pairs. Just about all of those pairs being one man, one woman, and if none of the women were obviously in a family way, a sort of general softness hinted at the same thing their bare bellies did. They wanted a blessing for their under construction rugrat.

The second couple in line at the Phileo Temple, Cherry and Giselle, did not surprise me. Okay, still a little weird which one was carrying the proto-crotch goblin, but I kinda figured Cherry would both want any available blessings for his... Our kid, not to mention earning a place near the head of the line. Seeing Larry escort Bonnie up to the Altar certainly surprised me though.

"Good Evening, Commander." Trust Larry to be formal about something like this. I pulled them both in for a hug, then gestured toward Bonnie's bare belly.

"Already?" She just laughed.

"It's been over a year, Commander." Larry even chuckled a little when I just sat there and worked my mouth, trying to reconcile myself to the inexorable passage of time. Which, y'know, was apparently not entirely mandatory for me, which might be why I had so little real connection to the fact that it passed, even as I marked each and every Day that went by. Scrambling for something like normalcy, I hovered a hand over her belly.

"May I?" She just grinned at me.

"I think everyone would be disappointed if you don't."

"Still polite to ask." At which point she reached down and gently brought my hand in contact with her belly. Warm. Soft. The slightest flicker of something under the surface. I'm not sure how long I stood there, but after that timeless moment Bonnie cleared her throat and murmured, "thank you, Commander, but there are others waiting." So after a parting hug, I gestured for them to move on and Cherry to move up. That scene repeated itself over and over, couple after couple, through the entire evening.

I'm still a little embarrassed that I missed most of the names, but then at least half of them weren't regular Worshippers at my Temples, at least not ones who came to Revels. But each and every one came to me with the tiniest bit of awe and apprehension, but left smiling, reassured, and maybe content. My biggest surprise of the night was at the Troll Temple though. First of all, after a quick embrace in greeting, Furtim herself nodded toward the Altar. Which was not empty. Instead it had half a dozen oblong...

Eggs. There were half a dozen eggs on my altar. By both her preening stance and the lack of any other she-Trolls, Furtim's eggs. I leaned over, gently stroking each of them in turn. The shells were leathery and dry, and I felt a kind of rhythmic pulsing from inside of each. Just to confirm, I asked, "yours?" She smiled at me, which is a sorta frightening sight on a ten foot tall Troll, and proudly yet quietly stated, "ours."