Chapter 441
You’ve always been cautious of overstepping your bounds as the leader of the Mustelid Corps. Part of why you were chosen, Captain Inoktuk, was due to your prudence. The Council has always trusted you to make the correct decision when the time to choose is upon you. We continue to trust in you to do so, so, for the final time before you are taken from your position due to inaction and continuous seeking for the approval of the Council, you are trusted to make all decisions relating to the treatment of the burgeoning Empire of Keel and keelish. You must merely report to us your choices, and if there are changes that need to be made, we will speak with you about them. Until such a time, know that you speak with our authority, and time is of the utmost essence.
As a favor to you, we give the approval you so desperately want. The choice to grant some of the nearly spoiled stores of leviathan blubber to the Keel as a payment was brilliant. Now go make more decisions.
-Missive to Scout Captain Inoktuk of the Mustelid Corps from the assembled body of the Council of the Union.
I strode from working with Ytte into my home. Sybil and my children waited for me, their voices excited and playful, and as they noticed me walking in, Ragzak started to walk towards me while his sisters seemed to come to the conclusion that they needed to stop him. He fought to steady his stance but before he could begin to walk forward, the little females crawled forward and wrapped up his legs. His plans thwarted, Ragzak whined, then snapped. He bent down with his mouth wide open and tried to bite Thia’s head. Though his rage and desire were plain, he was far from coordinated enough to strike her, and with alarming coordination, Hashthi and Thia both rolled, making Ragzak fall.
Before his head could crack against the ground, I darted forward and caught him while also pulling my daughters up. Despite the slight potential for danger, I just found myself laughing as I squeezed all three tight and scratched my jaw along theirs. There was some measure of competition between them, but as I hummed with [Cultivating Presence] draining the reserves from my sonilphon, all three drew calm. I rocked each as I walked towards Sybil, who’d stayed laying on the bed as she watched me with our little ones. Her tail twitched across the bed, her scales making a pleasant sound on the furs as she rose to greet me.
“No, rest, my mate.” I stepped forward and deposited our daughters on one side of her and our son on the other. “Have you eaten your meal yet today?”
“These ones eat whenever there is food in the room,” Sybil chuckled while she rolled over to better serve as a wall between the warring hatchlings, “while I have yet to eat a full meal today. It was my understanding that we were to take our meal all together, is that not correct?”
I laughed as I nodded. “That is, indeed, correct. And then, we can speak about whatever you desire.”
***