AR Chapter 510 (Patreon)

Sybil

“Release.”

Sybil threaded the faintest hint of her magic into her voice, and Thia didn’t hesitate to cease biting her brother’s tail. He, in turn, re-doubled his focus on his own fight against Hashthi, which Sybil only allowed to continue for another handful of seconds before pulling those two apart. She didn’t miss the fact that the sisters were starting to be forced to depend on increasingly vicious attacks to maintain the upper hand against their brother. The castes for each of the children were becoming more apparent, even though there was nothing completely set yet.

Ragzak was larger than his sisters, already developing broader shoulders and a thick tail base. Maybe it was just that he ate more than his sisters, or that he was fighting against both for the majority of each day, but he was sturdier and heavier. His bronze scales, though truly beautiful, weren’t quite hard enough to defend him against his sisters’ fangs. However, they were enough to keep him from bleeding each time they ganged up on him. And he was stubborn enough to need that. Painfully stubborn. If he felt like he was able to win a fight, he wouldn’t stop until he was completely exhausted or victorious, and if he felt he was losing, he would try to get his hits in, however much he could before he was fully defeated.

His efforts were always comparatively brutish, when looking at his sisters. They carefully maneuvered before making any attack, and Thia especially made sure to become more of a grappler than her siblings. Where that inclination came from, Sybil had no idea, but where Ragzak forced them to the ground through force, the others twisted and used every other advantage.

The fight died out as Sybil interposed herself. Then, as they were forced apart, all three of the children realized how hungry they were and hurried towards Sybil, begging for snacks. She laughed, but clacked her teeth. All three knew exactly what that sound meant and went totally still while staring at her.

“You all got distracted while bathing. I will get you clean, then you can eat.”

Hashthi, as always, was the fastest to hurry in front of her mother, hopping into a sitting position as her tail kept swishing against the sand. For the children, the sand baths weren’t the same, extremely fine stuff their father insisted on. Instead, it was rougher and nearly impossible to actually sink into to make sure they couldn’t be smothered. 

For the three little ones, it turned out that it was a fighting pit nearly as frequently as it was a bath, but Sybil didn’t mind having opportunities for them to fight it out without ruining their clothing. It was painfully difficult to make the cloth for the robes, but she, along with the Kha’Tal, had all come to the conclusion that it was necessary to ensure that the members of the royal family were constantly showing their status.

Ragzak and Thia both complained about having to wait, but once their mother started to turn her attention towards them, the faint narrowing of her eyes had them both become silent. Sybil had to laugh again as she saw a thought cross Thia’s mind. She wandered up to her sister and grabbed her hand.

“Clean me.”

As soon as she gave the command, she plopped down in front of Hashthi and scooted closer. Hashthi understood what her sister was asking for and didn’t hesitate to take small handfuls of sand and start rubbing them haphazardly on Thia’s back. Seeing that it was an option, Ragzak went and looked at his sister, who had just recently been chewing on his tail. His head downcast, he came closer, settled onto his rear, and scooted closer. He didn’t fully turn his back to his sister, aware of what she might do, but she quickly let bygones be bygones, even if she was the one who committed the offense.

Sybil smiled, watching her children run handfuls of sand across each other, trying to get each other clean. Each was making only clumsy efforts, so although the worst of any dirtiness was washed, Sybil took time to lovingly scrub each of her children from snout to tail. Even if they’d all done just right, she admitted to herself that she would have taken the opportunity to wash each of the little ones. It was a precious opportunity that she enjoyed, both watching them learn how to take what place they felt they deserved, as well as to tend to them while they were still small and weak.

Once each had been bathed completely, Sybil dressed each one and nodded.

“It is time,” she said, bringing them all into her arms. They were getting big, and heavy too, but she could still manage to hold them without too much of an issue. She strode from the room, where the three Kha’Tal Khatif assigned to the children waited. Sybil enjoyed having the baths to herself, but wrangling and dressing each of the children was, at best, a frustrating endeavor. To attempt to do each in turn was an exercise in futility.

Passing each off to their caretaker, the children were quickly dressed and returned to her, where she sat each at a table and waited for the food to be brought.

Starting from the time that an individual evolved to Khatif, sitting upright was feasible, but not at all comfortable. There were chairs that could function for that, but the eventual conclusion was that leaning forward while half sitting was the most comfortable way to eat if at a table. Many of the inhabitants of the empire still ate with their hands, which was easy and possibly more natural. However, what little information Sybil had been able to gather from the people of other nations had told her that it would be considered to be more civilized to sit at a table to eat.

As such, the chair was born.

There was a padded seat for the tops of the thighs and base of the tail, along with a curved rest to lean their chest against. This meant that the tail could be comfortably laid out behind them as they ate and leaned forward over the table, and the design had finally been perfected. The children had initially resisted these chairs, but now, they enjoyed being able to sit at about the same level as their parents as their food was brought in.

A plate was laid out in front of each of the children, fresh, bloody cuts of what smelled to be oxfiend for each. According to the people that had told her about civilization, other countries would demand that food be cooked for them, but for the children, Sybil would give them what was natural and delicious. For herself, a cut of the same beast was prepared, though its outside cooked dark brown. When she drew a claw through the meat, she could see that the inside was still raw, and she hoped that perhaps the taste wouldn’t be too awful like some of these experiments had been.

“I was told about a technique called searing,” the cook reported to Sybil. “I do not know if this is exactly what was intended, but if I have an opportunity, I will speak with one of the Beastkin and present this to them. It’s intended to maintain some of the flavor there, but I cannot say that I know what they want.”

“Let me know how that goes,” Sybil flared her frills. “I will let you know what I think.”

The cook stepped out of the room, leaving Sybil to eat with her children. She’d taken this window of time to cease worrying about the Empire and whatever needed her attention, so she simply enjoyed the time with her children. Even as her mind flicked constantly to her mate and his journey south. It had been two weeks since he’d left, so he would be within the MIsti Hawar’s lands by now. 

Taking revenge for the eggs and subordinates slain, she was sure. She only needed to wait to hear how he did it.