Chapter 104: Chapter 35

As we proceeded to the large valley cleared for these events, the snow slick under our feet, the pain affecting everyone as our hearts broke for all the fallen. Tiny coffins for the little ones were in the front, then teens, then the adults. The people mourned as they howled and cried out. Jean giving a beautiful speech, Rugan beside me once again, clenching my hand as tears fell from his eyes.

“We lay our beloved in the valley, their ashes spread by the wind, and may they live on through the earth.” He nodded at Rugan who began stepping forward never releasing my hand as he looked down to me.

“We need to set fire to the coffins.” He whispered as I nodded. He took a large breath in and upon exhaling, the nether fire unleashed out of him. I called on my fire element and blew acrossed my palm. The fire engulfing the coffins in a rainbow of color, our fires mixing until everything was ash, Alastar taking Rugan’s place holding my hand as he pushed out the wind, pulling on the air element I did the same, blowing across my palm and scattering the ashes. Lazarath joined me as we placed our hands to the earth and had the earth absorb the ashes as the field was wiped of snow from Shura. Elre came beside me as he pushed light into the ground as we protected the plants here. My tears hitting the soil as I saw the souls leaving the earth, casting the spell for everyone to see their loved ones wave their farewells before walking away with their shifter animal into the sky.

Exhaustion pulled at my muscles, tears trailed down the soot, blood, and dirt caked on my face. Looking at myself in the windows as we passed by I cringed looking at myself. We sent home the other warriors, once there, Alex would send the word out to the other villages. We would need to up security with everyone, placing more warriors, wards, and spells. The warriors were trained pretty hard now, so pushing on them more training would just wear them out and make the training pointless. We would be installing telemirrors here, though Jean was against them at first, this attack changed his mind quickly. What could have taken us minutes took us hours, losing precious time, and resulting in more deaths.

The next subject was the soulless themselves. We covered their eyes and ears, and a mage knocking them unconscious as we tried to get information. We would take them to The Dungeon, it was miles away from any village or Austreal. Strictly for prisoners who needed to stay away from civilization, and if they escaped they couldn’t sneak around killing people. This also covered our asses from anyone getting Austreal’s direct coordinates, or using that person to pull more enemies over. Once each of them were secure in their cells, chained, and charted, we continued home. Finally trudging through the door, I felt the grime setting in, wanting a shower, trying to find the energy push through a hot shower. We had been going hard after the battle, after the death service, giving homes back to those who would be on the streets, getting food, medical treatment, and fresh water to those who didn’t have access. Night had already fallen as I turned on the hot water, the guys off helping the warriors with their mounts, supplies, and other tasks. I wish I had gone to their academy, with how tired I felt I felt like a pampered princess while they roughed it with the troops. I scrubbed my scalp and hair until the water finally ran clear, scrubbing the dried blood from every crevice it wedged itself. The smell of smoke finally dissipating after three scrub downs. I sighed finally feeling clean, hearing Aspen whimper I walked into his room with bottle in hand. As I rocked and swayed, humming him soft lullabies, I had noticed he had many of his features from Alastar, but not one of them stopped claiming him as their son. They did the same with Edna and Lucian, introducing their sons and daughter. Our children adored everyone of them. They finally slowed their growth, matching Levi who just turned 2 and they were just hitting their 10 months.

Upon further research, with the strain between Vladymir and I, having Alpha blood and Elemental in them, they went through a cycle of rapid growth to help secure their survival if something were to happen to me. Granted my mates and I do argue, but its over minor things and quickly resolved. Major things such as steps in the children’s schooling we sat down and find possible solutions in teaching them, helping them control their powers easier, and different plans to try. None of them ever saying to rip a piece of the children. Now that we kept them in a peaceful environment, they returned to a normal growth rate so we had decided to enroll them into the preschool program. Letting them socialize with children their own age, though they were majorly ahead, we placed them with the toddlers. We wanted them to be children, to enjoy their childhood.

As Aspen finished his bottle, his eye blinked heavily as he fought off sleep. My energy drained from the night before last of being up with him and his tummy problems, then the battle, and now on night three he was trying everything in his power to stay awake. My energy was depleted as I swayed him, humming, and rubbing his little forehead. Large hands gently scooping Aspen up from my hands startled me for a moment.

“Hello bright eyes,” Lazarath whispered. “we giving mommy a run for her money again.” He hummed as Aspen cooed to him. Alastar wrapping around me as he pulled me from the room, lifting me in his arms until we reached our bed. Rugan pulling back the covers as Shura handed me a bowl of warm stew. Elre combing my hair as I ate.

“I don’t see how you do it Anya.” Rugan said as he sat beside me his head tilted.

“Do what?” I questioned him not knowing what he was talking about.

“You stayed up three days ago to now. You woke, did your duties as queen, played with the children and when night fell poor Aspen had tummy problems, instead of allowing us to help you shooed us back to bed, then up another day repeating the same things and then called to battle, never slowing down until things were in order, this morning you helped with a death service, secured the prisoners, and as we return you have already showered and was right back to tending to Aspen.” Shura explained.

“Don’t sell yourselves short, I feel like a pampered princess compared to you five.”

“We learned to take naps in spurts, how to maintain our energy, and then to hide our fatigue.” Elre added.

“You on the other hand knew none of that, not once did you rest, and you still held your head high.” Alastar looked awestruck.

“When the hell did yall take naps?” I looked slightly offended.

“The ride over to the Northern Village.” Lazarath’s voice came from the foot of the bed. “Aspen is sound asleep.” He smiled.

“Edna and Lucian are tucked in as well.” Rugan smiled.

“But like we were saying, Anya,” Elre added as he finished braiding my hair loosely. “you are nothing like a pampered princess when it comes to being a queen. You kept pushing yourself no matter how bad you felt to give some peace to your people. That’s not a pampered princess that’s a true queen.”

“Now, with your stomach full, you need to rest.” Shura fluffed my pillow as Alastar took my empty bowl. “We are on baby duty tonight.” He smiled as my eyes fluttered trying to stay awake as they laid all around me. As their warmth enveloped me, the battle with sleep was lost and I slipped deeply. I never woke, the men making sure each took their turn feeding Aspen, and in the morning they redirected the children and took them to play in the fields. Making snow men, women, and Edna’s new found obsession cows. I woke as they had returned, feeling groggy from sleeping past my normal hours, I sat in my pajamas, watching a movie sipping on a warm cup of coffee as they came in giggling telling me what they did. Lazarath unbundling little Aspen as Alastar grabbed him a bottle, Rugan calling the children to the table for lunch as Shura and Elre raced them. Lazarath finishing up the bottle began burping Aspen, but being stubborn like his mother, Aspen just wouldn’t burp. I took him as I laughed at Lazarath trying to bribe Aspen with a cookie. Aspen burping as I cradled his head and rubbed his back in a circular motion. His little eyes finally closing for his nap.

“I see how it is,” Lazarath took a dramatic pose, “Daddy plays with him all morning, feeds, hims, changes him, and then mommy gets him to burp easily.” He smiled as he winked at me. Kissing Aspen’s forehead as he takes him from my arms and takes him to his crib.

Rugan shooing me as I try to help clean up causing me to giggle as he wraps me, kissing me neck, and placing me outside of the kitchen, each one doing the same as they manage to get me to sit down and finish my movie. The children down for naps, our home clean, and it being a friday, my office was off limits. The Northern Village was in mourning but everything was repaired. Their food supply was back to normal, and the water had been tested thoroughly and was uncontaminated from the battle and fire.