Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Babies

It has been a few months since Teresa gave birth to her twin daughters and she honestly thought it was a miracle to have survived the delivery as she always had a frail constitution. 

 

Right now, she was setting up her meager vegetable stall in the market square with her babies in a crib further inside. She glanced back at their sleeping countenances and found herself being filled with as much love as she ever thought possible.

 

She found it adorable how the two looked identical, as it goes with twins. They had inherited her nose, straight and narrow, distinguishable even from a young age, and hair color, both an enchanting midnight blue that made one think of a sky devoid of stars at dusk. 

 

The fuzzy ears and tail in that same blue and striped by black lines with splotches of white spoke of their unmistakable tigerkin heritage, as did their small canines that were sharper than a typical human’s. 

 

Teresa was always worried about them growing up without a beastkin parent as she herself was human, so she did try to talk to her beastkin friends about how to best raise her children.

 

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAH,” wailed the younger twin suddenly as Teresa was arranging her produce in its appropriate display cases.

 

“Sigh, honestly Hiema,” said Teresa as she made her way to the crib and gently stroked her daughter’s forehead “, It’s okay, it’s okay, I’m here and your big sister Aesta is right beside you. You wouldn’t want to wake her up, would you?”

 

As soon as those words left Teresa’s mouth, Aesta’s eyes slowly opened as she gazed from her mother to her younger sister. She then wrapped her arms around Hiema and started to rub her cheeks onto her forehead, just beside Teresa’s hand.

 

This calmed down Hiema as she instead turned to Aesta and started hugging her too and laughing with childish glee. Teresa’s heart melted as she watched how affectionate the two were with each other, her eyes taking in theirs and seeing the mild predatory shape they would take in the future.

 

It was also the one place she found where they differed. Hiema had inherited her royal blue eyes, but Aesta was heterochromatic, with her left eye royal blue and her right a captivating amber that shone like weathered gold.

 

Her eye looks just as striking as his, thought Teresa with a faraway look in her eyes. She shook her head and headed back to the front of the stall as soon her daughters went back to sleep in each other’s arms. 

 

Alright, I still have a couple more minutes until daybreak, so that should leave me enough time to finish tidying up. 

 

Teresa finished as soon as the first few customers of the day started walking down the square and visiting their preferred merchants and vendors. The hustle and bustle of the city reflected in the citizens and tourists that frequently head to this place to try their hand at the local monstrous wildlife and the dungeon. 

 

The frontier city of Walhaearn was bordered on the south and east by the Gorthwrdraig Great Forest. The forest covered the lower third of the continent and housed all manner of diverse flora and fauna that sustained a large part of the city’s economy. 

 

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Mythical and exotic resources have been recovered in the heart of the forest where an ancient dragon had supposedly made its lair. This legend had been further supported by the salvaged draconic wood, heartflame flowers, and other flora recorded to be induced by dragons’ unique mana.

 

Mercenaries, miners, herbalists, and all who are daring enough to brave the dangers of the great forest have made the city their base, hoping to uncover deposits of draconic flora, fauna, ores, and more.

 

The outskirts of the forest are also rich in uncommon herbs and wildlife that could fetch a hefty price for both their aesthetic value and practical uses. 

 

Even more lucrative was the presence of the Gorthwrdraig Great Forest Dungeon, one of the oldest dungeons on the continent. Home to many mystical and magical existences that can only be described as monstrous, the dungeon houses a myriad number of monsters underground, with its entrance being a several meter tall hole on the side of a decayed grand oak.

 

All materials such as blood, bone, meat, and other body parts of the monsters have some form of value, whether it be as food, alchemical ingredients, and enchantment components, to name a few.

 

Even some of the local produce being grown all over the kingdom had its roots in magical research from materials recovered in either the dungeon or the great forest. Teresa’s main crops, the tuberosums, was a prominent example. 

 

It was a starchy violet tuber with yellow spots across its rough exterior. It was grown as an important food crop for its ease of cultivation and high nutrition. It was recovered from a plant monster in the dungeon that made use of tendrils that sprouted from underground tubers.

 

Teresa had put them into the two forward display boxes, along with the pastinacas, cepas, and other crops. She was debating whether or not to make some last minute adjustments when her first customer of the day walked up to her stall.

 

Forgetting her previous musings and reminisces, Teresa quickly adopted her usual managerial disposition and tended to her buyers, sometimes chatting a few acquaintances and friends or haggling with some of the more stubborn customers. All this while diligently checking on and nursing her babies.

 

And so her day went until near sundown, signaling the end of her work day and the start of the night market. Teresa quickly closed up the stall and packed up the unsold vegetables to her small hand-drawn wagon to be used for dinner that day. After making sure her coins were secured tightly in her drawstring pouch and tucked away under the boxes of produce, she cradled her daughters out of the crib and onto her makeshift sling, securing them snugly to her front. 

 

As always, both her daughters were wide awake, with Aesta looking around the marketplace with wonder in her eyes, and Hiema clinging tightly onto her and Teresa’s hands, focusing her attention completely on her sister and stealing quick glances elsewhere.

 

Teresa swears that Aesta’s eyes would usually linger on the various signs throughout, but she couldn’t be reading them, could she? Teresa supposes that it might be time to find some story books to read to both of them.

 

And so the mother and her daughters went, away from the bustling night bazaar and towards their home on the outskirts of the city.