Chapter 104: Chapter 104

My little body and Citrine are the last to show up in our large living room. Amber gathered everyone from Opal’s home that was 5^th tier, which included Onyx and Daria, but there are also some elves that I don’t recognize. They are apparently my grandbabies that spend most of their time in the dungeons. Amber says they’ve been a bit reclusive, but are good kids. I gave them hugs earlier and they told me about the fun fights they’ve had in the dungeons. There are four of them, and they formed a party, so I won’t be able to join them most likely. Unfortunate.

There are 5^th tiers at the smaller camps, but we didn’t ask them to help, since they might be next. We did warn them to be careful, and have someone designated to run to tell us if they get attacked. Jessica won’t be joining us for helping Dragon Roost, but is here for the planning part. She’ll be headed to Central after this, which is the name they gave the camp they were building. It makes sense since it’s between Ruby’s Rest and Opal’s home.

“I don’t think your other bodies will make it back in time to help Opal. I don’t recognize the name of the camp you were collared in, and I have intel on every camp out past Canton.” Ruby tells us when I mention Layla’s Love Nest. That’s unfortunate, since that would be four more 5^th tiers on our side. I ask how they would have gotten my body out that far, since I’m so heavy, but Citrine answers “I saw the attackers at Dragon Roost had wagons, so your unconscious body was probably put in one.” I don’t know what a wagon is, but I can ask later. It’s not really important to the plan anyways.

“So Amber will stay and defend Opal’s Home since she’s heavily pregnant. We’ll take half of the 4^th tiers of Opal’s Home with us, and head to Dragon Roost straight away. I’ll be carrying little mom, and we’ll fly ahead to survey the situation from the air. Mom will go to Ruby’s Rest with her Bunny body, so if we end up needing the help, we can get it.” Citrine says, and I see everyone agreeing. My Bunny body seems to be faster, so it was picked. Ruby then adds “Opal, tell Penny to get everyone into formation. She should have already sent runners to the other camps that will come back and inform her if they get attacked.” I nod and start heading that way, my big ears flopping forward with my head. I’ve gone back and forth to Ruby’s Rest enough times, that I won’t get lost anymore. Probably.

It doesn’t take long to get the 4^th tiers up to speed and ready to leave. There have been quite a few zombie horde attacks on the forts and surrounding camps, so they already have a system in place. I’m a bit sad I was passed out and couldn’t help fight the zombies off, but I’m glad the camps are okay. Liberation and Sue’s farm moving closer has really helped with the response time for defense. Steph decided to keep the name when she built the new camp, which is nice. It reminds me that I have family that isn’t my babies.

With everyone ready, we start heading towards Dragon Roost in a run. We don’t have path’s through the forest from here to Dragon Roost, so we can’t use the fancy formations Ruby was talking about. We shouldn’t lose anyone along the way though, since everyone here is at least 4^th tier. Citrine lifts my Eidolon body up, and we start flying. It really is exciting being so high up in the air, and seeing the tops of the trees below me. Dumb trees are the short ones now. I laugh to myself, since they like to be the tall ones.

When we finally get to Dragon Roost, flying over, the place looks destroyed and empty. All the buildings look like they’ve been knocked down by large objects. The only thing still standing is parts of the wall surrounding it. There doesn’t seem to be anyone here, but we land and start searching anyways. By the time everyone else catches up, we’ve only found a few dead bodies. Nobody we know from the family, but it’s still sad to see. Citrine says to everyone “The dungeon is gone, so whoever attacked, decided to destroy the Land instead of taking it over. Everyone help look for survivors, since there might still be people trapped in the rubble.”

We don’t end up finding anyone alive, but find more bodies under the collapsed buildings. Citrine and I both recognize one of them. It’s Junior, my son. My chest hurts again, so I hug his body and cry. He’s dirty and covered in blood, but I don’t care. I had lost children before, with the frogmen battle and my monster children, but it never felt… personal before. I never got to know them or talk with the ones who died before they were killed. This felt different, this hurt and makes me feel like something is missing in my chest. Junior was my baby, and he was a nice boy. Now he’s dead.

I was warned we might find family members, but somehow I wasn’t expecting it. Most of my kids have Firm now, and it gives me some confidence that they won’t be too weak. Junior didn’t have Firm, but would it have helped? Would he be alive if he did? My head was cut off by someone, and I’m even harder to hurt than my kids with it. No, convincing my kids without Firm to stay somewhere safe wouldn’t have helped. Dragon Roost was supposed to be safe, since it always had been before.

Where are my other babies that were here? I start feeling agitated… are they dead too? “Where is everyone else who was here?” I manage to ask Ruby, who started hugging me from behind at some point, and I just now noticed. She squeezes me and says “We have people with classes for searching and hunting looking, but they must have used skills. We haven’t found anything yet.” I let out a ragged breath, focusing myself, and ask “What do we do with the bodies?”

Ruby answers “We have a few Healers that have classes related to growth and trees. They’ve been using skills to feed the bodies to the trees. Some believe it’s turning death into something beautiful, helping the trees we all love to grow.” For some reason I don’t mind the thought of a tree eating my baby’s bodies if they’re already dead. Trees are the first things I can remember after all. I know my elf babies all really like trees, but Junior wasn’t an elf. I turn to Citrine and ask her, but she responds “Humans used to bury our dead or burn them, but we can’t bury them with the zombies. I feel like Junior would prefer the tree thing over having his body burned though.” I nod, since fire is how we burn monster bodies, not family members.

We end up following Ruby to where the Healers are feeding the other bodies to the trees. When we get there, an elf that looks like my red headed wife says “Place him by the roots.” So I lay him down at the base of the tree and step back. I see his body glow and then disappear, leaving his clothes behind. The tree’s leaves seem to get more vibrant, and I see it wiggle a little. It was probably just my imagination though. I wipe my eyes and hug Ruby, Sapphire and Citrine. Onyx is one of the people with tracking skills, so I’ll have to hug her later. Pops is going to be sad when we find him.

After a couple hours, they don’t end up finding anything, and we’ve finished searching what was once Dragon Roost. Citrine says that with the dungeon and other structures gone, it means it would have to be rebuilt before it will be considered Land to the system. It’s getting dark, so the trackers won’t be able to find anything new, and it will be too dangerous for them to stay here. So we’re heading back to Opal’s Home. Some of the people with tracking classes say they’ll be coming back tomorrow, but we shouldn’t expect anything new. All we can do now is hope, and investigate the nearby towns. Canton is high on the list, for obvious reasons.

Ruby will be going back to her fort, since we’re all worried about another attack. My Bunny body will be staying there for the night, since it’s been so long since Ruby has seen me. I’ll also be able to let everyone else know if Ruby’s Rest does end up getting attacked. Amber will be a bit sad, since she called sleeping next to Bunny me tonight, but it’s a tough situation. She’ll understand, and if she insists I can just swap one of my other bodies for that one. I wonder if Amber has given birth yet, I didn’t even think to ask who she was pregnant with. It’s probably Marble, since she said he’d been helping her with sex for free points.

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When we get back to Opal’s Home, no one is in much of a mood for chatting, so we all head to the back yard. There we find Amber cooking food for everyone. She looks great, but it might just be that I miss her after what happened at Dragon Roost. Her belly is gone, so she must have given birth already while we were gone. “Oh, everyone is back. I heard from the runner that you didn’t find anyone. Come here wife, I need to feed you.” Amber says, taking some meat and sitting down. So I sit next to her and she tells Sapphire, and Citrine “There’s enough for everyone, I know you must be hungry.”

Onyx went to her boyfriend’s place, and Cindy went to her room to sleep, so it’s just the 4 of us tonight. As long as you count me as one instead of my two bodies. My Eidolon body ends up sitting in Citrine’s lap. She’s really grown attached to my small self. “Jessica is going to be living with Lyle in Central from now on right?” Sapphire asks, and Amber responds “Yup, that’s what she said, why do you ask?” Sapphire shakes her head and tells us “Well the bed just seems like it will feel more empty tonight. Onyx is living with her boyfriend, Ruby is at her fort, and Jessica will be away with Lyle.” I agree, but say “We can all get extra close for snuggles tonight, and maybe we can invite some of my grandbabies tomorrow night.”

“I like that idea.” Citrine chimes in, and I see Amber and Sapphire nodding in agreement. “We should check to see if Cindy wants to sleep with us tonight, you know she has those cute ears and tail now.” Sapphire says, standing up. I tell her “Go see if she’s still awake then, if not, let her sleep.” My blue haired daughter smiles and heads into the house, only to return with a frown saying “She was already asleep.” That’s a bit sad, but Cindy didn’t sleep with us before, so it probably wouldn’t have happened anyways. I hear the system chime, and everyone else stiffens too.

Ding!

 

Suddenly, two little metal bars with balls on each end, appear in my hand. I look at them, and they’re the nipple piercings mentioned. I show them to everyone as Cindy comes into the back yard “The screen woke me up, what did everyone get?” Amber ended up not getting anything, along with Citrine. They must not have ranked high enough for a prize. Cindy got a random Epic item, which was an anklet that makes her faster. Sapphire got a crown that would let her control more summons or monsters. They end up trading. “Now I can move around and heal more people.” Sapphire says, while Cindy adds “And I can control more zombies with my Necromancer class.” So it sounds like they both like the trade.

I offer one of the piercings to Amber, since she’s my wife, but she grabs my hand and shows it to me. I’m not sure what she’s trying to say, but she sighs and says “The ring. We already have the ring for our marriage, you should give the other piercing to Ruby.” I look at my hand again, and sure enough, on it is a ring I completely forgot about. It’s not like it can fall off my finger by itself, and it can’t hurt me from moving around because I’m tough. So I just never thought about it.

(Ring of Loving Matrimony)You may share Health with the wearer of the matching ring. Effect only when worn by System spouses.

Amber has one too. It’s the rings we wore when she asked me to marry her. I give her a kiss and she giggles, saying “It’s okay, I forgot about it too for a while. I think they are more comfortable then rings would be normally.” I think back, and there really wasn’t a time that they would have been all that helpful. I’ll try to remember them, just in case. I tell Ruby about it with my Bunny body. We were all in bed about to sleep when the screen showed up. It’s Ruby, Tasha, Pepper and me. Ruby got a structure for Ruby’s Rest from her ranking, but the other two didn’t get anything.

“I’m not really interested in it Opal, but tell Amber she can have it if she finally lets me have sex with her again.” Ruby says before laughing. So I tell Amber and then relay her response back “She says it’s a deal, and then called you a sucker.” Both of my wives laugh, and I can’t help giggling myself, since they’re so cute. “Oh that reminds me wife, I wanted to ask you if it’s okay to add Penny to Tasha and my relationship.” I tilt my head to the side, confused why she would ask me, and say “Isn’t it you and Tasha’s relationship?” Ruby looks at Tasha and says “See I told you.” Tasha sighs and says “Well even if you knew she’d say it was okay, she’s your wife, you have to ask.”

I guess that makes sense, so I nod. Penny gives me a big hug and says “Thanks grandma, I’m so happy.” I have to remember sometimes that she isn’t Ruby. I pat her head and say “Ruby is my wife, but you’re family so I trust you to take care of her okay?” She gets a serious face and nods, agreeing to take care of Ruby. I smile, since it’s nice to have more of my family protecting each other. It’s even better that it makes them happy doing so. I wiggle a little, my new ears flopping around a bit on my head.

I don’t know how Amber and I are supposed to wear these nipple piercings.

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