Born From A Divine Gamble

All those things took equally long and left him with barely any free time to just sit down and relax with Calla. In the end, he had to cut down on training and rely on his school self to do it all in order to breathe.

Life with Calla was really fun for him. He had gotten very used to it after a while. He really enjoyed spending so much time close to her, he loved to sit down with her while he wrote letters and read papers, he liked so stand with her as she cooked and sometimes help if she would let him. Her gentle smile was a strong part of his life now.

Like back then, she still didn"t talk much but the more he spent time with her, the more he understood her easily. He could tell with just a glance in her direction what she liked and what she didn"t and he felt compelled to please her with as many things as possible.

If Calla felt dissatisfied with the vegetables and wanted her own garden, Emp made it so. He moved the statue he brought back from Red-water further to the side of the house and arranged a large s.p.a.ce in front of the house for her to garden as she please, he even brought her seeds from Bêtéclair. She didn"t have to say a word for it and he was rewarded with a pretty smile and a warm loving kiss.

If she felt that the house was too noisy, he"d tell the girls to go play outside and when she felt it was too silent, he"d strike a conversation with someone. She never had to say anything aloud anymore for him to get it but even then, he never felt a point were she was asking for too much. What she was asking for was always simple and easy to provide but it brought her so much happiness it made him feel fulfilled.

Calla too did a lot for him, it was almost like she was in his head, he found it fascinating. If he was busy and felt tired, she would come to him and sit down at his side to provide him some comfort. If he worked too hard during the day and felt starved, she"d make an especially big supper for the group. Whenever he was unsure about something, she"d make her voice heard and provide him her opinion, letting him make the decision more easily.

Thanks to her, he didn"t push the Porter sisters too hard and more importantly, the house kept its homely atmosphere. This and all those little things that made his life easier, more enjoyable, even simply her presence, he was very thankful for it all.

It was for all those reason that he loved her all the more and why he felt so much guiltier that he hadn"t managed to provide her with what she wanted the most. They were married for almost a year now and her belly remained flat and smooth. It was very pretty, sure, but her and her mother wanted to see it bulging with new life.

He had no idea why it was not happening and neither did she. They both knew exactly how to do it and tried many times but it was just not yielding any results. Emp wasn"t in any sort of hurry but it still left a sour taste in his mouth. Not about a family that wasn"t growing but about the uneasiness that was rising in its stead in Calla.

He did not like how the feeling that something might be wrong with her was getting stronger and he tried his very best to change her mind and talk about other things. He didn"t want her to beat herself over something they had no control over. It hadn"t even been a full year yet since they became an official couple, he wanted her to give it time to work but it was her dream to have a large family like the one she grew up in and every month it failed shook her to the core.

For all he knew, it probably was something wrong with him instead. Calla was perfect the way she was, there was nothing wrong with her and never would be whatever happened in the future.

He hoped that keeping her mind busy with other things like the ladies-in-waiting and what they would teach her would distract her sufficiently until the problem fixed itself.

With that goal in mind, he wrote a great amount of letters, carefully worded by him and Calla and examined by Galana for possible mistakes.

For now, they had settled to send positive letters for small group and have them come for a visit were they"d meet and decide whether they wanted to see them stay or not. The rest would be sent letters stating that Emp didn"t need them for now.

Thanks to the input of his grandfather and some further thinking, they had refined their choices since their trip to Bêtéclair and the candidates now only numbered nine. With the s.p.a.ce they currently had, there was no way Emp could accept all nine but it was still worth it to have each of them come and see who would fit in the best with the rest of his strange household.

There was of course Kaisla, Emp would give her the letter directly in school. He didn"t know if she"d accept leaving his grandfather"s side or not but he already knew her so it would be good if she could come meet Calla.

There was the fourth daughter of baron Starbeetle. The emblem of their house was a five headed beetle spread like a star and their motto was "Union in disharmony." According to Aminui, the founders of that n.o.ble house was a group of identical quintuplets who never got along. However, they still worked perfectly together and showed that cooperation made them stronger despite their differences. The girl was supposedly snarky but applied the lessons of her ancestors and made any team she was in work. Emp was curious to see that.

Then there was the Greathorn girl, the only daughter of a count. The emblem of their house was a large war-horn with thunder running around it and their motto was "Bellowing thunder roaring anger". Emp had learned that the girl was indeed good with spears like her father who wielded one crafted by Marcy but she had a soft character far apart from the rest of her family. This personality made her a good candidate to spend time with Calla who was weak of both heart and body.

There was also the Sorenthal girl that had been mentioned many times over. She was the fifth child of Baron Sorenthal and first daughter. Her house was known for the kennels of forest spiked wolves they kept and of course, the creature was also figured prominently on their banners and emblems. Their motto was "feel the spine piercing pride" and this pride was applied very heavily upon strangers and enemies. Aminui told him that she had bad table manners and he read that she never went anywhere without her own wolves whom she loved a whole lot. He wanted to meet her but he was also afraid that the villagers would panic about the wolves, more so those that got hurt back then in the woods when they set out to look for Chase.

There was a Duchêne, the third daughter of a baronet, he heard she was a shut in and not much else. They were represented by a large oak leaf burnt into a s.h.i.+eld and their motto was simply "Cinders of rebirth".

Next there was a Pierécorce who was described as solemn. She was the first child of another baronet from the kingdom of Dugo. They were represented by a stone tower growing leaves and their Motto was "Rock solid where others fall". Emp didn"t know much about her either aside from how people said she had an otherworldly elegance despite her coldness and solemn air.

The next one was the daughter of a knight from Greenpeaks named Lanavera Verepe. Her grandfather was a great knight but her father was only just decent. Emp heard she hoped to bring back her family to the forefront along with her numerous siblings. They were represented by a green sword wrapped in vines and had for motto "Nature always cuts through men".

The last invitations he wanted to send were destined to a pair of fraternal twin sisters born from the knight Whisperstring in the Kingdom of Grandbois. Their banner showed two crossed arrows tied with a string at the middle and their motto sounded a bit ominous: "Silent arrows in the night whispering songs of sorrow". Emp heard that the two sisters were experts with bows like Ivar and never went anywhere without a bow and each other. He also was told by Aminui that they could get very emotional and cried for any little thing not going their way but at least, they kept their heads properly working while in a fight. He decided to send a letter to each even though he was pretty sure that they"d read them together.

After those few invitation letters, he was drowned in the task of writing all of those expressing the opposite. Those were a lot harder to write and he needed dozens of them.

A whole lot of them stated that he didn"t invite them to attend to Calla because they were too young for the task, he wrote more than fifty of those. Then he had to write those where the lack of invitation was simply due to them being from branches family. He had to send two of those for the Fortaciers and five for the Paroiciers plus a lot for the cousins like Graube"s close family.

Then there were a few with more practical reasons like for the Calabatross young lady for whom he wrote that they were too far from the sea and he feared she might feel out of place or for Vinia Porter where he wrote he already had two Porters with him. There was also the Mawshunt girl for whom he wrote that he heard great things about her strength but he employed too many cursed-blood to have her around. He wrote that he would hopefully be able to witness her valor someday soon and that it didn"t seem quite suited to watch over his delicate wife.

He was pretty sure that Calla would have been scared of her instead, the symbol of her house was a boot on a beast skull and their Motto was "Cursed fur we step on curs". They were known for ma.s.sive cursed-blood hunts making them their main enemies rather than common monsters and beasts.

For good or bad, when the new year came, he was pretty much done with writing the letters, he only had a handful left to write. He planned to give Kaisla hers in a few days and charge miss Esther the school receptionist to organize the delivery of the rest for him.

With that out of the way, he made his way to the village festivities with Calla, Galana, Svae, Erin and Leo. They were all dressed for the party which made Emp, who was carrying all the food Calla made for everyone, feel a bit out of place in the middle of all those pretty ladies and cute girls. Emp had not even known they all had those pretty clothes but apparently, the village didn"t want to let one of their own go the new year festivities wearing nothing special and so made sure that the girls had something unusual to wear.

The girls aside from Calla all felt touched that the others would think of them as part of the village like that and even though Galana insisted on paying for the clothes, all four of them couldn"t have been happier and more thankful. Calla"s friends even came in to help everyone prepare and help with each other"s hair.

The sisters in particular were beaming, not only because they liked to feel part of the group but also because they were glad to get a break from training. They were overflowing with energy and ran around as they couldn"t wait for the party. It gave him the impression that their exhausted expression of the previous day was all a lie even if he had been pretty certain he had been effective at draining away their energy. If they still had so much left, maybe it meant it was time to increase the difficulty of the training again.

He had done so regularly since they began training seriously and had taken many inspiration from what his grandfather had him do. After all, if what his grandfather was doing worked for the imperial knights, he had no reason to believe that this wasn"t a proper way to train.

The sisters weren"t close to the level of an imperial knight however so he had to downscale the training quite a bit for them and Gilbert. Even with that being the case, their friends and the villagers in general kept saying he was being too harsh on them. Emp disagreed with them, the only way to improve properly was to reach the limit of what they could do everyday.

He wouldn"t let them overwork themselves but if they took it easy there was no point. They needed to feel the burn in their muscles, the feeling of a lack of air in their lungs after a good effort and more importantly, to feel that rewarding sense of accomplishment from going just a bit further every time. That was what he believed would have them improve.

Even though the girls always complained, they did what he told them to anyway and because of that, they were getting spoiled by the rest. They"d say "poor girls getting worked to the bone by Emp" and give them stuff or encouragement to help them. The village got used to them pretty quickly because of that and it wasn"t long before all of Calla"s friend became their own friends too.

The best example were Eda and Winter who came often. Eda would walk to their house, waste her time with Calla and watch over Gilbert"s training. She liked to comment on his progress or laugh at his shortcomings. Calla told him once that Eda was thankful that Emp accepted to train Gilbert because as Emp had thought, she liked him and wanted him to better himself.

She refrained from showing too much support towards him however and pretended to be here only for Calla and the sisters who trained alongside him. Since winter was always sticking to her, she became close friends with the sisters too. Winter had grown a lot since Emp first met her but she was still the smallest and youngest of their whole group of friends equaling Zora in age. Contrary to Zora who liked to hang out with younger kids, she liked to hang out with the older ones instead. Because of that, Leo was the friend closest to her age she ever made.

She was quite similar to Leo in more way than one since she stuck to Eda just like Leo stuck to Erin, got excited with everything and wanted no work and all kinds of adventures. Leo and Winter got along like leaves of the same branch. Both would rather stay close to their usual pillar but they got really happy whenever the other showed up.

Emp thought this was a great thing, both for the girls and for the training of Leo who felt more motivated in order to show off the great things she learned to her new friend.

Erin didn"t need that extra motivation as she was already serious and focused on learning as much as she could but Emp was still glad she made friends with everyone else in the village. He really thought it wasn"t a good thing to always stay by herself with her sister, she needed to open up a bit and spend time with others.

"That is something you should apply to yourself and Galana too master." Svae told him once as the subject came up.

They all still felt that he spent too much time training and working while Galana was just asocial and remained shut inside the study room. He agreed about Galana but the sisters were already working on it so it would be fine... Eventually. He disagreed to her opinion of himself though, his work and his training were of capital importance and needed to be done as efficiently as possible in order to enjoy safety and peace later with everyone.

All in all, the training of the sisters went pretty well. They had yet to make friends with Galana properly and struggled with their studies with her but they were quick to learn practical thing. They weren"t extraordinary but they were making efforts and tried as many times as they needed to absorb his help.

Emp was satisfied with their progress so far. Their physical conditions improved a lot and even though their were sometimes clumsy and took days to figure out things he thought were pretty simple, they progressed smoothly. They now knew how to properly hold a sword, long or short, he showed them the basics on how to use a bow but told them to ask someone else like Vale to learn more about it, he showed them how to hunt, make traps, follow tracks, how to fish, how to dismantle a prey and showed them what he knew about what plants did what, what could be eaten, what should be avoided and so on.

He was even able to bring the two of them along with Svae on a number of hunts. He would follow them and let them work on their own, only intervening if they got in real trouble or found something they couldn"t deal with. For them, The hard part wasn"t facing or escaping from monsters, the hard part was to find something to hunt. They were used to hide, not chase. After a few tries, they got much better and finally, they came back home and paraded around the outside of the house with their catch which Calla turned into a great meal they spoke about for weeks.

The reason for Svae"s presence was simply that she wanted to partic.i.p.ate. The vaelian girl didn"t need any physical training but she did like to learn proper techniques with all sorts of weapons. Emp was fine with teaching her a few of them along with the sisters and Gilbert but he still felt that with her ability to float so easily, cla.s.sic stances and moves weren"t useful for her in any way.

He encouraged her to be creative instead and practice against the sisters with wooden swords to see just how much of an advantage her flight truly was. She also learned how to use a bow with the huntress Vale just in case she needed it. She was not that good with it because she didn"t receive the help of the ancestors but being able to shoot from high in the sky was a serious advantage anyway.

She too kept a good relations.h.i.+p with everyone and flew into the crowd at the center of Dark-glint right away, leaving the rest behind as they approached the festivities.

They quickly joined up with the Champom and their friends, setting up long tables and benches for everyone to sit and enjoy the food. Emp placed the delicious food his wife made on the table and a huge roaring fire was lit in the center of the village. Everyone else brought their own food and gifts to share while younger kids ran around everywhere.

Between the new year in school and the new year in the village, Emp was starting to feel that he liked this one better. A n.o.ble new year was much too stiff even if it was indeed fun to dance and laugh with his friends. The food there was more refined but the food here was either made from the heart of people he knew or by the master Calla which instantly brought it in a clearly superior dimension from the rest.

Everyone he knew would sing together and talk merrily, enjoying food and drink with the rest. He just wished that everyone from Bêtéclair could be here too and taste the carefree nature of this feast. Meat was being roasted on large spits and younger people ran from table to table to steal food from everyone and eat like gluttons until they couldn"t walk anymore.

Gilbert was dead tired and sprawled over his family"s table. Eda came to sit opposite to him while Winter ran off with Leo. She told his family about how Bor was saying that Gilbert wasn"t doing his job properly.

"That"s not my fault, Emp is going too hard on me I feel tired all day long!" He complained while pointing towards his brother in law.

Eda snorted and looked back towards the fire, hiding her face from him.

"Erin and even Leo can do it and they"re much more energetic than you! How come a grown man can"t follow the training of a guy younger than him designed for even younger girls? At this rate, no girls will want to ever marry you."

She had that mischievous grin throughout her whole speech, only pretending in order to tease him.

Fiona Champom burst in laughter at the face her son was doing in answer while his father patted his back in pity.

"Maybe if you did some light exercises while you stand at the gate you"d get more stamina?" Emp proposed, garnering more laughter.

"Or maybe you should sleep at night instead of thinking about Eda." His older brother said.

The girl in question got really embarra.s.sed by the words and how his reaction clearly showed it was actually true. Gilbert quickly turned from embarra.s.sed confusion to anger and jumped on his feet.

"Oh now you"ve done it! Come here Fred, I"ll show you what Emp taught me firsthand!"

While the two of them were settling their silly argument, something else caught the attention of the group. Manley and Willow came together carrying baby Shana. They were told a few weeks ago that Willow was pregnant again. It didn"t show up clearly yet but since she wasn"t hiding in her house this time around, the news spread far quicker than last time.

Manley was clearly the happiest of the two but Willow also seemed rather satisfied with the situation. Last time was an ordeal for her but this time, it was a happy event everyone looked forward to.

That sight only encouraged Fiona to complain some more about how she wanted more grand-kids. Taking care of her twins babies wasn"t enough to satisfy her it seemed. She was really insistent about Calla giving birth as soon as possible and blamed Emp for the delay. He didn"t feel she was that frustrating however. Fiona was a kind mother after all and had been in favor of Emp and Calla forming a pair since the start, she wasn"t acting that forceful or saying anything mean at all. It"s just that she was impatient and Emp didn"t want it to get to Calla. Whenever she spoke about that, he tried to change the subject right away. Embarra.s.singly, this time, it was Galana that intervened.

"It"s not like they"re not trying. Sometimes, when I read late at night, I can hear her going at it with him across the hall."

Emp didn"t feel that Calla was that loud at all but she still reacted very strongly to those words. Calla turned super red and almost melted on the bench. Emp had to hold her together for a long time afterwards while the others tried to stifle their laughter.
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Emp shot a glance at the offender who was showing a tiny smile.

"What? I was just trying to help... Urgh, fine, I"ll go see what Martin"s up to."

She pilfered some food from the table as she got up and moved towards the mage who was apparently deeply focused on some parchment full of strange drawings. She wasn"t sorry at all and left satisfied with her intervention.

While he was trying to bring Calla back to the land of the living, a large dog came closer to receive some pats with its tail wagging. It had been going around for a while now. Emp obliged it and even gave it a piece of meat. He liked June"s dog even if he didn"t remember it"s name. The dog would go see someone it remembered, receive some love from them and move on to the next person, making circles around the festivities.

When Karp saw it though, he got to his feet right away and started scanning the crowd looking for its owner. Unable to see her from there, he walked into the crowd and started searching for the girl he liked. His two parents just shook their heads in disappointment.

All sorts of dishes were pa.s.sed around and June was bouncing in between each of those, sometimes sitting down somewhere only to slither under the table moments later when she caught a glimpse of Karp. Like every year, she came to eat for free and sell things to Marcy.

With all her older brothers scattered and her elder sisters busy with their husband and babies, Azalea Champom thought it was a perfect time to talk to her parents about her wishes for the year.

She was a year older than Calla but didn"t have any man in her heart. She thought that the village was boring and wanted to see and live in some city, that was her dream and goal. Of course, her parents were against it so when she said she wanted to see a big city this year, her parents categorically denied her the permission.

She complained right away and got in an argument with them about it. Neither her parents nor Emp understood why she wanted to go so much or even what she found interesting in the cities. Sure, Emp saw them and thought it was interesting to look at but he still thought that the vast expenses of trees were much more interesting to see.

She argued that cities were safer than the village and that Emp would be there in Bêtéclair anyway if she went that way. He had to dismantle that argument by saying that it wasn"t safer at all because the streets were full of strangers and he wouldn"t be able to watch over her because the school was on lockdown.

She had many other things to say however and her parents kept taking her arguments apart for a while. To be technical, she was a grown woman, she didn"t need their approval to move away but she still wanted it and got very upset to not receive it.

Emp and calla agreed to leave the three to their dispute and left to sit next to Marcy for a while. She was eating close to Bor and Martin speaking about the yield of the forest and the creatures recently sighted. Martin didn"t lend an ear to it and kept on looking at his parchment with Galana who pointed things and argued with him about the workings of whatever was recorded on it.

The two of them got along very well, both were sorts of scholars after all and shared many spheres of interest. They spent a lot of time together and Emp was starting to get an itching feeling about it. Jealous, was what Calla said he was feeling with a clear laughter. Galana didn"t belong to him or Martin and could do whatever she wanted... To be technical she did belong to him as a slave but that wasn"t what he meant. Even if he did understand that, he couldn"t help but feel that dull frustration, whatever that feeling truly was.

Noticing his gaze, she snorted and moved a bit closer to Martin. Was she doing it on purpose to annoy him? What for? Maybe he should have hired an old grumpy man instead, a bit like Sophus was.

His train of thoughts was interrupted by the screams of laughter of a group of children including Winter and a human torch running after them.

Emp caught Leo by the collar of her flowery dress as she ran past and s.n.a.t.c.hed the flaming branches she carried in her hands as well as those she somehow tied in her hair-buns.

"Noooo, don"t untie them, it took me so long to make them stick!" She complained.

"Leo, it"s dangerous, you"ll set fire to someone if not yourself. Don"t do that and leave those branches in the bonfire you got them from."

"I just wanted to imitate that thing we fought in the woods and tell them the story." She said in disappointment.

"I think they got the picture already, you can go on without those." Emp threw the branches back into the fire. "How come Erin didn"t stop you from doing that? Where is she?"

Thinking about it, he hadn"t seen her since they got to the festivities.

Leo kept acting pitifully but told him what he wanted to know. She talked about how Erin joined up with the girls, Izzy, Galina and Sylvia, then about how some boys came and annoyed her, then how she left and danced with Svae before getting interrupted by Karp who hired her to catch some girl in exchange for having an old women read her future.

He let the girl go after she promised to not put anymore flaming branches in her own hair and scanned the crowd again for either Erin or June who was probably the one Karp asked her to get. He wasn"t able to catch a glimpse of either.

"Hey mom, is there really an old woman who can read the future?" He asked Marcy.

"Of course not. She just pretends to in order to impress or scare the children." She answered with an amused face.

Then it meant that Karp took her for a kid and she"d get really upset about getting tricked when she found out. He"d better put a stop to all of that before some catastrophe happened.

He parted with Calla for a moment after a kiss and started looking for the troublemakers. Using the ring, It didn"t take long for him to find June and Erin crouched behind a table and busy observing Karp.

"So on my signal, you"ll drop that bowl of soup on his head to blind him and then I"ll rush in and pull down his pants. Then we both run off before he can react and everyone will laugh at him." June explained to her apparently newly gained accomplice.

Erin nodded in agreement but there was no way Emp was about to let them do that.

"Not happening." He said from just behind them.

He grabbed the wrist of Erin with his left hand and the overcoat of June with his right. He pulled Erin"s arm upward and lifted her in the air that way. Similarly, he pulled June backwards and out of her hiding place, forcing reactive screams out of them both.

"Smith boy? How did you get us?" June asked with a stunned face.

"I used the ring. Could you please not humiliate my brother in law in front of the whole village."

"Well, I mean, he"s running after trouble."

"Yeah, he tricked me!" Erin added, dangling in the air in front of him.

Her face was a bit red but not nearly as red as June"s who must have drank a whole lot already.

"That"s not a good reason. It doesn"t matter if that old woman can or can"t read the future. Also, you, If you don"t want to speak to him, you should tell him you"re not interested instead of messing around like that. I"ll drag you to him myself if I have to."

"That"s none of your business!" She said with a derisive snort.

"But I had questions to ask to that old woman! It"s unfair." Erin exclaimed.

"Even if she could tell the future it"s pointless. You"re a talented and resourceful girl, you can make any future happen, all you have to do is work for it. The only important question is; What do you want?"

Those words seemed to work well on her because she completely stopped struggling.

"Yeah, I hate to admit it but that guy is right. You should just do whatever you please instead of worrying about what could possibly happen later. If you have questions, there"s only one way to find the answer, try it out! So go girl! Try it out!" June encouraged her with an inordinate amount of winking.

Before he could ask what she was planning, Erin stretched her neck and placed a kiss on his cheek. He turned his attention back to her and frowned, he held her farther from him by reflex. He did not understand what was happening at all. He stared into her eyes for an answer but still had to ask.

"What was that for?" He asked the heavily blus.h.i.+ng girl.

"Diversion. "Try it out" was the key word." She said with a small voice.

Hearing her words, Emp looked back down to see that June was gone, there was only her empty coat left in his hand. That d.a.m.ned trickster. How did the two of them get so close in such a short time and when did they plan that escape?

He let out a sigh and lowered Erin back to the ground.

"Just how much did you drink anyway?" He asked her.

"Not that much." She pouted.

"Then I guess I"ll let you go have fun now. Leave Karp alone and find your own answers from now on."

She nodded with a feint smile.

"I can take care of myself, I don"t need you to watch over me."

"I"m sure you can take care of yourself but for some reason you keep not doing it." He teased her before he left with the thief"s coat. "Keep an eye on your sister before she sets fire to something."

He let Erin there to enjoy the festivities as she pleased and walked back to Calla who enjoyed the liveliness better when Emp was standing between it and her. He was not bothered by the role of s.h.i.+eld he was a.s.signed and instead enjoyed her close presence.

He hugged her and reached over the table to hand June"s overcoat to Marcy so that she could give it back later when she came to sell her things. Marcy agreed with a chuckle and promised to give it back for him.

After that, the feast kept on going smoothly. Karp didn"t catch June just as expected, all the Champom made up even if they couldn"t agree with each other and Erin stopped Leo from doing anything else dangerous but still seemed to have a lot of fun herself.

At the end, the two girls felt more tired than after their usual training and were left slumped over the table, slightly leaning against Calla. Erin even fell asleep right at his side and he ended up having to wake her up when the time came to make the new year wishes. She looked around with a red face full of sleep and confusion before getting up on wobbly feet.

He had paid the bowyer to make a new bow for each in order to train and hunt properly so the two girls had proper bows to convey their wishes to the forest already. He had also paid for one to be made for Galana and Svae when he remembered that the new year would come soon and was able to hand them one at the edge of the woods.

Galana didn"t thank him however because she was too busy pouting and glaring at Erin who now slept on his back. She kept drinking after her encounter with June and even though he woke her up, he ended up having to carry her to the forest himself. By the time he reached it, she was back to her peaceful sleep.

He dropped her close to the treeline and explained to Erin, Galana and Svae what to do with the bow since they lived in a city before. It was Leo who told her sister how to make a wish when she woke up later.

Because Svae had no ancestors in the forest, Emp wasn"t convinced that her wish would be properly conveyed but it was worth a try anyway.

Again this year, Emp didn"t know what wish to make. He felt that everything was going so well already. He had the resources he needed as well as family and friends aplenty. There was only one sensible thing for him to wish for, make Calla"s dream come true. He made the bowstring crack and shot upwards. His arrow went through a bunch of leaves and hit a large bird who cried in pain and fell down at the edge of the forest.

He would have bad luck this year it seemed.