Chapter 5 Part 1

It is the morning after, and we find ourselves in the dining room where there seems to be more food left over from the banquet Heddwyn prepared. Yes, come on. We all knew that Heddwyn "made" too much food last night. Helga walk's in from the back and seems to halt her approach towards the kitchen. Helga bent over to look under the table and her entire face scrunched, as if she saw something so cute it could give her heart palpitations. Heddwyn has curled up into a ball under the table with his head tucked into his belly and tail wrapping round like a domestic feline.

(narrator) Heddwyn for mother's sake! Stop being so cute AHHHHHH! My goodness, I keep forgetting to describe what people look like. I will be ahead of it someday, I swear. *huff*

Heddwyn is a Nekojin adventurer, as you already know. What you may not know is that in the Empire of Stocaea, the Nekojin are being treated as slaves and or pets by high-ranking officials and nobility. Slavery is legal for all races in Stocaea, but Nekojin is the prime. Heddwyn is 6 foot 3 inches tall. Has paw pads for hands instead of fingers. His entire body is covered completely with short black fur, making him a perfect asset with stealth.

He mostly wears the adventurer armour he inherited from his master, but it's not needed as everything is well, you know... covered with fur. You will see nothing you simps. He has pointed triangular ears just like most animalistic felines.

(narrator) There we go, fully explained. I swear I will remember. damn it, Cleo. I did not explain Cleo. Ugh, oh well, I will do it next time we see her.

With the squeaking Sister was doing, she woke Heddwyn. Causing him to wrap his paws around his eyes and squeeze before going back to sleep. This action just sent Helga to smack the table and groan with a pleasurable desire to see more of the adorable kitty do cuter stuff, which makes little sense. He is this bad ass muscular black-furred Nekojin, and he's still so overwhelmingly endearing it could kill.

Heddwyn jumped slightly from the sudden noise and stretched before opening his eyes to look around. Helga had rushed back up to stand and went a little too fast. And, she fell over.

"are you ok Helga? Did you get hurt?" Heddwyn questioned, concerned for Helga's safety.

After getting her bearings and standing back up, she says "yeah I'm fine. just got up a little too fast is all"

"ah, so you were watching me sleep?" He asked again, taking notice that she implied she was kneeling or sat somewhere.

Blushing, she answered him. "ha, yeah. Sorry you looked so comfortable, I just couldn't resist watching you"

"I am no domestic feline; they may be smart little creatures, but we evolved a brain much like your human one. It is very offensive to Nekojin when you treat us like house cats. There are similarities, yes, but we are very much different, so please refrain from treating us the same. Treat me as you would an equal," Heddwyn said, trying to not sound rude.

"I didn't realise. I'm so sorry. I really didn't mean to offend you. Us humans are idiots, you know this well. But please accept my apology. Ill tell everyone else the same when they wake up. Just to avoid further racist actions," Helga pleads.

"thank you Sister, I appreciate it," Heddwyn says with a slight smile.

Heddwyn crawls his way out from under the table and stands, putting out a helping hand for Helga. She thanks him for helping her up and the two head into the kitchen to chat while drinking a cup of Halfty.

Just as the sun comes up, the twins come in and say their good mornings to Helga and Heddwyn. Helga replies, "hay, morning you two. Did you sleep well?"

Heather responds to Helga's question. "no, I was too scared about what happened yesterday. I kept having nightmares." She perks up a little. "but brother would comfort me when I would wake up!"

"oh, that's just awful. Well done looking after your sister last night Haider," Sister says, with a sympathetic tone.

Haider smiles at Sister's words of praise. Sister explains that the actions of everyone during yesterday's events towards Heddwyn can be racist towards Nekojin's. This saddens them for a moment, but they both recognise that they should try to not make the same mistakes in the future.

With that matter settled, the four go into the dining room and sit down at the still food filled table. Confused, Haider asks "how come the cheese and bread that's left hasn't gone hard? And the stews still hot," his head implodes on itself at this strange phenomenon. Even Sister was befuddled.

"ah, I probably should have explained last night. Food made with magic doesn't spoil because mana can't be destroyed or taken away. It just sits there waiting to be transferred back into raw environmental mana. Only you will understand what I'm saying Helga, I can't explain things as well as you can," Heddwyn explains scientifically.

"its fine. They understand that. Christopher reads a lot of books, so he explains them to the twins per my request. Can you go into a little more detail on the process of transferring magical energy?" Helga replies curiously.

"yeah sure. I can do that; I will try to explain as best I can. When you consume a food or fluid that is purely made from mana, it goes through the same process as digestion. It gets broken down into its smallest form by your body. It can convert itself into the nutrition your body needs. And the best benefits are that there is no waste like poop to get rid of. Once the body has expended the energy, it just turns back into environmental mana and expels from your body," Heddwyn explains with passion.

"wow so it's basically a potion?" Haider asks.

"yes and no. magic made food is a complex and a more dense form of mana. Usually mana is like air. You don't really feel it until you focus on the waves of pressure. Or with mana, you use mage sight to see the threads of all life on our world,"

"ah. Wait, so how do magic potions work. Like healing, if it goes through a process like digestion, then how can wounds be healed so fast? And how are these two different?" Helga asks in confusion.

"ah magic potions. They are even more complex and dense than magic food. Magic food just converts the mana into nutrition while magic potions are a construct made artificially. Meaning that we command the mana to behave a certain way when in contact with living organisms. With healing potions, they get absorbed by your system extremely fast and its one goal is to repair and reconstruct missing blood and muscle. The other magic potions can be explained too, but ill leave it here for another day." Heddwyn answered with extreme knowledge.

"wow. How do you know so much of this stuff?" Heather asks, finally asking Heddwyn a question.

"well. being retired now, I have a lot of time to do what I want, and I choose to read about our world," Heddwyn answered.

Christopher walks in as he usually does every morning and says morning to sister. "morning Sister, do you need me to help with anything today?"

"no actually. We still have some food left over from yesterday, so there is nothing to prepare for. Magic food doesn't dirty plates or dishes, so we can just use the stuff we didn't clean last night," she answers.

"oh, ok." He muttered. He then looks around the room, seeing the twins and Heddwyn already sitting and waiting for everyone to arrive to eat. Christopher then looks towards Heddwyn and bows. "thanks for saving my life yesterday and also for the food"

standing back up, he speaks again, "I would like for you to take over my training if you would allow it. Yesterday has taught me how defenceless I truly am. Not only that, but I want Father to live and all this may make him paralyzed one day because of his spinal issues. Please consider it,"

before Heddwyn could open his mouth, Haider stands up and says, "me too" and being interrupted again, Heather stands up and says the same thing.

Being completely overwhelmed by the trust they have in him even though they just met, Heddwyn pauses for a while to answer and says, "ok, ill train you. But just so you know, I've seen how father trains you and... let's just say it's going to be much more difficult"

All the kids nod at his statement, "ok then, starting today, you are my cubs. Oh, sorry. what do humans call them? Oh, that's right, children. Father, Helga. I would like to adopt these three. I have plenty of sustainable income and space for them to thrive,"

"oh fuck off, how did you see me?" Father says, taking off his cloaking spell and appearing behind Christopher.

"mage sight" Heddwyn states.

"of course. Well, with adoption, there are a few criteria you need to match. 1. Is accommodation, which you have. 2. Sufficient income, which you also have. 3. Are you parent material, for which you need to do an interview. And finally, 4. Do the kids want you to become their adopted Father."