Birthday Pt3

The following matches were nowhere near as hardcore and violent as the first, even when there were people of giant genes on opposing sides. However, these matches did take longer. So it was more than an hour before we moved on to the next event.

This party game was more to the preferences and strengths of the upper class like my mother's family. While were were in the back yard, the front yard had been rigged with random slips of paper or parchment in varying places from among the food to on the ground around the spirit fruit tree. It seemed like a treasure hunt.

I was right.

Once the kids were gathered, several adults from my mother's side were named the 'game masters' and the kids were set free to run around collecting slips. Part of the game was not just to find riddles and clues that you could work with, but to gather as many as you could to keep others from the prizes.

Both games had their obvious dirty sides, since one was physically inclined and the other mental.

I once again refrained from participating, it did not seem like any of these games were really suitable for babies of my age. It also appeared that i was the only actual baby here, everybody else was above the age of five and below the age of twelve. Obviously, it was not expected of me to play in the first place.

Somehow, though, i was incorporated into the center of the game because the game masters hung out around my seat. This meant that every screeching little kid would come running up to where i was with one or multiple riddles or clues they thought they had the answers to.

Many of the questions were simple math problems anyone with the start of an education could solve, which led to a tougher clue or actual riddle. The riddles, if answered correctly, would usually elicit a prize of sorts. For basic prizes, the game masters would hand out a single silver coin which most of the children looked at enviously.

The more elaborate prizes belonged to the clue hunts. The first of these to be resolved was a series of clues based on the plants available in the yard. The first was, 'I am the spirit fruit tree, one of my neighbors is used to ward off bad spirits. Find them.' Simple shit.

From among the closest wardblooms came the next clue, which lead toward one of the hedges near the wrought-iron gate at the entrance to the property. From there, the young girl followed two more clues before returning to the game masters with all of the papers she had collected. For a prize, she was rewarded a simple silver chain bracelet.

That was even more enviable than the money.

After watching all of the money and prizes for the game being handed out, i was both a little jealous and excited. Why were they giving other people so much stuff on MY birthday? And, with so much wealth to go around, WHAT DID THEY GET ME?!

Finally, this event also ended as the sun was lowering itself across the sky and it was time to have a meal. The food was a rich assortment of several different meats from animals i knew nothing about, fruits, and veggies. Many of the plants involved were also foods i did not recognize.

I still was not allowed to eat much in the way of meats without my back teeth who refused to grow at all, but i was able to try them and they were all delicious. None of them were cooked the same way, whether roasted or fried or simply seared in thin waifs, and none of them shared the same seasonings except for salt. It was glorious.

No matter what world you were in, though, a vegetable was still a vegetable and nine times out of ten they just tasted like water. A few of them were sweet and one of them was almost spicy, but they were still... vegetables. The fruits were much better.

Just holding a plate of fruit samplers and breathing the air coming off of it was satisfying in its various blends of sugary and sour smells.

After everybody had their meals of varying dishes and my own taste testing of raw ingredients was complete, it was finally time for the part of the show i had been waiting for. My presents! But of course, it would not be as simple as opening gifts and playing with toys.

First things first, i was faced with a possible life changing decision. Each side of my family had its own pavilion where they had a small stock of gifts for me, but i had to go to them to get my gifts. The problem here was, who do i go to first?

If i went to my fellow giants first, it would be seen as favoritism even from a child because i was more like them than the normal people. If i went to my mother's side, first, it could be seen as an affront to the hill people by my spurning my own heritage. What if one side did not want to give me my gifts afterward?!

Finally just as i was about to get up from my seat and make a decision- which was to go where the money was first- Gryn came to the rescue. Moving and speaking with surprising grace and tact, my older brother used me as an excuse to bring our generation a little closer together.

Since this was my first time spending 'all day' with so many people, i was obviously an exhausted baby who should not be bothered with getting up.

Ergo, Jonavan and Malkrys both agreed to start bringing me gifts from the other pavilions so that i did not have to get up at all. Before long, all the kids from our generation had formed three lines of people. The hill people to my right, the city folk to my left, and Gryn's townspeople friends in a line directly in front of me.

Of course, i made a show to both sides of the family that what mattered was where you hang you head at night. I opened the presents from the Gryn's people first.

Most of these gifts were just secondhand clothes and some nice things like some small books used for teaching children. Many of these people knew more about me than the people from my families, so most of the books i received were about different kinds of wildlife and magical places.

I was quite happy with these simple and mundane presents.

After the townspeople, i decided to alternate opening a 'money present' and then a hill present'. To make things fair, when i opened the first present from the hill people i opened a second right afterward before switching back and doing the same. I might have opened a money present first, but i opened two hill presents before opening two money presents.

These gifts were somewhat surprising because most of them were things i would avoid giving to children. Such as a display box of small precious stones, a child like me would kill themselves if they broke this glass case. Even if they did not stop them, they would probably choke on a rock.

The hill people gave expensive or even exotic versions of practical gifts, such as their preferential leather clothing style and one uncle gave me an assortment of wooden training weapons. That's not something you give a one-year-old, giant or not! Then again, i was far from the average baby- giant or not.

I could tell that both sides of the family had gone out of their way to try and give the best gifts possible, whether it was a hand chiseled, pale agate figurine of a tribal warrior wielding a giant spear or lance or an ornamental belt knife with an actual blade.

The warrior was made with intimidating detail, its bare chest lined like actual corded muscles. The handle of the knife was set with colored quartz and was pretty big for my hands and the blade was a single-edged seven inches long with something of an angular point.

The knife was a true weapon, not something you actually let a baby hold. Mom? Dad? Are you BOTH smiling at me while I am holding this thing?!

I already knew this was a completely different world, but this had reached the level of just plain wrong. I almost wanted to make a point about having an accident with the knife, but my parents would probably think that i was being rude. So, instead, i simply clasped it into its sheathe after a brief examination and handed it to Gryn to play with.

Out of all the gifts, though there was one from each family that stood above all others. From my mother's family i received a large a seemingly old book of parchment pages bound in thick hard boiled leather. On its cover was a series of geometric shapes encircled by the words 'Magi-craft For Beginners'.

From my father's family came a gift that, unlike the knife from my mother's family, i was not allowed to touch. This was a large sword with a single-edged blade over two feet in length, over an inch thick at the spine, and had a sharply curving point. The handle was a full tang wrapped in furry hide for softness as well as grip but the round guard was set along the outsides with colored quarts.

In fact, if i did not already know better, i would have thought that both families came together to plan their weapon gifts beforehand. Both were blades, had only one cutting edge, and both were set with similar stones. The only real differences were the materials, the steel of the knife was pattern-welded in an obvious way to display skill and craftsmanship.

The steel of the sword was also a pattern-welded alloy, but this one was dark and without the stretched engravings that emphasized its layers of steel.

The knife was for show but the sword was obviously for use. Even without being able to touch it, i knew the weapon would test the limits of all my physical stats if i were to start using it even with my 'adult' strength. I did not even know how exactly the Strength stat measured strength, though.

From a few incidents in my short life i could imagine each part of my body was individually the same strength, whether it be one of my fingers or one of my legs. All the same, that sword would work me like a dog and the grandfather giving it to me called it a one-handed saber.

Even with a blade less than thirty inches in length, that sword was only one-handed if it was in a giant's hand!

There were no more events planned once the gift giving was over, so afterward the guests started to peter off and go home. First it was the townspeople, then it was some of the extended family. Finally, after another two hours, only my grandparents from either side and a couple of others remained to stay the night.

They lived the farthest away or were the oldest, so they planned to set out early the next morning.

However, later in the evening after supper, i was taken outside while Gryn was left the play with the kids who had stayed- Jonavan's and Malkrys' families. Outside, i found myself alone with my parents and both sets of grandparents. Nobody said anything, but every now and then the grandparents would look at me and then at my parents as if expecting something to happen.

When an awkwardly long time had passed in silence, my father finally looked down at me and said, "We've already talked to your grandparents about you. It's safe to talk to us."

The fact that he said 'us' instead of 'them' made me somewhat wary. Despite the suspicion that revealing more of myself would be a mistake, i just smile, wave, and say, "Hi, grandmas and grandpas."

The S's of my words were wet hisses from the back sides of my mouth, a kind of lisp from not having my back teeth, but the rest of my speech was good. Too good. Whatever my Divine Translation ability made my English turn into, it made four sets of elderly eyes widen in shock.

Nobody said anything for a while, but then my mother's mother stepped forward and reached out to pat my head like i was a normal child, saying, "Hello, grandson."

Like when my mother had asked me to stay her 'little Chuck', it was actually quite touching for this lady to make a show of acceptance in this way. Even though i was not a child, it made me happy like one so i could not help but smile at this lady. "Grandma... Elaine, right?"

This was the first person outside of my immediate family to both recognize and acknowledge me. I still had no idea what their thoughts or facts about me were, but that meant nothing at the moment. She earned the right to be the first person outside of my immediate family that was acknowledged by ME.

When the others realized i was not just a completely coherent one-year-old but also somebody who was already worldly wise and weary, they also came forward for recognition. With how competitive they were with one another as well as their positions in this world, it was not hard to guess what they were thinking at the moment.

I was somebody of unknown power and potential who had just made a connection with somebody else. They wanted to make sure they had a relationship with someone- or something- like me, too.

*