“Selective usage of praise is one of the best ways to handle and teach young children, whose minds were still in their formative years. Sincere praises given when they did well would be remembered for a long time, over random praises given for small things, and thus would in turn remind them of what they did well enough to be praised for.” - Miranda Cèbrúnæ, Psychologist, Soulweaver, and Head of the Sev-Galas Orphanage, circa 673 FP.

“All in all, those kids be pulling their weight and then some, all right,” said Hogarth as he spoke with his adopted son in a relatively private tent. Reinhardt had immediately gone for him as soon as he returned, because Hogarth was the one in charge of the encampment while the mercenaries were away, and he was naturally in the know about everything important that happened, including the kidnapping attempt. “They didn’t even give Dacia, Goran, and Norul much to do other than bag that one runner!”

“That’s good to hear,” said Reinhardt with a smile, since his dwarven adoptive father was clearly in a good mood. He knew Ery and Aly were both fine, but hadn’t visited or seen the other kids yet, but given the old dwarf’s good mood chances were that none of them took any grievous harm in that kidnapping attempt. He asked anyway to make certain. “None of the kids were hurt?”

“Eh, a couple bruises and sprains, mostly from the pudgy bitch, but that’s about it,” said Hogarth with a scoff. “Nothing serious, and I’ve seen those kids hit each other worse than that fer sure. Guards said that the bunch were experienced kidnappers, so they probably tried not to hurt those they wanted to snatch too badly and all, so that helped.”

“Besides, had things went serious we got like a bunch of us ready to rush over as soon as Dacia pops the signal. Turned out it wasn’t even needed at all, hah!” added the old dwarf with a bark of laughter. The old dwarf had always doted on his adopted granddaughter, so Reinhardt knew that he would have prepared things just in case it was needed. “You ought to go and pat your little girl’s head some, you know. She handled that well, looked after the small ones and all, even took one of them out herself.”

“I will, pops,” said Reinhardt with a nod. The way both dwarves and therians like him typically raised their children generally gave them a lot of freedom to be themselves, unlike humans who tend to coddle their children more. If a dwarven or therian child were to come home crying with bruises from a fight, all they’d do would be to tell them to make the other kid cry the next time, and maybe teach them how to do that. “By the way, I heard you kept a couple of the kidnappers?”

“Yea, one’s the head of the bunch. I figured ye or yer wife might want to have some… words with him, and besides he’s wanted dead or alive anyway. His head’s worth the same as sending him over in one piece,” said Hogarth nonchalantly. “As for the other one… it be a tad more… complicated. That lass just couldn’t seem to hurt a kid, and just gave up on her own once we were done with the rest.”

“I’ll check them out later then, thanks again, pops.”

When Reinhardt left the tent, he saw Erycea waiting for him with an eager look in her eyes. Elfriede was a bit further away, taking care of Alycea who seemed to be peckish at that time. Reinhardt couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his two children, real or adopted matters not by then, as he saw Alycea as one of his own already by then, and stepped closer to his daughter.

“Did I do well, daddy?” asked his little girl. By then, she was nearly as tall as his chest already, as tall as some of the shorter humans despite her young age. Their kind does grow faster physically, and while Erycea was only a half, she still inherited their blood strongly, and it showed. Unlike his more bulky, muscular form, Erycea was lithe, yet it was a litheness that constrained strength within, more than what one would have expected just from looking at her.

Reinhardt smiled as he extended a hand and rubbed the little girl’s - no matter how she grew, she would always be his little girl - head, ruffled her fur and messed with her hair, which was the same shade of white as most of her fur a bit. He felt her joy as Erycea giggled under his tender rubbing, and smiled as he looked her in the eye. “Yes, dear. You did well,” he said.

While at first he had wanted for his daughter to pursue a more peaceful path in life, those plans were shattered long ago, and he had come to Elfriede’s point of view that their child should be allowed to pursue the life she wanted, rather than what they wanted. The girl had trained hard over the past few years, from an age many would call too young to do so, because she wished to fight alongside her parents, and her training had shown results to boot.

After he praised Erycea to her heart’s content, he went over to where Elfriede and Alycea were, and accompanied them for a while. After some time the kids took off to “play” with their friends, though he knew all too well that for that bunch of children, their idea of play involved a lot of grueling training and spars that often left them bruised all over.

Together with Elfriede, he then went to the tent where the captives were held. He himself was quite curious about what Hogarth said, on how one of the kidnappers had practically given no resistance whatsoever and couldn’t seem to bring herself to harm the kids, so he wanted to know about that one’s story, since that sort of behavior usually carried some story behind it.

As for the head of the kidnappers, he was more than content to just leave the bastard to Elfriede’s tender ministrations, after which they could exchange his head for another bag of coins. That sort of man deserved no better.