Home and Hearth

Chapter 127

I was in a fantastic mood for a week after Henry and I got back together. As I finished the major expansion to the lava area, everything felt like it was flowing for a change. After Blackmore's difficulty during her pregnancy, it had been foremost on my mind.

Now mother and pups all seemed in good health, and I was back to my regularly scheduled dungeon routine. One that was amended to include a more aggressive purchase schedule for the lava area than before. Buddy, Pounce, and Hestia seemed to be doing fine, but that could change as they grew.

The fact I was flying blind concerning the pups might have made me nervous, but I filed it under "we’ll see" instead. I knew too little about what to expect to feel control I'd never had slipping away. They had cores and weren't part of the system. There were going to be surprises no matter what I did.

Chris taking to them like a proud uncle was one of the most immediate and least expected surprises on my part. His being fireproof would likely cause problems eventually. For the moment, it was primarily producing adorable results.

Hestia, in particular, seemed to take to Chris. A fact that might have had to do with his habit of carrying her around with him everywhere. Buddy and Pounce seemed to like him well enough but were more inclined to gnaw on him than their sister.

"So, you don't mind?" I asked Blackmore. She'd been back to her usual self more or less once she'd given birth and entirely by the day after. We sat on the overlook I'd added to their den, watching Chris and the pups play in the lava field below.

"He's a good boy. He lets them hunt him," Blackmore replied dismissively.

"Ehm," I hummed neutrally. They were hounds, and it was a normal thing in its way. I still found it a little weird but watching the puppies try and track Chris was pretty funny. I'd expected problems when I realized what he was doing. Despite that, he mixed holding back and letting them win with enough difficulty to make it fun.

"Is Stalin still salty about it?" I asked, holding in a laugh. It wasn't that the male hound seemed to have a problem with Chris himself but got jealous easily.

Blackmore harrumphed at that, which I took as a yes. Not seeing Stalin out trying to join the game or herd the puppies back home, I supposed he was probably sulking somewhere. From what I could tell, he was a good father. The thing was that Chris had opposable thumbs. The ability to carry all the puppies at once or climb up on things to escape them made him a hard act to follow in some ways.

"I've got some other things to attend to. Anything I can do for you before I go?" I asked, giving Blackmore a good scritch behind the ears.

"Find adventurers strong enough for us to play with," Blackmore replied. She was leaning into the scritch and only half serious, most likely. I didn't doubt the enthusiasm so much as the immediacy of the desire.

Blackmore was at her normal energy level again, but her mind was always on the pups. Even when she let Chris or one of the other denizens interact with them, usually me, she always stayed close to observe. Or join in if she wanted some petting too, which she almost always did.

"I'll see what I can do," I deflected. Things were coming along, but I was going to wait until the month's end before I started any serious efforts to draw in new adventurers. Elim had finished things in his village, but he still had some personal business to deal with.

Since it involved traveling into a more remote area of the Earldom, I'd given Elim the month off. There weren't likely to be any adventurers or exciting shopping opportunities. It was better for him to focus on himself and get things done quickly.

Andrea was available, but I wasn't going to use her to bait people to their doom. It would likely echo her own experience too closely. I didn't need to damage the little trust I'd built with her. Besides, if I did things with the town right, I should only need to do a little active advertisement to get the flow of adventurers going.

"Later, momma dog," I said playfully before teleporting into the town. Around me, various skeletons were moving about, some with illusions, others not. All of them more or less mimicked the way mortals would go about their day despite it being sunset.

Unlike when I forced myself to come out in daylight, I felt fine. Not perfect, but good enough, and I'd be better once it was fully dark. I wasn't as comfortable as I was in the dungeon proper, but comfortable enough to avoid jumping at every little thing.

I'd chosen to appear near the center of the town, close to Dawn. We had an appointment to talk about things every couple of days. I could have had something like a town hall meeting, but that felt like overkill for the moment. Most of what I was doing was still centered on layout and waffling together other people's expectations with my preferences when it came to designing.

I wasn't going to bend entirely to local expectations or even that of the skeletons. It would be fun at first, but I wasn't the historical accuracy type from what I could tell. I'd get bored of making shit shacks according to low expectations. Balancing that to make something reasonable, though, was something I should do in all fairness. If only so it wouldn't scare people off.

"How are things going?" I asked Dawn. She was sitting on the rim of one of the laundry fountains I'd set up, leafing through a crude magazine. The laundry fountain had started as a regular fountain until I realized the skeletons assumed it was for laundry based on the size. Washing wells and associated facilities had been a foreign concept before that revelation.

"Well, 42. I've got a list of suggestions for you this time," Dawn replied. She pulled a sheet of paper from the magazine and handed it to me. I was expecting something like suggestions for the design of the town. Instead, I found a list that took me a moment to decipher.

"You want a ceremony!" I said happily. The list of party supplies and facilities requests outlined an exciting wedding.

"Icarus is quite taken with the idea," Dawn said, looking away from me as if embarrassed. I gave her a shoulder hug.

"Excellent. I'll ensure we have everything on the list in time. When do you want to do it?" I asked. The date was one of the few things not on the list.

"The winter solstice," Dawn said quietly.

"Dawn, everything alright?" I asked. That might be coming up or already past since the system calendar didn't tell me. I could work with it regardless, but I didn't think she was hesitant about the date for that reason.

"Icarus… He wants to use our traditions, his in the day, mine during the night. Only I don't know of any such for Laminal. She had a consort, but marriage didn't really…." Dawn explained hesitantly. I couldn't help but recall how concerned she'd been about her appearance initially. I'd read up on the goddess in question, but it didn't tell me what was or wasn't done regarding daily worship and rituals.

"Well… Where I'm from, we didn't exactly- The gods were a possibility rather than a given when I lived. So people edited vows, made their own, basically changed things around how they liked," I started.

"So, knowing what you do, why not design the ritual yourself and ask for Laminel's approval? I've been working on a temple for her and Dolshan as a side project when I ran out of inspiration for Lorel's consort," I asked. I didn't have a solid idea of how it would even work, but it was the only real way to figure out if there was an issue.

"A temple for Laminel?" Dawn asked flatly.

"Yeah, just the rough in, though. I was going to ask for your input when it was a little further along because I kept moving the location," I explained sheepishly. I'd started with it cut into the side of the valley, but that hadn't sat right with me for long. It was now in a spot on the valley's rim and open air though I wasn't sure I'd leave it like that.

"Did… you want to see it?" I asked. Dawn's quiet told me I'd probably fucked up by not informing her before. I really needed to pay better attention to how things I did would potentially affect others, at least when it came to the big stuff like religion.

"Yes, Mistress, I think I would," Dawn said with a long-suffering sigh.