412Melody had to smile seeing Lia interact with his grandmother. Queen Maleficia had a smile on her face, having another hatchling to spoil and train. She understood why Melody did not want to return to Castle Blackthorn just yet. For one thing, the Queen was still in the process of dealing with the old councilors. Some of whom had been up to things that had made her very angry, like the banishment of General Lilia in the first place.
She had thought it odd that General Lilia had never openly returned to the castle, but she had thought the loss of Melanor had hit him especially hard. Finding out he had been banished angered her...especially since Lilia was the one who hatched Malleus' egg in the first place!
So she had come up with a compromise. She would not separate Lilia from his child. That went double due to Melody's condition. Her pregnancy had been confirmed and her ladies-in-waiting were already hovering around her protectively, as she had numerous enemies all too eager to take her out permanently.
Keeping the two apart would likely cause undue stress to Melody and her unborn child, which she suspected might be a girl this time.
So in order to be given right to return to the castle (Silver included, of course) he would have to undergo a full marriage ritual and be bonded to Melody as her permanent mate before he could come back. Something Lilia had commented on being agreeable to when he last talked to Melody in person, but now he had a deadline.
Things in England had been heating up. The new bloods (which were now the official term for anyone who had less than three generations of magical bloodlines) had been raising one hell of a stink regarding the unjustified sealing of the muggleborns who had the sense to run rather than subject themselves to a school controlled by Death Eaters.
Add in the fact that Hermione had been letting slip what was going on behind the scenes with the muggleborn girls captured and handed over to the goblins, and it was looking like a potential second war was about to kickstart.
It wouldn't take much for her to gather enough people willing to raid the goblin tunnels and deal with them once and for all.
In order to help the children adjust to this new development, Melody went looking for something fun for them to do as a family. She found a quaint little village that had a fun race that involved plushies. It was quiet, out of the way and it wasn't very crowded. The race would go on all night, but she knew Lia and Teddy would love seeing plushies pulling sleds.
Melody fully planned to look into that, because she was sure the kids would get a kick out of having plushies of their own pulling something like a skateboard.
Besides, she wanted to take her friends out to visit new lands and see what there was to offer.
As the girls got on the plane, Melody was texting the boys back at Night Raven. Sebek had a habit of telling her about his day and his annoyance with Silver. She suspected he had a massive crush on the slightly older boy and was just too shy to admit it.
Apparently he had been invited (read: tricked) into joining a small festival by his fellow first year who was in the same dorm as Yuna. Yuna was going as well, because she wanted to see more of Twisted Wonderland and wanted to get gifts for the boys.
You could imagine everyone's surprise when Melody, Lia, Teddy, Ginny, Hermione and Gabrielle ran into Sebek, Jade, Idia, Epel, Yuna and Grim in Harveston.
"Wait...the festival you mentioned was this one?" said Melody, honestly surprised.
"SEBEK!" cheered Lia and Teddy, promptly tackling him.
"Who are these two?" said Idia in shock.
Teddy took one look at Idia's hair and became utterly fascinated. It was such a vibrant electric blue color and he found Idia's golden eyes mesmerizing.
Idia did not know how to respond seeing the slightly older child suddenly shift from teal hair and green eyes, to the same shade of electric blue hair and golden eyes.
"I...what?"
"Teddy's a metamorphmagus," said Melody gently. "He can shift his features however he likes, though right now he only has the control to adjust colors."
"That's...actually pretty cool," admitted Idia.
"How fascinating," said Jade, and he meant it. "Do you think you could turn into me, with the darker hair on the opposite side and the eyes reversed?" he asked.
Teddy blinked, and concentrated a bit. To Jade's amusement and delight, Teddy became an almost carbon copy of his twin Floyd, or close enough to be mistaken as such.
He was quick to take a picture before Teddy lost concentration. It was beyond adorable.
Melody grinned.
It was good to see the boys make new friends.
Epel was more than happy to give the girls and the kids a tour of his home town.
"Well, I guess we know who we're cheering for," said Melody, seeing the boys crash repeatedly on the sleds.
Once they were used to the sleds and the commands, Melody has zero hesitation with what she did next.
Sebek was the first to fall from the large snowball she hurled at his face.
"Snowball fight!" said Ginny with glee.
It was with great glee that the boys began lobbing snow balls at each other. Poor Idia was an easy target, not having the best of stamina and being so tall.
When they returned to the town hall, where the boys would be staying for the night, they were all soaked to the bone and grinning like idiots. Lia was being carried by Ginny, and Teddy by Sebek.
"Who are these two cuties?" asked Epel's grandmother Marja.
"This is Liatris and this is Teddy. We happened to run into their favorite big brother and decided to team up against them all in a snowball fight," said Melody grinning.
Sebek grumbled half-heartedly under his breath.
"Well come on in and warm up! There's food aplenty, especially for two growing boys."
Melody beamed at her, and they all went in. It was quite the party.
Lia woke up around the time food was being served, and even Teddy was blinking out the short nap he had been taking.
It was beyond amusing watching the two small children fight Grim over their food, but the adults left them at it. To be fair, Grim was pretty much a child himself...or had the mental maturity of one.
"So where are ya'll staying?" asked Marja.
"We're doing dragon tent camping," said Ginny.
"Camping? In this weather?" said Marja aghast.
"What's a dragon tent?" asked Epel.
"Melody goes Godzilla mode, and we sleep under her wings," said Yuna absently. "It's really nice and warm, and surprisingly comfortable."
Idia perked up at that.
"Godzilla mode?" said Idia. "You're a fan of the old movies?"
"As long as it's not that one set in New York. That monster movie would have been great...if they hadn't tried to pretend it was the king of Kaiju," said Melody.
Idia's grin grew wider, and the two soon got into a rather heated argument over what made a good monster movie. Yuna gleefully joined in on that one.
The look the boys had on their face (except Sebek and Yuna) was pretty damn hilarious.
Epel tentatively walked up closer to the dragon...and was shocked at how warm she was. Melody covered the entire group with her wing, including Marja.
"Well I'll be!" said Marja. "I suppose ya'll will be just fine like this...but it still don't feel right having ya'll sleep outside."
"Well we would have booked a place to stay, but Harveston doesn't really have a place for four adult women and two children," said Hermione tiredly.
Melody looked at the town hall, and then had an idea.
"I have a magical trunk, if that helps."
"What's a magical trunk?" asked Epel confused.
Melody demonstrated. Epel was suitably impressed.
"You could carry an entire supply of apple products with one of those!" he said impressed.
Melody grinned.
"We could put this into the town hall and all you have to do is knock on the lid to let us know it's time to come out. It makes international travel so much cheaper and more convenient."
Lia and Teddy immediately claimed their favorite spot, which was on top of Sebek. Marja had to withhold a chuckle, seeing how the older boy was at ease with the two small children on top of him.
Lia was very confused when he saw the dwarves in the race.
"Mama, how come they can race but we can't?" he asked her.
"Those are dwarves, hatchling. While they might look your age, they are actually closer to Sebek's age."
"Dwarves?" said Teddy curious.
"Remember the movie with the big red dragon that wasn't very nice?" said Ginny. "They're like the ones who were trying to retake their home, just younger."
That seemed to clear things up to them.
Sebek blushed slightly when he heard the children cheer him and the others on.
"Come on children. We're heading to the first way station so the boys can fuel up with some food and a hot drink," said Marja.
"No worries there," said Melody cheerfully. "I made very sure the boys won't get too cold during the race with some amulets, once I checked that it was alright."
"Amulets?" said Yuna.
"I bought a ton of wooden necklaces and placed a basic warming charm and some protection spells because this is a mountain they're on. The mayor said that it was alright once I explained what spells were on them and asked if I could pass them to the other teams as well," said Melody. "So none of the teams will be getting frostbite and the tracking charms mean we can find them if something happens."
"That makes sense," said Yuna. She was wearing one herself, as was Grim.
Lia was of course holding his favorite bat doll and the tiger doll Kalim had given him. Teddy was looking at his favorite wolf doll speculatively.
Marja merely laughed, and introduced the two little ones to the practice sleds Epel had used as a child. Lia and Teddy were gleeful sliding around while they waited for the racers to show up.
It was nice to see young folk appreciating their humble sport.
After the race
"Well boys, you gave one hell of a show. I know Lia and Teddy were on the edge of their seats."
Sebek, Idia, Jade and Epel all looked rather downcast. They had gone above and beyond, but still lost.
"I swear, it's like there's a curse around us whenever Royal Sword Academy is involved," said Idia.
"What do you mean?" asked Melody.
"We've never won if RSA is one of the teams," said Idia. "Ever."
"That has to be statistically impossible, right?" said Hermione, baffled.
Idia shook his head.
"If RSA is on one of the opposing teams, then NRC is always second place. It's been going on like this for at least a few hundred years."
"Wait...even with Malleus as part of NRC? He dominated the Spelldrive tournament as I recall," said Melody.
Idia shook his head again.
"Something always happens, likely because of his poor sense of timing," said Idia.
"That is ridiculous," said Hermione flatly.
"I am going to send you back with some extra powered luck charms," said Melody flatly.
"Got any for gacha events?" joked Idia.
"You'd have to ask Lilia about that. I wouldn't put it past him to use some during game events," said Melody absently.
"Lilia? As in the Diasomnia vice-housewarden?" said Jade confused.
"Papa plays as red clams!" said Lia.
"He means his username is Muscle Red," corrected Melody amused.
Idia let out a nearly startled shriek.
"Lilia is Muscle Red?!" he said incredulous.
Melody stared at him.
"Is that important?" she asked confused.
Idia was absolutely going to confront Lilia the next time he saw him during a housewarden meeting.
Marja did have to make a comment while Melody was casting her spells for the boys.
"Are you sure it's a wise idea to use so much magic?" she asked.
"It should be fine. With my luck, I had to memorize how to cast these spells almost on instinct."
"Do be careful dearie," said Marja. "A girl in your condition should take extra precautions when it comes to work."
Melody smiled at her.
"That's why I brought friends," said Melody.
"Condition? Are you sick, Miss Melody?" asked Sebek in concern.
"Sebek, if I told you then I won't be able to spring this on Lilia later and get his reaction," said Melody laughing.
"If it's recording his reaction to the fact you're pregnant, I can do that," said Idia. "I'm already planning to have a chat with him later about his handle."
Sebek's brain nearly short-circuited.
"Pregnant?!"
"Remember our last camping trip, where we traumatized those adventurers?" she said.
Sebek's face flushed, as he did remember...he also remembered almost walking in on them during that same trip had they not been so vocal.