I woke on a large bed in our demi-plane. I sat up, very strenuously.
I rubbed my disintegrated arm, it hurt the most, and found that it was
nearly all regenerated, all but my middle and ring fingers.
I stretched, un-kinking my muscles, then looked around. I saw Minty asleep on a bed adjacent to mine.
She must've sensed me watching, because she woke, yawned and looked towards me, "Oh, good, I'm glad yer 'wake. I wasn't sure if you would wake this time."
I groaned painfully, "Ohhhhh, ah. Why? How long've I b'n out?"
"Well, out there, only a few hours, but in here its been over a month."
"Wow, that's a long time. Ooh, I'm gonna feel this for a long time."
"I been so worried 'boutcha, I was sure you were gonna die." She hugged me.
"Nah, ya can't git ridda me dat eas'ly." We both laughed.
Suddenly she looked up at me, "Wassa matter, your mind is telling me that somethin's wrong."
I had been debating a serious question recently, but new events sparked my decision. I climbed off of the bed and knelt before Minty, "Minty, I've been thinking about something for the past 11 years. Will you do me the honor of being my life-mate?"
She practically tackled me, "Yes, yes, nothing would make me happier." She kissed me.
This took me by surprise, I had hoped for her to say yes, I was sure she would, but I hadn't expected, even in the least, this reaction.
I wasn't sure why, at least not then, but now I know why, but I had suddenly felt better than I had ever felt, and what was more surprising was that my hand had suddenly finished regenerating.
We spent hours in each other's arms, very content.
We left the demi-plane and proceeded to class, which, of course, we were late to.
When we walked in everyone looked at us and I heard some guy in the back of the class yell, "Looks like someone got lucky," the whole class laughed, and Minty blushed. I didn't, after what happened not to long ago, this was NOT AT ALL embarrassing.
We took our seats, and the teacher finished the lesson and assigned our homework.
I had only woken up for the last half of the last class, so I had a lot of homework; it took me several hours . . . in our demi-plane.
After hours of working, I finally finished all of my work. It was then that I noticed that every bottle of water that I had was empty, so I walked to the common-area kitchen for a cup.
With much practice over the years, Minty and I had made our demi- plane more and more complex. There was her personal section, our common area, and my section. Her area was very organized, similar to a big business building, but mine was more like a three-dimensional maze; I had corridors going every which way, fake doors, upside-down rooms, etc.
Just as I crossed the thresh-hold, I was tackled by Minty, "GOTCHA!"
But she hit the floor; I'd vaporized on the spot.
She grinned up at me, "Cheater."
"So?"
She suddenly had a malicious grin on her face. I glared at her, "No, bad grrl, NO!" I commanded half-heartedly.
She began to channel magic through her sweet voice as she vocalized some notes in a song she named "Minty's Deep-Heart Lament".
See, just recently, she discovered that, not only did she have a very beautiful voice, but when she channeled her magic through it, her magic was gratly amplified.
As I listened to her song, I started to lose myself in it. Then, suddenly, I woke to find myself in a deep kiss with her. But she soon had to break it to take a breath, and when she did, I spoke.
"Cheater . . . "
"So?"
We laughed and wrestled for quite some time. She easily pinned me, seeing as her strength far exceeded my own. But the skirmish had thoroughly worn me out. We left the demi-plane and went to bed, we fell asleep in each others arms . . .
Over the next several months, my father had me fighting in innumerable battles and I had very little time to spend with Minty, but we made the best of our time. He made me fight so much because we told him about our relationship, and apparently that he did not approve.
Then, about one month into a three-month trip my dad sent me on, Minty mind-called me, "I really wish you were here."
"Me too."
"A just can't wait until you get back, you're gonna get a surprise." I could sense something odd in her mind, but I was too busy at the time to ask.
"Don't worry, its only one more-" but I was interrupted by a loud explosion, "I gotta go, we're under attack. If you look through me I'll give you a good show," I do not know if she replied, but she did watch.
Several of Dendrak's, my dad's greatest rival, battalion cruisers were sending warning shots at us. Then someone came up on the com screen.
"That was your final warning shot, you have twenty seconds to surrender before I blow your bloody carcasses down to the seventh hell."
I rushed up to the screen, "Dendrak, we deny your surrender terms. Prepare for a duel."
He laughed, "No one stands a chance against me, child. Fine, we shall duel before I destroy your ship. Cordrunak (my father's name) decide our battle-ground." I resented the way he spoke about my dad (even though I didn't like him).
"No," I yelled, "My father is not here, I am your challenge."
Once again he laughed, the idea of fighting a child was ludicrous to him, which meant that he either hadn't heard about me or didn't believe what he did hear, "Very well, young one, I will grant your death wish, choose your battle-ground."
"Space," I told him in a smug tone. He nodded in acknowledgement and ended the com. I teleported out into space, just in front of the ship, and found him to be there already.
I sent my voice directly into his mind, "Catch me if you can!" and I took off in a random direction.
He managed to stay close behind as I led him away from my dad's fleet, after all, I didn't want to damage them.
When I finally stopped, he arrived a few moments later, fully ready to fight. I started the battle with a bolt of purple lightning.
It hit him squarely in the chest, and he laughed at my effort, "You are going to have to do better than that, young one. Here, let me show you how it's done."
At that he blew demon fire at me, which needs nothing to burn. I barely managed to fend it off with an ice wave. As soon as he stopped, I retaliated with a beam of disintegration. It hit him without effect. Then I knew that I would have to bring out the heavy artillery.
He charged energy in his ugly clawed fist and threw the charge at me. His first striking blow against me. It hit me and exploded with enough force to send me flying straight towards the nearest star. I flew right into it and it went out with a bang. The star was sucking the energy right out of the shield that I had erected and caused itself to go supernova.
He was a lot more powerful than I had expected. Now I was using the heavy magic. I focused my energy as much as I could as fast as I could, then I hurled the blast at him. He moved over several feet and I missed him, but I focused and it began a curve and headed back to him. He sent a blast at it, but I was already familiar with this ploy (Minty used it often) and split the charge into hundreds of smaller pieces. He was hard-pressed to dodge them all, and eventually one hit him, then the rest. When the flash cleared, he still stood (or rather, floated), and the only damage was a singed left arm.
I felt him focus his power, and his arm healed, then he used another familiar technique; my famous scatter-blast. It goes without saying that his was FAR greater than mine. But I knew how to deal with this attack (after all, I invented it). Rather than trying to dodge each blast, which was useless, I tried to deflect each one. I would deflect one into another, destroying both, but, while this was less draining than dodging, I was tiring quickly. So I decided to try a trick that Minty had used on me, beating my scatter-blast. I began deflecting them into huge arcs away from me. Several minutes later, his own blasts were arcing back at him. But before those hit him, he caught me off guard, he cast a massively powerful beam at me. It hit me just as the scatter-blasts hit him. He only lost an arm, but I was sent flying for several minutes.
When the beam finally lost its energy, I was stranded out in space. Since I didn't need to eat, breathe, or drink, it wasn't an immediate concern, but the damages that I had taken were. I was drifting in space, bleeding, with my lower body, my arms up to my elbows, and half my face gone.
I was so far away from any of my dad's ships that it took them, even with Minty guiding them, weeks to find me, and I was in a sorry state. While I had regenerated somewhat, I was still missing from the knees down and the other half of my face, but I was no longer bleeding. I know Minty was ther the whole time, I could sense her presence, over all of the pain when I was in space, and through the nulled sensations due to the anesthetics.
It took me another five weeks to fully heal, I had needed to regenerate my legs, face, and replenish my blood.
When I finally woke up, I found Minty crying at the bed-side.
I spoke very softly to her, to not startle her, "Hey, I'm okay-"
She looked up and nearly jumped on me, but realized that I was bedridden, this I heard in her mind.
She hugged me tightly, cried harder, then frogged my shoulder, "Don't you EVER do that again. What's wrong with you, picking a fight with a demon lord?"
"Hmm, I have no clue what came over me." Then I stretched and groaned in pain, "So . . . what is my surprise? Huh? Huh? Huh?"
She laughed lightly, "The everlasting kid. The first thing you think about is presents," she turned her side to me, "But your surprise should be obvious."
I looked her over and gasped, "You-I-we, we're gonna have a cub!" I exclaimed ecstatically.
Her face broke into a grin, "The baby's gonna be a daddy."
"How far in are you?"
"Well, when I found out, I was three weeks in, then you were gone for a month, missing for two months, and out for three and a half months," she tallied the number in her head, "About seven and a half months."
I hugged and kissed her, "D'you know if it's a boy or a girl?"
She took a deep breath, unsure about my reaction, "Girl."
"Hmm, daddy's little girl . . . I like the sound'a THAT."
She cuddled in the bed with me, neither of us having ever been happier . . .
"AAAAAAAAHHH," screamed Minty.
"Breathe Minty, breathe," I urged her, "I can see her head."
"Hurts . . . AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH," she screamed in pain, again.
Even with the spells that I had going, she was in a lot of pain. I was an idiot, while studied healing magic I never learned (or practiced what I did learn) of pain-killer spells.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH."
The only one I knew was a minor empathy spell, which let the caster to absorb about 5% of the pain and damage of the subject.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH."
I squeezed her hand, "Come on Minty, one more push. Just one more . . ."
"Waaaaah," we both heard the cry of our little baby girl.
We both seemed to radiate pleasure at seeing our little one in our arms . . .
I stretched, un-kinking my muscles, then looked around. I saw Minty asleep on a bed adjacent to mine.
She must've sensed me watching, because she woke, yawned and looked towards me, "Oh, good, I'm glad yer 'wake. I wasn't sure if you would wake this time."
I groaned painfully, "Ohhhhh, ah. Why? How long've I b'n out?"
"Well, out there, only a few hours, but in here its been over a month."
"Wow, that's a long time. Ooh, I'm gonna feel this for a long time."
"I been so worried 'boutcha, I was sure you were gonna die." She hugged me.
"Nah, ya can't git ridda me dat eas'ly." We both laughed.
Suddenly she looked up at me, "Wassa matter, your mind is telling me that somethin's wrong."
I had been debating a serious question recently, but new events sparked my decision. I climbed off of the bed and knelt before Minty, "Minty, I've been thinking about something for the past 11 years. Will you do me the honor of being my life-mate?"
She practically tackled me, "Yes, yes, nothing would make me happier." She kissed me.
This took me by surprise, I had hoped for her to say yes, I was sure she would, but I hadn't expected, even in the least, this reaction.
I wasn't sure why, at least not then, but now I know why, but I had suddenly felt better than I had ever felt, and what was more surprising was that my hand had suddenly finished regenerating.
We spent hours in each other's arms, very content.
We left the demi-plane and proceeded to class, which, of course, we were late to.
When we walked in everyone looked at us and I heard some guy in the back of the class yell, "Looks like someone got lucky," the whole class laughed, and Minty blushed. I didn't, after what happened not to long ago, this was NOT AT ALL embarrassing.
We took our seats, and the teacher finished the lesson and assigned our homework.
I had only woken up for the last half of the last class, so I had a lot of homework; it took me several hours . . . in our demi-plane.
After hours of working, I finally finished all of my work. It was then that I noticed that every bottle of water that I had was empty, so I walked to the common-area kitchen for a cup.
With much practice over the years, Minty and I had made our demi- plane more and more complex. There was her personal section, our common area, and my section. Her area was very organized, similar to a big business building, but mine was more like a three-dimensional maze; I had corridors going every which way, fake doors, upside-down rooms, etc.
Just as I crossed the thresh-hold, I was tackled by Minty, "GOTCHA!"
But she hit the floor; I'd vaporized on the spot.
She grinned up at me, "Cheater."
"So?"
She suddenly had a malicious grin on her face. I glared at her, "No, bad grrl, NO!" I commanded half-heartedly.
She began to channel magic through her sweet voice as she vocalized some notes in a song she named "Minty's Deep-Heart Lament".
See, just recently, she discovered that, not only did she have a very beautiful voice, but when she channeled her magic through it, her magic was gratly amplified.
As I listened to her song, I started to lose myself in it. Then, suddenly, I woke to find myself in a deep kiss with her. But she soon had to break it to take a breath, and when she did, I spoke.
"Cheater . . . "
"So?"
We laughed and wrestled for quite some time. She easily pinned me, seeing as her strength far exceeded my own. But the skirmish had thoroughly worn me out. We left the demi-plane and went to bed, we fell asleep in each others arms . . .
Over the next several months, my father had me fighting in innumerable battles and I had very little time to spend with Minty, but we made the best of our time. He made me fight so much because we told him about our relationship, and apparently that he did not approve.
Then, about one month into a three-month trip my dad sent me on, Minty mind-called me, "I really wish you were here."
"Me too."
"A just can't wait until you get back, you're gonna get a surprise." I could sense something odd in her mind, but I was too busy at the time to ask.
"Don't worry, its only one more-" but I was interrupted by a loud explosion, "I gotta go, we're under attack. If you look through me I'll give you a good show," I do not know if she replied, but she did watch.
Several of Dendrak's, my dad's greatest rival, battalion cruisers were sending warning shots at us. Then someone came up on the com screen.
"That was your final warning shot, you have twenty seconds to surrender before I blow your bloody carcasses down to the seventh hell."
I rushed up to the screen, "Dendrak, we deny your surrender terms. Prepare for a duel."
He laughed, "No one stands a chance against me, child. Fine, we shall duel before I destroy your ship. Cordrunak (my father's name) decide our battle-ground." I resented the way he spoke about my dad (even though I didn't like him).
"No," I yelled, "My father is not here, I am your challenge."
Once again he laughed, the idea of fighting a child was ludicrous to him, which meant that he either hadn't heard about me or didn't believe what he did hear, "Very well, young one, I will grant your death wish, choose your battle-ground."
"Space," I told him in a smug tone. He nodded in acknowledgement and ended the com. I teleported out into space, just in front of the ship, and found him to be there already.
I sent my voice directly into his mind, "Catch me if you can!" and I took off in a random direction.
He managed to stay close behind as I led him away from my dad's fleet, after all, I didn't want to damage them.
When I finally stopped, he arrived a few moments later, fully ready to fight. I started the battle with a bolt of purple lightning.
It hit him squarely in the chest, and he laughed at my effort, "You are going to have to do better than that, young one. Here, let me show you how it's done."
At that he blew demon fire at me, which needs nothing to burn. I barely managed to fend it off with an ice wave. As soon as he stopped, I retaliated with a beam of disintegration. It hit him without effect. Then I knew that I would have to bring out the heavy artillery.
He charged energy in his ugly clawed fist and threw the charge at me. His first striking blow against me. It hit me and exploded with enough force to send me flying straight towards the nearest star. I flew right into it and it went out with a bang. The star was sucking the energy right out of the shield that I had erected and caused itself to go supernova.
He was a lot more powerful than I had expected. Now I was using the heavy magic. I focused my energy as much as I could as fast as I could, then I hurled the blast at him. He moved over several feet and I missed him, but I focused and it began a curve and headed back to him. He sent a blast at it, but I was already familiar with this ploy (Minty used it often) and split the charge into hundreds of smaller pieces. He was hard-pressed to dodge them all, and eventually one hit him, then the rest. When the flash cleared, he still stood (or rather, floated), and the only damage was a singed left arm.
I felt him focus his power, and his arm healed, then he used another familiar technique; my famous scatter-blast. It goes without saying that his was FAR greater than mine. But I knew how to deal with this attack (after all, I invented it). Rather than trying to dodge each blast, which was useless, I tried to deflect each one. I would deflect one into another, destroying both, but, while this was less draining than dodging, I was tiring quickly. So I decided to try a trick that Minty had used on me, beating my scatter-blast. I began deflecting them into huge arcs away from me. Several minutes later, his own blasts were arcing back at him. But before those hit him, he caught me off guard, he cast a massively powerful beam at me. It hit me just as the scatter-blasts hit him. He only lost an arm, but I was sent flying for several minutes.
When the beam finally lost its energy, I was stranded out in space. Since I didn't need to eat, breathe, or drink, it wasn't an immediate concern, but the damages that I had taken were. I was drifting in space, bleeding, with my lower body, my arms up to my elbows, and half my face gone.
I was so far away from any of my dad's ships that it took them, even with Minty guiding them, weeks to find me, and I was in a sorry state. While I had regenerated somewhat, I was still missing from the knees down and the other half of my face, but I was no longer bleeding. I know Minty was ther the whole time, I could sense her presence, over all of the pain when I was in space, and through the nulled sensations due to the anesthetics.
It took me another five weeks to fully heal, I had needed to regenerate my legs, face, and replenish my blood.
When I finally woke up, I found Minty crying at the bed-side.
I spoke very softly to her, to not startle her, "Hey, I'm okay-"
She looked up and nearly jumped on me, but realized that I was bedridden, this I heard in her mind.
She hugged me tightly, cried harder, then frogged my shoulder, "Don't you EVER do that again. What's wrong with you, picking a fight with a demon lord?"
"Hmm, I have no clue what came over me." Then I stretched and groaned in pain, "So . . . what is my surprise? Huh? Huh? Huh?"
She laughed lightly, "The everlasting kid. The first thing you think about is presents," she turned her side to me, "But your surprise should be obvious."
I looked her over and gasped, "You-I-we, we're gonna have a cub!" I exclaimed ecstatically.
Her face broke into a grin, "The baby's gonna be a daddy."
"How far in are you?"
"Well, when I found out, I was three weeks in, then you were gone for a month, missing for two months, and out for three and a half months," she tallied the number in her head, "About seven and a half months."
I hugged and kissed her, "D'you know if it's a boy or a girl?"
She took a deep breath, unsure about my reaction, "Girl."
"Hmm, daddy's little girl . . . I like the sound'a THAT."
She cuddled in the bed with me, neither of us having ever been happier . . .
"AAAAAAAAHHH," screamed Minty.
"Breathe Minty, breathe," I urged her, "I can see her head."
"Hurts . . . AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH," she screamed in pain, again.
Even with the spells that I had going, she was in a lot of pain. I was an idiot, while studied healing magic I never learned (or practiced what I did learn) of pain-killer spells.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH."
The only one I knew was a minor empathy spell, which let the caster to absorb about 5% of the pain and damage of the subject.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH."
I squeezed her hand, "Come on Minty, one more push. Just one more . . ."
"Waaaaah," we both heard the cry of our little baby girl.
We both seemed to radiate pleasure at seeing our little one in our arms . . .