"Happy if you and Lisa would take the twins into the bedroom, we can finish up here." Walter smiled at her.
"What, are you bashful?" Happy asked as she looked up from Tristan.
Walter laughed.
"No, but I figured Paige and Toby might prefer that." Walter smiled at Paige.
"Definitely." Toby said. "Had I known you were buck naked in the tub I don't think I'd have let Happy come in here to start with."
"What makes you think you had a choice?" Happy asked with an edge to her voice.
"Happy." Paige said wearily.
"Fine, spoil sports." Happy grinned and walked towards the door and Selanna moved back so she could exit.
Lisa just smiled and took Rose as Paige finished nursing her. She'd seen Walter many times in various stages of undress so she knew his request wasn't about being bashful, but respectful of Toby and Paige's feelings. Toby went with them to do a thorough exam on both of the twins.
Walter reached down and unstoppered the tub. He began humming softly as the water drained. Once the level dropped to just cover her legs, he stoppered the drain again.
"Why did you stop the water?" Paige asked.
"We still need to wait for you to pass the placenta." Walter smiled.
Paige nodded.
Walter grabbed one of the washcloths Lisa brought in with the towels. Turning the water on slow, he soaked the cloth before working the soap Paige preferred into the material. Walter knelt down between Paige's legs again and began washing her as they smiled at each other.
"How are you feeling?" Walter asked quietly before humming some more.
"Tired, sore, hungry." Paige smiled weakly.
"Well, humming my restorative song will get some energy restored to you, and we can have some breakfast brought up. Maybe Toby will have something to help with the pain." Walter smiled as he rinsed the cloth. He reached over to the sink and grabbed the small pitcher that was there and filled it from the tap in the tub and then poured it down over Paige. Helping to keep her warm while rinsing the soap off of her. She began experiencing mild contractions. Walter grabbed one of the towels and dealt with the placenta as it was expelled. He sat it aside wrapped up in case Toby needed to examine it too.
Walter opened the drain again before he poured warm water back over Paige. He gathered up the cloth and began soaping it up again.
The bedroom door opened and Veronica rushed in.
"I'm here." She started to say and then saw the twins Happy and Lisa were holding sitting on the side of the bed. Selanna stood there watching them closely. "Oh, my little ones." Veronica said as she moved over to them.
"This is Tristan." Happy grinned and pulled the blanket they switched over to from the towels back so she could see Tristan better.
"Little Tristan." Veronica sniffed as she tried to keep from crying.
"And this is his little sister Rose." Lisa told her as Toby worked to examine the little girl.
"Oh, Rose. What a wonderful name for her. Where is my daughter?" Veronica asked.
"Oh she's in the bathing room if you want to see her." Happy said as she grinned thinking of Veronica walking in on Walter standing there naked.
Veronica nodded and walked straight back and through the door.
"Walter!" Veronica nearly screamed and turned around blushing.
Happy broke out laughing so hard poor Tristan was startled and began crying which elicited his sister into crying as well.
"You did that on purpose." Toby accused her.
Happy just grinned as she nodded.
"What are you doing Mother?" Paige demanded.
"I was coming to make sure you were okay. Happy didn't tell me Walter was in here with you, and naked." Veronica complained as she left the room.
Walter just chuckled as he finished washing the soap off of Paige.
"Was Happy always so mischievous?" Walter asked.
Paige sighed as she shook her head.
"It was a few years after we met up that she began to heal from her pain and let go of some of the anger. And then it started coming out. It got worse when she started dating Toby." Paige smiled.
Lisa came in with their robes and collected all the towels, except the one Walter said was for Toby.
After Toby had finished his exam of Paige the couple put on their robes and came out of the bathing room to find Ralph holding his little brother. Raul was holding Rose as Sean and Louise stood by speaking quietly and touching the little ones off and on.
The first week was a blur almost to Paige. She wasn't sure how other Mothers of twins did it, but she was quite sure she'd have lost her mind without Walter's restorative song he used on her throughout each day. Having all four grandparents, Megan, Happy, Lisa to help out was a huge benefit to her. Except when needed by the twins she contentedly lay in Walter's arms and let him pamper her. But it wasn't long before her body seemed to need for her to be more active and slowly she began doing small things. Stretches and mild exercising to try and feel more normal.
Walter worked with her keeping his focus on her to ensure she didn't push anything too far. Each time she tried he'd sweep her up in his arms and shake his head at her. Paige would just grin and kiss him. Sometimes she overdid it just so he would.
The start of the third week Paige began sitting in the great hall for an hour a day to go over any Keep business that needed her decisions or signature on. The slow pace irritated the people involved in the matters. They'd already waited more than two months in some cases and then the trickle of progress really didn't help. Especially as some later cases were granted a higher priority than earlier cases. But none of them chose to voice their opinions on the matter as Walter stood beside his wife. The stoney look upon his face made almost everyone swallow whatever they felt and to stay civil.
As the sixth week came to an end, Paige was back to exercising as she used to work out before finding out she was pregnant. She began including some combat moves with her sword. Each time she tried to work out with someone else Walter would resolutely refuse and only let her fight him. Walter knew Paige wasn't even close to her previous form and he didn't put it past Sir Sylvester or anyone else from going too far. Wanting a cheap win against her, knowing she wasn't in full form yet. He carefully monitored her body with his psionics at every step, never pressing the advantage or using too much force.
Sometimes it irritated Paige as it seemed like he was really mocking her. She'd finally had it at the end of the ninth week and she threw her thought at him. "Damn you Walter! Fight me!"
"Love, I'm only trying to challenge you, not beat you." Walter replied mentally as they stood there facing each other.
"Challenge this!" Paige threw the thought at him before she leaped while bringing her sword down hard.
Walter looked surprised but deftly moved back while catching her strike and diverting it around in the air. Paige pressed the attack, forcing Walter to give ground, step by step. The entire courtyard was quiet except for the heavy sword blows as everyone froze seeing the intensity of the fighting had escalated dramatically. Until then the blows sounded more tinny as if they were deflected blows. Now they were angry klaxon sounds of fury echoing about the yard.
Sir Sylvester stood there stunned, he was barely keeping count of the sword strikes, much less where they happened as the couple continued.
"Damn, is she mad at Walter?" Ray whispered as he stepped up next to Sylvester.
"I don't know, but I'm glad she never went that hard against me." Sir Sylvester whispered back as they continued watching.
Selanna stood watching them, clearly confused and worried as she chirped warblingly.
Happy stood at the doorway of her smithy as they fought back past it towards Cabe's tower. She sighed seeing how Walter was now beginning to struggle in countering Paige. Paige clearly wasn't noticing how he was struggling. She grabbed the quench bucket and ran out towards the couple. She quickly threw the water in the bucket out, soaking Paige completely.
Paige froze and then glared at Happy.
"What in the wise Lady's name are you doing? Are you trying to kill your husband?" Happy screamed. She knew she had to say something shocking to get through to her.
Paige's eyes blinked as her brow rose up and down several times as if she was slowly coming out of a fog, trying to understand.
"What do you mean?" Paige asked.
"Paige, you've been attacking him for ten minutes straight. Walter was really struggling to keep you from hurting him. You were completely oblivious to it weren't you? Did you go full berserk?" Happy demanded as she moved past her and stooped to see if Walter was okay.
"Walter?" Paige asked as she slowly began to understand and then she saw he had dropped to his knees.
He smiled up at her wearily.
"Walter." Paige said again and moved over quickly. "Are you okay?" Paige dropped her sword and knelt down pulling him into her arms.
"I'm fine my love, just a bit winded." Walter told her as he was breathing heavily.
"I'm so sorry, I'm not sure what happened." Paige said before kissing his lips gently.
"I'd say you are pretty much back to normal now." Walter told her. After several minutes of just breathing he pushed up against his sword to stand. "And I am really glad it was me you were fighting rather than someone else." Walter pulled her in and hugged her. "I'm also very happy for Happy's arrival. I couldn't even get through to you telepathically."
"I remember feeling angry, like you were mocking me with the way you were fighting. And then I don't really recall what happened." Paige whispered.
"Trust me, you might not recall, but everyone here will remember this for a long time to come." Happy told her gesturing about the courtyard.
Paige looked around and blushed a little seeing everyone staring.
"Think nothing more about it my love. Four months of limited action, just had to come out." Walter smiled.
Everyone sat around the dinner table kind of chuckling as Sir Sylvester and then Happy recounted what had happened during their training session earlier.
"So how did you get these abilities to use your mind like you do?" Allie asked. "You didn't have them when we left Fort Collins."
Walter slowly nodded.
"Well originally it happened about a month after I had visited my family after we defeated Mark." Walter started and revised what he was saying remembering to them, Megan had never died. "I'd stayed long enough to get that harvest in and readied the lands for the next year and then left. It was about a month later and it would be about another month before I met Ray. I'd stopped at a temple of Athena. I was asked if I would do a kindness for a member of the temple. Of course I said yes. The old farmer needed help patching up his barn for his animals."
"It wasn't hard or long work, but the little village on the outskirts of Los Angeles was attacked the night after I had finished the work. I hadn't left yet and so I joined with the small militia in defeating the ban of kobolds. I'm not really trying to brag but if I hadn't been there I'm sure the militia would have suffered losses." Walter told them. "But as the few survivors ran we saw, what I'm sure was their master. Well we saw an inky blackness I should say. I was struck mentally by a powerful blow. I fell to the ground but thankfully the thing ran rather than face the entire militia."
"I passed out after a few minutes of delirium from what I was told. I remember waking up with a terrible headache. The temple Mistress whispered as quietly as she could for me to try and relax and just lay still. It takes a very powerful psionicist to attack someone who doesn't have psionics, but man did my head hurt. It took about a week but I recovered. And my life was changed as the attack had opened up my mind. I now have enhanced eyesight and hearing from that attack. Slowly I discovered the other abilities as I muddled through. By the time I met Ray I had more or less mastered them." Walter said as he squeezed Paige's hand.
"So from the way you said that, was there a second attack or something?" Megan asked.
Walter nodded.
"A week before you guys joined us here. I was attacked twice by a dragon consort on our way home. And then I was attacked by Ralph's Fox as it thought I was trying to attack him. Since then I've discovered a couple of other abilities." Walter smiled at Ralph, knowing he would feel guilty.
"Like what?" Paige frowned.
"Like this." Walter said as he took her left arm and showed everyone the scar. "This was done by a sword of wounding. After a certain period of time if it isn't healed properly, the lore books all say it can't be healed." Walter told them.
His fingers of his free hand pressed into the top of the scar as his eyes went golden. His fingers slid down the scar, even as Paige felt like he was tickling her, they all gasped as the scar was gone.
"I now have the ability to tap into the cells of living beings. I can encourage them to repair nearly anything that is wrong. I am limited by how much energy I have at the time. After our fight today that is pretty much it for me." Walter smiled.
"Is that how you did what you did in the tub with me before the twins were born?" Paige asked even as most everyone snickered. Paige chose to ignore them.
Walter nodded with a smile.
"Another ability, brought out or enhanced my telepathy." Walter told her.
"So, wait, you mean you can read our thoughts?" Raul asked.
Walter shook his head.
"There needs to be a connection between me and the person, it takes time with close contact to develop. I could first feel and give emotional information to Paige and later communicate with her with it. When we were visiting you I was finally able to give minor impressions to Ralph while there. And then I mistakenly tried to force a mental communication with Ralph while he was in the Fox. That's why it attacked. Our connection wasn't ready for that level of communication." Walter told him as he reached over and cupped the back of Ralph's head. "But now I can communicate with him as well. That is how I called for Toby's help."
Ralph nodded.
"It kind of freaked me out at first." Ralph told them even as they kind of laughed.
"So you could one day develop that with us?" Veronica asked.
"Perhaps, but if I do, I promise not to read your thoughts." Walter told her. "I have to actively try to read them. And speaking of that, the twins are hungry." Walter smiled at Paige.
"You can already hear their thoughts?" Louise marveled.
Walter grinned.
"I hear them crying, I'm guessing by the time, it is food they want." Walter told them.
"Dad, what's a kobold?" Ralph asked as everyone chuckled at that.
"Well, they are small humanoid creatures, maybe three feet tall at the most. They have a head that is kind of shaped like a dog's, but with two small horns out of their foreheads and ears shaped something like a bat's. They aren't very strong, but they are evil and devious. Their life cycle isn't that long, maybe half again that of a dog. So around twenty five to thirty years." Walter told him.
"Will they be a threat to us?" Ralph asked worriedly.
Walter shook his head while smiling.
"The only towns they might attack would be Aaron Springs or Harris, but the creatures North of your Mother's lands would wipe them out before they ever became a problem." Walter mussed Ralph's hair.
Greetings! I hope this finds you all well!
Railman - Well do I remember you saying so! I am tickled that you have enjoyed them so much! I'm not sure how my brain works either, but I'm glad it does! lol Thank you!
Peariegirl - I will endeavor to do my best! hehe
LouBe - Thank you! hehe Yep, there is a limit for sure! lol Actually until this chapter it hadn't been discussed. I do believe at one point after Ray had joined them on their way to Lancaster that he said he wondered how Walter got those abilities and Walter just said something like, knowing is one thing, actually experiencing it is another. But now you know how he got them. The psionics of the world are similar to AD&D's, and people can be born with the potential and others can have them come on after psyche trauma such as Walter did.
Marie Mac - Ah...for the most part if I know the ethnicity of the character I'll typically do searches of names for that region, or even popular names if I know the year they are born in. I have used names of people I know. If you remember the manager of the inn they stayed at in Lancaster. His name was Byron, a young man I was in art class with in HS, he was also a pretty serious basketball and football player then. Not long before I wrote that chapter I had read he had been murdered while attending a funeral a week or so before. So I gave him his name. Rose and Tristan were names that came up in searches for Irish names. Originally Tristan was tagged as Patrick but it didn't feel right and my reader also didn't like it and so I went back to the search and it really felt right.
To the Adventure! -Tim