shuhaige
Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Part 1
The other gods there declined. Then Falgaroth and Visinniria were the first to take their leave, and the
rest quickly departed, most to prepare for their extended absence from the rest of the world.
Soon Mark and Talia were alone. Mark sat on the sand and leaned back on a sitting log, and Talia
curled up in his lap.
“So, what are your thoughts on the raising of children, my love?” Talia asked as she kissed him under
his chin.
“I’m not sure.” Mark replied as he absent-mindedly caressed her. “On the one hand, I’d like to raise
them as much like I was raised as we can. But on the other hand, I won’t lie to them, so they’re gonna
know about our regular life here, even if they’re not living it at the time. Knowing that they’re really
wealthy princes and princesses might make them less appreciative of a basic life than I was.”
“True. I also want to raise them much as I was raised, including as much training in wizardry and
magecraft as they’ll accept. They’ll have an idyllic twenty-four years with us in the time-bubble, I hope,
but after that, they’ll be out in the world with us during the war with the demons. I hope very much to
keep them out of combat completely, but in case we can’t and they have to fight, I want them as
prepared as we can possibly make them.”
“That’s some serious truth.” he nodded.
“So.” she said as she turned to face him, then caressed his chest. “How many shall we have?”
“Well, I’d like to have at least one boy and one girl. And I’d have been satisfied with having sixteen
years to raise them. I think I’m proof that we can raise kids to be fully mature and self-sufficient adults
by the time they’re sixteen. So that gives us at least eight tries to have a boy and a girl. If we get a boy
and a girl on the first two tries, we can wait a couple of years and see how it goes with them before we
decide if we’ll have any more.”
“That sounds good. Except that I don’t want to have more than four young children at once, and then
only if we can devote ourselves to parenting full-time. If I had to work at a full time occupation, I would
not want to have more than two young children at once. Don’t misunderstand; I plan to have dozens of
children with you over the centuries, but the first few years of a child’s life are so critical, and there are
only so many hours in a day. I once wondered how humans who have large families avoid attention-
starvation and neglect in their youngest, so I researched it. And the answer is; when a couple have
more than five children, the oldest ones do much of the child-rearing work with the younger ones.
Which I think is unfair to both groups, and less healthy for them as well.
“Almost all elven children are the only child in their household when they’re growing up. Elven couples
will usually wait until a child is completely grown and has left their parental home before they decide to
have another one. At least one parent is available to every child at every minute of the day or night,
always. When Dalia and I were born, Mother and Father gave up or delegated every duty but raising us
until we were fourteen, and only then did they gradually begin to add other responsibilities to their
schedules.
“As long as both of us devote ourselves to parenting as our only occupation, I’m fine with having four
young children at once. If they’re all boys or all girls, we’ll just have to try again after the nexus. Or
perhaps we’ll have time for another score of years in another time-bubble before then.”
“Okay, I’m fine with that.” Mark grinned and gave her a kiss. “And since much of our raising of children
will involve the teaching of magic, and the Alliance wants us to get better at that, everyone should be
fine with giving us another two months off in the real world over the next year. Particularly if our kids
turn out to be exceptionally capable.”
“Mmhm.” she agreed as she returned his kiss, kneeling up on his thighs for comfortable positioning.
She drew back a little and grinned.
“I'm going to be pregnant in less than three minutes from now.” she announced, and Translocated their
clothes two meters in the air and two meters to her right, where they flopped and fluttered to the ground
as she reached down to adjust him.
“Oh, I think it’ll take at least fifteen minutes longer than that!” he chuckled.
“It will not. I’ve learned your responses well enough to assure it, if I so choose. We can play some more Published by Nôv'elD/rama.Org.
after I’m pregnant, to celebrate the occasion.”
As it turned out, she was right.