Avuri

It was entirely unusual for us to have our day planned out so precisely. Despite how regimented our normal lives had become with housework, chores, and the like, the truth was that our lives were generally entirely freeform. We woke up whenever our bodies or the kids told us to, did what needed to be done around the Basin on our own time, and generally spent our days however we wanted.

It just happened to be that both Emery and I preferred a bit of structure, so we often followed similar plans throughout each day. But there was never any rush or specific timing to anything.

For Stena's birthday, though, we had an actual schedule to keep, which meant actually keeping an eye on things much more closely than usual.

We got up exactly as the sun was peeking over the natural barrier of the Basin. Or, to be more specific, Emery and I hadn't actually slept and crept from the bed as soon as we saw light peeking in. We left the kids still asleep in our massive, multi-piece bed, hoping they could at least get a few extra hours while we made breakfast.

Vale was already up and at the kitchen table when we came down the stairs, a cup of tea close at hand.

"Morning, Dad." Emery said quietly. "Why're you down here so early?"

"I wanted to run Stena's gift by you two before I gave it to her, and I haven't had a chance." Vale answered, thankfully matching Emery's volume level. He often had a tendency to be louder than necessary, so it was a welcome surprise.

"Oh yeah?" Emery said, walking straight into the kitchen. Rather than bothering the chickens this early and making them kick up a fuss, we had squirreled away some eggs and chicken for Stena's birthday breakfast.

"Yeah. There were two things I wasn't sure about, and I didn't want to overstep or make the kids upset." Vale said. He sounded uncharacteristically unsure of himself.

"Vale, just what did you have in mind?" I asked.

He looked a little sheepish. "Look, I raised Emery and her siblings on my own. I learned pretty quickly that getting a gift for just one of them was a bad idea, especially when they were still young. I don't want to cause any fights."

"But you also don't want to disappoint Stena by giving them all something special on a day that is meant to be hers." Emery said from the kitchen.

"Yeah."

Emery chuckled. "And there's no way that Stena keeps something a secret, so it's not like we can give it to her secretly and hope she tells no one."

Vale just sighed.

"I remember how things were growing up too, you know." Emery said. "Our birthdays were always a mess for the same reasons."

"Right." Vale said, then triggered his storage ring. A small fruit appeared in his hand. "I have some fruit from the south that you can't get up here from my last trip, and I was thinking about letting Stena have it. But I have no doubt that the other kids would want some too."

"I think it'll probably be alright." I said. "Do you, by chance, have more than one kind of food that we could all share?"

"I mean, I do, but -"

"Then why not let Stena have a special one to herself, but still give everyone something special, but different. So Stena will get two things, but everyone gets a little something. We can probably work with that." I continued.

"Honestly, Dad, I'd say just do whatever you want." Emery shrugged. "The truth is, while we always kicked up a fuss when someone got something and we didn't, we needed to learn that sometimes other people get things and we don't, and that's fine."

Vale let the fruit in his hand vanish back into storage. "Wow. What wisdom from the little shit that literally broke your sister's new toy on her birthday because you didn't get anything." He teased.

Emery turned to face her father, a sardonic smile on her face as her knife continued to cut the chicken for breakfast. "Yes, and when you made me sit for an hour and put that wooden riding horse back together with you, I learned not to do that again."

Vale chuckled. "Oh yeah, I forgot about that."

"You love to give us all grief over how we acted as kids, but you were a good dad. And we all learned a lot." Emery said, turning back to her prep work. I could feel the sincerity and love coming off her in waves as she spoke, though. "It may not exactly be pleasant, but our kids probably need to go through some of the same stuff."

"Mom!"

The conversation was interrupted by the thumping of feet running down the stairs and Stena's excited yelling. "Mom! Momri! It's my birthday!"

I spun in my chair at the table and spread my arms wide for the girl to leap and crash into me. She did so with enough force to knock me and the chair over entirely, if I hadn't had my Cultivator strength. Her siblings were still sleepily emerging from the bedroom and making their way down the stairs, but no one looked beleaguered with bad sleep thankfully.

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"Good morning, Stena." I said, spinning her in my lap toward the kitchen. "Mom is over there making you a morning chicken feast. Then once we've eaten, you'll need to go get dressed for the city, okay?"

She nodded emphatically, clearly excited by the plans for the day.

"And for the rest of you, Vale is going to stay here with you all and play some games, alright?" I said, addressing everyone else as they began to crowd around the table. Unlike Stena's clear enthusiasm, her siblings mostly looked uninterested and still half asleep.

"Way to make your Uncle Vale feel unloved." Vale chuckled.

"Sorry…" Cierra muttered, wiping the sleep from her eyes. "Stena woke up so suddenly and loudly…she got the rest of us up, too."

I looked around the table at the nodding heads and couldn't help but feel a little bad about it. "Well, the three of us are on a schedule today, but the rest of you aren't. Maybe, if you ask nicely, Vale will take you somewhere for a special nap."

Vale turned to look at me questioningly, then an idea seemed to dawn on him. "Oh, you know, I do have a nice spot for napping on the Blazing Dragon Peak. That could be a nice little outing."

I nodded and he smiled back. We had gone to the little nook a few times for picnics, as it was incredibly pleasant. The area was likely near some kind of geothermal activity or something similar that made the ground pleasantly warm to the touch, and the air there smelled strangely sweet. None of us had any idea why, but it was still a lovely spot that we hadn't really taken the kids to before.

The conversation from there meandered along until Emery brought breakfast to the table. She had made a large pile of buttered rice, scrambled eggs, and bits of chicken. Perfect for a nice breakfast bowl.

"Is there cheese?" Karn asked hesitantly.

"Oh. You know, I didn't prep any, but we do have some." Emery said, stepping back toward the kitchen. Karn didn't say anything, but slipped from his seat to go assist in the kitchen. As I helped dish out bowls for the kids at the table, I kept an eye on the kitchen, where Emery was walking Karn through the process of using a heating Array to melt the cheese for his bowl. Watching her walk him through each step, with his focus so entirely locked on the process was adorable.

Once everyone was settled back in their seats, Vale decided to take the chance to put forth his birthday gift. As I had suggested, to lessen the blow a little, he had given Stena a strangely shaped yellow fruit that was just for her, while also producing a bowl of smaller green and red fruits that everyone could share. They were both fruits that were rare this far from the southern coast, so none of the kids had ever had anything like them before and the excitement around the table seemed to wake everyone up a bit more.

Whether it was because of how tired the kids were, or just generally a lack of malice, breakfast passed without incident. Secretly, I suspected that while the kids all loved the rare treats, they didn't really think of the unusual fruits as a special gift, even though Stena got to eat one that no one else did.

After breakfast was settled, things moved quickly. Emery, Stena, and I all went to get dressed to leave while Vale and the other kids cleaned up breakfast. It was rare that any of us did anything we could consider 'dressing up', but we went through the motions for Stena's birthday outing.

Emery and I both wore nice clothing that hardly ever saw much use, given everyone in the Basin mostly wore simple and easy to clean clothing, especially given all of the outdoors work we all did. But for the special trip, I chose to wear lovely pink and floral robes that Emery had gifted me on our first anniversary. Emery, meanwhile, opted for a set of crisp red robes that we had picked out together on a date the previous year. They looked stunning on her, the red bringing out the dark color of her hair.

Stena didn't have a lot of dressing up options because we had never bought expensive clothes for the girls because they grew out of things so quickly. However, she still had two or three nice outfits to pick from, and she chose a loose fitting set of high quality robes that were more like athletic wear than anything else. They had been clearly made for active children, but were made with both form and function in mind. The maker had even opted for a slightly more high-end silk from a spirit beast that made it easier to clean.

Unfortunately, while they were high quality and easy to clean, we still didn't let her wear them often because they were expensive. Neither of us thought we should just let her get them dirty constantly just because they were easier to clean than normal clothing. But it seemed that the restriction just made her more excited to wear them now, as she got dressed with a huge smile on her face.

Once the three of us were ready, which took longer than we had planned for, we hurried back down the stairs to say goodbyes for the day. There were hugs and a few forehead kisses to go around before I scooped up Stena and we rushed out the door.

"Do we have everything?" I asked, hoping to catch anything we missed in the rush before we got too far from home.

"I think so. All we really need is a bit of money for the day, right?" Emery said, patting herself down, as if she'd had a pocket of any kind; everything was in our storage rings.

"Do you have the reservation slip that Vale gave us from Lyn?" I asked with a pleasant, not-threatening smile.

"Um."

"Go get it." I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, ma'am." Emery joked, gave me a salute, then dashed at full speed back to the house.

"Momri, will Mom be able to catch up to us?" Stena asked when I sped up a little.

I hummed, bouncing my head back and forth as if thinking about it. "She should be able to. Unless I go faster, like this."

I hugged Stena a bit closer and piled on the speed. It wasn't the fastest I could run because I didn't want Stena to get buffeted by the wind too badly and I was already doing my best to keep her shielded with both my arms and some Qi. But the girl just screamed and whooped with excitement at the sudden burst of movement. With the large leaps I was taking, I was sure she was also feeling the weightless, dropping feeling on the latter half of each jump, but she was clearly enjoying it.

I pushed a little more Qi into the shield I had set up against the wind and sped up a little more, even adding a little height into the jumps, adding to Stena's excitement. She was wiggling in my arms, trying to throw her hands up in the air every time we fell, which I did my best to allow when there wasn't the danger of tree branches in the way.

With my Qi, I felt behind us, just to make sure Emery was following. She was, but seemed to be actively holding back a little bit, because I knew she could catch up with ease.

"Should we try to lose Mom?" I whispered in Stena's ear. With the rush of wind in her face, Stena couldn't really talk well, so after a few false starts, she simply looked back at me with a huge grin and nodded.

When my feet touched the ground the next step, I added a little more force to my push-off, and moved at a sharp angle. Emery would be fine to track us, but Stena still cheered as we veered entirely off her expected course.

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