Page 47 of Sapphire Seas

“Have you heard how the kids are doing in town?” From the last update they were well but worried about their parents. The oldest, Noir, gave a vague description of where their parents were but that was all we had heard.

“Not much different than the last update, though Baird and a couple members of his team left on a recon mission this morning. Hopefully, they check in soon. Also, Quint and Torin took one of the vans into town to pick up the massive load of packages at the post office for us.”

Kes and I giggled. “We had so much fun picking out stuff for the babies.”

“Don’t forget, you’re not allowed to order any furniture. Papa is taking care of that for the little ones.” Mattias rubbed our bellies as he said that.

“Did you just hear giggles?” Kes asked.

“Aye, I did.”

“Me too. I’m so excited. I’ve wanted to be a Daddy forever.” It was like every dream I’d ever had was coming true. Could’ve done without the battle and loss of life, which will hopefully soon come to an end. But for everything wonderful in my life I had both my mates to thank.

I can feel your dragon stewing, mate. What bothers you?

Leave it to Mattias to call me out.

Just the whole two eggs, two live births challenge.

You heard Raven, Kes said, Nature will find a way.

Yeah, but at what cost?

Trust in the Goddess, mate, Mattias gave me the sweetest kiss, so full of love while Kes rubbed my belly. She won’t give us more than we can handle and she’s well aware of what’s coming.

Believe in the Goddess. I’d been taught that all my life, but when times got tough, it was easy to forget.

Kes and I laid there, curled up against Mattias, his arms held us tight as we watched the infamous yellow sponge man. At some point, I dozed off. When I woke, Mattias was gone but Kes was wrapped around me like an adorable octopus. I heard voices, all but one I was familiar with, coming from upstairs. Mattias was nearby, I felt him. He was likely with them, so I stayed in the comfy cocoon of Kes’ arms and legs.

“Eeep!” Kes and I squealed, still half asleep as we were hoisted into the air.

“Ssshhh, it’s me. Just taking you to see your surprise.” Mattias calming voice always helped. Even though we knew it was him, it had still startled us.

“Surprise?” That perked Kes right up though I can’t deny I was equally as interested.

He sat us down inside one of two rooms we’d agreed to turn into a nursery. “Who wrote all over the walls?”

“What’s inside all the boxes?” Kes was ready to dig in.

Mattias warm, rumbly laughter filled the room. “Goddess, you did me well with these two. Those, my loves, are the online orders Quint and Torin picked up for us. As to who drew on the walls, that was our contractor, Donovan, who had just left, and myself. He’s going to start the rooms on Monday.”

“Yay!” Kes and I cheered. Jumping wasn’t a good option right now and thankfully we’d both remembered that.

“I’ll introduce you to him as well as to Jacob, the furniture maker.”

“Furniture maker?” I thought we had a house full of that already.

“Yes, my love, the baby furniture. He’s made all the dragonets cribs, changing tables, dressers and even beds for Ionus’ little ones now that they’re too big for their cribs.”

Growing up as I had, kelp beds were where we slept and there weren’t any separate rooms, so to speak. We shared toys, played with the sea life and that’s just the way it was and we had a wonderful time, until the Gorynych ruined it. This was a whole new world, literally, for me.

Kes and I laid on the carpet, the indents where the furniture once was still there. I stared around the room, envisioning the nursery. “How will we fit six cribs in here?”

“Well,” Mattias laid down between us. “My thought was three oversized cribs. Each set of twins sharing one and the remaining two girls doing the same. We’re gonna knock through to the next room and make it a play space.”

“I never had any of this,” Kes and I said at the same time. Mattias took our hands and kissed them.

“I will give you and our babies the world. None of you will ever be without again.” That much Kes and I knew, without a doubt. “Now, we’ve been invited to Ionus house for dinner. How about after that we tackle some of these boxes.”