Wakfu

Worthy of the Crown

Chapter Nineteen

Quintessence

"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me,
what is this quintessence of dust?"
-Hamlet, by Shakespeare

a/n This story does not take into account the comics or the special episodes. Neither were out when I started this, and I had already mentally established the storyline before I saw them. If I were really clever, I might try to come up with a timeline where all this stuff works out with all that stuff...but I'm not. I think I might have mentioned that before, but if I have not, then this is the first chapter where my story significantly diverges from canon.

WWW

Amalia had always thought of having a baby like planting a garden. Suddenly, that metaphor didn't seem close to adequate. A garden required a seed and dirt. Having a baby, judging from Evangelyne's experience, required adult clothes several sizes larger, baby clothes several sizes smaller, bizarre appetites, nausea, making cradles, throwing away cradles and buying ones without jagged edges, and worrying. It made Amalia wonder how people managed to reproduce at all. It also made her want to say remarkably stupid things like, "How did it happen?" and, "You're an adult now!" In the end, she let her friend do the talking.

"I never imagined myself as a mom," Evangelyne said distantly, rocking in a chair. Seeing her in a rocking chair was nearly as surreal as seeing her pregnant. "I knew your mother better than I knew my own."

That was why she and her sister Cleophee grew up in the Cra barracks, why she ended up being Amalia's bodyguard. But considering how often Evangelyne ever talked about her past, it felt weird listening to her. Amalia looked at the cradle where Evangelyne and Tristepin planned on putting the baby. She imagined a miniature Tristepin/Evangelyne hybrid in it, and felt as though the baby was reverse-haunting the entire house, if there was such a thing as a reverse-haunting.

"I don't even know what I'm getting into," she continued. "I mean, I can't just drop the baby off at the nearest barracks and pick them up every evening before dinner. Children need...they need everything, love, discipline, time, and I don't even know where to begin." She shook her head and smiled. "But I'm sure you don't want to hear about that. Tell me about your adventure. It's your first one without me."

Amalia smiled, but she didn't feel it. Talking to a handful of monarchs around world seemed suddenly insignificant compared to finding out that her best friend had been creating life. "I've been looking after my kingdom for years. I am perfectly capable of looking after myself."

"And it's not like you're alone, even if you are the only girl in the group. How's that?"

"Surprisingly civilized," Amalia said. "Though that's mostly because the Iop-brain's not around to, you know, be himself. At least, it was until we picked up Ruel again, and he's been mugging kings and taking anything that's not nailed down."

"Being himself."

"Exactly. And then there's Adamaï, and he can be irritating when he wants to be. I never really traveled with him before, but I get the feeling he doesn't like anyone besides Yugo, and Yugo...Yugo's changed." She didn't like admitting it. It was like admitting it made it true, but over the past few weeks, Yugo's wide-eyed wonder and fearless innocence had been replaced by a stagnant sense of...fear? Dread?

"Well, he is a king now."

Amalia leaned her chair back and stared at the ceiling. "Yeah, I guess, but...I don't know. Like, he's always very honest, and that's great if you're not in politics, but otherwise it sucks, so I assumed that I'd be doing most of the talking, but he's been getting the hang of everything so fast, pretty soon he...he won't need me at all." Another thing she didn't like to admit.

Evangelyne didn't answer for a moment, and Amalia regretted how it came out. "Do you what first drew me to Pinpin?" Evangelyne said.

"He stopped wearing a shirt?"

She laughed. "No. He stopped wearing a shirt afterwards. What I first liked about him, even though I didn't admit it for a while, was how he always saw himself as the hero of his own story."

Amalia smiled. "Yep, that Iop-brain always had delusions of grandeur."

Evangelyne shrugged. "I never said it was always a justified mindset, but he had it as a consistent one. And I've always been the opposite. I've always seen myself as a side character in someone else's story, usually as your bodyguard, but never as the most important person on the stage."

Amalia dropped her chair forward and looked at her with concern. "I never saw you like that." Evangelyne was her best friend! They were practically sisters.

Evangelyne gave her a flat look.

"Well, okay," she admitted. "But I was the princess, and you were–"

Evangelyne silenced her with a wave of her hand. "Don't worry about it, Amalia. My outlook was my fault, not yours. But the problem with that mindset is that it never got me anywhere. It's just too passive. You grow by making choices, and by seeing myself as a side character, I let other people decide for me and I only chose not to choose. Honestly I didn't break through that until after Pinpin died and I decided to stop wallowing in self pity and try to bring him back myself."

Amalia thought back to that time. Evangelyne had continued grieving long after everyone else had moved on. When she disappeared after claiming to have received a message from Tristepin's ghost, Amalia had assumed that it had just been her weird way of coping. But when she they had caught up with her... "I noticed that you seemed different afterwards, and it wasn't just your haircut."

She smiled. "Thank you. Now let me ask you, whose story is Yugo in?"

"His own, obviously. It's his quest, again, so it's his story." It was always his quest, whether it was to find his family or to get the world ready for his people.

Evangelyne nodded. "He's a lot like Pinpin in that way. Now how about Ruel?"

"Him?" Amalia griminced. Thinking about that grungy old cheapskate was never pleasant. "As much as I hate to admit it, he does have his moments, like when he's trying to save money, but most of the time I feel he's just along for the ride and the chance to have someone else pay the bills."

"Alright. So how about you? Whose story are you in? Because if you're in someone else's story, then you can follow him all over the world and he'll still pass you by."

Amalia's shoulder's slumped. Great. An object lesson. "Okay, fine, I get it. What's with all the story metaphors, though?"

Eva looked away. Was she blushing all of a sudden? "Well, it's been quiet this far from town, and the doctor told me that I should tone down the physical activity, and I needed to find something to occupy my time."

"So you've been reading?" Amalia asked. She smirked. "And the nearest library is in what, Bonta?"

Yep, she was blushing. "Well, actually, I've taken up writing."

Amalia blinked. "What?"

"Don't laugh!" she said, wide eyed. "But you know after Pinpin died, I kind of, um, eulogized him on paper?"

"Really? I thought you were just venting into your diary."

She shook her head. "No, before he died, he said something about 'entering the legend,' so I thought I'd help. But anyway–again, don't laugh–but it's a best seller."

"What?"

"Among Iops, at least."

"Iops read? You published your diary?"

"It wasn't a diary! And sure they read, as long as the book has small words and big pictures. And violence. It focuses a lot on Pinpin because he's the one the readers can relate to most. I've actually started on the sequel. Pinpin always says that it needs more Goultard, even though he never showed up until the end."

Amalia chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully. An idea began to sprout in her mind. "And people read these?"

"You don't have to sound so surprised."

"Could you do one for Yugo?"

Evangelyne fell speechless for a moment. "I...don't know. It would be a lot easier to get started on it if he died tragically first."

Amalia frowned. "I don't think he's planning on doing that soon, but with some of the stunts he's pulled, sometimes I think he's trying to make up for Pinpin not being there. Ask me about the New Sufokians later. But anyway, he could really use the publicity. He already has nations opposed to him, and people only know about him what they hear. Honestly, winning that Boufbowl game in Bonta has gotten us more places in some of these kingdoms than defeating Nox...although our second game may have gotten us banned from Brakmar. Ideally, we could just play team sports all the time, but every king needs a good public relations expert."

Evangelyne leaned back in her chair. "King Yugo. That's going to take some getting used to."

"You as a mom is going to take some getting used to. His position is just a matter of state."

"If I did this, I'd be writing for everyone, not just Iops," Evangelyne said. She grinned. "I could even use a multisyllabic vocabulary, and describe fight scenes with more than just sound effects!"

"You're going to need to show me this book of yours sometime."

"But...I don't know, Amalia. Even a small book is a huge time commitment, and after the baby gets here, I can't make any promises. And writing for an international audience with a political agenda, well..." She breathed in sharply. "That brings everything to a new level of difficulty. When I write for Iops, I can make fun of wimps and intellectuals until the moogrrs come home, but with Yugo, I'll only be able to make fun of people that have already declared against them, and that's...who again?"

"Enutrof and Brakmar."

"Oh. Well that's not too bad," Evangeyline said. Ruel gave them plenty of practice making fun of Enutrofs. "Still, the political arena is not something I want to get into." Her face lit up in her I-swear-I-wasn't-planning-this-from-the-start expression. "Why don't you do it?"

"Me? But I can't write a book! I'm..."

"Illiterate?"

"No!"

"Unfamiliar with the subject material?"

"Are you kidding? I've been traveling around the world with the subject material for ages! I'm the blooming expert on the subject material!"

"Ignorant of politics?"

"I was born into politics, lady!"

"Then what's the problem?"

"I...I..." Her bravado wilted. "I don't even know where to begin."

"Well, do you see that stack of blank pages on that bookshelf?" Evangelyne asked, pointing.

"Yes."

"And do you see that quill and that inkpot?" She wrote, apparently, in the old fashioned way.

"Yes."

"You might want to start there."

Amalia picked up the stack of papers and sat down at the desk with the inkpot. "Okay, now what?" She felt strangely giddy.

"Now," she said. "You write."

Amalia took a deep breath and closed her eyes. Come, Muse, she thought, whose name is Shameless Propaganda...and Absent. "This isn't working."

"It's called writer's block," Evangelyne said. "It happens to everyone. Just write the first thing that comes to your mind."

Amalia took a deep breath, dipped the quill into the inkwell, and began her story. It was a dark and stormy night.

"Is there a reason you're starting with Vampyro's castle?" Evangelyne asked.

"I am not starting with Vampyro's castle! A lot of things happened on dark and stormy nights."

"There was Vampyro's castle, Ruel's funeral, and...that's it."

"Okay, fine," Amalia said. "So I'm taking a few creative liberties! Your criticisms aren't helping."

WWW

"So," Adamaï said as he, Yugo, Ruel, and Tristepin walked to the Iop castle. "When are you going to tell me what's going on?"

Yugo frowned. "I thought you knew what was going on. We're going to talk to the Iop king."

"Iop chief," Tristepin corrected.

"Right, chief, whose name is Reg-genez...ez..."

"Reggenezrawch."

"Yeah. That's going to be fun to say."

"No, not that," Adamaï snapped. "I mean before. Back at Pinpin's house."

"Technically it was my mom's house," Tristepin said. "I just inherited it after she passed away."

Ruel put a comforting hand on Tristepin's shoulder. "I'm sorry to hear that," he said. "The inheritance tax must have been horrible."

"Inheritance tax?" Tristepin said. "I don't think we have that here."

"Really?" Ruel smiled and stroked his beard. "I wonder if I could get Grandma to move here."

"What about back at Pinpin's house?" Yugo asked Adamaï.

"What was going on?" He fluttered to the front of the group and faced them. "All I know is that as soon as we got there, everyone started screaming and laughing and congratulating each other, and no one bothered to tell me why."

"I'm sorry, bro, I thought we said something. Eva's pregnant." Yugo was used to Adamaï knowing nearly everything whether it was about Eliatrope lore or magical theory, but apparently the dragon had never seen a pregnant human before. That was kind of thoughtless of him. After all, Yugo had never seen a pregnant dragon either.

"And what does that mean?"

Yugo blinked. "Oh. It means that she's going to have a baby."

"Oh," he said slowly. "Huh."

"Yeah," Yugo said. "That's why her belly was all, you know..."

"Wait, did she eat it?"

"What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?"

"Well, you implied that the baby was in there."

"It is."

"It is," Adamaï repeated.

"Yes."

"But she didn't eat it."

"She didn't eat it."

Adamaï stared at him for a moment. "Are you going to answer the obvious question, or are you going to make me ask it?"

"What question's that?"

"How did the baby get in her belly?" he asked slowly.

That...that was actually a good question. Yugo had always assumed that baby's just appeared there, and that it had something to do with an albatrocious. He looked at Tristepin, who shrugged, and at Ruel, who said, "You'll have to ask Alibert when you get back, cause I ain't telling."

"I guess it's a secret," Yugo said.

"How does it get out?"

Tristepin shrugged again, and Ruel laughed and said, "Alibert's going to have a fun talk later."

"I mean, does it zaap out?"

"I don't think so?" Yugo said.

"Does it eat its way out?"

"Eew!"

"Actually..." Ruel said.

"What?" Pinpin said, his face turning white. "Oh no, Eva!"

Ruel started laughing. "Just kidding. The baby comes out exactly the same way it goes in."

Yugo and Adamaï looked up at Ruel, and Pinpin sat down to get the image of cannibalistic babies out of his head. "Which is?" Yugo asked.

"Mysteriously," Ruel said with a smug smile. "And that's all you need to know."

"Man, humans are weird," Yugo said. "Why can't they hatch from a Dofus like we do?" He grinned at Adamaï, but his brother stared off distantly. "Bro? You okay?"

"I'm fine." A moment later, he said, "Hey, Yugo? Am...I an outsider?"

Yugo felt like he had been slapped. "What? What are you talking about?"

Adamaï looked away. "Nothing. Forget it."

"Okay," Yugo said. "I guess. Are..."

"You know what, I'm going to go off on my own for a bit. I'll catch up with you later."

"Bro? What are..." Adamaï turned and flew away. He thought about following him, but if Adamaï didn't want to be alone, he would have stayed.

"I'm sure he'll be okay," Tristepin said. "I met a few wannabe dragonslayers, but your brother's pretty tough."

"Wait, wannabe dragonslayers?" Yugo repeated. "Are those what I think they are?"

"What do you think they are?"

"People who want to kill a dragon so they can say they killed a dragon."

"Yep, that's about it."

"That's disgusting!" Yugo looked off to where Adamaï had flown. "I hope Adamaï doesn't run into any of them. In the mood he's in, they could get seriously hurt."

"Yeah, but he'll be okay."

They arrived at the massive, sandstone castle where the king lived. Or chief. Reggenezrawch, Yugo told himself mentally. It wasn't as elegant as the Eniripsa palace or as tall as what they had in Xelor, but it suited an Iop king. There was very little decoration on the walls except for right over the main entrance, where was mounted the skull of the largest albatrocious Yugo had ever seen.

"That can't be good luck," Ruel said.

Tristepin shrugged. "He's a king. Kings don't need luck."

"Really?" Yugo asked.

"I'm sure the Ecaflip king might disagree," Ruel said.

Tristepin walked up to the guard in front of the castle. "Hey Tolecnal. My friends and I are here to see Chief Reggenezrawch."

"Welcome to Chief Reggenezrawch's castle," the guard said, as if by rote. "How tough are you?"

"I was tough enough to get in last time I came here, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, but I have to do this every time. It's a rule, you know. For all I know, you could by Pinpin's wimpy twin."

"Is that even a thing? I mean, evil twin, sure, but..."

"Hey, I'm just following the rules here," Tolecnal said.

"Fine, fine." The two Iops put their hands on each other's shoulders and headbutted each other. Hard. Then they did it again and again until the guard fell over.

Yugo looked down at him. The indent on his forehead looked pretty serious. And bleeding. "Yikes, does everyone need to do that to talk to the chief?"

Tristepin zoned out for a moment as his eyes refocused. "To go through this entrance." He rubbed his forehead. "There's a Damsel in Distress entrance around back, but I've never used it." He rang a bell next to the doorway and summoned another guard.

"Hey, Pinpin," the second guard said, arriving. "What's new with you?"

"Hey, Derdrom," Tristepin said. "My friends here need to see the chief."

"Great," Derdrom said. "Did everyone prove their toughness?"

"Yes," Ruel said quickly. "Yes we did. Fully."

Derdrom looked at Tolecnal's unconscious body and back to them. "Let's see, there's one of him, one, two, three of you...makes sense. Enjoy your stay."

They followed Tristepin down the hallway as Ruel chuckled. "May Enutrof bless the gullibility of Iops."

"Hey, Pinpin," Yugo said. "You've talked to the chief a lot, right? What can you tell me about him?"

"Reggenezrawch...if I had to say I'd say that he's a man of few words and lots of action. Don't try to confuse him or make him feel dumb, and keep everything simple. He's pretty casual, so you don't need to worry about fancy titles. I guess it comes from not having a family tradition of rulers. See, he didn't become Chief because his dad was Chief, but because he beat the last Chief to a bloody pulp."

Succession through combat, Yugo thought. "So does that mean that one day a stronger Iop could come and dethrone him?"

If he made a treaty with Reggenezrawch, his successor might not honor it. What value did a treaty have if it could be nullified at any time? But his people would only be vulnerable right after they came back, so as long as Reggenezrawch stayed on the throne for the next five years, that would be enough. Of course, he didn't even have a treaty with the chief yet, so the whole thing could be moot if Reggenezrawch didn't like him.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that," Tristepin said. "And I know the Chief certainly isn't worrying. Heck, I think he's looking forward to it."

"He wants to retire?"

"By Iop, no! He wants a challenge! Beating up Chief Rotanimret was the best part of his life, and if you give him a chance to rant about it, he'll tell you how he hasn't had a decent fight since and is getting fat and lazy stuck on the throne all day."

They stopped in front of the doors to the throne room, which were even bigger than the last. Yugo took a deep breath. He felt like he should have prepared a speech or something, but even after talking to all the other rulers, he still ended up winging these confrontations.

"You ready?" Tristepin asked.

But Tristepin said that the chief liked things simple, so an elegant presentation wouldn't help him. Still, it wouldn't hurt to be coherent, so he needed to focus on what Reggenezrawch wanted instead of what the Eliatropes wanted. A challenge? That made the Chief sound a bit like Tristepin, but if there was anything Tristepin liked better than a good fight, it was being a hero and protecting those weaker than himself. And, until the Eliatropes settled, they could be considered both.

"Okay," Yugo said, looking up at a pair of massive stone doors. "I'm ready."

Tristepin braced himself and pushed the doors open. They were massive slabs of stone that wouldn't have budged for anyone of average strength. If Yugo had come alone, would he have had to find another entrance? No, he'd probably have to ask one of the guards for help. Was that what the doors were about? It made sense. Tristepin always hated it when people pointed out how he wasn't as smart as everyone else, so maybe the Iop fortress was built to emphasize the value of strength.

Chief Reggenezrawch sat on a throne of carved wood and polished bones barely large enough to hold him. Blank white eyes stared out into the distance as his head rested on a massive fist.

"Priest," he said, eyeing Tristepin. He glanced at the rest of them. "Who are the runts?"

Tristepin stepped forward and spread his arms in greeting. "Ah, allow me to introduce my friends and comrades in arms who joined me in my travels as we saved the world–more than once, I might add," he said. "This is Ruel Stroud, captain of the Real Boitar and Enutrof's most wanted."

Ruel shuffled uncomfortably. "Uh, that is not how I'd like to introduce myself."

"And this is Yugo, star player of the Real Boitar, and King of the Eliatropes."

"King?" Reggenezrawch said, sitting up. "What happened to the last one, Qilby?"

"We got into a fight," Yugo explained. "And now I'm king." He left a lot out, but Tristepin said Iops liked things simple, didn't he?

"Nice," the chief said approvingly. "I never liked that one-armed four-eyed know-it-all. You still want to take over the world?"

Yugo shook his head. "No. We are a peaceful people. We only want to live here in peace like everybody else."

"You're not everybody else," Reggenezrawch said. His voice was a deep rumble, like Yugo was talking to a mountain. He hoped the mountain didn't turn into a volcano. "But that's beside the point. What do you want here?"

"Friends," Yugo said. "I can't remember how many times me and the rest of the Brotherhood of the Tofu would have been defeated if it weren't for Tristepin's strengths, or how many times we would have given up if it weren't for his Iop Philosophy."

"It's true," Tristepin added. "I don't mean to brag, but I pretty much carried the team."

The Chief, though, didn't seem impressed. "In exchange for what?" he said. "Brakmar offers some of the finest Shushu weapons if we oppose you. What do you offer?"

Brakmar was bribing people against him now? It was bad enough when they were just spreading rumors about him. But if the Chief was anything like Tristepin, then he wouldn't accept a bribe out of hand. Or at least, there were some bribes he'd accept more easily than others. Demonic weapons over gold, for instance. And more than weapons, Iops liked...

"Brakmar offers you powerful weapons," Yugo said. "But at some point you become powerful enough and things get boring. I offer you the fight of your life."

Reggenezrawch narrowed his eyes at him, then he burst out laughing. "Well, the Prince of Brakmar didn't offer to fight me, I'll give you that much. But honestly, it doesn't matter how gutsy you are, I'm not interested in fighting a little kid."

"Oh no, I wasn't offering myself," Yugo said. "Like I said, we Eliatropes are a peaceful people. Dragons, on the other hand..."

Reggenezrawch waved a hand dismissively. "Yeah, I've seen your dragon. Even smaller than you."

"Adamaï," Yugo said, "is way stronger than he looks. But I was referring to the dragon known as Phaeris the Powerful."

Reggenezrawch stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Phaeris the Powerful," he repeated. "Is he big?"

"I'm about the size of his eyeball." He hoped Phaeris would be okay with Yugo offering him like this, but Phaeris called him his king, and that implied a certain amount of trust that, hopefully, Yugo wasn't abusing.

"Oh really?" The chief leaned forward.

"He held off the entire New Sufokian navy by himself," Yugo continued. "Then the sky opened up and a Shushu army and Rushu himself stepped out, and that gave him a bit of trouble, but he's better now."

A smile cracked open across the chief's stone-like face and he and slammed his fist down onto the armrest of his throne, cracking the wood. "I can think of no better way to make friends! Send me your dragon, little king, and I will see what he is made of. And, if he is as strong as you say, I will see what I am made of."

"Great!" Yugo said. "We'll just need to get the details settled, when, where..."

"Where?"

"Yeah. Dragon fights tend to get...devastating." He had only seen the aftermath of Grougaloragran's last battle, and Oma looked like it had been hit by a number of meteorites. He had seen Phaeris fight, though, and that had been a war zone even before Rushu showed up.

Reggenezrawch waved his hand dismissively. "We have a place for this sort of thing. Sirron Kuch Island. In fact..." He grinned. "I hear your lot need a place to settle. So if your dragon wins on Sirron Kuch, I'll even let you keep it."

WWW

Yugo was still brimming when they got back to Tristepin's house. After his horrible encounters with New Sufokia and Enutrof, he couldn't believe how easy it was to make a deal with Iop. Amalia and Evangelyne were still waiting inside, and Adamaï had returned and was sitting on a bookshelf.

"We did it!" Yugo announced.

"You talked to the Iop King?" Adamaï asked.

"Chief," Tristepin corrected.

"Yes, and he was the easiest one yet! No quests, no intimidation, it was a piece of cake."

Tristepin nodded sagely. "If all the world were as Iops, everything would be so much simpler."

"And smashed to bits," Ruel added.

"Did you promise him anything?" Adamaï asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, I..."

"Oh boy."

"I told him he could fight Phaeris."

"And you're sure Phaeris is going to be okay with this?"

"Sure," Yugo said hopefully. "If we ask him nicely."

"We?"

"Come on, Bro, he likes you."

"You're the king!"

"So we'll do it together."

"He just got done with the Crimson Claws."

"That was ages ago."

"He's ten thousand years old. He doesn't heal as fast as he used to."

"The Chief's just one guy; what's the worst that could happen?"

"Two," Rubilax said.

"What?"

"There's two. The chief and his Shushu, Eel Ecurb. You saw his paldron."

Yugo thought back to his meeting. The paldron did look like it had an eye on it, but it didn't say anything. "He has a demonic shoulder pad?"

"Yep."

"What's he do?"

Rubilax shrugged his crossguard. "Beats me. I remember that Eel Ecurb was always a smug jerk, though. All those five-element Shucruds are."

"Huh," Yugo said. "Well, I'm sure Phaeris will be fine. So how've you been?"

Adamaï shrugged. "I got in a fight on the way back."

"Nice!" Tristepin said. "Did you win?"

Adamaï glared at him indignantly. "Yes. What do you think?"

Tristepin grinned. "Even better!"

"What happened?" Yugo asked.

"The guy called me a worm."

"What?"

"Exactly!"

"What was he thinking?"

"If he was an Iop, I'm betting he wasn't," Amalia said.

"Wait," Evangelyne said. "Did he call you a worm or a wyrm?"

"Did he...what? I don't..."

"Did he spell it with an O or a Y?"

"He didn't spell it, he said it," Adamaï said. "What, do you think the guy was writing angry letters at me?"

Ruel spoke up. "That is an excellent question, but here's another one that I think we should all take a moment to consider. When's dinner? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm starving."

Evangelyne gasped and her face went pale.

"It's okay," Yugo said quickly, realizing that Tristepin and Evangelyne weren't expecting company and might not be ready to cook for four extra people. "We'll handle it." And by we he meant I. Adamaï still hadn't grasped the subtle difference between cooking and burning. "Just sit down, relax, and tonight, dinner's on us."

"No." She swallowed. "That's not it. I'm going to have a baby."

"Oh?" Ruel asked. "Yeah, I thought you looked a bit different, but I was too polite to say anything."

"No," she said again. "I mean, right now."

WWW

It never ceased to amaze him how quickly humans could dissolve into chaos. If he understood more about them, Adamaï might have tried to calm them down, but as things were, he sat on his bookshelf and observed.

"Wait, now, now?" Tristepin asked, panicking. "Or not now, now? I can handle later now. Can we do later now? Please?"

"No, we can't do later now!" Evangelyne yelled.

"This is bad," Ruel said grimly.

Tristepin looked at him, wide eyed. "How bad?"

"Very bad. You said the kid's not due for another two months?"

"Yeah?"

Ruel nodded. "This means he's gonna be an early riser, a morning person. You won't be able to sleep in for the next eighteen years."

"You can work out sleep schedules later!" Amalia said. "Eva needs a doctor now! Pinpin, this is your town. Can you find one?"

"One that can pull out a baby? Yes, but he's pretty far away."

"Then hurry!"

"Okay." Tristepin turned to Adamaï. "Adamaï, you have fifteen seconds to teach me how to fly."

"Or, I could just carry you."

"Oh. Well, I guess that could work."

"I'll come with you," Yugo offered.

"I'll stay here," Ruel said. "Just in case the doctor thing doesn't work out."

"What, don't tell me you have experience delivering babies?" Amalia asked.

"I only did it once."

"Did the baby survive?" Amalia asked hopefully.

"I don't like to talk about it."

"Did the mother survive?" Amalia asked desperately.

"The only thing I'll say about it is this," Ruel said. "That was the last time I will ever impersonate an Eniripsa. And sometimes, the money just isn't worth it." He shuddered. "Enutrof, it felt weird saying that. I need to sit down."

Evangelyne screamed and collapsed onto the couch. Amalia looked at them with a look of horror on her face. "Hurry!"

They ran out the door. Adamaï transformed into a scaraleaf and Tristepin jumped on his back as he flew into the air, Yugo zaaping alongside them. He never got the chance to soar, traveling in a group, and would have taken the chance to enjoy it if it weren't for Tristepin screaming in his ear, "There it is! The one with the pink roof! I always remember that Setarcopy's clinic is the one with the pink roof!"

They landed and Tristepin kicked the door open.

"It's a good thing I never lock that door," a small, grey haired Eniripsa said, wrapping bandages around an Iop with charred skin. "Or even close it all the way. You wouldn't think that the open door policy would save you Kamas in a town full of people known for violence, but it does."

"You gotta help me, doc! It's an emergency!"

"Hmm. Always is."

"Eva's having a baby!"

"Congratulations!" the charred, half-mummified Iop patient said brightly.

"Thank you."

"Hmm," Setarcopy said, fluttering over to a file cabinet. "Eva, her name was?"

"Evangelyne."

"Does she have a last name?"

"No, but we're working on it."

The doctor's patient sat up with a jolt and pointed his finger at Adamaï. "You! You've come to finish me off, I see!"

Adamaï gave the man a flat look. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"I will not be deceived by your lies, foul wyrm!"

"Wait, you again?" he said as realization struck. The man looked a lot different without skin. Adamaï exhaled a jet of smoke. "Call me worm one more time, see what happens!"

"Maybe he's spelling it with a Y?" Yugo suggested.

"I was born to be a dragon slayer!" he yelled, struggling to his feet.

Setarcopy waved his wand at him, putting his patient to sleep. "Sometimes I think I should sedate them as part of the standard procedure. But yes, I found the Cra's file. Hmm, it says the baby isn't due for another two months."

"Yes, is that bad?" Tristepin said. "I heard that was bad."

"Hmm, I suppose I couldn't convince you to bring her here? I don't normally do house calls."

"Yeah, well, you're doing one now, even if we have to kidnap you."

The Eniripsa sighed. "Well, let me get my tools first."

WWW

The four of them made the trip quickly back to Tristepin's house. "We're back!" Tristepin announced. "And we brought a doctor!"

"Oh, that's a relief," Amalia said. "I was worried that we'd have to rely on Ruel."

"Trust me," Ruel said. "No one is more relieved than I am." He grinned. "No pun intended."

"What?"

"You know, relieved, relieved from duty...nevermind."

"I prepared some hot water," Amalia announced.

Setarcopy peered up at her. "What for?"

"Um, Ruel said you might need it."

"Hmm, well I don't. Now, let's have a look at the patient." He fluttered over to Evangelyne.

Amalia glared at Ruel. "What?" he said. "You looked like you needed something to do. You still do, so why don't you take that pot of water and get dinner started?"

"What? How can you think about your stomach at a time like this?"

"Hey, the miracle of life is no reason to go hungry."

"We can eat after Eva's done going through labor!"

Ruel scoffed. "Labor? You know how I feel about labor!"

"The pay sucks and there's always a loophole?"

"That, and it takes forever. Eva might still be doing this by this time tomorrow."

"Oh Cra no!"

"Um, but you probably won't?" Ruel added. "Keep it up, you're doing great!"

"Hmm, perhaps it would be best to move this operation to somewhere more...private?" Setarcopy said. "The bedroom, perhaps?"

"Right, bedroom," Tristepin said, picking up Evangelyne. Carrying her into the next room, he looked over his shoulder and grinned. "I'm helping!" After he set her down, Setarcopy shoved him back outside and closed the door. "But...I was helping."

"Trust me," Ruel said. "If you knew what what was going on in there, that would the last place you'd want to be."

Tristepin nodded and sat down on the floor.

And waited.

And fidgeted.

A scream broke the silence and he leapt to his feet. "Eva!"

"Pinpin!" Amalia yelled. "No!"

"But she needs me!"

Amalia slammed her palm to the floor, and a mass of vines broke through the floorboards to grab onto him before he broke through the door. "I said no! If there were a giant monster attacking us, you could help, but right now, the best thing you can do for Eva is nothing at all!"

Tristepin fell to his knees as Amalia's vines released him. He stared at the wall blankly, trembling. "I'm a bad joke. I don't have what it takes to be a father. What was I thinking?"

"Don't know," Ruel said. "But you've picked one heck of a time to figure that out. Seriously, though, am I the only one here who's hungry? Pinpin, it will take your mind off things. Adamaï? Anyone?" He sighed. "I guess I'll just...read a book or something."

"What was I thinking?" Tristepin whispered. "I'm just a big, dumb brute who hits things, but what good is that? Eva's in pain right now, and I can't help her by hitting something! I'm about to become a father, and I can't raise a baby by hitting it! That's child abuse! What was I thinking?"

"You weren't!" Yugo said. Iop philosophy. It helped him a few times on their travels, and it was Tristepin who taught it to him. "You never have, and you never needed to! You don't need to think about it, and you don't need to be afraid. You only need to be brave. Like you alway have."

Yugo took a deep breath. While both of them had started traveling together to seek adventure, they had very different versions of the term. Yugo wanted to explore. He had spent his whole life in his father's inn, hearing stories from people from the other side of the world, and while the distant promise of finding his real family gave him a destination in the Island of Oma and later in the Crimson Claws, it was the daily discovery of new sights, civilizations, and people that made the journey.

Tristepin was different. He wanted to fight, he wanted to become stronger, prove that he had become stronger, and gain glory. And from what Alibert told him about his life before he quit being a bounty hunter, dad's didn't get much glory.

But that was what Tristepin was like in the beginning. After he proved himself to himself, he stopped needing to prove himself to anyone else. In the end, when he found a statue made in his honor, he was only pleasantly surprised.

"You know something, Pinpin," Yugo said carefully. "When I first met you, I thought you really were a joke."

He looked up. "You did? I wasn't the sort of heroic knight that kids your age looked up to?"

Yugo shook his head. "My first impression of you was a giant monster that tried to wreck my dad's inn."

Rubilax chuckled. "Good times. Good times."

"Okay, that was not me at my best," Tristepin admitted.

"It was me at my best," Rubilax said.

"Shut up! Anyway, you got to admit, I got better."

"Yes, you did," Yugo said. "And eventually, I really did start to look up to you."

"You did? When? Was it when I became a real Shushu knight and got Rubilax to start working with me?"

"No, it was before that."

"Dragon Pig?" He shook his head. "No, you said before. Was it when I fought Grougaloragran?"

"I wasn't there for that."

"Oh yeah. Too bad. That was a pretty epic fight."

Ruel scoffed. "He walked all over us."

"It was during our first Boufbowl game," Yugo said.

"Really? But you scored more goals than I did."

"That doesn't matter. You let me score the last point."

Tristepin frowned. "So?"

"You loved scoring even more than I did. We'd win no matter which one of us scored, but when the ball was in your hands, you let me make the final score. Why?"

"I don't know...it was a long time ago."

"Yes you do."

"Well, okay. It's like this. Remember my first goal? I fought through every player on the other side, ran as fast as I could, and I scored for the wrong team."

"It was still a great play."

Evangelyne's cry rent the air, and Tristepin closed his eyes until it passed. "When you came onto the field, and I saw, not just how hard you tried, but how effective you were, and then I had the chance to score the winning goal, I don't know. I felt like I didn't deserve it, like I'd be kill stealing, but in sports. Score stealing?"

"You're selling yourself short, Pinpin," Yugo said. "You were the only one left standing, the only one left who could stand, and you picked me up and carried me to the finish line. That was almost as cool as when my dad put away his shovel when he found something he treasured more than gold. I don't know anything about being a father, but if that's what it means, then you got it, Sir Tristepin Percedal. You have–no, you are everything it takes to carry your kids to the finish line when they're too tired to stand on their own."

"I...I got it?" he whispered.

"You got it."

"I got it. I got it!"

"You got it," Ruel agreed. "Let's celebrate by eating."

"Hush," Amalia said. "You're ruining the moment."

Tristepin stood up and drew his sword. "That's it! No more doubts! On this day, I hereby swear, upon my honor as a Shushu Knight, that I will be the best dad who ever set foot on the World of Twelve!"

"Oh boy," Rubilax said. "That sounds like fun. I can smell the diapers already."

"It will be fun," Tristepin assured him. "We'll take the kids on dungeon crawls and kill monsters and do all sorts of other dad things with them."

"Yeah," Amalia said. "You might want to pass that idea by Eva before you..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at the bedroom door. Evangelyne had gone silent. Gone were the cries and screams, and they couldn't even hear the muffled sounds of whatever the Eniripsa was doing.

Yugo had a sudden sense of deja vu, and half expected time to stop and Nox to appear.

Then Setarcopy opened the door, looked at them with empty eyes, and fluttered out of the house.

"What was that look he gave us?" Amalia asked. "I...I did not like that look."

"He didn't give you the bill," Ruel said. "No one's that trusting."

Tristepin took a breath and walked into the bedroom as though in a daze. Yugo watched the closed door for a moment as silence fell. Then a scream split the air, a scream of pure anguish, and Yugo heard the sound of something breaking, like a table or a wall.

He pushed the door open and stepped into the bedroom. The rest of the Brotherhood followed him in. Tristepin sat on the floor, his head down and his back turned, leaning against the wall. Bits of wood and splinters lay strewn across the floor. Evangelyne sat on the bed, a tiny baby in her arms, her eyes distant and her face wet with tears, but she was no longer crying.

"Oh," Adamaï said slowly. "No."

"What?" Yugo asked.

"Yugo, look!"

Yugo closed his eyes, switched to his Wakfu vision, and saw. While Evangelyne radiated the soft blue of life, the child in her arms was a cold and empty husk.

It was wrong. As soon as Yugo realized what had happened, what had been lost, he knew that it was wrong, that something happened that never should have happened. Something that he couldn't accept.

No.

WWW

a/n I think this chapter took so long to write because I really didn't want to write this part. My favorite part of the first Special Episode was watching those two kids pick up her father's sword and his mother's bow and bring on the pint sized awesome, but I planned this story line long before those came out. If it helps, all of this is necessary for my plan.

But I know it doesn't.

Thank you for the reviews, everyone. I'll try to get the next chapter up soon, because I know this is the place where no one wants an extended cliffhanger.