Chapter 5

"So that's what happened," said Jaden as he looked over at his brother

Bryan and Carla just finished telling them how they ended up married. Carla seemed nervous, but happy that Bryan wanted to marry her. Bryan was happy that she wanted to be with him that bad, and was ecstatic over his little girl in his arms.

Jaden was holding Gail's hand as he walked and Caelan was arm in arm with Darla, and her head was on his shoulder.

Both of them shifted in to detection mode, using magic, to verify if Carla's story was true. They used blue to check her thermals, watch for fluctuations, and listened to her voice for any form of stress, among other things.

It wouldn't have been the first time a girl got pregnant and tried to trap the boy she really liked into being the father, but even with all Galen and their father taught them, they couldn't see any deception on her part. From what they could see she was telling the truth.

As they nodded to each other, Darla was deep in thought.

"Am I going crazy again, it's like I can almost feel what Caelan is thinking at times. It must just be because I'm so happy to have them back," she thought. "But I'm sure I felt him using magic just now."

Both boys took turns holding the newborn. They really did seem to take well to the baby. And the baby seemed to like them too.

"So tell us did anything happen out of the ordinary while you were all traveling?" asked Bryan suddenly.

Caelan and Jaden looked at each other and smiled.

"A lot of the time it was the same old same old. Discovery here, bounty there, or learn new magic, we even got to work as mercenaries in a couple of different border wars," smiled Caelan.

"That was different, having to take orders and being sent on missions," said Jaden.

"But what was strange was that was the first time we could ever remember Mom and Dad disagreeing with each other," said Caelan.

"Really?" asked Gail. "I can't remember ever seeing or hearing them disagree."

"They do, but I can count the number of times over the seasons using both hands. And the last major one was when Rayne was supposed to go join her guild," said Caelan.

"But what made it odd was that Dad said our lives and who we would be with were too important to chance this, and Mom said that we needed to understand how war effected everyone and we would never learn unless we saw it first hand," said Jaden.

"But they finally agreed to let us, but only Mom would join us and Dad didn't leave where we were staying. He worked with a village blacksmith during those months," said Caelan.

"And no matter how many times we asked him why he didn't fight, because we knew that he was more powerful than all of us put together, he would only say that Mom was too important too him to take the chance and that he would explain it all to us at eighteen, which should be any day now," said Jaden with a thoughtful look.

"I have to say, I knew Mom was good, but she totally amazed us and the other men on the battlefield. She never seemed to kill anyone. She disarmed and knocked out everyone she crossed. She said she wanted to show us that with our skill it was better to do that if we could, and to not let our anger rule us in a fight. That we should always try to maintain control and that if we didn't it could be dangerous for all involved. But in all that was an interesting experience," said Caelan.

"But I have to admit, I really am curious why Dad wouldn't fight though. With all of us there we could have wrapped it up in a couple weeks instead of the various different months it took us to do it in the different border wars," said Jaden with a frown.

"So that was really the only highlight of your trip?" asked Darla as she looked Caelan in the eyes.

"Well, one other time really sticks out in memory, where Mom let her anger rule the fight," said Jaden suddenly smiling humorously.

"Oh yeah! When we went into a tavern to have a drink before we hit the road to start for home. Jaden and I went in first to find a table, and Dad was right behind us," said Caelan with a smile.

"And Mom was right behind him. We were all looking around for a table that was unoccupied. The tavern was really large and busy. It was about three times the size of your parent's tavern," said Jaden still smiling.

"Well one guy, who as hard as it is to believe was larger than Dad, grabbed Mom from behind and pulled her into his lap and laughed as he said that he was taking Dad's slut for the evening and he would return her once he was finished with her in the morning," said Caelan.

"He also said that she was the best looking whore he had seen in a long time. He might have to keep her for a couple of days, but he'd return her after she got her fill of a couple of real men," said Caelan now smiling savagely.

"Oh my god, no he didn't!" said Gail putting her hand over her mouth. "He grabbed your Mom like that?"

"Yes he did, and Dad just looked at us and smirked. Then he winked at us and we all ran for the door as fast as we could, and we just barely made it too, before pandemonium broke out at the table," said Jaden chuckling.

"The next thing we knew, there was a lot of screaming and the sounds of a lot of things breaking. When we went back in, after it got quiet of course, we saw that Mom had broke the arm that the guy used to grab her with and Dad had to make her stop trying to stick it up his butt while he was out cold on the floor," said Jaden.

Everyone laughed and Darla said "Come on you're pulling our legs."

"No really, we're not kidding, she had pulled down his pants, was sitting on his back, and was really working hard at trying to put his broken arm up his butt, and she appeared to be making real progress. She said her plan was to stop at his wrist," said Caelan.

"All the guys at his table, as well as the surrounding tables, were all out cold, surrounded by the remains of their respective tables, and the remaining patrons were all back up against the wall staring in wide eyed fear at Mom. No one wanted to get too close to her, because Mom was really pissed off," smiled Caelan.

"The folks that owned the Tavern didn't even make us pay for any damages. They said they would get it from the big guy once he regained consciousness. It seemed that he and his group had made it a habit to grab other men's women and wives and having their way with them because the big guy scared them all. Somehow I think he may rethink that approach to life now," said Jaden laughing.

"The owner did ask Dad why he ran and left a woman to fight alone, and Dad replied that he or his sons could have leveled the bar themselves, but he thought his wife was fully capable of teaching a lesson or two on her own. And it also distracted the guy because he was too busy watching Dad leave to be aware of the real danger he had truly created for himself by grabbing Mom," said Caelan.

"Then Dad smiled, waved arms around the room, and said, At any point did it ever look like to you that she needed my help," finished Caelan.