Chapter Sixty – In which Ark goes a bit overboard in giving Orchid and Lilac some viciously brutal weapon upgrades for their first hunt with Diana.
Upon reaching Lily’s cave-hole, I found her and our two daughters in the room. She was watching them practice sparring with their bone weapons.
“Daddy!” “Daddy!”
My two playful goblinettes were telling me all about how they were going to go on their first hunt with Diana tomorrow before I could even greet them. Now, it wasn’t like they hadn’t gone hunting with Lily before. She had done her motherly goblin duties as best she could and taught them how to hunt things, mostly squirrels, rabbits, and other very small prey. But I had no idea what Diana was planning to hunt, exactly. I imagine it’s something a bit challenging, I just didn’t want it to be too challenging. I want my daughters to come home with all their body parts still in the right places.
They weren’t being bequeathed a weapon by Lily, simply on the merit that she only had one weapon, and it was a small balanced knife that had the makings of rust on it. I was more worried about Lily getting tetanus using it than anything.
“What are you using for weapons when you go hunting with Diana?” I asked them, to which both of them promptly showed me the bones from the Black-claw they ate, which they had been sparring with all this time.
“Hmm.” I leaked out an appraising sound.
“We make bones sharp today.”
“Daddy want help?”
Both of their faces showed how much they wanted that.
“Alright. Then tell Daddy, what do you like better: stabbing, slashing or smashing?”
“Slashing!” said Orchid.
“Smashing!” said Lilac.
“Alright. Is it okay if Daddy uses a little bit of magic to make your bones stronger? They shouldn’t be much heavier than they are now, but they’ll be much strong against any beast you hunt.”
Both of them offered me their bones immediately.
“Alright, calm down a moment. Let’s start with Lilac’s. I’m going to make you a special hammer.”
“What Hammer?”
I had gathered up some dirt in Lily’s room into a pile, and buried one end of the bone in it as a fastening point, then I began using the topaz stone to shape it into the form of a mallet. On one side was a flat end, and on the other side was a spiked end. I began compacting the dirt into stone, hoping the bone wouldn’t shatter, and once it was successful, I hefted it up.
It felt light to me, but also a bit heavier than I hoped fit would be for her. I asked my little girls to make some space, and I swung it fast with the blunt end, and then spun the grip and slammed the pointy end down, which pierced the dirt floor like a pick, gouging a nice sized hole.
“GWOOH!” Lilac exclaimed, and I handed it over to her, to which she eagerly took a few practice swings and slammed the spike end into the ground, copying me.
“It feel heavy!” She grunted.
“Too heavy?” I asked her.
“No! Lilac strong goblin! Like it! Watch, daddy!!”
She swung it again, showing she had no problems putting extra strength behind her swing. As someone who played baseball back in middle school, I saw something immediately I felt needed correcting.
“Lilac, baby, when you swing, I want you to twist your body with the swing. Can I see your hammer for a moment? Watch right here as daddy shows you how.” I tapped my waist. Then I showed her a regular swing, and then a swing with momentum from her waist, being supported by her leg.
“Swing… faster?”
“It’s both faster and stronger.” I handed her the bone hammer-spike back.
“It’s made from stone, so it could still break if you hit trees or rocks with it, but it will work fine against a beast. Aim for the head, legs, side, or back with it when you smash with the flat end. Anywhere else is fine if you use the pointy end. I’ll try my best to make you something better in the future, okay? If it breaks, let me know as soon as possible, so I can try and fix it for you.”
“Okay!” Lilac rammed me with a hug right to my leg. She’s a pretty strong goblin, and definitely Lily’s daughter, because spontaneous clinging is absolutely a family trait.
Next up was Orchid, and maybe I’m a cruel person, I don’t know, but I wanted to make her something stylish for a goblin to hunt with.
“Lily, do you have anything like long grass or a vine I could use?” I asked their mother.
“Yes!” She seemed excited as much as her daughters. After a moment or two digging through her room, she came out with some flexible thin rope-like plant that hadn’t dried up completely.
“Lily, can you weave this around the bottom of the bone?”
Lily nodded, and so I had her do that first. When it was done, I began making a small cross-guard, because what I was going to do next would be dangerous if she swung it around with a sweaty grip.
From the cross-guard upward, I put the bone on the ground and used land magic to lift dirt onto the bone and act as a sort of stone skeleton that adhered tightly to the exterior of the bone. Sharp jagged ends jutted outward and upwards, running up both sides of the bone. They were intended to be like teeth on a saw, but meant to be far more brutal when slashing and slicing. In my opinion, it looked like the maliciously cruel weapon of some Demon Lord’s evil henchman. One of the four heavenly kings–or queens in this case.
No, I'm pretty sure I'm not the Demon Lord. I'm just a concerned parent who doesn't want to send his children out with anything less than the best tools for self-defense.
“Be careful with this.” I told her. “Never, ever, grab it from anywhere but the bottom part that Lily weaved for you to hold. It is very sharp.”
To reinforce this, I raised up some dirt pillars and let Orchid test swinging the blade around. She easily cleaved it with a horizontal slash, sending the top half of the dirt pillar crashing to the ground in a pile.
“Orchid not even swing bone fast. Only spin body like see daddy do!”
“That’s okay. This weapon is a bit different from a long knife or a blunt bone. Whatever the sharp ends that look like teeth touch will cut and bleed. It will tear through skin and meat easily. This weapon is meant to be used on the legs of any beast if you are slashing, to take away its movement.”
I raised another pillar.
“Try stabbing at this, straight ahead.”
Orchid tried, missing the first time on a glancing thrust. However, she got it right the second time and the blade passed right through the pillar with ease.
“Now twist the handle and pull it out at the same time.” I instructed.
Orchid did so and the pillar had crumbled from above where she stabbed.
“I think you might be one of the only people in the world to have a weapon like this. It’s called a bone-saw. It also has another use.”
“What is it, Daddy?”
“If by chance you somehow kill a beast too heavy for you and your sisters to drag, you can put the blade up against the gaps in the bones, and cut right through it. Can I see your bone-saw for a minute?”
She held it up when she handed it over. I showed her the careful way to do it as well.
I reinforced the dirt pillar through force magic to be a bit sturdier, then I showed exactly what the teeth of the bone-saw were for, when dismantling beasts. A sideways saw, and a diagonal saw.
“If it were something like a red boar, you could lift its leg, and go at it with the saw from where the leg meets the body and the skin stretches. There is a gap between bones there, and if you saw it at that spot, you can easily just take the leg off and eat it without having to dirty your hands, or try hard to rip it off. This way, if you want to move it back to the cave but can't lift the whole beast, you can cut it into parts and everyone can carry some!”
“When bone-saw breaks, will daddy fix?”
“Of course! And just like Lilac, I will try and make you something better and stronger in the future as well.”
I received another impactful hug to my leg from my other daughter.
“Now, You two absolutely can’t fight each other with these weapons. You can stand far apart and practice swinging them until you get the hang of it and make it feel like a part of your own body. If you want to practice fighting each other, use the other bones you have.”
“Okay!” “Okay!”
“Good. Now, come here, the both of you!”
I sat down and both of my girls hopped onto each of my legs so I could hug them both at the same time. Just like Diana, I wanted to impart my desire for them to take care and prioritize their own safety over whatever it is they were going to hunt.
“Make sure you look after each other, and Diana as well. If she tells you to do something, listen well. If you make a mistake, it’s okay. Diana might yell at you, but she will also show you how to fix those mistakes in the future. There is no kill or trophy more important in the world to me, than you two coming home safe from the hunt. Do you understand? Even if you have to drop your weapon or your meat and run, if it means you all come home safely, you can always try again as long as you are safe.”
Both of my daughters nodded at me.
“Lily, anything you want to tell our strong ones that you think they need to know?”
“Piss on trees when hunt. Smell will help get strong ones find home when lost.”
That was interesting advice. I don’t know what I expected from Lily, but that definitely wasn't it.
“Lily… I want you to do me a favor if you can manage it.”
“What favor, Husband?”
“I want you to gather two pieces of rope that can tie around their body right where their loincloths are, and some animal skin if you have any? I’m going to visit Pepper and see if she can help me make some padded guards in the future so Orchid and Lilac can carry their weapons on their body without needing to hold them all the time.”
“Have rope. Only have little skin from Black-claw. But give Husband.”
“This is about all I can do to help them. We will just have to hope our strong ones listen to Diana and hunt well!”
Lily walked over and sat down in my lap, right between my two daughters. I wrapped my arms around all of them in a big hug. I will properly show care and affection to each of my families. Lily and Berry are very welcoming in that respect, and I treasure them both deeply.
I spent a little more time doing some arms training with my daughters, though I’m not really qualified to do so. So my job was mainly raising dirt pillars in order to let them get their practice in. Lily kept me company and I felt a little regretful that I wouldn’t be spending the night with any of them tonight.
I said good-night eventually and left their cave-hole, heading to the breeding room long enough to take a bath, and then returned to Prima’s room.
“Prima, I’m done with what I needed to do.”
Prima looked at me with a blank stare at first, and then looked down at her belly that was only a little fat.
“You know exactly what I meant!”
Prima grinned, showing off her sharp goblin dentata.
While her bedroom wasn’t remotely finished, there was plenty of space in her main cave-hole for us to make an untidy mess of it. Prima was really into it tonight, and so was I. She seemed to prefer being on top, but was also fine with me taking her from behind on all fours. Her body was covered in sweat, and in the interim after my third load blasting inside of her, I usually wouldn’t do it just because… however, Prima had large plump breasts that I wanted to suck on and tease before I went down on her.
She wasn’t one to readily admit it, but I think she actually enjoyed cunnilingus far more than she let on. We went two more times after that until she said it was enough for the night, if she wanted me to keep her part of the deal, that is. It was a fair enough excuse to tap out, and for the first time in a while, I enjoyed spending the night with my main wife, this time in her room.
And unlike Stella, while Prima might throw me around and rape me on occasion, with her at least, I was allowed to be the big spoon.
Sleep came much easier to me knowing that.