Keran awoke after an unknown amount of ti.
Once she got her bearings, she realized that she was lying in her family's tent with bandages over her abdon.
When she tried to sit up too fast, she winced from the pain in her stomach and the mories of the fight from before started to bubble back up.
And she imdiately panicked.
'Oh no…'
Her family was going to kill her for participating.
She delicately craned her neck so that she could look at her surroundings without straining her abdon.
She looked down a little further at the foot of the bed and realized that her family was already here.
They were sitting in chairs all around her, and they all looked to be asleep.
Each one of them had their hand resting on her legs just so that they could touch her comfortably without putting an additional burden on her body, while their heads rested on the mattress.
'Ah, my legs are back.' Keran realized.
She wiggled her toes discreetly just to enjoy the feeling of having a lower body once again.
This small, innocent motion was all that it took to draw the attention of her husband.
Taira was resting his eyes at the foot of the bed with the rest of the girls, and he was just waiting for the slightest movent to give him reason to stir.
However, there was one more person who was seemingly waiting for Keran to wake up.
Though her bedside manner was... less than nurturing.
"ROCKET HEADBUTT OF LOVEEE!!"
Veril hurled her body headfirst at Keran's forehead and bashed their skulls together.
Unsurprisingly, Keran's head went down like a sack of potatoes and she scread in pain.
"AAAGH!! Veril, why!?"
"Don't 'why' ! Do you any idea how worried we were!?"
"I'm sorry, but it's not as if I- OWW!!"
Two more living rockets collided with Keran's head; courtesy of Enyo and Lucia, who were equally upset.
Keran was now afraid to pick her head up again after all of the abuse that she'd suffered through in such a short ti.
"You guys are supposed to love , right?? So why are you trying to beat my head in?!" Keran wailed.
She only tried to sit up once again when she heard the low sound of sniffling coming from the foot of her bed.
A teary eyed Veril clenched her fists so hard that her bones could be heard cracking beneath the flesh.
"I don't get it… You know exactly what they did to back ho… how empty they made feel. Why would you voluntarily get hurt to save people like that…? They don't deserve it!"
Veril was unpopular for a myriad of things, but chief among them was the way she looked, her niche, obsessive interests, and her bad familial situation at ho.
As humans were prone to, they singled her out for their differences and made her life a living hell; going as far as to go in her backpack and take her things, beat her up, mock her openly on social dia, and call her father a shitty gambler.
Her interest in saving them at all was purely a situational coincidence.
She never would have gone out of her way to do it if their being here wasn't connected to Astel.
And if she knew Keran had to get hurt to save a few of them, she never would have gone through with it at all.
In terms of value, the two weren't comparable in the slightest.
"..." Keran slowly sat up while ignoring the dull pain toiling about in her stomach and patted the bed at her side.
Begrudgingly, Veril got up from her seat and crawled into the bed like she was five years old.
She gently rested her head on Keran's shoulder so as not to place too much burden on her body. But Keran seemingly wasn't having it and made her rest with the full full weight of her head on her shoulder.
She gently ran her fingers through Veril's hair as she gestured for the rest of their family to join them in bed.
Once the lot of them were scattered about on top of the covers, Keran wrapped each of them in her tails.
"Listen, guys... I know that you might not understand my motives, but I need you to know that my decision wasn't one I made lightly, or went into without understanding the dangers. I did it because I felt a need to force myself to grow.
Today wasn't the first ti I was made aware of the fact that I'm dragging behind most of you in terms of capability. And I just needed this kind of test to prove to myself that I have grown from who I used to be... even if it's not as fast as I would like."
"I wouldn't say you are dragging too far behind."
Everyone sat up imdiately when Tiche stepped into the tent with her brother following closely behind.
A bandage was wrapped around her neck tightly, and it seed like it would take it's sweet ti healing.
Vaal folded his arms across his chest and nodded proudly. "Do you know how long it's been since I've seen my sister get a wound she couldn't shrug off in a few short seconds? The shiny little dung-ball can't even tal- Ugack!"
Tiche punched her brother in the stomach so hard that it literally knocked the moisture off of his back and sent him doubling over.
The bold and proud asanbosam dropped to the ground like a lead balloon while holding his stomach.
Tiche rely stood on top of her brother's head while addressing the close-knit Amarok family.
"..." She held up her hands and began making complicated signs with her fingers.
"Sign language...?" Veril tilted her head in confusion. "Does anyone know how to tell what she's saying?"
Everyone looked towards Enyo on instinct.
"What? Why would you all assu that I know??" The mature beauty honestly seed partially offended.
"You're the oldest!" Aveena accidentally said the quiet part out loud.
"S-She ant wisest, love." Lucia corrected.
"Well can't she be both-"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
Enyo looked rather crestfallen as she hung her head low. "I see... I'm just old garbage unfit for life and better off left in the past like an old relic with no value.."
"Don't be silly, Enyo." Taira smiled. "You are charming no matter your age and your best days are still in front of you."
Enyo was so depressed she barely registered her husband's kind words. "I don't want to hear it, jailbait... You're just an innocent young playboy that I seduced with my old wrinkly body..."
"Ah... You're half right?" Taira scratched the back of his head.
"I believe it is also up for debate who seduced who..." Keran added quietly.
"What is that supposed to an, fluff ball?!"
Keran grabbed Enyo gently by the jaw and made her stare at their husband.
At the angle at which Taira was sitting, his kimono had fallen open and put his entire chest on display.
The effect that such a sight had on Enyo was painfully apparent.
"Good googly moogly…"
"That's what I thought." Keran rolled her eyes.
Enyo finally gave up trying to defend her image and began groping Taira's chest openly while giggling pervertedly.
"She said that she was very impressed with your spirit, Keran. They are about to start eating now, so she said we can pick whichever six we want."
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