Finding Contentus

Chapter 19: Sprout

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"She's gorgeous isn't she? Looks just like me, and she has your eyes!"

"Oui, and it seems she has my fierce grip."

"Luckily that means she'll inherit your strength."

Minaleese was overjoyed beyond all relief when she first laid eyes on her little daughter, who looked up at both her parents for the first time, now being safely delivered into the world.

Truth be told, Minaleese didn't plan on becoming a mother so quickly into her relationship with Maxis, but the prospect never scared her. It merely gave her something exciting to look forward to. Motherhood.

The newly born Kakara gawked at them with enormous blue eyes, not making a single sound and refusing to let go of Maxis's large finger.

Both parents were still fairly early into their new marriage with Minaleese being seventeen and Maxis being nineteen years of age. One could say that the two couldn't help but rush into things the second they first saw each other.

Minaleese was assigned by the higher ups of her clan to form a partnership with Maxis. One thing led to another, and soon enough, she became pregnant.

For Maxis, he felt like everything was his responsibility to not only protect the province of Kimba that he deemed to be his against all enemy forces, human or primal, but to also protect the woman who would heal all his wounds countless times after each and every battle.

"Married...and with a tiny fragile girl," Maxis said with a surprisingly flat voice that hid an abundance of feelings behind it.

He sounded both worried and elated in disbelief at how fast things occurred between them over the past year. Yet the way he expressed such was in the most mundane way possible. Minaleese glanced up from her daughter to see his deeply troubled expression.

"Maxis?" She looked concerned.

His striking blue eyes stared into the same ones he saw in his daughter with concern as the realization hit him that he was now indeed a father.

Not only did he have a beautiful wife to protect, he also had a vulnerable girl to train and raise. Furthermore, was the added thought of what such entailed if she truly did inherit his strength with his clans beliefs and barbaric customs.

This little one has to go through everything I did. Non, she has to go through even more if I want her to be at the level she needs to be. Which, the same can also be said for me.

The giant of a man removed his daughter's tight grip on his forefinger to take heavy steps towards the window seal to find his raging bull helm with sharp piercing horns staring back at him.

He stood there, considering it for some time as Minaleese couldn't see how his face looked with his enormous back turned.

After a while, he shifted his gaze towards the window to see that it was well and truly night time. Those that weren't inside their protected homes by now with the help of interference spells were long gone inside the enveloping darkness that the primals ruled.

The darkness he had to submerge himself into day in and day out if he wanted to keep getting stronger to ensure that he didn't lose everything, including his life.

"Tu vas où?" Minaleese asked where he was going, being able to discern his restlessness by the way he looked at the outside.

Maxis didn't look back at her, instead, he drifted his eyes away and lifted the raging bull helm with both hands to stare back at it with an unreadable expression.