Lydia swept the porch and considered her life. Everything was perfect. Well, not exceptionally perfect, but damned close to it. She had the perfect husband who worshipped the ground she walked on; four beautiful children and a lovely home. It may have been Elunara's house, but Lydia couldn't imagine living anywhere else.
Lily and Dargek were doing excellent in training, a thought that still baffled Lydia. Then again, she loved training with Elunara; she just hated training as a soldier.
"LYDIAAAAAAA!!"
Lydia cringed at Gingy. "What, you banshee?"
"Oh, don't be like that." Gingy wrapped an arm around Lydia's. "I wanted to tell you first!"
"Tell me what?"
"I'm pregnant again!"
Lydia wrapped her free arm around Gingy's back. "How wonderful for you."
"I just found out this morning. I'm sure Warren is telling his buddies at the yard, but I just HAD to come tell you first. I had a fitting with Ember that I couldn't reschedule, boy was it hard to not tell her, but I just wanted my BEST friend to know first, and-"
"Gingy, breathe."
"Oh, I'm so EXCITED!" She bounced up and down, shaking Lydia with her.
"I'm thrilled, but if you don't let go of me, I might barf on you."
"Oh, you." Gingy waved a hand, but untangled herself from Lydia anyway. "Can you believe it? Soon little John will have his own brother or sister to play with."
"Speaking of, where is he?"
Gingy blinked repeatedly and looked around. "He was just here..."
"Oh shit." Lydia spun in circles. "JOHN?"
"JOHNATHAN JAMESON MATTHEWS, YOU COME HERE RIGHT NOW!" Gingy crossed her arms and tapped her foot.
From behind a tree, a small boy stepped out. "Sorry momma."
"You don't hide like that again mister."
"I wasn't far, you didn't hafta be so mad."
"I do when you won't stop doing something I've told you repeatedly not to do."
"John," Lydia stepped up to Gingy. "You can go inside and play with Wenrietta and Lani."
John ran in the house as if he was escaping with his life.
"You don't have to be so hard on him, Gin. He's just a little boy."
"You don't understand. He drives me nuts. The other day, I lost him in trade district. He was gone for almost an hour, and I'm searching high and low and frantic half to death, when I find out he'd snuck into the candy store and helped himself to some of the product while the shopkeeper had his back turned. It's not like Tippy's where she has us all a tab."
"Alright, alright I can see where that'd make you antsy." Lydia ran her hands up and down Gingy's arms. "You sure you want a second one?" She winked.
"I do hope this one is a girl. I've already started drawing up designs."
"You said Ember was in your shop, I thought she got all her stuff from Tulani."
"Tulani only takes exotic clothing these days. I do basic home goods." Gingy lowered her voice and leaned in. "Between you and me, Ember has been hitting the dessert shop a little too much lately; she's had me take out a few dresses for her."
"How catty of you."
"I know how much you hate her." Gingy giggled. "We get along well enough, but she just hates you completely."
"I'm actually rather indifferent to her." Lydia shrugged. "She hates that I brought out the monogamist in Darguni. She was one of his favorites."
"WAS she now?" Gingy tapped a finger to her lips. "That explains so much. Ember hasn't found a guy since. She told me so. Then again she told me I should stop talking to you since you're such a bitch, but we know I won't do that. Especially since you're my bestest friend."
"Gingy. Air. You need it."
"Sorry, I'm just chattering your head off."
"It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't rush it all out in a single breath."
"I just don't want you thinking I hold anything she has to say about you with any water. She's a bit skipped in the head if she thinks she can DO anything about you and Darguni."
"After Tara..." Lydia hesitated. "After Tara, I think they're all afraid to say anything directly to me anymore."
"They?"
"Darguni's previous fucks."
"Ah."
"Hey, that reminds me... Darguni... Well, before Darguni and I became a thing, he had his dick cast molded."
"HE WHAT?" Gingy burst into giggles. "I can't believe... OH MY GAWD!" Tears came out of her eyes and she wiped them away. "Why in the world did he do that?"
"I'm not going into that, but he gave one to Tara, and she in turn gave a copy of it to any female that expressed an interest."
Gingy fluttered her hands on either side of her face. "Oh, this is beautiful. This is rich. Tara, oh lordy what a bitch."
"That sounds like a new song." Lydia laughed. "I was going to ask if you got one, but I take it from your reaction that you had no idea. So there goes that."
"Honestly, after Tara attacked you the first time, I stopped having anything to do with her. I would have with Ember, but we've been friends since we were little, I couldn't just kick her out of my life without more cause."
"Yeah, I get that. She was your right hand hench girl."
"I'm still horribly sorry for how we... I mean I was as children." Gingy sighed and sat down. "You couldn't help how you were born. I know that now. I hope fate is kind to a wretch like me and my children are all beautiful."
"They're beautiful because you believe they are, not because of how someone else sees them." Lydia sat on the bench beside Gingy. "I've forgiven you for your past attitude, and I wish you all the joy that children can bring."
"Oh, thank you, Lydia. You're the best of all of us."
Darguni leaned against the platform and drank from his water bottle. He watched his corps of fighters with a razor sharp eye, and fantasized about tossing his wife's skirt over her head. Being second in command to the General of the Army of all of Azeroth was nothing to sneeze at, and he took his job seriously. These men and women were his father's prized picks, but Darguni could and would step in at any time to correct an error.
The problem lay in the older recruits, the ones that had completed all training. They were bored and nothing for it. The top of the top, elite troops had nothing to shoot for at the moment. War was an inevitability, so all had to stay sharp. However, since land untamed were few and far between, they sat idle. Daily training became something to pass the time.
Darguni eyed his son and felt the pride in his chest. Already his son was training on his own, filling the time without Elunara going over his drills. Lily was enjoying beating the crap out of a level one training dummy, a fact that had Darguni chuckling. His oldest girl was also his littlest, having not reached the size of her two years younger sisters. But she what she lacked in size she made up for in might. She was a scrappy little thing and he was endlessly proud of her.
With a nod to his father, he stopped the observation of troops and moved over to his children and his little brother Grogash. "What have we here?" He asked.
"Sir!" Dargek saluted his father. "We're training, sir."
""Sir", is it?"
Dargek hesitated and considered. "Elunara told us, that when training, we should use "sir" and go by rank, not personal asso... assoc... uhh association." He wrung his hands on his staff. "So I should call you General, not dad."
"Elunara is correct, you did well." Darguni put his hand on Dargek's shoulder. "Now that we've established that, you're sloppy on your swing, here, do it like this."
For the next hour, Darguni spent time with the trio teaching them how to hold and swing their staves, correcting when necessary. Soon the children were tired and he released them to sit on the platform.
"Enjoy yourself?" Grogek grunted.
"Immensely. That Stephen guy is sloppy, but he takes direction well. Think he'll pan out?"
"Time will tell. He put Elunara on an edge, and that's hard to do. He could have asked her to block energy, but didn't. That shows guts and determination."
"Or severe stupidity."
"That as well."
"Think the horde will break the treaty?"
"Why? Hoping so?"
"The men grow bored and restless. What's the point of honing a knife you won't even use? Something needs to happen."
"Come in!" Elunara called absently. She sorted through the stack of small jobs on her desk, shifting which agents would answer to which commanders in the field.
"Queen Elunara has been requested in the Keep."
Jolting at the use of her title; she dropped the papers on the desk and ran past the messenger. Up in the Keep she was surprised to find Tyrande and Moira.
"Mother?"
"Elunara, sorry we had to summon you like this." Varian sighed. "I know today is your SI:7 work, but as you can see, there's more going on."
"What's wrong?"
"The twilight cultists are back."
"Tell me everything about this... Bobby." Moira interrupted.
"He's dead. Some years ago, the twilight cult had kidnapped a large number of women and forced them into labor as "breeders" in order to fill their ranks. I accidentally saved the baby of one of these breeders, but could not save the mother. No one knew how many or how few children this one had had, but the cultist we captured at the time called her "prolific". Her other child came back five years ago. No one knew how old he was, he never answered that question.
We tried to interrogate him using a number of tactics, but he was just too good and well prepared for anything we could throw at him. We didn't use torture because he was waiting on that. Finally I decided to release him, and we followed him to a number of small pockets, but never his home base. Last year, he slipped the tail, coming back to Stormwind and attempting to kidnap my daughter Lulu. She killed him by accident in self defense."
"What of these pockets?" Tyrande asked.
"Destroyed. I think that's how he figured out to slip the tail. Every time we found his hideaways, we took them over."
