Kane and Callie came out of the bathroom together and walked into the kitchen to find cholla flowers in a pot, yes, a pot of water, and a stack of sandwiches.

  “Eliza wanted to wait for you,” Phillip said from next to the living room window.

  “Thank you, Eliza, let’s sit down and eat,” Callie still had exhaustion in her voice, but she was trying, which was all Kane could ask of her at that point.

  “I made the flowers!” Josie cheered from the kitchen table, pushing the pot closer to her mom.

  “Wow! How did you do that? The chollas were done blooming a couple of weeks ago," Callie asked, taking a closer look at the flowers.

  “Like this!” Josie said excitedly as she gently picked up a cholla fruit, and it slowly turned back into the radiant purple-pink bloom.

  “WOW!” Callie’s mouth dropped as Josie handed her the flower.

  “How did you get the fruits?” Kane asked, noticing there was still a small pile of cholla fruit in front of Josie.

  “The cowks were crying, so I went outside. Don’t worry, Mabel and Alexandrus were with me," Josie said nonchalantly, turning back to her pile, turning more cholla fruits into flowers, and plopping them in the pot of water.

  “Josie, you didn’t tell me you were going outside!?” Phillip sounded defeated in his question.

  “You were busy,” Josie again sounded so nonchalant, like it was any other day.

  “Wait, what do you mean the cowks were crying?” Callie asked, shaking her head in disbelief.

  “A baby was born,” Josie said, not looking up from her flowers.

  “A BABY!” Kane and Phillip called out together.

  “Yup, they said they would sing the praise song tonight because the other baby was stirring too,” Josie said, grabbing a sandwich off the stack.

  “Praise song?” Callie asked, still in shock.

  “Yes, My Lady, it is the most beautiful tune. It is always a great pleasure to celebrate a cowklet. We do not celebrate our porcupines like that, but Alexandrus has made mention to more than one mistress that we should." Alex popped up from a chair at the table, making Callie jump back a little in surprise.

  “Alex, I thought you didn’t want to come inside with Zeus? What are you doing here?” Callie asked to recover herself.

  “Zeus will be asleep for much longer yet, Alexandrus was invited in by My Little Lady," Alex started reaching for one of the flowers.

  “Alexandrus, we talked about this. Don’t eat the flowers," Josie said, lightly smacking the creature's hand away.

  “Hurmph,” Alex grunted, climbing down from the chair and heading to the fridge.

  “What are you doing?” Callie asked, stepping towards Alex.

  “I’m hungry and I saw My Lady grab the food for Alexandrus from here," Alex didn’t even pause as he pulled on the fridge handle, trying to open it.

  Callie paused for a moment, then went and opened the fridge for the creature, grabbing the container of berries from the top shelf. She walked over to the cabinet, grabbed a small bowl to put the fruit in, and then handed the bowl of fruit to Alex. Who proceeded to excitedly hop back to the table.

  “Please eat,” Eliza said, putting some napkins on the table.

  “Thank you, my sweet girl,” Callie said as she walked over and kissed her daughter on top of the head. “This looks delicious.”

  They all sat down and proceeded to eat the, well, the interesting assortment of sandwiches. There were some normal sandwiches, like ham and cheese, and banana and peanut butter. She had also made what looked like mushed bananas and cheese, which Josie was eating, and ham and peanut butter. Eliza had cut each sandwich in half and had made enough sandwiches for everyone to have a whole sandwich or two parts. Surprisingly, the banana and cheese sandwich wasn’t bad, but the peanut butter and ham sandwich was hard to swallow for most of them.

  After they were done eating, everyone just sat for a minute, most with their heads down; the few that were still sitting upright were looking around the table. It was Alexandrus who finally broke the silence.

  “So what do you do next?” He asked.

  It was like it woke everyone from their daze. The kids got up and threw away their napkins and the bits of sandwich that were left. Giana even watched what the big girls were doing and clumsily followed suit.

  “Mom, can we watch TV?” Josie asked.

  “Sure, why don’t you watch up here, though. Keep it quiet, please.” Callie said as she got up with the plate of leftover sandwiches. She waited until Eliza wasn’t looking and threw the ham and peanut butter mix away. She put the plate in the sink as the TV was turned on at what sounded like full volume compared to the near silence they had all been in.

  “TURN IT DOWN!” Callie screamed, whipping around, “Oh my God! Kane, look!”

  On the TV were scenes of what Stern had described as lizawks swooping down and attacking people on the streets. Some people were instantly paralyzed after being licked by the tongues of the bird-like creatures. Others fell to the ground, spasming like they were having seizures. Without changing the channel, the TV switched to another scene where a metal-plated badger, like they had fought, was attacking what looked like a gate to a military installation. That scene didn’t last long, as they saw soldiers get hit with the claws of the dangerous creature. The next scene was at night, and it looked like it was from a police officer's body camera. It was being attacked by a bat-like creature with more cat-like elements to it than a normal bat and about 3 times the size of the largest bat Callie or Kane had ever seen. They guessed that was the batzl that Alexandrus had warned them about. It kept swooping in and clawing at the officer; the pistol rounds seemed to have been bouncing off the batzl, doing nothing to harm the creature.

  The scene changed again; it looked like whoever was taking the video was in a high-rise in a large city. The street below that was being filmed was empty except for a giant snagon. Without the grass hiding it, you could clearly see the large shining scales and the spiked tail as it slithered down the street. This one was at least a city block long.

  “This is just a sample of what is being reported from around the country.” The scene changed again, this time to a news broadcaster with a blank blue screen behind him, “By presidential order, everyone is to stay inside unless deemed absolutely necessary. These creatures are taking over our cities; they are not friendly and should be avoided at all costs. We highly advise you to take the president's warning and stay inside. The military and the National Guard are being deployed to try to secure locations for evacuation. Those locations have not been secured. DO NOT TRY TO LEAVE YOUR HOUSE TO GO TO A SAFER LOCATION. A safer location does not exist yet. We have received no word from our foreign allies; we are on our own at the moment.”

  “Turn it off,” Kane growled, walking over to Eliza, who had the remote.

  “Dad?” Eliza looked near in tears as the TV was turned off.

  “The only good from that report is that we aren’t alone, and these attacks are happening everywhere. If our allies can’t be reached, then we have to assume they are being attacked as well. It will do no good to hear from some pompous prick from behind a desk," Kane threw the remote on the couch at Stern's feet and walked back over to the table. “We need supplies, we need to restock. We have fought these creatures; we will just have to keep fighting.”

  Callie walked over to the couch, grabbed the remote.

  “I said turn it off, and I meant keep it off,” Kane glared at his wife.

  “No, they can watch something on Prime. We need to talk and make a plan," Callie glared at her husband, clicking the Prime button on the remote as soon as the TV turned fully on. The brief scene on the TV showed people running down a street from something. Callie didn’t need the kids to see whatever it was. She found a kids’ cartoon and pushed play.

  Callie gave the remote back to Eliza, “Keep the volume down,” she instructed, and then walked over to sit down at the table.

  “So, now what?” Callie said, crossing her arms, glaring at her husband for scolding her unjustly.

  “We need a list of what we need to find or grab from in town. If there are as many dangerous creatures as we think up there, we need to know what we are grabbing and where we need to go," Carlie said, sitting down next to her friend, patting her on the shoulder on her way down.

  “I’ll grab the paper and pen,” Phillip said, reaching out with his left hand. Callie relaxed a little at seeing that.

  “Let me look at that hand while we make the list,” Callie uncrossed her arms and headed to grab the medical kit that she saw by the front door. It must have been dropped there after using it outside. She was just thankful someone had thought to grab it on their way in. Callie didn’t want to have to go back outside yet to retrieve it.

  After a couple of trips to the fridge, pantry, downstairs fridge, and the extra storage over the washer and dryer by Carlie and Callie, with some input from Phillip and Kane, they had a food shopping list. Callie had taken the lead on grocery stores that had the highest potential for getting almost everything they wanted and needed to grab. They had moved on to the other supplies next. Kane had taken the lead on this not only because it was his house, but he also had first-hand knowledge of what was at Mountain Man. He had thought about what would normally be competitors’ stores, but he wanted to take advantage of his own store first.

  He had a key, and he was assuming his day manager hadn’t gone in with the presidential order in place. So he was hoping the night manager had done his due diligence before leaving and had secured and locked everything up. Kane had checked in with both before he had left, but he hadn’t checked back in with them. Kane pondered on the fact that a store that he had poured the last 5 years into, sacrificing time with his family to build, had come down to meaning nothing but a backup arsenal in the end. It really didn’t mean that much to him in the end, and he felt a tinge of regret for having it take up so much of his time and energy.

  They had compiled their lists and had developed a strategy of taking the back roads, hoping they were less traveled and less likely to run into any patrols trying to enforce the executive order. Callie had changed her store recommendations to either be on the way to Mountain Man or to be close to it. Kane looked up and saw that the sun was getting low in the western sky and was starting to kiss the mountains.

  “Hey, let’s get the chores done outside,” Kane suggested, getting up and stretching from the time sitting at the table.

  “I completely lost track of time!” Callie exclaimed, jumping up, seeing the shadows on the wall behind Kane.

  “We will help, tell us what you want us to do,” Carlie said as she stood up holding Giana, who Callie hadn’t realized had climbed into her mom’s lap.

  Callie started telling everyone what needed to be done and then looked at the kids on the floor in the living room. The four girls were watching their parents, even Dani, who was sitting at her dad’s feet, was watching them.

  “Want to help with chores?” Callie asked the kids.

  They nodded their heads silently and started getting up, except for Dani.

  Callie walked over to the child, who looked on the verge of tears, “Dani, your dad will be okay.”

  “Are you sure? Mom didn’t move much at the end either,” Dani choked back tears as she touched her dad’s leg.

  “I’m sure, I’ll take the bandages off to look at him when we come back in. He needs rest. Why don’t you come and help? You can look at the new baby cowk?” Callie attempted to convince the child.

  “I don’t need to see the baby,” Dani said, looking down at her dad.

  “Dani, let’s get some fresh air. Chores won’t take long,” Kane told Dani, stepping next to Callie, “It will be good for you.”

  Dani didn’t say anything; she continued looking at her dad and pressing his leg. Kane was getting ready to say something again when Dani finally decided to get up. Callie could see the hesitation she had in leaving her father, but Callie also knew that having her sit there by herself wasn’t good either. Callie remembered when Dani’s mom had gotten the diagnosis of the heart disorder and the phone call from Stern saying how long his wife probably had left. She hadn’t heard Stern cry before that; it nearly tore her heart out. Then, the call that he was scheduling the funeral, and he needed help with Dani.

  Kane, her, and the twins grabbed an emergency flight and stayed for two weeks trying to help him adjust. Dani was small enough that she knew what was happening, but was content playing with her new friends. Phillip and his family had joined them the second week. That was the first time the girls, minus Giana, who hadn’t been born yet, had met, and they had been like long-distance sisters ever since. Callie had thought Stern was doing an amazing job, and Dani was well adjusted for having lost a parent so young. In fact, she and Stern were doing great, but Callie had missed that Dani was still hurting from the loss. Stern probably was, too. Callie put her hand on Stern’s head and then turned to go outside with everyone else. Stern had to make it through this; Dani needed him.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Chores went really quickly and easily.

  “You got to do something about those damn chickens!” Phillip howled while trying to gather eggs from the broody hens, who seemed to have gotten so much worse now that they could scream at them.

  It had made the kids laugh, even Dani, so Kane and Callie had smiled and ignored the outburst. They locked in all of the goats and made sure everyone had water for the night. Kane decided to turn off the motion light, just in case it would attract any creatures they didn’t want. He also grabbed the ladder and checked the camera. It wasn’t the greatest or clearest monitoring system, but it had saved Callie and himself from needing to go out in the middle of the night during the birthing season. He figured it would at least be able to give them some sort of indication of something happening.

  As they were all walking back to the house, suddenly a deep melody started coming from the direction of the cows and cowks. It was hard to describe, but it started deep, and then the tone split into a harmony.

  “It’s starting,” Alexandrus said with awe in his voice, walking well, actually more like tripping, past them, going from the house to the fenceline.

  The group walked over to the fenceline. The music was now split into bass, tenor, and alto voices. The voices undulated back and forth from a hum to louder ‘ahs’. Their voices sometimes intentionally went out of harmony and then back into perfect cords so effortlessly and beautifully that the humans stopped in their tracks and were just listening.

  As they watched and listened, a soprano voice was added, completing the melody. The cowks moved into a circle around the 2 babies, cowklets. One of the babies was still wet from birth, while the other was fully cleaned off and dry. Kane and Callie unconsciously moved closer to each other, and Kane put his arm around Callie’s shoulder as she leaned her head into him. Phillip and Callie had done the same, but with a bunch of eggs in Phillip’s hands still. Callie noticed Charlotte and Jonny Boy had been incorporated into the circle, even though size-wise, they looked almost like babies themselves.

  The circle gradually began to move.

  “They are putting their wishes and prayers onto the babies,” Josie said from next to Callie. Callie looked down at her daughter and grabbed her hand, squeezing it lightly.

  “What are they saying?” Callied asked her daughter.

  Josie looked up at her mom with a smile on her face, “For long life, for good pastures, for happiness,” Josie hesitated, “Mom, they are praying for peace in all the lands and all the realms.”

  The cowks suddenly opened up their circle into a half circle, and Charlotte was left in the opening.

  “Mom, they are wishing for the safe delivery of Charlotte's calf,” Josie let out a soft cry of happiness and wonder.

  “It is their way; they always acknowledge the mother who is still pregnant. If no cowk is pregnant, it is left open to pray for more cowklets in the future for the herd,” Alex spoke in a soft whisper of wonder, “The cowk’s are truly remarkable.”

  The cowks and cows moved once more into a circle, continuing their melody as the last rays of the sun hit them. Then the song faded away and the cowks bowed their heads to the newborns. The bulls were the first to raise their heads and as, a statement that their ritual was done, the cowks dispersed to continue grazing with the moms of the cow,klets walking to collect their babies.

  One of the bulls looked at the humans standing by the fence line.

  “Thank you,” Callie said to the bull. Who, in his turn, bowed his head and then turned to graze.

  “Let’s go check on Stern and Zeus,” Kane whispered to Callie before turning and grabbing Eliza’s hand to walk towards the house.

  Callie turned, still holding Josie’s hand, and she looked around and then walked over to Dani and grabbed her hand as they walked back to the house. Phillip and Carlie had paused for a little longer at the fenceline, still watching the animals. They eventually followed with Carlie grabbing Cosette’s hand and picking up Giana with her other arm.

  Alexandrus had started to follow the families into the house, but at the base of the steps, suddenly veered off and went back to the playhouse where he had spent the last couple of nights. It was becoming his home, and he preferred to watch the stars. The stars hadn’t been seen thanks to the war in many years in his realm; he wanted to savor them like he had as a youngling before the war had changed his world, too.

  Callie turned on the kitchen light as they came inside. A grunt came from the couch.

  “DAD!” Dani cried, running over to see Stern.

  “Hey, kid. Ouch! gentle,” Stern grunted in pain as Dani collapsed onto his chest, hugging and crying, “I’ll be okay.”

  “Dani, let me take a look, please. You don’t have to let go, but could you maybe hold your dad’s hand?” Callie asked, coming over with the medical kit.

  “Or just wrap yourself around his face,” Kane suggested, laughing, “It was peaceful not having his loud mouth working.”

  “Shut up, you missed it. Who else would tell you that you were fucking shit up?” Stern tried to smile, but Dani had taken Kane’s advice and was wrapped around his throat and lower jaw.

  Callie started slowly cutting away the bandages on Stern’s chest as Stern tried to talk his daughter into letting go. A completely wasted effort, as Dani wasn’t budging. As Callie peeled away the final pieces of gauze, she could tell the bleeding had stopped, but removing the bandages had caused some areas to start bleeding again. The gashes were large and jagged. Stern was definitely going to have a scar when they were fully healed.

  “We probably should have put in stitches,” Callie muttered to herself out loud.

  “Scars are cool though,” Stern said through Dani’s hair, spitting out hair as he talked.

  “Maybe, but I think I need to put some butterfly bandages on these open spots,” Callie said as she dug into the medical kit for the items she needed.

  Probably because he didn’t want any more hair in his mouth, Stern was silent the rest of the time Callie was cleaning the wounds. She applied some antibiotics, telling Carlie to add it to their list, suddenly realizing they hadn’t discussed medical needs in their list of supplies. Callie finished wrapping Stern up and then helped him sit up so she could remove the wraps from his back and apply the new wraps. Packing up the medical kit, Callie then took it over to the kitchen table where the list was and added items she was running low on, and then thought of things she didn’t have but would be helpful.

  “Hey, has anyone looked at their new stats?” Stern asked from the couch, having finally convinced Dani to sit next to him instead of on top of him.

  “Shoot, no, didn’t even think of it!”

  “Well, I’m now level 5, apparently my heroic effort raised me 2 levels," Stern bragged, “I’m a Champion now! It says I have an ‘advantage’, whatever that means, with my rifle.”

  “Not a clue what that could mean, guess we better look at our menus,” Kane sighed.

  Callie finished writing on the shopping list and then sat down to open her menu.

  She had jumped two levels too. Her exhaustion was the highest she had seen it, and she was feeling it. She scrolled right.

  “Here we go again,” Callie thought as she pressed the selection menu, “huh, AID, I wonder what that is?”

  She scrolled and saw the familiar options, but the list kept going. She had somehow unlocked more spells. There were about a dozen more spells to choose between, but she could only pick two. She scrolled through the list quickly. There were a few more healing-type spells, but there were some spells she could use offensively. She remembered their previous conversation; they needed an offensive strategy, not just defensive.

  “Kane, I need your opinion,” Callie said with her menus still open.

  “Huh?” Kane grunted from the bedroom. He must have gone to his chair to look through his new level skills and spells.

  “Should I choose more healing spells, or damaging spells?” Callie asked, hearing him get up from his chair.

  Kane’s head and arm emerged from the bedroom as he leaned out to look at his wife.

  “Ummm, we need more offensive magic that doesn’t rely on bullets, yes,” Kane thought out loud.

  “I’m telling you now, fuck that!” Phillip exclaimed, sounding pissed at the assessment, “We need someone to heal us. We have four fighters; we need someone to save us. That is Callie’s job; let her get good at her job.”

  “But,” Kane started, then saw the anger in his friend's face, “You are right. Callie, we need you to be able to help us when we can’t help ourselves. Take the healing spells.”

  With that, Kane disappeared back into the bedroom.

  “Damn right I’m right!” Phillip grunted, letting his eyes go out of focus like they were on a menu.

  Callie returned to the list, “Well, SPIRITUAL WEAPON and CONTINUAL FLAME are out then,” She thought, continuing to scroll.

  She stopped on LESSER RESTORATION.

  “Perfect!” she thought, “Now, what should I choose for the last one?”

  Callie read the description for PRAYER OF HEALING, it sounded interesting. She almost clicked on it to confirm it, then a thought came to her. Yes, they needed as much healing magic as they could get, but what if everyone was down. She needed a way to defend herself and the kids. She scrolled back up and selected SPIRITUAL WEAPON.

  Callie started to lean back in her chair thinking she was done. Then she remembered during her frantic scrolling there was a third menu. She swiped over.

  Callie held her finger of CHANNEL DIVITY

  “Oh my god!” Callie cried out in surprise.

  “What?” Phillip and Kane said.

  “Did you know there is a FEATS menu too? I can restore someone I see, but I can only do it twice a day,” Callie tried to explain.

  “No shit, that’s helpful,” Phillip said.

  “I just got LESSER RESTORATION, before we go to sleep I want to try to use it on your arm to see if I can take away the paralysis," Callie said cheerfully at Phillip.

  “Please do, it’s not my usual salami slapper but I want to be able to switch when needed,” Phillip laughed to the disgust of his wife.

  “PHILLIP!” Callie and Carlie cried as Phillip and Kane laughed.

  Callie turned away from the two of them and decided to see what PRESERVE LIFE meant.

  “Huh, it replaces the other, but if there are multiple people down, that might be better. Half health is better than nothing,” Callie thought, closing her menus.

  She realized the sun was beneath the mountains now, and no one had eaten since Eliza’s sandwiches. They needed to eat something before they went to bed. She went to her pantry and rummaged for something she could make quickly, then got to work cooking.

  Before Callie had called for him, Kane had been sitting in his chair looking at the opening menu screen; he had not expected to not only go up two levels, but also gain a title.

  Kane had expected the exhaustion buff to have gone up; he was feeling the weariness in his bones. But ‘Giant Slayer’, Eliza had taken the final shot, not him. Maybe it was from the snagon?

  After talking with Callie, Kane sat back down, wanting to quickly go through any new spells he could get.

  Unlike with Callie, Kane’s menu to select from was the same. He quickly looked through the list again. Kane had looked at ENTANGLE before, but something about TITANS STRIKE was drawing him. He clicked to get the description:

  A smile came on Kane’s face. He selected TITANS STRIKE. That could come in handy. Kane stood up and watched through the doorway his friends and wife. Then he heard Callie again. After laughing at his friend and wife, Kane opened his menu again and went over to FEATS.

  Kane clicked first on GIANT SLAYER.

  “Okay, that will come in handy,” Kane thought, then clicked on HUNTERS LORE.

  “Also helpful,” Kane shrugged to himself and then closed his menus. He leaned against the door frame of the bedroom and watched his wife cook.

  “Hey, my special feat is something called SECOND WIND. If I start going down during a fight, I can restore some of my stamina or strength! That would have been helpful earlier. But it says I need to use it wisely,” Stern sounded excited from the couch.

  “You, wise, that doesn’t sound right,” Kane laughed.

  “Oh, shut up,” Stern pouted slightly.

  “The FEATS would have been nice to know before. Apparently, I have had something called SNEAK ATTACK, and I gained STEADY AIM,” Phillip said, ignoring Stern and Kane.

  “Sneaky bastard,” Kane said, “You do need Callie to fix that arm, or you can’t do your job properly.”

  Carlie snorted next to Phillip. Phillip gave her a look, and she kissed him on the cheek.

  “I have SECOND WIND too, but I also have dual weapons. But I don’t know how I can get extra hits holding two shotguns, I probably need to look at carrying two pistols instead,” Carlie ruminated out loud.

  “Food, grab the kids, and let's eat and then go to bed," Callie called from the kitchen.

  “Don’t forget about my arm!” Phillip said, worried she had forgotten.

  “Oh, right, Kane, Carlie, can you grab the kids. Phillip, give me your arm.”

  LESSER RESTORATION worked to take the numb feeling out of Phillip’s hand, but it still had a bit of oozing coming out of it. Callie and Phillip decided to try again tomorrow if they didn’t need the spell for something else. The group ate in silence, and one by one they headed for bed. Stern opted to stay on the couch instead of the camper for the night. Dani went down with the rest of the girls, however, hesitantly. Callie checked on Zeus one more time before bed. Not seeing any change, she kissed the pup gently by the ears and gave him a quick pet, then headed to bed.