Monarch: A Prince Out of Time: A Progression Fantasy Epic (RE: Monarch Book 1) by J. McCoy & Eligos

Author:J. McCoy & Eligos [McCoy, J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Aethon Books
Published: 2022-04-18T16:00:00+00:00

Nethtari’s home was little more than two large wooden boxes stacked on top of each other, complete with chipping paint and bars over the windows. The inside was cluttered, wooden floorboards peeling up from the ground.

It took several hours to prepare. Nethtari insisted that appearance was tantamount and disparaged mine in a manner that nearly reminded me of my stepmother—but unlike her, Nethtari was correct. My hair had grown a bit too long. My father never really cared about those things, and my mother was less than focused on appearances, so my hair tended to run a bit long. However, in the time that had transpired between the Caravan and the present, it had grown quite unkempt. She sat me down in a small bathroom and stuck her head out the door.

"Kilvius!" Nethtari shouted. Her shout was answered with the slow, long wail of an infant. "Gods dammit." She put a hand to her forehead. The baby’s cries grew louder as footsteps came down the hall.

"Yes, lovely wife of mine?" Kilvius entered the room, holding a crying blue child in his arms. It surprised me that Morthus had meant it literally—Kilvius was red-skinned, though I wasn’t sure why exactly that was a bad thing.

Nethtari pressed her hands together in apology. "Sorry, sorry. I’ll take him, can you just…" She gestured toward me and the scissors on the counter vaguely."

"He a good tipper?" Kilvius grinned.

"No idea."

"Guess we’ll find out." Kilvius passed Nethtari the baby smoothly and navigated to me. Nethtari bobbed the baby back and forth, singing in a cringingly tone-deaf voice. It was as if they’d done this a thousand times. I was hard-pressed to think of a more frantic introduction

I perked up, hearing Maya’s voice from the hallway "Mom, Dad, is that—"

"Go back to your room!" They said simultaneously in a flash of irritation that dissipated as quickly as it had appeared. Kilvius reached out and took my hand warmly. "Cairn?"

I shook his hand, relieved more than anything to see a friendly face. "Kilvius, I presume."

He looked momentarily surprised, then laughed. "I suppose you would have picked that up when I was summoned." He grabbed a fresh towel from beneath the counter and wrapped it around my neck with practiced precision. "Two hours putting him down, undone in a moment. Such is life."

"What’s his name?" It’s hard to say why I asked. It just seemed like the polite thing to do.

"Agarin, but we just call him Rin. He’ll be four months old in a week."

Kilvius chattered on about Rin as he proceeded to cut my hair, lifting rows of it confidently and competently. It was by far the quickest and most efficient haircut I’d ever received.

Another child stuck his head in the door, closer to my age. "Dad, I need to use the bathroom."

"We’ll be done in a minute, Jorra." Kilvius said.

He scowled. His light blue face turned to me briefly in curiosity, then immediately dismissed me as he walked away.

A family of this size, with only one bathroom? How did they all get ready in the morning?

"We take turns.

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