It had been about 10 days since Ceraunius and Gamelia had arrived in the mountain village. Their time was spent doing various things…
Gamelia in particular was quite eager to learn all she could from the village women about child rearing, a topic that quickly led her to become one of the ladies of the village, accepted as if she'd lived there all alone. Occasionally she'd bring Ceraunius along to learn all of the things he'd need to know about as the father, though she mostly took care of telling him personally.
Aside from discussing that topic, she aided Hera in coping down everything she'd written, slowly making the set of copies promised to Ardee, and the Astraea familia. This served as some added bonding time for her, Hera, Bell, and Zaria. Zeus didn't want to intrude on this since it seemed like the kids thoroughly enjoyed the time they spent learning about their late familia, and learning to write.
Ceraunius spent his time helping with the farm work in the fields, showing off a little bit of just how insane his stamina really was. It made the men a little jealous but also determined to improve themselves a bit. Whenever he didn't show up for field work, it was largely due to his work ensuring that monsters never got too close to the village.
Aside from his work in the fields and ensuring the safety of the village from monsters, Ceraunius would help guide some of the men in training… A special type of training, one that was bound to surprise their wives. This very quickly turned into village wide training, where he would teach everyone how to cook an amazing meal every single time.
Outside of these events, Ceraunius and Gamelia had begun to train Bell and Zaria to grow stronger. Showing them how to move, and how to breathe properly. Opting to refuse a falna for now, on purpose. Instead the twins would grow in their own way for a while before it was time to leave.
While they'd train, Hera sewed new outfits made of love. Zeus watched, and made sure there was enough material, or he would play around in the training as well.
Unlike the other days where a family bath was in order after training was done… Zeus had stopped in his tracks, when two people entered his sight, practically dropping the sewing kit out of pure shock.
Ceraunius had felt the change, along with the arrival of two children roughly the same age as Bell and Zaria. So he looked that way, and he grinned, seeing that the pair, while scared shitless, still walked up close to him.
"Excuse me, sir. My name is Morthios, my friend here…" A boy with silky black hair said, gesturing to the girl next to him.
"Euphemia!"
"Saw this place in our dreams, and came to see what was going on. Do you know why we were summoned here?" The boy asked.
Ceraunius looked the twins up and down, Gamelia did the same, and both gave each other a look.
Hera stopped sewing, slowly standing to her feet, eyes wider than ever before. Euphemia, ever cheerful but curious, looked around and saw the woman looking directly at her, and both went silent.
"Well Morthios, Euphemia… I don't know everything, but I can answer one thing for sure. There's someone here who'll be over the moon to see you again."
"Who?" Euphemia asked… "The beautiful lady over there?" She pointed.
"Wait, what do you mean again?" Morthios asked, just before Zeus managed to come to his senses.
"Ceraunius, Gamelia… Those two…" Zeus all but bellowed.
Hera came running over, and wrapped Euphemia up in her embrace, trembling nonstop.
Zeus saw that reaction and knew his thoughts weren't wrong, so he walked over to Morthios, and placed a firm hand on his head.
"Boy, what's your name in this life?" Zeus asked, showing a few tears.
"Morthios, sir." The boy answered. "Sir, are you a god?"
"Yes, yes I am… Morthios is a good name…" Zeus smiled. "My name is Zeus, King of the gods, and God of Thunder and Lightning."
Morthios' eyes went wide. "I'd heard stories about your familia's exploits! They were the ones who conquered the land, and the sea!"
"My boys didn't do it alone, they had my wife's girls to help them." He said holding back a laugh, giggling slightly.
"Humph, that's right! I'm Hera by the way. Goddess of Marriage, and Queen of the gods."
"I'm Euphemia, and he's going to be my man!"
"Pfft… So, Euphemia, how would you like to join my familia?"
"Really?! Can I!?" Euphemia asked, with bright eyes.
"Of course, I'm so happy right now. I can hardly contain myself. My Empress has returned herself to my arms."
"Wait what?" Morthios exclaimed in shock.
"That's right, us gods can see the souls of you children. You, like your friend, possess the soul belonging to my former captain, Maxim. So, welcome home, Morthios, I invite you to join my familia once more."
"What is your goal now?" Morthios asked.
"To find all of my familia's reincarnations. Exploring the land until I find them all."
"Then I'd like to join your familia, Lord Zeus. I want to see what this world has to offer. To explore it to the fullest."
"Then come inside we'll give you our falna, and then you can join in training with our current captains. They'll be getting you two up to speed before they leave."
"That's right, we're going to train you well. I hope you're ready." Ceraunius smirked.
"Hey, why do they get falnas and we don't yet?" Bell asked, only slightly annoyed.
"Because there's a restriction of a year." Gamelia answered calmly. "Once in a god's familia you must serve them for at least one year. We will be leaving before that time is up."
"Huh? Will we get a falna when we get to Orario?" Bell asked.
"Of course we will get one, Bell, remember what they said, Lady Astraea is eagerly awaiting our arrival." Zaria teased.
"Oh yeah, that's right, I forgot." Bell said, rubbing the back of his head with a big smile on his face.
…