#phryn

“I usually put him down for a nap around two. He has this little stuffed griffon Mama and Papa gave him that he loves to curl up next to. Sometimes he simply won’t go to sleep without it. I left some bottles for him, sometimes he gets finicky, but you just have to be patient and- This isn’t too much for you is it?”

Sildar glanced up at Talnah. Her hands were fidgeting with her blue robe, the same robe they had all gotten her for Candlesnight. It seemed like so long ago now, and Talnah seemed different in a way.

Perhaps it was just a side effect of having her first child.

“Dear friend, you have no need to worry,” he assured placing a hand on her shoulder. Talnah stopped her fidgeting and looked up at Sildar. He saw doubt and fear flash through her eyes. Perhaps she was having second thoughts. He couldn’t let that happen. After all, new mothers needed a break eventually, and it was clear that having a fussy baby was taking its toll on the tiefling. “He’s one baby and there are six of us. I think we can handle him. You need to go out and relax. You’ve earned it. After these next two days, you’ll have us babysitting all the time, and maybe I’ll even get to introduce him to Mathilda.”

Talnah’s shoulders slumped a bit and her tail fell to the floor. Sildar could see the bags that had started to form under her eyes. It had been quite a while since he’d seen the tiefling this worn. “What if he starts to miss me?” she asked, “I don’t think I’ve ever left him for this long before… I don’t know Sildar, maybe I’m making a mistake. Maybe Cascius is still too little yet.”  As if on cue, tiny noises started up from the bassinet in the room. Talnah smiled at Sildar before motioning him to follow her. She pulled aside the deep blue curtains to reveal her squirming child and a stuffed griffon with button eyes. Sildar thought it was odd how little the young child looked like a tiefling. In fact, if it hadn’t been for the tail and Talnah’s unmistakable eyes, he would have sworn the child didn’t possess an ounce of infernal blood at all. But, perhaps that would change once his horns grew in…. If he grew horns.

“Good morning my Starshine,” Talnah cooed, plucking Cascius from his bed. The child squirmed a bit before he found a comfortable spot to cling onto Talnah. “Can you say hello to Uncle Sildar?” she asked softly.

Sildar reached out to put a hand atop Cascius’ head. Gods that hair was so soft and curly, “You’re going to have a fun time taming this when he gets older.” He couldn’t help but smile when he heard the giggles escape from Talnah’s mouth.

“Well, thankfully I don’t have to worry about that for quite some-”

“Come on Tal! Hurry up! Just give Cascius to Sildar!”

Robin’s voice came through the second story window clear as day. Just like that worry replaced Talnah’s smile once more.

“I can walk you to the door so you can hold him for a little while longer,” Sildar offered. He couldn’t help but wonder what she must be feeling. She hadn’t ever spent that much time away from Cascius, but they all seemed to agree that it was time for her to have a break, at least for tonight.

As they walked down the staircase Talnah peppered the baby in kisses. Would she be able to stay away for a night? Would Ea and Robin be able to keep her away for a night?

“You promise, you’ll have Jacar get a hold of me if anything goes wrong?” she asked, “It really won’t be any bother… I’ll probably call tonight just so I can say goodnight to him.” Talnah seemed like she wanted to say more until Ea put a hand on her shoulder.

Talnah had waited almost three months until she said anything about the pregnancy and she had waited just a little longer to tell Ea. Sildar didn’t blame her. Despite the other tiefling being another close friend, there had been no telling on how she’d react. Even now, she didn’t exactly seem to hold a fondness for the child.

Ea squeezed Talnah’s shoulder lightly, “Give him to Sildar Talnah. He’ll be safe.” Sildar watched as Talnah’s eyes flickered from Ea to Cascius, to himself. Would she change her mind at the last minute? Cascius was her baby, her first baby, and he knew that Talnah could be quite stubborn at times when she did or didn’t want to do something.

After what seemed like an eternity, Talnah relented. She placed one last kiss on her child’s head before handing him over. “Please take good care of him… I would very much like to come home to my baby.”

Sildar nodded as he took Cascius from Talnah’s arms. It felt a bit more awkward than he had imagined. Talnah made holding the child seem so easy, but he felt clumsy and a bit unsure. “Don’t worry Tal. You go and have fun. Have a night to yourself, dance, drink, have a night of uninterrupted sleep. Let us worry about little Cascius. You take care of yourself. After all, we’ve survived worse than him. How bad can one baby be?”

********

This was how bad one baby could be….

Sildar swore the words “How bad can one baby be?” would be written on his tombstone. Sure, the first few minutes after Talnah’s departure, everything had seemed alright, but that was only the calm before the storm. It was after the first hour had passed that things started to become bad. It started out as whimpering. Only whimpering. Sildar was positive he could handle just whimpering. Then the whimpers burst into full-blown cries. Slowly, the others entered the room, all crowding around the crying child.

“Did you check his diaper?” Claire asked.

“Twice. There’s nothing. I tried his griffon and even giving him his bottle. Nothing!” Sildar handed the child off to Phryn before flipping through Talnah’s notes for what felt like the millionth time. Had she said something that he’d forgotten to write down? He couldn’t call Talnah. He had assured her that they’d have the situation completely under control. Calling her now would only make her stress. There had to be something they could do. Anything!

Korv bumbled towards Phryn with a wide grin on his face, “Babies like funny faces right? Baby can’t laugh and cry at the same time.” He leaned in close to Cascius’ face and opened his maw, “Hello small Cassy!” For a moment, the crying stopped. The group all let out a sigh of relief. Finally, they had quiet….

Then the crying started again, only this time it seemed ten times louder than it was before. Korv stumbled back in shock, right into Claire. He looked at her the same way a kicked puppy would. He didn’t quite understand what had gone wrong. “Nice attempt big guy, but uh….  Small babies aren’t usually super fond of sharp teeth,” she explained. The half-orc patted Korv’s shoulder in an attempt to show some form of comfort.

“Is it just me? Or does the crying seem louder than before?” Phryn asked, doing what she could to save her ears.

K’Thriss stepped passed his sister and towards Sildar, “Thaumaturgy. Real great in little tieflings. Especially when they can’t control it. Which means, you should call Talnah before it gets any worse.”

Sildar’s eyes widened. What was K’Thriss saying? Did he even know what he was saying? Sildar squared his shoulders and met the drow’s eyes. “We can’t. This is supposed to be her time to relax and keep her mind off the baby. We can handle it.”

“Oh really? Well, that seems like a wonderful idea considering how well you’re handling it right now,” K’Thriss spat, causing Sildar to jump back in mild offence but he couldn’t think of any way to refute what the drow had said. “Look, maybe Talnah forgot something. Just call her and ask her how to turn her kid off.”

As painful as the situation was, Sildar wasn't about to worry Talnah. He had told her he could handle this, that they could handle this. Even if K’Thriss was right, he wasn’t about to admit it. “If you don’t want to deal with it, then fine. You can go off and lock yourself alone with your paints and canvases.”

“Believe me Hallwinter, I’d be more than happy to be with myself and my paintings, but it’s hard for anyone to focus on anything when that kid is summoning everything that is unholy,” K’Thriss hissed. It didn’t seem that K’Thriss would back down anytime soon, and Sildar didn’t plan on backing down either. But he knew he had to come up with something. There was only so much crying one man could take.

Then it clicked.

"K'Thriss, how much paint do you have?"

*******

A laughing baby was so much better than a crying baby. There wasn’t much to do to come to that conclusion. Sildar watched as the young Vellaam happily splattered his painted hands over a canvas. Claire sat close by, guiding Cascius back to the canvas whenever he started to drift towards the floor.

“See K’Thriss? Talnah doesn’t need to worry herself. We just need to be a little more… inventive,” Sildar said, all too smugly, looking towards the drow. K’Thriss, on the other hand, didn’t look happy at all with the situation. His eyes narrowed a bit at the human and his lips pursed.

“You owe me Hallwinter,” he huffed, “He’s mixing my paints. Those weren’t cheap.”

Sildar waved him off and continued to smile at the drow, “Don’t worry, I won’t let you go on with ruined paints. On the bright side, he’s not ‘summoning everything that is unholy’ anymore. That is how you worded it, right?”  He had to stop himself from laughing when K’Thriss’ face contorted before a frustrated sigh left his lips. Sildar moved closure and bumped his shoulder, “Maybe this means you may have a mini underling on your hands…. And I will get you more paint… And a canvas.”

Sildar wasn’t sure, but he swore he saw the tiniest of smiles on the drow’s face out of the corner of his eye. If it had been there it quickly disappeared. “Do you plan on explaining to Talnah why Cascius is blue? Because as far as I know, neither she nor his father was, and neither of them are chameleons.”

“Of course not! There is this thing called baths. We’ll just wash him off and let Talnah see what he worked on when she comes home.”

“Easier said than done Hallwinter,” K’Thriss chuckled. Sildar rolled his eyes. It was only a bath. Magic or not, a bath couldn’t be that hard.

Or so he thought.

********

Jacar was plucking his lute when he felt his earring warm up. The tune was old and familiar. It brought about happy memories and held an air of sadness… Claire sat in the corner of the room, listening to him pluck out the old tune. At first, Jacar didn’t register the warming of his ear until he played a few minutes of the song. Slowly his hand reached up to touch his ear.

“Hello?”

“Oh Jacar!” Talnah’s voice rung out clear as day, “How is everything going? Is Cascius being a little angel for you all?” Jacar could only imagine how much Talnah had been thinking about Cascius. Had Robin and Ea even been able to keep her mind off the baby?

Jacar figured he could leave out the part about Cascius crying for most of the day… “He’s fine Talnah, he’s as good as a baby can be. I’m surprised you were able to keep yourself from calling this long, it’s almost sunset. How are you?”

“I’m doing alright. I just-”

“Talnah!”

Ea’s voice was recognizable in the background as well as pounding on what he could only assume was a door.

“Talnah give me back my earring! Cas is fine! You can see him tomorrow! Now give me back my earring!”

“Yeah Tal, it’s girl’s night! You’re supposed to be having fun!” Robin’s voice wasn’t nearly as loud as Ea’s and seemed to be more of a mediator in this situation.

Well… It seemed that there would only be one way to cure Ea’s rage. Letting out a sigh, Jacar decided to start what would undoubtedly be a long conversation with Talnah in an attempt to make her give Ea the earring back. The minstrel had just opened his mouth when-

“Where the fuck is the baby?”

The words were loud and panicked and Jacar felt his face go white.

“What was that ?” Talnah asked. Jacar could hear the rising panic in her voice. He had to think of something.  Something. Anything. Don’t panic Jacar. Don’t-

“We’re making fudge with the baby!” Jacar didn’t need to look at Claire to see how she felt about his response, the audible smack to her face was telling enough.

“Oh… Well… Make sure he doesn’t get too close to the stove. And keep him away from the knives! They’re both rather dangerous and-”

“Yup. All good Tal. You enjoy your night. Goodnight! Give the earring back to Ea. We’ve got everything under control!” Jacar swore he’d never hung up faster in all his life. Hopefully, Ea and Robin could still keep Talnah away…. And hopefully his voice didn’t betray his panic.

“Nice going Jacar,” Claire sighed, “Now we’re going to have to find a baby and make fudge.”

********

Sildar paced back and forth. Both he and Korv were soaked to the bone and he had no idea where Cascius had gone. Sure he’d heard that magic could be unpredictable in babies, but he certainly didn’t expect Talnah’s baby to go missing in the middle of a bath!

“He can’t be that far,” Phryn offered, “I mean, he’s still young, his magic isn’t that strong yet. He has to be in the house somewhere.” She had a point, but even then Sildar was still nervous. What if Cascius was on the roof? Or what if he fell down the stairs? There were so many things that could go wrong and each new scenario caused Sildar’s panic to rise.

K’Thriss stepped in front of Sildar and forced him to meet his gaze. “Now will you call Talnah and ask her for help? She’s been dealing with this kid since day one. She knows how to handle him better than any of us. If you don’t want this to end in disaster-”

“Stop,” Sildar snapped, “Just stop. No, we are not calling her. If we do she’ll never let anyone else handle him again and that’s not good for her. She needs this and we don’t need her thrown into a panic. Plus Jacar already told her that we’re making fudge. So how bad will that look on us that we not only lost the baby but also lied to her face.” Sildar wasn’t backing down on this. He was a member of the Griffon Calvary dammit! He dealt with worse in the past, he handles griffons almost daily. He should be able to take care of a baby! “We need to find him and find him fast. It’s getting dark already. If we split up we can find him faster." With every word, Sildar felt his heart sink a little lower. He had promised Talnah that he could care for her child. What if he had been wrong?

********

Sildar sat with his head in his hands. So far they’d hadn’t had any luck. Where had he gone?

“Don’t worry Sildar, I’m sure he’s all right. We would have heard something right?” Phryn asked. She had always had a comforting air about her, but even then Sildar still felt that sick feeling deep within the pit of his stomach.

He didn’t even look up at Phryn, he couldn’t bring himself to meet anyone’s gaze at this point. How could he? “I promised Talnah we could look after him,” he said softly, “What type of cavalryman am I if I can’t look after a child?” Talnah trusted him with the thing she valued most and he had let her down. You couldn’t replace a child.

Phryn shook her head, “Don’t think like that. We will find him. He isn’t half-way across the world he’s-” As her words trailed off Sildar thought that she was finally starting to come to the same conclusion he had. He thought that maybe she’d accepted that the worst had happened.  He opened his mouth to say something, but Phryn quickly shushed him. His face contorted in confusion for a moment, then he heard it. The small noises were almost inaudible. Sildar swore he had never run faster in all of his life. He ran all the way stopping only to make sure he was still running towards the noise.  It led him to a small room with washing equipment and an upturned basket. Breath held, he walked closer to the basket and grabbed it’s sides. Underneath a freshly dried pile washed laundry was the young tiefling holding a stuffed griffon close.

Cascius looked up towards Sildar with wide, wet eyes. It looked like he was about to start crying and Sildar had never been happier to see the face of a sad child. “Oh where have you been little Cas? Have you been here the whole time?” he could help the laughter pouring out of his mouth. He hadn’t lost his friend’s child. Cascius was safe if not a little hungry, “Oh just look at you, you wonderful little terror! Where did you get your toy from?”

Phryn entered into the room not too long after. She smiled from Sildar to Cascius before noticing the toy. “Now how did he get that?” she asked, drawing Sildar’s attention towards her, “I noticed it was a little dirty, so I decided to wash it off. A clean and happy toy for a clean and happy baby.” How ironic it was that such a kind intention had lead to such terror. Sildar turned back towards Cascius. Those big eyes reminded him so much of the child’s mother, they were so easy to read and ready to take in so much.

The next whimper that left Cascius drew him back to the present. “Perhaps it’s time to feed him and put him to bed yeah?”

********

Surprisingly, feeding Cascius had been the easiest task. Once they got him to put the toy down, he latched onto the bottle without fuss. In the meantime, Korv and the other got to work on the fudge that Jacar had used as a cover-up. The only one keeping Sildar company was K’Thriss.

“He’s not that bad when he’s not screaming,” K’Thriss said quietly, “I guess you could call him kind of cute.”

Sildar nodded in absent-minded agreement.  He turned to look at K’Thriss, “I guess he is, isn’t he? He must be like this for Talnah most of the time if she never wants to leave him alone.”

“Either that or it’s just because he’s hers.”

“Could be, but I suppose none of us were really any better at this age.”

Cascius pushed the bottle away the best he could with his tiny hands. He looked up at Sildar before a tiny hand reached up to tug at one of his braids. “Maybe you should get your hair cut before that kid gets a few months older,” K’Thriss suggested, “You know, before he gets bigger and it really starts to hurt.”

Sildar shook his head and started raising Cascius closer to his face in an attempt to get him to let go. “Nah, he’ll be fine. Babies like to grab onto fingers and ha-”

Sildar didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Cascius rammed his head into Sildar’s. It didn’t hurt as much as it startled him. He quickly pulled Cascius back and stared at him as the infant started laughing. K’Thriss joined in, snickering quietly from his spot on the dining table, “Count yourself lucky he doesn’t have horns. The babies are like goats. There were enough of them in Shadowfell to figure that out.”

“Thanks for the warning,” Sildar murmured, placing Cascius’ bottle down, “You ever been hit by one.”

“Nah, never been fond of babies,” he shrugged, “Too much work, too much crying.”

“But of course Uncle K’Thriss loves his little nephew right?” Sildar teased, slowly holding Cascius out towards the drow. Just then Phryn poked her head out of the kitchen, “K’Thriss, would you mind adding a bit of artistic flair to the fudge?”

K’Thriss pushed himself off the table and started walking away from Cascius and Sildar and towards the kitchen. Just before he passed the kitchen door he paused and turned to face the human. “Maybe,” he said. Then he was gone.

********

While a happy baby was much better than a crying baby, it would have nice if Cascius had been happy to go to sleep. Each of the six aunts and uncles decided to take shifts, throughout the night until he fell asleep. After his disappearing stunt in the bath earlier, no one wanted to take a chance with him having another spurt of untamed, unpredictable magic escape him. There had been a few instances of crying and small magic spurts throughout the night. Each of the members had gone at least two shifts staying up with the child and Sildar had been the last one to go on shift in the child’s room. When he woke up, fear shot through him once more.

Cascius was gone.

He shot up expecting the worst. He had fallen asleep during one of Cascius’ spurts and he had gone missing again! Talnah would be home any minute! They didn’t have time! The man continued to panic until the music reached his ears. The tune led him out of the nursery and into Jacar’s room. The minstrel sat on the floor slowly plucking away at his lute.

Talnah had come home about an hour ago, excited and relieved to see Cascius again. Once the song reached her ears. The tune was familiar. It was too familiar, but she didn’t mind. It reminded her of happy times, but also made her heartache. She followed the song to where Jacar had a sleeping Cascius in his lap. Talnah took a seat next to him on the floor and listened.

“I know someone else who loved... loves this song,” he said softly after a long moment but continuing to pluck at his instrument, “You know… I think it’s interesting that he seems to like it too.”

“Yes. It is funny isn’t it?” she replied in the same hushed tone.

Throughout the song, the two continued to speak in hushed whispers that none of the onlookers dared interrupt. Each one had their own opinions of the song. Sildar noticed Ea staring at the ground resolutely, her face flipping between rage and a mask of calm. He didn’t really want to ask why he was sure he knew anyways.

“I don’t know if it’s the song or if he just wore himself out, but he’s fast asleep now,” Jacar said softly. Talnah’s eyes had started to water. He wasn’t sure if she even noticed, but it probably brought back similar feelings for her that they did for him.

Those feelings weren’t always easy to deal with even if some of the memories were pleasant.

Talnah quickly wiped her eyes, and blinked to try to get rid of any tears clinging to her lashes. “I’d like to believe it’s the song Jacar,” she said softly, “I really would.” She slowly ran her fingers through Cascius’ curly blonde hair. He squirmed a bit, but he didn’t wake.

Slowly each of the onlookers left the room, allowing the song to finish in silence.

********

“I really appreciate what all of you were doing for me Sildar,” Talnah smiled. She poured two cups of tea and moved one closer to Sildar. Cascius squirmed and squealed in Talnah’s arms. She wasn’t going to be drinking the cup she poured in a while. Her horns were decorated and dressed rather nicely in elaborate silks. It looked like she had just gotten out of a meeting.

“I’d do it again too Talnah. You know you’re a good friend,” he said, “Do you want me to hold him so you can drink?”

“No thank you Sildar.”

He watched as the child reached for the gems dripping from her horns. Talnah reached for the tiny griffon in an attempt to get his focus on something more baby friendly. He squealed even louder as the stuffed toy came closer to his face. “You know you’re allowed to spend time with him outside of babysitting, right Uncle Jacar? You all are. I don’t call you all his aunt and uncles for nothing,” Talnah said, “Actually, I think I’ve changed my mind about you holding him.” With that, she stood up and walked closer to Sildar, handing him the baby.

Cascius looked up at Sildar and smiled. When brought up closer to his face, Cascius bumped his head with Sildar’s and laughed.

“Aww. That means he likes you Uncle Sildar,” Talnah giggled, “But when his horns start growing in, you’re going to want to wear your helmet more often. I used to do that to my Papa all the time and gave him the worst of headaches.”

Sildar looked up from the child to Talnah, his face dropping a bit. “Tal, you know I’m not the best babysitter, none of us really are.”

Talnah nodded and sat down on the arm of the chair, “I know Sildar…. But you’re also family to me. No family is perfect either, yet to me all of you are so wonderful.” She then went back to the other side of the table to sip at her tea. “I want Cascius to have experiences that I never had, and growing up with all of you will give him that. You’re exactly what he needs. You’re perfectly imperfect Sildar, and he needs you. He needs all of you.”

Sildar looked back down at Cascius and those big eyes. They were large enough to take on the world… He just needed guidance. After what seemed like an eternity, Sildar finally looked back up at Talnah.

“Alright Lady Vellaam, you have me at your service.”