HiveComb

Kormwind, Dex to his friends, is being followed around by two youngsters, a human child and hir hellkin twin. When asked why they follow, the children ask to be taught to cook, taught to make things, taught to grow things, so they won't go hungry again. And the other children in the home won't go hungry anymore, either. -- Anon Guest

[AN: This has to happen while he was off being an Adventurer and not a Prince]

Dex had been viewing his crew's general fucking around in this village as an opportunity for downtime. Their artificer was in a complicated project and the rest of them were alternately helping her or waiting for the whole thing to be done. Meanwhile, they had small jobs. Most of the time.

Dex had spent most of his time in domesticity. Hunting, farming, cooking. Basic repairs and generalised maintenance of anything that needed it and caught his attention.

Then there were the kids. Two of them specifically. Hand in hand, Human and Hellkin. They had a scurrying way of moving around the villagers. Well. Avoiding the villagers. As Dex recalled, they did have adult supervision, but that was more in the form of a grandmother than anyone young enough to keep up with them. When she was in fine fettle, Grandma Oldyn was a force of nature.

She'd been sick, recently, and these waifs were suffering.

They'd been following him around during most of his domestic tasks. Sometimes helping. Most of the time, asking questions.

Then one lunchtime, where he divided up his meal to the two of them, he said, "You need more than answers."

"Can you teach us?" said the Human.

"Properly?" added the Hellkin.

Dex finished his portion of the food. "Let's see what needs to be done, and what you need to learn."

The farm was in relatively good shape. Grandma Oldyn was grumbling about being sick and warned Dex not to steal her children. He taut them how to patch the cracks in the walls. How to tell the weeds from the proper garden plants. How to track, stalk, and kill the kinds of woodland creatures that they could carry back. Especially how to sharpen their knives and maintain their tools, so that they don't hurt themselves or anyone else with them.

He taught them how to field dress their kills, how to bury the unusable offal so that predators don't track them down. How to build fish traps. How to spot wild herbs that could be useful and what ailments they could mend.

He taught them how to make a nutritious stew that could help their grandmother fight off her illness. And he taught them how to make bread.

All in a lot of little lessons as he moved around the farm and the nearby woods. Little things his mother taught him. Little things his father had insisted were important. Things he had once rolled his eyes about when he was Prince Kormwind Arachis Felbourne Whitekeep, tenth of the name. Things he thought he would never need. Things he thought nobody could need.

Then he met the nobodies who did need it.

These kids were common folk. They likely wouldn't travel far from where they grew up. They wouldn't become legends. They would be family and friends. Fellow townsfolk. They would grow up, have some relationships, and perish without being more to the lords of the land than a number in a column.

This was why Dad sent him out for the Erforschungzeit. For perspective. So he could see the reality behind Dad's accounting.

Up close and personal.

[Photo by Liana S on Unsplash]

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