When the chauffeur finally arrived with my packages it was a large metal trunk locked with a thick bar and combination code, a long but simple Bureau box, and a smaller metal box with a simple keyhole and key. Since I did not Have Si-Pon to move the compost like I had planned I could only keep the slimes stored in their big box. However, the smaller box of 'preserved' slime cores was opened now.
These were cores belonging to E grade slimes that were 'preserved' at the very bottom of their grade. However, every kobold and goblin present was given a slime core to encourage their MP development. Glaive even received two and one more for the missing Poniard before I put the remaining half of the cores away.
In the Bureau box was the glaive that had been offered as barter for my adult kobold when I was looking for Glaive's name. However, instead of a nine-foot polearm I had Johnathan shorten it to seven feet while using the excess to simply enlarge the entire solid piece weapon for a Kobold's grip. For the sake of irony, I had the name 'Kobold' engraved in the middle of the shaft on each of the octagonal shaft's faces.
The ax and spearhead of the weapon had not changed much besides lengthening the spear blade by a few inches and broadening the face of the ax in the same fashion. Still, forty pounds of C grade steel swung around by Glaive would be enough to bite into the armor plating of an old tank or APC. For the sake of possibilities, the stem of the head that extended up the side of the spiked ax head into the spearhead was set on either side with three empty sockets for elemental stones.
Glaive had only used the same naked training poles that the other creatures used, which were about two feet too short and far too light for her. Walking up to where she quiet sat drinking some water from one of several cases stored around the pine for MP purposes, I simply sat down in front of the kobold with the box sitting across my lap. She seemed curious at first but when I did not do anything else she lost interest and went back to watching the other kobolds.
Finished teasing the man-eating monster I treated like a puppy, I set the box down and slid it toward her across the ground before walking away to inspect the lessers. I kept an eye on her, of course, watching the beast with thumbs struggle with studying the box that had come from ME while looking for a way to open it without destroying it. In only three minutes of frantically rolling the box around she found the tape securing the opening at either end.
Pleased with herself, she flippantly opened one end of the box and let the contents slide out. Glaive very nearly lost some toes as the spear point of the glaive swiftly dropped down into the ground just in front of them. The poor pup actually yipped in fright and leaped back from the box, sailing clear over the six-foot pine base and a safe distance away from the falling box and weapon inside.
Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at me as I suddenly burst out laughing at the scene of Glaive's ultimate ninja 'back-step'.
When I finally recovered from my breathless fit of laughter it was to find that Glaive was measuring the weight and balance of the weapon by switching hands and doing partial spins. Then, she finally got comfortable. The first move she tried was a fully extended thrust, stepping forward with her left side holding the back half of the weapon to spear ahead.
Then she withdrew just the one arm with a turning half step, whipping the ax blade through the air so hard and fast that it whistled loudly and looked like a trail of shine. Switching grips and stances while performing different basic staff attacks, Glaive begins adapting everything she knows to a staff with a head.
At first she was slow in moving between actual strikes but eventually she began to strike a little slower and transition more smoothly. Within twenty minutes she looked like somebody doing a private exhibition scene in a martial arts film, one of those early scenes where the protagonist is warming up but then end up interrupted by the introduction of another character. However, I did not interrupt my kobold.
Instead, I simply let her orientate herself to her new weapon and focused my attention on correcting the goblins or scolding the forgetful kobolds. Glaive spent the next couple of hours in their own little world, slowly advancing their comfort zones with the glaive until the were in the middle of the property spinning and slashing and jumping freely. If I did not know any better I would have said she was downright joyous.
She ended up pouting and upset because I made her leave her glaive at the property but when we got home to check on Poniard she relaxed some. Just to help her get over missing the weapon I decided to make a special meatloaf. It was also one of Lucinda's favorite foods so she would probably enjoy any leftovers.
To start with I diced up a couple pounds of potatoes, mushrooms, asparagus, squash, and carrots. Then I put all of these in a pot splashed with olive oil and add two big spoonfuls of butter before putting the pot on the stove. Letting the veggies heat up on medium-high, I empty a big five-pound tube of lean ground beef into a big metal mixing bowl before dumping in copious amounts of some sweet mesquite seasoning for grilling and then half of a small bottle of honey.
Putting a lid on the large square copper pot of veggies so that their natural hydration helps steam each other soft, I begin mixing the meat and rub and honey in the bowl while simply shaking up the pot every two or so minutes. When everything in the pot had finally softened, I took the lid off and turned the heat on high to start drying the veggies out. Sprinkling the top of the pot's contents lightly with garlic salt, I mix up the pot thoroughly with the lid on before sprinkling more.
Once the veggies were seasoned, I precarious filled the bottom of a large baking tray with the beef mix while stirring the open pot every thirty seconds. As soon as the veggies were dried out enough that their edges started crisping even with the excessive treatment, I emptied the pot into the backing tray. On top of this went the rest of the meat.
Since there were close to ten pounds of foot in a five-inch deep twelve-inch long by eight inch wide tray, it was pretty much full already. However, I raided the pantry for a big bag of some cheesy nacho chips and a box of some fancy flavored croutons. I crushed both items and mixed them together in the empty meat bowl to get them wet and soft before basting the top of the meatloaf like icing a cake.
With some seriously chunky and questionable icing.
Wrapping the tray and loaf in foil, I repeatedly stab the top of the foil with a fork to let it breathe before putting it in the oven that had been preheating for the past fifteen or so minutes. Since there was so much wet content in the loaf I decided to turn the heat up by twenty-five degrees to help dry the beef fat so the meat can absorb everything from the veggies cooking it still took about an hour, though.
Because Poniard was not currently around to enjoy this meal, I cut out a large portion of the middle of the loaf just for my first familiar and stored it on a plate in a giant freezer bag. Then I did the same thing by collecting all the next best loaf around the original center for Lucinda in case the fridge leftovers did not last long enough. After that, I took a corner for myself and called the others downstairs for dinner.
The food was good enough for me, I tried to avoid too much salt and non-natural flavoring despite the meat rub mixed into the loaf. However, I would not have minded stir-frying the veggies in something sour like Italian dressing and melted butter to contrast with the sweetened meat. Instead, everything just absorbed the few present flavors from each other but that was not bad in itself.
Si-Pon had a few comments about how I kept using the same kinds of meats in my foods, such as cuts of beef or chicken, but otherwise the others seemed to enjoy the loaf. Glaive could really only say necessary words and single syllables, but she wolfed down everything Si-Pon and I did not. That was all the praise I needed and told Si-Pon the meal was made for her to begin with.
Tomorrow I would make him something with fish.
Lucinda did not come home until early in the morning after our lemon-soaked salmon dinner, but there was still plenty of leftovers for her. Despite Si-Pon's assurances, it was only that morning when the lengthened blob of flesh made its first 'conformity'. What looked like double-jointed toes and feet were imposed against the bottom of the blob.
However, these feet were half a time larger than Poniard's had been and now had five toes. For now, this was the only sign we had for his evolutionary development. Si-Pon at least assured me that most hobs would still have three-toed feet similar to a bird's with only the growing of their center pad and shortening of the toes for changes. Ogres and trolls had more humanoid feet but still only got four toes.
Of course I took pictures and boasted about the abnormalities. Then I finally dragged Si-Pon out of the house to do some real work instead of watching my familiar 'sleep' like a creep. Sadly, when we finally got there, one of the development teams were already there and waiting for us.
These guys were here to build a large corral area for future mounts out near the barn, so it would only take a few hours with their pre-fabricated sections of fencing. While they were there, though, the goblins and kobolds were all confined to the patio. Glaive and the hobs were allowed to wander but they were restricted to the agility course while armed.
My adult kobold seemed more encouraged by this than not, taking to the agility course to simply practice running with its new weapon. Kind of like a dog with a favorite tea that went everywhere with that toy. Kobold was now Glaive's new best friend and I felt bad that our house was not big enough to accommodate the poleax.
The corral crew were pretty distracted with everything that I had going on, but I had everybody doing their running for now and only the free roaming creatures were worth worrying about. I could not help but wonder what they would have thought of the demonic lizard in the bunker by the entrance, Si-Pon, of course, could not do any heavy lifting out in the open so I had to help transport the compost into the greenhouse.
Instead of actually cleaning the superficial septic system, I just dumped all ten of my F grade 'starved slimes' into the big metal tank. They would consume all of the organic material inside, doing all of the work for me. By the time they got big enough to warrant the hobs being armed while dumping waste, I could just flood the tank out into its drainage field under the property to clean the slimes and harvest them.
When the crews were finally gone, I took everybody out to the training yard after resting so that the kobolds and goblins could practice their unarmed martial arts together. They had already been working AROUND each other and living together enough to disregard one another since there was no competition for food. Now that they three goblins were scattered among the kobolds, though, they were a little awkward at first.
Then I put weights on everybody and they got distracted with their own bodies pretty quickly.
I considered feeding them cores again, but I did not want to personally invest in what were honestly experimental products. The best part of today, though, was that the kobolds needed neither reminding nor correcting while performing their sets by themselves. It was time to move on to weapons training.
The goblins did well enough for themselves, they still needed some correcting when it came to moving and kicking but they had the uses of their arms pretty well understood. When it came time to give them their weapons they would have enough movement and coordination skills to pick up whatever I lay down. The two swordsman would give me little trouble.
Since the other was getting the soldier package he would basically be learning to perform specific combos of cross-combat from his unarmed sets while wielding arm blades and would be pretty easy to train.
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