Love or Not

Chapter 20: Family Mysteries

Ares and Nyx looked at each other, knowing that all they could do was wait. Her father would appear in his own time. They were gods. After all, if it were them, they would be playing with the other person too. It's part of being a god.

The Panich Household

Serenity Fields, The Twins

Since the day they moved into their home in Olympus, Nu named the land Serenity Fields. It was filled with gardens, lakes, and fields of sunflowers. Nu loved to wander and heal the vegetation that needed repair after his last visit or sit, enjoying the fragrant smells.

Watching how much Nu enjoyed his time in the fields, the family did the same. It seemed Olympus had shrunk, and all that existed was the Panich household. Zee watched his lifemate, who was smiling and happy. Nothing could have made him feel more like a man than when his lifemate was full of light and happiness.

Zeus came to lay by him and watch too. He had found that his father-in-law enjoyed watching his son when he was animated and full of life. The god laughed and smiled all the time. He was no longer the fierce-looking god of the past.

"Watch me, Nu, watch me," came the cries from the dragonettes racing through the field.

Dragons danced in the air, and birds sang in the trees, hoping to gain a look and a smile from Nu, who had given them so much happiness. The family was glad they still had many years together before the couple left the realm.

Zeus had mentioned to the other gods that this was not over. Many more decades were waiting to be had with all the siblings. It would happen when the chosen time comes. The other gods could not wait to spend time with the royal couples they had yet met.

Time moves differently in all worlds. But none so complicated and mysterious as the god realms. For sixty seconds in the mortal realm, one year, they had passed in Olympus. On the Isle of the Blessed, for every sixty seconds in the human realm, two years have passed, and time moved much faster in the Isles of the Blessed than in Olympus.

 Even being a god boggles the mind the way the world works, even when you were responsible for its creation in some form or fashion. It had been a week since Nyx and Ares left Olympus, but by The Isle's time, they had been searching for two weeks.

If they fail, Nu would have to stay in the god realm, and he would have to go back to provide care for his lifemate's unconscious body and explain to the family why he would not wake up.

Everyone was anxious for news but knew it could take time before they could get Phanes to visit his grandson. Hopefully, he had the answer they were seeking. The children become the very existence of every god in Olympus and beyond. They had charmed them all.

As the gods and parents took turns spending time with the children, they realized that the orb would begin to throb and flicker, fade, would become transparent, and disappear when the children became tired.

It happened more and more as the children transitioned from blastocyst to embryo. The pregnancy was advancing quickly, with an estimation that Nu was now nine weeks pregnant.

This was not unexpected. All gods experienced this accelerated pregnancy stage in the first nine weeks. All the gods held their breath. They had no idea how long Nu would be pregnant or if the pregnancy would slow and resume normally once they entered the next stage.

Even Lóngshén didn't understand that when he tried to turn the orb to stone before it faded away failed to capture the orb. Fear tore through the bonds, and the call that the children were in danger reached all the gods in all the worlds.