Putting meat on the bones

"Sophia meet my mother Rose. Mom this is Sophia." Rox introduces us.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Evergreen. Thank you for having me!" I say with a smile and hand her the jug of cream. "I brought cream since I heard its hard to come by up here."

"Cream!? This will go wonderful in the potatoes." Rose says with a huge smile while taking the jug. "Thank you dear! Come on in it's cold outside!"

Rox holds the door open for me and I give him a quiet thank you as I walk in. We set our travel gear by the door. I'm just over 5 foot tall and I'm about touching the ceiling. Poor Rox is hunched over after walking through the doorway. Everything is small and adorable with the livingroom to the right, a dining area to the left, kitchen back a little from there and three bedrooms filling the back and right side. The house is warm and the scent of food cooking has filled the small house.

"Do you need help Mrs. Evergreen?" I ask to be polite. Surely she won't cook me.

"Call me mama Rose hunny! Everything is done I just need to get it to the table. Sit on down. Rox call your sisters!"

"Jeana! Kiaha! Dinner!" Rox calls out.

"Food!" Says a man with looks of an older version of Rox. If Rox had a gut. He pops up from a chair from the livingroom. How did I miss him?

"Rox is home!" Two little girls just over knee high come bounding out of a back bedroom. Both look almost identical in brown dresses and their curly black hair pulled into pig tails. Their big pointed ears are so cute!

"Why are you big?" One says tilting her head looking up at Rox.

"So Sophia doesn't feel like a giant." He smiles at them bending down.

"I'm fine. Go back to normal, you being that big just looks uncomfortable." I giggle.

Jeana and Kiaha surround me and start bombarding me with questions and statements. Their voices are childlike.

"It's Sophia! She's real."

"Like really real!"

"Brother wasn't imagining her."

"She's so pretty!" 

"Is your hair really this color?"

"Why are you so white?"

"Your ears are small." 

"Are you sick?"

"Whow she brought a sword!"

"Is it heavy? Can I hold it?"

"What's in your bag?"

Rox, who is small now, picks them up by the backs of their dresses. He turns them so they can see his face.

"Calm down." He says calmly.

"How? We like her!" One girl pleads.

"Why haven't you shared her with us sooner?" The other whines.

"Because you two would have scared her off." Rox says narrowing his eyes at them. Then he sets them in their chairs. "This one here is Kiaha and this is Jeana. Now you two be nice to Sophia." 

"It's nice to meet you Kiaha and Jeana!" I happily smile while making the mental notes of Kiaha has 3 ear piercings and Jeana only has 2.

"Same goes for you! We are happy Rox didn't make you up." Then they smile and giggle at each other.

Rox comes to stand by me. "Father. This is Sophia, who I have been seeing for a while now." Rox looks to me and gestures to his father. "This is my dad Noax."

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" I smile to Noax. 

"Wow you sure are pretty!" Noax says with a smile. Rose side eyes him from the kitchen. "Not as pretty as my Rose though." He laughs.

"Foods getting cold, sit down you three." Rose insists.

I look to the small chair, I fear I will break it. Rox sees me struggling with the chair dilemma.

"You might be more comfortable sitting on a cushion. Let me grab you one." He scurries off to steal cushions from the couch.

"Thank you." I reply very embarrassed. He throws them down by the table so I'm sitting by his mother. Sitting on the cushions brings me up to the perfect height at the table.

"Sophia is so big!" Jeana giggles. I smile shyly back at her.

"She's quite small actually." Rose speaks up. Then she piles wild boar meat, wild root vegetables, caramelized onions and mashed potatoes onto my plate. 

"You need to get some meat on your bones if you want to carry healthy children! Eat up dear!" Rose says in a motherly tone.

So that's what she meant with her skinny comment. Wait kids? I feel flushed. I look to a rather red faced Rox who is trying not to choke on his food. I hand him water. He downs it quickly.

"Mom!" He yells.

"What? Your father and I were already expecting you just 3 months into us being together. She's probably too skinny to carry a child is why she isn't with one yet." Rose says giving me another spoonful of mashed potatoes. "Oh! You must try my famous soup! I craved it the whole time I carried Rox."

"Thank you." I say quietly.

She sets a small bowl down beside my heaping plate of food. The soup smelled wonderful til an eyeball floated to the top. I turned my attention from the soup to the child bearing topic to stop me from dry heaving. His mother seems to want him to have kids. I have told Rox I'm waiting til marriage to do that kind of stuff since it's what I believe is right. 

"I-"

Rox cuts me off. "It will happen when it happens mom. Thank you for dinner and making my favorite." 

He holds up his soup bowl and nods to her. Everyone else is eating rather fast. Jeana and Kiaha are switching back and forth from eating utensils and their hands. And giggle that I'm eating off a serving platter and serving spoon since I'm so big. I then decide it won't be rude if I ate fast too since I am rather hungry today. Also I'm not fully sure if I be eating tomorrow either. Not looking at the soup I throw most of my etiquette lessons out the window and try matching the pace everyone else is eating at. 

I barely finish what was on my plate, I am stuffed. Everyone else has been done eating. Kiaha and Jeana dragged their father off to play in the livingroom.

"You going to eat that?" Rox eyes my soup.

"I'm really full, I don't think I can eat it." I reply. Not that I could if I was hungry.

"Well if you don't mind." He reaches for the soup.

I lean over to whisper to him. "It does have an eyeball in it."

"Thats the best part!" He throws the soup bowl back and drinks greedily. I am using every muscle I can not to throw up everything I just ate. I know people like eating them but gag. I can't. Gag! Please stay down food!

"I'm happy you have a good appetite at least. I will send you home with some soup and meat so you can gain some weight for a baby." Rose says happily clearing the table and cleaning up.

She is not letting that baby talk go. I want kids. I think. Maybe one day? I find them cute but where I grew up many woman use to die giving birth so that part does scare me.

The front door bursts open and many goblin children run into the room and start running everywhere. Kiaha and Jeana happily greet their cousins and start playing with them.

A woman walks through the door and calls out to Rose. "Hey sis!"

"Hi Tulip. You think your dropping the kids off again?"

"Yep don't want to miss the harvest celebration tonight." Tulip replies.

"I'm not sure if we can watch the kids tonight. We were going to drag these two to the celebration." Noax slyly eyes Rox.

"That's tonight?!" Rox shouts, he does not seem pleased.

"Wha-"

Tulip cuts me off. "I thought I recognized that scent! Your the girl I did the dishes for last night. Man you make some good food! If only your cupboards weren't bare I would have gone back tonight." She throws her head back laughing.

She what? Wait. So Rox picked up her scent from the bowls but didn't say anything.

"You are eating her food?! No wonder she is skinny and can't bare a child!" Rose grabs a wooden spoon.

Oh no! I look to Rox but we both get grabbed on the shoulders by his dad.

"The kids can fend for themselves but if Sophia sees your mom beat up aunt Tulip she may never come back."

"Agreed." Says Rox.

A fight of small beings breaks out. One is furious and the other is laughing. Rox grabs my hand and pulls me from the house and Noax hands us our things out the door.

"It was very nice meeting you!" Noax says to me ignoring the screaming in the background then he turns to Rox. "Show her around. I'm going to calm your mother down and you know how angry she will get if Sophia leaves without taking food after what your aunt just said." He smiles wearily and shuts the door.

Rox takes a breath. "I'm so sorry. This is embarrassing. I know they are a bit much but..." He gestures to the house.

"Rox." I smile at him.

"Yea?" He shifts to his large form.

"They love you." I give him a hug. "You going to show me around?"

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"I will show you from a distance." He leads the way adjacent to the music.