“Are you sure there isn’t anything else that you could teach me today?” asked Exia as he watched the potion bubble before him. This week’s lesson had been on medical magic, or as Exia called it a waste of his time.

“The way things are going between your father and uncle, you just might need this one day.” replied Daedalus as the inventor continued to tinker away at the pod in front of him.

“If war did break out then wouldn’t it be better for me to learn more advanced combat magic?” The potion in front of him was now turning from a dark green to a light blue. If one had the ingredients this particular potion would take only half an hour to make. Of course Exia’s lessons were never that simple. He was given a bunch of seeds that he had to grow with magic until they reached maturity. He would then have to prepare them manually before they were suitable to be used.

“Always the impatient one,” grumbled the old man. Like most elves it was difficult to tell his age, but Exia knew that Daedalus was old enough to be his great grandfather even by elven standards.

“So are you still working on this old thing?” Exia’s potion needed to be heated for another ten minutes before the next step could take place.

“Just trying to fix a failed experiment.”

Before Exia was a rather large bronze chamber filled with a light blue liquid. On the inside of this chamber, suspended in the center was a small elf-like being. It was amazing that in a decade’s time, Daedalus was able to make a small sample of Exia’s blood and turn it into the organism in front of him. It was a two-step process before this thing was complete.

The first step was to create an artificial body that could sustain itself without magical means. The next step was to create an artificial soul that could ‘pilot’ the body. The biggest problem for Daedalus was the fact that the body matured at an extremely slow rate and had yet been able to sustain itself.

The artificial soul had a myriad of problems of its’ own. The current prototypes didn’t have a will of their own nor could they be transferred to complex organisms because of the massive amounts of magic needed to tether the body and soul. Exia’s cells were extremely concentrated with magic making him the perfect template for this homunculus. Maybe in a century or two the old man would finally find a way to create an artificial soul and complete this creation. Either way the little experiment was slightly interesting, but it wasn’t something that Exia was going to devote any time too.

The prince took one last look at the small figure in the tube before heading back to his work. Hopefully one day he would get a chance to see the little guy wake up. Until then project Icarus would remain a dream for the old man to finish.

“Get up the Crowned Prince is coming soon.” Baylor kicked one of the younger giants awake. His war band was not going to show their honored guest any form of disrespect on his watch. A quick glare was all that it took for the giants to finally get up.

“Why do you respect him so much? I mean the guy doesn’t even come up to our kneecaps.” The youngest giant there, Gardin, couldn’t understand how any giant could respect the smaller races. A few of the older giants just began laughing.

Baylor continued to look towards the forest, memories began flooding back to him. “The title of Bastior means that I am the greatest fighter of all our kin,” this much the other giants knew. The tales of Baylor’s feats were legendary. “Even knowing this, there are five things in this world that even I wouldn’t want to fight, and Prince Exia is one of those.”

This sobering thought was enough to silence the few disbelievers amongst the younger giants. As Baylor continued to wait a feminine hand gently touched his shoulder.

“What do you think that he would say if he knew that you made him out to be some sort of monster?”

A smile slowly crept across Baylor’s face as he turned to look over at his wife, Laura. Taking ahold of her hand, Baylor gave it a light squeeze; a rare act of affection that few had ever seen.

“I just want the men to respect him as much as I do.”

The giant couple was interrupted as a horn announced his arrival. Emerging through the forest came the Prince himself. To many he looked like a regular traveler except for the feeling of authority that radiated off him. Exia hadn’t even walked fifteen feet before shouting at the giants’ camp.

“Is someone going to pick me up or will I have to walk the rest of the way?”

At once both Baylor and Laura took off to pick up the Prince. It wasn’t the first time that Exia had been around giants, but it was always exhilarating as he watched each step to cause the ground underneath of him to shake. Within no time at all he was looking skyward to the couple before him.

“It is nice to see you again Baylor, and you are looking as lovely as ever Laura.” Exia fell backwards after feeling Laura pushing her hand gently against the back of his knees. Though still a warrior in her own right, Laura had much softer hands than those of her husband.

“We are thankful for your assistance you majesty.” Baylor formed a fist and hit it up against his chest as a sign of respect. The party began walking back to the main encampment. In a voice that only the two giants could hear, Exia began to whisper.

“I know that it’s customary, but once we are alone please drop all of the courtesy crap.” Nothing irked the prince more than for people to treat him differently because of his position.

“He only wants to make a good impression for the soldiers.” whispered Laura as she entered their private tent first.

The night was soon approaching and Exia wanted nothing more than to take a much deserved rest. So as to not cause him any discomfort Laura placed him on top of a make shift table. Both her and her husband sat on the ground so that the elf didn’t have to bend his neck just to speak to them.

“About the upcoming battle,” began Baylor before Exia cut him off.

“I know that you are a little nervous, but everything will turn out fine. We can talk about strategy in the morning, but until then I would like to rest and talk about some lighter topics.” Exia gladly excepted the mattress sized pillow that Laura offered him.

“There is one subject that we would like to talk about.” Exia could see Laura give her husband a nudge.

“And what is it?” the princes curiosity was now triggered. The two giants exchanged glances before Baylor started.

“After this war ends and I hand off my title as Bastior to a worthy successor; we were thinking about starting a small family.” Laura couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

“Don’t worry, my father is already talking to Daedalus and the old man is creating something that will help us end this war.”

“It’s not about the war ending that we want to talk about.” It was now Laura’s turn to speak. “We wanted to know if you would give us the honor of naming our child.”

“I really don’t think that it is my place to name someone else’s child. That should be a decision that the parents make.” Exia was a little unsure of the request that the two had just made.

“You have saved my life plenty of times, and also that of my wife.” Baylor was now bending over to look the elven prince in the face. “It would bring us no greater joy than for the man who we respect more than anyone else in the world to name our child.”

“If you two keep talking like this then I’m going to blush.” Exia had to admit that the couple wouldn’t take no for an answer so he decided to make a compromise.

“How about this, if your child is a boy then you two will have to name him,” began Exia ,”but if it is a girl then you will use one of my suggestions.”

“I think that that is fair enough, then what are the names?” Both Baylor and Laura waited for the Prince’s reply.

Exia began to shift through dozens of girls’ names but none would fit a giantess. After a second of thought two names popped into his head.

“If it is a girl you should name her either Diane or Terra.”

“Don’t you think that Terra is a rather old name?” asked Baylor.

“I think that they are both lovely names, and Diane does have a certain ring to it.”

Exia didn’t want to say anymore, but he couldn’t wait to see his friends form a family one day. Diane was his second choice for naming a girl, but if he was lucky enough he could convince the family to name their next daughter or granddaughter Terra.