Wednesday 21 November 2012

Chapter Seventy Four

As life settled back to normal, Mira embarked on a portrait project in her spare, she had decided to immortalise her whole family in paint and was planning a trip to China at some point to ensure she had the chance to paint the triplets too. 
Pete meanwhile had gone back to work at the hospital after his honeymoon leave.  His work wasn't just done in the hospital though as they were keen to hold clinics around the island.  

One of his first clinics on his return to work was a vaccination clinic which bizarrely enough had been arranged to be held in the local graveyard!  The only explanation Pete had been able to come up with for this was that the hospital management and public health officials hoped it would concentrate people's minds on the potential effects of not being vaccinated.
Whatever his thoughts about the venue for the clinic, Pete got on with his job quickly and efficiently and worked hard to reassure his patients about the safety of the vaccinations and the importance of having them given the recent rise in illnesses such as simfluenza and accidentitis. 
While Pete was at work, Dory continued to spend her time studying the local wildlife and collecting samples of the smaller creatures for the local zoologists to study.
She had become very skilled at coaxing small animals and birds to trust her in order that she could take them home and tag them or hand them over to the zoologists.
She was thrilled one night to see a deer grazing in the small park where she had been coaxing a bird onto her arm.  She was even more thrilled when, after watching quietly for some time, she was able to coax the deer close enough to stroke her nose.
It was during this quiet peaceful time that Taliesen grew up from a foal into a fully fledged stallion.The mishmash of colours in his mane, tail and around his feet had stabilised as he grew up and now shone a pleasant grey with white moonlit streaks, while his coat was an almost painful reminder to the family of his mother.
Despite Pete's long hours at the hospital, he and Dory managed to spend lots of time together, and he was always careful to make sure she knew just how much she meant to him.   
Of course, all the compliments did have the rather nice side effect of getting him lots of kisses... 
And one night, when they were out on the front porch watching the stars over the ocean, Dory leaned across and make some very interesting suggestions quietly in his ear. 
The two of them headed upstairs and, in a fit of whimsy, decided that the wardrobe was a much more interesting place for what they had in mind that the (nice, comfortable) bed... 






Mira was keen not to lose touch with the members of her family who had moved out and made regular arrangements to meet up.  The sculpture garden on the island was a favourite spot of Nia's and the two of them had arranged to meet there as Nia had told Mira that she had some important news.
When Mira arrived there, she found that Nia wasn't alone, she had brought along her fiance, Kane Sperie-Sabo, and as soon as the greetings were over she explained to Mira that the two of them had had a private wedding and were now Mr & Mrs Clemetis-Sabo.  Mira was slightly shocked at first and a little hurt that they hadn't invited her to the wedding.   Nia was quick to apologise and to explain her motivations.

"I'm sorry Aunt Mira, I would have loved to have had you there for my wedding, but we were worried about my mother.  You know what she's like and the fight she had with my half-sister at Dory's hen night was fairly normal for her.  I was worried that if I had a wedding and invited her she'd find some way of spoiling it or upstaging me, and if I didn't invite her then she'd find some way to turn up and spoil it!  Oh sugar, here she comes - I swear she's stalking me!"
As Nia wandered off to look at statues and attempt to ignore her mother, Mira decided it was time to get to know her niece's husband and spent some time talking to him.
Kane was very interested in Mira's job, and spent some time asking her about police procedures and the differences between the reality and the shows on tv.
It was inevitable that conversation at a sculpture garden would turn to art and after a while Menolly got bored of listening and left them to it. 
Before she left, Mira quizzed Nia on whether she'd noticed anything strange happening, she made plenty of notes but Nia wasn't really able to tell her much; nothing odd had been happening around her or Kane.  This lack of information did however help Mira in a way - if strange things weren't happening around Nia then perhaps it was something to do with the household rather than the family.



Dory had decided that now Taliesen was an adult horse it was time to get him used to being ridden.  She rode him down to the small museum her grandfather had started with the intention of improving the place somewhat.
While she was there she started to feel quite ill, unfortunately they hadn't actually set up any toilets at the place so she found herself throwing up on the ground outside and then had to clean up afterwards. 

When she had recovered herself and cleaned up, Taliesen decided to try and make her feel better and blessed her.
When they got home, Dory spent some time grooming Taliesen and looking after him in thanks for his aid that day.

But it wasn't long before she began to feel sick again, despite the unicorn blessing and all the vaccinations Pete insisted on giving her...

Later that night, Pete's pager went off alerting him to an emergency at the hospital.  He did his best to get out of bed and dressed quietly and not wake Dory up but failed dismally. 
After kissing Pete goodbye and sending him off to an extra shift, Dory felt a sudden slight kick in her stomach and suddenly realised why she'd been feeling so sick all day, she was pregnant!
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Pet Spam
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Town News
  • Marianne Sperie-Sabo aged to a toddler
  • Minna Harris-Crist aged to a child
  • Andreas Harris-Crist, Ralph Marlin-Crist and Sindre McKinley-Sabo aged to young adults with Ralph & Sindre both getting jobs as firefighters
  • Nathaniel Harris-McKinley, Irish Marlin, Isadora Marlin and Quetzal Sperie aged to elders
  • Danya Crist, Boy Mitchell-Crist and Harper Dennis died of old age
  • Shadow Sperie-Fields & Sterling Harris-McKinley broke up
  • Adamaris Dennis and Lukas Sperie got engaged as did Bernard McKinley and Christy Sabo

Wednesday 7 November 2012

Chapter Seventy Three


Following Beauty's death, the whole family made a concerted effort to take special care of little Taliesen.  
Since his mother was dead, he needed lots of bottle feeding  and extra attention.
Pete still had a few days off work following their honeymoon, so the two of them began settling into their married life.  Both of them loved being outdoors and Dory was keen not to see her grandfather's garden go to ruin, so they spend a fair bit of time outdoors looking after it. 
Pete also took some time to write thank you cards to all the wedding guests.  
Dory's keeness on the garden extended to the small beehive the family had bought a while ago, she loved the taste of fresh honey (although she wasn't so keen on the stings the bees sometimes gave her)
While Dory & Pete settled into married life, Mira took some time to catch up with the rest of the family.  She arranged to meet Nia at a local park for a picnic.
They spent most of the day there, catching up on news. 
Mira passed on all the family news Dory had picked up from Shang Simla and Nia was thrilled to hear about her new young cousin.  
However, before it was time to leave she had some news of her own to pass on.

"I'm engaged to Kane Sperie-Sabo, we've been dating for a little while now and we've decided it's time to move things on to the next level."

Mira was delighted to hear that her niece was getting married and wished her all the best for the future.
Beauty's strange death had been preying on Dory's mind a lot and when they met up with Nik at one of the local lakes she was suddenly consumed with anger that he hadn't prevented it."You're supposed to be protecting me and my family!  Why didn't you stop what happened to Beauty?  She was too young to die from old age and nothing was wrong with her!" 


Nik seemed taken aback by the violence of her greeting but soon recovered his breath and responded in equally angry tones

"You think I didn't try?  I'm not all powerful you know!  My powers are stronger now I'm back in my natural form but I still have limitations!  And before you start making derisory comments about my abilities, would you have preferred to come home and find your mother dead?"

Dory stared at him in shock as his words penetrated

"You mean the attack wasn't just on Beauty?  How do you know?  Why would someone attack mother too?"

"I can't say for certain" responded Nik, "but when you fight someone's magic you can often gain a sense of their intent and the attack was aimed at everyone in your family.  I thought Beauty, being a full grown unicorn, would be the most able to protect herself, whereas your mother and the cats were the least able."

Dory started to panic, "If whoever is after my family is that powerful what are we going to do?  I'm sure someone keeps watching me, but I can never see anyone!"

"Watching you?  I wonder, there's a new couple moved into town, Bryn and Rhiannon Glyndwr, they seem to have some magic, but not a lot and the wards let them through..."

"Wards?  What wards?"  demanded Dory.

"I've set wards around the island to protect against enemies, that's why I wasn't able to make your wedding, I  was busy setting wards at the time.  Here, take this fairy dust, its power is limited for a mortal like you but you may be able to use it against an attack if you need to.  And now, I must go, I want to check on the wards and see if I can find out anything about the Glydwrs."

After Nik had flown away, Dory and Pete left separately, Dory wanted to go looking for some wildlife while Pete decided to head home and do some medical research before he had to go back to work the next day.  As he was leaving the lake, he looked back and was shaken to see a huge meteorite slam down into the ground by the lake.  He rushed back to check and see if anyone had been hurt but fortunately no-one had been standing close enough at the time.
Pete was however worried by the coincidence of this happening and when Dory got home later, he raised some of his concerns with her.

"Dory, are you certain you can trust this Nik?  He's supposed to be protecting you and yet bad things keep happening around you.  Just after we left the lake a meteorite slammed down right where we had been standing..."
Her response took him slightly by surprise.

"Why would you think it's his fault?  If it weren't for him mother would be dead, something would probably have gone wrong with our wedding and that meteorite may have fallen just after we left, but it didn't fall while we were there did it?!  Are you sure you're not jealous of him?"
"Dory, honey, calm down, I'm just a little worried.  You know there's fae in my family tree and I know from our family stories that they don't ever do anything without a reason, yet this Nik turned up out of nowhere claiming to have been sent to protect you.  Something about this just doesn't feel right to me.""He hasn't lied to me!  Grandma Abi taught me how to sense a lie and he hasn't told any at all!  I trust him Pete, if you can't trust him won't you at least trust my senses?"

"Ok Dory, if you feel that strongly about it.  Maybe I'm overreacting, Dad rang my while you were still out - both Mum and Aunt Seirian died today, within hours of each other.  The doctors have said it was old age in both cases but I guess I'm feeling a little off balance with the news and everything else that's been happening."

"Oh Pete, I'm sorry, you should have said something!"  Dory reached out and embraced him, all thoughts of their short argument gone as she realised how upset he was.
Taking his hand, she took him upstairs and did her utmost to show him how sorry she was about his news and that she would always be there for him.

Their embraces were slightly frantic as they tried to distract themselves from the death and bad news which seemed to be surrounding them.
After they were done, they curled up in bed together, holding each other against the sorrows of the world. 
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Pet Spam










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Town News
  • Faye & Ryan McKinley-Crist had a baby boy called Thomas
  • Adalyn & Fabio Sperie-Sabo had a baby girl called Marianne
  • Christy Sabo & Bernard McKinley had a baby boy called Louis
  • Quyhn & Gideon Sperie-Harris had a baby girl called Carmen
  • Minna Harris-Crist, Lorette Marlin-Mitchell, Todd Sperie-McKinley, Louis Sabo and Sallie Mitchell-Crist aged to toddlers
  • Allen Sperie-Sabo aged to a child
  • Mort McKinley-Sabo aged to a teenager
  • Raina Sabo-Harris aged to young adult and got a job in fortune-telling.
  • Auburn Mitchell-Crist aged to elder
  • Blue Marlin-Mitchell aged to elder and retired
  • Lukas Sperie started dating Adamaris Dennis
  • Menolly Clemetis started fating Bryan Harris-Crist
  • Brook Harris-McKinley and Grant Sperie-Sabo got engaged as did Antoine Sabo and Quetzal Sperie, also Elijah McKinley and Susanna Stacy