Chapter 114 - Parallel Life

Elenie arrived home just as Dory woke up from her nap; as she walked into the nursery she found Dory carrying Celyn to the door looking worried.

"What's the matter mother?  Has something happened?"

"I was rocking Celyn in the chair and nodded off and now those twins have gone wandering off again!"

"Don't worry, they can't have gone far - remember last time we found Rhonwyn hiding in the toybox?"

The two of them began looking around the house and shortly found Bronwyn playing with a toy on the floor of Dory's bedroom.  Dory put Celyn down on the floor to join her as Elenie asked "What are you doing in here young lady?  And where's your sister?"

Bronwyn grinned happily up at them and responded "we play, 'win go poof!"

"Go poof?" echoed her mother, not understanding in the slightest.

Bronwyn nodded energetically "Go poof!  Toy go poof, so 'win go poof, fin' out where toy go!" and with that she demonstrated by tossing her toy in the air and making it disappear.

As Bronwyn's words sank in, Elenie did something she'd never done before, even in her most stressful times... She went into a full blown panic and started screaming incoherently.

Brownyn looked up at her mother in surprise and said "Don' wowwy mama, 'win come back"

Meanwhile, Rhonwyn was gazing around the place she had ended up in.  She was in a grown-up's bedroom and the walls were covered in photographs.  She spent some time looking up at them and muttered to herself "That mama, but where wings?  Mama ha' wings but no wings...  An' where dada?  Tha' no dada!"

Getting up she wandered out of the bedroom and found herself in a hallway.  At the end of the hall was a large photo and she stopped as two men, both of whom had been in the earlier photographs walked past.  Neither of them seemed to notice her at all, both looking straight through her as they headed for the stairs.

Rhonwyn wandered on, finding herself in a large living room, again with the walls covered in photographs.  She recognised her mother and grandmother in several of them, together with others who looked to be family members, but family members she'd never met! 

The two men she'd seen on the stairs were in plenty of the photographs, and Rhonwyn began to realise that the older man must be her grandfather, he was often in photographs posing with her grandmother (who looked a lot happier than Rhonwyn had ever seen her) and in what must have been earlier photographs she could see resemblances to her mother.  

It disconcerted her however that her mother didn't have any wings or show any signs of being a faerie in any of the photos and that there was no sign of her father - the stranger in the hall seemed to have taken her father's place!  She began wandering out into an enclosed courtyard, vaguely noticing that the house was set out very differently to anywhere she'd been and that it was a lot warmer.

Eventually she found the kitchen and dining room off the courtyard, and her mother was there!  But she wasn't right, she was all human and normal and that strange man was there with a toddler, and still no-one noticed her at all!

She plunked herself down on the floor sulkily and watched her mother, her mother! flirt with this strange man! Worse still, the toddler he was holding looked like she could have been her sister!

Rhonwyn's faced scrunched up as she muttered "Don' like it, wanna go 'ome!"

Concentrating on the way it had felt to transport herself here and reaching out for her twin, she summoned the magic...

She arrived back in the bedroom just in time to calm Elenie's panic and looked up at her mother and grandmother with a grin of relief.

Elenie immediately swooped down to pick up her errant daughter and assure herself that she was real.

After hugging her tightly she looked down at the little girl and said "Where on earth did you go baby?  Don't you ever do that again!  Mama was so worried about you!"

Rhonwyn looked up at her with big eyes "Sowwy mama, went poof an' saw a mama who wasn't you and no dada!  Me no doey 'gain"

It was with great relief that evening, that the family gathered together to celebrate the twins' birthday.  After the dramas of the day, they had decided not to invite anyone, even family, over and all three grown-ups hoped desperately that the twins would be a little more manageable as children than they had been as toddlers!

Rhonwyn went first as her grandma held her over the cake to blow the candles out (and provided a little assistance) while the rest of the family (except Celyn who was asleep in his crib upstairs) cheered her on.

In no time at all, Rhonwyn had grown up into rather a tomboyish little girl, what her parents didn't realise just yet was that she would be a very hot-headed tomboy...

Next it was Bronwyn's turn, with her mother doing the honours of holding her to the cake while everyone else cheered (except Rhonwyn who was far too eager to get to the cake!)

Bronwyn grew up into an adorable little girl, who would turn out to be much quieter than her sister.

And the whole family sat down to enjoy birthday cake together.

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As before, I decided to take pictures of the twins in Stylist/CAS so you could see what they looked like properly (especially Rhonwyn, who is the second picture - dressed in blue).  I'm not entirely happy with Rhonwyn's hair so I may change it, if I do I'll take another CAS/Stylist pic since it's so hard to see details of her looks in game.  

Chapter 113 - Toddler Trouble

Once Dory had finished settling little Celyn, she came back out into the nursery and looked round for Rhonwyn to carry on teaching her to walk.  When she realised that the toddler wasn't where she had left her she began to panic.  

"Elenie!  Where's Rhonwyn?  What's happened to her?"

Elenie put Bronwyn down and looked around for her other daughter, who was nowhere to be seen.  Turning back to her mother she attempted to calm her down.

"Mother, stop panicking, she's only little; she can't have gone far, she can't even manage the stairs yet.  We just need to keep calm and we'll find her.

As Elenie said this, Dory suddenly spotted a movement in the toybox behind her.   Rhonwyn dropped down into the toybox immediately, but it was too late, her grandma had already seen her.

Dory opened the lid of ther toybox and plucked Rhonwyn straight out.  "You little mischief you...  What were you doing hiding in that toybox?"  

Rhonwyn just looked up at her and giggled merrily.  Shaking her head Dory laughed.  "Imp!  Now, you show grandma how well you can walk."

When Ieaun got home from work, they took a break from teaching the twins to walk in order to potty train them for a while.

When that was done, Dory went downstairs to cook dinner while Elenie and Ieaun continued teaching the twins to walk.

The next day dawned sunny and bright, if a little chilly, and since Ieaun had the day off work the family decided to pay a visit to the autumn fair.  The first thing they did on arriving was to get a family photograph.

That done, Elenie and Ieaun took the twins to a small playground which was fenced off within the fairground.  There were a number of toddler rides there and Bronwyn chose a horse to ride, whilst Rhonwyn opted for a dragon.

They had a lot of fun, squealing to each other and their parents while they bounced backwards and forwards.  Eventually however, Elenie and Ieaun decided that ride time was over; Bronwyn happily raised her arms to her mother to be taken off but Rhonwyn resisted, folding her tiny arms and pouted as she chanted "no, no, no!  D'agon!" until Ieaun was forced to simply lift her off despite her struggles.

As soon as the two of them had been put down, Rhonwyn dived for the toybox and started pulling out toys.  Seeing that the two of them were settling down to play, Elenie and Ieaun left them and Celyn being watched over by Dory (and Ffion the fox).

Ffion showed a lot of interest in Rhonwyn, sniffing her carefully while Bronwyn played quietly with a toy.

After a while, Ffion wandered off to look for something and left the twins happily playing with toys.  As they played, Rhonwyn suddenly crowed " 'ook 'win!  Toy go poof!"

Bronwyn giggled and responded "Toy come bac!"

While the twins were discovering their new ability, Elenie challenged Ieaun to a pie eating contest.

It didn't take long though for Rhonwyn in particular to become bored with making toys disappear and come back and, waiting until Celyn started to fuss and distracted Dory, she tugged at her twin and whispered "splore!" before toddling off.

Not wanting to be left alone, Bronwyn merrily followed her twin, catching up with her as they reached the gate to the kids playground.  Spotting the "haunted house" set up across the fairground, they exchanged glances, giggled and headed towards it.

Unfortunately for the two of them, just as they reached it, Elenie found them.  She swooped down and caught Rhonwyn up in her arms, unerringly identifying the ringleader and telling Bronwyn to stay where she was.

Once she had hold of Rhonwyn she began tickling her ferociously "little mischief, where were you two off to?  Do you know what happens to naughty little girls?  They get tickled!"

Looking down at Bronwyn she added "Come along now, it's your little brother's birthday now and you're missing it!"

Alas, when she got the two of them back to where Dory and Celyn were waiting, Celyn had already aged up to a toddler.

A few days later, Elenie decided to pay her younger brother a visit on her own as there were things she wanted to discuss with Coryn.

Once she had told him all about the twins and Celyn, expounding at length on the antics that Rhonwyn regularly led her twin into, she asked about his life.

Coryn sighed "Things haven't exactly gone to plan for me.  I still love painting and art, but it's not worked as a career move, instead I'm teaching art to the kids here.  Nicola and I drifted apart after we left school; we're not seeing each other any more and I've not found anyone else."

Elenie hugged him "Oh, Coryn, I'm sorry!  Did you want to move home rather than live on your own?"

Coryn laughed, "Oh, it's not that bad,  I've found I actually rather enjoy my solitude so don't worry about me!"

Elenie looked at him carefully "Well, if you're sure..." she trailed off before taking a deep breath "There was something I wanted to talk to you about though."

Coryn narrowed his eyes "Mother.  You want to know why I don't want to see her.  I know you've said she was under all sorts of spells, but father tried to bespell me and it didn't work.  She should have fought his spells."

He took a deep breath to calm himself before continuing "Leaving that aside however, I'm wary.  Father was too powerful to let her and you go so easily, how do you know all his spells are gone from her?  You said yourself that he left a lot of damage in her head, especially her memories, what if he left more spells to be triggered later when we all trust her? "

Elenie considered that for a moment, "But, Coryn, it wasn't easy.  Ieaun died and I would have too if Evie and Talfryn hadn't come when they did.  Besides, your father is dead, his queen killed him for his failure - doesn't that suggest what happened wasn't planned?"

"Perhaps.  Do you mind if I think on this alone for a while?"

Back at home, Dory was teaching Celyn to walk while the twins played together with blocks, building structures and destroying them again.

As Dory concentrated on Celyn, she didn't notice the twins discussing their ability to disappear their toys...

"Toy go poof!  Poof!  Where toy go?"

"D'no, go poof, come bac"

"We go poof!  We fin' ou'!"

They continued discussing this idea for a while and watched their grandma, looking for their opportunity.  After a while, Celyn began to fuss and Dory took him to the rocking chair to calm him. 

 The twins watched and waited until Dory drifted off into a doze before quietly putting their bricks down and sneaking out of the playroom in search of somewhere to try their idea without interruptions.

They settled on Dory's bedroom and plonked themselves on the floor to practice with their toys before attempting anything more advanced.  

As they did so, Bronwyn said "me no go, 'win go, me stay"

"Bu, bu, why?"  Rhonwyn crinkled her forehead in confusion

"We go, no com bac, me stay, bring 'win bac"

Rhonwyn wasn't convinced on this idea, but Bronwyn stuck to her position and the two of them concentrated on the feeling they had when they disappeared their toys, but focussing that on Rhonwyn instead, and then in a puff of smoke, Rhonwyn was gone.

As the smoke formed around her, Rhonwyn closed her eyes instinctively and when she opened them again, she was somewhere else, staring up at a group of photographs.

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Author's note: since you don't really get a good look at Rhonwyn due to the effects of her being a ghost, I decided to take pictures of both twins in CAS/Stylist so you can see what she's like properly.  Bronwyn is first (in purple) and the Rhonwyn (in blue)