Chapter Ninety Two

After getting settled in, Miralys had enrolled both Elenie and Coryn in the schooling system on the island.  With the summer having started already and the weather much warmer as a result, both Elenie and Coryn picked out lighter outfits for their first day.

The two of them were not entirely certain whether to be excited or nervous about their new school; Elenie had never been to school at all before and Coryn was certain that a fae school would be far different from those in the "mortal realm".  Elenie tried to settle their nerves (or at least distract herself) on their first morning by cooking the two of them breakfast.

Many of the lessons were held at the library, where one room had been set up as a schoolroom.  There were never many kids or teenagers on the island so there was little need for a separate school and holding lesson at the library meant there was always plenty of books around for research and study.

Not all the lessons were held at the library however, there were regular field trips to various locations around the library; the fae believed that learning should be as much practical as out of books. 

While her grandchildren were at school Mira got started turning their new house into a home and dealing with various chores.  When the house had been magically transformed a number of the old outbuildings had turned into a large greenhouse full of individual planters which Mira made full use of.

She also spent plenty of time looking after Taliesen and the cats, grooming them, playing with them and even painting portraits of them.

She also made certain that there was always food on the table when Elenie and Coryn got home from school.  She had bought plenty of fresh ingredients from the market to prepare meals but looked forward to her new garden producing enough to supplement their diet.

Amongst the more normal lessons at the school, all students with extra abilities were given extra tuition in the use of those abilities and Elenie had found her magic improving considerably as a result.  During one lesson she had discovered how to speed up the growth of plants and spend some time at home practising on their new garden; albeit with variable success!

She also spent a fair amount of her spare time reading about alchemy and how it could be used in the production of magical potions.  She was certain that the house had provided her with a tome full of recipes and the set up for mixing potions for a reason and was thrilled the first time she was able to produce a simple potion for herself. 

Unfortunately, the island was not immune from the passing of time and Merlin had already been an old cat when they had moved there.  He was out exploring one day when Death arrived to collect him and it wasn't until he didn't come home that night that anyone in the family realised what had happened.

Although Merlin's death left a hole in the family, life continued quietly for the most part.  The island celebrated midsummer's with a festival on the beach and they all went along.

After Elenie had experienced the delights of having her face painted for the first time, Miralys insisted on them having a family picture taken together in celebration.

Afterwards, she decided to try her hand at roller-skating on the rink, while the teens went off to find their friends from school.

After some general chat with their friends, Elenie and Coryn challenged a couple of them to a water balloon fight, which had the advantage, as well as being great fun, of cooling them down on the hot day. 

Elenie also spent a lot of time with Ieaun, the two of them would often do their homework together after school had finished and then go out together around the island once they were done.

One evening, they had been enjoying themselves at one of the island's pubs; although they were too young to drink, the pub served plenty of soft drinks and had a room dedicated to various games. 

Despite not having had any chance to learn before, Elenie proved to be a natural and Ieaun joked that it must have something to do with her fae blood when she beat him. 

The two of them were getting ready to leave when a stranger approached Elenie; "Good evening, Elenie, it's good to see you in the flesh at last" 

Elenie was startled, she didn't recognise this man but he had greeted her as if he knew her... She responded somewhat uncertainly "How do you know my name?  Who are you?"

"My name is Talfryn, I believe Lord Amaethon may have mentioned me to you when you first moved here?"

"Talfryn?  You're the dragon he mentioned?  He said you were related to me somehow..."

"Indeed I am, let's see, I would be your great-uncle.  I'm guessing you don't know much about your father's family, since he died when you were so young...  I wasn't around for any of it to be honest, but Evie, my wife, has caught me up on most of it.

"You already know that I'm a dragon, albeit I'm in human form at the moment; a number of years ago, my father Aymeri formed a relationship with a woman in the mortal realm.  She wasn't entirely human from what Evie has told me, but she was mortal; the two of them had a number of children before she died and one of them was your grandmother Ryanne..."

When Talfryn finished telling Elenie about her family history, she was quiet for a while, before getting up the nerve to ask about the one thing he had only alluded to in his story; "You said that you weren't around?  Would it be rude of me to ask why?  You've told me a lot about my grandmother and her family, but very little about yourself."

"Rude?  Not really, it would be rude to continue to ask if I refused to tell you, but I rather anticipated the enquiry to be honest.

"I was born many many centuries ago, but I was full of passion and fire, as are most of my kind.  I challenged a mortal who had attacked my friend, but I did not realise that he possessed magic and was unprepared; he and his men slew me.  It was only recently that Evie found a way to bring me back when she came to live on this island; the fae here possess an ancient magical cauldron which can bring the dead back and Evie was able to gather enough of my remains, even after all this time, to revive me.  It was a risk for her, the cauldron rarely revives those placed in it fully, but she is a powerful and ancient faerie and she was able to feed her own power into it."

"However, that is done and past, I came here to give you something besides your family history.  We dragons have a cousin race, drakes, although they are not as large, as powerful or as intelligent as we are; indeed they are little more than magical animals, not even as intelligent as the unicorn who has befriended your family.  The drakes do however sometimes bond with sims, especially when those sims are magical in nature themselves.  I've brought you a drake egg, take care of it and when the drake hatches it may choose to bond with you.  There are four different types of drakes, earth drakes, fire drakes, royal drakes and the very rare spirit drakes, but you can never tell which type will hatch from any egg; if this one chooses to bond with you bring it to visit me and I will tell you more but be certain to take good care of it."

Not long after meeting Talfryn, Elenie had her birthday.  Mira threw a big party for her, inviting her and Coryn's classmates, including Ieaun (who had had his birthday a couple of days previously) and also Talfryn and his wife Evie.

The first order of the party was for Elenie to blow out the candles on her cake and age up which she did, eager to become a young adult.

There was plenty of cake to go around and everyone gathered about the dining room table to eat and chat, unfortunately Talfryn and Evie had to leave early as she went into labour at the very point the cake was being cut and distributed.

Once the cake had all been eaten, Elenie invited everyone back into the "party room" to dance and celebrate.  The room had once been the main taproom back when the house was an inn, and since the old bar was still there Mira had hired a bartender for the occasion. 

While Coryn danced casually with one of his classmates, Elenie asked  Ieaun to dance with her, and he pulled her into his arms for a proper slow dance.

As the two of them twirled around the small dancefloor, Mira joined the youngsters dancing, while Coryn and Nicola paused for breath and to chat. 

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Pet Spam

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Credits:-

Talfryn is from Summerdream, a sims story by calisims, his father Aymeri is also in that story but first appeared in the Roman Legacy by calisims when he married the generation two heir.  Elenie's grandmother was Ryanne Roman, one of the generation three spares from that legacy who was one of a number of sims from various legacies I borrowed to provide townies for my last town.  The family history Talfryn told Elenie is mostly taken from those two stories however my account of his revival is not.