Chapter 110 - New Life

Elenie woke the next morning having come to a decision during her repeated bouts of nausea in the night.  Life was too short, even if the sickness didn't mean what she hoped it might.

Gathering the family together, she insisted they all head down to the fairground and visit the summer fete being held there.  It was a gloriously sunny day and they all headed straight for the snow cones.  Grabbing a cherry flavoured one, Elenie took a seat on one of the benches and beckoned her mother over.

As Dory sat down apprehensively, Elenie took a deep breath.  "Mother, I forgive you for all the things you did and failed to do in my childhood.  I know it wasn't your fault and you were bespelled.  I don't really want to talk about any of it, but let's try and make the most of what time we have now."

Dory looked down at her feet; "Thank you, I'm sorry for what I put you through and I'll do anything I can to make up for it"

Neither of them really wanted to talk any further about it, so Elenie went to find Ieaun and they all trooped off to get the obligatory summer fete picture taken.

When they were done, and all of them had a copy, they decided to have a go on the skating rink and enjoyed themselves skating round until they started to get quite hot, at which point Ieaun suggested a water fight to cool off.  

He and Dory had begun to head over to the walls which had been set up for people to hold water fights, when they noticed Elenie had stopped after coming off the rink.  As she had taken off her skates, she had felt a small movement in the area of her stomach; pausing and placing her hands there, she felt the unmistakeable sensation of new life within her.

As Ieaun and her mother ran up, she turned to Ieaun first; "You're going to be a daddy!  We're having a baby!"

Ieaun leaned over and placed his hands on her tummy, feeling the same sensation that she had earlier.  As he did so, however, he sensed more than Elenie had moments earlier; a vision swam briefly in front of his eyes and he smiled.  "Cariad, we're not having a baby, we're having two!  Twin girls!"

As the impact of that news sank in, Elenie decided not to strain herself with any of the more strenuous activities around the fete, but contented herself with a little quiet fishing.

Ieaun was asked to carry out a few readings of the future for some of the people at the fete, and it seemed that many of them thought being a living ghost, he must have more of an insight into the future and the spirit world.

Dory had just started a hot dog eating competition when the sunny day changed dramatically, the heavens seemed to open and rain poured down, sending everyone hurrying home as quickly as they could go.

While Elenie and Ieaun headed home together, Dory decided to celebrate the upcoming additions to the fmaily by doing some shopping and paid a visit to the Valley's toy shop.  She spent some time browsing the wares and considering what would be the best items for her coming grandchildren.

Having finally made her choices she took them over to the till to pay and had them nicely wrapped up in the prettiest gift paper the store sold.

Back at home, Elenie had decided to spend some time on scientific research, running various experiments on the plants she had harvested from the garden recently.  

At the end of one such experiment, she was excited to find that the seed she had been running the experiment had changed; she would have to analyse this new find very carefully!

When Dory returned home from her shopping trip, she found Ieaun tending the plants in the greenhouse and joined him in weeding and harvesting.

Later that night, after everyone else had gone to bed, little Ffion decided the time had come to leave her cub-hood behind and sparkles surrounded her.

She aged up into a fine looking vixen and immediately went out to explore the surrounding area.

The next morning, Elenie discovered that she had aged up and made a great fuss over her, feeding her treats and giving her extra toys to play with.

However, she couldn't just leave her alchemical research and spent a good part of the morning mixing up elixirs and testing out recipes.

She then spent the afternoon relaxing with a long bubble bath, pampering herself.

While she did that, Ieaun practised his magic, testing out enchantments on various household items.

A few mornings later, as they ate waffles for breakfast, Dory suggested that they take a trip to the beach.  It was Ieaun's day off, and the idea of relaxing on the beach appealed to Elenie, so they both agreed.

When they got there, Elenie and her mother spent some considerable time sunbathing and relaxing, while Ieaun spoke to his parents on the phone.

When Elenie had had her fill of sunbathing, she decided to spend a little time fishing while Ieaun meditated.

As Elenie's pregnancy progressed, she spent a lot of time reading books about babies; she wanted to be as prepared as she possibly could be, especially since they would have two babies to cope with not just one!

While Elenie prepared for motherhood, Dory did her best to ensure that she didn't have to worry about household chores, or about looking after Ffion, the cats or the unicorns.

She also insisted that she would do all the cooking and that Elenie should just put her feet up and relax, after all, she wouldn't have time to do that soon enough!

As time went by the atmosphere in the house relaxed, dinner conversations became more natural and they began to find it easier to put the past behind them.

Of course, putting the past behind you is so much easier when you have new life to look forward to, and mealtime conversations became dominated by talk about the babies, what to call them and how the nursery should be set up and decorated.

In her spare time, Dory took to training Ffion to do various tricks, never realising that Ffion knew exactly what she was doing and was simply playing along!