Chapter 115 - Snow fun

The twins' birthday had been on a Saturday, so they had their first day of childhood free.  They started off their day with a vigorous pillow fight in their bedroom. 

In the playroom Dory was reading quietly to little Celyn and smiled to herself as she listened to the twins playing in their room.  

After a little while the twins came out into the playroom and had some fun playing dress up out of the costume box.  Rhonwyn stomped around pretending to be a monster while Bronwyn sat primly on a chair and giggled at her twin's antics until they were both interrupted by the pets.  Nerys jumped up onto Bronwyn's lap and made herself comfortable, while Ffion introduced herself to Rhonwyn.

After some petting, Nerys jumped back down again and sat on the other chair to watch proceedings while Rhonwyn started playing tug of war with Ffion.  Bronwyn watched as well for a while before grabbing herself a book from the bookshelf and settling down to read.

With her older two children more self-sufficient, and her mother looking after Celyn, Elenie went back to her alchemical research.  She had become quite proficient at making various potions, but as yet had not been able to translate any recipes for what she really wanted. 

After a while Bronwyn got bored of playing tug of war and, seeing her twin engrossed in a book, decided to have a look for some entertainment elsewhere in the house...  Looking in one of the bathrooms, she was struck by inspiration and quickly fiddled with the bottles of shampoo... 

Her mischief prepared, she returned to the playroom, doing her best to act as if nothing had happened, and soon became engrossed in playing on the rocking horse, pretending she was chasing down bad guys.

That night, Elenie and Ieaun put the twins to bed early and read them to sleep in preparation for their first day of school the next morning.   

Come morning, Elenie roused the two girls and cooked pancakes for their breakfast.  While the twins were waiting for their food, they amused themselves by playing faerie tag.

Soon enough though the twins had to head off to their first day at school.  The snow was falling heavily, but the roads had been cleared and in any event, their parents had given them both child-sized broomsticks which flew just above the surface of the road.

Once the kids had gone, Elenie and Ieaun saddled up the unicorns and rode through the snow to the alchemy store.   

Elenie then spent some time studying the books there, searching for more hints as to recipes she could try.  Ieaun spent some time in the seer's caravan outside the shop, there was a group of seers in the valley, and they had set up a couple of caravans where they took it in turns to use their sight for the benefit of others.  He passed the time by comparing recent visions, before heading over to the other caravan where he was due to work a shift.

Meanwhile, Elenie had made a number of notes from the books in the store and, feeling that she had some hints as to where to direct her research, dropped off a batch of potions with the faerie who tended the store. 

When the twins got out of school that afternoon, Rhonwyn caught Bronwyn's attention as the other kids headed home.  Making sure no-one could hear them she pulled her sister close and whispered "Let's go and explore...  They won't notice if we don't come straight home and we can build snowmen and play in the snow."

After a bit of persuasion, Bronwyn agreed and the two of them headed up into the hills surrounding the valley until they found an old ruin.  

They started off by building a few snowmen, chattering as they did so about their first day of school, their classes, classmates and teachers.  Bronwyn had enjoyed her first day much more that Rhonwyn  had.  She loved to learn and study, whereas Rhonwyn had been far too restless to pay much attention past the beginning of each lesson.

When they got bored of this, they played a couple of games of faerie tag. 

Before Rhonwyn got an inspiration from all the snow on the ground around them and, scooping up a ball of snow, threw it at her sister's back. 

Bronwyn sputtered to begin with, but soon grabbed some snow herself and they began an epic snowfight, not noticing how the sky was rapidly darkening...

When Ieaun got home from his shift of fore-telling, he found Elenie running round the house frantically. 

"You're home!  Have you seen the twins?  They didn't come home after school and it's getting dark?" 

"Calm down cariad, they can't be far and it's not dangerous here.  They're probably playing somewhere and have lost track of time; come upstairs and I'll have a look in the crystal ball and find them." 

After a brief look into the ball, Ieaun looked up and smiled, "They're up in one of the old ruins in the hills, the one we where we arrived here in fact.  They're in the middle of a snowball fight."  

Elenie threw on her outdoor clothes and headed up to the old ruin, leaving Ieaun to put Celyn to bed. 

When she got there she found the twins still engaged in their snowball fight, completely oblivious to how late it was.  As they turned to stare at her, suddenly realising how long they'd been out, she began scolding them;

"What do you two think you're doing?  Do you have any idea how late it is?  I had no idea where you were and I've been worried sick!"

Bronwyn looked down at her feet and muttered "Sorry, we didn't think...", but Rhonwyn's feelings of guilt sparked her temper and she defended herself...

"If you didn't know where we were how did you know where to find us?  We were just having fun, after all we had to put up with boring school lessons all day, why can't we have fun after we're done with that?"

Elenie stared at her eldest for a moment before putting her hands on her hips; "Don't you talk to me like that young lady.  Your father had to use his Sight to find the pair of you, and I don't believe either of you have even started your homework yet.  You will go straight to bed when we get home and you'll have to be up first thing to get that done before school in the morning."

___________________________________________

Out-take: When I had the twins building snowmen, somehow they managed to build two of them so close that they kind of merged together!  (and trust a ghost child to build a snow-death...)