Chapter 112 - Mischief in the Making

Elenie had analysed the strange seed which she had created as a resault of her experiments, but what it was still escaped her.  Eventually she decided that the only thing left to do was to plant it; she didn't want it out in the greenhouse with the other plants though, so she added a planter bowl to her study and planted the seed there so that she would be able to continue studying it as it grew.

Soon enough it was the twins' birthday and the family decided to go out for the day.  Whilst Bronwyn was quite peaceful and calm en route in her pushchair, gurgling happily as she looked around; Rhonwyn was the opposite, she refused to stay still, wriggling around and spent half the journey screaming and flailing her little arms around.

Once they reached the small garden park, Elenie had to spend a considerable amount of time calming Rhonwyn down, and it seemed like no time at all before Ieaun had to leave them and head off to work.

 In his absence, Elenie and Dory continued to play with the twins; Bronwyn seemed to love just lying on the baby mat and watching the toys swing back and forth, but every time they tried to put Rhonwyn down she would start wailing.  As the afternoon drew on, Elenie felt her phone buzz and, cradling Rhonwyn in one arm whilst looking at the text message she'd received with the other, she told her mother to pick Bronwyn up and come outside.

Waiting outside the garden was Coryn; Elenie rushed up to him first and spent some time showing off her babies and catching up on the local gossip.

Eventually Coryn turned to his mother, his face taut and his voice flat as he greeted her "Hello mother, I see you're looking well."

Dory looked at her tall son and felt a pang as she realised how much of a stranger he was to her.  "I suppose I am well enough now that Elenie has brought me back here."

Coryn swallowed and said "Well, I suppose that's good, I must be getting home now though".  Turning away, he gave Elenie a hug and left.  Elenie looked over at her mother's crestfallen expression and, putting false cheer into her voice, said "We'd better be going too, Evie and Talfryn have invited us over for the girls' birthdays and Ieaun's meeting us there."

As they arrived outside Evie and Talfryn's cottage, the full moon rose to bathe the land in it's eerie radiance and Evie quickly invited them inside.  

The adults spent some time chatting and catching up, whilst young Seren hovered round the babies, until it was time for the birthdays to begin.  Bronwyn went first, and everyone clapped and cheered as she blossomed into an adorable little toddler.

Then it was Rhonwyn's turn to join her sister and as everyone clapped and cheered her, Bronwyn managed to hover in the air and tried to clap her hands too.

Unfortunately, the twins were still too young for cake and had to make do with bottles of milk, and as Ieaun bent down to hand a bottle to Bronwyn, Rhonwyn decided to try her wings out too and hovered wailing for food.

It was getting late by the time they had been fed and so they all said their farewells and headed off home.

By the time they got home, Bronwyn was fast asleep in her father's arms, but Rhonwyn was wailing away like a little banshee, and despite the fact that she was obviously tired, she wailed and thrashed her arms around as Elenie tried to put her to bed (albeit she then dropped straight off as soon as she was actually in bed).

As the days passed, the family discovered that it would always be Rhonwyn who would wake them up, screaming to be let out, for food, or for any number of other reasons, while Bronwyn would sit there in her own crib, chewing on her fingers and watching her twin.

Life settled into a round of changing, feeding, washing the twins, and their personalities began to show through.  Rhonwyn never wanted to stay still, and anything she wanted she wanted right now!

Whereas Bronwyn was a much quieter happier toddler, smiling up at her parents and grandma as they looked after her and usually happy to watch and wait for what she wanted.

A little while after the twins' birthday, Ieaun suggested taking them to the toy shop to pick up a few more toys for them.  As they came up to the toy shop, Bronwyn looked up at the building wide-eyed, whilst Rhonwyn wriggled in her pushchair, leaning forward and yelling "ot, ot, ot!"

They allowed the twins to crawl around the shop for a little while, pulling them back from fiddling with the displays, but noting which toys they both went for, before Dory gathered up a selection and took them over to the till while Elenie and Ieaun gathered up their children ready to head home.

Alas, while they were out, Jewel's time in this world came to an end, she had lived a good long life for a cat and now it was time for her to leave.

The Reaper picked her up and gave her a good fuss and cuddle before nodding to the circle of animals which had formed around him.

Placing her back on the ground, he opened the portal to the next realm and Jewel leaped through it.

Shortly after this, Elenie inspected the small plant which was growing from her mysterious seed and decided that it wasn't growing fast enough.  Summoning up her magic she cast faery growth spells on it until it had reached it's full growth.

The plant which emerged seemed rather odd, and after taking plenty of measurements and readings, Elenie decided to attempt to harvest it.

To her surprise, she found herself pulling the entire plant out of the planter, only to discover that it was a strange baby boy!  She and Ieuan named the little plant baby Celyn and quickly rearranged the nursery to accommodate an extra child.

Life became even more hectic with the addition of an extra child to the family.  Bronwyn and Rhonwyn were just starting to learn to talk, and were becoming more and more vocal about wanting their parents' attention.

It also took some time for them to get used to Celyn's needs; he never seemed to be hungry, or indeed to need changing, but every moment he was awake he wanted attention and cuddles from someone.

Fortunately, he spent a lot of time sleeping, and appeared to have a remarkable ability to sleep through Rhonwyn's shrieks whenever she woke up wanting food or to get out of her crib.

She and Bronwyn were talking more and more now, although their babbling wasn't always intelligible to anyone other than the two of them.

They were also getting more and more adventurous, as Dory and Elenie discovered one day when Celyn's cries interrupted an attempt to teach the twins to walk.  

Dory popped Rhonwyn down by the dollshouse saying "play with the dolls now little one, grandma will be back in a moment".

Going into the part of the nursery where the cribs were, she picked up Celyn, murmuring softly to him "What's the matter little man?  Are you lonely again?"

Rhonwyn played with the dolls for a little while, banging their heads on the ground and muttering to herself, until a thought suddenly struck her.  Looking round, she saw her grandma was still occupied with her baby brother and her mother with her twin.  Catching Bronwyn's gaze for a moment she giggled to herself.

Quick as a thought, she dropped the dolls down head first and crawled around her mother, over towards the toybox; as she did so, Bronwyn suddenly plopped down on her backside and wailed "ca'n do, mama!"

While Elenie was distracted, Rhonwyn clambered quickly into the toybox, muffling her giggles so she wouldn't give herself away.

Chapter 111 - Babies

As Elenie's pregnancy progressed, she and Ieaun spent a great deal of time reading about parenthood.  Unfortunately, although there were a great number of books available very few of them seemed to agree on anything!  Nonetheless, both of them wanted to be as prepared as they could, so they continued to read everything they could.

Putting the latest book down with a sigh, Elenie turned to her husband; "So, this book says that we need to let our babies cry, unless they're hungry or in need of changing, while the last said that we should get up and reassure them every time they cry...  It's so confusing."

Ieaun laughed, "Well, if Mam's stories of when my brother and I were babies are anything to go by, we won't have much choice about whether to let them cry or not - she said she'd do almost anything to shut us up for the sake of her own sanity!"

Elenie sighed "Ah well, at least it should be soon now.  You said you saw we'd have twin girls, did you see anything else about them?"

"Bits and pieces, they'll be as thick as thieves and drive us up the wall..."  Leaning over he kissed her lightly "Don't fret cariad, all will be well."

Elenie went to pull a face at him, intending to object to his suggestion that she was worrying, when she felt a sudden spasm.  Jumping to her feet she put her hands to her tummy and gasped "I think we'd better head to the hospital..."

Fortunately, the hospital was only just across the road from their home and they were there within minutes.  

After a lengthy labour, Elenie eventually gave birth to the first of twins, a healthy baby girl with sparkling lights floating around her.  Moments later, their second daughter simply phased out of the womb, a tiny golden spirit with darker sparkles who seemed just as healthy as her twin, despite her incorporeal state.

Taking their daughters home, Elenie and Ieaun settled them into the newly decorated nursery.  They had discussed names while the healers were checking the two babies and on the short walk home, and after some thought, decided to name them them Bronwyn and Rhonwyn.  Bronwyn was the elder of the two and Rhonwyn the younger.

Once the two babies were settled in their nursery, Elenie decided to have a quick nap.  While she was doing that, Dory introduced herself to her granddaughters, cuddling the two of them in turn, she promised them quietly that she would be a better grandma than she had been a mother.

Later on, after Elenie had awoked refreshed from her nap, she joined her mother tending the plants in the greenhouse.

While they were doing that, Ieaun gave each of the babies a bath and settled them down to sleep, leaving a baby monitor in the room with them.

He regretted that slightly  when they were both awoken early in the morning by their daughters' cries echoing through the monitor...

Stumbling downstairs, not even getting changed first, he and Elenie each picked up a daughter and began to cuddle and feed them.

Once the twins had been fed, changed and cuddled, Elenie and Ieaun placed them in a couple of baby swings and left them in the care of their grandmother.  

Ieaun had to head off to work, while Elenie was keen to make at least some with her alchemy and science experiments.

When the twins began to fuss again, Dory carefully got them out of the swings, fed them and settled them down for a nap.

Meanwhile, Elenie had finished a batch of elixirs and rode over to the alchemy store to sell the spares off and pick up some more notes for her research.

After passing the elixirs over, she spotted Evie browsing the displays in the shop and headed over to talk to her, calling her name.  

Evie turned to greet her "Elenie, I was hoping to see you, how are the babies?"

"They're doing well, although I'm a little concerned about Rhonwyn being a spirit, what will that mean for her?"

"To be honest with you, I don't know.  It's a rare thing for anyone to be born a living spirit and I've never come across it before.  However, I have some important news for you.  I've received confirmation that Nicodur is dead, slain by his Queen for his failures.  You don't want to know the details; I understand it was a particularly painful and gruesome death, even by Morgana's standards..."

"He's dead?  Is it wrong that part of me feels cheated and the other part glad?  I know I shouldn't rejoice in the death of another, but he's caused me so much pain that I rather wanted to kill him myself..."

"Oh, I don't blame you for that, but he was never the ultimate villain, just the henchman sent to do his queen's dirty work.  Then again, he was only too happy to carry out her orders, or attempt to, and ultimately he chose to follow her knowing what she was like, what sort of thing she would order him to do, and what her penalties for failure were... I won't be mourning him either."

"So, if he was only the henchman and she's killed him for his failure to kill me, does that mean she's given up on her plans, or just on his ability to carry them out?"

"Likely the latter I'm afraid; Morgana is a queen of the fae, she won't give up on her aims although she may change her plans for how to achieve them.  The real question is not whether she's given up, it is how long it will take her to make new plans to achieve her aims - it could be a year, it could be a century...  I suspect though that her next set of plans will involve your children rather than you.

"I just wish I knew what changed to make her decide to kill you rather than try to corrupt you, I know she wants the power of the prophecy, but if we knew why she changed her tactics then we might be able to predict what sort of plans she will come up with next.  I will keep alert for any information coming out of her realm.  In the meantime, you get back to your babies and bring them over for a visit soon!"