Missing You...

Neffydd's too-long talons clacked against the input keys of her aether com and she held back frantic tears with pure force-of-will. She was searching again... She knew she shouldn't torture herself, like this, but she couldn't help it. There had to be a picture or something... she just wanted to see her daughter's face.

Then, there is was. Her daughter's eyes shot lances through Neffydd's heart. The picture was old by a couple years, but Neffydd cherished it, all the same. She thought of all the things she was missing and blinked back another rush of tears.

She copied the photo to her private storage, then continued to flip through endless aethernet pages, looking for more. Maybe she could find an academic award or a photo of someone else with her child in the background...

Such a Looooong Weekend!

'Ohhh, my god! I'm so tiiiired...' Neffydd thought as she lay down and surfed the aether web for something interesting to watch. She started up a serial she liked and settled back into the soft pillows.

Her body was numb, her brain had pulled on a thought resistant covering and her eyes felt like there was sand in them. She sighed and rubbed her eyes again as the show stuttered to a halt mid stream. She gave up on the halted video and threw her arm over her brow, hiding in the crook of her arm.

This entire weekend was a grand comedy of errors that had resulted in a wakeful period of forty three horrible hours. Talk about a long weekend!

What had started as a normal day at the beginning of the weekend had Neffydd waking up to the pitter-patter of hyper elephants running through the hallways of their suite. She lay there for a few moments, then noted that the clock was showing three hours past median, so she threw back the light sheet covering her body and swung her legs down to the floor.

The shower felt good beating steamy delightfulness down on her shoulders and wings so she just stood in it's whispering glory until she noted a slight decrease in temperature. The shower knob squealed it's dismay as she twisted it off and the internal workings clunked as they released the rest of the water through the lower faucet.

She quickly rubbed her body dry then doubled over so her hair was dangling in front of her knees and wrapped the over-sized towel around her head. She flipped her towel-wrapped hair up and wrapped her bathrobe about her before returning to her chambers to dress completely.

The boys were returning from training and the girls were chasing each other, there was music playing from somewhere and a video showing on the projector, Aine was talking loudly at someone and Tomoe was clicking away, writing another story... Neffydd just stood there a moment and absorbed the cacophonous display of harmony.

"OH! Hi, Mom!" One of the Minions yelled and the others acknowledged her presence with varying volumes but equal enthusiasm.

Warder Sullens came over to her and fileld her in on the day's happenings then wandered off to start dinner as Neffydd sat down to check her various communications.

The evening went by with startling speed and soon Neffydd was dressed, painted, shod and supplied for her night at The Pit.

At The Pit she chatted away, amiably with Heartly, an aging nymph with an awesome personality. They were excitedly sharing ideas about something-or-other when alarms started ringing throughout the small room.

An emergency! Heartly pulled up the aethernet logging as Neffydd first confirmed the event, then opened a channel in the over head paging system.

"Emergency, floor three... Emergency, floor three..." She announced until they were contacted again and told that the required personnel were all accounted for.

When Heartly left at the end of her short shift Neffydd was left in the quiet solitude of early-mornings in The Pit's communications closet. She pulled up a story to read and settled into the silence.

Traveling home was uneventful but, when she tried to get some rest, one thing after another would jar her awake before she had fully slipped into unconsciousness. First Mini wanted to cuddle, then throw a kicking tantrum when her father collected her for breakfast. There was running, yelling, crying, barking, cursing, door-slamming... Just too much to sleep through.

Neffydd sighed and looked at the clock. 11:22 it glared, redly at her. She rolled over and slowed her breathing, taking deep breaths until she finally felt her body relaxing into sleep.

"Neffdd, it's time to get up..." Sullens had his hand on her hip.

She groaned and looked at the clock, again. 11:34... DAMMIT!!!!

"What the Hell?!?" she demanded.

"We were going to my parents' for lunch," He spoke softly, "remember?"

"Yes!" She wanted to wring his neck. "I remember telling you that I didn't want to leave for another HOUR!"

"But..." He started.

"I just want a little nap!" She cried.

"I thought you'd need some time to get ready." he shifted on the bed, probably pulling away so if she decided to murder him he could get out of the room quicker. "We were going to stop at Market, too."

"I am!" She tossed back the covers, revealing that she was almost completely dressed. "All I need is a shirt and shoes to be ready to walk out the door."

"OK," he replied, "I'll let you be."

"No use now." She sighed. "I won't be able to get to sleep before we have to go."

She rose and finished dressing then readied the Minions to leave. They packed the Minions into the conveyance and traveled to Market.

At Market they picked up a few trinkets and some medicine then headed out to Warder Sullens' parents.

When the arrived, Sullens' parents were assembling a delightful lunch. Mini danced around the kitchen trying to get as much attention from her grandmother as possible, delighted that she could 'help' her beloved grandmother assemble a fruit salad.

Lunch was soon consumed and Sullens' brother suggested that they all go to a near-by park to play. Before leaving, Neffydd was presented with a small cabinet with a sturdy top and several drawers and lidded cubbies for her sewing room. It was a great birthday gift! She'd been saying how much she wanted a sewing stand for a while.

Then they piled into their different traveling contraptions and headed to the park where they climbed on the playground, ran, chased, yelled, laughed, jumped... in general, had a pretty fun time.

When they thought the children were tired enough they assembled them into the vehicles and headed back to Sullens' parents house. Shortly after they left the park a peace officer stopped them, citing an inspection lapse then proceeded to bully and belittle Sullens for his memory problems before impounding the family vehicle. Neffydd knew that the officer had a job to do, she knew that the registration on the vehicle had been suspended and it had to be impounded... She didn't know why the officer had to be so wretched.

Sullens' father collected them from the side of the road, gave them a light "You know better" talking to, then brought them back home and talked over what they were going to do.

After returning home, Neffydd had just enough time to take a quick shower, dress appropriately and gather her things for work before boarding the public transportation to work.

Work was blessedly uneventful, besides discovering that one of the harpies, (the one no one liked,) had quit and Neffydd was about to start getting more hours. She exchanged a couple notes with Katryni and played some games.

Right before she left for the day, her boss sat with Neffydd in a meeting room for her monthly review. Her boss repremanded her for clocking in late eight times, then informed her that the policy is that ONE minute is late. Neffydd made a mental note to cut-in-line next time she was waiting at the time clock to punch-in... not matter how angry the other people get. He boss went on to inform Neffydd that not having a personal phone was a violation and it wasn't good enough that they had Sullens' phone number.

She rode home, on the public transport, listening to her portable music maker, watching the people come and go.

At Tourney! or This is a REALLY Long Entry

Neffydd filed her talons as she waited. That's right, more waiting. This time it was waiting for Aine to get replacement transportation as the transport she had scheduled last week fell through, last minute. Every thing was packed into trunks and satchels; organized into piles for quickest loading and some of it already loaded into the conveyance that Neffydd had arranged.

Her boys had no classes today so they were running amok and playing with the girls while Neffydd had run out of things to pack and organize and had taken to drumming her fingers on the table top. 'That one's uneven' she thought of another talon and rubbed at it with her file.

The door to the lair breezed open announcing that Aine had arrived home. One look at her face and Neffyd knew that Aine had not had luck with her conveyance.

Neffydd heaved a mental sigh and went to talk to their flat-mate. After a short amount of haggling she was able to rent the vehicle for the weekend, but now they were half a day late getting started.

The second conveyance got packed in record time but the Minions were beginning to get cranky. The trip took over two hours, all the while Neffydd was thankful that the vibrations of travel had put all but the two oldest Minions to sleep.

Their late departure had them at the gates, waiting to speak to the occupants of the Troll booth just as the night beat the light away with a stick. Neffydd looked down at her niece, Lilly who had her little hands clamped firmly over her pointed filigree ears.

"What's wrong, Lilly?" She asked the little elf-child as they stood in the warm, quiet, late spring night.

"It's too loud!" Lilly hissed.

"What is?" Neffydd was completely confused, but she listened for sounds anyhow, only hearing the peeper toads from the pond down the path.

"The noise!" Neffydd still could hear nothing as Warder Sullens joined them to listen for the sound.

"There's nothing, Lilly..." He tried to reassure her, but the child became even more agitated.

Neffydd had an idea: "SHHH!" She pressed her fingers to her lips. "Can you hear the beeping noise?"

Lilly took her hands off her ears. "What?" She listened for a few moments. "Yes! I hear it!"

"Those are peeping toads! Do you know what toads are?"

"YEAHS!!!" The child trilled at the top of her lungs. "PEEP! PEEP! PEEP! I'M A TOAD!!!!!" crisis averted

They received their entitlement tokens from the trolls after paying the modest entrance fees then chose a spot way in the back of the site to set up their camp. It was quickly decided that only the most pertinent tents would be set up that night so the Minions could get to sleep.

Tomoe had her small tent up very quickly so she set about making hearty sandwiches for the rest of the family as they set up their own temporary domiciles. Neffydd barely remembers eating the meat, cheese and vegetable sandwich as she drove spikes into the ground around her simple, round, canvas yurt with her foot and pulled on guy lines making sure they were taut.

Falling into bed wasn't very memorable either.

__________________________________________

Some time just after dawn Mini started sobbing. It's not very uncommon for her to wake up and cry for a minute or two before falling back to sleep, but that morning she didn't return to slumber.

After a few minutes, Neffydd called out to her. "Mini... come here, love." She repeated a couple of times before the child woke up enough to wander out of her brothers' tent, where she had been put to sleep after the adults had decided that raising the girls' tent would just be too much for the night, and into her parents'.

"I had a bad dream..." Mini whined, "I can't sleep."

"OK, baby." Neffydd flipped back the covers and invited her child into their warm bed. "Come cuddle for a minute and then we'll make breakfast." Mini snuggled against her mother and promptly fell back to sleep.

A couple more hours of sleep had her fully recharged and waking her groggy parents. "Can I have brekkist now? I'm hungry..." She chanted until her mother was awake.

Breakfast, for the Minions, was light snacks while Warder Sullens and Neffydd set up the large common pavilion. After breakfast Sebock and Zennaton ran off to find their friends while Sullens and Neffydd took Mini and Tomoe to stash the vehicle and browse the shops.

They stopped by the List Fields for a moment to view a couple spectacular sets in the fencing tournaments then continued on at Mini's insistence.

The Market square was a chipper, sunny place full of good smells and pretty things to look at and buy. They walked from vendor to vendor searching the stalls for something interesting. They bought several lengths of cloth and a book for Tomoe between chatting with friends then returned to camp to have a light lunch.

As they were sitting in camp, eating and chatting, the wind picked up. The light, warm breeze became a gusting blast that threatened to knock the large pavilion over. Neffydd clung to one of the legs of the tent while Sullens tried tieing up the sides. They thought it would decrease the amount of tent the winds could push on but it only succeeded in allowing the wily gale to draft up inside the tent billowing the top and lifting it from the ground. They quickly dropped the sides of the tent and took to begging the winds to calm and fretting about the ripped wall fastenings.

That evening the winds finally died down. Tomoe made marinaded poultry, grilled and fried vegetables in gravy, served over white sweet grains. They ate and talked, put the minions to bed, then drank and laughed about silly things for a few hours before taking to bed as well.

_______________________________________________

Breakfast the next morning was a huge afair. Toast dipped in egg custard and pan fried, sausage and bacon with fruit.

They chatted with friends and shopped some more in the morning, picking up a pair of goblets, a set of swords for the boys and a metal head band for Mini.

After a quick lunch where Tomoe regailed them with her experiences at the archery range, she sat with the minions while Sullens and Neffydd walked to a wonderful beer making class. The three hours long class was full of information, including a lengthy demonstration on how to boil grains to start the beer brewing process. There wasn't a lot of work to do during the demo, as it was mostly waiting for water to boil, but during the times the class was waiting the instructor gave a detailed history, interesting factoids, some idyll chatter and even a sample of one of his previous brews that made the time pass quickly as time well enjoyed tends to do.

A couple friends joined them for a supper of fire roasted meats with salad and bread then stayed for beers and stories after. The children roasted sweets over the fire to make gooey, sticky treats and they all stayed up way too late that night the next morning they had to pack up to leave.

________________________________________________

Exhausted from all the fun and more at peace, as a family, they made the journey home.

The Warder Day Off; better known as: MY FOOD!

MINIONS! Minions everywhere!

Neffydd's head was pounding as she found herself wishing for the dark silence of just a couple hours ago when everyone in the suite, but her, was asleep.

It was Warder Sullens' day off and he was fast asleep in her soft, warm, inviting bed. She longed to be there too as she swallowed another headache tablet and craned her neck first this way, then that, counting minions. Where had that littlest one got to?? There she was, crawling under a chair... Meh. Whatever kept her from screaming.

"HEY!" Screamed Lilly, "That one's MIIIIINE!!!" The minions had been given a bowl of fluffy pop-grains to eat and now they we fighting over each and every grain.

"That's IT!" Neffydd yelled in return. "Lilly! Away from the bowl." And she picked the willful child up, setting her down a few feet away.

"Noooooooo!" Lilly cried, more than a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Yes!" Neffydd commanded. "You tried to start fights over a GRAIN. I'm not having any of it!"

The rest of the Minions quieted enough to watch, wide-eyed, as Lilly stomped her little elven feet, HUMPHed and stuck her fingers into her pouting mouth. There was no chance the other Minions would let her near the bowl now... more for them.

Neffydd went to check on Mini, who had been sent to the dorm for various offenses. When she got to the dorm entrance she spied the half elf/demon scurrying back into the dorm, naked as the day she was birthed. Mini slammed the door shut as her mother got to it so Neffydd slammed it back open.

"What, pray tell, ARE you doing???" The small child was huddled under her blankets, peering over them with her huge, baleful eyes.

"I was going potty..." she whimpered.

"Naked?" Neffydd asked. Mini nodded. "And what about this morning? What were you doing then??" the morning had started with Mini asking for breakfast, Sebock and Zennaton were already up and making noise in their dorm. Neffydd was feeding her sister's youngest, a newborn elf is a very fragile thing and has to have a very regular schedule so she couldn't just put the baby down to cater to the whims of her own spoiled child. Neffydd had told Mini to ask her brothers to pour a bowl of cereal for her along with their own. After a few moments Ayesha came in to inform Neffydd that Mini was screaming at the top of her lungs instead of removing herself from the boys dorm... a place she knew she had no right to be in the first place.

"They wouldn't gimme brekkist!" She whined.

"They told you to leave so you wouldn't get in trouble AND so they could get dressed in private!" Neffydd reiterated.

"...but..." Mini pouted, "I just wanted my cereal..."

"You need to learn to wait." Neffydd was soooo tired of having to tell this child that she wasn't the planetary ruler. "Instead of waiting for a few moments while they got dressed, you have had to wait until everyone was done eating. Was that what you wanted?" Mini shook her head. "Well get dressed so you can have your breakfast." Neffydd walked out of the dorm and into the kitchen to pour cereal.

Beginnings are usually boring...A.K.A. Remind me to get the money.

The winged Elf, Neffydd opened her wide, green-ringed cobalt eyes to the blissful silence of her bedchambers. Her demon lover, Warder Sullens, was gone from her side and most likely the reason the minions-in-training weren't creating chamber-penetrating cacophony.

She looked over to the time piece on one of her many clothing chests and saw that it was nearing time for her oldest minion, Sebock, her tall but skinny Elven son, to come home from his training. In fact, the muted squeeeee'ing from the minions-in-training and the tenor barking from the Stoner Dog semi-god must be the heralding of Sebock's arrival.

Neffydd stretched until her joints popped and rolled over to view her ether-line communicator. She opened up her message board and viewed a few posts from various friends and acquaintances before sending a message to her friend Katryni, an interesting Pixie lady with a beautiful body covered in wonderful tattoos. Neffydd was hopeful that Katryni would become her lover, but being a timid Elven lass she could never find the nerve to ask, so when Katryni replied almost immediately a small thrill ran through Neffydd. They chatted for a while as Neffydd ordered the invasion of a small country and sent a spy into another.

"MOMMMYYYYY!!!" Neffydd's chamber door flung open in front of Minni's panicked dismay. "I asked for a treat but daddy said NOOOOOOO..."

Neffydd chuckled and held her sobbing child for a few moments, "Do you want a cuddle?" The minion-in-training shook her head as Sullens came through the door. He picked up the small child and dragged her onto the bed for a proper mauling before letting her go.

"I need to bathe," she announced to Sullens, "Would you like to join me?"

"Of course, my love." He agreed and Minni started to unbutton her shirt.

"Not you!" Neffydd laughingly clarified to the small elf-demon hybrid, "Just Daddy and me!"

"Ahwww!" Minni whined, "But I NEED a bath!"

"Maybe you can have a bath later?" Neffydd offered

"She had a bath earlier." Sullens countered.

"Oh, really?" Neffydd took her child's face in her hands and kissed her brow, "Then I'm sure you're clean enough for this day."

Neffydd and Sullens gathered their things and trudged to the back of their spacious, yet jam-packed suite where the bathing chamber was. While she was washing her hair, Neffydd noticed an odd noise coming from out of the shower. She slid the door aside and peeked out to see Minni standing in the doorway, with a bath toy, humming to herself.

"NO, Minni." Neffydd said with as much authority as a naked, wet, winged Elf could muster. "You may NOT come into the bath with us."

Minni puckered her face, made a 180° spin and went screeching back down the hall. 'That's what you get,' Neffydd thought to herself, 'When you mix Elves and demons.'

A little while later Zennaton arrived home, "Mom!" the small Elven boy demanded her attention, "I need the money for my trip! Did you get it? It has to be in by tomorrow..."

"I'll have it for you before you leave tomorrow." Neffydd peered around the kitchen where her son had waylaid her.

Sebock had washed the pots and pans then run out to play with a friend before anyone could find anything more for him to clean. Her sister, Aine, another winged elf and their housemate Ayesha Lelle, a succubus, were just starting to bread and fry fish that smelled delicious. Neffydd looked into the pan and saw that the first pieces were just beginning to crisp around the edges becoming a delightful golden brown. It boggled Neffydd's mind how something so beautiful could be in a pan manned by someone who's main food repertoire was pasta with a sauce... usually jarred red sauce from the market.

The fish had a nice crunch and a delicate flavor that really popped with just a little salt, pepper and lemon. It was served with garlic flavored mashed potatoes that complimented the fish well and a carrot/pea combo that Neffydd didn't eat as peas were probably her least favorite vegitable ranking right under shrimp in the 'List of Things I Refuse to Eat".

While she ate Neffydd wrote some mediocre things and chatted with Katryni then Minni came to give a kiss and hug good night and took Neffydd's empty plate to the kitchen.

Neffydd glanced at the clock and realized that it was time to leave. PAST time to leave! As she was running out the door Zennaton yelled after her: "Don't forget the money!"

Good Night!
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There you have it folks. First real blog post! And a look into my EXTRA-BORING life ;-) I'll post again when there's actually something to write! Haha...