Just Another Day in Pinedale

"Nevy!" The girl to Neffydd's left was agitated. She kept leaning over the table to look out of the Pinedale Inn window. "I think our friend is in need... She looks distressed. She may need our help."

Neffydd looked up from her chess game with her sister's lover, an elf with giant bloodlines, Fia Minaya Onorata, to face the human Nord, Floki, directly. She was looking out the window again so Neffydd leaned over a bit to look out, with her.

Shael was in the courtyard speaking with the mercenaries who had gathered by the fire. She seemed agitated, but Neffydd knew she had things under control. She sat back down and made her next move at her sad little chess game.

"If there's one thing Shael is good at, it's getting men to do her bidding." She winked at Fia, who smiled back and took Neffydd's rook off the board. The innkeeper's husband chuckled with the traveling games master and said something just the polite side of lewd.

"Oh..." Awe tinted Floki's voice. "She found someone..."

"Just one?" Neffydd looked up in disbelief.

"No. Five." Floki's eyes were following the group as they passed the window and marched down the well-worn road. A few minutes later Fia had nailed Neffydd's king to the wall and Neffydd was finished with her ale.

"Let's go see if they still need help." Floki begged Neffydd.

"OK." Neffydd pointed down the road. "They went this way."

They hiked up the path to the crossroads and started to turn right, toward the voices of a group who seemed to be in a heavy discussion. Neffydd heard Floki gasp and turned to their left to behold a pair of hideous creatures baring down on them.

No sooner had Neffydd drawn her sword, than she realized that the creatures were Bagmen and if she were to be hit by their fear spells she would be held, powerless to stop them for injuring her and Floki then looting their valuables.

She started to run toward the people who were gathered in the common yard of a grouping of buildings just down the path.

"Help us!" She was all she could scream before her world turned into a nightmare.

Icy fingers of apprehension gripped Neffyd's spine, sending tingles into her body and clasping her lungs in a vise-like grip. She fell to the ground and the people morphed into monsters. She could hear the terrified screaming of her compatriot and the hungry growling of the monsters as they gathered around her body, paralyzed in fear. She covered her head as one of the beasts reached toward her. She screamed for help, hoping the noise would scare the creature away.

She felt fingers brush her shoulder and a warmth flowed through her body. Be calm... The thought flowed through her, chasing her terror away.


"OK... I got ya." A gentle voice said from above Neffydd. "Calm down. Are you hurt?"

Neffydd took a deep breath and a mental inventory before shaking her head. She looked up, into the lean face of her elven savior.

"N-no..." She stuttered. "Just... Just the fear, I think." She pushed herself up, off the ground and stood on shaky legs. She took a few deep, cleansing breaths and followed the elf into the common yard. Floki was escorted by another and they were set on a bench to wait for an escort back toward the Inn.

"Does this happen often?" Her breathless companion asked.

"Every time I visit this forsaken place." Neffydd sighed. "At least it's not raining... Yet."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

O/C 5-8-14:

Do to popular request and gaining permission to use the proper place name, I have changed the name from 'Springdale' to 'Pinedale' to reflect the Kingdoms of Novitas' town.

Some of the characters are recurring people in my blog, (& life, for that matter,) therefore some things about them may deviate from KoN cannon. Please understand that this is a fantastical retelling of my life, so most of the posts are going to be out of KoN cannon.

Thanks for reading!
 ~:}Y{:~
Leigh

Tightly Wound Cables

Warder Sullens paced the space at the foot of the bed with the mobile com pressed to his elegant ear.

"No." He growled at the tiny voice that had been trying to explain something to him. "I had your service removed from our residence. I'm not paying you more to come cut it off properly. I'm not going to pay for the service that you left on after I told your company to disconnect it and I returned all of your hardware... And I most certainly will not accept a credit to the account THAT I WANT CLOSED!"

The tiny voice coming from the speaker chattered in upset tones for a bit before Sullens reasserted his right to a repayment of over paid funds.

"Your company was given two payments of $140, last month, another payment for this month (no matter that we disconnected our service,) then tried to charge our funds accounts another $140!" He paused to take a single, calming breath before continuing. "Now I want all credits liquidated, those charges refunded and the banking fees your company incurred to be charged back to the funds account they were drawn from."

The dickering continued for a while before Sullens closed the connection.

"They said 'The check is in the mail'." He glowered at Neffydd from across the room. "I'll believe it when I see it."

Video Games Make Everything Better

Neffydd pulled a chip from the pile smothered in meat, veggies and cheese. Warder Sullens sat beside her, playing their joint Mirror's Edge game while she puttered around on her aether com. The minions were all occupied with their own games and devices and being exceptionally quiet... for once.

Sullens tapped Neffydd on the arm, for her turn. She excelled at the "tight rope" challenges but kinda sucked at the rest of the game. It didn't matter, though. She was spending quality time with her loved ones.

Soon, the Minions were sent to bed, but the adults continued to game. Tomoe and Neffydd were poking away at their aether coms and Sullens continued to make his character run and jump all over the screen.

Jedi came by later and Neffydd basked in the feeling of completeness that came from having her family near.

Well... That escalated quickly.

One Friday night, not too long ago, Warder Sullens, Neffydd, Sutek, Shael and Jaeredd all went to this neato bar in Armory Square called Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge. They have a great selection of alcohol that filled the seven foot shelves of the barback spanning a length of around twenty feet. There are couches to sit on and games like jenga to play with as you get schnockered :-D

They drank and played and talked and enjoyed the evening. They closed out the bar then left for Neffydd and Sullen’s place.

When they got home they broke open a bottle of wine but Shael was feeling weepy. (You know, let em cry, give em another drink and in five minutes, all good?) well, they went to Neffydd’s rooms so Shael wouldn't bring the entire party down but Sutek wanted to screw her so wouldn't leave her alone and she went into hysterics.

Neffydd told him to chill and he got violent. (Jaeredd later told Neffydd that Sutek drank a six pack of beers while she was calming Shael.) Warder Sullens escorted him out and they called their cabbie buddy to come get him.

Warder Sullens went to get money for the cab. While he was gone, Sutek broke into the house and started screaming at Neffydd that the cabbie was gonna shoot him... (No one has any clue how that came about...) Tomoe manhandled him back outside because she’d had enough.

Warder Sullens came into the warren through the back way so Sutek wouldn't fight him and they decided to call the cops since Sutek was convinced the cabbie would shoot him. That was when Sutek started kicking the door so hard that the core crushed and it started to buckle.

The cops got there, one stag faun one female pixi. Sutek got into the lady's face and started screaming at her. Ugh... He got a face full of ashfalt then said: "I'm sorry, dude! I didn't mean to resist ya!"

??????? Again, not a one of them had any idea... They finally carted him off at 5:30am after scolding us for giving him alcohol. He's three and a half decades old and his mother wasn’t there. How do they expect random friends to keep him from doing whatever he pleases?

Here Come the Gremlins

Thump... Slap!.... BANG!

"What are you doing?!" Neffydd asked Warder Sullens as he slapped at the hospital tray table in front of him, jostling his food and drink. He glanced at her quickly with wild eyes then went back to his pursuit.

"I have to catch it or it will keep running around; scares the children." He glanced off to the side and swiped at the empty air in front of him.

"Baby..." Neffydd caught his hand, careful not to jostle the I.V., but he jerked it away. "Hun, there's nothing there." Warder looked at her again with more attention this time.

"What?" He was startled, his eyes wide with fear. "There's a thing on the table... it looks like just a head... and another climbing the cupboard!" He pointed to the cupboard behind her. She dutifully looked at the empty cupboard. There was nothing.

"No baby, there's nothing there..." She looked at her life-mate with concern. This was not a good sign. The surgery had gone well and he was recovering rapidly; but suddenly she wasn't sure he was doing so well at all.

She left to find a nurse, the nurse quickly evaluated him and set in motion a series of evaluations by a string of people that took hours to complete. Finally a doctor from Neurosurgery evaluated him and decided to detox Sullens from all of the narcotic pain relievers, leaving him on acetaminophen and low dose of Fentanyl.

The nurses and Neffydd worked on a solution for better pain relief but could only come up with the use of ice packs to help reduce the swelling on the surgery site.

Neffydd worried, but his recovery wasn't over yet. There was still a lot of time for improvement.

A Little More to Love (Prelude to GTFO)

"I got great news babes!" Byron Way's message popped onto the screen of Neffydd's mobile com. "I'll be able to come to the potluck on Monday!"

"You mean tomorrow?" Neffydd typed back. She hadn't even thought about the weekly potluck yet. She had been mightily distracted by enjoying her weekend off. There had been absolutely nothing to do and it was rather relaxing. This meant work... so she got right to contacting her circle of friends.

Monday Neffydd awoke early, due to falling asleep at some extremely early hour and started preparing for the onslaught of food related event planning. There is a complex mathematical formula for what time to tell each set of her friends to be there so that they all arrive in the same hour.

She also had to bring Sebbock to school to get some papers signed. So she ushered Sullens and Sebbock onto the public transit carriage and braced for a ride where she had to artfully answer every question Sebbock could think of.

About late morning, when all of the prep work had been done; Warder Sullens came into the kitchens, mobile com in hand, with a story of things that Aine had been telling people then showed Neffydd the display.

"Oh, for the luv of... tell her to message me!" The rest of the afternoon was spent cooking and burying the hatchet with her ex-lover, Shael. The trouble didn't come so much from the hatchet burying as finding the damn thing first.

She had actually just gotten the painful, 3 year long ordeal smoothed over and ready to organize into digestible chunks when the message popped in: "I'm on my way, babes." Great... Byron was not a favorite person, but tolerable in small doses.

"OKies." She sent to Byron; then opened another solid message to Shael.

"Wanna come to our weekly potluck?" She pecked out on the smooth surface of her mobile, "There's gonna be a bunch of people here and we can pick on my 'boyfriend'... That's always good for entertainment."

"I haven't got transport." Came Shael's reply. "I don't live in the city anymore."

"Yeah, I know..." Mutual friends of theirs had felt the need, over the past years, to tell Neffydd everything that went wrong in Shael's life... Neffydd found it annoying, really. "Let's see if one of my friends has the time to help us. Would you come if you had a ride?"

"I could be persuaded..." She replied quickly, "I would have to bring the lil monster along."

"Of course! I couldn't bear to be the one to tell her she couldn't see her boys! lol..."

Neffydd thought of Jaeredd first. Maybe he'd be willing to drive if Neffydd put some gas in the tank...? She messaged him and he replied right away that "Of course!" he would help get Shael to the party.

The plans were set, Byron arrived then Jaeredd and Neffydd left with Jaeredd to get Shael and her minion. Thirty minutes later, after driving up to the northern suburban part of the sprawling city and back, Neffydd walked into her party going, full blown, without her.

Neffydd loved that her parties were so well planned that they could go on without her having to micro-manage them.

The night proceeded smoothly with pot roast and drinks had by all. Some people left after dinner and there were just a few left to drink and be merry.

Somewhere toward the end of the night, Shael noticed that the eggnog that they had been adding butterscotch Schnapps to had high fructose corn syrup in it and winced. That was one of the human inventions that she detested the most.

"Like you have to worry about it." Byron goaded her. His feet were possessively in her lap as they had been for most of the night. "You aren't fat."

"No," Shael agreed with him, a bit defensively, "I know I'm a skinny girl. But I don't want to be the girl who used to be skinny but isn't any longer because she did nothing to keep healthy."

"That's a good bit of reasoning..." Jaeredd started but Byron cut him off.

"It's like you and Neffydd..." Byron told Shael matter-of-factually. The absolute dead silence of the room created and emotional event horizon that even Byron could sense. He looked around the kitchen to every pained face and smiled. He thought he was finally getting his fifteen minutes from these people!

Jaeredd broke the momentary silence by issuing a warning: "Dude..." He said gently, "I wouldn't finish that thought out loud."

"No, it's OK." Byron assured him. "Just let me finish."

This statement was greeted by the room practically exploding with astonished reprimands from slightly drunken fae-folk. "No!", "Oh, migod!", "Do not say the next thing."... even Shael's ten year old girl child was screaming: "Shut up! Don't call Neffydd FAT!"

Over this din, Byron managed to force out his statement. "Shael, you are skinny and hot; but even though Neffydd is heavier, that just means there's more of her to love."

More ice-cold, shocked silence as a few people moved to block Neffyd's access to weapons. The silence was broken, finally, by a child's pained groan. "Did he just call my mom fat?" Sebbock, the socially disinclined, asked. Even an Autistic child could see it.... ouch. Neffyd broke into hysterical laughter.

Neffydd looked to Shael, who had gone pale with emotional mortification. Neffydd jerked her head toward the front of the house then looked at the time display on her mobile comm. Shael nodded and looked at her mobile too.

"Oh, Jeeze... I didn't realize it was that late!" Shael exclaimed. "I was supposed to get my kid in bed hours ago!"

They asked Jaeredd to bring Shael and her daughter home then all headed for the door but Byron slipped in between Neffydd and Shael to block Shael's progression.

"Can I get your number and maybe FaceBook?" Neffydd's mouth dropped open and a slow anger started to burn as Sutek snickered and Jaeredd coughed/gagged at Byron's audacious request.

Shael was able to extricate herself from Byron's lecherous grasp and they finally made it to the parking lot piled into Jaeredd's vehicle.

"Thanks, for driving... we needed to get the hell outta there before I cut him." Neffydd told Jaeredd.

"Yeah, I kinda figured." Jaeredd replied. "I couldn't believe his audacity!"

For the remainder of the trip, and even after Shael and her young one were dropped off, the conversation was about processing the utter shock of the out right disrespect.

When Jaeredd and Neffydd returned to The Lair, she looked about the lounge and Byron was nowhere to be seen.

"Did the Shit Head leave?" She asked of no one in particular.

"Oh, shit..." Sutek's bird-like features set in a look of apprehension, "That's never good."

"No, he's still here." Sullens replied. Byron re-entered the lounge just then. Out of difference to her strong sense of polite manners, Neffydd endured about half an hour of idiotic babbling before Byron finally tweaked the last nerve.

"I'm hungry..." Byron announced, as if anyone in the room cared at that point.

"OK," Neffydd replied, "There's plenty of left-overs and the beef is still hot.."

"I'll just go get my sandwich from the car." Byron left, returning shortly with a sub-shop take-out baggie, a brief case, a small suitcase and a EatherCom mobile terminal carry case. Neffydd had finally been insulted enough.

"How do you think you have made me feel tonight?" Neffydd demanded. "Hitting on my Ex, insulting me to get into her good graces, hounding her for her contacts while I stood right next to you..." Neffydd's voice was getting louder and louder as she vented her emotions.

"I didn't mean-" Byron's eyes were wide.

"BULL SHIT!" She interrupted him. "You knew exactly what you were doing and you kept doing it. Six people screaming at you to not say something isn't a subtle hint that you could possibly miss, you ass..." Neffydd got up out of her seat and headed toward her sleeping chambers. "You know what? I've become too emotional. I'm going to bed."

Neffydd stormed into her room, slammed her door and threw herself belly down onto the comfy bed. A few moments passed where she could hear murmuring coming from the lounge, then a knock on the door.

"Neffydd?" Sutek's muffled voice came from the other side of the solid wooden partition. "Are you really going to bed?" He opened the door a crack, just in case she was still in a mood to harm people.

"I don't feel like starting an incident."Her reply was muffled by her soft pillows and blankets.

"Well, then i guess we'll just have to move the party in here..." They proceeded to drink and talk. After a while Sullens came in to inform them that Byron had left for his home and they all wound down for the night.

Fair Fun, Flair Faun

"Aunt Aine... Can I come to your house too?" Mini asked into Neffydd's mobile com. Aine had offered to bring the boys to her new rental house for an over-night and Mini had begged her mother to go too. Neffydd put in Aine's extension and handed the com to Mini.

Aine showed up a few hours later, her children in tow, to gather the children and some more of her stuff. They soon departed, leaving Neffydd, Warder Sullens and Tomoe to wallow in the silence.

"What are we going to do?" Neffydd asked Sullens.

"I don't know..." Sullens shrugged.

"You know..." A slow grin spread across Neffydd's face, "We have no minions and there's a free show at the fair tonight."

"You wanna do that?"

"Yessssss..." Neffydd's grin widened and she turned to Tomoe. "You wanna go too?"

"I haven't got the money." Tomoe shrugged.

"I can cover you." Neffydd was practically bouncing now, "You should come!"

"OK!" Tomoe grinned, "Let me get showered and stuff."

Two hours later they were showered, painted, dressed and stepping off the public conveyance into the fair. They paid the troll and walked through the turn-style, grabbed a map from the information booth and planned their route through the people clogged maze of buildings, temporary structures and pavilions.

They grabbed milk from the Dairy Products building and drank it while staring at a huge sculpture made entirely of butter. They then crossed the court to find out what was in the Center Of Progress. The CoP had many different vendors hawking so many different things that Neffydd's head started spinning. They bought a couple large slices of fudge and went back outside to sit and eat some.

After they had eaten enough of the rich fudge to get a slight sugar buzz they headed off toward the next attraction.

"I gotta pee!" Tomoe whined.

"Geeze! You're as bad as the minions!" Neffydd teased.

They entered the Theater Museum and found the first floor bathroom. The wait was surprisingly short and the bathroom was pretty clean for something that must have been used a million times that week. It was over-hot... but not too hot to use the room and cooler than outside so no one was complaining.

Neffydd and Tomoe reunited with Sullens in the hall just outside the lavatory.

"Everyone done?" Sullens asked and received nods from the girls. "Where are we going next?"

"Horticulture Building!!" Neffydd answered excitedly. "Mmmmmaple..."

"O.K...." Sullens agreed suspiciously. He was beginning to think his Life-Mate was going into crowd-shock, but was hesitant to suggest a time-out.

They whisked down the crowded walkway and into the Horticulture Building. They had been on the lookout for places to capture an image and now they were confronted with the perfect shot.

Right between the center entrances was a huge sand sculpture with the Fair logo carved into it. Warder Sullens and Neffydd stood before the huge mound of carved earth and Tomoe captured the obligatory double image.

They whisked through the building glancing at random interesting things and dodging slow-moving creatures as Neffydd pulled them further toward her goal.

Finally they were standing in front of the Maple Products booth deeply inhaling the rich scent of boiled tree sap.

"What should we get?" Tomoe asked, knowing her sister would want something.

"You just said you're thirsty," Neffydd reminded her, "You wanna try the Maple Iced Tea with me?"

"Sure! That sounds good..." Tomoe trailed off since her a-typically hyper sister had already turned away to consult Sullens.

"Will you buy us a tea and a bag of Spun Maple Sugar?" She was bouncing in her excitement now.

"I suppose..." Sullens sighed and rolled his eyes, then slipped up to the counter to place their order.

"We should have just waited to buy the fudge here." Neffydd remarked and when her sister shrugged she added, "There's Maple fudge." There was Maple everything in the sizable booth. Ice cream, candy, cookies, candles, tea, coffee, dog treats...

Sullens returned with a bag of Spun sugar twice the size of his head and a covered cup full of thick dark liquid and nubs of ice. They each took an introductory swig and reveled in the perfect blend of strong black tea and buttery-sweet maple.

"Lets go outside to drink this." He suggested to them. "It's nicer out there."

They walked out the large door beside the Maple Booth and Tomoe suggested that they visit the Log Cabin. The Cabin was closed for the day, already, but they enjoyed the shade of the porch and looked in through the windows.

Neffydd spotted a preparedness shelter and her eyes lit up. She dashed over and ducked into the small building, but was disappointed with the sad displays. Her country-dwelling compatriots had better stuff in their living rooms. Sullens followed her around the small, quiet room and back out into the westerning sunlight.

As they stood in the trampled grass between the Log Cabin and the Preparedness shelter high-flying motion caught Tomoe's eye.

"What's over there?" She pointed at the air behind the Preparedness shelter and a bungee-corded bench with two people strapped into it bounced into view.

"I dunno!" Neffydd spun on her toes and started to walk around the building toward the odd sight. "Let's see!"

They watched as the ride slowed and was caught by a Giant who secured it to it's scaffolding dock. He helped the people out of their harnessing then beckoned and secured the next couple.

They quickly tired of watching the people bobbing on their strings and set off down the parkway bordering the midway.

Neffydd was in the middle of the midway crowds when the panic attack hit. The lights were too bright, the barkers too loud, the people too close and touching her as they passed in every direction. The air was too hot and clung thickly in her throat as she tried desperately to get enough air into her lungs. Smells assaulted her nose and mouth, attacking her delicate senses as she dragged air in through both.

Warder Sullens grabbed the back of her shirt and she shook him off as she tried to get out of the crowd as quickly as possible without trampling anyone. If there had been room to spread her wings she would have violated the no-fly moratorium just to escape. Sheer will-power kept her mind from diving into a completely blind panic.

Off to the side, behind a few food vendors Neffydd spotted a clearing next to the huge wall of the Dairy Products Building. She cut through the heavy foot traffic and almost ran toward the clearing.

"Are you OK?" Tomoe asked as she caught up to Neffydd and Sullens.

"I will be..." Neffydd managed to gasp out as she exerted a conscious effort to slow her breathing. "Just gotta sit..."

"Well," Sullens inserted, "There's a leged against the wall over there."

They each took seats on the ledge, then Sullens got hungry and went in search of a snack. He came back carrying a large cup filled with fries, gravy and melted cheese in one hand and a bottle of cold water in the other.

After their quick snack they decided that it was time to head back for the show. They cut through the Dairy Products Building again, exiting the opposing side. There they stood for a few moments, gaping at the site. It the hour or so since they had left the entire court had filled to capacity and spilled over onto the other common spaces that had line-of-sight to the stage and even some that didn't.

After a bit of a huddle, the trio decided that they could head back over to the commons where they had eaten their fudge earlier to watch the show.

They cut through the court again where there were brownies, pixies and centaurs posted to keep traffic moving along the main thoroughfare, then cut across the intersecting pathway and into the small, elevated grotto. There was an open space right in front of the tertiary projection screen so they settled into the crabby grass to watch the show.

Not too long after they sat down, the show's hosts greeted the eager fans. They introduced themselves, talked for a short while then introduced Theory of a Deadman.

The band took a little longer to actually get to playing but when they did, the show was outstanding. Their format was engaging, with interaction fun for the crowd; the filling monologue was kept to a minimum and the regional favorites were sprinkled liberally into the set list at a fairly even spacing.

For the last few songs Neffydd and Tomoe dragged Sullens closer to the stage pit. (As 'closer' as they could get at least.) They were hopping and singing along in ecstatic enjoyment, much to the consternation of the surrounding attendees. The girls didn't care if they looked like idiots, they were there to have fun and enjoy the live music. If people had issue with that they could suck it.

The show wound down and the trio made their way back to their transport. They rode the bus downtown and transferred to their next bus. At the downtown depot they met up with their neighbor and they all went back to the Houshold to drink a bit & unwind.

Alll, in all, it was an awesome trip to the fair.

Walking in The City

Neffydd stepped out into the bright morning light and winced. "UGH..."

It was almost painfully bright, but considering how often she actually saw the Bright Orange Ball it was a wonder she could stand it at all. Most of her kind never even stepped a foot into the light of the BOB as it was ever so uncomfortable. Not deadly, by far; just more light than they would like to have shone upon their bodies.

Warder Sullens stepped out behind her and and slid his favorite darkened glass spectacles onto his face. "A little bright, huh?" he quipped.

"A little..." Came her snide reply.

They walked a short block down to the public transit stop, chatting and enjoying the cool breeze that contrasted the warm light of the BOB so well. 

The transit ride was pleasant and they reached the mid-city transfer with enough minutes to spare to do their banking and catch the carriage to their destination. 

The carriage bell rang when Neffydd pulled the Stop Request cord and the driver maneuvered the vehicle out of traffic and into the temporary parking stop at the curb.

"Are you riding down the street to your stop," Neffydd asked Sullens, "or are you disembarking with me and walking down?"

"I'll go with you." Sullens said with a smile.

"Are you sure?" Neffydd made sure as they rose from the bench, "Your stop is just down the street..."

"Then I'll walk." He motioned for her to precede him out.

"OK." She grinned and thanked the driver as she stepped onto the walk.

Their vehicle had stopped right in front of the salon that Neffydd wanted and she strutted up to the door. Warder Sullens grabbed her and pulled her into an embrace before walking off down the street. Neffydd walked into the salon and was greeted by heavy smells of acrylic and acetone. 

"Can I help you?" a middle aged Chin-chin Kobakama asked from her seat where she worked on a largish Brownie's feet.

"Yes." Neffydd affirmed. "I need a trim and fill..." She held up her hands for the woman to inspect from afar.

"Go to table four, please?" The Kobakama directed and Neffydd sat to wait... and wait.

She listened to the other women chatter amongst themselves about their day-to-day lives and smiled a bit. She watched people come and go as the smallish creatures trimmed, ground, buffed, repaired, tweezed, and cut to their hearts content. Warder Sullens came to check on her at one point but quickly left again stating that the acrid smell was already giving him a headache.

Finally a Chin-chin Kobakama man sat in front of her and held out his hands for hers. She placed her hands in his and relaxed into her monthly routine. 

Grind. Trim. Pluck. Sand. Repair. Smooth. Buff. Condition... She got up to wash her hands off when she was directed and picked a lacquer color that would look cute on the tips of her claws. The Kobakama woman sat in front of her and Neffydd described what sort of design she wanted.

"Just the tips in the green," She motioned toward the vial of lacquer. "Then a thin purple swish where the tip meets the bed?" It was quickly done as they chatted about Sullens and the woman's daughter, then the woman took her payment.

Neffydd sat herself at the drying tables and waited for the thin layers of polish to set and harden. For about half an hour she sat, relaxing and watching the bustle then gently stroked the lats painted nail to check how dry it was. She deemed the paint dry enough, turned off the fans she was using, got up from her chair and pulled out her mobile com to call Sullens as soon as she was on the street again.

She thanked the couple working the shop and reached for the door while looking at her phone. The door opened before she could reach it and she looked up.

"Hey you!" She smiled at Sullens and he held up a bag to her. "Perfect timing; I was just going to call you!" and they walked out the door.

"Shall we walk?" Neffydd offered, "Or wait for the bus?"

"We can walk while we wait." Sullens replied.

They walked down the street took a turn about a block away and walked across the bridge, under the over pass and past their favorite curio shop. 

Neffydd had now been up 20 hours. She had wanted to spend time with Sullens as they did their chores but her body was starting to have an issue with the exercise without enough sleep. Her legs, stomach and back were beginning to cramp as she pushed on. It was nothing like things she'd endured in the past, just a mild discomfort, really. Sure did make it hard to walk, though.

A half mile walk more and she could lay down in her bed. A quarter mile; three blocks; a parking lot and a street; a set of steps and a hallway... Finally she stepped into the cool comfort of her sleeping suite, feeling so much better to be out of the light of the BOB.

@}~

There we go, people! Sorry it's been so long!