The World Has Ended

The hit came from nowhere. Neffydd never expected Warder Sullens to act like this! Her confusion and anguish at being told to leave her home gave way to physical pain and panic at not being able to breathe... then his once-kind hands were on her neck and head, pressing her to the wall. Pain exploded through her skull and tears streamed down her face.

"I told you to leave..." His breath was hot in her ear; his tone made her stomach lurch. This was not her friend and lover... this was the demon.

"Stop!" She begged as he pressed her head, harder into the wall. "You're hurting me! The cops will arrest you, this time!"

"I will never leave a mark." His whisper was harsh and gloating. "No one will ever believe you."

The next day Neffydd went to collect her sons, after school, but Sullens' father was waiting for her.

"Don't come back." The huge demon snarled at her as he stood between her and the transport stop. "If I ever see you again, I'll snap your neck!"

He charged at her then, forcing her to retreat. She sat on the steps of a nearby house and sobbed as the school transport went by. She watched her minions trudge off the conveyance and toward their home, past their step-father's father. She wanted to call them to her, but feared that he would hurt them to teach her a lesson.

She looked up at him, just in time to see him make a warding sign against her. Pain lanced through her very soul at the sight of it. There was no way she could get to her spawn now... The tears came faster; blurring her sight and almost incapacitating her. She boarded the next bus toward the city center.

-~:}Y{:~-

A couple days later she was curled in Shael's bed. Her heart numb and her body sore.

Neffydd rubbed her aching ribs, remembering the hatred in her beloved's voice and fresh tears began to spill down her cheeks. Her mind wound around a few thoughts as sobs wracked her body.

Why had he felt the need to hurt her like this?? All he ever had to do was ask and she would have given him anything he wanted! There was never any need for the violence and the lies.

She felt Shael curl around her back; stroking her arms and whispering things that Neffydd couldn't understand because her own thoughts were too loud and all-consuming. She slept fitfully in Shael's arms.

-~:}Y{:~-

"There was nothing you could do, right then." Jedi cooed and rubbed the back of Neffydd's neck. "We'll get them back soon!"

More tears flowed from a supply that seemed to be never-ending. Neffydd was touched by her lover's conviction; but the loss of her children hurt like coals being pressed into her soul. He held her while she cried, then convinced her and Shael to get some food with him.

-~:}Y{:~-

The next few weeks consisted of job searches, couch surfing and crushing set-backs. Any time it looked like she was getting ahead, something would go wrong.

One Tuesday, Neffydd walked into an interview for a promising job. The receptionist handed her a packet and Neffydd started to fill in the paperwork. After a few minutes a pleasant-faced young Pan walked in and asked for her by name.

"Hi...?" Neffydd said in a surprised tone.

"I have these for you." The Pan offered her a stapled stack of papers. At her quizzical look he continued. "You're being served." He handed the stack to her and left.

She sat there with the papers in her hands, stunned for a few moments. The receptionist called to her, breaking the spell and bringing her attention back to the present.

"FerchMaelgwyn?" Neffydd looked at the grim-faced Elf. "I'm sorry; can you hand those back? We won't be needing your application, after all."

Neffydd rose to her feet, gathered her purse and handed the application packet back to the receptionist. She was stunned numb again. She left the building and walked to Jedi's vehicle, slumped in and started to sob.

"What's wrong??" He demanded. She couldn't answer him, so she shoved the papers at him. "Oh... Are you kidding?!? He exclaimed.

"No..." She got the words out, around her heaving breath and tears. "They asked me to leave!"

He drove her home while, alternately trying to comfort her with his words and cursing everything about his erstwhile Metamour. Now that she had the paperwork, however, she could call about getting a lawyer for herself.

****************************

O/C -

I'm sorry about the cliff-hanger, my dear readers. I, actually, started writing this a couple weeks ago but I realized two things:

1: The story wasn't finished yet, so I couldn't write the post.
2: I was still so emotionally wrapped-up in it that I couldn't think about the events enough to reshape them into fantasy or even remain dry-eyed enough to type.

This has been a harrowing month, but I'm working my way through it with the help of some VERY dear friends and my family. It's not over, yet! Look for part two in a couple days! 

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

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.

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...