Second Glances, Second Chances

"Brian," Angus said over breakfast, "Can you lot manage a few hours today without me?"

"I suppose," Brian said, looking up from his eggs. "Anything I should be aware of?"

"My grandfather has asked me to take a short hunting trip with him today."

"In the daylight?" Brian frowned.

Angus shrugged. "Yep. Apparently so."

"Okay. Whatever," Brian said. "We'll manage."

"I'll be back by dinner time, so far as I know."

"Take my pistol."

"I intended to," Angus laughed.

"My uncle's flask would be worth a thought," Khaat said.

"You sure you want me to risk it?" he frowned.

"Its better than risking you," she said firmly.

"Alright, then. Thank you. I will," he said. "How will you manage the kids a person shy?"

"We're not a person shy. Faith is here, and I'm sure the three of us adults can manage five toddlers, right?" Khaat asked.

"And I was going to clean the barn," Brian teased.

"No, you're not," Khaat laughed. "You're on Daddy-duty. Faith, are you good with helping us with the kids for part of the day today?"

Faith looked up when Angus said he was going to be gone for the day. She hated to admit it to herself, but she was slightly relieved he'd be gone her first day there. He was a nice person, but she was so uncomfortable around him, and she felt bad about it, but there wasn't anything she could do to help it. She tried to imagine him hunting, and even with the knowledge that he'd be out trying to kill things, he'd be doing it beautifully. Angus was one of the people in the house that was like the children, instead of making the things around him seem less beautiful, he made it shine with beauty as well, and she liked that, even if she was afraid of him.

When she was addressed, Faith immediately went red and looked at Khaat. "Oh erm.. yeah, umm sure, I mean.. that's what I'm here for right? To help with the kids.." She said quickly, tripping over her own words. She had been staring at Angus, and she knew she had to stop that, stop the staring, stop the fear, but it was so new to her, and so bizarre, and beautiful, and wonderful, that she felt so out of sorts. Wearing clothes that were beautiful, in a beautiful home, with beautiful people. Faith mentally shook herself. If she thought the word beautiful one more time, she was going to Avada Kadavra herself. But she couldn't help it, there was no other term, no other way to describe these people, except with the word beautiful.

"Would I..." Faith coughed, looking embarrassed, before glancing around at them all. "Would I be able to see outside today? I'd like to see the.. the horses and stuff.." She said, flushing red. For some reason, the thought of seeing a horse today, excited her way beyond being able to be in this house. Animals were amazing, and as of yet, she hadn't had the most wonderful experiences with any of them. She wanted to see an animal that wasn't enchanted, wasn't tiny, wasn't a cat, or a dog.. something that she could see, and feel, and maybe possibly even ride one day.. she was excited to meet a horse for the first time, a real, live, horse.

"Sure," Brian said. "I need to go out to the barn when we're done here anyway. You can go with me if you like. We're minding Robert's hippogryff and his unicorns for awhile."

"And those darned rainbow pygmy puffs," Khaat sighed. "The bloody things had another litter yesterday." Brian groaned.

"We're going to be overrun in those stupid things," He sighed. "Your mother really wouldnt miss it if we sold 20 or so, would she?"

"I think we could safely sell more than that," she said. "I'll send an owl to Jack and ask her if she wants them."

"Thank you."

"How will you manage lunch? Not to change the subject," Angus asked.

"We do cook," Khaat laughed. "And if not, we can conjure something. We will somehow survive until dinner, I'm sure."

"We've done it once or twice," Brian laughed. "Faith, if you're ready, lets walk out to the barn and I"ll show you the grounds." He had just finished speaking when Dakota managed to hit him with a blackberry, right in his temple. Khaat couldn't help it. It struck her funny. She began to laugh. He looked at her and laughed. "You are absolutely no help whatsoever--Miss Let's-Be-Consistent-About-This. I dont' want to hear it next time," he laughed.

"It was funny, and you know it," she laughed.

"Yeah, and so does she. There will be more food throwing now that she thinks its a good thing." He got up to head out to the barn and used his napkin to wipe the blackberry juice off his face. Khaat was still laughing. Brian looked at Angus. "I am officially leaving Giggles here with you," he said.

"I think we'll manage," Angus laughed.

Faith listened with interest as they spoke about some of the other animals they had. Unicorns, and Hippogriff. Pygmy Puffs, and someone named Jack. Faith's eyes were wide when she realized she might get to see a lot more then she had bargained for. Not just horses they had.. but magical creatures too! Ones they weren't allowed to see at Hogwarts, like the Hippogriff, and Faith wasn't sure what a Pygmy puff was, but whatever it was, but she guessed that she would find out.

She smiled when the family spoke of living without Angus for a day, and she couldn't help but send a glance at Angus. He was a nice man, and she hated that she felt so uncomfortable. But there wasn't much she could do about it, just let herself get more comfortable, and try not to blame him for something someone else did a long time ago.

Faith couldn't help but giggle along with Khaat when the blueberry hit Brian right in the temple. She quickly made her face passive, and glanced around the table, hoping no one had noticed. When Brian stood up, Faith stood up too, smiling. "Thank you for breakfast it was wonderful." She bowed her head and folded her hands in front of her for a moment, before she took off after Brian.

Brian led the way out into the bright sunshine and walked at just a relaxed pace down the trail to the stables. "The barn is on the other side of the stables," he told her. "The whole property is surrounded by woods. There are guards stations on all four corners of the property, and they're always staffed by fighters around the clock. The property is too large to leave it totally unguarded. And near each guard house is a guest house. We sometimes have guests or extra staff. We just never know. Oh, and there is another guest house on the other side of the main house. We dont have anyone living in them right now. There are a lot of fields out behind the barn and the stables. We're working on becoming self sufficient, so we're trying to grow our own foods. And over the south ridge over there--" he pointed. "There is a new orchard of fruit and nut trees and some springs of fresh water.

He opened the door to the stables. He picked up a large bucket and filled it with feed and showed her a number of stallions and mares. Then they came to a stall that held a mating pair of unicorns. He got out a bucket of special feed for them. He opened the stall and motioned her to come in. "Just be calm and respectful," he told her. "They're wild animals that live with us because they choose to, not because they were ever trained. Khaat's parents don't believe in trying to train them."

Faith followed Brian along, looking around her all the time, while listening to him speak. It was just as beautiful outside as it was inside, she almost wished she was just apart of the staff that helped out outside rather than a babysitter, because it was simply beautiful out there. Almost as nice as inside, and yet, when she reached the stables, her mind went into overdrive. The smells that hit her were almost as beautiful as the outside was. And when he showed her a few of the regular horses, she froze in her tracks. She stared at the horse in pure shock, staring at the stallion that stood before her, proud and huge.

After a moment, she let herself follow along behind Brian, staring at the horses they passed, until they came to two beautiful unicorns. Faith couldn't help it, she stared with her eyes wide. When he told her to be respectful, she immediately dropped her gaze and nodded. She slowly let her gaze wander up to the pair, and she smiled slightly. She was too afraid to get near, so she stood a good space back from the two, trying not to stare to heavily at the creatures that were essentially magic, and beauty combined into one powerful creature. Faith felt completely tiny next to such a creature, even for her rather tall height, she felt tiny.

"They are beautiful.." she whispered, looking at Brian, and then back at the unicorns, completely in awe.

Brian went in and fed them and petted them gently. They nuzzled Brian slightly. "Come on over, Faith," Brian said calmly. "Its safe to pet them. You don't spook them, so you're safe. After we give them a chance to eat, we'll let them out in the corral to run a bit. I dont' let them out at the same time I let out the horses because the unicorns have a more timid personality to them. And you definitely dont want to let the hippogryff out with the horses or let the pygmy puffs bounce into the hyppogryff stall. He just eats them, and that annoys Khaat's mother. Robert accepts it as part of the cycle of life, but it annoys Kate to no end. She usually blames Robert if one of them goes rogue."

He heard a tiny giggling noise behind him and saw a rainbow colored pygmy puff bouncing through the stables. "Um..like that one. Hey! Come back here. Dont you make me come after you," he scowled. He finally flicked his wand at it and froze it in mid air. "Kate thinks their beautiful because they're an anomaly. Robert thinks their a nuisance. I think they're a bit of both, really, but if we sell any, we'll make sure they go to good homes."

Faith took a timid step forward towards the Unicorns, and held out her hand. From what she knew of them, she was pretty surprised they were so comfortable around Brian, from what she knew of them, they were very timid around males, unless they were younger, and these two were obviously fully grown, judging by how white they were. She smiled when one of them touched it's nose to her hand, and sniffed, and she couldn't help it, she moved a step forward, and patted its nose gently. The Unicorn nuzzled her, and her grin grew on her face.

Gently stroking the nose of the mare, she turned when he started to shout at something that was bouncing down the stables. Looking back, she saw what looked to be a small fuzzy thing, suspended in midair. "What is a Pygmy Puff anyway? I've never heard of them.." she said and stepped away from the Unicorns, her eyes now trained on the tiny little thing that he had frozen. She moved towards it, and looked at it carefully. A small ball of fuzz, it was absolutely adorable. "Wow!" she whispered, grinning from ear to ear. She couldn't help it, she loved it, and she wanted one.. but she couldn't do anything of the sort, it wasn't like she had a good home to take it too, or the ability to take care of it at all.

Her father would have crushed it in two seconds flat, so she could only smile and hope Brian would unfreeze it so she could hold it and pet it. Her heart yearned to own one, and he said they sold them, but she knew that was just a wild fantasy that would never come true, not if her father had anything to say about it. A pygmy puff was simply too magical.

"Would you mind?" he asked her. "Their pen is in the first stall on the right where we came in. Would you return it? Just do try not to let them all out. Herding pgymy puffs isn't as easy as it seems." He intended to let it hang frozen until she took hold of it. He didn't have any issue with her handling them. After all, they were harmless. Just very prolific at reproducing.

"And when you do that, I'll introduce you to the hippogryff. I need to get some food for him from the fridge. He's a carnivore."

When she had stepped out of the stall, he closed the door on the unicorns until he had time to come back and let them outside. His next job, after unfreezing the pygmy puff was to get some fish from the small refrigerator in the tack room in the stables.

ooc: you can say the pygmy unfreezes, btw.

Faith very carefully took hold of the Pygmy Puff and waited for it to unfreeze. When it did, she held it carefully, it wiggled in her grasp, and she couldn't help but let out a soft giggle. It was cute, very hairy, and made small squeaking noises, which made her giggle even more. She quickly went to the stall he had described and looked inside of it. There were tons of Pygmy Puff's inside of it.. so many that it looked like the ground was moving. She looked startled and glanced back at Brian, before looking back in. They looked very well taken care of, and happy as they bounced up to the side of the stall and squeaked, wanting to be picked up.

Faith grinned and carefully unlatched the stall. Quick as a mouse, she skipped inside and closed the door, not letting a single one out. She was immediately swarmed by the colorful bunch, and she grinned, sitting down on the floor, letting them surround her, nuzzling up against her, begging for attention, all of them. She grinned and tried to pet and hold each one, before she finally set the one she had been holding down, and stood up. "Sorry little guys.. I gotta go.." She whispered and made her way back to the stall gate. Quick as before, she opened it up, and stepped out again, pushing back one with her foot just before closing it, and she turned around, grinning wildly as she looked around for Brian. "They are so cute!" She exclaimed, making her way over to him, her grin firmly in place, looking much more like Chase than ever before, and seeing much more happy, and relaxed than she had since she had gotten there. "Do you think I could ever ride one of your horses?" She asked, a huge grin on her face.