Hunting the Hunter

"I think it's a lovely idea," Kate said. "But I know you. Some of that idea had to be yours too. I think we should do a few sketches and show them to Brian. I think he'll like that idea a lot. Perhaps we can do that tomorrow after breakfast. What do you think?"

Robert took Abbey from Li.

"Where's Daddy?" she asked softly.

"Right here," Robert said. He walked the few steps to Brian. "Daddy? She's looking for you."

"What's the matter, Baby?" Brian asked, taking her from Robert. She cuddled in and held onto him tightly. "Bad dreams?" She shook her head no. "Can I sleep with you tonight? In the big bed?"

"Something wrong in your room?"

"I wanna be with you, Daddy," she said.

"I suppose its okay just for tonight," he said. "Come on. You need to eat your dinner, though. There's berry cobbler for dessert."

"Can I just have dessert?"

"No," he laughed, "You have to eat your dinner first. What's the matter? Not hungry?" She shook her head. She wasn't hungry. She was more tired than hungry. "Come sit with me. You need to try."  He carried her into the dining room and sat down at his place at the table, putting her on his lap. He looked at Kate, feeling a bit insecure, like perhaps he was spoiling her. Kate gave him a smile to reassure him. She got up and moved Abbey's stew bowl and her cup next to Brian's.

"We all need spoiled once in awhile," she said softly in his ear. "You're a good dad. Trust your heart." She kissed his temple. "I'm very proud of you."

"I had good parents--all four of them," he said. Kate looked at him for a moment. It was the first time, in all of his life, that he'd acknowledged that Robert and Kate had done more for him that provided a roof over his head when he was little. As much as Kate and Robert both knew he felt like part of the family, it was the first that he had acknowledged it. She smiled and nodded. No other words were necessary.

"Gam! Kota's being bad!" Julia complained. Kate laughed softly. Another meal, another squabble. She went back to her place at the table to settle the fight before it ended up in a food fight.

Jess nodded to Kate " sure sounds perfect I'll jot down some ideas " She said picking up a small note book as she started to write things down in it and sketch ideas for the rooms they would need. She heard Julia and watched as Kate moved to the dining room. Jack followed and sat down between two of the boys.

" I was thinking a sauna and Turkish baths." she said softly Jack chuckled and shook his head.

"Jess leave it , its dinner time " he said and she closed the book and put it on the side board before sitting down at the table.

Li looked up as the table began to fill with children and bodies. " the table is filling, are we ready?" He asked looking at him.

"Those aren't bad ideas," Kate said, " and they certainly would be something that both the men and the women would like. After all their hard training some of the meditation and spa elements would help them from getting so sore, perhaps. Perhaps in addition to the meditation space and the spa things, though, we should add a divination room where it lends to things just for a seer's use. The cards, the crystals, the pensieves, that sort of thing. Something where we can make it as light or dark as we want. I've seen some wonderful ones that used royal blue and deep purple as their color schemes, and some very effective lighting. I think there is certainly room to consider both."

"I think we're ready," Kate said. "The kids are certainly ready, anyway. We definitely need to feed them on time. It smells wonderful."

Jess nodded to Kate " sounds good we could have skylights that we could raise and lower the blinds on to let light in and dimmers, I know old school but it would help with the lighting for the room." She said and smiled feeling relaxed just at the sound of it. Jack shook his head as they talked between them.

"and I guess we'll organize the men who will build all this?" He asked running his hand over his head with a chuckle as he noticed Li and Michael in the kitchen hoping food was on the way.

Li chuckled and nodded as he motioned for everything to head to the table and place its self in its respective place. He noted two bowls trying to go to the same spot and the boy chuckling as he watched them. "Hey, you, there." He said and it moved setting down in front of Julia as he brought the bread out.

"Look," Brian said, "if we're discussing construction, before you line up workers, you might want to discuss it with me, please?"

"Of course, Dear," Kate smiled. "You know we will."

"No, I know you, Kate. You'll get this all cooked up in your head, and you'll buy the furniture and all the what-nots and then bombard me with them so that I need to have a place for them."

"He does know you, after all," Robert said, suppressing a laugh. "What is it we're building, anyway?"

"Nothing yet," Brian said.

"Nothing much. Just a reasonable sized meditation room with a bit of a sauna and good lighting and windows, maybe some skylights. And a seer's room, for all of our equipment, so we've got a settled, peaceful place to do all of that. I mean, its not like you lot don't have your training rooms and potions labs and all of your manly spaces..."

"Wait a second. Manly spaces?" Robert frowned. "Like you don't use the exercise room? Or the pools? Or the pool table? Or the theater?.."

"And you're missing my point. We're not asking for much. Just a few rooms. Meditation would do you all good. And, as long as we're on your mancave stuff, a little quiet sitting room would be divine...."

"So, I'm hearing a major addition," Brian said.

"It shouldn't take much. A little wand flick here, a spell there..."

"Oh, no, no," Brian said. "If we're going to do any construction, we're going to do it right. Weren't you the ones who said certain things needed to do it by hand?"

"That's cooking. That's different," Kate said.

"Leave the boy alone, Kate," Robert said. "He wants it done old school."

"But you'll consider it, right?" she asked him.

"I'll certainly consider it. And just how soon do you want this done?"

"Khaat's birthday," she beamed. "A surprise for her."

"Are you out of your mind?" He frowned. "Do you realize an addition like you're talking takes months, and that gives me a matter of about 4 weeks?"

"I have faith in you. You can do anything you set your mind to," she said, smiling.

"Watch yourself," Michael cautioned Brian. "You're going to be talked into this any moment now. She's working her sales pitch pretty hard, Boy."

"Draw it up and I'll look at it, but I promise nothing. Understand?" Brian said. "And, please, no shopping for furniture or light fixtures or carpets or anything else until I get back to you. Are we clear?"

"I wouldn't dream of it, my dear," she said sweetly. "But we do have our vacant farmhouse we could temporarily store things in..."

"Kate," Brian said firmly. "No. No, no, no."

"Agreed," Robert frowned. "Our farm is not a storage locker."

Jess nodded at Kate smiling at the thought of a room where she could regenerate her energy's away from the children. " it was suggested the back." she said " its quiet and away from the nursery." Jess moved as a bowl set down in front of her. " ow this smells wonderful Michael and Li" she said watching as Jack helped one of the boys start to eat. she helped two of the girls eat leaving Julia and Dakota to Kate to fed. When the bread was placed down she handed one piece to each child.

Li sat down and handed two pieces of bread out to two hungry children who started to eat. " I believe your soup is a hit. " he said smiling.

"If you want to do that," Robert said, "you ought to look at the south side of the house. If you make it three sided, then you get the full south sun during the day, along with the sunrise on the east side in the morning and the sunset in the west in the evening. The north side isn't going to give you as much sunlight and might be a lot more in shade. I think the sunlight would be healthier."

"The south side would be a problem," Brian said. "Especially at the far end of the house. It presented us problems when we built because there's a level of bedrock but then, according to the surveys, there must be a cavern or something under that because there's some sort of large empty space just at the subfloor level. Might not provide much stability."

"On the contrary," Robert said. "Subfloor rooms can provide remarkable stability if you make use of them. Remember my potions lab at the farm. It makes use of the subfloor level and then comes up to the basement level. If there is some sort of space there, it might be worthwhile to see if its actually useable space. Depending on what sort of rock that bedrock is made of, it might actually enhance a seer's abilities. Certain kinds of rocks are very healthy for a seer."

"No but a meditation room underground would be deucedly depressing," Brian frowned.

"Perhaps, but they could be on different levels. Its worth another survey," Robert said.

"Do you know someone reliable about surveys that deep?"

"Of course," Robert said.

"Okay, I'll agree to a survey, but I want to see the results of the survey and I want to see the sketches or ideas for this before we get up to our eyeballs in it. Is that fair enough? If it all sounds feasible and not a ridiculous amount of cash, then I'll certainly consider it. Does that sound like a deal?"

Kate looked at Jess, wanting her thoughts and opinions.

Jess sat and listened as she ate her food nodding every so often " Agreed some stones amplify certain frequencies a seer can tune to that channel and focus negative energies out and calm ones in." she said as she took a spoon of soup.

"Besides being connected with the earth helps ground seers and those with ability's." she added looking at Kate and Khaat. Jack listened to them and could not fault Brian's suggestion of the north side, Jess smiled and looked to the others and nodded "sun, light and warmth is good." she looked to Khaat and smiled " Solstice Cane is an interesting woman."

"Well, I think we should definitely get it surveyed and then see what sorts of rocks are down there in whatever space we look at using," Brian said. "I'll get in touch with the wizard I used for that in the past. He's a shirt tail relative of Tobias's."

"He does good work," Robert said. "Didn't he do the architectural designs too?"

"Basically. I had it drawn out to show him what i wanted, but he translated it into workable blueprints for the contractors to use."

Kate smiled when Jess said she'd met Solstice. "I liked her," Kate said. "She's got a beautiful shop, and I've spent more than I should there. She told me she's got some connections, through her father, I believe, to get some of the more difficult stones and herbs and things. I asked her about the animal noises I heard. She said she is an animal healer. Heals in much the same way that we work with people, but she just does it with animals. Apparently she speaks with them too, but she wasn't specific in what animal she speaks to. I can't remember when we had an animal healer last, not around here anyway."

Jess listened to Kate and nodded " she said the same to be too, I think she actually had an owl in the back while I was there." she said and smiled at the talk around the table turning to the mediation room and other rooms to be build for Khaat for her birthday and for the seers in the house since there were more than enough of them.

"You found a baby minder yet?" Jack asked Michael?" as he sat and ate his dinner with the two boys ether side of him. Jess shook her head as he had mentioned it.

"Jack, I'm sure he has some one in mind for that" she said