A Birth day

"Thanks. I won't take long. Those stumps sound like they'll be just fine. That will get them started. I'll get with Minos and Edward, and we'll look at a practical layout for the garden so that we can start moving plants, moving the garden fence to enlarge the garden, making more paths through it, and mapping out places for the fae houses to go. i'll try to have that plan laid out and drawn yet tonight. It's going to take me awhile to get it all done correctly, but I'll do my best," Angus told him. He went to eat, and then he got out his sketch pad and started to draw plans for a new garden.

He made several different ideas for a garden, but no matter how he drew it, it ended up looking like a circular garden, with the pathways ending up looking like curved, flowing spokes from a wheel. The tree was at the center, with a circular path around it, two more concentric circles, and finally the fourth circle being a circular woven lattice fencing around it to keep intruders out in order to protect the fae inside but to allow the fae to see out and move in and out as they desired. The between the circles and the spokes lay well planned and divided beds for fruit, vegetables, and herbs of all sorts. He left some spaces in the circles for some benches, some water elements, and other ornaments. It would leave plenty of room for the fae kingdom to grow as the years went on.

The drawing took him all afternoon to do, and just as the end of the work day was nearing, Edward and Simone came home, bringing two babies that were in a sound sleep. They left them in the playpen over at Edward's, and Simone had brought supper for everyone with her.

She found a lovely restaurant that had a truly creative soup--a cream of vegetable soup. It was loaded with all sorts of fresh vegetables, was jam packed with nutrition but was smooth and creamy. She brought back a couple of very large takeout containers of it--enough for everyone. And she'd also brought back a big stack of hot, steaming corned beef and swiss paninis that had caramelized onions on them and a really different warm mustard sauce that was both sweet and tangy and completely delicious, along with some of the homemade crisps the restaurant had made. For dessert, she had found some large chocolate chip cookies that were still hot from the oven. She had wrapped them in foil to keep them hot.

"I thought perhaps you lot might enjoy not cooking tonight," she said, bringing over the take out supper. "This soup is incredible. It sounds weird but it's a cream of vegetable soup. I couldn't weasel the recipe out of them but maybe Angus can figure it out. They serve it hot with a dollop of creme fraiche on top. Then there's a stack of these enormous corned beef paninis, and for dessert, there are some chocolate chip cookies that are still hot from the oven. All we need are the teens, and we can eat. The babies are here, but they''ve had a very full day. We fed them before we apparated home, so they're in the playpen next door, and they're both out like a light."

"I need to go get the girls," Marcus said, seeing Sam and Victor come home. "Their school day ended about an hour ago. I'll go get them. I'll be straight back." He flicked his wand and was gone.

"I'll finish my sketch later," Angus said. He went over to the food Simone had brought home. "Thank you, Simone. It smells great." He set out the soup, the sandwiches, and the freshly made crisps. Then he set out some soup bowls, some plates for sandwiches and chips, and set out silverware, some tumblers, and some cans of soda. "We don't have soda very often, but it sounded to me like a cold soda would be just the ticket tonight." He put on a pot of coffee for anyone who wanted coffee later with their hot cookie.

"Oh, Simone, the fae would like to put their new houses in our garden," Angus said. "That means we'll need to enlarge our little garden. Any objection?"

"To a bigger garden with its own resident fae kingdom? Certainly not. I think its marvelous," Simone was elated. "Edward will be so pleased."

"I'm working on a sketch to enlarge it, but it will look very different, if we use my sketch."

"Well, that's alright. Change is good," she smiled. "When can we see the sketch?"

"After supper maybe?" Angus asked.

"Sounds good," she said, as Marcus arrived back home with the girls. The girls put their backpacks on the floor near the door for now.

"Looks like rain tonight," Marcus said. "Storm clouds are rolling in from the northwest."

"Oh, we've got some windows open. I should go tell Edward," Simone said.

"I'll go," Marcus said. "I want to check our side for any unsecured windows too."

"Thank you," Simone said. "Oh, and if anyone wants any with their cookie, I have some fresh Italian gelato. It's a dark chocolate gelato, and I think its maybe going to be my new favorite."

"We have some real fans over here of dark chocolate, so I'm betting someone's going to want some," Angus laughed. "Supper's all laid out on the sideboard for anyone who's hungry. I'm going to set some of the soup out for our fae friends. Go ahead and eat, Everyone. It won't take me long."

Angus served them some little bowls of the hot soup. some tiny toasted cheese sandwiches, and he made a teeny tiny fruit salad and served a big bowl of it on every table with bowls and spoons for them to help themselves. He poured them pitchers of ale and set the pitchers on the table with tiny dollhouse sized beer mugs. They seemed completely delighted by the creamy, soothing soup, and they raved about the toasted cheese sandwiches and the fruit salad, but mostly about the ale.  

"I'm glad they're not only warm and dry but that they're getting well and that they're also able to get some good food," Angus said.

"I'm betting that they're very, very grateful for all the help you're all doing to help them recover and rebuild," Simone said.

"Well, I know how grateful we are when someone lends us a hand, so how could we not help someone else?" Angus said.
 
"We don't have the grades from the exam, but we were the only two in our class that were able to make the potion at all," Ginger beamed.

"Well done!" Angus told them. "I am so proud of you both."

"You coming to eat?" Anise asked him.

"Yes. As soon as I know that our friends are set for their food," Angus said. Even as he spoke, he heard some banging on one of the tables. He turned to see that the pitchers were empty of ale, and that was causing some restlessness. Angus laughed, and he refilled the pitchers for them. Angus understood they were all still in need of some stress relief, and his addition of the ale for them was a kindness that they had not anticipated but they very much welcomed. Once the ale was refilled, the fae chatter and laughter resumed.

Angus went over and put some soup for himself in a mug and got a sandwich, a few crisps, and a can of soda and he back over to the desk.

"Sorry, but there seems to be a biergarten going on, on the desk, and as the honorary bartender, I need to keep the ale flowing," Angus said. "I'll sit over here to I can keep the bar open for them."

He was about halfway through with his soup and sandwich, all while continuing to refill the pitchers for the fae, and then all of a sudden, he saw a male fairy accidently walk off the edge of the desk. Angus caught him quickly, but putting his hand under the fairy, and he gently returned him to the cheeseboard dining room. The other fae were relieved to see the tipsy fairy was unharmed, and they made gestures towards Angus that they would keep better watch on him. Angus reassured them that all was well.

And then, he got out a cookie, and he cut it into manageable little squares and served platters of them at each tiny table, with some cups of coffee, another welcome treat for them. They were elated by the cookies and the coffee both. Angus didn't realize that for the fae, coffee was a rare delicacy. It was, after all, a human thing that they didn't get unless a human shared it with them.

"You can have all the coffee you like," Angus told them. "But you will find it far healthier if you drink it sparingly. It is a stimulant, so it could cause your hearts to race and could cause some tremoring. If you want coffee, though, we'll certainly make sure you get some."

Marcus had been out for quite awhile, but he came back this time with something in his hand.

"Um, Angus? Do you know if these fae had any pets?" he asked.

"Pets? I dunno. Why?" Angus asked. Marcus came over and showed him a pair of tiny dormice, and they had something around their necks. "What is that they're wearing?"

"I'm not sure, but it actually looks rather a broken yoke. You know, like oxen with yokes?"

"Yokes. Sure," Angus said, frowning. "Let me go see if I can find a sober fairy." He went over to the cheeseboard and called gently to Minos and lifted him over to where Marcus had the dormice in his hand. Minos seemed delighted to see them. He motioned for Angus to get the paper and pencil lead. Angus complied, and Minos drew a little old fashioned, two wheeled dog cart. The dormice apparentlyl had jobs pulling dog carts through the kingdom to haul things for the fae.

"Alright, All hands on deck," Angus called to the others. "We have recovered, apparently, the fae's tame dormice--two of them. We need something to keep them in til the storm that's coming has passed. Then I can get to the barn and look for a suitable cage for them."

"Apparently, they each pull a tiny dog cart through the kingdom to haul things for the fae," Marcus told them.

"Anybody know what dormice eat?" Angus asked.

"Things that are smaller than they are," Sam said, teasing.

"Brilliant, Sherlock," Angus replied, laughing.

"Do you realize we now have 12 people, 10 fae, 50 fae eggs, 2 dormice, and a dog? My math says its 75 under one roof," Angus said.

"And a partridge in a pear tree," Marcus sang, teasing Angus. "I think that'll work just fine. Maybe someone in their lot can tell the dormice to not dash off."

"Well, you know, we can fill their belllies and see if they're like the rest of us. Maybe we can get them full enough that they'd rather just sleep."

"Don't dormice sleep a lot anyway?" Marcus asked. "Nocturnal, I think. If we can keep track of them at night, then they should sleep during the day."

"Minos, how to we keep them from going all walkabout at night?" Angus asked. Minos made a gesture like long length of rope. Angus rooted around in the desk drawer and found a pair of shoe laces. Minos used them as rope and tied each of the dormice to a shoelace leaving the other end for Angus or Marcus to fasten the dormice to something. The dormice were busy eating the trail mix that Ruby had set out for them.

"We can put them in our room for tonight," Anise said. "Oh, there's some sort of a staff meeting at the school tomorrow morning, and the tutor didnt' want to come for just half a day, so we're off classes tomorrow."

"But we have enough homework to make up for it," Ginger sighed. "And then the day after tomorrow, we have dueling exams. I can't do it. I stink at dueling."

"You won't by then," Angus said. "I'll take you outside tomorrow, and we'll work on it. You passed your training, so why would you think you stink at dueling?"

"Because I can do one spell when I'm dueling, and I really stink at defending myself," she sighed. "I'm not like Anise. I think I just need to get myself a tin cup and go busking for handouts in Diagon Alley and be done with it."

"Now, now," Angus laughed. "You just need some practice. You'll be fine. For now, though, why don't you and Anise pour coffee for everyone and pass around those hot and gooey chocolate chip cookies for dessert? Oh, and the dark chocolate ice cream. Maybe a scoop for everyone would be nice with the cookies and the coffee."

"I'm going to make a fancy dessert out of mine, I think," Marcus said. "Observe." He put his cookie in a bowl, put a scoop of the dark chocolate gelato on top, and poured the hot coffee over it to make an affogato out of it, and then added some squirty cream on top.

"Oh, nice!" Anise said. "I'm going to do that too!"

"Me too," said Sam.