A Birth day

Ruby listened to Angus and nodded " oh of course I know its going to take a while for it to all come together." she said placing the furniture back on the tray. It was now Jack walked over and chuckled.

"Well if their going to do all that work they will need these" he said and placed down a small box of hand tools. " there spare from the shed so we won't miss them, I shrunk them after I checked they worked and were sharp to do their job." he said placing it down and seeing several taking tools and disappearing into the stumps.

"Thank you, Jack," Angus said. "Minos was trying to tell me that amongst those who survived are some real artisan craftsmen. There's a woman who, I think, knows how to care for silkworms to cultivate their own silk thread and then weaves that thread into some of the enchanted fabrics they use for their clothing. There's another who is a blacksmith, One is a master carver and furniture maker, One is a glassmaker. There are a couple farmers, and a couple who are really good at foraging and gathering and preserving food. I think Minos is actually an architect. He has some very specific thoughts about how everything needs to be constructed. I'm not a contractor, but from what I've seen, I think his designs will actually work very well. He's been drawing out rooms that, for their proper scale for the fae, look like they have cantilevered ceilings. There are no support posts in the drawing because the walls and the ceiling beams will support themselves, making sure no support posts will be necessary."

"Can you introduce us?" Robert asked.

"Certainly," Angus said. He called for Ili and Minos, and they flew over and landed on Angus's shoulder. Angus introduced Robert and Kate as the leaders of the humans who lived on this property. Angus introduced Minos and Ili as the new king and queen of the kingdom, despite that they had not been coronated as such yet. Robert treated them with the respect that he would any other dignitary, and that impressed Minos and Ili very much. Robert offered to provide whatever assistance they needed to form their new kingdom and told them that he wanted to form a friendship between the people of this estate and the fae. Minos indicated, by gestures, that the bonds of friendship had already been formed by Ruby, Aria, Marcus and Angus. The fairies felt safe and that they were already amongst friends.

Robert didn't stay long because he already had so many other things to do, but he ended the meeting on a positive note. He then looked at the others.

"Well done, you lot. Keep up the good work," Robert said. "I know the furniture and things you need are very, very expensive in dollhouse miniatures. I'll establish an account with the toyshop, and you can bill my account and keep the things coming. It takes far more than you probably can afford to buy enough miniatures to furnish a tiny city. I think we can all pitch in as we can to afford the miniatures, and we'll get the job done. Fair enough?"

"Sounds very fair to me," Angus agreed.

Ruby and Aria nodded Jack looked at Robert and Kate before he spoke. " Robert we have silk worms in the barn still , I was thinking letting Minos have a few, he did make a request for some" he asked " they won't be missed we got a new clutch of eggs hatching soon" he added as another Fae ran over and took some carpenters tools. Jack smiled and nodded the fae happily grabbed what he needed and disappeared back into one of the stumps where Jack could hear soft hammering and the tinkle of what sounded like humming.

Ruby heard Robert and nodded she agreed in setting up an account for the furniture for the fae. she smiled hearing Angus and she spoke up " same here" she said " they can decide what they would like that way" Aria let the mice out of the box and the went to work right away pulling pieces of weeds away from the garden and to the side where she would take it and place it on the compost heap.

Angus saw a strange owl flying overhead, and it dropped a package--right on Marcus's head. Angus noticed quickly that the owl was busy making a circle to come around to take a dive at either one of the fairies or at the dormice, and he knew there was no time to waste. He fired a wandless explosion spell as close to the owl as he could fire it, wanting the loud noise to frighten the owl away.

The hastily cast explosion spell made a deafening sound, far louder than Angus actually had intended it to be. The owl was so frightened that it literally frightened the poop out of the poor bird, with a big blob of owl poop landing right down the side of Jack's face and on his shoulder. The bird flew off like a shot, forgetting altogether about the fae and the dormice.

"Well, it worked," Marcus laughed, "even if it was a bit overpowered. Not so much zap next time, right, Mate?"

"Sorry about that, Jack," Angus sighed. Angus heard the distinctive sound that he had come to recognize as fae laughter. They apparently thought it was all hilariously funny.

Jack had just turned his head when he heard the explosion and felt eh warmth of bird poop running down the side of his face and shoulder. He looked down at the fae and chuckled as Ruby handed him a tissue " thanks and yeah please, I know its meant to be lucky but shesh" he said as he wiped his face and neck clean. " now I got to go change" he said but looked at Angus " any chance of a clean up?" he asked with a chuckle. " no worries if you can't."

Aria and Ruby could not help chuckle as Jack got pooped on by an owl. Ruby quickly stood up and retrieved a box of tissues for him to clean it off. " it is meant to bring luck, wonder what your will be" Aria asked with a chuckle " definably not being pooped on" she smiled hearing the laughter from the fae " well at least they saw the funny side of it too" Jack laughed and nodded he did as well.

"Allow me," Marcus said. He flicked his wand at Jack to clean up Jack's clothes for him. "That should help. Marcus disappeared inside the duplex and brought Jack a wet washcloth and a towel. "And this should get the rest of it. I think the good luck was for the fae and the dormice that didn't get eaten."

"Who is the box for?" Angus asked.

"Oh. I don't know," Marcus said. He picked up the box. "Me. Give me a moment." He opened the box. "Oh, good! I hope it will serve the purpose. Minos, I ordered a couple miniature carts. Will they do?" He put the carts down on the ground and Minos flew over to look at them. He looked at Marcus and was very pleased, beaming from ear to ear, clapping. He gave Marcus a thank you gesture, and he whistled for one of the fae. One of them flew over and in a moment, they had a dormouse hooked to each cart, ready to help haul stones or sticks or wherever else they were needed. The sight of the carts delighted all the fairies, and they all seemed to see it as a sign that their little kingdom was indeed on the way to being reborn.

Angus went back in the house, and he sent a note in to the toyshop and opened an account in Robert's name and asked for a dollhouse miniature catalog. For now, though, he ordered a large number of miniature glass jars with cork tops and another large number of miniature glass canning jars with glass lids and wire clips. He ordered a dozen miniature cast iron stoves, some tea kettles, some enamel coffee pots, some cast iron cookware, and other necessary kitchen equipment. He ordered miniature dry sinks and pitcher and basin sets, and chamber pots and other very necessary things. Ruby's friend had sent some beds and tables and chairs. He decided he would sit down with Minos and let Minos select things for his people. But this would allow him to start to set aside some food staples for the fae as soon as the tiny jars would arrive.

Then, he fixed a big batch of strawberry iced tea. He took a number of the tiny glass pitchers and some miniature tumblers, and he put them on the tray right beside the glasses and the pitchers for the humans. He took the tray out and set it on a stump that wasn't being used.

"I thought you lot might be thirsty by now, so I made some strawberry iced tea." he filled the miniature pitchers with the iced tea and set the pitchers and the tiny glasses on a flat rock that was just about the right height for them to use temporarily as a little table and he set it in a safe place for them to come, take some tea and take a short break. "Help yourselves. I'm going to go take the girls and work on their dueling skills. I don't want them buggaring up their exam tomorrow."

He summoned the girls and he took them into the large yard space that was on the front side of the duplex, well away from the garden project that was in the back yard area, and started to work with them on stance, position, and some basic fundamentals before they ever fired their wands.

Jack chuckled and nodded "Thanks Marcus, then I'm glad I got pooped on and that's not something I say often" he said and took the cloth from Marcus " thank you" he said wiping himself clean of what was left. Watching the fae he saw how happy they were with the little carts and watched as they put the dormice to work even the mice seemed happy to be working again.

Aria heard Marcus and stood up " oh okay, I'm coming too" she said and moved with him once he had the girls to a large yard space where she stood watching them. Ruby watched as they accepted the carts and smiled seeing how happy they were. " they seem to be doing a good job on the houses" she said smiling to Angus as another fae took the last of the tools and began sorting the ground in front of one of the stumps. She found it fascinating as she watched them then saw Angus place down drink and food for them.

"I'll be back in a bit," Angus said to Ruby.

Anise took quickly to Angus's instructions, but Ginger struggled a bit more with it. Angus took the time to teach her specifically on what she needed. It took her a moment longer, but she did get it. Once the stances were improved, he taught them some basics on moving to keep themselves safe and to make themselves as small a target as possible.

The first thing he taught them was a protego spell to shield themselves. That was not something either of them remembered in learning in their defense classes. He worked with them until they could cast an effective shield. Once they had that, he covered basic spells with the--stupify, incarcerous, expelliarmus, confringo, petrificus totalus and a couple others. When they got that, he then focused on sectumsempra spells and how to start to increase in accurancy and in speed both. Anise took to it all easily, as if it were all second nature to her. Ginger had to work a lot harder, but Angus was patient. He stayed right with it, and then, it finally seemed to all click with her. Once that happened, her spell work came a lot quicker and a lot easier for her.


"How's the spellwork coming?" Robert asked, coming outside.

"They're doing very well," Angus said.

"Have they done a duel yet today?"

"No, not today," Angus said.

"I'd feel a good deal better about doing a duel if I could see one," Ginger said.

"We can manage that, couldn't we?" Robert looked at Angus.

"Me against you?" Angus asked.

"Unless Anise wants to assist me in defeating you and Aria," Robert offered.

Ruby nodded to Angus and smiled as she saw him walk over to where the girls were being taught by Marcus , she heard bells and looked down as Elli held up her cup, Ruby smiled and refilled it with the strawberry tea making her smile again as she drank.

Aria stood and watched Marcus but then Angus walked over and took over helping Giger who quickly caught on and gained her poise and quickness. It was now Robert walked out and spoke to Angus. She looked at them both when Robert asked if she wanted to duel with him " um sure why not I haven't duelled since Hogwarts." she said walking to where Anise stood " you good with this?" she asked " you don't have to but it will help Robert see your strengths and weaknesses ." she added taking her wand from her thigh holster.

"It isn't Robert I'm concerned about," Aria said. "I just want to be able to pass my exam tomorrow."

"Wands at the ready," Robert called. "Nothing more severe than a stun. Let's not kill each other, shall we?"

"Fine by me," Anise said, taking her stance across from Angus. Robert took a position next to Angus, and both of them readied their wands. The walked forward to what would be the center of the dueling area, and Anise walked forward. They bowed, and they turned and walked ten paces and turned.

Anise fired a jelly legs jinx towards Robert, and Robert put up a shield and fired back at her.

"Rictumsempra!" (tickling charm) Robert cast the spell, but Anise moved, and the spell whizzed past her.

"Avis!" Angus fired a spell at Aria, firing a blast of magical birds at Aria. The birds blasted out from Angus's wand and burst right at her in a fury of fluttering and screeching and stray feathers flying in every direction.