A Birth day

Jack watched Minos and took Arias hand taking her with him as he followed Minos to the glen " wow this is magical" he said letting go of Aria who stood somewhat out of breath as she watched Jack gather some of the flowers and seedlings that grew to try and gown in the green house that Kate kept. Seeing Minos fly back to the barn he gathered what he could then together they hrried back following Minos, Jack handed the picked flowers to Aria and kept the seedings placing them in several plant pots before heading into the barn. Not seeing Minos at first he walked to the Unicorn to find him buried in the mane of the unicorn, gently brushing back the hair he gently removed the burr and treated the area " there she'll be good as new soon, I was wondering what was making her unhappy." he said and smiled to Minos " thank you" he said gently giving the unicorn a flower.

Aria held the flowers and unicorn hair as she headed back to the lab in Edwards duplex. Once there she placed the flowers and hair down on the counter making sue not to mix them up knowing the flowers were not part of the potion . She placed them into an empty jar she found in the lab as she waited for Minos to join her.

The unicorn munched her flower, now a good deal more comfortable and with a treat. Minos nodded to Jack, glad to help. He flew back to Edward's potions lab, and he pointed to a stack of clean, glass kitchen pinch bowls that Edward had sitting on a back corner of the workbench. He wanted Aria to prep the ingredients first, as he had had Jess do, and he wanted Aria to put the ingredients in pinch bowls before they were combined in any cauldron. He pointed to one of the leafy stems she had gathered and showed her two fingers. He wanted two stems like that and then he pointed to the image of the minced garlic to show her he wanted two stems finely minced.

He pointed to a piece of paper and a quill to suggest to her that she write the formula down carefully as they went.

Aria heard Minos fly in to the lab with the tinker of bells. Watching him she nodded and gathered the bowls and prepared the ingredients into each bowl then she saw him hold two fingers up and nodded " two stems right" she said as she took two of the and held them up " you want these shopped diced or just as they are?" she asked

Ruby finished making enough waffles for the ice cream and let them cool and harden into cone shapes ready for the ice cream once it was set. Moving to sit beside the pen she took out a news paper and started on its word search while keeping one eye on the babies .

Minos pointed again to the illustration of the finely minced garlic clove and showed her two fingers. He wanted both stems finely minced. He didn't want them chopped or left as they are. He wanted them finely minced.

Angus was tiring. He was battered and aching, and the torture he had gone through for hours during the night was wearing on him physically, mentally, and emotionally. Marcus went inside, picked up a fresh pack of cigarettes and got out a couple sodas from the fridge. He went outside and gestured to Angus with the cigarettes and the sodas, and Angus followed him over to the tea garden area. Marcus handed Angus a soda and took a cigarette for himself before handing the pack to Angus. The two of them sat, drank the soda, smoked a couple cigarettes, and Marcus was able to get Angus to talk a bit about what Priscilla had done in the overnight hours. Marcus largely listened, but even so, he honestly wasn't sure how Angus was doing as much as he was doing today, except that he knew Angus would put any of his own needs behind him to try to protect his family. In any other day and time, Marcus would have been encouraging him to try to get some sleep, but today, that wasn't an option.

Aria looked at the drawing and nodded " okay two cloves finely chopped" she said and picked up the knife that sat on the counter , she began to finely chop two cloves before placing them into a bowl " that finely enough or do you want it finer?" she asked as she wrote down his instructions on a piece of paper next to her.

Ruby saw Marcus with Angus who had finally stopped and was resting , she made some sandwiches and placed them on a platter. Now with Platter in hand she walked out and over to the garden she shrank some and placed them on the fae tables for them to enjoy as well " I brought some food, you've both worked hard today" she said with a smile as she could see the pen from where she was. Placing the platter down she headed back inside and sat next to it.

He pointed to a rare nut that he had had Aria dig out of one of Edward's jars and he showed her an illustration of grating. He wanted her to grate the nut into a fine powder. He started drawing again, this time drawing an illustration of a bundle of leaves being rolled up together like a cigar and then cut into fine ribbons--a chiffonade. He pointed to a different kind of herb, and he pointed to the leaves and showed her eight fingers. Eight leaves--cut in a fine chiffonade.

Angus saw the men in the garden breaking for lunch, and he snuffed out his cigarette.

"Enjoyable as it is to relive Priscilla torturing me by the hour last night," Angus told Marcus, "I need to go fix lunch for us." He headed back to the house, with Marcus following. He headed to get out ingredients for some big individual salads, and he was going to top these with some great sliced steaks and some homemade croutons.

"Big individual salads okay for everyone for lunch, Ru?" Angus asked. "I thought I'd top them with slices of steak."

Aria looked to Minos and nodded she understood taking the nut she grated it into a fine powder then she rolled the leaves and cut them into slices placing each in there own bowls as she then rote down what she had done.

Ruby looked up from her word search and smiled to Angus " sounds good , will go nice with the ice cream and waffle cones I made " she said and placed down her paper to walk over opening the freezer to show him the two large tubs filled with the ice cream. " wan me to help with the lunch?" she asked " or is Marcus helping?" she said with a chuckle.

"You really don't want me in the kitchen," Marcus told Ruby. "Although, I probably could manage to slice vegetables, I suppose."

"I'd gladly accept your help," Angus said. "You make good salads. I'll get on making the croutons and the steaks. I've got some really nice, lean skirt steaks I thought I'd use, and I'm going to make a spice rib for them before I grill them. Your ice cream cones sound great. The Fae have gotten a taste of ice cream, and now they're all about it. That's a human thing they don't get very often. I'm sure they'll eat salad, but not the steak, and they'll be crazy about the ice cream. I think we should order some pizzas tonight. We don't order out much, and maybe tonight we could splurge on some pizzas."

"Are you honestly thinking of pizzas, or are you just not into cooking tonight?" Marcus asked.

"Oh, maybe some of both," Angus said, getting out a package of skirt steaks and a couple loaves of bread.

Ruby chuckled at Marcus response and then smiled to Angus " all right I'll get the things for the salad" she said " you can fix the steaks" she added as she went to the pantry to fetch the salad things Lettuce , tomatoes, cucumbers along with other items that were salad related " so what is it you want to put into the salad and Pizza , the boys would love that I know I would." she said and chuckled a she washed the Lettice leaves clean then placed them in a bowl that was close by then she top and tailed the cucumber and began slicing it.

Aria did as Minos requested and soon there in the cauldron sat a light pink potion she looked at it then to Minos " is it meant to be pink?" she asked as she stirred it once again and it changed to blue " oh it changes depending on how much its stirred." she said picking up a bottle and placing it next to the cauldron ready for when Minos said it was done.

Minos watched the potion but he didn't want her to think she was done with it yet. He picked up the unicorn hair himself and he flew over the hot cauldron and dipped as much of the unicorn hair as he could without getting too close to the heat, and he dragged it through the potion slowly, as if he were stirring the potion with the hair. With his other hand, he carefully cast a long, involved Fae incantation. As he cast the incantation, the potion changed again. It became creamy and white, and then it slowly took on an opal sort of look and started to shimmer and glow with a comforting light. It was then that he dipped his hand into the potion and tasted it for himself. He laid the hair on the potions workbench, and he pointed to the strainer. He was fine with her bottling it, but he wanted her to strain it carefully as she poured it into the bottle.

Angus made a steak rub and prepared the steaks. He cut the bread into croutons, seasoned them, and put them on baking sheets and put them in the oven. Then he took the steaks outside to grill them to get a good charcoal flavor into them.