A Birth day

aria chuckled and nodded " thanks Angus" she said then headed up to shower. Jess looked at Angus and smiled to him as he spoke of going outside.

"now why would I do that, fresh air is good for you" she said as Marcus said he'd help him once he'd taken the pain potion. Watching and staying close once Angus was settled she walked back in and nodded to Marcus " that's exactly what I'm going to do, he'll feel much better getting into a clen bed and yes I got that impression , its good for both of them." she said as she stripped the bed and set the sheets to the kitchen for washing while she remade it with clean sheets and a blanket. " there all done" she said folding the blanket and sheet back to allow for Angus to climb back in.

Ruby returned clean and feeling much better , she put the washing on the go and set about making something for lunch for every one, remembering that Andrew had said light foods for Angus.

Angus was careful to show Poppy on her sketchpad, how to do a proper nose, and some of the simple tricks he had taught himself to correct the minor shaping error she had with Minos's nose. He understood how important it was to her that the only pencil strokes or chalk strokes on Minos's portrait were her own, so he made no effort to touch her work in any way.  He gave her some hints in order to help her improve here shading and her blending of the chalks to liven up her background. And for Poppy's part, she found she quickly understood how he explained things. She found she learned immediately what he was showing her. Working with him for the few minutes she did was something she enjoyed immensely. 

The other thing she really liked was that he didn't treat her like a little kid. He treated her as if she were a young woman because that was the way he saw her. People often made the mistake of treating her like a small child because if her diminutive size, but Angus didn't make that mistake. He didn't talk down to her and didn't hover either. She didn't need that. She had good grandparents and a dad that were good caretakers. She didn't need more that over protected her. 

She finally got to the point where she looked at him, and showed him the picture again.

"So what else should I do with it?" she asked him.

"You want my honest opinion?" Angus asked.

"Yeah. Tell me," she said.

"I wouldn't touch it. If you do much more, you risk doing too much. You want Minos to be the focus, not the background, and I don't think you should do one more thing to his image either. The only thing I think you should do now is to let me cast a waterproofing spell on it so the chalks don't run. Are you going to give him the original?"  

"I didn't think about making a copy," she said

"We need to make a copy. If you're going to give him the original, you can keep the copy or give the copy to your dad to hang in his house. Either way, this is too good for you to not have a copy of it at least. And then, if you like, we can give the original to Minos."

"I'm nervous. What if he doesn't like it?"

"He's going to love it," he reassured her. He cast a waterproofing spell on it to protect the chalks from running and ruining the portrait, and then he cast a spell to make a copy. Then, with her full permission, he called for Minos. 

"Minos," Angus said, "Poppy has been working on a drawing while she recovers from her surgery, and she'd like you to have it."  Minos looked at her questioningly and pointed to himself, unsure if she really wanted him to have one of her drawings.

"I mean, if you think its good enough," she told him awkwardly, uncertain. Angus turned the portrait around to show him. He was wide eyed, and he stared at it for a moment, overwhelmed. And then he looked at her, gesturing to a multitude of symbols very quickly.

"He loves it," Angus told her. "He's overwhelmed because he says it is so beautiful. He wants your permission to use this as his official royal portrait."

"Royal portrait?" she looked confused.

"Don't you know?" Angus asked.

"Know what?"

"Minos is the new king of this little kingdom of fairies. He doesn't have a royal portrait yet, and he'd like to use yours and make it small enough that he can hang it in the throne room of his castle."

"Me? My painting? Really?" she asked, surprised. Minos nodded. "Um...Sure. I mean, of course. If you're sure. I could maybe do a better one..." Minos shook his head. He didn't want a different one. He wanted that one. And he gestured to her that nothing meant more to him than a gift from a friend. She was flattered at a fairy king considered her a friend. Minos shrank the painting to the size that he wanted, and he took it to show to his people.

"You have made a king very, very happy," Angus said. "Your dad and your grandparents are going to be proud of you. Job well done, Kiddo."

Aria watched Poppy and Angus from the living room and smiled as it seemed Minos loved her drawing. Ruby finished making lunch and looked at Jess as she finished sorting out the potions Robert had left noting how much was left in each bottle.

It was now Radagast returned with Iya and paused waiting then entering " I brought her, he was early to the meeting spot" he told Marcus as he lanced over to Angus . " that your daughter?" he asked Marcus " she looks a lot like you" he added as a compliment to him.

"Her names Poppy, and yes she is one of Marcus children" Aria said to Radagast. Ruby walked out with a cloth over her shoulder and smiled as she dried her hands before looking at Lya.

"Good to see you again Lya, hope you can stop another batt shit crazy family member from my family" she said " honestly I'm glad I went no contact until recently or I might have been bat shit crazy too" she said and chuckled.

"Robert said that this relative seems to be doing some sort of elemental magic from the grave. This one is dead this time?" Iya asked.

"That's our understanding, yes," Marcus said.

"Then that's definitely a more complicated situation," she said. "Not necessarily more dangerous, but it makes us operate differently, using different techniques and tools." She looked at Jess and at Angus. "You two are the seers here at the moment. Have either of you had any contact with her, outside of your incident in New Orleans the other night, Angus?"

"I've seen her in my sleep a few times," Angus said.

"Okay. We'll discuss in depth exactly what you saw because you might have a clue that you don't know you have."

"Ruby's family doesn't have a lot of information about people that go further back than Ruby's parents, not really," Angus said. "We're trying to sort through some old family papers that we have, and we're trying to find anything else that might be in public records, that sort of thing."

"Excellent," she said. "And I think the braziers are an excellent thought, but I don't think you have the right magical flame in them. There are several different types of magical flame. It isn't one-size-fits-all. I want to put all those out and restart them with the right type of magical flame. I'll get to that as soon as my grandson and I get settled. We'll be staying at the main house, so I've sent Beau over there with our bags to get our room settled."  She drew out a card from her pocket. It was the size and shape of a traditional business card, and she got a large bottle of some sort of mix of what looked like powdered potions ingredients and salts. She handed the card and the bottle both to Radagast.

"You. Make yourself useful. Talk to the grounds supervisor. That big werewolf. Ask him and...this one..." she pointed to Aria "to go with you, and the three of you go together. Put out all those braziers. Take a potions dosing cup, and add one potions dose sized cup of these protection salts to the braziers. Then, unite your energies together and cast this spell to relight the braziers. That will make the braziers far more protective. If the brazier flame is any other color other than a golden white light, you've screwed it up. Put it out, and do it again. Get all the braziers repaired, no matter how long it takes. Do it now, please."

Radagast looked at Lya and listened as Marcus explained what was going on. Jess smiled and shook her head " nope , I haven't had the pleasure , felt her threw Angus but other than that ." Jess said as she watched Lya give Radagast the bottle and a card.. " his names Jack and hes my husband, he'll be in the barn" she said to Radagast who nodded then turned to Lya and bowed before heading out the door with Aria both headed to the barn

Jack finished feeding the animals when he saw Aria and Radagast walk over to him." Lya need your help, we have to relight the brasiers , apparently my fame isn't the right one" he said and Aria shook her head as Jack washed his hands and dried them placing the cloth on a stall gate.

"okay lets get to it, Lya gave you the ingredients?" he asked and Aria showed him the bottle and card. " okay first by the main house" he said and they started relighting the braziers one by one each bursting with a strong white flame. now the moved to the one by the duplex.

Ruby looked at Jess and Lya " I'm sure with Jacks help they will do as you asked" she said but felt something like a heat wash over her " we supposed to feel this" she asked Lya wondering if the extra strong magic was what she was feeling.

"Yes. That's what you should feel, especially as a whitelighter. The more in touch with your whitelighter abilities, the more you'll feel it. That's the protection flame's magic wrapping around your seers' abilities to shield you from the dark arts attackers. You might well find that you are completely insulated from seeing this ghost woman at all. And that's okay because if she tries to reach Angus again, I probably will see what he sees," Iya said. She looked at Angus. "You aren't feeling much of anything, are you?"

"No," Angus replied.

"That's because, even though you're a whitelighter, your energies are very new. A beginning seer, and even so, those energies are depleted because of your encounter with dark arts wizards in New Orleans. I hope to keep her from being able to do you harm. You might still encounter her in your visions or your dreams because she might well be trying that hard to reach you. However, it should block a dark spirit from being able to do serious harm to you."

"That's fine by me," Angus said. As he spoke, Poppy called. 

"Dad? What are these?" she called. 

"Excuse me," Marcus stepped out. He came back in a moment later with something in his hands. He went over to Angus. "Got a clue, Mate? What are they? Mice?"

Angus looked and saw five very tiny newborn creatures in Marcus's hands.

"Nah. Too small for mice, even newborn ones. And the tails are too short. What you have there is a litter of newborn voles. I bet the mother's been injured or killed. They're going to have to be hand raised for a bit. Fed with, probably eyedroppers or a small sized pipette, or they won't make it. What do you think, Jess? I think these might be too tiny for Jack's gigantic hands. I suppose we should turn them over to Jack and let him decide, but one less tiny thing would only let him focus on more important things."

Jess heard Lya and nodded breathing out as she felt strange but calm at the same time . " all right" she said then listened to Iya talk to Angus " makes sense since I've had my abilities for years , Kate helped me hone my abilities." she said and looked to Poppy at what she had found , standing she walked over to her and smiled " your dads right, I can give you what you need and the special milk they will need , you up for the task?" she asked Poppy as she held Poppy's hands with the babies in them. " I'll also find a small nesting box so they will have a warm place to sleep, unless you could fetch them from the barn Marcus?" she asked feeling another shiver " another brazier lit" she said to Lya.

Ruby looked at what Poppy had found and smiled " I'll fetch it" she said " not like I'm doing anything until lunch anyway" she said smiling as she headed towards the barn to enter she found shelving with what she needed on it. Gathering everything she headed back watching in the distance as a brazier lit up with white light from Jack, Aria and Radagast.

"I'll go get some things," Marcus said. He took the babies back out to the deck to Poppy. "Do you mind?"

"No. Not at all. Ginger will go crazy. This is right up her alley," Poppy said.

"Well, yes. I hadn't considered her, but you're right. She loves taking care of things. Maybe its something you can do together."  Angus was scribbling something on a scratchpad.

"Here, Ru," Angus said, "Go see Edward for some Vitamin E drops. 1 cup of milk to 4 drops of Vitamin E. Now, here's the important thing. You must heat the milk carefully just until it hits 100 degrees C. Just til it hits the boiling point--but absolutely do not let it boil. The very second it hits 100, take it of the heat, add the vitamin e, and stir it gently with a wooden spoon. Then you can refrigerate it and reheat it carefully when the voles need fed. They could need fed every three or four hours as tiny as they are. I'll show her how to do feed them so she doesn't aspirate them. Can you make up the formula? Then all we'll need is the nesting box from the barn. Edward can give us an eye dropper and some new pipettes to try."

"Okay. Nothing but the box. I'll be back," Marcus said, going out.

Ruby smiled and looked to Angus as he handed hr the recipe for the milk for the voles " okay " she said and walked over to Edwards and lightly knocked 2 hey guys " she said smiling as she saw the babies who laughed at Simone " angus asked me to fetch some vitamin E drops, its for some baby voles poppy found, shes going to had rear them since there mother wasn't around, I'm guessing Ginger will help too but I need to make special formula for them witch has the vit E in that Angus said you might have some" she said walking over to Caprice and giving her a hug.

With the last brazier lit all three headed to the Duplex and walked in " all done' Lya" Jack said and looked at Jess " but I'm guessing you know already" he added seeing the look on Jess's face as he walked over " my names Jack by the way" he introduced himself to her. Radagast and Aria held back out side.

"okay so you still hate me?" hea sked Aria who shook her head " then why the hostility?" he asked Aria looked at him.

"you left mother to look after us, Archie had to take a job just so we could eat, while you were galivanting and cavorting around" she said but paused " but we got threw it and I'm here , I'm not bringing family issues into Robert home, Go back to Mom and apologise make it up to her." Aria saw Radagast's face dropped as she told him why she was annoyed by him.#

"your right, Aria, I was in the wrong, I will go see your mother Imogen, once we finish here, I am too old to do those things any more, and no before you ask you and the boys are my only kin" he explained and Aria nodded.

"do that and , I might be nice" she said with a smirk as she walked into the duplex.

"Of course," Edward said. "Newborns, i presume if he's asking you to make formula. Just one moment." He went upstairs to his lab and was gone just a few minutes and came back with two glass bottles, each with an eyedropper in it and a handful of plastic pipettes and a couple of eyedroppers.

"So, here's what you need," He told her. "Vitamin E. I'm sure he told you how much to add per batch. And, this is a somewhat new thing. This is a magical substitute for colostrum, and I've recalculated the ratios to formulate it for tiny mammals like a newborn vole. I've marked the dose per 8 oz batch of formula. Most formulas do not have any colostrum, which, of course is crucial for newborns. This will be far more healthy for them because they will be getting what they'd have gotten from their mother. You'll know when to stop the formula when they're able to transition to their vegetarian diet. By the time they are two to three weeks old, they'll be able to eat fruits and vegetables and seeds, and then you can do away with the formula. You'll also be able to judge how old they are by the fact that they'll have their front teeth by two weeks and all their teeth by 3 weeks. They'll have a bit of fuzz by one week, more by two weeks, and a full coat by three weeks. Does that help?"

Marcus went to the barn, brought a nesting box back and put some soft padding in it for the babies to help keep them warm. Then he put the vole babies in it, and they cuddled down into the padding and slept quickly. 

"You need to get out of the sun, my girl," Marcus told Poppy. He picked her up and let her settle on the sofa for a bit, telling her he would take her down to her room after lunch. She enjoyed being out of bed and being able to be with others. She was now sitting next to Angus who was back on his bed. She started picking his brain about sketching, about when to use different kinds of sketching pencils, about shaping and shading, about mixing colors with watercolors and oils and chalks. She was fascinated to have someone who liked one of the same things she did, and she wanted to know more and more and more. He answered what he could but he really wanted her to meet Kate. 

"Any issue with inviting Kate to meet Poppy?" Angus asked Marcus. "She's the real teacher."

"No issues on my part," Marcus said. "Jess? Any problem with that?"