A Birth day

"They won't care," Angus said. Angus went to the kitchen and fixed the stew so it had time to simmer on a very low heat for several hours just to get the flavors deep into everything. He sent a message to Sparks to order some crusty bread, and Lizzie sent it straight away. It came within minutes of Angus sending the order. Marcus answered the door and brought in two bags.

"Bags? I ordered two loaves of bread," Angus said.

"Well, there's more than that in here," Marcus said, putting the bags on the worktable. He unloaded the bread from the top of each bag and found a note. "Angus--I have a new pie I want you to try. Khaat brought us a boatload of the most exquisite peaches from the estate, so I did a version of banoffee pie but with peaches and not bananas. It doesn't have a name yet, not exactly. But try it, if you would, and let me know what you think."

Marcus unloaded two beautiful pies and put them on the worktable.

"Those look like works of art," Marcus said.

"They certainly do. And if they taste as good as they look, there won't be a crumb left," Angus laughed.

Aria and Ruby both chuckled and nodded " too true" Aria said as she opened her book and began reading again Ruby sat with the niffler letting it nestle into her lap while Aria watched the babies.Ruby smiled as she felt how soft his fur was against her arms as he sniffed her.

Aria listened to Angus and saw Marcus move to the back door and collect some bags and boxes from a delivery guy. As Ruby walked Digger around the room so he could get use to the area Aria walked to the kitchen hearing them talk about a peach banoffee pie " sounds interesting, a peachoffie pie" she said and chuckled but seeing it she wanted to see if it tasted as good as it looked.

"Well, let's sneak a taste," Angus said. He got out some small dessert plates and some dessert forks and cut four thin slivers of one of the pies and gave a sliver to everyone, with a fork and some cups of coffee. He cut another piece for the Fae, and they all fluttered in with their tiny forks and began working on devouring the sliver of pie. Angus could tell they loved every tiny forkful.

"In case they're not any good? Is that your reasoning?" Marcus teased.

"Well, if I need a reason, that's as good as any," Angus laughed. Marcus took a forkful of pie and tasted it.

"Oh, heavens. That's wonderful," Marcus said. "And they've done a dulce de leche layer, a toffee layer, the peaches, and some whipped cream. I almost like this better than the original banana version."

"I hate to say you're right, but you're right," Angus said.

"Are we really going to give any to the kids?" Marcus teased.

"Slivers," Angus laughed. "Just slivers." He looked at the niffler who seemed to want to mooch a piece too. "You won't eat this, I bet," Angus told him. Still, he looked into the niffler's big round eyes and then sighed and cut him a sliver and gave it to him . Digger ate it, making all sorts of happy chattering noises. "Lordy, we have a niffler with a sweet tooth. We're going to be in so much trouble when Kate finally gets him."

Aria chuckled and a smiled as Angus cut slivers from the pie and put it on a plate for her taking a bite she paused and smiled " wow this is wonderful" she said nodding as Marcus said it was better than the original " I have to agree, its refreshing with out being untasteful" she said " and the toffee layer gives it that sweetness it lacks, the peaches give the crunch and juiciness." she added as Ruby took a small piece and ate it.

" yum" she said finishing it off " I agree with Marcus do we have to give it to the kids can't we keep it?" she asked with a chuckle as she tried to grab a second sliver from the plate and chuckled. Ruby heard the babies wake and look a small sliver over to them feeding them a small taste both ate and liked their lips " I'd say its unanimous that its good" she said as she placed the now clean plate down on the counter before returning and picking up both girls.

Joseph continued to practice his wand work his foot steps lighter this time and his fingers gently holding the wand in it, he calmed himself and fired confringus followed by Aqua Eructo which immediately put it out. Joseph turned and did the same to the dummy behind him with a simple pirouette that immediately set him in front of the dummy that was soon scorched and then drenched.

"I'll send a note to Lizzie asking her to send us a couple more. We'll give one to Edward, and we won't have any issue demolishing them," Marcus said, collecting the pie plates and took them to the sink. "Um, Captain Swashbuckler, Sir, the new scallywag is trying to figure out this light touch thing. You might have to go give the boy some pointers." Angus laughed.

"Landlubber," Angus teased. "A scallywag is a newbie." He got up and went to the windows. "He's looking better, but why is he playing with fire? God. Alright, I'm going out before he sets the woods or the main house on fire." He accio'd two practice fencing foils from his closet, caught them, and headed outside.

"Okay," Marcus said, tagging with him as Angus went outside and across the yard.

"Have you got it yet?" Angus called to Joseph. "If not, come try it with me."

"Wait, you're going to give him a sword? Dear God, someone better call Jess or Robert. Someone's gonna be minced."

"They're foils. It's fine," Angus laughed.

Joseph heard Angus voice from behind him and stopped and turned to look at him " Getting the, still trying to figure out the fine details" he said slipping his wand in its holster he caught sight of the foils and chuckled at Marcus words " yeah , probably be me" he said and chuckled. " and I'd like that" he said walking over to him standing facing him he picked up a foil and raised it in respect to Angus his arm behind his back as he stood .

" so what we starting with?" he asked Angus seeing Jack walk from the barn diverting to stand on the outside of the dulling cercle to watch. Joseph centered his feet into the ground and turned his body slightly just as Angus had told him earlier to do. slowly lowering the foil he held it in front of him.

"Stand beside me. Let's start with some basics," Angus said. "Let's start with stance and why fencing uses the stances it does. The positions are about balance and stability while either defending or attacking. Your wand does add some length to your body, so making sure that you're staying balanced at all times makes it easier for you to move and to make full use of that extra length. And when you're balanced, you have far better control. You can gain speed, agility and accuracy when you have that sort of balance and control. When you have that, you won't feel like you need to keep a death grip on the wand."

He showed Joseph the various positions using the foils so that he could see and feel for himself why stance was important. As he was working with Joseph on stance, Robert arrived home from work and came outside in jeans and a white linen henley. He came down the stairs and down to the yard.

"How's the lesson coming?" Robert asked.

"We're working on it," Angus said.

"Come spar with me. Show him how its done when both you and your opponent know about balance and agility," Robert said. "You want to see how it should be done, Joseph? Watch." Marcus went to stand by Joseph in case he needed to move Joseph out of the way.

Robert and Angus took dueling stances, gave the traditional greetings and then began. Neither of them were holding back. Robert had the same light stance and light wand grip that Angus had, but he had different wand techniques than Angus did. It made for an unusual but tight match. Robert's technique gave him focus and sharp accuracy. that gave him some accuracy and power advantages over Angus, and Angus's technique gave him almost blinding speed that at times even Robert had a hard time keeping up with. Both men were tightly focused, and in the end, after several long, hard minutes, Robert's spellcasting knocked Angus off his feet onto the ground.

"Oh, well done," Robert grinned at Angus. "You gave me a workout. That's for sure. Nice work, Lad."

"And you made me work for it. Thank you, Robert. That was fun," Angus said, as Robert extended him a hand to help him up.

"What did you learn?" Robert asked Joseph.

Joseph followed Angus instruction and held the foil lightly and extended as he tried to move it he felt it tip to one side but he corrected but he heard Robert walk over pausing he lowered the foil and moved to Marcus.

"This should be interesting." Joseph said as he stood and watched the two men duel. He tried to followed them but after a while he looked to Marcus " how do you follow what their doing, I'm getting eye strain just watching" he said to Marcus as Jack walked up behind him.

"You don't" he said " you watch how the whole body moves not just feet or hands" he said and pointed out how they both seem to work together and off each other until Angus was felled and Jack chuckled. Joseph heard Angus and shook his head .

"yeah that I have a long way to go, and I will never be as good as you two with out a lot of practice." he said Jack slapped him across his back and chuckled.

"don't be like them, be like yourself, don't duel like them you duel like yourself, I don't duel like Marcus and Marcus doesn't duel like Angus but put us all together and well, formidable team ." he said and Joseph looked at the others .

"oh I get it like pieces in a puzzle each a piece but together you make a full picture" he said " I need to find where I fit" he added smiling " but at the same time I need to focus on my stance and grip and physical fitness."

"Robert is a master," Angus said. "I hope someday I might be half as good. He pushes us to keep working and working on our wand skills, not to compete but so that we honestly will have some advantages that will keep us alive."

"And, just for the record," Robert said, "Angus has speed with a slashing spell unlike anyone I've ever seen. You don't need to match either of us. But, what you should notice is that we aren't fighting the wand. When we're dueling, the wand becomes merely an extension of us. Actually, the wand only amplifies your own magical energies. You will still have power, wand or no. You're not powerless without it." Robert went over and showed Joseph how he held his own wand and then moved Joseph's fingers to mimic that grip. "Lighten up. You really wont drop it," Robert said. "Like that. Angus uses an even lighter grip. Show him, would you, Angus?"

Angus showed Joseph how he held his wand.

"It works very for him," Robert said. "Some of the other recruits have tried that grip, and they have to work at it before it feels natural, but invariably, they have learned to have a much lighter grip, and that's given them better wrist movement and far more accuracy."

Joseph listened to Robert and let him move his hand to hold his wand lightly he did at first feel like he was going to drop his wand but he didn't feeling it settle and balance in his hand. He then heard Robert talk of Angus style of dulling and nodded ." I noticed his speed" Joseph said then looked at his wand " I guess because my magic is still out of whack that explains why I'm out of whack dueling too" he said.

Watching Angus show him he nodded and moved his wrist in a similar position finding it to be uncomfortable at first but then it seem to make his movement lighter. " oh I get it, like this" he said and flicked his wrist using the lighter movement.