A Birth day

"This is Minos," Marcus said. "Minos and his people were driven from their village, and they've re-established their new kingdom in Angus's garden out behind the duplex. Minos and his wife are the king and queen of their kingdom, and they are our friends. They also handle the security here in the house during the overnight hours. They have an open invitation from Angus and Ruby that they're welcome in the house at any time, day or night. Minos, this is Joseph. He is a new worker with the grounds crew here." Minos bowed to Joseph as a sign of greeting and made another gesture.

"Minos says friends of Angus are also friends of the Fae," Marcus said. "Fae don't speak actual words. Their own language sounds like music to us, so Minos and Angus have developed their own sign language. It seems to work pretty well for us all, actually. We do need to be careful, though, because our eagle and our owls needed to be taught that the Fae are not food. Kate has the ability to speak to birds of prey, so she's been working on that. Still, if you do see any bird of prey stalking one of our fae, we would appreciate you rescuing that Fae."

Minos fluttered over to check on the babies, and he got too close. Amari had ahold of Minos like lightning and had him clutched tight in her little fist.

"Uh oh," Angus said. He went over to try to get her to let go of Minos. Minos, though, had a plan to free himself. He cast a spell to tickle her relentlessly until she let go of him. The very instant she let go, he fluttered up out of her reach.

"It seems Minos is pretty self sufficient," Marcus said,

"He should be," Angus said. "After all, he is over 1000 years old."

Joseph listened to Marcus and gave as good a bow as he could holding two babies one in each arm " pleasure, your majesty" he said and then gasped as Amari grabbed him he looked around but when he heard Amari laughing and her hand open with Minos flying out he breathed out in relief " don't worry I'll make sure no owl or eagle eats any fae" he said to him as he handed Amari back to Marcus and Caprice to Angus .

Hearing Marcus say Minos was pretty self sufficient he nodded " I can see that he has experience dealing with babies" he said " myself not so much" Joseph said stepping back from the babies. "maybe in time but not right now." Jack had double checked the area for the Fae and walked back in as Joseph tossed him a towel to dry off.

"its a bit of a wash with water, but will dry out" he said to Angus " again I'll get the crew on drying it out, shouldn't take a few hours once the storm passes" he said and took Caprice from Angus and holding her as another boom shook the house.

"Thank you," Angus told him. "I'm glad Simone was upstairs when the limb went through the doors downstairs. At least no one was hurt. She can always come over here for awhile if she likes but she's pretty self sufficient. And so long as you have that one occupied, I'll go start some supper. I have a big package of salmon in the freezer, so I think I'll thaw that out and maybe roast it and make a honey mustard sauce. I think I'll add some roasted broccoli and maybe a farro pilaf, and that'll give me time to work on dessert. I've been wanting to make an orange creamsicle cake, so this seems as good an afternoon as any to make that."

He went to the kitchen, got out the salmon, and then he started working on making the orange creamsicle cake and getting that in the oven. While that was baking, he was working on the orange creamsicle icing and then moved on to cleaning the broccoli, dicing some onions, and the other vegetables he needed for supper. The kitchen was soon smelling like orange cake and Marcus was starting to smell the onions and garlic and other aromatics he was putting in the pilaf.

The storm began to die down, and Marcus opened some of the windows to let some of the fresh air into the house.

"Skies in the east are clearing up nicely," Marcus said. "The rain is just coming straight down now, and the storm looks like its moving off to the west away from us. Looks like it should be safe for Ruby and Aria to come back whenever the spirit moves them."

"Well, they're not missing anything here. Let them have a good time," Angus said.

"Your cake smells great," Marcus said.

"Good. Hopefully that means it will taste good too," Angus replied.

Joseph listened to Angus and chuckled nodding his head " good to know" he said as he watched the rain through the window change to straight down and hearing Marcus talk of it being mostly over and Aria and Ruby could come back. Jack chuckled and nodded.

"yeah let them have a girl day" he added and nodded when Marcus said that the cake smelt good " I agree , smells delish." he added and Joseph's stomach grumbled " hungry, still?" Jack asked and Joseph chuckled and nodded " shesh kids these days." Jack said chuckling too.

"Here, let me relieve you of those little monsters," Marcus said. He set the babies on the floor with a stack of soft plastic blocks, and the babies settled into playing with them for a bit.

"That will only keep them for about three minutes," Angus said.

"I thought they liked those blocks," Marcus said.

"Nah. Not so much. Picky little demons. They liked the pink and purple ones better, but they rather outgrew those, so I tucked those away, and gave them these to challenge them a little more. And they don't like these newer ones as well," Angus said. the babies started to dash off, and Finn ran over, grabbed Amari's diaper by the teeth and began dragging her back away from the stairs that headed towards the basement. Amari started to rant and tantrum and trying to reach back to smack Finn, unhappy that Finn was interfering with her plans to go down the steps head first, and Finn just growled at her and kept dragging her backwards.

"Hm. I see what you mean," Marcus said.

"I figured if I left them out long enough they might take to them," Angus said.

"Uh oh. There goes the other one," Marcus frowned, watching Caprice deciding to try to figure out how to crawl up the stairs to the second floor. "I swear, they must plan these things. One wants to go to the basement, and the other wants to go upstairs." Marcus moved Caprice back from the stairs, and she picked up some blocks and started throwing them at the lamps on the end tables.

"Monsters. Both of them," Marcus sighed. "Where is your mother? I swear, I'm going to fold you and your siter both up and mail you to her--on a very slow boat, with no return address."

"Go for it," Angus laughed. "The owls will just bring them straight back."

Joseph just chuckled as he watched both girls go in opposite directions and Marcus and Angus scrabble to grab them. It was as Marcus asked where Aria and Ruby were, it was now they heard porting and both Aria and Ruby walked in laughing.

"wow , girls doing a runner?" Aria asked picking up Caprice and the blocks and placing her into the play pen then moved to get Amari and doing the same. " what ever your baking it smells good"  

" mommy missed you girls" Ruby said smiling as she hugged Caprice and Amari. " I know you've not been behaving for the guys, but you should with daddy and the others" she tried to explain but saw both girls just sit and pick up their blocks " shesh talk about a short attention span" she said and sat down as Aria went and grabbed her a coffee.

"They both want to figure out how to deal with stairs. Only, Caprice wants to go up butt first and Amari wants to go down head first. And Finn isn't having any of it," Marcus said.

Angus began to make the pilaf in a big pan and he seasoned the salmon fillets and put them in the oven, and seasoned the broccoli and put that in the oven on a sheet pan as well. With supper now well under way, he iced his orange creamsicle cake and dusted it with a bit of orange colored sugar crystals for color and a little crunch.

The kids came in from work as he was setting up the sideboard for supper. They headed straight to wash up.

"Super should be ready in about twenty minutes," Angus told them, adding a large pitcher of iced tea.

"I'll go see if Elwood is awake," Andrew said. Just as he was speaking there was a knock on the door. Marcus answered and brought in a box.

"It's a delivery for Elwood," Marcus said. Angus looked at the box.

"I bet that's the chess board I bought him," Angus said.

"I'll open it, then," Marcus said. Marcus opened the box, and he found the selenite and tourmaline chess board. "That is one impressive chess set," Marcus said. "If he's not into it, I'll take it. The pieces are beautiful, and the squares are all inlaid in oak, and they used a gold moulding around the edges. Oh, and look, there are drawers for the pieces."

"Turn it over," Angus said. Marcus turned the board over and found a backgammon board.

"Backgammon! Awesome. Selenite and...what is the red stone?"

"Its a red tourmaline. It has all the same properties as black tourmaline," Angus said. "And there should be a drawer with the backgammon pieces too.

"There is. It's all here. Angus, this is a beautiful set. He's going to love it," Marcus said.

"I hope so," Angus said.

"We should put a small table and a couple chairs so he can always have the board at the ready," Marcus said.

"I didn't think about that. That'll mean another trip to Colorado, but I know there is a small round table in that warehouse and I bet there are a couple chairs too," Angus said.

Ruby listened to Angus and chuckled " ah I see , trouble trouble" she said and laughed as did Aria. " well can't say they don't work together because that sure took team work" she added as Aria smelt the cake .

"oh that smells yummy" she said then looked to Finn " your a good boy for looking after the babies" she moved and patted his head making Finns tail wag hard as he heard Aria tell him he was a good boy " but stay away from that skunk, please" she added and Finn just sat and looked at her confused " oh well can't win every battle."

Ruby chuckled and sat down on the couch as she slipped off her shoes and sat back. " as relaxing as today was seeing Rosaria and Carlos and Evan, being home works for me" she said smiling. Joseph on the other hand looked out the window seeing the rain now little more than a trickle he looked to Jack.

"yep let get back to our respective places" he said and Joseph nodded. "thanks for the hot drinks Angus but we should head back" Jack said.

" yeah I should change out these wet things" Joseph added as he moved to the back door " enjoy the rest of your evening" he said and stepped out smelling the damp air around them before heading over to the groundsman's tower.

"Thanks, Guys," Angus told Jack and Joseph as they left. Angus put a platter of salmon fillets on the table, and he drizzled them with his honey mustard sauce. He set out a platter of oven roasted broccoli that he had added minced shallot and garlic to. And then he set out a pilaf he'd made with farro, wild rice, brown rice, and bulgar wheat. He'd added baby spring peas, diced carrots, diced red bell pepper, pine nuts, lemon, thyme, shallots and garlic to it. he set it all on the table with a loaf of fresh crusty bread and some fresh Irish butter.

"Supper is ready," Angus told them. "Come fix your plates."

The kids all went to the sideboard and fixed their plates.

"And is there dessert?" Sam asked.

"Now, when have I ever left you dessert-less?" Angus laughed. "Yes. I made dessert."

"Awesome," Sam said. Andrew brought Elwood down for supper, and Elwood seemed delighted to see salmon. Marcus put the babies in their chairs as Angus set a couple small plates down for them. the moment the plates were set down for the babies, Amari began to fling her pilaf in all directions. Elwood seemed to be completely surprised.

"Sorry, Kiddo, Dad makes the rules," Marcus told Amari, picking her up out of the high chair and putting her down in the playpen. She gave him a pouty lip and then started to cry. Angus went over to the playpen and took Amari upstairs without saying a word and put her in her crib. Then he left the nursery, closing the door and came back downstairs.

"So, the rule apparently is that if someone misbehaves at the table, their meal is over?" Elwood said.

"It is. I know she's probably hungry, so if she settles, I might reconsider," Angus said, "but she needs to figure out that if she's hungry, throwing food will not solve that problem for her."

"Maybe I should have tried that with my Charlotte when she was that age," Elwood said thoughtfully.

Ruby smiled as the food was set out " oh nice something light after that suckling pig" she said smiling as she made up her plate once she put the girls in their high chairs. Seeing Amari throw her food she just sighed and shook her head then looked to Elwood " yes, its to teach them they an't do that at the table and respect the food that's given them." she said as Caprice ate with her spoon then she heard him mention Charlotte and chuckled.

Both watched as Angus took Amari up to the nursery but said nothing as it was something she needed. " she'll be okay, shes done this before and calmed right down and she got fed" Aria explained to Elwood. Ruby stood up and made a small plate wrapping it in clear wrap she placed it in the fridge for Amari later.