Elle's Room ~ GMFC ~ Neith-Kia is Mommy

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

Damien nods sadly, placing what he hopes to be a comforting hand on Elle's shoulder.

To happily go along with the change of subject, Damien asks, "Would you like to show me some of the things they were teaching you?" he asks, curious about what she was learning as well.

Nyoka goes to Kia to help her onto the couch. "And just what did you do, hmm?" she asks, smiling a little.

Lenore sits down, but shakes her head at the offer for a drink. "I can't drink that stuff," she says. Deciding to take a different route with Neith, she asks, "Well, if you are not the woman I am looking for, why don't you tell me about yourself?"

It is all Ximena can do not to outright laugh. Oh, these two are amusing. Finishing off her cigarette, she lifts her hand into the air, signaling for another glass of wine herself.

[Neith-Kia]

Elle patted the hand on her shoulder, before taking it and tugging him in the direction of the library. "Come look, I can show you what I found in books about it. "

She tugged him in that direction, and when they reached the library, Elle sat down on a chair and picked up one of the books she'd found on it.

Kia sat on one side of the couch, looking at her hands guiltily. "I attacked Aadil. I am sorry, Oka, but he called me fat. Twice! So I had to attack him, because he was being stupid."

Neith raised an eyebrow at Lenore. "Why not? Is there something you'd rather drink...?" She grinned, and winked at Lenore suggestively. "I'm... not from here. I'm from somewhere else, but this is a good place to stay."

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

Damien allows himself to be led to the library. Once there, he sits with Elle, and waits for her to show him some of the things she has been learning.

Nyoka chuckles. "Well, he deserved it, then, didn't he? If I were pregnant and he said that to me, I would have hit him too," she admits. "I don't know why you are getting so worked up over it. It's not like I was going to kill you for hitting the little git."

Lenore blinks at Neith, but ignores the comment outright. She smiles a little. "Is that all you have to say about yourself? That you aren't from here? Do you have friends? Hobbies? Things that interest you or things you like to do?" maybe something will spark memories in Neith, since she is trying her damndest not to think about her kids.

Ximena is still listening, drinking her wine and smoking another cigarette.

[Neith-Kia]

Elle opened the book, showing Damien the neat Elvish script. She couldn't read it too well right now, and she wasn't sure if he could read it, but Elle still liked looking.

"See? I got taught how to do this, and this, and this, and now I have to go out and find sick animals. But first I have got to learn how to be like an elf and charm animals to heal them." Elle told him, adding, "It sounds like fun too."

Kia glanced up, and grinned at Nyoka. She held her arms out for a hug. "I just felt very bad because you love him. What if I had really hurt him? ...oh, and speaking of LOVE." She brightened up a lot then, grinning stupidly. Kia paused... she'd let Nyoka try and figure that one out.

Neith grinned. "Does one always have to give a life story at meeting?" She wasn't liking it though, secretly. Neith was resisting something, and she couldn't even figure out what that thing was. "I would have thought one thing I like to do is obvious... and friends, friends are something people don't need."

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

"Well, you are part elf, are you not?" Damien starts, smiling a little. "I don't think it will be too hard to learn how to be like one. It is already in you." He pauses, looking at the script. He can read more of it than he has let on. Eirnae had started teaching him, along with Calavel. He also got ahold of his sisters Elven language book when she was done with it. "It does sound like fun, though. I bet you'll be good at it."

Nyoka hugged Kia before raising an eyebrow at her. "Let me guess, you saw Taka?" she asks.

"So, you like to drink wine and hang out at bars?" Lenore asks, not really sure how she was going to unlock Neith's mind. She's not doing a very good job of it, to say the least.

[Neith-Kia]

Elle nodded, reaching up to touch the points of her ears. "Yes, so I might be able to be like one. But I feel... like the other half is not letting me, because it is not normal." She touched a sharp tooth for a second, before Elle dropped her hand back onto the book and tried to go back to showing him. "See? They can tame animals with words, and movement and... it looks fun."

Kia nodded happily, repling cheerfully. "I saw him. And I saw Priss. She was trying to rip his clothes off, like she was a horny rabbit. So I decided to not take him back. But then he came after me and I was sad and he was sorry and we made up and he..." Kia drifted off, trying to be mysterious. She started again, as if she'd skipped something, "Then I went and hit Priss. I think hormones is making me violent, Oka, because I LIKE it."

Neith shifted, glancing back down at her drink. "Is there anything better?" But she really wasn't feeling comfortable now.

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

"My mum has the same problem," Damien tells her. "She is a witch, but with help from my other mum, she has learned some things. She used to tell me that you have to have faith in yourself," he says. "But," he looks down at the book. "It does look fun. Maybe when my mum comes back, she can teach me some of this stuff. . . . Or I can always just ask you to come and cure any sick animals we have," Damien smiles at Elle.

"Violence is always freeing," Nyoka says, eyeing Kia. "But I get the feeling there is something you aren't telling me. . . ."

Lenore nods. "There are far better things in life. The woman I am looking for has them. As do I. Children, and friends. . . . But, I did not come to preach. And, since you insist that you are not the woman I am looking for, I think it best I leave you alone," she says, and stands.

Ximena's eyes narrow a little bit when she hears Lenore. She taps her chin, waiting to see what this Neith does before she makes any move.

[Neith-Kia]

"I think I do, but sometimes I don't. Because what I am is dangerous, and it made mommy take Winny away." Elle shut the book, stood up and tried to get another thick book off the shelf. It was huge compared to her, and Elle almost fell over when it was jerked free of the others. She opened it to show him, a huge book full of healing humans. "I want to learn this, but I can't because I can't practice on me too."

Kia beamed, and tried to pull Nyoka onto the couch so that she could cuddle her. This was a cuddly, happy, joy...ie, moment, after all! Nyoka would be the first she'd tell out of ANYONE.

Neith's hand shot out and grabbed at Lenore's tugging her roughtly back down. She wasn't going to confuse and make Neith feel uncomfortable, without telling Neith waht she meant! "Even if I WAS that woman... I can't remember it now, and I'm sure it's all blank and left behind for the right reasons."

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

Damien blinks. Was that why Nyoka had been worried? And why his mum had left so suddenly? Because Whinny and Kochi were gone? "Elle," he starts, but he feels too young to comfort her over something like that. He has no idea what to say.

Instead, he looks down at the book again, getting lost in their familiar comfort. After all, books are his secret world. He knows them better than the world he is in now. Far better. And, everything somehow makes sense in them. . . . "Well, if you can't practice on yourself, I am sure you can always find someone to practice on," he says, not sure what to say to that.

Nyoka sits, a little warrily now. Kia was a bit too happy. "Well, are you going to spill or not?" she asks.

"Bollocks, Neith," Lenore says, narrowing her eyes at her. "If I know anything, it is that you can't just run away from your problems when there are too many people depending on you. Kochi might have left, and taken Whinny, but Kia is pregnant, and Elle is still young, and they both need you. You are here, getting drunk, and the gods only know what else. You're being a coward, and I can't be around someone like that. If Nyoka were here, she would have slapped you already, just to knock some sense into you, and I am resisting the urge to do the same." She yanks her arm from Neith's grasp and stands again, on the point of leaving, when the sight of someone stops her in her tracks.

Ximena is looking straight at her with her deep, purple eyes, and shaking her head. She may not particularly like her half sister, she hates her in fact, but she thinks now is not the time for Lenore to be leaving.

[Neith-Kia]

"Maybe I can, but I'm just a kid." Elle replied, turning the pages with unusual carefull moves for someone her age. She'd been taught to be careful when she was little, and she still was. The pages were brittle, after all. "Can you read elvish too?"

Kia snuggled up happily to Nyoka's side, adjusting herself so that the position worked. It involved getting her stomach propped on Nyoka, and then a few cushions...

"Don't you think this finger is a bit bare?" Kia beamed, holding up a hand. "Taka proposed!"

Neith clutched her head in her hands then tightly... then cried out in pain, again, when those spots above her ears errupted in pain.

Stupid ... drink.

But it also made something else break, a flood of memories and emotions that until now, Neith had locked away. Both eyes filled with tears, and she grabbed at her wine and tried to drink it down again. More of it went on Neith's front than in her mouth though, her hands were shaking.

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

"I can read some," Damien replies, unsure of why he is keeping his little secret to himself, still. Perhaps because his mum hasn't be around to teach him. He would feel a little bad if she came back and she didn't have much to teach him anymore. . . . "Probably at the same reading level as you. I might know a few more words," he adds. "Did you want me to help you translate something?"

"Er, congratulations," Nyoka smiles, not knowing what else to say, really.

Lenore glares at Ximena as she motions with her head for her to sit down. As though she doesn't know how to handle her own friend! Despite the thought, she sinks back into a seat next to Neith, and moves her hand to rest on Neith's shoulder. "I think it is best if you stopped drinking now," she says in a soft, suprisingly gentle voice, given her earlier tone.

[Neith-Kia]

"I can read some too. The elves in the camp try and teach me and it's a bit hard but it is hard to learn how to write and read English too. But I can read that a bit too... can you read English too?" Elle pulled the book over to the lower table, and pointed at the page where it showed long complex spells for finding things. "Do you know what this says?"

Kia beamed, clinging to Nyoka. "It was so good, and he was on his knee and EVERYTHING. And he has lots of money too, so maybe I will get a big sparkly diamond."

Neith put the drink down, and halfcollapsed onto Lenore's side. She wasn't crying yet, but her entire body was starting to shake and her hands started to wring together. "Why did she leave?" Neith asked in a broken voice, that was barely loud enough to be heard over the noise of the bar.

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

"I can read English very well," Damien replies, and looks at the complex spell on the page. He frowns a little. "I can read some of it, but not enough to help you learn the spell. Just bits here and there. There are some words here that I have never seen," he admits.

Nyoka nods. "Perhaps," she says. "One never knows," she's not partial to diamonds herself, but whatever. This is whatever Kia wants. "It sounds romantic, though. . . ." she admits, a little jealous, but she hides that very well.

Lenore puts her arms around Neith and rests a cheek on the top of her head. "No one can say but her, Neith," she says, softly. "I'm terribly sorry, though. I wish it never happened. But, I can't let you stay here. Elle is worried, I think she thinks you might have abandoned her. . . ."

[Neith-Kia]

"Ooh... can you? Sometimes Elvish is easier, because writing it is like drawing pictures and words at the same time." Elle sighed, and tried to translate it too. She only knew bits and pieces of this page. But something else occared to her, and she stared up at him. "You must be really smart to know things!"

Kia nodded happily. "Well, diamonds go sparkly in all lights. And... but I want a gold ring, more than anything. Yellow gold, all ... golden. Egyptians put rings of bonding in this finger," She showed Nyoka, "Because they said it had the vein straight to the heart."

"I'd never abandon my babies." Neith flopped, as barriers started to build up again to block her tears. She had to be strong, had to be a rock, had to hold it all together and go home, and take care of the family. But, it all came crumbling down when something popped out, "Why can I just be loved?" with tears and a quiet sob. "I did everything to make her happy, I even had her babies, and now she's god knows where with my baby, and she USED me just so she could have a baby."

[Lenore Silme-Natenhar]

Damien blinks. "I-well, I'm not smarter than anyone else," he says quietly, going shy again. "I just read a lot. . . ."

Nyoka nods, thinking to herself. She continues to smile, though, and says, "Well, I am happy for you, all the same."

Lenore shakes her head. "Neith, you don't know that she did that. She loved you, you have to believe that. She might have become scared. She is going to outlive you. . . ." she last makes her stop speaking. She bites her lower lip and takes a deep breath. "It is sometimes better for a person to stop . . . well, to end it before they can get to a painful point. If that is what she did, I am not saying it is right. Don't beat yourself up over something she did. You are loved, by those closest to you. And, for now, you will have to settle for that. Sometimes things just aren't meant to be, and we have to accept that. . . ."