Welcome to Gaia! ::

Few days were quiet days, lately, with ZDT providing di'Lesn so much raw pain to feed upon. Curiously enough, today the woman seemed almost normal, calmly and quietly trimming plants in the flowerbed that curved around the side of the house. Nevermind the fact that all plants therein were dead, long so, and most every snip-snip-snip of her shears reduced the stems to splintered dust.

Above her head flew Bertrand and Ernestine, the two Feien tossing between them a set of brightly painted pebbles. Every once in a while one of them would try something complicated with said pebbles, resulting in the other either catching it with a joyful exclamation, or them missing it and it falling to become entangled in the matted mass that was ZDT's hair. Mostly the latter, but it seemed to be every bit as entertaining as the former was, given the way whoever had to retrieve it laughed before diving in.

Startled, Bertrand promptly lost his hold on his trio of pebbles, green, red, and black falling from his hands and landing, plop, plop, plop, atop ZDT's head, who paid no notice and merely continued humming an off-key tune. "Monsieur Maquinar!" he cried out happily.

A little more controlled, Ernestine dipped down to lay her own blue, orange and white pebbles beside Bertrand's, before she returned Maq's wave. "Hello, Mr. Maq!"

Neither seemed to be ready to fly over to meet Maq halfway, both preferring to remain close to their Bond.

They exchanged glances and grinned; for two Feien who looked so dissimilar, they sometimes shared *very* similar facial expressions. Simutaneously they looked back at Maq, and Ernestine said, "We were using our special stones to juggle--"

"--Or an adequate facsimile of, by any chance," Bertrand finished, nodding as she did. His eyes caught the roll of paper in Maq's hand, widening slightly. Mon dieu, could it be? So soon? He wanted to ask, but refrained from it, feeling that a sudden change in conversation would be quite impolite.

The disappointment was clearly evident on Bertrand's face when Maquinar revoked the offer of the letter, big blue eyes looking up at the much larger Feien confusedly. "Tip... you? But I have no--"

It was at this point that a realization came to Ernestine, who exclaimed loudly, even as she launched herself towards Maq, "Sure, we'll tip you!"

Catch on he did as well, launching himself with a flutter of his wings at Maquinar.

The miniature scuffle atop her head seemed to not bother ZDT in the least, and she continued to clip away. All seemed to go as usual until the woman suddenly stood upright, her movement knocking all three out of the air and tumbling towards the ground.

"We won! You've tipped!" Ernestine cried out, to be seconded by Bert, as they all righted themselves.

"That is correct! Now you must present the required prize."

While he had taken the letter enthusiastically enough, Maquinar's words brought him pause, and Bertrand looked up in obvious disappointment. "You are taking your leave so soon?"

Behind him, Ernestine first adjusted her wings, then fixed one of the folds in Bertrand's, adding nothing to the conversation. She knew how fond Bertrand was of the other Feien, but she wouldn't mind it in the least if he were gone, and she and Bertrand could return to their practice.

Bertrand nodded unethusiastically, glancing in the direction that ZDT had wandered to see if she had noticed the mention of the other Tera. Fortunately, she seemed to be out of earshot, as she hadn't immediately gone into the shrieking hysterics she usually did. "All right then, I suppose..."

When he trailed off like that, Ernestine pointed out, in hopes of perking him up a touch, "But we'll be seeing you soon, right? And the rest of the House, too!"

"That is correct!" A bright smile lit his face. "And onward from there, to greet my genetic contributors!"