Welcome to Gaia! ::

A certain dark elf was admiring the garden in the park--or he would have been, had he not been half asleep. His eyes were wide and golden, his silver hair had regained the sheen it had had before his pregnancy. The one different thing about him was the infant he no. He had leaned her against his shoulder, hoping she would fall asleep. No such luck, and now it seemed the newborn could speak.

"I want flowers like that," Leyla said, pointing to a clump of lilies. She had been pointing out every brightly colored flower in the park's garden. She spoke well; one would have never guessed that she had been born within the week. Her wings were useless, or she would have been flying. "I want... Oooh." Instead of seeing a flower in a patch of herbs, she'd found a girl! If only she knew how to walk! Then they could play. Maybe they could still talk...

"Hello," she said, looking down at the toddler. "I'm Leyla. I can't walk yet, so we can't play. Let's be friends and talk anyway."

"Pleasant to meet you too," Leyla echoed, having not caught the error in the older child's words. She had never heard the phrase before; and who could blame her? She was only a few days old. "What were you doing, Eve? Looking for flowers? There's lots of them here."

Zee looked down at the toddler, rather surprised to be addressed, and even more so to be spoken to by a toddler who could speak so well. Having Leyla had opened his eyes; not all children lisped as his two boys had. "I am?" he asked, glancing around. How could he be like a toddler's mommy? He spotted Ivy and it clicked. "Oh," he mused. "She's a dark elf. You said your name's Eve? Pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasant," Leyla tried to correct him.

"No, it's pleasure. Now's not time for English classes. We'll start you on elvish first..."

"Herbs?" Leyla repeated, not having the slightest idea what herbs were. "Herbs are nice, but I prefer flowers," she said in a tone that clearly said she didn't understand what she was talking about.

Zee rolled his eyes. Leyla, from the time of her birth, had appeared to be a perfectionist. She didn't like being wrong. She didn't like knowing less than someone else. "Herbs are plants that can be used to help people, or can be used in cooking to make certain foods taste better," he explained. "Sometimes they're used for medicine."

Leyla nodded in understanding. "Flowers are prettier," she mused.

Zee ignored his daughter and looked up at Ivy. "You're learning elvish?" he asked in disbelief. The dark elf before him appeared full grown, and where he was from, all elven children learned languages at a very young age. What did this remind him of? Ah, Stasia! His fiancee didn't speak elvish either. "Are you half elf? Do you need a tutor? I'm Zee Zulpen."

"My name is Leyla," Leyla said clearly, now addressing Ivy. "Leyla Lorraine Zulpen. It means--" Zee put a hand over her mouth and shook his head at her. Once her father had let go, she added, "Daddy says I talk too much. He says I shouldn't tell people more than they want to know. It's pleasant to meet you," she said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Zee corrected her. "Learning elvish from books isn't good," he said, shaking his head at Ivy. "Wouldn't you rather have an elf teach you? With tomes you may end up learning a dead language."

"Pretty," Leyla said, though she privately thought her name was prettier. "I like you," said the infant, looking up at Ivy. "You belong to Leyla." There was a pause in which she ignored her father's sigh. "You belong to Leyla too, Eve," she added. "I like you."

"Strange," Zee mused. "Recently the elves of Lynwood formed a truce between fae and elves; one context of said truce was to allow elves to have free will. Even the princess now has the choice to remain married to her human husband." Clearly the dark elf had no idea elves could come from other places. "I could teach you," he added with a smile. "I'm going to be teaching my fiancee anyway. Maybe you know her. Stasia?"

Leyla stuck her tongue out at Eve before giving the older girl a smile to soften it. "I like you," she repeated, nodding at Eve in approval. "We're friends." She was oblivious to Ivy's expression, though her father wasn't.

"Sorry, Leyla doesn't really understand. She claims everything she's fond of. We're hoping she grows out of it... soon." He paused and nodded at her. "I myself, am not much older than you are. Where I'm from, I'm considered little more than a child--perhaps teenager would be a better term. I would be glad to teach you, though. Leyla's learning--and Devin," he added as an afterthought. "Devin's my son."

"You're nice too," Leyla decided. "Maybe when I'm bigger, we can play. When I can walk. I'm going to tell Daddy to teach me how, soon." She wanted to be able to run and play with other children, it wasn't at all fair.

"Leyla hasn't tried painting yet," Zee mused. "Her lessons have really just started. She looks much older than she is," he observed, not for the first time. "She seems to prefer English," he added. "The opposite's true for Devin, though. He lisps so badly it's as if his mind was hard-wired for elvish, mind you, it probably is. He speaks elvish much better."