Welcome to Gaia! ::

Emily looked at the bentien, looking around the rest of the room for the always following Elliot. "Where is Brother Elliot? You're never without him." She said, looking back at him before shrugging and smiling, sitting beside her and gently placing a cub in her lap. "Here you go. Because this one has his ears flopped forward, I named him Floppy. This one is Perky." She said , legs out in front of her as the small cub wandered about her lap, purring at the fingers which ran through its fur.

Annabelle smiled at the Prime Minister, hugging him. "Exactly! But brother has to be nice to you because it's my birthday."

"Our birthday you snot nose ninny."

"Martha." The king warned, daughter quickly quieting as she snuggled into her dad's lap, looking at the papers on the desk. "But she does have a point Annabelle, you share your birthday, it is not just yours. Now what would you three like for your birthdays?"

"A horse! A big pretty white one!" Annabelle said, abandoning the prime minister to rest her chin on his lap. "But only if Martha puts on her dress. She promised we'd match today. Emily put on hers!"

"She threatened to cut my hair." Emily murmured, watching the cub roll around as she wiggled her fingers at it. "So I just put it on." But she was secretly enjoying it, shoes gently tapping together.

"I wonder what he's doing there." She mused, letting the kitten nibble and suckle on her fingers before it rolled over, now wishing to play with its sibling.

Alvaro smiled down at Lewis as he hugged Annabelle. "He has a point, but if Annabelle wants a horse, what about you, Martha?"

The girl looked up at him in thought, touching his now beardless face before pointing at the Prime Minister as he spoke. "Yes! More hair dye! I'd like to dye my hair blue."

The king laughed. "Why blue?"

"Well Annabelle has pink, and blue is a boy's color. So I want my hair blue!"

Alvaro laughed. "Well, Lewis, we might have to go obtain more hair dye."

Emily paused her tapping to glance at Lewis from the corner of her eye, lips pursing slightly. "It's all right. It looks better on Annabelle. I like my clothes. They're nice." She murmured.

Emily was unsure what to say, looking up at Lily with a mix of curiosity and some sort of sadness that she didn't understand. "I know I'm pretty, everyone says Annabelle is pretty, so that makes me pretty." Even with her french braid or normal braid, or even if her hair was down. It wasn't as long as Annabelle's, or as short as Martha's. "I'm in the middle even though I'm the youngest." She said softly so only Lily could ear, cubs loudly playing around her feet. When the Prime Minister called her she looked up. "They'll be fine without a pen, won't they? I read you can train the babies to be tame." Of course her ability helped that greatly. But I don't want anything for my birthday, I'm happy already."

"You never want anything." Annabelle said with a pout, more or less leaning against the Prime Minister as she stood. "You're so boring, ask for something. Oh, ask for another horse so we can race." she exclaimed, hugging the man's head happily as she leaned some more. "Wouldn't that be exciting? A race on who's horse is faster!"

"Dark royal blue." Martha mused, looking at her father. "Would that be okay? I'm sure it would look black in the right lighting."

"We'll see if he gets it for you." He laughed, ruffling her short hair before hugging her close. "Now, Martha you need to wear the dress. A prince keeps his word." And he'd said that to prevent Martha from finding a loophole. And it worked, the girl staring at him before sliding off his lap and getting the dress from her sister, putting it on and tying it, huffing. "There. Oh, Dad. On your desk, there are papers for brother getting married."

Annabelle squealed, letting go of the Prime Minister to grab at the papers, Alvaro snatching the man holding them up before she could.

"We shall discuss this when Elliot is here, girls. Now don't you have a governess waiting?" He asked.

Emily nodded, lifting up the rowdy cubs who quickly seemed to calm themselves. "Yes, we do. Today we're studying the reproduction of plants."

"Blech, I don't wanna learn about reproduction anymore." Martha whined, letting Annabelle lead her out by the wrist. And soon the door was closed.

"They learned about reproduction?" The King asked curiously, looking at his lover.

"She'll learn on her own Leo." The king said with a smile, placing the proposals in a drawer. "Annabelle discovered her personality first and Martha second. Emily will grow with time. Emily is a child who wants nothing except the happiness of others. One day she will grow and find something or someone she likes, and her personality will seep through. But until then, i need to wo--"

The door opened to reveal a human looking maid. "I've word from the security in town. There seems to be a brawl within the streets of the market. Something about fire and ice?"

The man stared at her before looking back down at his paperwork. "It is nothing to concern yourself over. although I do suggest once Elliot is in sight later today, to stay out of his." She nodded and exited, Alvaro chuckling. "He's trained to be one of the best, I doubt he'll lose, as terrible as it is to day."

With a sigh he finally looked at Lewis. "she said she didn't want to study it anymore, which makes me wonder if she's learned it previously. Leo, have you any idea what she's talking about?"

He thought about it. "Perhaps. Though I can't see Martha being the one into flowers, but I won't judge." And he worked in silence, letting the minutes tick by, pen scratching against the paper some moments, and utter silence the next broken only by the turning of a page. It went on for quite a while, hardly anything making noise aside from a question or two toward Lewis about whatever he was reading. The light from the window shifted with each hour, landing in the middle of the room, the room itself warm.

At noon, the papers were set down and the man rubbed his eyes. "All right, time for a break. How shall we pass the time, you two?"

"It is indeed impressive, you'd think it was real." Alvaro said, moving and touching the smooth embroidery. "If I were a woman I'd certainly wear this. and don't listen to him," he whispered toward Leo. "He's good at it, but he'll give it to you covered in his blood from pricked fingers." and chuckled to himself, handing the dress back to the bentien, kissing Lewis on the cheek. "He might remove himself from the throne if I made a suggestion close to that. No, we'll just have to make up for it tonight. A walk sounds nice. Do you mind, Lily?I'm aware you walked quite a bit yesterday in town. I don't want you to stress yourself if your limbs wish not to move."

"Then let us go for a w-" He was cut short as Lewis took the correct form of a kiss, smiling when he let go. "Here I am trying to be decent. But yes, enough of your talk of the life of a bentien, neither of you are one here." And allowed the two to walk out before him. "Let us go walk and look at the flowers. Heaven forbid we don't, they may not grow properly." He'd long since decided to live with Lewis's odd past times.

>> Night time >>

It was late, the sky was dark and the moon starting to disappear behind it's curtain of clouds, and there was still no sign of Elliot.

"Honestly that boy went into town to do two things." The king stated, somewhat worried at the lack of his son. "It shouldn't have taken him this long." And glanced out the window in hopes he'd somehow spot him. It was past supper, Elliot should have been back on the grounds a little past lunch.