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Nehanda wrinkled her nose at the bathtub. "Dun wanna baff," she told Foenix quite seriously. "Wanna pway outside more!"

Foenix hid her grin, as she always seemed to these day, and returned the serious look. "Entire sentences, please, Nehanda. Do you remember what we discussed?"

The Aerandir child sighed heavily and raised her shoulders. It was hard to make all the words come out right! "I'm not weady for my baff, Momma. The water's too hot! I wanna go pway wiff my pwants some more. Pwease?"

It was hard to deny those big blue eyes anything. Foenix shook her head and gestured toward the door. "I'm not going to heat the water up again, Nehanda. It takes a lot of work these days. You can go play, but you'll have to take a cold bath later. Is that a good compromise?"

Nehanda nodded. "Good compw . . . compo . . ."


"Compromise," the human repeated.

"Compwemise." Nehanda giggled and ran awkwardly out through the door. Seconds later, the front door clattered open and shut.

Foenix wasn't worried about the little girl. Nehanda knew not to leave the yard without one of the adults (Foenix herself or Kylara) and would probably not even leave her gardens unless she decided that they needed more water from the pond. And this would give her a little free time for some of her own work.

Outside, Nehanda reached under the porch and pulled out one of Foenix's books. She knew that her guardian didn't like the expensive gardening books to leave the house, but this was important! Sitting down beside her plants with a plop, Nehanda opened the book and began to leaf through the pages. Every now and then, she'd look up and compare an image on a page to the plants beside her.

Those yucky bugs were still there. They were slowly eating away at many of the more tender shoots and stemlings. Early on, Nehanda had tried eating one. After all, they had tasted pretty good when she was a gryphon . . .

Of course, she had immediately spat them out. Ugh! It was all sour and bitter, and the many tiny legs felt icky on her tongue.

But she still wasn't able to figure out what they were, or how to get rid of them. Nehanda was determined to solve this problem on her own. And . . . that was difficult when she had yet to learn the last ten letters of the alphabet.

She sighed and continued to compare bugs to pictures. Surely she'd come across the correct one eventually.

Nehanda wiggled her little body beneath the overgrown bushes. There was a pretty flower under there, and she wanted it for Foenix!

Mommy-Foenix had been really tired lately. She said she was just really busy, but Nehanda thought she looked sick. So she'd spent the past week trying really, really hard to be really, really good.

Being good was hard sometimes.

She grunted as she gave one last wriggle of her knees and stretched forward just enough to get her fingers around the flower as she continued to think about current events of the household. Foenix had walked into the house last night, chattering about another of the Aerandir. Apparently, Luc had transformed into a child. That was exciting, because now 'Handa would have someone else to play with. And Foenix would hopefully have some free time now so that she could go find Luc.

Nehanda pulled herself out from beneath the bush with a happy grin, flower clenched gently in her fist. It was bright purple, and there were lots of petals. The stem was kind of scratchy, though. It was a bloom that she didn't recognize from any of her books. So, it would make mommy-Foenix happy, and she would help 'Handa look it up. Yay!

"Nehanda! Sweetie, where are you? It's time for lunch!"

Foenix's voice rang out through the backyard, and Nehanda pushed herself around on her knees. Lunch! Yummy!

"Comin', Feenis!" she clambered to her feet, and ran wobbily toward the porch.

Foenix flopped back in her seat, quite happy to be home. Traveling was always fun, but there was simply nothing as exciting and comforting as walking back into your own house, with your own furniture, food, family . . .

She glanced down at the journal in her lap. She had neglected to bring the book with her on their travels, and so it had not been updated for quite some time. But that was okay, really. She had all the time in the world now.





Outside, Nehanda sat amidst her plants, carefully studying the stems, leaves and blossoms that had grown so rapidly in her absence. Those bugs were still there, but now that she could read . . . sort of . . . she could probably find the answer for herself. In fact . . . she remembered Alyosha once telling Foenix that he had all sorts of books.

Perhaps he'd have something to help her?

Nehanda looked down the path that she knew led toward the Community Centre and Aly's suite.. She'd gone there several times with Foenix. So why couldn't she go on her own?

The little Aerandir's forehead creased in thought.

((Quoted from the PM sent to Kami))

Foenix followed Nehanda as the Aerandir child ran eagerly up the path to Kami's house. "Wait up, sweetie!"

The little girl turned and looked over her should at the red-haired woman. "Huwwy up, Fweenix! We gots to give Keanu his teefs!" Nehanda was nearly jumping up and down with excitement and impatience. After all, this was a life and death situation! Keanu was going to turn into a kid!

"I'm coming!" Foenix laughed. Actually, she was rather proud of the teeth she had culled out of the large collection of Rani's left-overs. It was a matched set of canines and incizers from some carniverous beast. they were all ebony-black, and the larger pair was easily as long as Nehanda's outstretched hand. After she had carefully cleaned and polished them, they gleamed softly in the light.

She hastened her pace and soon caught up to her Aerandir charge, and the two continued along the path to Kami's. Upon reaching the porch, Nehanda ran up the steps and knocked on the door. With a little pout, she turned after a few minutes. "I don't tink dey're home. Nobody's comin' to the door."

"Well, let's hang these up where they're be sure to find them, okay?" Foenix picked Nehanda up and lifted the little girl until she could hook the suede baggie of teeth over the doorway. There, the teeth would be safe, and they certainly couldn't be missed.



After that, the two turned and headed back home, satisfied with the delivery of their gift.

"No! Nononononononononoooooo!" Nehanda threw herself down on the ground beside her garden and began to sob, scream, and beat little fists and feet into the ground. Tears slipped down her normaly sunny cheeks, and dirt quickly coated her pelt.

In short, the child was throwing a very vocal temper tantrum.

Foenix placed her hands upon her hips and sighed down at the little girl. "Nehanda, you can cry all you like, but I still want you to finish your lessons." Over the past week, the Aerandir child had taken to stealing outside to her plants, or wandering about in the woods behind the house when she was supposed to be studying.

The whole cry-and-scream thing was a new one, however.

"I don' wanna wead da stupid books! I hate books! I hate you! Wanna work in da gawden!" Nehanda looked up briefly, her cheeks smudged with dirt and tears, cute lips turned down in a shaky pout.

She couldn't understand why Foenix was being so mean! She didn't need to know adding and subtracting, or stupid run-on sentences, any of that dumb stuff to work with her plants. Vegetables didn't care if you knew what 5 x 7 was, and and a comma couldn't make a flower bloom.

Lessons were stupid, stupid, stupid.

Still, she could tell that her crying wasn't going to soften Foenix, and let her play outside. Besides, beating her feet like that in the dirt was hurting her hoof-toes. So she sat up and wiped her eyes, creating even larger smears of dirt across her cheeks. "Don' like my stoopid books," she mumbled.

Foenix bit back a groan. Patience, she reminded herself. You needed patience by the bucketload to deal with any child, and Nehanda was no different.

"Nehanda, we made a deal, remember? You spend your mornings inside, with your studies, and then you can spend your afternoons outside in the garden. Come on, sweetie, I thought it was a pretty good deal!"

Nehanda looked at her toes and shrugged. "Don' wanna."

The woman sighed. "Tough." Reaching down, she scooped Nehanda up and held the child firmly, mindful of delicate feathers and bone structure. "We're going inside, and you are going to finish your multiplication tables. And you're going to learn five more vocabulary words. And after lunch, I'll let you come outside."

She turned and began walking toward the house without giving Nehanda a chance to respond.

The Aerandir swirmed and wiggled, but Foenix was too used to her movements to be fooled into loosening her gentle-yet-firm grip. With a sniffle, Nehanda gave up and allowed herself to be carried inside to the hated lessons.

Foenix hummed as she stood over the chopping board. Preparing meals for her family always relaxed her. The process of delicately slicing vegetables, sauteing meat, adding spices . . . it was a soothing combination so very different from the rest of her daily activities.

"Fweenix, I gots herbs! I gots 'em for de soup!" Nehanda ran in through the door, waving two large handfuls of plant stalks over her head. the little girl quickly clambered up onto the stepstool and dumped her offering next to the cutting board.

"Wonderful, honey! Let's see what you've got." Foenix had decided that, since she spent so much time with the plants, that Nehanda should be allowed to help with that aspect of meals. She had asked the child to fetch some spicy herbs, some smoother, but had not made any specifications.

Nehanda grinned and wiggled on her stool as the auburn-haired woman crossed to see what she had brought. After a moment of sorting through the stems and leaves, however, Foenix looked up in confusion. "Nehanda, do you really think these will go well together?" She help up some ginger root, sprigs of watercress, a few jalepenos, and a slice of sugar cane. There was also fresh oregano and basil, dill, and . . . cocoa beans?

Not precisely a tempting combination.

Foenix quickly glanced over at the rest of Nehanda's herbs and spices, and bit her lip silently. Okay, so cooking might not be one of the Aerandir's talents. She creased her forehead in confusion. It just didn't make any sense. Nehanda seemed to know instinctively what plants to use when they were trying out potions and other healthy messes. So why couldn't she pick out a few herbs that would smell good together?

Turning, Foenix pasted a smile on her face. "Tell ya what, Nehanda. I bet Kylara could use some help setting the table. Could you do that for me? It's kind of hard, because you have to set up your silverware just right . . ." She trailed off, and looked doubtful, as though she wasn't sure Nehanda could handle it.

"I c'n do it! I c'n hewlp!" Nehanda scrambled down and scurried over to the table. Foenix shortly heard the sounds of forks and knives clinking loudly as the girl tossed them about haphazardly, followed quickly by Kylara's long-suffering sighs as she fixed the mess.

With a grin, Foenix turned back to her dinner and began sorting out what she could actually use in her stir-fry. One thing was for sure. She wouldn't be able to count on Nehanda's herbal help with dinner.

((Backdated as well . . .))