Starr

[Elnara Aldrich]

New Arrivals

The night itself was like any other of the summer: hot and sticky outside, but comfortable for those of any race inside. Yet for some reason, Elnara was finding it very hard to sleep. Whether there was something in the air, or whether there was some strange sound, she didn’t know; but she suspected that it might have had something to do with a busy mind, and the discussion she had had with Triton the night before at the café. Whatever it was, she found herself tossing and turning in a manner she hadn’t done it since her first arrival in Gaia.

She tried for hours to sleep, but eventually she was forced to give up. Instead, she just lay atop her bed, blankets tossed aside, staring up at the moonlight-bathed ceiling. She sighed. Why was she finding it so difficult to sleep?

She figured she might as well check on the children. They had moved down to the third floor of the inn only recently, and Skye especially had had troubles adjusting to the move. On the other hand, she now had her own little canopy bed that she always kept enclosed around her, and it seemed to be an acceptable substitute for her vase now that she no longer fit inside it. At least, she was usually able to fall asleep readily enough.

The light in Skye’s new room pulsed and undulated with the movements of her lava lamp, causing an eerie effect on the walls. But Skye was sleeping peacefully, her breathing soft and even. Once every few seconds, there was a slight rustling of her wings, but other than that, all was still within her room.

Serenity was sleeping just as peacefully in her own room, one arm wrapped around her plush griffin, holding it close. She slept curled up in a tight ball, much as Elnara often did. Elnara smiled to herself softly, half amused, half-tempted to coo over it.

Celebor’s room was pitch black, but with the light from the hallway, Elnara could see that he had books and pens strewn all over the floor. She held back a soft laugh and shook her head before closing his door tightly.

And then suddenly she realized what was keeping her awake: rather than there being an odd noise, it was an absence of it. She was nearly back to her room when she realized it, standing just outside the room that she had prepared for the twins’ arrival. Her breath caught in the back of her throat. Could it be … ?

She opened the door slowly, cautiously, warily, hardly daring to believe that they might finally have arrived. The room was oddly still … there were no more feathers flying around everywhere. She felt her heartbeat speed up, her pulse pounding in her ears. Yes … yes …

And then she saw the vases. They were on their sides: one in the middle of the room, the other in one corner. It was too dark to see which was which, but she cast her eyes around anxiously, looking for the Surprises that she knew had to be somewhere in the room. Something else looked strange … it took her a few moments to figure out what it was. The pillows that she had put around the vases to cushion a possible fall had been moved … they were now piled up in the center of the room. And lying in the middle of the pillow circle were two tiny childish figures - completely indistinguishable in the darkness, but recognizable as Surprise Seconds with angel wings.

They’re here, she thought excitedly. She couldn’t wait to meet them! But they were sleeping … she could hear their tiny breaths, almost like tiny sighs in the dark.

She couldn’t help it. She closed the door most of the way and moved to join them, lying beside them on the pillows. She put one arm over them protectively … and found that their hands were intertwined. Apparently they had bonded …

She fell asleep with a nearly permanent smile on her face.  

[Elnara Aldrich]

Mom-my?

When Elnara woke in the morning, she was lying alone on the pile of pillows. She felt as if she had awoken in the middle of a rainbow that happened to be littered with black and blue feathers, and for a moment she was disoriented. But when she saw the two vases on their sides, she remembered what had happened the night before. Birth …

She looked around for her two newborn children and saw them, still (or again, she couldn’t tell which) holding hands, wandering about the room and examining everything. They were perfectly silent, in their movements as well as their communication, though she was certain they were communicating. One would point at something and look at the other, and then the other would either nod or c**k their head or something, and so it would go, back and forth. They hadn’t yet seen that she was awake, and she took the time to study them.

They were twins, all right … they looked very much alike. Their skin was dusky, like Elnara’s, and both had the same white hair – though Storm’s was short, rather like her brother Gion’s was, and Starr’s was long … for her size. Their eyes were a milky white, and for a moment Elnara feared that they might be blind – but then she noticed the way their eyes took in everything … or rather, it seemed that they were taking in even more than Elnara herself could see – which, considering her elvish eyesight, was saying something.

Beyond that, though, they were different. Starr’s wings were pure white, almost bright, like a freshly fallen snow, whereas Storm’s wings were black like a raven’s, or a crow’s. Starr wore a blue kimono with what might have been falling snow patterned into it, and Storm was wearing a red long-sleeved long-necked shirt (Elnara hoped it was thin and cool) and long black pants. Both were bare-footed, though. Not that that was a bad thing: after all, Elnara herself never wore anything on her feet.

She had to wonder what they were doing, though. Every once in a while, one of them (or both, at times) would reach their hands up into the air and look like they were trying to grab something. Interesting.

Suddenly, they noticed her – both of them at the same time. They looked at her for a moment, then at each other, then at her again.

Storm opened his mouth and said, “Mom-”

“-my?” Starr finished.

Elnara just about melted.  

[Elnara Aldrich]

Four Lands Trip – Day 1

I’ve decided to keep a log of the twins’ activities while we’re in the Borderlands, because they seem to be getting in some sort of mischief every day. We weren’t there half an hour when they made it start raining out behind the house, by the river. I think they scared themselves; they came running and crying when they did it. But once they found out they weren’t in trouble for it, they cheered up right away. Ulrich and Ulani were amused. Ulrich’s comment was, “Looks like we need a new dock.” Why? Because the twins – although they were able to stop the twister they started, had no luck stopping the rain, and the rain was right in the middle of the dock. No doubt it will begin rotting soon.

They said it had something to do with strings, or threads, or something. Something about playing with them, tying them together … Lore says there are stories about threads connecting people, but … this seems to be something connecting to nature. Starr said that air and water threads tend to move a lot … I would assume that means there are some for fire and earth as well, or something like it.

Well, we’ll be here for a while. We’ll see what happens.  

[Elnara Aldrich]

Not so little anymore!

Elnara had spent the night at the café with Lore, Idhril, Silvrendir and Kaito the day after Idhril had grown. She and Lore had talked long into the night about the children, and about their own future together, and had spent some time discussing the slight disturbance of Idhril’s growth before Storm and Starr. After all, the twins were older- should they not have grown first?

Lore had finally been able to put Elnara’s fears to rest, and she had finally fallen into a fitful sleep. When they woke the next morning, Elnara made breakfast for Lore before seeing him off to work, and then she had gone upstairs to rouse the three children who had been there with them.

Kaito was already wide awake, and pounced on Elnara’s feet as she re-entered her bedroom. She laughed and picked him up and snuggled him close, and he rubbed his face against hers and began to purr softly, smiling.

Silvrendir woke up as soon as Elnara tapped him on the shoulder, and followed her silently to where Idhril had slept. They had a tougher time waking Idhril – the girl always slept so much, and so deeply, and of course the amount of energy required to grow … well. It was to be expected, really.

It wasn’t too long, though, before the four of them were back at the inn, and Elnara immediately headed upstairs to check on the children that she had left home the night before. She hadn’t told them that she would be away for the whole night, though they were used to her doing so, and she wanted to make sure that none of them were worried about her.

Celebor was awake, but still in bed, reading a book by the sunlight that was streaming in through his window. Serenity was (surprise surprise) painting down in the sunroom, and Skye was with her, practicing her dancing.

Storm and Starr, Elnara was told, were still asleep. It was odd for those two: they were usually the first ones up and making mischief. Perhaps they had stayed up late the night before – but no, Serenity assured Elnara that they had gone to bed quite early, but that they had both of them been complaining of a slight headache.

That worried Elnara. Storm was the only one of her children who had been sick before (at least, with an illness not caused by an accident), and since that time she had worried about the slightest thing with both him and Starr. And now it appeared that her worries were not without foundation, for how odd was it that both children should take sick in the same night?

Of course, it could be that one of them might be sick, and the other quite alright, she reminded herself as she bounded up the stairs, intent on going directly to their room. After all, they shared a certain something in that they knew each other’s thoughts, desires, intentions, emotions, and sensations. There was almost no way that they could be any closer.

She only hoped that it was nothing serious.

At their door, she paused and put her ear to the door to see if there were any abnormal sounds coming from within: but the only sound she could hear, besides the beating of her own heart and the sounds from the floors below, were the soft sighs of the twins breathing as they slept.

So they were still asleep. That did not bode well for Elnara. Even Idhril would have been awake by this time, had she not been woken up … at least, she would have been before her growth. Since she had grown, she had been sleeping more than usual …

She blinked. Was that it? Could it possibly be?

And then her next thought: Why did it always happen when she wasn’t around?!

She turned the doorknob and opened the door slowly with bated breath, hardly daring to hope. Was it possible? Had they grown? …

When she saw them, she squeezed her eyes shut, then looked again to be certain of what she was seeing. Their vases were still in their corners, their pile of pillows was where it always was, and, as usual, Storm and Starr were sleeping facing each other, hands clasped. But they had indeed grown …

Elnara stepped inside and closed the door behind her soundlessly, her smile so wide it was actually hurting her. Both of them were tall now … taller than Skye, at any rate. Shorter than the rest. Elnara was uncertain whether any of them could catch up with Idhril anyways. And both of them had grown very slim. Gone was Storm’s chubby tummy, gone was the baby fat from their faces … though their heads, like all Seconds’, were slightly larger than proportionate. Still …

In Elnara’s eyes, they were beautiful.

Their wings were a bit bigger as well, though like Skye’s they were still quite small. Elnara supposed that was simply the way of it with Second Angels, though. Yue and Yukito, though taller than her, had small wings as well.

Suddenly, they began to stir. As one, they yawned, then blinked and opened their milky white eyes and looked at each other. Together, they sat up and stared at each other. Their hands released, and they reached out tentatively and poked each other on their left shoulders. Then they broke into wide grins and turned to face Elnara.

“Mama!” the exclaimed in unison. “We grew!”

Elnara laughed and moved to sit with them, putting one arm around both of them. “Indeed you have!” she nodded happily, hugging them close. “Indeed you have!”  

[Elnara Aldrich]

5 May 2008

Mama’s giving me and Storm a big responsibility now … she says we’re old enough to write our own journals. But I’ve never written in mine before, so I’m not sure what to write …

Storm and I are continuing our lessons with Grandmother and Uncle Yukito. They’re going well, I suppose, though I’m afraid they could be better. I don’t think either of them truly understands what it’s like for Storm and myself … exactly what it is to have our gift. Aunt Haradhel is far more understanding. I suspect that it’s because she is an elemental summoner, and because she can manipulate the elements just as well as – or probably even better than – Storm or I can. She understands them, in a way that Grandmother and Uncle Yuki just can’t. Aunt Haradhel makes it all make sense – how we must use our magic, and why we must use it in that particular way. Storm suggests that we ask Mama if we can spend time in the Borderlands with her, so that we can increase our education more quickly – I agree, but I also think that we should wait until we’re older. Mama would never let us go at this age. We’re simply not old enough – and in Storm’s case, definitely not mature enough.

I also found a book in Grandmother’s study that looks promising … she only let me borrow it after promising not to show it to Storm, though, so I think it might have something powerful in there, something that Storm would try to use without worrying about safety. I’ve hidden it – not in our room, he would find it in there – but somewhere safe, where I can read it and study it without having to worry about him finding out about it. I won’t write its location in here, in case he decides to read this, but I can say that I know he’ll never find it.

It’s nice, having such a predictable twin.