Elle and Mias Chapter 100

Elle awoke to find the other side of the bed vacant. While it wasn’t unusual for Mias to be up before her, it appeared he hadn’t slept next to her at all due to the lack of wrinkles in the sheets. She looked around the room as she pulled herself out from the comforter and still saw no sign of him. She entered the bathroom to relieve herself and freshen her appearance for the day.

She had to wonder when she’d experience full on morning sickness as she’d yet to throw up as a result of her pregnancy. She did feel a mild nausea, but nothing that compelled her to heave into the porcelain bowl.

Her pregnancy test now sat in the sill of the bathroom window to serve as a reminder to both her and Mias that their lives were going to be quite different from now on.

After catching sight of the sprouts, Elle looked down at her abdomen and placed her hands delicately over it. It still seemed like something mysterious: the idea of a new life growing inside of her. Which twin was the father seemed a rather trivial fact by this point considering Elle was the one who would have to carry and give birth to the child, and nurse it, and wash it, and nurture it – in the fact, the more she thought about all a mother was responsible for, the more she doubted she had the maturity to raise a sensible child. With Mias being… Mias, and with Elias no longer in her life, she reasoned even more burdens would fall upon her shoulders, and still being so young herself, it opened up a whole new world of insecurities Elle knew she couldn’t face alone. Yes, Hilda had knowledge and experience with pregnancy, but none when it came to rearing a child, and she couldn’t very well expect the Aquila to put her life with Abernos on hold to be of constant assistance to her.

Elle figured Mias would be the sort to hire and dump the kid off with a nanny, but Elle didn’t want some stranger looking after her children. Perhaps she could convince him to start the search for one early so by the time she gave birth, she’d have a decent relationship with such a person, but she was unsure of she could convince Mias to pay for a nanny when the baby wasn’t due until mid summer.

She heaved a heavy sigh and tried to turn her thoughts away from worry and toward productivity. She had until summer to prepare for this child and there was no sense in waiting until the last minute. There were plenty of skills she’d have to learn and supplies that they’d need to stock up on. She knew the basics such as a proper crib and plenty of nappies, but just how were such items obtained in this world? There were so many questions to ask and Elle knew this was the one subject Mias was ignorant in. Despite being the eldest of eleven, the interaction he’d had with his late younger brothers was always kept to a minimum. She doubted he’d have much, if any, experience with infants.

With her clothes changed and her hair brushed, Elle wriggled her feet into her slippers before leaving the room in hopes of having a light breakfast in the pleasant company of her hybrid friends. Elle couldn’t help but chuckle to think she got along better with them than other humans.

“Good morning Elle!” Hilda greeted her cheerily as she entered the kitchen.

“Good morning,” Elle smiled and noticed neither Abernos or Fionos were helping Hilda with the morning meal. “Where are Abernos and Fio?”

“Abernos said he wanted to talk to my father about something, and Fio just took Malcolm and Berenos their breakfast trays.”

“Do you know where Mias is?” Elle asked.

“Mias? Uh-uh,” Hilda shook her head. “Why?”

“Well he wasn’t in bed when I woke up.”

“Huh,” Hilda scribbled a Rune with her finger to keep the ladle in the pot over the fire stirring while she approached Elle. “I get up pretty early, but I don’t remember hearing him, but this place is so big maybe I couldn’t.”

“I see…” Elle heaved another melancholy sigh and took a seat at the small wooden table out of the galley.

“…Did he get mad after I left?”

“No, he didn’t – strangely enough… but now he’s just gone.”

Hilda gasped. “Do you think he’s run off on you?!”

“Oh god, now that you mention it…”

Hilda covered her mouth a knocked over a stack of pots and pans with the feathers of her wings that were gradually thickening in length. Despite wanting to comfort Elle, her attention switched to picking up the heavy cookware. “Oh darn it! They’re getting too big already!”

“I-Isn’t that a good thing?” Elle asked.

“Well… yeah… I’ll be able to fly a bit more normally, but this kitchen isn’t spacious enough to accommodate me with full wings,” she said as she placed pot after pot back on top of the counter, crawling around the floor as she did so.

“You’re not exactly tidy though,” Elle commented.

“Ack! I am so! It’s just a bit cluttered because I didn’t have time to put all of them away yesterday,” she explained, absent mindedly turning her backside towards the fire place where her now elongated tail feathers were long enough to get caught on fire.

“HILDA!” Elle pointed to the Aquila’s backside before the heat of the fire could alert Hilda on its own.

“AAH!” Hilda shot up, dropping the pan in her hand to quickly pat out the fire at the tips of her tail feathers.

Elle got up to help, but thankfully the flames were already extinguished and only the ends of Hilda’s feathers were singed. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah…” Hilda turned red in embarrassment. “Sorry to startle you…”

Elle couldn’t help but smirk once she realized no harm had been done. “How can you be so accident prone?”

“I’m not!” Hilda insisted. “I told you, it’s my feathers! Yesterday they weren’t long enough but today they are!”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to tease you, but it was funny,” Elle giggled.

Hilda pouted and glanced down at her golden feathers. “I thought I’d be happy when they finally grew back… but… I won’t be able to function properly in the kitchen with them…”

“I’m sure there are lots of other things you can do to help out. Abernos is a decent enough cook.”

“But he doesn’t know how to prepare meat! You especially will need the protein, Elle.”

“Then I’ll take over cooking,” Elle smiled. “Say, yes, that’ll work. You can sit here safely and teach me about cooking and pregnancy.”

“But I need to be doing something! I’m not good at staying still. I’m not saying I won’t teach you, but I can’t just tell you how to cook,” Hilda sighed. “There’s only one thing to do: pluck my feathers.”

“What?! NO!”

“Please? I can’t do it myself.”

“Hilda, mutilating yourself is not the answer! Can’t you cast some sort of spell to help you?”

“Elle, I’ve told you, Runes can’t affect living organisms; it can only move them. Magic that actually manipulates physical form is the sort of magic the Dormaeus use.”

“So ask Mias to cast a spell. In fact, one that that you can control back and forth would be great! You wouldn’t have to choose between flying and cooking!”

“You mean: make me a human woman.”

“Well… I guess. If that’s how it’d work best.”

“I… I’ve certainly thought about it before, but… Abernos loves me the way I am. He doesn’t want me to change for him so…”

“You’re not changing for him, you’re changing for yourself – for the simple reason so you can cook without killing yourself. And it’s not like it’d have to be a permanent spell. I can change into a mouse as I will it, so it should be easy to will yourself human when you want to cook. No one’s saying you have to be human all the time.”

“Oh,” Hilda tilted her head back in realization of that fact. “I guess I hadn’t thought of it like that. To be able to change back and forth would be very convenient. It didn’t occur to me I could have the best of both worlds! Haha!”

Elle smiled and shook her head in expectance of a typical Hilda response. “I’ll ask Mias myself when he finally turns up, okay?”

Hilda beamed brightly. “Okay!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Oh, Abernos, good morning,” Alu yawned when he answered the knock on his door to find the Stag teetering back and forth on his feet. “What can I do for you?”

“I-I’m sorry, but I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“Yes, but I’m rested enough,” he smiled and yawned again. “I need to shave and wash up but do come in and tell me what’s on your mind regarding Hilda.”

“How do you know I’m here about Hilda?” Abernos asked as he entered the room and watched Alu enter his adjoined bathroom.

“Why else would you be here to see me?” He asked as he located the shaving cream amongst the collection of bottles provided for the upkeep of his hygiene kept in a woven basket near the sink.

“Oh, uh, yeah…” Abernos blushed. “Well, I… have always heard it’s proper to consult a girl’s father, so I wanted to ask you if you’d be okay letting Hilda stay with me.”

In surprise, Alu knocked over the basket he placed on the sink rim and every one of them crashed to the floor, though thankfully very few of them broke.

“What was that?” Abernos asked.

“Nothing~” Alu stuck his head out of the bathroom and smiled. “Just, uh… well… so… you and she are… close?”

“Yes, sir,” Abernos nodded politely. “I swear I haven’t done anything improper with her if that’s what you’re worried about!”

“Oh, I know there’s no helping such things,” Alu kept smiled and returned to the bathroom to proceed with shaving. “So long as you’re good to her.”

“I am!” He said confidently before his instincts told him to calm down. He cleared his throat and reiterated himself with less enthusiasm. “I mean, I am.”

“And you make her happy of course.”

“Yes, of course, sir.”

“And do you love her?”

“A little bit more each day,” Abernos smiled, “sir.”

“You needn’t keep calling me that,” Alu chuckled as he lathered on the shaving cream. “You sound like one of Helga’s soldiers.”

“Oh… I-I’m just trying to be polite… I know this is a lot I’m asking for, especially since you two haven’t known each other as father and daughter for very long. I wouldn’t want to rob you of any experiences you might want to have together…”

“Well, even though she never knew I was her father, I never missed out on anything. She’s grown up and its time for her to leave the nest,” he chuckled. “But never do I want her on her own. Can you imagine? She gets lost so easily and she’s can be so clumsy, easily distracted, and sometimes completely feather brained. It’s a wonder the poor dear doesn’t get injured more often – not that I wish it.”

“Uh, yeah…” Abernos scratched the back of his head. “So… it’s okay if I keep her? I mean! Uh! She’s free to stay where ever she wants! I’d never be as possessive as Mias even though I really, really don’t want her to leave me!”

“I’m sure she won’t,” Alu washed the lather from his face and promptly dried it off before stepping back out into the room. “Someone like you who understands her so completely isn’t someone she’s going to give up.”

“Alu…”

“Oh, was that really so poetic of me?” The Runeskeeper asked.

“Uh, I thought you were going to shave…?”

Alu paused for a moment before putting his hands to his cheeks. “Oh dammit, I knew I forgot to do something…”