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Posted: **Sun Dec 25, 2011 8:48 am**

Maddi, somehow sensing Cay's agitation, remains perfectly quiet playing with a cloth doll on the rug occasionally watching her Mama wring her hands, pace back and forth a few steps, then throw clothes in a bag before repeating the performance. When Cay finally sits at the table, lighting the lantern and proceeds to write on a parchment, Maddi crawls toward her then uses her small hands to pull up unsteadily to her feet before smiling proudly showing two baby teeth.

Ma!

Calming down seeing her daughter, Cay reaches down to give her a hug at the same time pulling her up to her lap.

You are getting heavier by the minute sweetie!

Reaching around her, Cay continues to write, her breath occasionally blowing the ebony hair of her daughter toward the parchment until Maddi abruptly grabs the pen adding a long line of ink down the middle. Gently disentangling it from her daughter's grip, Cay shakes her head speaking seriously, the tone of voice understood by the child even if the words aren't, as she settles quietly in Cay's lap simply watching with large green eyes.

This is important Maddi, it is a letter to Papa yet we don't have much time, let me finish.

Maddi's green eyes light up hearing one word she recognizes distinctly as she giggles then blurts out.

Pa!

Giving her daughter a quick smile and a nod, Cay reaches again for the parchment biting her lip in concentration.

Felix, I am leaving this letter from Beth to explain. Apparently the ship brought this letter not a dove and it is at the harbor now with strict instructions to wait for me. I don't expect to be gone long but wish I had time to give you the gift I wanted to. I am leaving this bag though and hope you enjoy the food Leva made, it is delicious! How do I know? Well I had to taste just a little, right? The three liferoots are ours, the one chewed on is of course Maddi's. The pink potion is one for health and the blue is for Hemlock. You can see the gorgeous silk purple dress Irania made with Maddi's name engraved on it when we return.
I will write soon and let you know how Beth is doing. I wish I could have seen you before I left Kitten.

Love,
Cay

There is another parchment left next to this one.

Cay,
There is plenty of room for Maddi here, and I really appreciate the help. I wish I knew someone else to ask. The doctor was quite angry at my condition and said to stay in bed for now or I will never walk on this leg again. I just don't know what to do, how am I going to work the garden and get food for the winter? My neighbors help as much as possible bringing food every couple of days, but it is hard for them having lives and chores of their own. I have paid the Captain a little extra coin to wait for you yet hope the dove arrives with the letter quicker then the ship so you can prepare.
Your friend forever,
Beth

Posted: **Sun Dec 25, 2011 6:35 pm**

It was late in the evening by the time Felix returned to his tiny home. The labor of the day had extended itself well past the moons conquest of the sky above. In the darkness he had toiled much in the same manner he had during the sunlit hours, hauling and dragging lumber to and fro from the edge of the southern woods. Only the occasional arrival of a shambling skeleton had broken to monotony of the transits but even then for only so long as it took to beat them down with his well trained hands.

He had been glad when the final logs had landed in the wood pile beside the house; Glad and rather unexpectedly exhausted. Felix was a man of a fair amount of vitality, feeling drained after a long day or work was curious for him. Tired he knew, even the kind of tired where his feet would shuffle along numbly and without control, taking him home even when he had meant to go elsewhere. The feeling he had now was much more encompassing then fatigue, It was a rarity for him but he did get sick every so often. The weary man gave a sigh as he pushed open the door to his home, the last thing he needed was to be bed ridden with coin pouch so flat this month and few people buying his wares during the day. There was no affording missing too many days of potential work. He would speak to his beloved he thought as his hand pressed upon the hard wood door of his home. His wife had always had a way with herbals that got him on his feet quicker even steadfast bed rest. Not all of her concoctions were sweet tasting or smelling and occasionally they stung before they soothed but if anyone could get him going again, he trusted Cay to be the one.

What greeted him as he pushed open the door of his home was not the usual chorus of his daughter's mischief and his wife's merry but clumsy clatter of dishware as she juggled both setting dinner to the table and wrangling their wild near two year old. There was nothing but a startling, and uncomfortable silence that instantly set his eyes to narrowed and suspicious slits. Stepping through the threshold and shutting the door behind him Felix raised his voice and called out to his family.

"Cay, ya in 'ere? Everything alright?"

There was no answer.... A bit of measured alarm crept into him as he made his way further in. Perhaps she'd taken Maddi out with her somewhere on the isle. It was a late hour but Cay had a habit of trying to help anyone at near any time. That had been a habit that he had taken a long time to get used to, as often his wife would put her safety second before that of an ailing stranger. It was a sparing glance then that caught sight of a pair of parchments laying flat upon the oaken table top where his supper usually awaited. Felix wasted no time in going to the papers, taking them up as he hooked his foot around the leg of a chair and pulled it away from the table. He dropped onto it as his eyes went about reading the written word upon the parchments, first one letter and then the other.

"...."

Several moments of silent reading, turned into several more moments of begrudgingly silent exasperation. Felix placed the parchments back on the table and gave a long heaving sigh. It was just as always, his wife putting other's before herself, himself and sometimes even common sense. Had she just waited for him to arrive home he'd have gladly traveled with her. A difference of a single days time would have been of little consequence to the time of arrival on the mainland barring any bad weather. Instead, his wife and daughter were alone on the open sea this very moment in gods knew what sort of situation. He growled low in his throat as he rose from the chair, practically toppling it and the table as he angrily shoved the piece of furniture back into place. What a wonderful evening this was going to be for him, exhausted, growing ill and worrying about the safety of his often spastic wife and his sugar fueled daughter who could fair well walk herself clean off the side of the ship in a moment of Caynwyn's distraction.

Sleeping was out of the question now, there was no way any husband and father would be able to rest through such a foolish situation. Felix made haste to the bedside, leaving everything else about the tiny house untouched and unnoticed. He knelt down and collected what spare belongings that he was to shrewd to leave without. Then quickly he made his way back to the doorway, unceremoniously booting the partition wide open then turned and barged it shut with a slam of his shoulder.

Then he was off and running in his direction soon to take him to the harbor and a ship to the main. He'd be at least a days travel behind his family but by Findari's wind blessed boots he would find his wife and give her the tongue lashing of the century.

Posted: **Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:56 pm**

Leaning over the rail knowing she probably looked green, Cay laments at her idea of this trip again yet at the time it seemed such a great idea to solve her problem and Beth's. Giving up on ever eating anything, the smell of food causing her stomach to churn relentlessly, she was happy Maddi was such a sailor. It was not surprising her daughter was loved by the crew who were always offering to watch her when the Captain allowed and with that mischievous glint in the older man's eye Cay suspected he secretly enjoyed watching her also.

Cay missed Felix terribly yet at the same time worried what and how she would tell him. Never able to lie to him well, she was surprised at the time he seemed to believe her when she told him her pregnancy was mistaken, the only thing she could decide was they were so busy with other things to talk about that he didn't catch her deceit. Knowing that if enough coins were obtained by selling her potions, his worries over another child would be gone, Cay had planned on earning more along with helping Beth. Afraid to take any herbs for fear of harming her unborn child, she unconsciously rubs her belly hoping the morning sickness would abate on landing then catches the sailor's eye before he rushes past questioning when they would arrive.

Nay sure Ms Cay, in fer a storm so may put us behin' a day or so.

His answer leaving her in despair yet thankful for the crew's gift to her and Maddi, she watched her daughter happily crawl toward the side of the ship then stop as the rope sewn into the back of her new outfit pulled taut, the other end of the rope around Cay's waist. With Maddi's large smile showing all of two teeth, her daughter crawled back to Cay and repeated another word learned besides "Pa" "Ma" "No" and "Aye"......"shiiiite!" yelling loudly in that sweet voice of hers before giggling proudly.

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