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Lona bolted into the bedroom she normally shared with Abilynn, but since she was staying with Menta Kai, Fillian was sleeping in her bed.
“Abby! Fillian! Wake up! There are presents under the tree, out in the courtyard. Wake up! Santa was here!” Abilynn blinked and rubbed her eyes to get the sleep out of them. She looked over at Fillian, who grinned back at her. Lona grabbed the little leprechaun by the arm and started dragging her toward the door.
“Hold on there, wee one,” Fillian protested. “You go get your grandma and grandpa, and Abilynn will get your Mama and brother. I’m guessing Amil Kailee is already awake.”
As if to answer, Menta Kai appeared at the bedroom door. “Filley, do you drink coffee?”
“Not really often,” the leprechaun replied, “but after a night like last night, yes, thank you, I will take a cup.”
“What is all the noise down here?” Fiona and Berian came down the stairs from their room, and like Menta Kai, they were fully dressed.
“Lona says that Santa was here,” Abilynn informed her parents.
“I don’t doubt that at all, Melin er,” her mother replied. “Do you want some coffee this morning, Sweetheart?”
Abilynn nodded. “You know I prefer tea, Mama, but just like Fillian, I’ll take coffee this morning. I don’t remember having that much energy when I was Lona’s age.”
Fiona smiled at her. “You may not remember it, but you probably did. I wish we could’ve shared that part of your life with you.”
Berian wrapped his arm around Abilynn’s shoulder. “Merry Christmas, Nin Mel. You are the best Christmas present this father could ever ask for.” He kissed her forehead. “And, I don’t know what Santa brought you, but I have something here for you.” He held out a small wooden box in his hand. Abilynn took it, smiled at Berian and Fiona, and then opened it and gasped.
“It’s beautiful, Papa. I love it!” She held up an exquisitely crafted Celtic cross, on a delicate but strong palladium chain. “Put it on me.” She turned, and he connected the two ends of the necklace together. “It’s so pretty. Thank you, Papa.”
“Thank your mother, too,” Berian indicated. “It was her idea, I just made what she told me to.”
“It is beautiful, Bear,” Fiona smiled. “I’m almost envious.”
“Don’t be,” her husband told her as he held out a slightly larger wooden box for Fiona. She opened it and gave the same reaction as their daughter. “Berian! It’s magnificent.” She held up the larger cross for him to put around her neck, which he did.
“Totally suitable for the High Bishop Reverend Mother, An Bhanrion, whether you’re ready for the title or not, Nin Mel.”
Menta Kai smiled. “I don’t suppose you have one of those for me?”
Berian shook his head. “No, Kailee, but I will have a present for you a little bit later. Let’s go see what Princess Fireball has found under the Christmas tree.”
Fiona was amazed at the number of people who had already assembled around the magnificent Christmas tree in the center of the courtyard. She looked at Caldar, who was walking hand-in-hand with Alistronia. “When did this happen, and how come I didn’t hear about it?”
Caldar’s eyes twinkled, as he saluted his Queen. “I am truly sorry, Your Highness, but I am sworn to secrecy. There are some things that we elves have to keep amongst ourselves.” Fiona shook her head, smiling.
“You two are going to be a good match for each other,” she chuckled.
Arianna Windmera sidled up next to Fiona. “I don’t have anything to give you, Fi, but my Christmas present is what I have to tell you.” Her hands dropped to her belly.
“What’s the...” She stopped, and her eyes got big. “Another one! You’re gonna have a baby!” Arianna nodded, and Fiona embraced her. “Does Kailee know?”
Arianna nodded again. “We told her last night. And since she’s already little Connor’s godmother, we were wondering if you and Berian would be willing?”
“You don’t even need to ask, girlfriend. Of course we will, we’d be honored.”
“You were really amazing last night, Fiona Bridget. You really lifted my faith up. Thank you for that,” Arianna hugged Fiona again, and Fiona just pointed to the sky.
Lona and little Connor were ready to tear into the presents, but Fiona stopped them. “Lona, we need to pray for this first. You need to realize that there’s probably only one or two presents under this tree for you. There are a lot of people here at Caer Aerie.” Lona nodded her head somberly.
King Tlannatar and Maeryn came up, walking with Connor and Iolena. The tall elf King bent over and whispered something to Fiona, who smiled broadly and nodded enthusiastically.
“Maeryn, before things get too hectic here and I can’t be heard over the noise, I have a Christmas present for you myself.” He produced one of the small wooden boxes that had become the hallmark of Berian’s jewelry work. As the King dropped to one knee in front of the tall blonde elf, before he could even ask Maeryn blurted out, “Yes!”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask yet,” Tanner smiled up at her.
“Tanner Yalerius, unless you’re playing with me, I know what you’re going to ask, and the answer is yes, Nin Mel.”
“Maeryn Caravela Glynrora, I assure you, I have never been more serious in my life. I just have this speech prepared that I would really like to be able to deliver.” Connor tapped the kneeling Tlannatar on his boot.
“Tanner, unless you intend to talk her to death, just ask the question.” He grinned mischievously. “You can tell her the rest of it later.”
The Elf King eyed the Truthbearer and then turned back to Maeryn. “Maeryn Glynrora, I love you, and I would like us to spend the rest of our lives together. Will you marry me?”
“King Tlannatar Yalerius, I have already answered you twice, but to make it official, I love you too. I want to spend the rest of my life with you also. Yes, I will marry you.” The King of the Great Forest Realm took the ring from its box and, taking the hand of the woman he had grown to love, slid the beautiful engagement ring on her finger. A shout went up from everyone else in the family and friends, as Tanner rose to his feet and embraced his fiancée. He looked at his younger sister.
“I feel like I’m three hundred years old again, Yena.” Iolena smiled warmly.
“Can we open the presents now?” Lona and little Connor looked up at the adults.
“Lona,” Menta Kai addressed her daughter. “You are the High Princess. You have to make sure that everyone else has their presents before you open yours.”
“Can Connor help me?” Lona asked.
“Of course he can.” Menta Kai replied. “I might just as well be the only one here without a boyfriend.”
Joseph Spotted Eagle put his hand on her shoulder. “You may not have a boyfriend, Kai Lee, but you do always have a friend in me.” Menta Kai didn’t say anything, but again she slipped her arm through Joseph’s arm, kissed him on the cheek and laid her head on his shoulder.
“Merry Christmas, Joseph.”
“Merry Christmas, Menta Kai Lee.”
Two days after Christmas, Berian, Fiona, and Abilynn were sitting in front of the window of Fiona’s study, overlooking the courtyard, watching a red cardinal flit from feeder to feeder that had been set up around the Christmas tree. With the exception of Connor, Iolena, Richard, and Kitlaen, everyone else had departed for home. Even Alistronia was temporarily gone, traveling with Fillian to see the location of her new burrow in Ireland.
“Mama,” Abilynn asked, “what do you think they think of us, the little birds?”
“I don’t know, my love. It’s ironic, isn’t it, that we feed them as elves, and we prey on them as raptors.” Fiona watched as the red bird was joined by his more orange colored mate.
“If I have any choice in the matter, I’m not going to prey on the little birds. It’s one thing about being a shapeshifter that I don’t like.” Abilynn gave her mother a weak smile.
“I know what you’re saying, Abilynn, but I don’t know if we do have a choice. When you are a snowy owl, you are a snowy owl, and you behave that way, just as I do when I am the White Owl.” She reached over and took Abilynn’s hand. “It isn’t wrong, Sweetheart. As your grandmother would say, it is what it is.” Abilynn smiled again and turned to her father.
“Da, what are you going to do now that you don’t have to be at Great Forest Castle three weeks out of every month?” Abilynn asked.
“The biggest thing I’m going to do is spend more time with my daughter, and her mother.” He saw her smile. “There are a lot of things that still need to be done around here that I will hopefully have time to do. I would like to visit and learn more about Ireland with the two of you. Your mother says she has a friend who is heading off on an ocean voyage back in the seventh century in Terran time, who she would like to see before he leaves. I don’t think I’m going to be bored.”
“Well, Adda,” she used the Elven term for father, “I hope that I’m not going to be bored without Lona here. I appreciate the quiet, but I miss that little bugger. She’s my sister, but she is also my best friend.”
“Abilynn,” her mother looked at her, “Lona will be back before you know it, so the three of us are going to spend this time together being a family. You and I have a lot to do, and a lot to learn.” She pointed at a long wooden box that Berian had crafted, sitting on the shelf behind her desk. “Menta Kai, Padraigh and I decided that the best and safest place for An Anotais is here in Caer Aerie, so as my heir, you and I will learn how to wield the Great Sword of Eyru.”
Abilynn raised her eyebrows. “Your heir, Mother? What about when you have children of your own?” Berian watched this exchange closely, but let his wife take the lead.
“Abilynn, you are our own. You are our first daughter, and you will always be that. We could have those hundred children that your father and I joke about,” she glanced at Berian, “I hope. Anyhow, and you will always be first, our daughter, my heir. Whenever you are concerned about where you stand with Berian and myself, just think of Tia Kailee. Like Menta Kai is to Adda and Amil, you are and always will be to us. As Adda Connor says, family first, family first always, and you are our family.”
“I know that, Mama. You told me something once, and it’s really stuck with me because I realized that I did the exact same thing for years and years.”
“What’s that, Melin er?” Fiona asked.
“You told me you prayed for a family, for Adda Connor, for a sister like Kailee, for a mother like grandma. I did that too.” She looked from Fiona to Berian. “Thank you for being my answer to prayer. It’s the best Christmas present I’ve ever had.”
“Merry Christmas, Abilynn Yaleria-Brice. We love you.”
“Merry Christmas, Mum, and Da. I love you too.”
“How about you and I go for a fly, and see how beautiful the winter world is out there?”
“Just you and me, Mama?”
Fiona smiled warmly. “Just you and me, my darling daughter, and Zed.”
“Before we do that, may I ask one other thing from you, Mama that would be very dear to me?” Abilynn asked.
“Of course, Nin Mel. What is it?” Abilynn bent forward and whispered in her mother’s ear. Fiona looked up at her. “I’d love to, Sweetheart. I have just been waiting for you to ask.”
“All the way down, Mum, just like you,” the girl replied.
“All the way down?” Fiona eyed her daughter. “You don’t have a boyfriend, do you?”
Abilynn chuckled, “No, Mum, I don’t have a boyfriend. I just believe that if you take it all the way down,” she indicated the middle of her chest, “it will cross my heart, and show that my heart belongs to this family. My family.”
Fiona looked at Berian who nodded in agreement. “All the way down it is, then.” Abilynn turned her back to her father, opened her blouse, and Fiona magically applied the HAGS’ Celtic scrollwork tattoo from her forehead, all the way down, across her heart, and identical to Fiona’s own.
A few minutes later Berian watched as his lovely wife and daughter started across the courtyard, joined hands, took two running steps, leapt into the sky where they were joined by Zed and Zedra, and flew out toward the mountains.
“Beautiful, Nin Mel,” he said out loud, but mostly to himself. “The two of you are so beautiful.” Berian turned, gathered his tools and set about his work for the day.
Wishing all of our readers a wondrous, magical and very
Merry Christmas!
From the Aerielands and Gewellyn.