Tabitha and Delilah were sitting outside on the balcony that was in Tabitha’s living room, just to the right of the bedroom doors, looking over a lovely wildflower garden she had asked for just for mornings like this ,finishing up a light breakfast of toast, jam, and fruit when the cat from downstairs came strolling in through a small well-hidden flap door that was in most of the bigger doors in the palace and in all of the living quarters. Del saw him come in and called out, “Bri, is his clothes still in the bathroom?” Brianna came out of the bedroom and smiled down at the silky raven and dark gray striped - coated feline and nodded at it and smiled at the other two women as they watched the handsome cat. As the cat started to saunter past the girls on its way to Tabby’s bedroom, and the adjoining bathroom on the other side of the bedroom, it was slowly being covered in a black and gray complex surge of fragments, that reflected the light from the room like small mirrors. “Are any of them here yet?” Tabby asked as she got up to follow the cat, and as she reached the bathroom doors, it was slammed in her face!

“A little privacy PLEASE!” A muffled male voice came through the door, and then a short time later Tabby’s brother came out of the bathroom, with pants on, but holding his shirt and shoes. “The one from Vuzar will be here in a few hours, the brother and sister from Kheria got here late last night it seems…and there lies in a problem.” Tabitha looked over at her friend and jerked her head towards her brother, who then shooed her brother to the overly padded bedroom bench that butted against the end of her bed, “What kind of problem is she not as pretty as you remembered now” Delilah asked as she walked over from the rooms doorframe she was leaning against then sat down beside Simon and nudged him in the ribs as he put on his shirt. “She’s like us I think, she can ‘smell it’ she said, do we have a smell when we….” Tabby nodded as she sat on Simons other side, “Kind of a musky yet spicy smell, like cloves and frankincense, or is that woody and fruity?” “Huh, I never noticed it, I guess.” Simon said thoughtfully, “That’s because you like to be your Other more than we do.” Delilah said, “you’ve gotten used to it. “Oh, I don’t know Del,” Tabby replied, “I go Other quite a bit, and I can still smell it when I come back.” “I think ones that can Other are the only ones who can consciously smell it, and link it to our Other though…” Del started,

“Ok...OK...enough of the stinky/smelly talk,” Simon pushed out with his elbows, to hit each girl in the arms to get their attention back, “ The problem is, if she can smell the Other, this little ‘task’ you want the Princes to do, Bethany could be an ace-up her brothers sleeve, she’ll be able to find you both quicker for her brother, or if she goes Other, she could mabey bully you both in to submitting to him to be belled.” “Hmm...you have a point Simon.” Tabitha conceded, “you may have to keep her busy, since she is already on to you in your Other, so to speak, flirt with her in both ways...live up to that nickname you’re so proud of...Catnip!” Simon let out a much put out sounding sigh, but his face lit up with a wistful smile, “Oh that would be no problem, Bethany is a lovely creature I can assure you, probably more now than the last time I saw her; her eyes are like warm honey...and her skin looks like fresh cream...and her body…-umph!” Simon grunted out as his sister jabbed him in the side- hard. “I think Bethany’s nickname should be Nip now!” Del laughed as Simon rubbed the spot his sister hit, giving a sheepish smile then shrugged. “yea...yea...just wait till you see the brother, he’s not bad on the eyes either I would think.” “I am in NO hurry...thank-you-very-much!” Tabitha staunchly replied, “Oh? Maybe I am.” Delilah, “Do tell Nip.” “weelll…” Simon began, and Tabitha screeched at them both, then yelled for Brianna. “Get these two cretins out of my room Bri, I am going to go take a bath before the dress fitters get here!” Friend and brother giggled at Tabby’s stiff retreating back and left her to get on with their own busy day.

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A hawk gracefully flew into an open upper window in the Kings bright private library at Castle Yont and lazily glided down to the awaiting offered arm of the court falconer. After hooding the bird, he undid a small wooden tube, and walked it over to the waiting Steward. The king, sitting in a comfortable high back chair leaned forward ever so slightly as the other man walked towards him, unrolling the parchment tightly wounded inside, and read through it. “Well?” King Togon whispered, and the steward smiled at his lord, “They made it sire, they are at the safe house in a small village just outside of Oceanshear. DeToit says everything should go as planned, the whole kingdom seems to know about the treaties being worked on between the three kingdoms, yet none of the villagers seem to know what the Princes’ look like. It should be easy to get Prince Evriss into Oceanshear proper, and our spies will be looking for DeToit, and get them safely into the castle.”

The king leaned back into his chair and let out a satisfied, yet pained-sounding sigh, then waved away both the falconer, and his Steward, who left the parchment within his reach, and bowed his way out. A chambermaid then took the steward’s place, and set out a small warm ,yet bland breakfast for him, then she left the king alone. But King Togon wasn’t hungry, the illness he suffered had taken away his appetite long ago, and stared blankly at the cooling food before him, as he pondered his last-ditch effort to stop the war he started with Ewistaven and not loose face with his kingdom. He told the people it was over better prices on goods, and trade routes with the other Kingdoms, and The Outer Islands, but that wasn’t the real reason, the real reason was Togon had thought someone from Ewistaven had helped his much younger than himself Queen, Iselria, to smuggle herself out of Yont and back to her home on the Outer Islands, and he had started the war out of pure vengeance. But in actuality, the Queen had taken off into part of the Little Norcs Mountain range, and for three months hidden there, as their kind tended to do, to give birth to his- more than likely last- children, a boy and a girl! At seventy years old, wasting away from an unknown illness that sapped his strength on most days this past year, and caused him unbearable pain every day this last six months, he was surprised that he could still have children, and yet, when she strode back into the castle ,looking all like a Queen who could rule in his place if he should die soon, late one evening, carrying the two babes, they both had his ice blue eyes, and the girl had a mop of almost white hair, just like her very-older brother.

So- in the almost year since the twins birth- between his most trusted advisers, and his Steward, Leopold, they had come up with a plan to introduce his own peace treaty with the other kingdoms and offer up his son as marriage potential. With the other treaties with the other Kingdoms coming at an optimal time ,Trogon felt the time was right to send his eldest to offer himself up as tribute-for lack of a better word, and in all honestly, Trogon hoped the other Kingdoms would at least offer some kind of truce since he sent his oldest sone with nothing but an ambassador -they would take whatever they would offer at this point- his own supplies for the kingdom was running thin, crops last fall were lighter than expected, and he was sending a good bit of it to his troops, in a word, his Kingdom was hurting! All because of his wounded pride! He had to set things right for his loving Queen, and his successor, which in all likely hood would be one of the babies. While Evriss loved his kingdom, he wanted no part of becoming the next King, so either way this plan went, the king knew Evriss would not come back to rule, and King Trogon knew, just now, with an awful load ‘pop’ that came from his lungs, he would never see his oldest son again. The King picked up the parchment and read again what was on it, then let it slip out of his hands with a content sigh, ‘yes,’ the king thought to himself as he felt his eyes slip shut, the excruciating pain he had felt for the last few months start to lift from his diseased riddled body “Evriss will come through for the Kingdom, even if it’s just for his small brother and sister, he is an honorable man…if nothing else…” And King Trogon passed from this world knowing in his heart of hearts he finally did the right thing.