Girls Gotta Know

Writers: Chelle, Eimi
Date Posted: 18th July 2010

Characters: Parale, Ioven, Venrys, Syren
Description: Parale and Ioven tell the girls they are getting married.
Location: Garnet Valley Hold
Date: month 10, day 1 of Turn 5

As promised, Parale showed up after dinner. She had run her errands
during the day and had gotten a good chunk of what she had planned out
of the way. There was still all of the sorting, packing, and distributing to do, but some of the ladies of the hold had offered to help with that.

Ioven was waiting with the girls already seated on the sofa. He had
told them that Parale was coming, and they had something they all needed
to talk about.

Of course Venrys' first question was, "Are we in trouble?"

"No!" Ioven quickly assured her.

"Is just Venrys in trouble?" Syren asked, a little too hopefully.
"Because she was the one who broke Parale's plate and hid it under the
chair."

"No, no one is in trouble." Though he did look at Venrys rather
sternly. "You broke one of Parale's plates?"

"Snitch," Venrys growled at her sister under her breath.

She was saved by the knock on her door. Ioven opened it wide for her to
come in. "They're waiting for us."

"Oh?" She gave a small look of surprise, then entered and settled. After
taking her time to smooth out her skirts while she was gathering the
words to say what she needed, Parale smiled at each of the girls.
"So..you know you have to go home in a few sevendays right?"

The girls nodded.

Ioven pulled a chair over beside Parale and nodded that she should go
on.

"When you go, I am going to go with you." Feed them a little bit at the
time. She had learned to do that with little children. It helped them
to process.

"On the boat?" Syren asked, her face already breaking into a hopeful
smile.

"All the way to Sun Stone?" Venrys also was starting to get excited.

Ioven nodded. "She's coming with us to Sun Stone."

"You're going to be our foster mother?" the older asked, both girls
starting to bounce a bit in their seats.

"For a little bit yes.." Parale really hoped their reaction wasn't going
to be a bad one. "But then your father and I have decided to be
married."

Both girls stopped moving instantly and turned wide eyes towards their
father, not quite sure what this meant.

"Yes," Ioven said, putting his hand on Parale's knee a little awkwardly.
"We're going to be married, and Parale is going to be part of our
family. Would you girls like that?"

"Hurrah!" Syren cried, not needing to think about that even for a
moment. Jumping off the sofa she threw her arms around the foster
mother.

Her older sister was a bit more reserved as her mind followed the words
to their logical end. Eyes sparkling with hope she asked, "You mean,
you're going to be like my _real_ mother?"

Parale caught the smaller girl, glad of that exuberant reaction, but
then her eyes focused on Venrys. "If you want me to be. Would that be
okay?"

"Yes!" she quickly replied jumping to her feet and putting her arms
around both Syren and Parale.

Ioven smiled at the scene, though it was bittersweet. He was glad that
he was right, that his choice was already making his girls so happy.
But he wondered if Narys would be forgotten completely now that they had
a "real" mother again. Perhaps it was the natural course of things, but
it still made his heart ache at the thought. Pulling his oldest
daughter down into his lap he said, "Now girls, we have to really help
Parale get ready to move, all right?"

"I'll help!" they both chimed in.

"What about you? Are you all packed?" Certainly the girls didn't have
anywhere near the things that Parale had collected over three decades.

Syren started to nod, but Venrys wasn't quite ready to stop asking
questions. "Are you going to have a baby?"

Parale tried not to appear too shocked by the question. Still it did
take her a bit off guard. "People have to get married before they even
talk about babies, Venling."

"But do you want to have babies?" Venrys asked, not satisfied with that
answer.

Parale gave her credit, she was smart. Ioven..well they were going to
have a tough time when she got older. "If a baby comes, I wouldn't turn
it away. But at my turns, babies don't always happen."

"How old are you?"

"Venrys, that's not a polite question," Ioven said reproachfully.

"33 turns old." Parale wasn't ashamed.

"That's nothing!" Syren assured her. "Daddy's already 40."

"I'm not that old," Ioven snorted. "And I've known plenty of women
Parale's age who have had children. We'll just see what happens."
Though it probably was a conversation they should have before the
wedding...

Last updated on the August 3rd 2010

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Girls Gotta Know