1.3 Let sleeping dogs lie.

Venice had recently received a promotion to Band Manager of ''The Flaming Turkeys'. 'The hours and days were pretty much the same as being a hired groupie or rent-a-fan to make unknown bands look popular, but the work must be harder.' Lil thought. Venice had come home last night from work, snuggled Marcus, kissed her and went straight to bed.

Later that night, when Lilli had gone downstairs to put Marcus to bed, Venice was asleep on top of the covers, completely dressed sans shoes. 'You poor dear, working so hard to catch our dreams!' Lilly reflected. She gently undressed her overworked and exhausted lover, and slipped the covers over her sleeping form.

Lilly woke early in the morning, and quietly taking Marcus from the crib crept upstairs. She placed his sleeping form and a blanket on the kitchen floor, so that he wouldn't wake Venice when he woke, and as quietly as she could, began cooking meals to be served as needed.

Marcus awoke, and yawned, realizing he was not in his crib, he stretched and wiggled and kicked off the blanket, rolling over onto his stomach, then stood to survey his surrounds. He could see Boney, who was inside the pool fence, staring curiously at nothing. Looking around, he cast his eyes over 'Ipsi', who was sleeping. He knew better than to wake her up, she had never bitten him, but she had made it quite clear on a few occasions that it was a no-no.

Marcus dropped to his padded backside, and shuffled around to face the other way. He could walk straight lines and wobbly lines, but he still needed practice at cornering without a solid object to cling to. "Illi...Illi...", he called, spotting Lilli at the stove. This was a good omen, that meant 'sgedi' was likely.

"Good morning little sprout", Lilli greeted him, kissing him on the forehead, as she scooped him up, and placed him in his highchair for breakfast. "Would you like bananas for breakfast?" she asked as innocently as she could. Marcus replied by swinging his head from side to side, and flailing his arms madly, he finished with "naa-naas....blehhh".

"Oh, not bananas then?" Lilly responded, enjoying this new game that they had recently started. "How about for the discerning young man, some apple puree?" Lilli asked, trying to keep a straight face. Marcus dropped his head to the food tray, as if he had abandoned all hope of ever seeing his beloved sgedi again. He sat up and did the cutesy head wobble, although without the arm flailing this time. "Uh-poo yuck", Marcus explained, he did like the apple, it just wasn't sgedi.

"Okay, how about... some grape cobbler then?" asked Lil, deciding it was time to expand his vocabulary, Marcus wasn't sure about that one, and not knowing how to repeat it back to her, but knowing it wasn't sgedi, just made a face and said "blehhh".

Lilly could see the hungry sprout getting impatient, so she finally asked the right question. "Maybe, you would like spah-GEH-tee?" stretching the word. "SGEDEEEE", Marcus threw his hands in the air and grinned, as if he had just won the internets.

Lilly finished up the Mac n Cheese that she had been preparing for Venice to take to work for lunch, and grabbing an already prepared plate of spaghetti from the fridge, she fired up the food processor, and prepared Marcus sgedi.

Lilli quickly served up the sgedi, and turned to give Marcus his breakfast, to find Bonehilda blocking the Highchair. "Please step aside Bonehilda" said Lilli, the irritation plain in her voice. While Bonehilda didn't' hear the irritation, she herd the command and after a minute, stepped aside.

Bonehilda stepped aside and moved over towards Gypsy's bed, Lilli realized immediately that the skeletal servant had given him a bottle, which was not one of her duties.
'I was right there making his breakfast you brain dead moron', The fairy thought angrily, without even sensing the irony of her insult. She traded the bottle for the bowl, and sat down to a quick 'Autumn Salad' from the night before.

Lilli finished her salad around the same time Marcus had finished face painting and general redecorating. She quickly slipped down the spiral stairs and returned with unspaghettified clothes for Marcus.When she returned, Bonehilda was leaning into lift Marcus from the highchair.

Marcus was having none of this and started calling out for 'Illeeee'. Lilliana flew across the kitchen, and quickly placed herself in between Marcus and Bonehilda. "I've got him Bonehilda! Lilli hissed tersely as she lifted Marcus. Bonehilda tapped her foot and returned to the wall to watch Gypsy sleep.

Lilli changed Marcus into clean clothes, and put him down on the floor. Marcus went straight to the block table, were he began a scientific examination of block color versus flavor. He concluded that, all the blocks on the table tasted the same, and that these blocks were bigger than his peg box blocks.

Marcus, having decided his experiment was a failure, climbed into the toy box in search of his long peg box. Come to think of it, his Xylamathingy was missing too.
Bonehilda made no attempt to clean the kitchen, instead stood motionless between the bathroom and the dog bed. Lilliana gave up on waiting for the servant to do some of her actual duties, and grabbed a sponge.

Bonehilda stood frozen for almost an hour. Then, she reanimated, and for some reason leaned forward and started poking Gypsy with a pointy finger. Gypsy leaped off the bed with a snarl, It wasn't her human mistress, or her mistress' fairy packmate, and it wasn't the cub, so whoever it was was in big trouble. Gypsy lunged forward and grabbed the servant by the hand, disconnecting it from its owner, and was about to pounce and take the skeleton down when..."GYPSY. STOP" Lilliana yelled.

Gypsy dropped the hand to the floor. Gypsy turned her head to the fairy. 'I WAS sleeping' She thought at her Mistress's mate. Turning back to the servant she sent the thought 'It's a good thing I know my place in the pack, bones, or you would be nibbles for weeks!'. The Husky added a low growl, before slinking down to the basement to sleep on the bed.

'I really have had enough of you today', Lilliana thought. "You are dismissed Bonehilda."Lilli commanded, and watched until Bonehilda'a chamber door closed.

'Luckily, Marcus had been in the toy box with the lid closed the entire time, so other than some loud noises he missed all that!' Lilly hoped. Venice come staggering up the stairs "What happened? whats going on?" She asked rubbing sleep from her eyes. Lilli made Venice a coffee as she recounted what she thought might have happened.

"Please, please don't ever leave her alone with Marcus", Lilli pleaded, "Never in recorded history has a bound servant harmed a child of its own accord, but Hilda is just so...quirky". Marcus chose that moment to make his grand entrance, reappearing from the toy box. "Mum, mum, mumm, mumm!" he cried with joy, hugging her leg. "Hello, little man!" Venice smiled.

"Has he had breakfast yet?" Venice asked, sipping and savoring her coffee. "Yes, and he didn't want apples, and he didn't want bananas, he only wanted.."."Spaghetti?" Venice finished for her.

Venice played quietly on her 'Pink Cheetah', while Lilly sat opposite reading a worn out, dog-eared instruction manual. Venice put down the guitar and checked the time on her phone again. She leaned over to inspect the cover. "The Modern Handiman", Venice laughed, "Good joke, that book looks older than I am! Where did you dig that up?".

"There's an Op-Shop next to the junkyard", Lilly started explaining. "Whats the Op-Shop, never heard of the place", Venice interrupted. "Not THE Op-Shop, an Op-Shop, or Opportunity Shop, really, you don't know what that is? Asked Lilli in surprise. Venice just shook her head.

"Its one of the things that attracted me to hanging around with humans, that and rock music", Lilli enthused. Lilli struggled for a moment, looking for the simplest description, "Its weird having to explain a human concept to another human..  Okay, here's how it works, Rich people give away their old and unwanted stuff to the shop for free.. and.. poor people can buy the stuff cheap. The staff are all volunteers, and I think, after they pay the bills, the rest of the money goes to charity or something,"

A car impatiently toots outside. "Venice?", Lil asks, "Is it okay if I take Marcus there today, I..".
The tooting somehow sounds more impatient the second time round. "Lil, we need to.. Yeah sure.. gotta go Babe" Venice says, kissing Lil on the cheek, before bolting out the door to work.  

Lilli picks Marcus up and carries him on the lengthy journey into town. Lilli stops first at the Op-shop, and buys a small bag of pre-loved baby books. She spends some time poking through a box of old and mostly broken toys with Marcus and he lines up all the plush toys in a row on the floor.

The elderly shop keeper chuckles to her self as she watches Marcus knock each of them down with a shove and a grunt. The child then picks them up one by one and deposits them back into the cardboard box, except a dirty white one. "ook illi, issit?", he waves the toy frantically at Lilli.

Lilli leans down to take a closer look, she inspects it for a moment before she announces, "It's a Yeti, Sprout". "Eddy, Eddy, Eddy", Marcus bounces gleefully, hugging the yeti, and bringing a smile to Lilli and the old shopkeepers faces.

"You have to put it back Marcus", explains Lilli, "I don't have a single simoleon in me, and the price tag says 2 simoleons!". Marcus looks crestfallen. "Does it really? Are you sure?" asks the shop keeper, shuffling her way over. She pulls a marking pen from one of her many pockets and scribbles on the price tag. "Must have forgot to mark that one down for the sale", the old woman mutters to Lilli as she shuffles her way back to the counter.

Lilli looks again at the Yeti, the pricetag had read §2, that has been crossed out, and now it reads §0.
"Are you sure?" Lilly asks. The shop keeper replies, "Young lady, I know fairies are long lived an all, but I was working in this very shop long before you was born, so it's safe to say, I know when the prices are right and wrong!". After several rounds of thank you and your welcome, Lilli, Marcus, and Eddy continue down the road to the junkyard.

Lilli turned off the path into the Junkyard. Horace was sitting in an old rocking chair smoking an equally old pipe. He waited until Lilli reached the porch of the old wood and tin office shack, before raising himself from the chair and reached a hand forward to shake in greeting. "Lilliana, isn't it?", Horace asked, having only met Lilly once before. "Lilli is fine"Lilli returned. "Horace, make yourself useful and you get your lazy old butt in here and get this damn box of the top shelf for me!" called a voice from the depths of the office in an unusually friendly and playful tone .

"Not now Gladys!", he called back, "I've got a customer!". "A customer, a real, live customer?", Gladys fired back. "Not one of your drinking buddies, or your cousin Elmer, who always smells like fresh fish, but hasn't brought us any for ages?", Gladys continues her  playful rampage.

"No, Gladys, a real customer, you know, with real simoleons or something to trade!", Horace calls back, rolling his eyes dramatically and grinning at Lilli. Lilli tries to muffle a giggle at the old couples bizarre but clearly loving conversation. Gladys bumps her way from the back office, to the front office. "Nope, don't say I recall them", Gladys barbed. "Suppose I should find a cake and candles, Oh, I'm sure there's some bunting here somewhere, too!"

Eventually Gladys bumped her way from the front office to the front door to the porch, and wrapping one arm around her man, she leaned forward to shake Lil's hand. Horace did the introductions. "Lilli, this is my wife, Gladys Blackwell, and the brains of the operation, and Gladys, this is Lilliana, or Lilli as she prefers, whose new in town. Lilli noticed Gladys eyes outlining her wings, then looking at Marcus.

Lilli turned Marcus around in her arms to face, "And this here is Marcus, my.. fiances son", she finished the introductions.

"Your boy looks beat.", Gladys exclaimed, "There's an old cot over here, but its got fresh linen on it, if you want to let him rest a while, while you poke around" Lilli looked at Marcus, who was struggling to keep his eyes open. By the time Lilli had pulled the covers up, Marcus was fast asleep.

As Lilly followed Horace out to the main hard, she spotted a Hazama Porcelain Fairy Doll, on a desk standing next to a sign that simply said 'GLADYS'. It was clearly in poor condition, but even in that condition it must have been worth fifty or sixty thousand.  "Oh ah Hazama! I had a complete collection when I was little!." Lilli burst out before she could stop herself.

"A collection?", Gladys asked, raising an eyebrow. The disbelief in her voice was clear.
A collection would send most millionaires broke. Lilli quickly covered "I saw some in an auction house with my mother when I was young, we obviously couldn't afford one, so my mother started buying the old advertising posters. I had a poster for every one!", Lilli lied smoothly. She hated her self for doing it, but it was better than revealing her true heritage.

"Sounds like a wise lady, your mother.", Gladys smiled. Lilli managed a nod, and swept out the door to catch Horace. A short while later Gladys came out to the shed were Lilli and Horace were negotiating a trade, and placed a tray of tea down. "All these odds, and that thingy there, if you fix it yourself, and get these pieces here?", Horace asked Lilli who replied, "Yes, that is my offer for this negotiation".

Lilli swept the gems and a small pile of tiny mechanical components pack into her pouch. "I'm not sure when I can pick it up, we don't have a car yet" Lilli informed them. Gladys hands Lilli a cup of tea, "Don't you worry about that none, Lilli, old Horace here can put it in the back of 'old Gerty' and deliver it for you, any where in town... If he still remembers how to drive!". Horace used his trademark 'Rolls Eyes' move, and Lilli tries not to choke on her tea.

Lilli grabs some tools from a nearby makeshift shelf and gets to work, while Marcus naps.
  




Over the next few days, Lilli spends all of her spare time reading outside with Marcus, and inside if it is not. Every second day alternates between the garden and time at the junkyard. Lilli brings home some wood and constructs a makeshift set of bookshelves that she saw in her Handiman's guide.
She doesn't even have to open the book once to see if she is doing it right, she just knows.

On Wednesday, Venice has one of her two days off for the week, and curls up on the floor with her loved ones to share story time.

On Friday, when Venice comes home from work late, she finds her two loved asleep in a restored rocking chair. Her Lil is getting quite good at fixing things!

Sunday is also a day off for Venice, she quietly zings her son from his crib, swooshes him up the stairs, and zooms him into the kitchen, before kerplunking him into the highchair. Venice, has seen 'the breakfast game' often enough to know how it works, and walks over to the fridge to start. Venice opens the door to peer inside, but is assaulted with a nauseating stench that nearly makes her vomit.

A faint trace of the smell hits Marcus, who asked "Sgedi?",  in a small voice. "Not right now buddy!",
Venice gurgles, dumping the foul food into a plastic bag and racing for the bin. Marcus contemplates a day with no sgedi. If he knew what Armageddon meant, there is a 93% chance he would have given Armageddon and the 'No sgedi today day', the same score on a chart scaling from zero to the zombie apocalypse.

Luckily, Lilli comes upstairs in time to save the day, and cooks a fresh batch of the miracle food.




Marcus loves to hide in his toy box

Marcus loves to play with Rarr, the dinosaur

Marcus loves to play with Eddy the Yeti.

Marcus loves to play with other toys too. More than anything else in the world (except for maybe sgedi!), Marcus loves to play with Lillibear!

 "V, is it okay if I take Sprout into town to the consignment store", Lilly asks hopefully. "Lil, you don't need to ask every time you want to do something with Marcus!", Venice said, a little more sharply than she had intended. "Look, I've been wanted to talk to you about this for a week or so, I've just been distracted.", Venice continued, pulling her fairy lover tighter against herself.

"I got pregnant, and I carried him, but from day one, you have had just as much of a hand, no more, in fact, in raising as I, Lil. You are his second mother as far I'm concerned." Venice said, trying to put her feelings into words. "Really?" Lilly gasped.

"Really!" Venice confirmed. "I have just been so busy with work, and researching something, that I hold off until I felt I had everything organised." Venice let go of Lilliana's had for a moment and removed a small, square cardboard box hidden under her pillow. "And to prove that I mean I think of you as family." Venice replied. She took a deep breath and continued.

"Lilliana Camilla Jasmine Primrose Poppy Rosebloom, I ask you to hear me when I say my eyes see because of you. I ask you to hear me when I say my mind thinks clearly because of you. I ask you to hear me when I say my heart beats because of you. I ask you to hear me when I say I would rather share one lifetime with you than face a single moment without! I stand here, my soul laid bare before you and ask you Lilliana, to grant my request to be my soulmate, for all eternity."

Venice flipped the lid from the box with her thumb, revealing an intricately braided ring of woven grass as Lilli answered.
"Oh my gods, yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!" Lilly squealed excitedly, "High King Velidroth's proposal request to Princess Kateraina of the mountain fairy tribes! Word for word, it was perfect!"

Lilli calmed herself and responded, "Venice Jettstar, I hear you when you say your eyes see because of me. I hear you when you say your mind thinks clearly because of me. I hear you when you say your heart beats because of me. I hear you when you say you would rather share one lifetime with me than face a single moment without! I say to you that I too feel as such and grant your request to be your soulmate, for all eternity."

Needless to say, neither slept much that night.

The next day, they began to plan the wedding. "The two brides sit here", Venice showed Lilli on her sketchpad, The best man, here, the maid of honor, here.", tapping her finger on the page.
"My family on this side, your family on that side!" added Venice quickly, tapping the blank sections of the page.". "Ha ha, very funny!", Lil snorted, "Planning a wedding is serious, serious business!", her face turning deadpan. "I mean, I may be disowned, but I was a high royal princess, that means at least twenty-five carriages, and one hundred horses, not to mention a legion of guards", "Gotcha!" Lil shouted as the look on Venice face slowly faded.

 

As Venice dropped her planning book on to the floor before sleeping, she had to ask, "Lil, how big would your garden have to be to use that much horse poop?"

The rest of the week felt like it had slowed to a crawl, and then the day before the wedding they got some bad news regarding their house lot. Apparently the lot was twice the size as they had been told, and as the current owners, the local council expected them to pay §2,400 in back taxes by the end of the month, or face late penalties. Lilly and Venice decided to clear that first, and spent their renovation money. 

Marcus, King Of The Sgedi Monsters

Gypsy dreams of a great big paddock full of dinosaur bones, led by the evil queen Bonehilda.
Gypsy decimates all foes who threaten her pack.

Chapter notes.

I had to spend two hours photo-chopping for this chapter, normally all I do is blur to hide the fact almost all my graphic settings are on minimum. The rocking chair shot was the worst. The animation looks like a modified version of snuggle, only with the adult head turning every second rock, and the toddlers elbow bent up over his head. I used five other shots and some free hand work to make it look like it is. I have seen mothers sleep in chairs with babies, and I think maybe the Ea artist hadn't?

I paid the $2400 excess.. (That's the second time I've caught myself cheating, and had to fix it!)


I had a lot more story to fit to these screen shots, but I think I'm textwalling too much already!
I need some readers opinions!?!?