“All right, everyone in,” Lewis said as he stepped through the gate. For once, their visit to Sulwal was for a mere visit, a ‘playdate’ of sorts for the kids, and a chance to get off the island. Llywellyn, of course, was excited to see Simone and the kids. Lewis was happy enough to get a chance to relax and visit with the King too, of course. The bright, morning sunlight trickled through the tree canopies, illuminating the all too familiar pathway towards the castle gates.

“Careful now,” Rex said as he helped Hazel step through the portal. Despite being heavily pregnant, Hazel was more than adamant to leave the house. Their own little hut had yet to be finished, though it was well on its way to being finished, but that still meant that Hazel was confined to the lower levels of the castle with little to do for entertainment, unless Rex brought her things to do. And there were only so many books she could read before she started to get stir crazy.

Lucas and Ezili stepped through next, hand in hand, though Ezili was holding a sleepy Janus. It was getting to the point where the twins could be separate from each other and be less than bothered about it, through to a point. Every so often, Janus and Lila would have enough of their separation, and force the issue with gates. For the most part, though, they were getting quite independent.

Next, stepped through Fiori and Mira, and they darted off into the woodlands, eager to explore and find new friends. Fiori went off, exclaiming that she could find more squirrels, and Fiori was more than happy to follow along, hoping to find more fishy friends in the nearby lake. Jules and Corrin followed next, looking around. This had been the first time they had ever been to Sulwal, and they were quite shocked at the whole thing. Lucas smiled and pat Corrine’s head, giving her assurance.

Finally, Lewis and Simone stepped through. Llynette was holding one of Simone’s hands, with Lila being held in the other. Similarly, Lewis came through with Alshaya holding his hand, and Glyn nestled in the other, sleeping away.

“All accounted for?” Lewis asked. He did a quick count, and frowned. “Missing two…Fiori and Mira?”

“They ran off,” Lucas said.

“Ah…well, they know the rules…” Lewis glanced over to Simone, “…I hope.”

Hazel was a little ball of determination and the more pregnant she felt was angrier she got when she wasn’t allowed to do something. It wasn’t like she was mean to Rex but she snapped here or there. It made Rex walk on eggshells because he wasn’t sure when she would do it. She missed her craft but it was too dangerous to do it. Angela had given the okay for the trip citing that if she was going to pop that it was going to happen no matter where she went and she might as well be with Lewis and the others when it happened.

Llywellyn was waiting with his own family. There were a few younger children that Simone hadn’t met yet. More than likely Jehanne had kept them away until she knew what to think of the Terrowins.

“What this?”Lila grabbed at a flowering tree that was close to her. The girl looked up at her mother waiting but Simone didn’t know.

“It’s called a Tulip Tree.” Llywellyn came over to her and got on her level. “Do you like it?”

“Yeah,” Lila nodded. She held a scowl for a moment as she lost her grip on the tree. Simone chuckled a bit.

“You have to be delicate with it Lila. It’s a flower not a tool.” Simone chuckled a bit.

“She’s getting more and more curious… meanwhile…” Llywellyn looked at a sleepy Janus.

“Yeah, I don’t think he’s ever going to change,” Simone lifted Lila up a bit higher so she could see the tree.

Llynette was looked at Llywellyn and Llywellyn back at her not sure what to make of him. “Are you still nervous Llynette?”

“I’m trying to figure out why you are an idiot here,” Llynette was blunt and Llywellyn reeled back.

“Am I that different here?” Lly looked to Simone who shrugged.

“That was mean Llynette,” Simone scolded lightly.

“Sorry Mama,” Llynette made a face and curtsied to Llywellyn before running off with Jules and Corrine.

“…She’s brutal like my mother was…” Llywellyn made a face and chuckled.

“Ah, I was wondering where she got that habit from,” Simone thought about it and laughed. “Makes sense now.” Lila had taken to wanting to be cradled in her arms so Simone obliged.

“You like your Uncle Llywellyn right Lila?”

“You okay,” Lila looked up at him.

The girls seemed to be feisty today, and Lewis let out a heavy sigh. It had started with Lila being rough with a smaller, flowering tree. Luckily, Simone took care of that. Llynette was next, with her attitude towards Llywellyn. Briefly, Lewis wondered if she would act like that towards her own father in the dream that she came from. A part of him was sure that, given time, she probably would have…

Again, Simone was first to chime in. Lewis nodded in agreement, “Simone is right, Llynette. We don’t tell people how we think of them to their faces. That earned a smile from Llynette as she apologized to her mother, and off she went. And then, it was once more up to Lila for the final flurry of feistiness.

“Now, now, Lila,” Lewis said as she told Llywellyn that he was ‘okay’. He walked over to Lila and pinched her cheek with a smirk. “Remember what I told you about the sass, Lila. And on how it…” He glanced over to Lly.

And now it hurts people’s feelings. Especially people who have pride in themselves. He’s your uncle…just play nice.

Before he could continue, though, Alshaya tugged at his shirt. “Yes, Shaya?”

“Daddy, can I go play with that boy over there?” She pointed to a child in the corner.

Lewis looked over, resisting the urge to glare and toss a dagger. “I…guess you can…”

Lila smiled. Play nice, Daddy.

Llywellyn chuckled a bit. Lila was certainly smart for how old she was and Janus wasn’t a slacker either. He spent most of his time curled up on Simone listening to her read. “Ah, that’s my youngest son Llonan.”

This caused Alshaya to put a look in her eyes, “Can I play with him Uncle Llywellyn?” Her pink and purple eyes were practically dancing up at him.

Lly looked over at his wife and hesitated before accepting, “Yeah, go introduce yourself.”

Shaya romped off to him with Everett following closely behind. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t get married,” Everett stopped and saluted Lewis. “Sister protecting is what I do!”

Lila looked over at him, “Nose.”

“What about my nose Lila?” Everett gave her a smile.

“Who protect your nose?” Lila was blunt.

“…” Everett gave her a look before running after Alshaya.

“Lila… What were you just told,” Simone sighed a bit.

Llonan was a small elf boy, smaller than the rest of his brothers and sisters. He seemed to be thinner than the typical elf children, and wore his blonde hair tied back, leaving it long. He had thick framed, square glasses that seemed to always fall to the end of his nose as he looked into the book he was reading. As Alshaya bounded up, he barely noticed that she had appeared.

Everett came up behind Alshaya, a disgruntled look on his face. “Shaya…Lila is getting really mean. I don’t like it…” But Alshaya seemed to be more focused on the boy. “Shayyaa…are you paying attention?”

Shaya paid little attention to her brother as she moved into the space of the new kid. “I’m sure she is just like Mama!” Shaya gave Everett a smile. “Mama gets like that too! Didn’t you notice?”

Shaya sat down by the boy with a plop and leaned over the book. “Whatcha reading? Is it good? I like fantasy stories. Does this book have pictures? My name is Shaya and this is my brother Everett!” Shaya’s eyes were gleaming brightly. “Uncle Llywellyn said that we could play with you!”

Per his mother’s instruction, Llonan was reading up on the revolt that had happened several hundreds of years ago that led to the current status quo in a foreign elven kingdom. It was a history lesson that showed the importance of what it meant to follow the will of the people, or they would take it for themselves. Or, more aptly, how it was a King’s duty to guide and manipulate the will of the people to better the country as a whole. While it wasn’t meant to be sinister, Llonan was quite well aware of how such an impact could cause a peaceful nation to turn to bloodshed.

Of course, none of that mattered. A girl around his age seemed to appear out of nowhere, and assaulted him with questions. At once, Llonan pulled the book up to block the lower half of his face, and immediately flushed. The question barrage was quite overwhelming.

“H-h-hi…” Llonan stared at the girl, and then noticed that there was a boy behind her. It took his mind a moment, but it replayed a few pieces of information that had previously been withheld due to the overwhelming presence of the girl.

Alshaya. Everett. The names of the two children.

Still, he wasn’t sure what to say. “H…Hi…”

Everett cocked his head to the side. “Are you okay?”

Llonan blinked. “Y-yes.”

“So…you going to answer my sister’s questions? It’s rude to keep a lady waiting, you know. I thought this royalty stuff had rules.”

Llonan flushed. “Questions. Right. Um…” He thought for a moment. What were the questions? “…I…am doing good, thanks?”

Alshaya was excited when he started to talk to her, “Maybe he just likes books like Mama!”

When he couldn’t remember her questions she frowned a bit at first before taking the book and reading it herself. She made a face and ran over to Lucas, “What’s this word right here? It’s pretty big.”

Ezili bent over and looked at it, “Auspicious.”

“What’s it mean?”

“It’s like prosperous or favorable. Like a kingdom is in a favorable position.” Simone spoke up as she looked over. "And please don't take people's things without asking. You are a child, not an animal."

Alshaya made an ‘o’ face as she ran back over, “It’s a history book. Figured it out all by myself. Do you want to go play in the courtyard? Everett and I were gonna play tag in the bushes!”

Lila looked up at her mother and Simone looked down. "Don't you dare."

"Acts like it," Lila said timidly.

Lewis let out a heavy sigh at Lila. “This girl…”

When Llonan’s book was stolen by Alshaya, he merely sat there, his hands still acting as though they were still holding the book. No one had ever so much as talked to him in this way, let alone taken a book out of his hand. His mother had always told him it was important to study, and as such, the guards were always very careful when it came to his books, lest they incur the wrath of the Queen.

“Oh…yes…history book,” he said when Alshaya finally returned his book. “Mother…wants it finished by the end of tomorrow. It’s…a little hard to read.” That was when Alshaya asked if he wanted to play. He shook his head. “I do not have the time to play, sadly. I need to finish this…if I don’t, Mother will get-”

Everett blinked. “Do you ever play?”

Llonan furrowed his brow. “Of course I get to play. I have scheduled times when my brothers and I go-”

The boy shook his head. “No, I mean…actually play. Just…tag.”

“Tag?”

“Yes, tag…”

The prince frowned. “…what is…tag?”

Alshaya looked at the book she read a bit more. “This is about the uprising right?” It wasn’t that she was dumb. On the contrary, she listened when she shouldn’t have and she was very intelligent to understand what was going on. “Uncle Llywellyn was a big dummy and overthrew his father because he had a stupid guilty conscience over my momma. He proceeded to take an army and storm a castle or two or three. He didn’t find mama so he sulked. The end. Also he became king.”

Simone sat there dumbfounded. Shaya had heard all of that. “Also I heard Uncle Llywellyn is a perv–”

“Shaya,” Simone sighed but instantly even with how quiet Simone’s voice was it caused Alshaya to clamp her mouth shut. “That’s enough.”

“Mama is a heartbreaker,” Shaya dared to speak and Simone groaned a bit.

“I didn’t realize she heard all of that. She must have heard us talking about it and decided to listen in… She’s a little gossip fairy.”

“Big ears. Big mouth,” Lila calmly said as she got handed some snacks to listen to.

“Be nice that’s your sister.”

Llywellyn sat there in shock and started to laugh, “She is certainly… smart.”

“She’s intelligent but she lives for drama…”

Alshaya closed his book and set it on a stand. “Come on I’ll show you.” Taking his hand she pulled him with her. “I already got permission for you to play with us so you don’t gotta worry about it.”