Alysia had spent quite some time in the Marketplace last night, browsing the shops in the warmth of an early summer evening. After visiting with her seamstress, she started searching for appropriate gifts for mothers and newborns. So far removed from her own experience with motherhood, most of the wares there completely mystified her: fuzzy, pastel-hued blankets; soft stuffed animals with large eyes and friendly smiles, enchanted to warble soothing lullabies; cheerful and brightly colored clothes.

Frustrated, the Priestess eventually found herself in an unfamiliar small building on Sparkle Lane. It was the residence of an elven jewelsmith who had recently relocated to Rhydin: clean and ordered, with glittering display cases and the mithril insignia of a Trade Master over the front door. He was anxious to establish new clients, and the two chattered about their occupations as he aptly sketched a few designs for the ring she was ordering. He listened to her frustrations about finding the perfect gifts for a child, and offered a suggestion that she found delightful.

It was with some trepidation, however, that Alysia approached the dappled forest clearing that was home to the Forsaken Blades Clubhouse. She was bearing gifts, and peace offerings.

?Hellllooooo??

Although small talking mushrooms would probably be one of the stranger things she?d seen, Alysia had encountered sentry fungus in her travels before. The fact that she was being challenged by a particularly fierce and armed mushroom didn?t deter her, particularly since it spoke a language she could understand. Whew.

?Alysia Skye.? She responded neutrally with her name, shrugged, and held out a willow basket containing several small, velvet-wrapped boxes. ?I wish to convey gifts to Tara, her Sprout, and Kinadria and her offspring.?

::Peering around the clubhouse at Alysia, the talking shroom, and Kina::

"Hmm, wonder what they's up to."

A smirk from the catling as she comes out from behind the building "Oh Just go back to sleep Jewelsie!"

Dusting off her hands she prowls over to Alysia " Did you say presents?"

A sweet giggling purr from the catling "Oh the cubs love gifts! Why dont you come inside and I'll send the new guards to find Tara..." She motions to the ladder that leads to the opening in the clubhouse roof as if that was the most normal thing in the world. Then again around here it probably was.

A quick word to the ferice mushroom sending them scurrying off, and then the catling is climbing the ladder leaveing Alysia to follow or not.

Alysia masked droll amusement at Jewell?s huffy comment to a blue-jay that shared her branch, shrugged and smiled, and followed Kinadria. She paused at the ladder, raising both arched brows very high, and her elven features clearly displayed this thought: OhGodItsAMadTeaParty.

What I am getting into. . .

The priestess slid the handles of the baskets up to her elbows and started to climb.

The hellcat that brought eavesdropping to a new level listened in and was giggling herself senseless at the silent head to head between Alysia and Jewel, as well as Kina's expert handling of the situation.

Then there was the mention of guards and both pigtails went haywire out to each side of her head and began to twist themselves into a tizzy until she had to reach up and pet them so they would calm down.

"Now, now, lil fellers, easy does it. Miss Alysia is an old friend of hers and we won't have you causing a scene. 'sides, we've had our fair share of guards before, haven't we?," she said softly, patting her hair as if it were a lapdog that was growling at a newcomer.

Eventually the pigtails went back to their former station, stock still by each ear, and unmoving. She smiled and snuck off into the forest beyond the clearing.

Before she could see Alysia she had to consult with a few of the voices in her head and unfortunately that could only be done in absolute private.

Since all the guildies were always roaming about the only secret spot she knew of was in the treehouse she had moved from the Blood House Onyx estate over to the FB clubhouse.

The treehouse had a name.

It was painted, in little girl scrawl, on a scraggly looking piece of wood that hung off one nail hammered lazily into the treehouse wall.

It said:

Point Looksee - Watching Your Every Move For As Far As Da Cockroach Killa Can See

And below that there was a smaller sign that replaced the one over at BHO that used to say "Nobody Loves Lars Helston Better Than Me!" with something less, shall we say, inviting:

Looking for love in all the wrong places? Have no fear, Tara's here! Let her, put you, out of your misery, for a small fee. Prospective husbands with large fortunes, line up to the left. All other inquiries, rot waiting on the right. Charity may begin at home, but here it's an outright myth.

Her meditation and voices-in-head consultation over and done with, Tara flew out of Point Looksee and over to the clubhouse roof. It was there that she smoothed down her hair, took a deep breath and then jumped down through the hole in the roof.

Landing on her two feet, narrowly missing The Sprout that she bore, she thrusted her arms out before her and cried, "Lysia! How good of you to come!"

The Sprout, seeing his mother, latched onto her leg and began to suck on her pale, stale, dead skin.

Seeing this, she laughed nervously, bent down to pick the lil guy up, detach him from her skin, and holding him in her arms, explained, "I'd name him Leech if muh husband wouldn't clock me one."

"....and how are you?"

Yes the catling was sitting there in awed and stunned silence...for about a minute and a half. In which time the little cubs had time to squirm away from mamma and head for Alysia. The little fuzzballs really did like her.

Blinking out of her daze just in time to call to one of the cubs "Aysel you canna eat Alysias shoe...stop that."

A brilliant grin is offered to the preistess "Thank you for the gifts...Im not sure how to fit them on cubs... but I'll figure it out.."

Oh the catling did not like that one bit and it started her doing something she rarely ever did. She growled at Tara. Not just any growl, that low "Ok you just crossed a line now how many peices would you like me to deliver your corpse back to your loved ones in?" growl.

"Tara! You willna be extrminateing my children please and thank you!"

Moving between Tara and the cubs the catling watched the other woman warily.

She quickly jumped off the table when Alysia announced she would be leaving and pleaded with her not to go.

"Dun leave, Lysia! Kina an' I do this all the time! It's a game we play," she insisted and turned to eye Kina expecting her to agree even if that wasn't the truth.

The little fuzzballs were all but forgotten, as was the rat repellent.

Watching Kina leave as well was the straw that broke the camel's back, as they say, and Tara just had to get the last word in.

"Yeah! Fine, be a flat-leaver! See if I care!" she said, her voice rising in pitch and intensity, as well as her blood pressure (well, what was left of it anyway.)

As the last of Kina could be seen slipping past the opening in the roof, Tara shouted out one last insult, hoping above all other hope, it would make Kina pause.

"Least muh kid ain' got nuh fleas!"

Because, really, it's never fun to be alone even if you're the Multiverse's worst case of Brat there ever was.

She huffed at that. Loud, too. How dare she say such a cruel and careless thing like that!

"Why...you...." she said in a low tone now, grumbling like the empty belly of some hideous troll under a bridge somewhere.

"The kid'll learn! You jus' wait an' see!"

As Kina demonstrated, the best way to teach a Tara a lesson was to back her into a conversational corner she couldn't possibly get out of. Such as this beauty.

There was nothing else in the whole wide Multiverse that would make Tara more proud than to see her kid tear someone asunder but because he was normal and didn't scare the wits out of anyone like she did, it was the perfect fault for Kina to hone in on.

Kudos to the catling for getting her shots in.

She stalked down to her crypt to plot and plan her next assault, taking the gift that Lysia had brought along with her. It was only when she stomped down the steps and was about to crawl in her coffin that she realized she had left that normal kid upstairs.

All alone.

"Hell's frickin bells!" she screamed and returned to the main level to retrieve him.

"You didn't, like, see Momma leavin wifout you, I suppose, huh?" she said to the little boy who was playing with some of the fuzz Kina's cubs had shed earlier. He looked up and gave her a quizzical look, then placed the fuzz in his mouth but promptly spat it back out when he saw it wasn't food.

"What was you's goin to do, wait until Daddy came in the morn to fetch ya! C'mon! Maybe if ya sleep in da coffin wif Momma you might get pale an' grow a fang or two," she said as she picked him off the floor.

The baby giggled and couldn't help but wonder if anyone else that came across the tiny redhead thought she was as odd as he did.