It was July now, and Vesper sat outside on a particularly warm and humid afternoon. She'd begun to spend a great deal of her time away from the spa, and would often leave after having breakfast in bed, well, two side by side beds, with Mr. Hughes, and then not go back to the house until almost dusk. Her meals would either be packed for her in the morning if she requested them, or one of the kitchen staff would bring something out to her. They could almost always find her in the same place, perched high in a tree near the area that was already being marked off and leveled for her new home.
She'd taken to practicing her flying every morning now, and was getting quite good at it. Mr. Hughes had come out a time or two to give her pointers, but he was working hard to get things with the spa transitioned more into Faeron's control. The wood elf had been somewhat amazed at the trust of his employer to run more of the business, but he had earned it, and was doing well so far in taking more work onto his shoulders. Of course, he still wasn't able to do everything. Shi was expecting to go into labor any day now, the obstetrician that had been watching her progress was familiar with nonhumans and stated that an elf's gestational period was shorter, so she shouldn't expect to make it to nine months. Apparently, the baby had already dropped and she was 70% effaced and almost 2 cm dilated. Her time was coming and the spa employees were abuzz with chatter about it. Babies were rare at a sex spa, she figured. The last one that had been born here was Domino's daughter, Faith. Faith had been born a vampire, so the human staff had been a little hesitant to hold her at first.
Mr. Hughes was standing by Ms. Carson on a patch of dirt below her and they were going over the plans on where to put the house, which direction to build, and who knew what else, Vesper knew as she looked down at them from her perch and then out across the meadow. It was a beautiful sight, the meadow and the rocky outbreaks beyond that led up to a mountain range. She knew the satyrs lived there. She couldn't see them from her perch, but she knew they were there. Sometimes she got a very faint echo of what sounded like thunderclaps, but the sky would be completely clear and there was a rhythmic sound to it.
Cenric had visited her, excited to hear that she was able to leave the house. At his suggestion that he and the other satyrs show her their home, Mr. Hughes had stepped in, however, and forbidden her from going up the mountain. She knew it was because of what the gray and black satyr had done with her, making her orgasm, and it frustrated her that the angel was still not trusting her. Vesper wasn't exactly sure how she would ever earn that trust back if he didn't try to let her. But they had had a bit of an argument afterwards about whether or not he had the right to control her, which he didn't. So the next day, with Mr. Hughes begrudgingly bringing up the rear, Cenric and Dwight had walked with her out to the mountain and taken her up to see their homes and meet the fifteen, that number had astounded her, fifteen females of varying ages that lived with the six male satyrs on the mountain. There had also been seven children.
Vesper had commented on the many females and they had told her that it was very common for satyr flocks to be female heavy, and that their women were actually in charge of themselves and the men basically an off shoot from their female flock. Payton had laughingly said that they were only paid attention to during the season, that the female satyrs had no use for males unless they wanted to breed. She'd asked them what happens when the flock gets really big. They'd frowned at her and told her that they hadn't had that problem in hundreds of years. In fact, they were now the only satyrs known to exist outside of a flock or two in the Alps.
Nonhumans are a dying breed, she had been told, and that thought had made her sad. The nonhumans that she had met were mostly very amazing beings with a lot of love in their heart. But they lived among and within a very human world with lots of dangers to them. She could understand how dangerous it was for them to be found out. They would not be accepted and treated with even a shred of decency. It was why her mother had feared for her all of her life.
Vesper was watching Mr. Hughes as he stood beside the architect and pointed at something or other in the area where the land had already been leveled to accommodate her home. She knew this whole task was difficult for him, building her a home that she'd longed for all of her life. Knowing that doing so may not even be enough, that maybe they would never be able to get past all of the things that had happened to them. Things had improved, but it was slow going, and the things that they had put each other through were rather horrific. She knew that whenever they spoke, their was a lot of worry on both sides that something would just come along and muck it all up again.
A scream came from the direction of the spa and Vesper tensed as she looked down at Mr. Hughes, who had pulled out his cell phone and was flipping through it. He must have been sent a text, because he didn't type anything in return, but he did speak shortly to Ms. Carson before tilting his head up to look at her.
Vesper frowned, already half out of her perch and flapping her wings carefully to allow a graceful decent to the ground when he started walking towards the mansion through the woods. When she landed, it didn't take long to catch up with him, as he hadn't exactly began to run through the trees. She was close behind him by the time they reached the middle of the woods.
"What is happening?" She asked, hoping that he would tell her it wasn't Shi. She couldn't handle it if the woman she was friends with was in pain, and whoever had screamed was in a great deal of it.
"One of Faeron's sisters is here." Mr. Hughes said over his shoulder as he continued walking.
"Is she hurt? Is she the one screaming like that?"
"Yes."
Vesper waited for him to say more, but he didn't, so she kept walking towards the mansion with him. When they cleared it and stepped into the well manicured back lawn, she couldn't see anyone, and figured that the sister had been moved into the spa somewhere, the screams had finally stopped. They walked through the back door and then through the dining room into the foyer. Vesper was about to continue down the opposite hall with Mr. Hughes when she looked to her right and saw a tiny little girl, perhaps around three years old, standing near one of the large potted plants that lined the room. Her features were almost obscured by the plant, but Vesper immediately changed course and slowly walked over to her.
The child was similar to Faeron in appearance, long, dark brown hair, but hers had a few light strands in it, strands that shimmered like gold. Her ears were overly large, something between Faeron's and Vesper's pointed ears. Her eyes were definitely elf, big and round and currently wide open in fear as she stood, one hand clutching an oversized stuffed doll, and the other holding tightly to the leaves of a palm tree. She was a beautiful child and Vesper crouched down in front of her and put her hands delicately on her own knees. This child was terrified and Vesper wanted to help her.
She knew that Mr. Hughes must have seen her stop walking, he was standing still near the entryway of the hall, watching the interaction from a distance.
"My name is Vesper. What's your name?" She smiled softly as she watched the little girl let go of the leaf and wipe her hair out of her face. There was a mark in the center of her forehead, like a birthmark but so perfect that it looked almost like a tattoo. It was gold and silver and sparkled just like her hair.
"Elarinya." The little voice was sad, shaky, and those big eyes were very focused on the strange white haired woman speaking to her.
"Elarinya. That is a beautiful name. Did you come here with your mother?" Vesper spoke very softly, and nodded as the little girl did.
"Nana is sick."
Vesper frowned, "Then it's a good thing that I'm good at healing people. I will take a look at her for you, is that all right?"
The little girl's eyes seemed to widen even more and she nodded a little more quickly this time. "No."
Vesper frowned, looking over at Mr. Hughes, no?
"In her language, 'no' means 'yes' and 'û' means 'no.'" Mr. Hughes nodded gently, immediately understanding her confusion.
