September 2013

September 17.

Hi everyone.

Well here I am at last. It seems like every time I appear I am making more and more excuses for being late. Last year I began my journal and I used to write in it every few days. AS time went on and I got busier I really tried to do an entry once a fortnight. This year I have tried to write once a month but even then it is not always easy. I really do not want to start every entry apologising for being late, so let us have an understanding. You know my life is getting busier all the time with work for Brian and taking care of L when she is unwell. Added to that I have other worries and cares which, before you are finished reading this, you will know all about. I promise to write when I can and to give you a nice big package of news when I do, but I don’t know how often that will be.

Ok, now you might want to lay in a supply of food and drink, this is going to be a huge entry, I have just a pile of news, and I am not, positively not, going to leave this until I have you completely up to date. Well, back in July I left you very much up in the air with Hinky, his enraged wife, l and I in the den, if you remember. On to the scene had rushed my nephew Ikey who was equally maddened because he thought I had gone against his wishes in the matter of sending his beloved wife Vee to stay at the gardens of everlasting peace for her health. This would cost six thousand grains, a staggering sum which he certainly did not have. He, Ikey, had tried to hit me with a stone hammer and would have done me a serious injury had not Vee rushed in and taken the blow herself. All sitting comfortably then? Ok, here we go.

Vee lay in a crumpled heap on the floor and it was evident to all of us that she was not breathing. The room was so silent you could have heard a dewdrop fall. Ikey had been calling her and rubbing her hands but he did not do it for long, you could see it was no use. She had set off for High Country.

Ikey’s whole form seemed to fall in on itself, he lost all his grown-up air and seemed to turn back into the boy he really was. His whole body was racked with sobs but he made no sound.

Time seemed to have stood still in that appalling, shocked realization that Vee was gone. Really I think less than a minute passed. Then I saw a swift blurr of red as Lintie came past me and knelt down beside Ikey.

“Tether!” she muttered. “Might do it, if it’s not too late! Hinky, you’ll have to help me. Come here. You leps move out of the way.”

We moved back, I put my arm around Ikey’s shoulders, he hardly seemed to know I was there.

“You!” Lintie suddenly said. “I’m feeling elf magic in you. A residue anyway. Might need you. Come here.”

I went back to her and Hinky.

“Hurry, Hink! You, lep,” she said to me, “Put your hand on Hink’s shoulder and focus your own magic, just focus and make it work.”

I put my hand on Hinky’s shoulder, I thought of Vee, for the second time this year, of how much I loved her and wanted her to be alive. I desperately wanted Bertie and Bella to grow up knowing their wonderful Mother.

Suddenly I seemed to smell flowers in my mind. A bright blue butterfly landed on a field of snowy silk. A bright white flame lit inside me. I heard Lintie gasp and Hinky said a word.

A long, silver thing shot out from lintie’s hand and blazed a trail into a dark infinity. It was a thin string, fine as a fishing line, with a silver hook at the end. For a while it shot forward like an arrow, straight and true, then it began to waver. I felt Lintie begin to doubt. I suddenly had a hunch. I gave the string a hard shove with my own mind and added a name:

“Veriana Alixina!”

The line sped away, faster than before and disappeared. We all felt it catch on something, we jolted.

“It’s got her!” Lintie was gasping with effort. “Now we have to pull to bring her back, but the tether from where she is will be very strong. Our tether may break unless we can make it stronger.”

I focussed on that silver line, thought of the twins, of Kori, of Mum and Dad, of how much Vee had come to mean to everyone in the family. I thought of Ikey, of how Vee had really been the saving of that young, trouble torn boy. The line seemed to get thicker and … shorter?

I was so so tired, exhausted really, I could just lay down and sleep! It wouldn’t work! The silver line blazed in my mind, it seemed to shine with its own light, but as I struggled to focus it seemed to get dim.

“Dang it!” That was hinky, his teeth gritted with effort. “I can’t hold it!”

“If this breaks we’ve lost her for good! Hold on to it and pull!” Lintie’s voice was a hiss. I strained every nerve and the light seemed to grow steady again.

Help me! Oh, help me, I cried in my mind, we can’t lose Vee, not now, not in this awful way!

The willow tree swayed, a breeze blew through the gardens of Evermay.

“Protection for those whom you protect.” Said a quiet voice. I opened myself up, tried harder. The line blazed bright, grew shorter, thicker. Disappeared. Had it broken?

Hinky and Lintie folded to the floor and I felt like following. There was a quiet sound, a breath, a tiny whimper. Vee’s eyes were fluttering open.

Ikey sprinted past us, I had joined the elves on the floor with my head between my knees. He enfolded Vee in his arms. He looked at me over her bloodied head.

“Uncle Bert.” His voice was little more than a whisper. If you an’ them elves ‘adn’t been ‘ere… Six fousand grains … She’s worf six fousand, she’s worf six million.”

“True enough.” I said wearily. “And you should know something else too, Ikey. Vee asked me to fill out that case history. She asked me on Sunday. She said she didn’t know what would happen to her if she didn’t get her strength back before winter, but there was no talking to you about the gardens, you wouldn’t listen to her. She said that, no matter what, she wanted to be here for you and the twins.” I gave him a hard look. “Independence is a good thing, Ike,” I said. “Wanting to make your own way in the world is great, but don’t let it rule you. Learn to know when to put your family’s welfare before your pride for stars’ sake! Now, you’d better get Vee to Kori. I don’t’ know what state her head’s in. If she needs the healing gardens then give me a call and I’ll help fix it.”

Ikey gave me a blank look, then a shrug. He looked at Hinkie and Lintie, still almost comatose on the floor, then picked up Vee in his arms and zapped out.

Well everything got a bit blurry after that. I was so exhausted I could have fallen asleep where I sat. In fact I rather think I did. I have a vague memory of a pair of long, very soft arms snaking around me, and leaning my head on something incredibly soft, fluffy and purple that was making soft, comforting chirrupy sounds.

I woke up in my bed. I wondered hazily why I felt so very warm and snugly. I dragged one eye a tiny bit open and found a furry purple face about an inch from my own. Bytes had obviously decided that his friend needed a bit of extra TLC, so instead of sleeping in his usual place at the foot of my bed he had snuggled in under my duvet, if you please! His long arms were still wound around me and he was fast asleep, his eyes tight shut and his long purple lashes curling on to this cheeks. I felt an unwonted rush of protectiveness towards him. He looked very vulnerable and incredibly cute. Then I had a really strange thought. Bytes was, in his strange little way, looking after me. Now that was odd indeed. Brian and L are wonderful to me in the extreme, but I would have said mostly I look after them. That’s my job and I absolutely love it. Tealy, wel, Tealy used to look after me, kind of. When she wasn’t too busy. But Bytes, good little Bytes was doing what he could to take care of me. That was nice, I thought, as I drifted back to sleep.

When I woke up again I was alone in bed and Hinky was leaning over me.

“Miz Bear told me to see if’n you needed anything, old buddy,” he said. “She’s got one of her usual wingdings. Not surprisin’ after yesterday. I brung you in some coffee.”

“Thanks, Hink,” I said groggily, sitting up and taking the mug. I gulped down a hefty slug of a brew so strong you could have stood a spoon up in it and coughed.

“I can see where your Miz Bear gets her preference for strong coffee from!” I said weakly. “She’s always saying mine is too weak! By the way, where’s your wife?”

Hinky gave me a straight look. I seemed to see a smile in his eyes.

“She’s home.” He said. “She went earlier this mornin’. I said I’d wait till you was awake, I warn’t goin’ ter leave without sayin’ goodbye an’ thanks.”

“You’re going back then?” I said, smiling in my turn.

“Course I is.” Hink’s face split into its big, easy grin and he fiddled with one of his big ears in a pretence of nonchalance. “Hey buddy I might be all kinds o’ dumb but I ain’t that dumb! I ain’t lettin’ her get away, not this time!”

“Come off it, Hink!” his posing was annoying me. “This is me you’re talking to and I haven’t forgotten yesterday! What happened to change your mind?”

Hinky stopped fiddling with his ears and his smile became genuine. He sat on the bed at my feet.

“Well, when we got over that dang spell last night we done some talkin’.” He said. “I done told her how livin’ underground was getting’ ter me an’ she told me she was getting’ bored ter death with nothin’ ter do anyways an’ that was why she was everlastin’ naggin at me! She says she don’t want no swanky elf, she could’ve had her pick of those, she wants the Hinkster! Sheesh! Then she said ifn’ I wanted ter live above ground, that was fine with her, we could both get jobs that aways! Well, I swan! I was surprised I can tell ya! That little gal’s got backbone! We’re gonna go get us a job like I had me before, there’s always folks who want us, specially if we doesn’t need too much in the way o’ wages.”

“Well that’s great, Hink.” I felt a horrible stab of envy but I gave Hinky my best smile. “I’m really glad it’s all turned out so well and I really hope you both get great jobs soon. You’ll keep in touch won’t you and let me know how you’re getting on?”

“Sure I will, ya old imp? I’d better get goin’ now, old buddy. I ain’t got nothin’ ter pack, but is it ok ifn’n I take them beers I, er, brung?”

I had to laugh. If he’d come by those beers honestly I was a pink rabbit with blue spots.

“You’re welcome to them!” I told him.

He hefted the pile of cans in his arms.

“Can’t waste good beer!” he said with his cheeky grin.

“See ya, old imp!” and he zapped out.

It took us a while to recover after that little caper. For a few days afterwards I felt debilitated and weak. I rested a lot, curled on the sofa beside L, and got my strength back.

The news from London was good. Vee had a concussion but would be fine and the healing gardens would not be needed. I was very very relieved to hear this. I had an Email from Ikey asking if I could come to his cube on the following Sunday and we would discuss the gardens question properly. I said that of course I would be there.

I was feeling very much better by Sunday so it was with a light heart that I zapped off towards the colony, my family and my beautiful Irish princess. I arrived at Mum and Dad’s cube at a jog trot rather than a dead run. Cassie was pulling hard as usual but the heat inside the colony was appalling and I really could not sprint, it would have been very dangerous.

Soon I was sitting in my favourite swinging chair, sipping iced mint tea and cradling my beautiful little one. She was looking surprisingly unruffled by the heat and I was glad to see it. While I rocked her I brought Mum and Dad up to date on my week. I was surprised to learn that Ikey had not told anyone how Vee had come by the injury to her head, nor how close we had come to losing her. He had also not told anyone that he had relented in the matter of the gardens. I wondered what was best for me to do. In the end I told the whole story. My Dad is the head of our family and it is right that he knows the truth about things. When I had finished, Mum had her apron over her face and Dad was frowning.

“Stars an’ moon!” he growled. “That boy’s a young fool! Six fousand grains wouldn’t buy Er life back, nor six millions nor all the grains in the world! No wonder ‘e ain’t told no one! Now Lil,” turning to Mum with a very severe face, “You keep that prattlin’ tongue o’ yours quiet, you ‘ear me? If one word o’ this gets out I’ll know where it came from an’ I’ll want to know the reason why!”

“I’ve got to go down to Ikey’s this afternoon, Dad.” I said to break the tension. “I think he wants to fix things about the gardens.”

“Ah.” Said Dad. “Sooner the better, if you ask me.”

I really did not feel like making the rounds in that awful heat so I stayed lazily in the cube until I had eaten a bite of lunch with Mum and Dad, fed Cassie and put her down for an afternoon nap. Then, on reluctant feet, I set off towards Ikey and Vee’s cube.

When I arrived, Ikey was mending a stool, Vee was sitting in a chair looking pale and sickly and the twins, looking fat, pink and healthy, were swinging up in their hammocks, gurgling to each other. It almost seemed to me as if those two younglings were sucking the life and strength out of their poor mother.

“Come in, Uncle Bert.” Ikey could not look at me. “Sit down. We got any tea, chick?” This to Vee.

“No, but I can make some.” She answered listlessly.

“Don’t trouble yourself, Zaea,” I said hastily. “How are you doing?”

Vee gave me a long, steady look and I could see all pretence dropping away. For a moment, old bossy looked at me out of those eyes.

“You can see.” She said quietly. “If I don’t need the healing gardens now I will soon. The heat is wearing me out and the younglings are using up everyounce of my strength. I’m not sorry for what happened at your place, Bert, I would do the same thing again, but that did me no favours either.” She turned her fine eyes on Ikey and spoke as if she were trying to convince him of the truth of what she was saying. “If I don’t build up some strength before winter comes, I’ll get sick and die. I know it, I’ve seen it too often before to be in any doubt.”

The tools in Ikey’s hands rang on the floor as he dropped them and rushed to his wife.

“We ain’t gonna let that ‘appen, Zahal.” You could hardly hear his voice, but his face was so full of pain and dread I had to look away.

“Ike,” I said, trying to sound very businesslike, “Have you had any word from the gardens of everlasting peace? You said they contacted you direct, or, no, my human told me that.”

“Yeah.” Ikey looked sheepish. “They Emailed me to say Er case ‘ad been accepted an’ could we arrange about the payment of the charge. They said they understood my Uncle was willing to pay the fees. Well of course, I was in such a temper so I emailed Em an’ said…” he stopped, looking very embarrassed. I thought of the courtly politeness of the gatekeeper we had met. Ikey might well be embarrassed if he had unleashed one of his tyrades on the like of him.

“Oh Ikey!” Vee’s voice was faint and she put her face in her hands.

“I Emailed Em again.” Ikey looked at me earnestly. “It was day afore yesterday. I explained what ‘ad ‘append to Vee. I said ‘ow sorry I was for my goings on an’ said if they would still take ‘er I would get ‘er the ‘elp she needed an’ ‘ave her there as soon as I could.”

“Oh!” Vee looked up again, her face full of hope.

“Have you heard anything?” I asked.

For answer, Ikey got up, went across to his little computer unit, pressed a few keys and began to read aloud.

“Dear Mr Ikeus.

“Thank you for both your Email and your courteous apology. All is now ready for the arrival of Mrs Veriana with her twins, and they may now arrive at their earliest convenience. We suggest your Uncle should escort them as he has a map and knows the way. This will enable us to discuss arrangements with him and collect the fee which we understand he is willing to pay.”

“We remain yours under the protection of the hand.”

“The keepers of the garden.”

“Oh Bert! Oh Ikey! Is it really true? Shall I really go to those gardens?” Vee looked faint with joy.

“You’ll go, zahal.” Ikey was looking both sad and determined at the same time. He was having to swallow a lot of pride and it looked to be giving him bad indigestion, but he loved Vee and wanted her to get well and strong again.

“Uncle Bert,” he said, “When can you take Em there?”

I thought. “Well, I said. “Maybe tomorrow. I don’t see a problem with that. Just let me send a quick text.”

I sent my quick text and very soon had my answer. Within a little while everything was arranged. I would come to the colony early the next morning, go to the bank, collect a token for the huge amount of grains I needed, then go to Ikey and Vee’s, collect Vee and the twins and escort them to the Old Country. I left a lot of relief behind me as I set off down the thoroughfare towards home that evening, and some sadness too. WE did not know how long Vee would need to stay in the gardens of everlasting peace. She would stay there until she got strong. Until then, Mum would keep an eye on Ikey and make sure he was ok and did not go hungry.

When I got back to the lair that night I was expecting things to be in their usual state of quiet bustle as we got ready to do a radio show. I was not prepared for a door to open and a furry form to come hurtling towards me, tears streaming down its face and fling itself on me, wind its arms tight around me and hug the breath out of me.

“Oh Bert!” L sounded both relieved and exasperated. “Thank God you’re back! Bytes has been totally impossible all day! WE couldn’t let him into your closet because you weren’t there, he looked for you everywhere and then started screaming the place down! You’ll have to try and explain to him about Sundays, we can’t have this every week!”

I scratched my head. I had told Bytes that I was going to see my family today. Why was he in this state? Surely he had understood when I spoke to him. I thought back to when I had really felt Bytes and I had understood each other. I knew Bytes could think, even in a primitive way. He had drawn pictures and explained things to me. He had told me he was hungry. Yes, but then he had been a…

I went into my closet, bytes pattering determinedly at my heels, still giving the occasional sniff and hiccup. I sat at my desk and switched on my iPad. Bytes bounced up and down, holding out his arms, but I shook my head. When Imogen was alive Bytes bounced harder than ever, but I wouldn’t give it to him so he could feed. I tapped the screen, moving my mouth too and fro. Bytes didn’t get it, he thought I meant it was dinner time! He bounced higher stilll, making cranky sounds and pulling my arm. Frustration!

Then I had another idea. I drew a Bytes kind of shape on the screen and tapped it. Then I touched my mouth and Bytes’s big mouth. Suddenly a huge, goofy smile split that purple face, there was a gurgle, a shimmer, and Bytes was gone. In a moment his face was staring at me out of Imogen’s screen.

A moment more and the picture had disappeared into one corner and a message was scrawling across the screen in Bytes’s loopy writing.

“Why you go away I thought you not coming back. Bites scared!”

Wow! Well that was progress for a start, he knew his name, even if he had spelt it wrong! I thought, and then typed.

“Bert is always away on Sundays and other days sometimes. He always comes back.”

There was a pause. Then two words. “Bert. You?”

I nodded at the picture and typed. “Me.” Then I typed “Bert is me. Bytes is you. If I go away I always come back so no need to cry.”

There was a pause, then Bytes’s face grew to full size, he smiled at me, then he shimmered out of focus and the screen went blank. The next moment, the solid Bytes was bouncing on the floor, gurgling persuasively for the iPad. Message received and understood, he was telling me. Now, where’s my dinner? I left him curled up on the bed, cradling the iPad and happily munching. Feeling very good about him I went next door to get on with the rest of my evening.

The evening was busy as always, and the catch up, music and wine session took a while afterwards, but I was up early the next morning. Bytes, for a wonder, was still fast asleep as I got into a shower, dressed quietly and booted up the iPad to catch up with the day’s news. As Imogen came alive though he opened a blurry pink eye, yawned, stretched luxuriously, then flicked a hand at Imogen and raised an eyebrow at me. I have come to know all his sounds and gestures now and he was asking if he could have her. I shook my head, signalling at my screenful of messages and wiggling my fingers. Bytes sighed in a martyred kind of way and, if you’ll believe it, got under my duvet, I hadn’t been able to make the bed yet with him curled up at the foot still asleep, snuggled up on my pillow and was soon snoring hard!

I concentrated on my messages and the Facebook news feeds. I said hi to mella who was on Facebook. She was getting happier and less strained every day, I was glad to see. Andi was about, ready to pop and feeling very uncomfortable but so excited about the birth of her first youngling. Marni was being a great help to her and Mum was fussing around, so excited too at the birth of another great-grandling. Tovey was signed into Aim and we had a long natter. Little Alfie was growing up fast and we talked younglings for a long time. It was really strange, when I thought about it. I had, for so long, been a complete outsider, quite unable to talk about most of the things leps knew about, foraging, salvaging, work and family. Now I still could not talk about work but I could talk for the old country about the absorbing ways of a much-loved youngling.

As Tovey and I compared notes I suddenly unaccountably and fiercely regretted the things I would never know about. What did I know about having someone for whose sake I would do absolutely anything? Pocket my pride, put my own wants and needs second to the needs of her and my family? Oh sure, people like Ikey knew lots of worry, I thought, but look at how happy Vee and the twins made him. It was all right for me to feel superior to Ikey, but what was I really compared to him? Didn’t I always put my own feelings and the needs of my own life first? I thought, for the first time in a while, of Tealy without bitterness. Oh she had been manipulative, cause me untold heartache, invaded my privacy, but had it been all her fault? What had I made her suffer through months and months which she didn’t feel she could tell me about? I wondered dismally what life with her and Cassie might have been like. Oh, not in Annwn, that would never have worked, but out in the open. I would never know, I had never given myself the chance to find out.

“Bert! Where are you? You lost the net or what?”

The words flashed up on the screen and brought me back from my dismal thoughts. I dashed a few bitterly sad tears from my eyes, gave myself a mental shake and got on with the day. Thinking those kind of thoughts would get me absolutely nowhere. That ship had sailed.

I was in the colony and making my way towards the commercial section at a little after nine. It was very hard to concentrate as Cassie knew quite well I was about and was pulling hard as ever, but with a great effort I ignored her for the moment.

I made my way to the place where the money of the whole colony was handled. I had luckily thought to send an Email the day before to let them know I would be arriving and exactly what I would need. The colony’s finances were all handled from an interconnecting cluster of low, wooden cubes. They were all inhabited by quiet leps in uniform grey tunics sitting on long benches at high counters. The place was very silent, even the leps who had business there talked in low voices.

The moment I entered a tall, very thin fem with white hair pulled back into a tight knott behind her ears came forward to greet me.

“Mr Bertalius, we have been expecting you.” She said quietly. “Will you follow me?”

I was led into a small cube and, after various formalities with which I won’t bore you, anyway I’m not allowed to discuss them, I was handed a flat, oval token made of grey metal. It did not look much but it had cost me half a year’s wages, and it represented life, good health and hope for Vee.

I stowed the precious token in my deepest pocket, buttoned my jacket over it and hurried out, heading straight for Ikey and Vee’s cube.

Everything was ready there, the twins were wrapped in shawls, Vee was wearing a big backpack and sitting near the door. As soon as she saw me she jumped up.

“Hi, Bert,” she said, kissing my cheek. “We’re all ready. Ikey’s gone to work an’ we said our goodbyes this mornin’ before he went. He couldn’t bear to wait and see me go away, poor boy. It’s very hard for him, you know.”

“I know, zaea,” I said. “come on then, let’s get you out of here.”

I picked up little Bertie, Vee took Bella and we headed towards the outer doors. Once we were in the zapping bushes I took hold of Vee’s hand. I could feel her trembling.

“Don’t be afraid,” I said.

“I ain’t afraid,” she said. “I’m just excited. Come on, let’s go!” So we went.

We arrived in the beautiful gardens where I had zapped with L and Tealy last November. There were wide green lawns, beautiful shrubs in full, sweet-smelling blossom, a profusion of beautiful flowers and high above us arched a sky of the purest blue, a-flutter with brilliantly coloured birds. A few fluffy clouds sailed across the wide sky and the sun smiled down benignly. Vee looked around, then she unwrapped the shawl from Bella and put her down on the grass. Bella stretched herself out wide like a starfish and began to gurgle. I put little Bertie down beside his sister.

“A fine pair of younglings you have there, Mrs Veriana.”

We jumped in surprise. The voice was quiet and, to my ears very familiar. WE both looked around and the same courtly, white-haired lep in his green robe that I had seen the year before was standing beside us.

“You are welcome to these gardens, Mrs veriana,” he said. “Here you may grow strong and your younglings may learn to prize the richness of nature. WE ask only that you look to it that they do not harm the plants nor pick the flowers. We will show you places where they may play in safety. Mr Bertalius, walk a little with me.”

We walked a few steps away from Vee, who had sat down beside her twins and was tickling them both, distracting them from the tempting beds of flowers and shrubs which lay all around, and which, by the grace of the stars they hadn’t touched.

As soon as we were out of earshot I unbuttoned my jacket and drew out the token which was where I had left it, to my immense relief. I handed it to the garden keeper as he had obviously intended I should. he took it with a bow and a smile.

“Our business is now complete.” He said. “Mrs Veriana may stay here with us for as long as may be needed. Here you must leave her. Someone will arrive soon to escort her to her quarters.”

“I understand.” I said. The gardens of everlasting peace was a very secret place, even more so than the healing gardens, visitors did not easily penetrate it. I took my courage in both hands. “Will I be able to visit my nephew’s wife here during her stay?”

The garden keeper shook his head doubtfully.

“That I cannot say.” He said. “Write to the family and ask them. But come now and say your farewells.”

I went back to Vee and found her lying on the grass with a youngling sprawled in each arm. They were all nearly asleep. I kissed them all goodbye.

“We’ll never be able to thank you, Bert, for this and everything else you’ve done for us.” Said Vee.

“It’s nothing.” I mumbled, feeling very hot in the face. I gave them all another hug and zapped back home, more than ready for a snuggle with L and Bytes and a big slice of normality.

For the next little while, normality was exactly what I got. Life went on in its usual quiet way. Brian and I worked industriously and contentedly when he was at home, L and I were as close as ever, I looked after her when I was needed, spent lots of time with her when Brian was away and things were good. Bytes divided his time equally between L and myself. I decided to see how much one could really teach him if one tried. In a week or so he got to know when I wanted him to go into the computer so that we could talk. Our conversations had to be kept to very short sentences and simple words or Bytes would get confused, he could think but you had to keepthings very basic or he wouldn’t understand what you wanted.

For instance, I really wanted to know why he couldn’t use our router to feed on. After all, that was on all the time, so why not just grab a feed from that whenever he wanted one? I tried asking Bytes, but the word “Router” did not register with him, he did not know what I meant.

I ended by drawing a picture of the router and writing: “Food in there all the time. Why not just eat?”

The result was a hideous ugly face, a very long stuck out tongue, a serious of violent coughs and sick type sounds. Then, after a pause for the picture Bytes to collect itself, words appeared on the screen. In very big letters the word “Food?” Then that was scrubbed out and in thick black letters there came: “No food in hot box! Bytes no eat that!”

I was perplexed.

“Why not?” I wrote. There was a long, long pause. Just when I had begun to think I would get no answer there came a scribbled few words.

“It wrong way round.”

The picture shimmered and disappeared. The solid Bytes climbed on to the sofa and made the chirrupy sound which meant he wanted me to come over and sit by him. I went, feeling very puzzled. What did he mean about it being the wrong way around? What was the wrong way around?

It wasn’t until I stopped thinking about the problem and was doing something else that my brain suddenly caught on, gave a loud click and I mentally kicked myself. The packet data from our network! Obviously, Bytes could use the data that we sent from our devices to the router as food. However, what came from the router was not food, it was far too strong for him, he called the router a hot box, it made him cough, made him sick. That was why he would not go anywhere near it. Brian’s computer was situated close to the router but even when there was room for him to do so he would never ever feed from it.

I went on talking to Bytes, teaching him how to help me understand him when he was solid as well as when he was in the computer, I had everything I could ask for in those days, my work, my family, a new little friend, I felt as if I had got myself into a calm, quiet, contented kind of place.

And then one day near the end of July, it was in the middle of the week and Brian was away on a trip, I had an urgent hone call from Mum. Cassie had a feverish cold and was really miserable. I had been aware that there was some kind of problem, I had felt a vague pull from Cassie which I usually did not feel when I was so far away from her. Mum said that if I could be spared she could use some help and Cassie would benefit from my presence. L was feeling ok that day so I was soon zapping off to help Mum and spend time with my poorly girl. We had a busy and rather fraught day, Mum was tired and Cassie was not in the best of tempers, but by the time I left things were calmer and Cassie was feeling more like herself.

I zapped into my closet, opened the door to the hall and heard voices. I noticed vaguely that they were quite heated voices. I called a greeting and they stopped, then became almost furtive before L called back to me. When I walked into the den my breath was completely taken away. Tealy was sitting in her usual place on the futon. Tealy, looking impossibly elegant in a candy pink silk dress and white sandles. She wasn’t wearing a sneer, or a spiteful look, she was smiling tentatively and looking impossibly beautiful, as I remembered her of old.

“Hello, Bert.” She said simply.

For weeks now I had been perceiving chinks in my anti-Tealy armour. There had been times when I could have picked up the phone, begged her to let us meet, talk things through but I simply did not dare. Part of it was pride, part was good old-fashioned fright and part was my natural stubbornness, which has never done me any favours. Sometimes I thought that if we ever did get back together it would depend on an opening, a lucky chance. Now here she was. This was my chance. It was an opening and I totally blew it. All the softer thoughts I had been having completely deserted me because I looked at L and saw tears on her face. I didn’t stop to find out the what and why of the situation, I just assumed Tealy had barged in as always, upset L and made her cry. Well I was not having that, oh no I was not! She was not going to upset me or L or anyone ever again!

“What the blue typhoon are you doing here?” I hissed.

“Calm down, sweetie.” That was L, her voice thick with tears which made me even angrier. “I asked her to come. I wanted to see if I could straighten things out.”

How dared she! This had nothing to do with her, and how dared that elf come sneaking in behind my back when I was out of the way, she had no right, no right at all! No, no, I was not going to listen, I was not going to soften, nothing was going to be straightened out. Not ever! I went trampling on over everyone.

“That was sweet of you, L,” I said, not meaning a word of it, “And I understand why you did it but this is not your problem anymore, is that ok? You!” I turned viciously on Tealy.

“Me?” She looked scared and I felt a thrill of savage pleasure. I warmed to my task.

“I am going to tell you this only once.” I grated out, fixing Tealy with a flinty stare. “If I have to tell it again I shall go straight to the authorities at your Elfhold, and yes, I can find out where and who they are, I have a best friend who’s an elf. Stay away from me. Don’t Email me, don’t text, don’t come anywhere near me, don’t spy on me with your wristicator, don’t you dare ever come here again and make L cry. Just, Just don’t.”

Tealy looked at me, her huge eyes swimming with tears and the most heart rending look of pleading in them.

“Bert, please!” she almost whispered. “I have to tell you…”

“I said don’t.” All the fight went out of me and I suddenly felt tired to death. “I don’t want to hear it. L,” I turned away. “Call me when she’s gone.”

I headed for the door, made my way to my closet and cried my heart out on Bytes’s soft fur and I’m not ashamed to say so. That night I was probably the most mixed-up lep in the world. Part of me wanted to phone Tealy, ask her to forgive me for being so horrible, talk to her, try to work things out. Part of me said she had no right to come to the Lair and disturb things, I had been doing all right till she showed up!

In the days that followed I tried hard to get my equilibrium back and to my relief it did come, with the help of Brian, L and Bytes, but the mixed up feeling did not go away. I reproached myself for the way I had behaved to everyone concerned in that nasty little scene. Mostly I just tried hard to forget it had ever happened and live from day to day.

On the 10th of August I woke up to great news. When I logged on to Facebook the family was buzzing. Andi had given birth during the night to a little boy. Marni was online to receive everyone’s congratulations. She was as proud as could be at the birth of her first Grandling. Apparently Andi and Gordy had been at a loss over what to name the little fellow. Gordy was adamant he was not going to be named either after his father or grandfather, Andi and Gordy said, to my great embarrassment, they would have loved to name him after me, but of course that was out because Ikey’s boy was Bertalius and it’s really not done to have more than one person of any name in your family in a generation. At the end they had just settled on a name they both liked. They were calling the boy Tamaneus, a good, solid lep name which we hadn’t had in the family for a good while. It would, of course, always be shortened to Tam, which was down-to-earth and no nonsense, so everyone was happy.

The following day, which was a Sunday, I went home to the colony and had my first look at little Tam. As the birth had been completely straightforward Andi was well enough to receive visitors if it was only for a short time, so she lay in bed with little Tam wrapped in a shawl beside her. I presented my gifts of a pretty carved rattle and a feeding spoon with his initial carved on it which I had bought from Olford’s place on the way over.

“You’re too good to us, Bert,” Andi said, giving me a sweet smile. “Come an’ look at im. Ain’t ‘e beautiful?”

Now before Cassie came into my life I might have thought young Tam was far from beautiful. He was very small, his face was rather red and wrinkled, he had a tuft or two of dark hair and his huge grey blue eyes looked far too large for his face. Fortunately my eye for a youngling had been trained and I agreed with Andi that he was a very beautiful youngling indeed. I sat down in a chair beside the bed and was granted the supreme honour of being allowed to hold my tiny great-nephew for a few minutes. Those huge bright eyes looked up at me enquiringly and I had another of those very odd feelings. What would it have been like if? Oh stop it, I thought fiercely! You have Cassie and that’s a zlendt lot more than you have any right to expect!

The rest of that visit and that day passed off in a complete nice, normal way, but I was not easy in my mind. I was disturbed at the odd thoughts and feelings I found springing up inside myself, they were really not like me at all. Why was I suddenly hankering after things which I had categorically said I would never, never, never be ready for? I had everything I could ever want, I told myself. Absolutely everything, and a lot more besides. I tried to believe it, but the winds of change had begun to blow through my mind and heart and there seemed to be no stopping them.

And so we come to August the 25th. I shall never forget that day as long as I live. It marked a complete crossroads in my life and after it nothing can ever be the same again.

It started in the normal way, I awoke to Bytes’s cold tongue on my face and his big eyes looking into mine. I pushed his face away, groaned and spluttered as I always did, which set him off giggling, then hugged him. Good old Bytes, I thought, dragging myself across to the iPad and switching it on for him, who would have guessed he’d become such a great friend to me in his baby way.

I showered, dressed, tidied up, rescued the iPad and went through my morning catch up. Nothing much new, I had a chat to a few leps here and there, chewed the leaves with this one and that one, discussed younglings with Andi and Tovey, commiserated with Kori who was in the last stages of being with young herself. She told me she was going back to her own green place to give birth. This surprised me all right! Kori, being a woodsprite, needed to go back to the woods where she was born now and then to recharge her magic, but I did not think she would have her youngling there. She told me Kas would come with her and that everyone but my Mum was perfectly ok with it. As we were saying goodbye Kori said one of her odd things.

Turtle doves mate for life, you know. Being torn apart can kill them. Old tortoise is about to lose his shell. Soon he’ll be a bird and take to the sky with jewels on his wings.”

I could seldom fathom Kori’s meaning when her second sight prompted her to speak in riddles like that. This time though she left me sitting in front of my iPad with my jaw hanging. She had eluded to a tortoise before, and I had come to realize that this meant me. The turtle doves was easy, did she mean me and Tealy? And that last bit… no, it could not be possible. Could it really mean that my contented tortoise plodding was soon to end and a new way of living was to begin? A soaring into the sky on jewelled wings?

Don’t be silly, I told myself, shutting down my iPad. You’re here, Tealy’s there, you sent her away in no uncertain term so she’ll never come back. You’ve got a life and a job to do. You chose it, so get on with it.

I went into the den and was soon busy at the task of making breakfast for Brian, L and myself. Brian was at his computer, L was fussing with her baby dolls, it was a scene of peace and contentment. I served up pancakes, bacon and sausages, poured coffee and tried not to think about what Kori had said.

Once the breakfast had been cleared I was soon ready to go and zapped off home to the colony where it was as hot and airless as ever. I was soon at Mum and Dad’s and my little Cassie was gurgling up a storm as I bounced her in my arms.

I climbed up to a cool corner and was just catching up on the news when my phone rang urgently. I reached into my pocket with apprehension. I had not been there half an hour and I knew that only serious trouble would prompt a call from the Lair at that hour on a Sunday.

“Hi, Brian,” I said, “what’s wrong? Is L ok? Do I need to come home?”

“Hi, Bert.” Brian’s voice sounded serious and my apprehension grew. “L’s ok, but yes, you do need to come home if you don’t mind. Soon as you can, please.”

“Gosh, Brian, you’re scaring me. Have I done something! What on earth’s happened?” I did not like this at all.

Brian’s voice grew, if anything, grimmer.

“You haven’t done anything, I promise! I really don’t want to talk about this on the phone.”

Well, I said I’d be there right away, explained to a very puzzled and worried Mum and Dad, put an indignant Cassie back in her hammock and headed for home.

When I came into the den I knew straight away that something catastrophic had happened. Brian was looking as sombre as I had ever seen him and L was looking pale and drawn. I demanded to know what was up. Brian gently tried to make me sit down but I wouldn’t, couldn’t really. I just could not think what could be wrong and why it concerned me. It couldn’t be the family, I had just been with them, so why all this drama?

“Bert,” began Brian, “We’ve had an Email from Bilby.” The blood seemed to rush to my head. Tealy. This was something to do with Tealy. She was in some kind of trouble and was expecting me to bail her out of it was she? A wash of conflicting emotions whirled through my brain in a nano-second. The feelings I had been having for the past few weeks mixed with all the pain and bitterness, the hurt, the betrayal. Brian was going on:

“You know he’s tea…”

“I know exactly who he is and I’m not interested!” my voice was a snarl. “If that’s all it is I’ll go back to Cassie now, I don’t need to hear it!”

L put a hand on mine.

“Please just listen, sweetie,” she said.

“Oh all right,” I snarled. “What.”

And then I learned what had been in Bilby’s Email. Of course, I know more now, but then I just heard the basics. I heard that Tealy had been involved in a serious motor accident almost a month ago, that she had suffered multiple serious injuries and was now at one of Elfhold’s frighteningly sophisticated MeddiCenters undergoing treatment and regeneration. It was that last word wich turned me cold all over. Regeneration? My Tealy Girl? O holy moon and stars no!

L was speaking and I struggled to take in what she was saying.

“Bilby was allowed to see Tealy for the first time today. She said she fully realized how much harm she’d done you. She asked him to let us know how things were and leave it in our hands whether to tell you or not. We thought, in spite of everything, you’d want to know.”

Want to know? Of course I wanted to know, she was my Tealy girl wasn’t she? My bond mate! I pulled myself up with a start. No she wasn’t. I had torn the token from my wrist and thrown it back at her. She was still wearing hers, I had seen it shining on her wrist the last time I had seen her, it was I who had broken that bond. I struggled to hold myself together and still came back to one thing.

“Brian,” I said in a shaky voice, “Are you sure he said regeneration?”

“yes,” said Brian, “I have the Email here if you’d like to look at it.”

My whole body seemed to droop. I said no, it was fine, and that I needed to think. I headed blindly for the door. Bytes would have come with me but I made a gesture which he had come to know. I needed to think this one out alone.

Once in my closet I sank on to my bed. I wanted to cry but I couldn’t, I was too numb for tears. One thing pounded around in my head. Tealy was undergoing regeneration. Tealy could go to high country and my last words to her, oh stars! Burning tears came at last to my eyes when I remembered them. She had pleaded with me for a hearing and I had flatly refused. Now I might never get the chance to hear what she had wanted to tell me.

I don’t know how long I stayed in my closet alone with thoughts whirling around and around in my beleaguered mind. My heart was fighting my head, I had no idea what to do or which way to turn.

It was almost a relief to me when I heard the door quietly open and a familiar voice calling me softly. Apparently Mum had been on the phone wondering if I was returning to the colony that day, well that was her excuse for calling L. her main reason was to find out what was wrong. L had not told her anything, she just wanted to know what my plans were. I told L I would be staying here and she would have left to call Mum back straight away, but I was in need of that famous lap now if ever I had been in my life!

Once I was settled I could see that L was puzzled. She knew that elves had high technology and lots of magic. She thought that whatever Tealy had done to herself, she would just be treated, then she’d be fine. How could she understand? I had to explain to her all the things Tealy told me last year when she stayed at the lair while she was recovering from her terrible attack of the Green Blight.

In an Elfhold, especially a really large one such as Tealy lives in, mild illnesses are unknown: they’ve been completely irradicated. That is another reason why close contact with humans provokes lockdown precautions of such strictness, if any kind of bacteria got loose in Elfhold the disease could spread very fast and turn into a pandemic in no time.

Major illnesses and injuries are treated at MeddiCenters. The highest quality magic and technology are employed there to treat injuries and illness, and then there is regeneration. Elves can deal with anything from tumours and organ failures to ninety per cent burns and multiple amputations by causing an elfin body to be submerged in regenerative matter in a MeddiPit where the body is helped to regenerate itself. This can be done with the very worst kinds of illnesses or injuries, always providing the brain remains alive and undamaged.

When I had explained all this to L she said she understood all that. So Tealy had been badly hurt but she was being regenerated and she was going to be fine. Why all the tears?

If I had not been almost crying I would have laughed. L did not understand. How could she? When an elf regenerates there is a high success rate but it is not total. Top tech and top magic is not always infallible. Sometimes the brain just cannot assimulate all the new data it’s being asked to and it just gives out. I did not know how much longer Tealy would have to stay in the meddiPit, but if she was unlucky she would only leave it to go through high country’s gate.

Also, Tealy was having to regrow herself with the aid of outside matter, sorry if that sounds gruesome but it’s what’s happening. There were two things that scared me about that, one more important and one less. First, I knew from what Tealy told me that rejections could happen at any time during the process or afterwards. If Tealy survived she would always be living with a little cloud hanging over her and she would certainly have to be a lot more careful with her lifestyle than she was used to being. Secondly, when Elfhold spends the enormous outlay which is needed for a regeneration it does so for one reason: to get an elf back up and working again as soon as possible. So the elf in question grew a new, healthy body which was sound in all parts but that was as far as it went. Tealy had gone in small, lithe, blonde and fluffy-eared. She might come out dark or auburn, it was quite probable that I would not recognize her at all, and apart from the fact that she would still be elfine, a female elf, I had no idea what kind of complete stranger was going to come out of that MeddiPit. All I knew was that inside she would still be my Tealy girl and I desperately wanted her to get well again.

Slowly and haltingly all this came out in a jumble to L. The thing that I still could not resolve though was what I needed to do! A more completely mixed up lep was never seen than on that hot Sunday afternoon. What if Tealy went to High Country and the last words I said to her were those harsh and bitter ones of total denial? But what if I allowed her back in and I had to live something like the last few months over again, I just could not do that, I was sure I couldn’t!

“What am I going to do?” I ended miserably.

“What does your gut tell you to do?” Said practical L. “Never mind what your brain is saying for a minute, what does your heart want?” she asked.

“What it’s wanted for ages,” I said, finally admitting it to myself. I wanted Tealy back in my life, I wanted to try again.

“But L, what if it all starts again? I don’t know if I can face that. These last months have been low country! If I give us another chance and it all goes wrong again…”

“Then we’ll be here to help you,” said L, giving me a squeeze, “And at least you’ll know you did your best. And it might not go wrong. You hardly saw her that last time, I talked to her. She finally got it, I mean your job, how it works, you and i. That’s why Bilby told us, not you directly.”

I stared up at L. I had never even taken the trouble to ask about that last visit. L had tried to tell me but I wasn’t willing to listen. I knew L had asked Tealy to come over to try and help straighten things out, that was all I wanted to know. Was it really true?

“You think?” I said.

“yes, I do.” Said L. “This sounds to me like she’s trying to put everything in order. Oh I think she hopes, but I don’t think she ever expects to see you again.”

I felt as if huge, heavy weights were dropping off my shoulders. I felt like the tortoise whose heavy shell had finally dropped off his back. You see, after the months I have had I no longer wanted everything to be my own little way anymore, but if you are continually with someone who thinks they come second with you, no amount of you telling them different will convince them. I do not know how I know this, but I do. I could have maybe tried to get back together with Tealy before but I would always have been on the hop, always guarding myself, never able to be natural. If Tealy had really at last understood, I mean right inside, not just from her brain, how my life was and how my job worked, how taking care of my people is what I do, what I have been trained for and is a completely separate thing to my feelings for her then, oh then we might, might have a chance.

I wriggled down off L’s lap and headed for my desk.

“I think she’s going to be disappointed on that one, L.” I said, giving the very faintest of smiles.

Luckily I knew how to get hold of Bilby. Tealy had given me his Email address so that I could reach him in cases of emergency. I Emailed him now and told him that I had been made aware of Tealy’s situation. I asked if I could visit her in Elfhold as soon as possible.

I did not have to wait very long before the reply came. It came in the form of the long, sweet, reverberating chime that meant a pass into Elfhold had been sent to my phone. Soon after it came a text.

“Lucky for you that young fluffhead backed up her phone contacts to her wristicator. You want Tottenham Court Road Tube, I’ve sent someone to meet you. Complete fool but what can you do? B.”

Here was news indeed! I had not expected to get a pass right away! I flew out of my closet and rushed into the den. Bytes had been having a peaceful nap under L’s desk and my sudden eruption into the room, gabbling, laughing and crying all together, brought him bolting out from under the desk in a panic. I was on the way over to Brian to ask permission to go out, didn’t’ see Bytes hurtling towards me, tripped over him and we both ended up on the floor entwined around each other. For a second we both sounded rather alike too as we let out yells of shock and dismay. Then there was a second’s deep silence until Brian said, with a fair stab at casualness:

“Well? Is someone going to tell me what’s going on or not?”

I looked at Bytes, he looked at me, I think Bytes started giggling first, we both looked so silly. Then I started giggling too and all at once I couldn’t stop. I think it was a kind of reaction but it did me good. When I finally wiped my face and scraped myself up off the floor I felt much better and more like my sensible self again.

I soon explained matters to Brian and L and had their immediate permission to leave for Elfhold as soon as I was ready and to stay for as long as I was needed. I trotted off to my closet, changed into a smart pair of black cotton chinos and a crisp white shirt, exchanged my trainers for soft black leather shoes which cost me a bomb but which are Italian and look wicked so I don’t care! I borrowed L’s spray bottle of water and tried very hard to tame my wild mop of curls. I usually let it go all anyhow once I pull a comb through it, but I wanted to look my absolute best today so L ended up having to help me get it in order. By the time she was done and I took a peek at myself in the mirror I was satisfied I looked about as smart as I could. I took a deep breath, kissed L’s cheek, clapped Brian on the arm, gave Bytes a hug and zapped off to Elfhold.

I had not experienced being in a tube station for a while and a Sunday afternoon is no fun at all. I had thought it would be quiet but it was not. There were loads of people and I was terrified of getting either noticed or just plain old crushed! Finally I got up to the last ticket machine on the left, that is the one which all elves use to get in and out of an Elfhold. I held my phone with its tiny icon of an elf’s head on the screen up to the machine. There was a chime and I dropped the usual miles long plummet.

I never did like dropping into Elfhold but this fall seemed to go on longer than usual. When I came to the bottom there was no piazza, no fountains, no shops. The floor was there, beautiful mosaic tiles in warm colours, but I was standing in a long, wide white passage lined on both sides at regular intervals with large, glowing blue circular doors. In front of me was something familiar. A Bronze gate, although this one was not fancy like the ones in Knightsbridge and Highgate. This one was very plane. The grey-suited elf with the lethal looking stick thing was there to. He beckoned me forward.

“Your pass, please.” I handed my phone over, it was put on the box-like machine and it gave out its sweet chime.

“You are cleared to enter MeddiCenter W.” said the elf, opening the gate for me. Please wait inside the gate, an escort has been arranged for you.”

I went through the gate and stood in the corridor for about five minutes. Not much happened. A few eles in brown one-piece suits hurried in and out of blue doors, I saw the odd floater whirring by high up above, I heard elfin voices down the corridor talking, a com unit chirped, machinery made noises.

Suddenly a silvery, metallic thing came gliding quickly towards me, it seemed to skim over the floor like a pebble on water. It was about five feet high and I had to do a hover up so that I could see the whole of it properly. It looked like nothing so much as an upright snake, long, thin, cylindrical and so mobile that its silvery body seemed to undulate eerily as it came along. It was square at its base, it stood on four tiny little square legs with little claw feet. These didn’t appear to be moving at all but they were obviously giving out some kind of power because they were making the thing glide along the ground. The tops of the legs were fused together into a kind of square base which narrowed down into that horrible body. Near the top of the body were two long, springy arms which each ended in two pears of gripping tools, one short and one longer. The head was the weirdest of all. Set in each of the four sides of a flat-ended pyramid was a huge, triangular red eye. This meant that the thing could see all around itself if it wanted to. The very end of the pyramid was a speaker from which a tinny female voice was coming. “Please stand clear.” It was saying monotonously. I stood clear. I had just seen my first MeddiBot and the sight scared me to death.

When the bot had insinuated itself through a blue door and disappeared I heard a different sound. The sound of a floater descending quite close by. I turned to look and saw an extraordinary sight. Floating gently to earth was a shiny red platform with two bucket seats on it. Sitting in one of them was perhaps one of the most striking elves I had ever seen.

She was about Tealy’s height but she was a little more stockily built. She was pertly pretty with rosy cheeks, big blue eyes, a turned-up nose and bewitching dimples. The thing you noticed was her hair. The fur on her head was long, soft and sleek and it was stripy, I don’t mean she had dyed it, I mean it was naturally stripy but in no colours a tiger could wear. Her head was candy striped in pink, lilac and silver. The hair cascading in long, straight sheets from her ears was a soft, deep pink with silver strands in it. Whoever this was, she was one of the rare Rainbow elves Tealy had once spoken of. They were only born once in a hundred generations. Sometimes, as well as their rare colouring they had some kind of special gift or magic power. Sometimes it was just their colouring that singled them out. I wondered who this fem was and went forward to greet her as she skipped down from the floater.

“You bert?” she said. I gaped. I had never heard an elf who sounded as cockney as one of my own sisters, if not more so!

“Um yes,” I stammered.

“I’m Jacey.” Said the elfine in front of me, holding out her hand. “I work in the same office as Teals. We go around together like, or we did before it ‘appened.”

Teals? I tried to shut my hanging jaw. I could just imagine what my girl would say about that. I knew she hated anyone calling her that name!

“Have you known Tealy long?” I asked.

“Nah, not too long. Fing is wiv Teals, she always was one for keepin’ ‘erself to ‘erself like. Then a few months back she started goin’ out, ‘angin’ about in clubs an’ that. You know.”

“I can imagine.” I said grimly.

“Well I met ‘er in Minky’s place an’ we got talkin’ an’ after that we moved our desks next to each other an’ started goin’ round together. She started mixin’ wiv the girls in the office an’ stopped bein’ so proper like. But come on, we best get goin or the floater won’t stay.”

We got into the floater, Jacey gave it a series of numbers and it rose whirring into the air. As we floated along I heard how Teals had become such a party girl that a convi-token had been collected for by the girls in the office, so Teals would get a whole week extra to convalesce once she got out of re-gen as well as the three days she would be allowed officially. I was further told that there was a convi-token from Minky’s place, and one from TG’s. That almost made me cry. TG’s was our favourite restaurant. That would give Tealy three weeks of convalescence time before she would be forced to return to work. I had ideas about those three weeks.

We floated down seemingly endless white passages lined with glowing blue doors. From time to time we saw a MeddiBot glide by below. To my relief they were not all as big as the one I had seen, some of them were my size, some even smaller from the look of it. As we floated, jacey told me at great length and with evident relish how near Tealy had come to going to high country. According to her, Tealy’s poor little pink car had been completely incinerated, burnt to a crisp. Some serious spellwork had been needed to get my girl out before the petrol tank exploded and the whole thing was, in Jacey’s words, lit up like Midsummer eve! Like I really needed to hear that!

I asked just how bad the injuries were and I do wish I hadn’t. Jacey’s voice lowered and she put her pretty little stripy head nearer to mine. According to the friend of a friend who knew someone, she said, poor Teals had broken every bone she could possibly break! Oh, and they were having to do a near full re-gen, according to the friend’s friend who knew someone, all they had to work on was brain, spinal column and a bit of change left over for lunch.

AS the floater descended in front of a glowing blue door just like all the others I felt sick to my stomach.

“Mind you,” Jacey said cheerfully. “Kippy’s an awful liar.” That was the friend who knew someone who, well you get the gist. She laid a comforting hand on my arm. “You can’t believe anything he says. Here we are!”

The glowing blue door revolved as I walked against it. In the few seconds it took to fully release me I had the sensation of being quickly sprayed up and down and from every side with a fine mist that dried instantly. I have the feeling that any lurking germies on me met a very sudden end in that moment.

When the door stopped revolving we stood in a circular white room, softly lit and full of sights and sounds. The sounds were a pervading low humming of support machinery which never stopped, a thick viscose bubbling sound, a plethora of bleeps, tings and lower bell-like notes, a sound rather like a machine breathing and a very familiar one to serious illness. The sound of a heart monitor bleeping, telling you that while there was life there was hope.

The sights were dominated by the MeddiPit in the centre of the room. If you imagine a sunken oval bath or hot tub without steps, four feet long, two feet wide and six feet deep. Now imagine it is filled right to just below the brim with thick, thick blue mud. Imagine that the mud is not still, but always moving and shifting, like a pot of boiling water, it bubbles thickly all the time and you can see gasy plumes coming up through it now and then. At each end of this hell pit there is a huge, clear glass tube. A horrible, sludgy stuff is being sucked up into one of these, and down the other is being pumped thin mud of a very clear blue which joines the bubbling stuff in the pit. If you can picture all this, then you will have an idea of a MeddiPit and you will have some idea of how I felt when I thought that somewhere down there in all that slime was my poor Tealy girl, trying not to go to high country.

Jacey and I stood on a red line about halfway between the door and the pit. It was as close as we were allowed to go for fear of hindering the hoards of bots gliding around the edges. On the back wall of the room were a huge bank of machines of all kinds, I had no idea what they were. They were chirping, bleeping, tinkling and twanging to themselves, and a series of incomprehensivle readouts were being displayed on a wall of screens near the bottom end of the pit.

I asked jacey a lot of questions and learned that the thick blue mud was Juve, the mixture of organic and synthetic material, augmented by seriously expensive magic, which helped to regenerate an elfin body. Tealy was suspended in the midst of it, held in a constantly replenished oxygenated bubble and tended to in the pit by specially adapted bots. The tubes I had seen were for extracting waste materials and for introducing new Juve.

My enquiry as to whether I could see Tealy was met with good-natured derision. Of course I couldn’t’ see her, unless I could understand all those weird readouts. Jacey pointed me to a place I had not noticed at the opposite end of the pit from the screens. It was a small curved platform on which was stationed a large, comfortable looking red chair. Set into the arm of the chair was a neat little earpiece and mic, rather like the kind you have when you want to connect a Bluetooth headset to a phone, only much smaller and neater. I couldn’t see my girl but I could talk to her and she to me. If she was well enough. If she wanted to. If I had not left it too late.

I liked jacey in spite of her annoying ways, but I was very relieved when she gave me a last wave and headed out of the door, leaving me alone with Tealy at last. I padded softly over to the chair, trying to ignore the constantly moving bots who were giving me the creeps. I sat down, picked up the earpiece from its cradle in the chair’s arm, inserted it in my ear. Adjusted it slightly.

Immediately I heard something. A deep, quiet, subterranean gurgling. I heard soft bleeps, muted by the juve, I heard the heart monitor, they must have one down there. I drew a breath in awe. That was the sound that Tealy heard. I drew a deep breath.

“Tealy?” I said.

I thought I heard a noise, a tiny gasp of surprise. I tried again.

“Tealy, Zaeahana, can you hear me?”

I waited breathlessly but there was nothing. I said aloud in disappointment that Tealy was probably asleep.

“The patient is fully conscious.”

I jumped half a mile. A small silvery bot was looking my way. I ignored it, I had more important things to do.

“Tealy,” I tried again, spoke a little louder, “I’m here.” Still nothing. “Come on,” I went on persuasively. “You wanted to tell me things.
Well, I’m listening.”

The silence was unbroken and I dropped my head defeatedly. “Oh, what’s the point!” I said wearily.

“Bert?”

My head came up and my heart leapt. It was tiny, it was weak with tiredness and illness, tinny from the little microphone, but it was unquestionably Tealy’s voice, that cut crystal accent, that bright clarity, that intonation. It was unmistakably her voice. That much of her at least I had not lost.

“yes!” I said, full of joy. “Here I am!”

There was a pause but I was not worried. I could wait all night until she was ready. What she said next, however, was not what I was expecting.

“My token.”

“You’re what?” I did not think I had heard right.

“My token. One you gave me at Christmas. My WishSilver Star.” Her voice was halting but it was very clear.

“Yes, Zaea,” I said, puzzled, “I know the one. What about it?”

“Gone.” She sounded tearful and desolate. I understood her pain. She had kept that token through thick and thin and to have lost it at the last. Just ouch!

“Oh dear, I’m sorry.” Those words sound so inadequate when I write them down, but I put all my heart into them, believe me.

There was a slight pause, a breath.

“Stress levels rising.” The impersonal female voice spoke in my ear. It was a bot. I fiercely willed it to shut up.

“And, your leaf. Was in the car. That one gone too. So sorry, so sorry, Bert.”

I wanted to cry for the sadness of it. The bond was broken indeed. Tealy had kept the leaf she had given me with her, she had it in the car with her at the very end. Now both tokens were gone beyond recovery.

Tealy’s voice was rising, I began to get worried. The bot spoke again.

“Stress levels approaching unsafe parameters. Readying ten miligraines…”

“No narcotomene!” that was Tealy, making an effort to be calm, not succeeding and beginning to sound desperate. “No,” her voice rose again. “No, no narcotomene!”

Narcotomene? I thought. Sleeping drug, we’ve got to get her calmed down and fast.

“Zaea,” I said soothingly, “Calm down or they’ll send you to sleep.”

Tealy’s breath fluttered in my ear. “No narcotomene,” she said again. Her voice was lower this time and she seemed more in control. I wondered what to do, what to say. If only I could make things right for her, give her something to hope for… I suddenly had a brilliant idea. Why not? It was everything I wanted. WE could only try.

“Listen, just listen, Zaea,” I said, “The tokens.”

“Oh Bert, it’s all broken. I’m sorry, so sorry!” Tealy’s pain made my eyes sting but I went on as if she had not spoken.

“We can’t get the old ones back…”

“All gone!” agreed Tealy mournfully.

“But we could get some new ones.”

It was my trump card. I played it and prayed hard. There was a long silence. In my ears I could swear I heard the heart monitor speed up. I saw in a moment or two that I had been right, because the bots all started zooming over to one machine in particular and checking readouts. After a while Tealy spoke and she sounded timorously hopeful.

“I heard right? New tokens?”

Another ton weight of pain, hopelessness and misery seemed to fall off my heart.

“You heard right.” I said. “Zaea, do you believe in second chances?”

After the usual moments it took Tealy to collect her breath the answer came, low and diffident.

“I don’t know.”

For a moment I was scared, but something told me it was going to be all right. I collected my ideas, whispered a prayer and went on.

“I do. I want to believe in them. I want to believe we can let go of the past, give ourselves another chance and make a bond that won’t break this time.” What do you think?”

Not very eloquent perhaps, but I meant every word. I waited. I hoped.

“What do I think?” The words were so soft I could scarcely hear them, but my soul finally shed the last of its heaviness and soared up high, high into the sky on jewelled wings.

“I think those are the kind of second chances I want to believe in too, Zaeahaan.”

I was so full of feelings I did not know what to say. All I could get out was:

“Oh, Tealy!” But I think she understood because of what she said next. She had said it when she opened her eyes after nearly going to high country from green blight. After that, as we parted on each Sunday and every time we met she had said it to me and I to her. It was a pledge, a bond, a memory of things we had shared, a promise of things to come. She said it to me now and I knew that the past was over and forgotten, the future, with all its perils, waited for us.

“Stay with me?” said Tealy.

“Always,” I answered with fervour, as I always did. Then, after a pause and in a softer voice I added:

“Please, stars! Always!”

I stayed for as long as they would let me on that first night. Tealy had to sleep for long periods and I sat quietly in the chair, listening to her world down there and thinking my thoughts. When she was awake we talked, only a little and in few words, but she told me about her life after she had come to find me at ClairGlorius. She said that everything had seemed to fall to pieces after she had heard me humming L’s special tune and mixing her drink, finding us seemingly so intimate together. I could only wince when I remembered the huge barriers there had been between L and I for most of my time at that magical hideaway, but to Tealy the case against me looked black indeed. I heard what happened afterwards in very basic outlines, but I could fill in the details. The drinking, the clubbing, the continued spying on me, concentrating on the times when I was with L to pile up more evidence against me and twist the knife in her own heart, the way her work suffered in consequence of her constant late nights.

Then Bilby calling her into his office and giving her an ultimatum. She had to straighten up and fly right, as L would say, or she was going to find herself without a home or a job. And right in the middle of that, L’s call to say I was out of the way and could they please meet.

I could imagine the show down with L. Tealy’s blood would have been up, L would have been sweetly reasonable which would have infuriated Tealy more.

“She said she loved you.” Tealy said. “Hated her forit. Then she said, wouldn’t ever stand in way of your happiness. You could marry me tomorrow and she’d dance at your wedding. Was when she cried.”

There was a long, long pause. I thought Tealy was sleeping again but she wasn’t.

“When she said that, could finally see humans weren’t to blame for way things were with us. Could see nothing I ever did would have changed you till you were ready. All that hating and hurting for nothing.”

“Don’t think about it, Zaeahana.” I said. “The rain doesn’t fall for no reason, you know. These awful months taught me that all the humans in the world wouldn’t make me happy if you weren’t around.”

We had more talk after that, but I’m not writing anymore of it down here, if you don’t’ mind! Smiling.

It was very late indeed when I got back to the lair and everyone was asleep. Bytes was in my bed, if you please, not on it, he had my iPad wrapped in his arms and the pillow was soaked. I rescued Imogen and returned her to the desk. The movement woke Bytes who looked up at me, made a face and gave me a very rude sign with one of his weird hands!

“Same to you, you horrible, wonderful monster!” I said, giving him a hug. I meant to turf him out of my bed but I honestly was too tired to be bothered. I crawled in by him and slept like the dead.

Well, life goes on. For me it is busier than ever. The day after my first visit to Elfhold I exchanged a long series of Emails with Bilby and the result was that I now have a permanent pass on my phone, well, I say permanent, it’s valid for three months, but it gets me in to see Tealy every day and whenever I need to.

Every morning I get up, feed Bytes, go through my morning routine, do the breakfast and then see what needs doing here at the Lair. I am still a working lep and work comes first. I never neglect Brian and L. If Brian needs me to work on projects or L needs me to take care of her, or even just spend time with her I’m right there.

There’s always a time every day when one of them wil say: “Go on, Bert, it’s time you were off.”

Then I’ll get myself smartened up, L will usually help tame my mop, and I’ll zap off to see Tealy. I’ve just about got used to the bots by now but they still give me the creeps!

I have seen Jacey again a time or two but only to say a quick hello to. I’ve also seen another couple of Tealy’s office co-workers, they have been leaving as I arrive. Elves seem to know that the red chair needs vacating when I turn up though. You would think I had some kind of plague, the room empties so fast! Smiling here. I am not complaining. After so long apart all I want to do is be alone with my girl, even if I can’t see her. She is getting a little stronger every day and can talk for longer periods between sleeps.

Things are going well with the family. Cassie is getting more gorgeous and more of a handful as time goes by. I wish I could do more to help Mum and Dad but there is only one of me and I am stretched pretty thin as it is at the moment. Mum and Dad never complain, to be fair, they seem as happy as a pair of bluebirds and I venture to think Cass has brought them nearly as much joy as she has brought me.

The news is good from the Old Country. Emails are infrequent from the gardens of everlasting peace but from what we hear, Vee is getting stronger all the time. The family there want to keep her at least until the end of the month. Ikey is missing her like mad, anyone can see, but he says very little. Everyone has been helping to keep him fed and his cube in good order.

Little Tam is coming on fine. He had his naming ceremony on September 10. I was there for the actual ceremony but, as it was in the middle of the week, I did not stay for the party as I was up to my ears in work.

Everyone in the family, with the possible exception of Tulia and her tattlers as we call them, is thrilled that Tealy and I are back together again, though naturally horrified about the accident. They can’t wait till she is back on her feet. Tealy in her turn can’t wait to see the family again and she keeps saying she especially wants to see Cassie.

“I was so mixed up about that youngling, Bert.” She said one day. “I didn’t give myself time to know her, let alone anything else, but she’s a part of my life now. I can’t wait to see her again.”

Kori should be having her youngling any day now, in fact she is a bit late. She and Kas went to Kori’s green place last weekend. I asked Kori if she knew what she was having and she said she had no idea. Odd that. Second sight is funny, it comes when it feels like it. I can’t wait to see the youngling, I wonder if it will be blue like Kori or normal coloured like Kas, or kind of half and half! Stripy? Surely not! Oh I’m getting silly with tiredness, I’ve been doing this all day.

I’ve got one more piece of news to tell, and then I think I’m done. I don’t know this for certain yet, but we think, we hope, we really do hope that Tealy might, might be coming out of the MeddiPit next weekend. I’ll be allowed to be there when she comes out, Bilby has promised. He has warned me that it could, wel, it will be distressing, but wild horses won’t keep me away.

After Tealy is free from all that Juve she may have to spend a bit longer in the MeddiCenter. The body is fully grown but it’s as week as a kitten. It will need to have physical therapy and massage, I don’t know what else, but it could be another two or three weeks till she can come home and convalesce. Still, at least we can see each other face to face for that time.

And now, my patient friends, you really are up-to-date. I promised I would not stop writing until I had told you everything and for once I have kept my word. I hope you are all keeping well. Thank you so much, as ever, for reading my rambles. I must stop now, if I am quick I can have an hour with Tealy before dashing back to make a quick something for dinner. Take care until we meet again. Big smiles!

Hi everyone!

I honestly don’t know where this year has gone to. When I look back over it, such a lot has happened and yet it seems to have positively flown past. Here we are in the Autumn, my favourite season of all. When I was little, back before I went to Shana-Sherin, it would always mean going out with Dad to apple orchards and seeing what we could get for the Zair barrel, there would be vegetables to get too if we were sharp. Home would be steamy with the smell of thick soups and nourishing stews and the smell of Dad’s brewing zair would be heady enough to fair knock you over. In the evenings Dad would pile the stove with logs and the crackling would mix with the click of Mum’s knitting needles as she worked hard on winter clothes for us lings.

Of course, we were lucky. Mum was shrewd and sensible and Dad was one of the best foragers in the whole colony and even though I was one of thirty, an unusually large family, we always had enough to eat and clothes enough to keep out the winter chill. Other families dreaded the cold months of the year when food was scarce and the metal walls were like sheets of ice and you had to be careful not to touch them or they could stick to your skin and burn you.

My stars, just listen to me! Wandering off down memory lane will never do, I have far too much to fill you in on. My word yes! Ok, do you have enough chocolate bars and drinks for the duration? Are you sitting comfortably, as L says? Then I’ll begin.

The first thing I can tell you is that I am an Uncle again. The first half lep, half woodsprite in our family put in an appearance on September the 19th, which is also Brian’s birthday and which I thought was a very good omen. It was, as I recall, a Thursday and Brian was away from home and returning late in the day. L and I were planning a birthday surprise dinner for him and I was going to try and fit in a quick whiz off to Elfhold to see my girl in between cooking and making sure things were ok here.

Well the day started the same as every other day, I woke up with Bytes sitting on my chest and gazing into my face while giving me a good morning wash. I groaned, spluttered, pushed him away from me and he gave me the usual hug and giggled. Honestly, I thought, I must be going soft in the head. I don’t quite know where I’d be if I didn’t have that purple ball of fluff sleeping on the bottom of my bed and I didn’t wake up to those huge pink eyes and that silly face smiling at me every morning. Really strange how that monster had grown on me. Bytes made his I’m hungry and what are you hanging about for, feed me sound. I got out of bed and handed him my iPad.

When I was showered and dressed I did my usual family check in. Mig was causing a bit of a furore. She was going about with a lep from the neighbouring farm and her daughters were not liking it very much. They were threatening to leave and come back to London. I had a word with Vee who was online. The news was so good from there. Vee was only just back in the colony from the Old Country but she was strong, healthy and happy. Ikey was overjoyed to see her and the twins and Vee was happy to be back. I had been afraid there was going to be an awkwardness between us all after what had happened, but there was none.

I finished saying my hellos, read my usual mail from Mum to let me know that Cassie was ok, she was growing bigger and more beautiful every day, collected Bytes and headed next door to the den to start on breakfast.

What with the things we had to do for Brian’s birthday surprise it was a busier than usual day. Bytes felt that, as it was the very first time there had been a birthday in the Lair when he was around, he needed to carefully supervise each stage of the preparations. He made himself a perfectly pesteriferous nuisance, pattering about, gurgling importantly, looking in all the bags of shopping, picking up each item of food or drink right down to the last fruit or vegetable, examining it closely with long sniffs and sounds of wonder, then taking all the things I had just put in one pile and moving them elsewhere. As L was doing something not dissimilar I felt, after a while, that I could cheerfully murder the pair of them so I banished L to the sofa and told her to take Bytes and keep him amused while poor old Bert did the work. Sounds familiar, I know I know, I’ll put down the violin in a second!

With the two pests out of the way I soon had things back on an even keel and I was just getting ready to go to Elfhold for an hour as there was time before I had to seriously start cooking, when my phone started ringing. I looked at it uncertainly. My phone does not, as a rule, ring too often. When it does it usually means something momentous. Oh well, I thought, better find out what’s up now. I answered it and there was Mum on the line, laughing and crying both together so that I could hardly make her out.

“It’s a boy, Bert,” she was saying, “Beautiful, Kas says, just beautiful. Kori’s fine, they’re comin’ Ome next weekend. Kori wants annuvver week in ‘er green place. Oh Bert ain’t it great news?”

Life is always very precious to us, no matter how overcrowded our colonies get, so any birth is cause for celebration, but I understood Mum’s laughter and tears. The seely races don’t, as a rule, intermarry or interbreed and no one had been quite sure if the youngling would be born healthy or not. Kori, who is sometimes gifted with the second sight, had been given no hint on the subject. She had just done all she could to keep herself and her youngling healthy and gone to the woods, her own green place, as she called it, to bring the youngling into the world. Sprites need the woods from time to time, it helps to recharge them, body and spirit, and the helping hand grows stronger in them the longer they stay there. I could totally understand Kori needing to gather all her strength before returning to our colony.

“Oh Mum that’s fantastic!” I said. “I’m so pleased! Do you know what they’re calling it yet, or haven’t they had a chance to think?”

“Oh they had it all worked out.” Mum sounded so happy, and my heart swelled to hear it. “They’re calling him Malkorius. Kind of a combination of both their names. Ain’t it clever?”

As I set off for Elfhold I mentally shook hands with my quiet, unassuming brother Kasimalcus. He wasn’t always raising storms like me, he did his job, kept his place, nobody looked twice at him, but when he wanted to do something completely outrageous he just did it and didn’t care what anybody thought. He quietly held out for what he knew was right for him and it had brought him a beautiful wife who had been fantasticly valuable to the colony, and now a youngling son too. Well I thought … Then I clamped down on it. That was getting far too far ahead of myself. Tealy was still cocooned in six feet of Juve, for stars’ sake!

Nothing much had changed at Tealy’s MeddiPit, I thought, as I walked to the red line and surveyed the room. I still hadn’t got used to the hoards of bots gliding around like upright metal snakes, the bubbling blue Juve made me feel claustrophobic and there was that sinking feeling in my stomach again which was turning my legs to lead so that I didn’t go straight to the chair and sit down to talk to my girl. I had noticed this the last few times I had been in here. Now it was time to take it out, analyse it and face it. I knew what was up, but as it didn’t make me feel particularly good about myself I had pushed it to the back of my mind. Now I knew I had to try and get my thoughts straight once and for all.as the time drew nearer and nearer for Tealy to emerge from the pit I was growing aprey to feelings of panic.

What was she going to look like? I had as good as been told that the Tealy I had known and loved was gone. The blonde fluffy head, big rounded ears, huge, limpid aqua eyes, small, slim, lithe figure, they were all a thing of the past. I knew that the essential Tealy still lived, her spirit, her essence, all the things about her that made her so special, they were all still there and so was her voice, that was a huge and unexpected plus. But would I feel the same about Tealy if all that sparkle was put inside someone I didn’t find attractive to look at? I imagined Seeing a tall, bony Tealy, a Tealy with a plain face, an ungainly, lumpy Tealy. I shivered.

Then I suddenly thought, if I’m thinking like this, how much worse is it for Tealy herself. All her life she’s been beautiful, had lovely clothes, the best of everything, elves flocking all over her whenever she wanted them, now she doesn’t’ know what’s going to come out of the pit or what her life’s going to be like. She’s probably wondering if she’ll even be able to keep you, Bert, and here you are worrying because she might not have blonde hair anymore! I felt about half an inch tall. I remembered how I’d felt when I first heard about the regeneration, how I’d been determined that if only we could get things straight, nothing or no one could part us again. So what was I doing worrying over what didn’t matter? For weeks I’d been talking to just the essence of Tealy, I hadn’t seen her, hadn’t known what she was like, yet the feelings I had for her had grown stronger than ever before. Nothing could spoil this now. Only I could, if I were that stupid.

I mentally squared my shoulders. No point in castigating myself, we all have our bad side, that’s just part of nature. The thing to do is to work on it and absolutely not let it get the upper hand. I walked to the red chair, sat down, picked up the tiny headset. The reassuring deep bubbling hum from the depths of the Juve came into my ear.

“You were a long time.” The cut crystal tone was uncertain. “Is everything ok?”

“Hello, Zaeahana.” I put everything I was feeling into my voice. “I promise, everything’s fine.”

Bilby came in that afternoon. I’d been seeing a fair bit of old Bilby and I’d taken quite a liking to him. Underneath his bluff, intimidating manner there lived a keen brain and a very kind heart. The Bureau for which Tealy worked was run by him and, from what I gathered, was well thought of, did good work and was in very good hands. I watched him with affection as he pushed his way through the revolving door. He was immaculate as always in a tweed suit, white shirt, quiet silk tie with a pearl pin and hand-made shoes. The white fur on his head had been slicked down, but his ear hair was as bristly as his luxuriant whiskers. He looked furious, so I gathered everything was all right.

“Ah, thought I’d find you here, young lep!” I don’t think Bilby believes in names. Either that or you have to earn the right for him to call you by it. Certainly I don’t think he has ever once addressed me as anything but young lep, young addle-brains, young feller or young something or other! Anyway, I bore up nobly and smiled at him.

“Mr Bilby.” I said. “heard any news?”

Bilby beckoned me out of the red chair with a finger. I explained to Tealy where I was going, then replaced the headset, hopped down from the lofty chair and joined him on the red line which kept us out of the way of the bots.

“As it happens,” Bilby scowled down at me, “I have. You doing anything next Sunday?”

“Do you mean Sunday week?” Bilby scowled more fiercely and nodded. “No,” I said casually, while my heart started to do the Lambada, “I’m just pootling down to Mum’s. I’ll have my usual day there, play with Cassie, spend time noodling around the cubes, same as usual really.”

Bilby’s face went into a ferocious snarl. “Oh well, you won’t want to come down here in the afternoon and see Tealy lifted out of her MeddiPit will you.”

When I set off back to the Lair I had several nice memories of that day: hearing Tealy’s excited squeaks when she finally knew exactly what date she was being set free from the Juve, letting Jacey, the rainbow elf, know so that all Tealy’s other friends could be told and hearing how relieved and excited she was, being told that I could be there the whole time until Tealy was settled in a Convi-Room and that I would see everything. But the best memory of all was the look on Bilby’s face when I grabbed his hands after he first broke the news and danced him from one end of that zlendt red line to the other! Oh I wish you could have seen it, it was just priceless, and so were the splutterings of “Let me go, young idiot, have you gorn out of your mind?” which accompanied it. I just laughed and danced him back to the other end of the line. When he started smiling I decided to let him go. You don’t want to be around when Bilby starts smiling, it’s definitely not fun.

Well the birthday dinner went off really great and the next few days crawled by. On Sunday I went home for the day, paid a few visits here and there, spent some time helping dad with a Zair brewing and had such a great time it almost took my mind off where I would be that time the following week. There was no deceiving Mum though. She didn’t say anything until I had finished feeding Cassie and had just settled her down for her afternoon nap.

“You look worried, our Bert,” she said, picking up her needles and giving me a sharp glance from over the edge of a thick grey garment of some kind. “You can’t ‘ide it from me, I known you too long. Come on, tell us what’s up.”

“Tealy’s coming out of the pit next Sunday,” I said, sighing. I accepted a tot of Zair from Dad and curled up in my favourite chair. “If I said I wasn’t a bit spooked about it, wondering what she’s going to be like now I’d be lying.”

“Course you would, anyone would be spooked, it’s only lep nature.” That was Dad, down-to-earth as ever. “Fing is, what’s goin’ to ‘appen then, our Bert?”

I gave Dad a straight look.

“It’s Tealy, Dad.” I said with every ounce of conviction I could muster. “I don’t care if they’ve made her into a… a…” I struggled for an image, “A pink kelpie with purple spots. Nothing or no one is going to take her away from me ever again.”

Mum and Dad looked at each other and smiled, then they smiled at me.

“Would ‘ave expected nuffink less of you, our Bert,” said Dad. “So if that’s all settled, what’s up?”

That rocked me.

“I don’t know,” I said, “I’ve told you everything except well, I really don’t want her in Elfhold convalescing for another three weeks. I somehow feel it’s dangerous.”

I stared. I had no idea where that had come from, straight up from my subconscious probably, but now that I hauled it out into the open and thought about it, how true it was! I could think of nothing I wanted less than for Tealy to be stuck in a clinical MeddiCenter for the three weeks of her convalescence. She needed to get out from there, away from Elfhold.

“You know you could bring ‘er ‘ere, son.” That was Mum. “After everyfing that girl’s done for our family anyfing we got is ‘ers for the askin’.”

I got down from my chair, crossed to Mum and hugged her close. What an amazing lep she was! With Dad getting on and not always bringing in as much forage as was needed, Grandlings in and out of the cube at all hours and Cassie to bring up, Mum was offering to take care of my girl for three weeks. But we both knew it wouldn’t do. Tealy needed to be somewhere warm, quiet and comfortable and it was not here.

“Bless your heart, Mum,” I said. “I’ll always remember that.”

“Go on, Lil!” Dad was smiling. “Girl needs to be wiv Bert’s humans, that’s the place. They ‘elped before when she was sick. Maybe they’d ‘elp again.”

Yes. Tealy needed to be at the Lair where I could take care of her. The trouble was, I had other responsibilities there. Would I be able to balance everything? Would Brian and L be willing to help me out yet again?

A long silence was broken by Dad.

“You won’t know nuffink till you ask, son. If it ain’t on then we goes to plan B, but first we tries plan A. Them humans reads all that nonsense you writes, they knows what it’s like ‘ere. I reckon they’ll ‘elp you.

I went back to the Lair with a lot to think about. All that nonsense I write. Hmm, that was the first reference anyone had ever made to my journal, I had thought nobody knew about it. Obviously I was much mistaken. Oh well, no point in worrying about that, I had much bigger things to think about, like the best time to tackle Brian and L about bringing Tealy to the lair.

I waited until we had finished Downfor Double, the Sunday Evening radio show which Brian and L broadcast and with which I help. We were all sitting on the sofa in our usual cosy way, pizza boxes on our knees, glasses of wine close beside us.

“Brian, L,” I began, “I’ve got something serious I want to talk to you about, that is, to ask you.”

“Yes.” Brian put down his glass and turned down the music.

“Tealy’s being taken out of the pit on Sunday and they’re letting me be there with her. She’ll have to have three days at the meddiCenter for physical therapy and other things but after that she has three straight weeks for convalescence.” I swallowed hard.

“Look, I know it’s a lot to ask, but I don’t want her to stay in Elfhold, it’s dangerous for her, I just feel it. I was wondering…”

“Bert,” Brian put his hand on my shoulder. “I’ve already told you. Yes.”

“Huh?

Leps don’t say that word much. They also don’t make the kind of gormless face I was now making very often, it really doesn’t suit them. I can be forgiven though, on this occasion, because I felt completely at sea! L put an arm around me.

“yes you can bring tealy here to convalesce in your closet.”

I made an even more ridiculous noise, it’s not really spellable, I think the nearest I can come is “Butterbutter butter…” and an even more gormless face. Brian and L both burst out laughing.

“Bert,” Brian took my wine away while I still had some left.

“How stupid do you think we are? We were pretty certain that Tealy would need somewhere to convalesce.”

“We were also sure you’d want to be right there to take care of her.” That was L. “It stood to reason that the best place was here.”

I didn’t know what to say. Before anything reached my tongue Brian spoke again.

“Just one thing though, Bert. You need to think this through clearly. We’ll help all we can and we’re glad to, but we do still need you to be able to do your job. I still have shows that need to go out on time, L still needs you to help her, that isn’t going away anywhere.”

“I understand.” I said. At that moment I’d have promised anything, I’d have jumped over the moon for them, never dreaming that it might be beyond my capabilities.

“That’s ok then, sweetie,” said L. “Once Tealy’s free to leave Elfhold you bring her here and take care of her.”

The week snailed by. I spring cleaned the flat, got as far ahead with my work for Brian as I could, took care of L when she needed me and in between times I tried not to worry and failed miserably.

I heard good news from Kas and Kori. Little Malkey was doing absolutely fine and on Saturday morning he and his doting parents came home to the colony. Of course I couldn’t be there, Saturday was our busiest day, but I sent my best wishes and promised to come and see him just as soon as I possibly could.

Sunday, September 29 finally arrived. I was up at my usual time but Bytes was still fast asleep. I lifted him into my warm place in bed while I got into a shower and dressed in my best Elfhold clothes. I would need to leave as soon as I had breakfast on the table. I did a kersory check-in and was amazed at the lovely messages I got from leps wishing me luck today and wishing Tealy well. Kori was online and I said a quick hello. Malkey had settled in well and had a good first night in his new home. Just as we were signing off she wrote one of her odd things.

“It’s going to be fine, our Bert. Good deeds fly home to roost like rainbow birds in the spring, and old friends don’t forget.”

Of course I wanted to know what on earth she meant by that, but she had signed off.

As soon as I had Brian and L settled over their breakfast I set off for Elfhold. L gave me a big hug and Brian squeezed my shoulder, they both wished me luck and sent their best to Tealy. I left feeling so good about both of them.

When I arrived in Tealy’s MeddiPit I thought for one wild moment I had come to the wrong place, it looked so different. Instead of the two large tubes which usually went into it, one at each end, there were now six, set at intervals along each side. They were sucking up the bubbling blue Juve, making the low country of a noise and filling the air with a noxious smell and clouds of steam. The temperature in the place had soared, it was boiling hot.

There had always been a lot of bots in Tealy’s room, though what they all did there had mystified me and still did. Now there seemed to be hundreds, checking the tubes, checking the level of the juve, checking the huge banks of machines, skidding about all over the place on those horrible claw feet that glided but didn’t move. Every so often one of them would announce something to the room at large.

“Drainage five percent complete. Patient is stable.”

I looked around for the visitor’s chair. It had gone. I listened to the bubbling, whirring, bleeping, tinkling, the droning bots, I walked the red line and I waited.

Just after I had been told that drainage was fifty per cent complete and the patient was stable, the revolving door whirred open and bilby joined me. The week’s neat suit had been exchanged for golfing trousers with checks in such loud colours that my eyes practically watered and a monogrammed golfing sweater which he tore off and threw in a corner where it was fielded by a bot and pushed into a steriliser. I couldn’t help staring. Even the plain white tee-shirt underneath had his name neatly monogrammed in gold on it. Bilby smiled at me grimly, daring me to say one word. I shut up.

“Well, young nosy?” his brows drew together and I breathed easier. “how’s it going?”

“It’s going all right, sir, I think.”

“Good.” He went off on a prowl around the room and was presently to be seen communing with bots. When he came back to me he was scowling again.

“Everything’s on track, young lep! They were going to whip her straight up to Convi without closing the bubble! Good thing I was here, what what?”

I didn’t know what that meant and Bilby didn’t seem inclined to tell me, so he stood at one end of the line, glaring at the readouts and waiting while I walked the line, also glaring at the readouts and at the level in the pit falling slowly, oh so slowly, and waiting.

At last it seemed the waiting was coming to an end. The blue juve was nearly all gone and through a thin layer of it I could see something. A spherical, silvery translucent something. It was Tealy’s oxygenated bubble. Inside that was my girl.

“Drainage ninety per cent complete. Patient is stable.” I felt if I heard that voice drone one more time I would grab the bot from which it came and snap it clean in half with my bare hands! I went closer to the edge of the pit, craning my neck to get a better view of the bubble.

Immediately low country and holy commotion broke loose! A long, loud bleep assaulted my offended ears.

“Warning!” the droning bot sounded almost smug. “Please stand behind the red line. A hoard of the little boogers were skiddaddling towards me and looked more than capable of removing me bodily if I did not get off their patch quick smart.

I got off their patch and went back to Bilby. He was smiling at me. It was not my day.

“Now look here, young lep,” he said, “I promised you could be here, but not if you keep on dithrin’ like a doodlebug! Keep still!”

The bot’s voice interrupted us. Drainage was ninety-five per cent complete. Tealy was still stable.

“I can’t!” I turned on him with a snarl. “I don’t know what’s coming out of that oversized zlanny bathtub! It’s not so bad for you!”

Bilby’s smile broadened and my stomach turned cold. Now what had I said?

“Oh isn’t it indeed? Think you’re the only one fond of that young spark do you?”

I shook my head, my upper lip seemed to be stuck to my teeth.

Bilby’s face lost all expression and his eyes bored into me.

“Oh yes I know, you’re like all the rest of those blithering blunderbrains! Think no one suffers quite as much as you do! Well let me tell you something, young fella me lep! I knew that young elf before you did, before she started getting herself involved with any of this romantic rubbish, what what? Yes, practically watched her grow up.”

I was suddenly shaken out of my own worries and looked hard at Bilby, at the deep lines around his eyes, at the slight stoop in his normally very upright carriage. I wanted to know a lot more about this, but all I could manage through suddenly dry lips was:

“You did?”

“You heard me.” Bilby frowned ever so slightly. “You’ve got ears haven’t you, even if they do look a bit silly.”

“That was uncalled-for!” I bristled. There was silence. We waited. Then, my curiosity getting the better of me I ventured, “What was she like then, Tealy, when you knew her first.”

A kind of light came into Bilby’s sharp grey eyes.

“Wasn’t anyone like her in all Elfhold. Beautiful of course, but it wasn’t just that. Don’t know if I’ve got the words, she seemed, I don’t know, she seemed to light up a place when she was in it.” He shook his head in wonder and gave a little laugh. “Gold,” he went on, “She came into the office just a downy-eared newby and within a month she had us all eating out of her hand. Any elf would have done anything for her, she was just like that. But she was a good worker too, the best. Did some ticklish jobs for the bureau, got us out of some very tight spots, what what?”

I cast a look into the pit. I could see the bubble more clearly every second but draining the last tiny bits of Juve away was proving to be a difficult business.

“When did things change?” I turned back to Bilby and found him still deep in memories of the past.

“Oh, about three years ago I should think.” Said the old elf slowly, “She met someone, don’t know how, she wouldn’t tell us and that wasn’t like her. Then it was gadding here and time off there and oh, I’ve worked hard for eleven years, Mr Bilby, I’ve got to have some fun before it’s too late! Well just look where it got her, what hwat?”

Before the end of this speech I became aware that the appalling noise, smell and steam coming from the drainage machines had quite suddenly stopped an the room had gone quiet. All you could now hear was the tinkling of the readout machines, the rhythmic bleep of Tealy’s heart monitor, the swoosh of her oxygenated bubble and the weird kind of hum you can hear everywhere in the MeddiCenter.

“Drainage complete.” Droned my friend. “Patient is stable. Initiating preremoval procedures.”

Bots were skidding everywhere, more were climbing down the sides of the pit. My heart was thumping and I felt sick. Through a fog of fright I heard Bilby’s voice.

“they’ll start lifting her out in a minute and then we’ll see.”

I turned and looked at him. This elf had really stood up and been there for my Tealy girl. He had worked with her since she had come into the office as, what had he said? A downy-eared newby. He knew her better than anyone. He had seen her through the Hinky days, watched that relationship flower and watched it crash and burn. Then he had seen her fall in love with me and everything that had happened afterwards. He had covered for her, helped her, stuck out his neck for her further than was wise, that I definitely knew, now here he was, standing on a red line with the lep that, indirectly, was the cause of her being in that pit in the first place. Understanding flooded me and a huge respect for this elf.

“What are you looking at me like that for, young lep?” Bilby’s whiskers bristled. “I don’t think I like it much!”

“It’s all right, sir.” My words were clumsy, but I had to make him see. “I understand now, I understand completely.”

Bilby’s whiskers, hair, whole body seemed to bristle. He gave me a broad grin.

“You keep your impertinent remarks and your perceptions to yourself, young excrescence! I don’t like either of them!”

I knew I was putting my feet where they weren’t wanted, but I had to reassure him.

“She’ll be all right now, sir. She will.”

“That. Will do!”

I don’t know where my bumbling would have taken me if a whirring noise hadn’t startled us both.

“Look at the pit.” Bilby’s face had lost all colour. “They’re starting to lift her out.”

That lift seemed to take forever. Grinding and whirring it rose out of the depths, bringing the silvery bubble closer and closer to us. I felt sick and Bilby told me that if it was any help to me I wasn’t alone. Finally the lift stopped and I held my breath.

Suddenly four bots zoomed forward, grabbed what looked like four corners of a stretcher on which rested the bubble and zoomed it past us so fast that we hardly had time to think, never mind react.

“Oh well,” muttered bilby, “they’ve got to get her decent I suppose.”

“Removal procedures complete.” Came the hateful drone again. “Visitors may approach and stand on the green line.”

A green line appeared at the far righthand end of the room. Bilby and I walked down there. Beyond the green line, bots were congregated in hoards and swarms and nothing could be seen at all. Finally the voice came again.

“Shutting off oxygen bubble. Transferring monitoring to patient’s wrist unit.”

Everything stopped. The bleeping, the whooshing, the tinkling all fell silent. Only the hum of the air conditioning remained. The hoards of bots drew back and there was a low stretcher, resting on a platform. Lying on the stretcher, covered lightly by thin covers, was perhaps the most beautiful elf I have ever seen.

“Amazing!” bilby was whispering in awe. “That young bubble-ears in the office must have given a DNA donation.”

“Jacey, do you mean?”

“Yes, that’s her. Rainbow elf. Only one born every hundred generations.”

We were silent, just looking and looking.

At first I had thought it was Jacey lying there, but as I looked and looked, drinking her in with my eyes, I could see the differences. Tealy’s face still had the same shape, she still had her delicate little nose, her cupid’s bow mouth, her determined chin. The figure, that was all Tealy too, Jacey was a stocky little thing, not plump but well-built and sturdy with thick arms and legs and big hands and feet. The elf on the stretcher was as lithe and slender as I remembered.

The startling difference was in her colouring. Her head fur was still thick and fluffy but that was where the similarity ended. The base colour was a kind of pale cream, rather like the kind you might see on a palamino pony. It was streaked and flecked with other colours, a deeper gold, rose pink and glittering silver. Her skin was its usual flawless peaches and cream but it seemed to glow, her lips were a deep rose, and the same shades of rose, gold and silver seemed to shimmer over and around her eyes, as if she were wearing human makeup only not like that, better than that.

The hair growing from her ears, oh my stars! It was long, much longer than Tealy’s blonde curls had been, long, thick tumultuous curls in every shade of pink from the darkest rose to the palest petunia, flecked with silver sparkles which caught the light.

“A pink kelpie with purple spots.” I thought to myself. “Well that isn’t so far from what they’ve made, but I don’t care. She’s still Tealy and she’s still beautiful.”

“Patient is returning to consciousness.” I did not need that horrible bot to tell me. I had seen the long, startlingly black lashes moving against Tealy’s cheeks. Next moment the eyes were open and I gasped. Tealy was looking at me.

Now of course it helped that the eyes which met mine were the eyes I had always known and loved, huge, limpid, aqua eyes that looked as if you could dive right into them. But that wasn’t what made me want to cry. I knew, whether the eyes had been pink, purple, green or black this moment would have been the same. The elf that was looking up at me, although she was very much change, although she was sick, tired, weak, beaten down by life, was my Tealy girl. I knew it. She knew that I knew. We spoke volumes without words with just that one look.

Of course we spoke too but it wasn’t important. She wanted to know if they’d made her look awful and I told her she was like a rainbow Princess. She thanked Bilby for all his goodness which made him frown furiously. She was sleeping when the bots came to move her up to a convi-room.

Bilby and I followed the bots and the stretcher up, and the Convi-room setup was as bad as I had thought. A bare white room with a bed, a screen and a table. No way did I want my girl spending three weeks in this place. She was still fast asleep as the bots lifted her into bed.

“They’ll start massage and physio on her as soon as she wakes,” said Bilby. “They won’t want us hanging around here. I should go home and get some rest if I were you, you look dead on your feet.”

I suddenly found I was. I had been literally on my feet for the best part of eight hours with neither bite nor sup inside me, I had been far too keyed up to eat any breakfast. I had hardly slept for the preceeding week and now that the tension had all been released I was so tired. More than tired really, I could have slept where I stood! Bilby caught me as I swayed and it all gets a bit blurry after that. I remember being put into a floater, arriving at Elfhold exit and then sitting on my closet floor, it’s a zlendt good job I didn’t ztrap myself, the state I was in!

I remember confused, broken impressions of things. Brian’s voice with the sharp tone he has when he’s annoyed, then him calling loudly for L. Then, now I’m sure this can’t be right, sitting on L’s lap and half eating, half being fed one of her weird pasta soup things she makes in a mug when she needs a quick snack and I’m busy. Then I remember the feel of my pillow and a soft, furry pair of arms winding around me.

It was about four in the afternoon when I woke up, feeling hungry, thirsty and completely mortified. Bytes was sitting at the foot of my bed and as soon as he saw that I was awake he gave me a hug, one of his best smiles and then ran out of the room, probably to inform on me, I thought grumpily. I burrowed my face under the duvet. I didn’t want to see anybody. I remembered coming home so completely done in that L had to feed me soup and put me to bed. I burrowed down even further. Zlendt! Just zlendt it all to low country, how embarrassing!

A weight landed on the foot of the bed.

“Zblert off, Bytes!” I growled. “I’m not in the mood for games.!”

“Ooh, what a rude word to use to a lady!”

I shot up in bed at the sound of L’s voice and there she was, sitting calmly at the end of my bed and smiling at me. I wanted to hit her.

“Good afternoon, brighteyes,” she said, still smiling infuriatingly. “How did it go yesterday? I would have asked you last night only I couldn’t get anything sensible out of you.”

Suddenly I remembered the day before. The pit, the lift, the stretcher, the new Tealy. My head whirled and L put a hand on my shoulder.

“Take it easy, sweetie,” she said. “Was it bad? Here, drink this.”

She handed me a mug and I gratefully gulped hot coffee. Bytes came in, climbed on the bed beside me and snuggled up.

“No, it wasn’t bad.” I said faintly and then, slowly at first and then in a rush, I told her about the day.

“No wonder you were just about as all in as I’ve ever seen you. We did the show without you, couldn’t think where you’d gone. Brian came in to your closet to see if it had morphed and found you lying spark out on the floor, gave him a hell of a shock! You were ice cold and he didn’t think you were breathing.

“I don’t know how I got back without ztrapping,” I said. “I honestly don’t remember.” “L, did you… I mean, you didn’t, you didn’t’ really feed me and put me to bed?”

L just looked at me.

“what’s the big deal? Not the first time, daresay it won’t be the last. Why are you all red about it this time? Anyway we don’t have time to worry for now. There’s an elf who’s going to be wondering where you are. Are you going to have a shower and go to Elfhold or shall I Email bilby that you’re not coming in today?”

I leapt out of bed, groaned as the world lurched, then moved more gingerly towards the bathroom. As I showered I thought back to all the other times L or Brian or both had picked bits of me up off the floor. I had never minded then, so why was I so embarrassed about it now? The answer came as I was trying to bring some kind of order to my mop of curly hair. I had started thinking of myself as thoroughly grown up now, responsible with great things in my future that I had hardly dared admit even to myself, but they were there, just waiting, I didn’t want to go back to the lep who ran to L when things went wrong, who sat on a human’s lap for comfort, who had to be put to bed like a youngling. I wasn’t that lep anymore.

I saw in the mirror that L was standing behind me looking puzzled.

“Bert, do you want me to help with your hair?”

“No thanks,” I said, maybe a bit sharper than I meant to. “I can do it.”

I turned away from the mirror so that I didn’t have to see l’s face.

Jacey was with Tealy when I arrived. The bright light in the room was shining on her tiger-striped head and she and Tealy were laughing together.

“Jacey!” I went up to her and took her hands. “Bilby says you gave a DNA donation, how wonderful of you.”

“Oh it wasn’t nuffink!” Jacey freed a hand and slapped my shoulder. “Teals is me best mate! There ain’t no one like ‘er an’ when I ‘eard she was gonna need DNA well it’s only an ‘air an’ wel,” she shook her sheets of pink, lilac and silver hair, “Got plenty ain’t i! Couldn’t let one of them techs do it! Now look at ‘er ain’t she beautiful? We could be sisters!”

“You could at that.” I laughed and kissed her cheek, which made her go bright pink. “We’ll never forget it as long as we live.”

Jacey left soon afterwards. I took the low chair which had been brought in, pulling it up beside the bed. Tealy was obviously tired and we didn’t’ talk much. I stayed with her as long as they would let me, held her hand, watched her sleep and thought how very much I loved her.

Before I left she said one thing.

“I can’t wait to come home.”

I brought Tealy home to the lair on Wednesday morning. Everything was as ready as I could make it, I had cleaned, polished, scrubbed, filled my closet with flowers, downloaded all Tealy’s favourite magazines to my iPad, bought the most succulent fruit I could think of and the daintiest, most nourishing food to tempt her weak apetite.

Finally it was almost time to go. Brian was away on business. L was sitting on the sofa with Bytes.

“I’m off, L.” I said.

“Ok, sweetie.” She looked up and that look was back, the one I had been trying not to see. Puzzlement. Hurt. Something lost. It reminded me too much of ClairGlorius.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be, I’ll zap straight into the closet. I’ll come and tell you when everything’s settled, ok?”

“That’s fine.” Everything we said had effort in it. Oh low country with it, I couldn’t worry about this now, my Tealy was waiting for me!

I ran towards the closet, but I didn’t morph it, I wanted my coat and cap. I got them, pulled on my coat and was just doing up the poppers when I sensed L standing behind me. She liked to put my cap on when I went out, make sure my ears were covered if they needed to be, or just see that it was the angle I liked if I was going home.

L didn’t say anything, she never usually had to, she just waited. I wavered. If I didn’t let L do my cap she’d know there was something seriously wrong if she didn’t already, and there would be serious trouble between us. But I couldn’t keep letting her fuss me like this, I was a grown up lep, I was going to collect my girl, I had to leave all my old crutches behind me.

I fixed my cap on my head.

“I’ll see you later, L.”

I walked into the morphing closet and zapped off to Elfhold. I pretended I didn’t hear the sob as the door closed behind me.

Tealy was waiting for me in her MeddiCenter room. She was propped up in a chair looking so pale you could almost see through her, but she was dressed. She wore a beautifully cut soft amethyst suede jacket over slim black trousers with neat little black boots. Beside her, on the bed, was a small, shiny pink overnight bag. I almost cried when I saw it. The last time I had been anywhere near that bag it had been full of my own things, I had been emptying it in my closet after our disastrous break up and I had been sure I would never see it, or its owner, again.

“This is no time to look sad, darling.” Said my beautiful girl, “I’ve been given my discharge pass, it’s valid for three weeks. We can go.”

She pointed to a thin bracelet of grey metal around her left wrist.
I picked up the overnight bag and looked around helplessly. Then I noticed the chair. It had discreet little handles at the back. I went around behind it, gave the chair an experimental push and it hovered into the air about an inch from the floor tiles. All I had to do was guide it.

I had expected that Bilby might put in an appearance to wish Tealy luck or give us instructions, but he was nowhere to be seen and when I thought about it I supposed it made sense. He only appeared when the chips were down. When everything was all right he faded back into the woodwork, but I’d have bet my last grain he was keeping a quiet eye on things for us.

I glided Tealy out of the MeddiCenter, feeling a huge sense of relief as the door revolved closed on us. A double floater was waiting for us, I helped Tealy in, got myself and the bag in afterwards and we set off towards the exit and home.

The Lair was as warm and welcoming as I could possibly make it. Tealy was absolutely exhausted so I tucked her up in bed and left her to sleep. I had a pile of work to do so I settled down at the desk, put on my pair of huge headphones and tried to get on with it, but I found it hard to concentrate. After a while I was just sitting, staring at the ceiling.

That bracelet. I didn’t like it at all. It meant that Elfhold was keeping tabs on Tealy night and day. Of course, they had always kept tabs on her whenever she went outside, but that had been through her Wristicator, the powerful high-tech gadget which looked like a fancy set of charm bangles which she always wore and which could, if desired, be turned off. This thing couldn’t be turned off, it was mandatory. Tealy was being monitored and I did not like it. What would happen if, for example, she did something they did not sanction? Or suppose she stayed here for more than the allowed three weeks? Would those elves in the grey catsuits come swooping down on her and take her away?

I got up suddenly.

“L, can I borrow your metal cutters?”

L was lying on the sofa looking white. She raised her head, wincing.

“What?”

“Your metal cutters. The ones you used when you used to make jewelry. Can I borrow them?”

“Of course, sweetie.”

L huddled up again and Bytes snuggled in closer next to her, giving me a baleful glare over his shoulder.

“Yes I know,” I thought, “I’m being a complete pig to L but I can’t help it, you be nice and make up for it.”

I rootled about in L’s storage chest until I found the box where her old jewelry-making tools were. I came up with a small pair of metal cutters. Small they might be but still incredibly sharp. They’d cut through that thin bracelet in no time. I crept to my closet door and put my head around it. Tealy was fast asleep with her left hand on top of the bed clothes. Wicked!

I went quietly up to her. I was about to lean down and get busy with the metal cutters when she suddenly opened her eyes and looked straight at me. She gave me the faintest shake of the head.

For a moment I just stood there, wondering what to do, then I noticed the rainbow shimmers around Tealy’s eyes were spreading. Her whole skin was glowing from inside, coruscating with rainbow colours until it was so bright I could hardly look at her. She stretched luxuriously and flexed her left wrist. There was a bright flash, the smell of cordite and a sizzle. The bracelet fell off, broken into two halves.

Tealy stretched again, the glow fading back into her normal skin tone.

“That’s better.” She said. “You’d never have made an impression on it with those,” she made a weak gesture toward the metal cutters, dangling uselessly from my hand. “That bracelet was solid plataneel, one of our hardest metals. Only elves can work with it.” She saw my crestfallen expression and smiled. “Never mind, darling.” She said. “It’s gone now. They’re not going to monitor me.”

I left Tealy to sleep and went back to try and work. As I opened the closet door a small, determined purple form tried to get past me. The closet had always been his territory, he slept there, fed there, sat on my sofa whenever he wanted to and he was telling me in no uncertain terms he was not going to be kept out now. I, however, closed the door firmly. Tealy might not like Bytes, certainly would not want him sleeping on her bed, would not be able to cope with his general noisiness and in short he was not going near her for now.

Bytes gave me a huge-eyed, hurt look. I knelt by him and tried to explain but he wasn’t having any. He ran back to L, I tried to work, and now there were two people in the lair that things were out of joint with.

Brian came home on the Thursday evening. Tealy had had a good day and was feeling stronger. She had spent the day sleeping, reading a little and watching TV, which she really loved. I had spent the day working as well as I could, avoiding L and fielding Bytes every time he tried to get in through the closet door. Brian invited me to join the usual catch up, music and wine session but I excused myself as politely as I could. I wanted to spend the time with Tealy. As it happened she was fast asleep, so I spent an exciting evening sitting in the dark, telling myself I was behaving worse than a kelpie and really wanting to go and hug Bytes who I was missing terribly. He was now having nothing at all to do with me.

By the end of the next day the number of people I was out of joint with had grown to three, that is, everyone in the lair except Tealy. It had started in the morning, Brian had given me a pile of work. I was deep in gloomy introspection, thinking about Tealy, what was going to happen when the three weeks were up, how I was going to make things right with everyone in the lair and I really didn’t hear a word he said. Of course, Brian soon found me out, sent me to make sure Tealy was ok and then told me to get back with my mind on my job.

I pelted out to the closet where I found Bytes jumping up at the door handle. I kicked him away snarling. He ran back to the den, crying hard. L appeared in the hall like the wrath of the hand.

“Bert, don’t you dare do that again!” She bent down, lifted me up and held me at her eye level. “I don’t know what the hell’s got into you, but I don’t like it much.”

She glared at me for a second or two longer. Then she put me down.

“I know you’ve had a rotten few weeks and you’re not having an easy time, but it’s not fair to take it out on us and especially not on poor little Bytes who doesn’t understand what’s happening! Now get back into that den and get some decent work done today, please.”

I slouched back to my desk. I don’t know that L ever spoke to me like that in my life. I can hardly remember a sentence, even when we were out of sync, that didn’t contain the word “Sweetie” in it. To know that I’d richly deserved the rough side of her tongue and to further know that I’d made the decision to walk away from our old closeness didn’t make the empty feeling inside any easier to take. Gosh I was mixed up. I was a grown-up lep wasn’t I? An independent lep. I didn’t need all this! But surely, being an independent lep didn’t mean you gave up all your friends, gave up everything that made life good? Brian and L, yes and good little Bytes, were my three best friends in the world, and here I was pushing them all away. This was crazy! Oh low country with it, I had to get this zlanny-zlendt work done or I’d be a broke lep, a jobless, homeless independent lep and much good that would do me!

I worked solidly and hard for much of the rest of that day. I popped in to see Tealy every couple of hours and found, to my delight, that she was takingmore notice, getting stronger, sleeping less and even sitting up at times.

I puzzled over the problem of how to get through to L off and on. I needed to talk to her, try to explain things. Before all I’d had to do was climb into her lap and just tell her but now I’d made that impossible.

The opportunity came in the early evening. L had asked for a cup of tea which I made and brought over. She was looking white again and when I asked if she was ok she told me no, her head was bad. She asked if I could come up, which surprised me for a start, I hadn’t been anywhere near her for days.

“I’ve hardly seen you all day.” She said. Now this was not uncommon, but we both knew it was an opening. I should have taken it, but I heard myself saying in an overly defensive voice:

“All right. I have been busy.”

I made no effort to get into her lap or even to sit down. I just went on standing there like an idiot.

“Look, sweetie,” L kept her voice level, but I had to look away from the questions In her face. “I know you’re torn two ways here, I know it’s not easy but you’re our lep too and…”

Suddenly all my posturing fell away. I wasn’t a grown-up lep, an independent lep. If I lost Tealy again in three weeks I was going to be nothing but a completely broken lep. I had to make L see what was in my mind.

“L.” I laid an urgent hand on her knee. “Can I ask you something?”

“yes,” she looked surprised. “Of course.”

“If you’d lost the most special person in the world,” I said, leaning forward, “and then had to watch them nearly die and now you had them back again but only for three weeks before you didn’t know what was going to happen to them, wouldn’t you find it a bit hard to keep your mind on your work?”

“Ouch!” L leaned back from me.

“Yes, ouch.” I took hold of L’s hand and looked at her hard, slowing down, trying hard to make her understand.

“Elfhold’s had to do a full regeneration on Tealy. They’re not just going to let it go with a handshake and be a good girl in future. They don’t work like that, L.” L lifted her eyebrows and took a breath, but I had to get this all out, I went on. “I’ve always, always put you and Brian first, my work’s been my whole life and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’m desperately grateful to you and Brian for letting me bring Tealy here to convalesce so that we can see as much of each other as we can. I really will try to do better but if I’m not my usual conscientious self, please try to understand how hard this is!”

I stopped. Had I gone too far? Could L possibly understand?

“It’s ok, Sweetie. Thanks for explaining.” Well that sounded all right. I made to climb up on the sofa.

“Ok. What shall we do?”

L pushed me gently away.

“Nothing. Go and be with her. I’ll be ok.”

I kissed L’s cheek, slid down from the sofa and headed for the door. It should have been a huge relief. Everything should have been fine. So why did I feel as if things would never be the same again?

Saturday started all right. Tealy was better, everything was all right at the colony and Brian, L and I were all being unnaturally polite to each other in bright, cheerful voices. I worked on show preparation all morning and at about half-past eleven popped in to see if Tealy needed anything. I found her in a very good mood. She asked for a drink of cranberry juice and a loan of the iPad so that she could log onto Elfnet and check her Email.

I was pouring the crimson juice into a tall glass when I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to shut the closet door. I put the glass down and looked around the den. No sign of Bytes. Zlendt! That could only mean one thing.

Shoving the juice back into the fridge I raced for the closet. As I ran into the room I heard Bytes’s muffled howls, tealy’s exultant squeaks and a high-pitched bell-like sound.

I have to admit, my first care was for poor Bytes. He was huddled on the bed, the thick duvet had been thrown over him and he was howling his eyes out.

“Tealy!” I cried. “What do you think you’re doing!” I pulled the quilt off Bytes and he leapt into my arms, winding his long, thin arms around my neck fair fit to strangle me.

“Oh there, Bytes!” I hugged him back, relishing the feel of that warm ball of fur, gosh I had missed him! “She didn’t mean it. There, there, it’s all right, Bytes.”

“You know what this thing is?” Again I heard that bell-like tinkling and looked up. Tealy was floating in the air up near the ceiling. I don’t mean she had grown wings, she was just standing there, hovering gracefully, her arms outstretched to either side of her, her chiffon and silk nightgown fluttering in an unseen breeze, her skin shimmering rainbows.

“Yes I do,” I answered, deciding to deal with one thing at a time. “Look, it’s a long story but he’s my friend, don’t you dare hurt him.”

Tealy made a dismissive gesture with her hands and Bytes huddled even closer into me.

“Oh all right!” she said. “But look, look at me! Look what I can do!”

She floated all around the closet, laughing and whooping with glee.

“Tealy, get down,” I cried, “We don’t know if that’s safe!”

Tealy went right on floating.

“Oh dear! Oh gold, I don’t know if I can.” She giggled. Her wild floating had taken her towards my big window. She let her arms fall and, before my horrified eyes, she dropped like a stone and crashed into the window which smashed into smithereens.

The noise was absolutely terrible but that wasn’t what frightened me. I was terrified Tealy was going to be cut to ribbons. The door flew open, L stood on the threshold demanding to know what was going on. Bytes started screaming the place down and I had a lot of explaining to do.

By the time I looked back towards the window again a minute must have past. I was afraid of what I might see. My jaw dropped. The window was whole and unbroken. Tealy was back in bed, the covers pulled primly up to her chin.

“How did you do that?” I was beyond being astonished.

“I don’t know how I did it.” Tealy’s voice was faint with tiredness. “I think Jacey must have given me more than her colouring. No, Bert, please don’t close that door. I think we need to get some things sorted out. Let me get acquainted with Bytes for starters.”

I had to get back to work. When I looked in later with the cranberry juice and iPad tealy was asleep with Bytes curled up in his usual place at the bottom of the bed. Well, I thought resentfully, at least one of us is happy.

It was a very long day. Both shows went out successfully. I used to love the music and wine sessions we always had after the Saturday hard work. Now Brian and L were both looking at me, waiting for me to leave. I had really messed things up good and proper.

As I closed the den dor I heard Brian open the fridge. L started the oldies playlist and I heard their voices, low and confiding. Zlendt, I thought, just. Total zlendt!

I came into the closet. Tealy was up, wrapped in an ivory velvet robe and high-heeled swan’s down mules. She was curled on my sofa, smiling at me softly.

“Well, what shall we do?” my voice was high, squeaky with tension, near to cracking. Tealy’s big, sensitive round ears quivered in protest.

“We’re going to sit down and talk about why you’re behaving like a complete mercury idiot and making everyone, including yourself, miserable as led.” Said my girl in the most matter of fact voice. I stared.

“How on earth did you know?”

“I don’t know how I know.” Tealy looked uncertain, wrinkling her forehead. “It’s hard to explain. Sometimes I dream things, sometimes I hear them, even when the door’s closed. I know, for example, that you’ve been pushing L away for days and days, even before I came here because you think I won’t like you being close to her like you were before.”

My jaw dropped. No, no that wasn’t it. I was a grown up lep now. I didn’t need… I dropped my eyes from Tealy’s.

“I know that you’ve been worrying yourself sick over what’s going to happen after these three weeks are up, yet you don’t want to talk to me about it, so your work for Brian is suffering.”

My head dropped even lower.

“And you’ve been thinking I won’t like poor little Bytes, so you’ve been pushing him away too, and that’s been the hardest of all, because he didn’t understand it, which made you feel terrible.”

I turned away from her so that she wouldn’t see me being a wimp.

“Bert. Golden one.” I felt her hand on my arm, pulling me towards her. “Can’t you understand. “A lot of things got destroyed in that fire besides most of my old body and our WishSilver tokens. I’m not jealous of your humans anymore, I couldn’t be jealous of Bytes although I admit I was a bit spooked by him at first until I got to know him. I want, need, things to be right here and for you to be happy.”

“How?” I had my face in her shoulder and it came out all muffled. “I’ve messed it all up. How can I put things right now?”

“Just go in there and see. Don’t think. Do the first thing that seems right. It’ll work out ok, I promise.”

I walked towards the den door with my heart in my mouth. I could hear Dawn singing about his Candida and how much he wanted to take her away, the further from here the better. I sympathized. I took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Brian and L had been talking in low, serious voices. They stopped as soon as I came into the room. Brian had been using his computer. He gave his keyboard a push so that it slid back out of sight and reached up to switch off the monitor with an air of assumed nonchalance. Silly, I thought, as if I could see what’s on his monitor without doing a hover spell which I wouldn’t anyway.

I looked over at L, sitting there, her face tightly closed, clutching her half-full wine glass tight enough to crack it. I suddenly never wanted to see that look again. Before I knew what I was doing I took a running leap, didn’t even think about it. The glass and its contents went flying back to low country as I leapt straight into her lap.

It’s ok, you don’t have to go eew, yuk and skip half a page. There weren’t any corny words, in fact we didn’t say a thing. There wasn’t any need. I just sat there, listening to John Denver tell us how good it was to be back home again. Thought it was rather apt actually.

Brian had shown admirable patience, but when nobody seemed about to explain anything he began to grow restive. Showaddywaddy were extolling the virtues of “A Little Bit of Soap” which seemed to remind him that there was glass and wine all over the floor. As he got out the mop and bucket I wriggled down from L’s lap and went to help. AS we each bent to clear up the mess I’d made I felt a hand on my arm.

“OK?”

“Yes.” I whispered it back. “Sorry.”

I felt another squeeze on my shoulder. And that was all right. Enough said.

“Right.” Brian’s voice sounded matter-of-fact. “L, I suppose you’ll want another glass, seeing as you threw that away. Bert, are you having one?”

“I’m just going to check Tealy’s ok, then yes please.” My smile stretched from ear to ear. “I’d love one.”

Tealy was asleep with the TV on. Was it my imagination, or was she smiling too? Bytes was curled up in his normal place at the bottom of her bed, fast asleep, his head pillowed on her velvet robe.

Later that night, after music, an ocean of wine and lots of talk with my people, I burrowed down into the nest of mattress and duvet I had made on the floor near to Tealy’s bed in case she needed anything in the night. As I settled myself for sleep I heard a rustle, then a gurgle, then a long-contented sigh. I reached out with my toes and felt a warm, heavy weight at the bottom of the mattress. Bytes was back in his old familiar place. I felt ridiculously happy as I drifted off to sleep.

When I awoke, Bytes was sitting on my chest and licking my face. I had a thick head which wasn’t surprising, the amount I had drunk the night before. I looked blearily around the room and then gaped. I was in my own bed, not the nest I had made on the floor. Tealy was sitting on the sofa watching TV with the sound turned low. She was wearing jeans and a black sweater that set off her rainbow hair.

“Hello, Zaea,” she smiled across at me, then, lifting her arms slightly, glided over, her feet just half an inch or so from the ground. I wanted to remonstrate but I hadn’t the energy.

“I’m off to get you juice and coffee. You relax for a while this morning. Later on, when you feel up to it, Brian and l want to talk to both of us.”

I was going to ask what all that was about, but Bytes was cooing at me, snuggling his face into my cheek and I must have gone back to sleep.

I awoke in the late afternoon with a mouth which felt like an army of foragers in dirty boots had been marching through it. I struggled up on my elbow. Someone handed me a cold glass. I gulped gratefully and blinked, trying to get the three bleary figures I could see down to one. My stars! How much had I had last night?

I iventually got Tealy into focus. She was looking gorgeous. She had colour in her cheeks, her eyes were shining.

“Feeling better?” she asked.

“No.” I said. “Stars, I’m going teatotal after this.”

Tealy giggled. I tried not to wince.

“You were off your face last night. I’ve never seen you like that before. Ever so funny and sweet.”

“You were sleeping.” I remembered that much.

“I know I was, but I’ve told you. Sometimes I dream things. Didn’t you dance with L to The Boy from New York City? You and Brian sang Leader of the Gang. I heard you.”

I groaned and burrowed my head under the duvet to hide my blushes.

“Anyway,” went on Tealy, “You’ve got to try and pull yourself together. Brian and L want to see us before they have to start getting ready for tonight’s show.”

I groaned and dragged myself out of bed and into a shower. By the time I was clean and dressed I felt a bit more like myself but my head was still manufacturing its own soundtrack, something between Led Zeplin and Iron maiden I suspected. Tealy was waiting for me with Brian and l as I went into the den.

I could see at once that things had changed and very much for the better. Before, when we had been in the den, Tealy and I had sat on the futon under the window while Brian and L were on the sofa. Humans one side, seely races on the other. There was easily room enough for all of us on that big sofa, but something had always held us apart. Now, as Brian told Tealy how glad he was to see her up and about, she apologised for all the commotion yesterday and we all made to sit down, Tealy headed straight for the sofa, floating up to sit beside Brian who sat at the righthand end. I made for my usual place next to L, who sat in her usual lefthand corner.

Brian said he had something he wanted to talk to us about, I made a half joke about not liking the sound of this.

“Bert,” that was L in her most reasonable tone. My heart sank another notch. “You told me the other day that it was hard for you to keep your mind on your work, given what had recently happened and what might be about to happen. That’s still tru isn’t it, though I must say you have been trying very hard.”

“Yes,” I admitted. “It is still difficult.” Though I’ll try a zlendt lot harder now everything’s right here again, I promise I will, I added silently.

“Am I right in thinking that Tealy’s convalescence has two and a half clear weeks to go?” asked Brian.

“Yes,” Tealy was looking uncertain. “That’s right.”

“Well,” said L, giving me a hard look, “We’ve decided you should both have that time together without having to think of work at all, or having to look after us.” My whole face was a question mark, but before I could ask anything she added: “Bert, we want you to take official leave, starting tomorrow.”

I was absolutely horrified! This was a very kind gesture of Brian and L’s of course. Two whole weeks plus of no work, just nothing but time to be with Tealy but where? Where could we go? Official leave wasn’t like informal leave of absence. Official leave meant that I could not stay in the house of my employer. Brian and L both knew this. I voiced my doubts. I said I couldn’t take Tealy to the colony, she’d be wretchedly uncomfortable there.

“We could go to my flat,” Tealy sounded doubtful. “That’s if it’s still mine. I could ask.” I didn’t want that, oh no! Not back into Elfhold, I’d do anything rather than that.

“We do have a suggestion.” Brian’s voice was tinged with amusement and I felt angry. This was all very well for him, didn’t he understand the stakes here?

“What, or rather where?” I asked. He looked at me seriously and my anger turned into a feeling as if I was about an inch high.

“We did think this through, you know, Bert. We thought you might like to take Tealy and show her ClairGlorius.”

If Brian had performed a freezing spell on us he could not have struck us any stiller or dumber. That house. The scene of Tealy’s deepest humiliation, where she had arrived, hoping desperately to mend things with me and had found me, as she thought, happily humming L’s favourite tune and mixing a drink, alone and intimate with my human. Now she could go there with me and wipe those memories away. We could, for the first time, be truly alone together there. I thought of that magical house too, the wonderful place to which I had been brought when I was at such a low ebb and which had given me the strength to pick myself up and go on. Now I could share its magic with the being I loved most in the world and make her part of its history, make it part of our shared memories, happy ones, not sad.

“You’re too good to us.” It wasn’t enough to express everything I wanted to say, but they understood.

“No,” said L, “We should have thought of it before. Take some time and be alone. From what I’ve heard you might need it.”

We talked through the nuts and bolts. Tealy would need to perform the LookLike spell when Mrs Williams came in to bring our shopping and check that the place was clean and tidy, which she did every other morning. Apart from that we would be left in perfect peace. Mr Williams had left a huge store of logs in case it got cold and we wanted to light the fires and there was full central heating. The cupboards had been fully stocked with food, there were books, TV and wi-fi for bad weather days, the gardens, the beach and the terrace for sunny ones. What more could we ever want?

I was too excited to sleep that night. I lay in the dark, listening to Tealy’s soft breathing and Bytes’s gentle snores. At about three I was sure I could smell coffee. I got up very quietly, put on my robe and slippers and walked to the door but I wasn’t quiet enough for Bytes. He came pattering after me and we went out into the hall together.

There definitely was the smell of coffee in the air, it was coming from the den. I opened the door and there was L, sitting in her usual place on the sofa, a mug in her hand.

“Can’t you sleep either?” she said.

I didn’t think that merited an answer so I poured myself a shot of Java and went to sit by her.

“What’s worrying you, L?” Usually it was her asking me, it felt weird that it was the other way around, but I didn’t need the helping hand to know that she was worried to death.

“I know you, sweetie.” She put the mug down and took hold of my hand. “I know that if Tealy’s threatened you’ll do anything, and I do mean anything rather than lose her again.”

I didn’t answer. What could I say? She knows me far too well.

“Bert, I don’t want to be fobbing off Shana-Sherin and inadvertently giving them clues where you are. You know it’s not a questionof your job. When push comes to shove you’re more important to us than any job could ever be. We need to know you’re safe, and how we can best help you.”

I looked at her doubtfully. Half-formed thoughts ran around my brain.

“If letting us know you’re safe is as much as you can do, we’ll settle for it,” went on L, “But please, give us that much peace of mind. And if possible, keep us in the loop. You never know, we may be able to help.”

“I can’t promise anything, L.” I squeezed her hands. “I couldn’t’ promise I’d do a thing and then have to juggle Tealy’s safety and a promise I’d made to you. All I’ll say is I’ll always do my best.”

“That will do for now.” She said. “one more thing. Try to explain where you’re going to Bytes. He’s going to be impossible to deal with if you go away for days on end and he doesn’t know when or if you’re ever coming back.”

Sighing I went over to L’s computer. The monitor glowed with a subdued light. I signalled to Bytes and tapped the screen. There was a shimmer. A moment later a small picture of Bytes appeared. In the middle of the screen was a large question mark.

I thought for a moment then I typed.

“Bert has to go away. Bytes must be brave and stay here.”

There was a long, long pause. Then big, shaky letters.

“When Bert come back?”

How on earth was I going to answer that one? If all went well, two weeks. If all didn’t go well, never. I left it too long. The picture bytes burst into tears and a tinny howl came out of L’s speakers. Almost illegible writing appeared.

“Bytes come too.”

I shook my head in frustration. If we took Bytes he’d need feeding. He could get plenty of data at ClairGlorius but then what? Supposing we had to run for it, wherever we went we’d have to factor in whether we could feed Bytes or not, it was impossible. If we ran, Cassie would have to come with us, she and I were imprinted, there was no question of leaving her behind. But having Bytes with us two, that would be like having two dependent babies with us, no, it just wouldn’t’ work.

“Bert,” that was L. “Bytes could always come and see you, when you were somewhere with a connection. He needn’t be with you all the time. All you’d have to do is send me a mail. He can easily find your iPad can’t he?”

Brilliant! I gave the picture bytes a big smile. How could I put it in words he’d understand.

“Listen, Bytes.” I typed slowly. “Bert goes. Bytes stays but he knows Bert’s iPad, yes?”

The picture bites stopped crying and nodded.

“So when it’s on, Bytes can come and say hello. Have cuddles. See where Bert is. Then go home again. Yes?”

There was a long, long, long pause. Then there was a shimmer. The real bytes stood there, smiling at me and nodding. I sighed with relief. One more problem solved. I went back to my closet, burrowed into my nest and caught a couple of hours’ catnap.

Official leave always starts at dawn so the sun was just rising when we arrived at ClairGlorius. It looked absolutely beautiful even on a dull Autumn morning with the sun struggling to rise through a bank of cloud. I wanted Tealy to see the house as I had first seen it, so we zapped on the drive in front of the porch steps. As we walked up towards the house the sun rose and burst through the clouds, outlining the house in all its sparkling whiteness and making it look like a fairy castle.

Inside everything was just as I remembered it. The wide atrium with the silver fountain, the sofas and little tables, the little dining table and chairs to one side of the fountain, the chandelier, the sun-catchers and dream-catchers, the crystal sparkling everywhere. In the summer the hall had been cool, now a cosy warmth permeated the whole place, soft light glowed inside when the day was dull. It was all more beautiful than I could have ever dreamed.

We were so lucky, my tealy and I, to have been given that wonderful place to be truly alone together in for the first time. Apart from the scheduled appearances of Mrs Williams, who arrived every other morning at nine sharp,and left within the hour, the deep peace was unbroken. We talked for hours, read, listened to music, cooked delicious meals and discovered everything about each other that we hadn’t known before.

Tealy still had to take it fairly easy and while she slept in the afternoons I would go for long walks on the beach, collecting shells, thinking about the past, present and future, dreaming my daydreams and telling myself that I had never been happier in my life.

That was until Bilby turned up. It was a cold, grey afternoon with a sky that threatened rain. Tealy had been having her nap but I hadn’t wanted to go too far from the house in case it poured down, so I had been walking in the gardens and on the terrace, looking at the closed hot tub and the covered pool, thinking of the summer and wishing I could bring Tealy back here then to swim and lounge here.

I’d heard the firm clipping of Tealy’s boot heels and gone to greet her. We’d been standing on the terrace, idly talking, when I thought I heard a zap. I was just telling myself I’d imagined it when a stentorian voice started shouting:

“Lovebirds? Any lovebirds round here? Blood and mercury! Where are you two sucking ducks? I didn’t come all this way just for the fishing you know!”

Tealy called him over and along the terrace strode Bilby, hair and whiskers flying in the wind, wrapped from neck to ankles in a huge navy overcoat and a revolting tartan scarf which no Scott would, I venture to think, be seen dead in.

“Is anything wrong sir?” I asked, blinking at the violently coloured scarf and wishing I had dark glasses.

“Which takes the prize for today’s most thunderingly stupid question!” Bilby fixed me with his biggest, broadest and sunniest smile. “Just think, young addle-brains! Would I have gone all the way to your place, scared your humans half to death, caused that ridiculous creature you’ve taken up with to nearly howl the house down, then have to come all the way here and go through this rigmarole if nothing was wrong?”

I was suitably chastised.

“I’m sorry, I’ll amend the question. What’s wrong, sir?”

“A quick learner! Thank gold.” The smile disappeared and he rubbed his hands. “Brrr! Cold enough to freeze mercury out here. I suggest we go inside where all will be made clear.”

We took him into the den. It was a far cry from the den I knew and loved. A small, cosy room with deep sofas and chairs, wi-fi and a TV, it also had a big fireplace in which a bright fire was now burning. Bilby’s gimlet eyes fastened on a silver tray of drinks and crystal tumblers set on a low table. As Bilby made routine enquiries after Tealy’s health I poured him the shot of scotch he asked for and Tealy a still elderflower Pressé. Finally Tealy could bear it no longer.

“Sir,” she said. “Please. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I shouldn’t.” Bilby was looking worried, the glass in his hand trembled ever so slightly. “If anyone ever found out I was here … But there.” He straightened up and gave Tealy a straight, hard look. “Well, here’s the top, bottom and sides of it, Tealy my girl. I found out today that they’re going to reclassify you.

We had both been more than half expecting it, but it was still a body blow. Tealy’s hand reached out for mine and she drew in a sharp breath.

“Bronze and led!” she mumbled. Then, looking at bilby, “Where?”

Bilby couldn’t meet our eyes.

“That’s the point. They want to make you…” he paused then brought out the words as if they were a disgusting swear. “Green circle.”

Every vestage of colour left Tealy’s face. She swayed in her seat and I thought she would faint, right where she sat. Instead she said faintly, “No! They can’t do that.”

“They can and they will.” It was the first time I’d seen Bilby looking angry when there was something to be angry about. “All protests disregarded, all please for leniency ignored. After all my years of service, not even green triangle, it’s an iron disgrace, that’s what it is!”

I was feeling lost. I knew nothing about Elfhold’s classification system. Tealy had obviously not wanted to discuss it so I had kept off the subject. Now, with this awful calamity staring us in the face I had to know the worst.

“Please somebody,” I said, “Tell me what that means.”

Bilby turned his eyes in my direction.

“Our classification system is complicated, young lep,” he said seriously, “Colours and shapes. The lighter the colour, the more corners on the shape, the higher you are. Take it from me, our green is low, only two colours under it, brown and black and they’re the dregs, the criminal classes, the outcasts.”

I stared at Bilby in horror.

“They’re’ reclassifying Tealy as low as they dare, given her past record,” he went on, “And mark this, circle, no corners, no chance of being upgraded,” he paused for effect, “ever.”

I felt the floor lurching underneath me. I reached for the first bottle I could put my hand on. It was the Scotch which I never touched. Low country with it, I needed a drink!

“Think I’ll join you,” I muttered, pouring myself one zlarn of a slug!

Tealy was looking sick.

“What am I going to do?” she asked nobody in particular.

“That’s rather the point, isn’t it?” Bilby was looking hard at me. “If Tealy goes back to the hold she’ll never be allowed outside again.”

I turned cold all over. So this was it. We would have to run, to leave everything and everyone behind. Bilby was going on.

“They’ll make led sure I can’t get anywhere near her, nor any of her other old friends. She’ll be worse than a slave.”

My Tealy girl? That beautiful, delicate rainbow creature a slave? Never! I took a hefty belt of Scotch. It tasted like filth, fire and brimstone. I cholked. No one noticed.

“You don’t want it,” Bilby was continuing as if nothing had happened, “Nor do I, it would be a criminal waste! You’ve got two weeks to think of something else.”

The hours that immediately followed bilby’s departure were just awful. Tealy had to go back to bed, she had gone so white she almost looked transparent. I prowled about on the terrace, never minding about the pouring rain.

My mind scooted around like a bumble bee in a bottle, going over the same old options: run to Annwn? go rogue? Just hit the road an see how far we could get? None of them were appealing. I’d hate life in annwn and it was no good fooling myself I wouldn’t. Brian and L had always said if I had to go rogue they’d take care of me but how about Tealy? Would they take care of her too? I seriously doubted it. Why should they when life had never been the same for us in the lair since March and our big bust up. And could Tealy go rogue at all? Probably not.

Well what about option three then. Hit the road and just go? Well that was a non-starter really, it wasn’t as if I had much training in proper lepcraft. I couldn’t forage or salvage, build a cube, keep a family from starving and what did I think we’d feed poor Cassie on while we were running? It was useless. We would all die or be caught within days.

Yes but the alternative was life without Tealy, for Stars’ sake and I couldn’t bear that, literally could not even bear to think about it. I could not, would not let her go back to elfhold and be reclassified. Anything, anything had to be better than that. Annwn then, that was the best choice, the lesser of three evils. Surely Annwn wasn’t as bad as all that. Yeah right, said a nasty voice in my head, you’d love living inside that bleak mountain with those overgrown bats, riding on that uncut moquette sofa when you need to go somewhere and never being able to see the real world again. I shuddered. But if I don’t do that I’ll lose Tealy, I howled inside my head.

A big gust of wind caught me, blew me right down the length of the terrace and knocked me flat. I lay on the flagstones, completely winded, my head ringing and absolutely empty.

Into that silent stillness there dropped an idea. An idea so simple, so easy, so pervect in every way that I could have kicked myself right back down the length of the terrace for not thinking of it before. I gingerly picked myself up and turned the idea over, looking for holes. Of course, there were a few, one very large one indeed. Tealy might not like the idea. There were others of course, but this was the best plan I had and, what was more, the very thought of it filled me with so much joy and excitement that I was nearly lifted off the ground.

I didn’t go running inside straight away and spill the beans to Tealy. This was a really big step and I wanted to make sure I had everything absolutely crystal clear in my mind, everything cut and dried and thought out as far as it could be.

I went into the kitchen and started to make Risotto which is one of Tealy’s favourite things. The slow cooking and constant stirring soothed out the day’s kinks and gave me ample time for thought. AS I fried the shallots in butter, added the rice and stirred in the white wine I began to plan everything in detail. With each ladleful of hot stock I added to the creamy rice mixture the plan got clearer in my head.

By the time I was stirring parmesan through the finished risotto and topping it with sautéed fresh asparagus and baby peas I had everything worked out, but as I saw Tealy’s swollen eyes and pinched white little face I knew that the time wasn’t’ right yet. She was still too shocked, too scared to be thinking clearly. When she was calmer. Then.

It was the middle of the night, I had no idea what time. Sleep was out of the question for me, far too many thoughts were whirling around in my brain. I had crept out, leaving Tealy fast asleep, and was sitting quietly beside the fountain, listening to the peaceful side of its water and watching its sparkling drops by the soft light of the one lamp I’d lit.

I heard a door open and the bell-like tones which told me Tealy was floating. I looked around and there she was, floating out across the wide atrium towards where I sat. She looked so beautiful and graceful and I felt the usual clutch of fear I got whenever I saw her doing this. Even Jacey didn’t know why she could float.

“Zaea, do come down, you know how I feel about that, I’ve told you so many times.”

“Oh, what does it matter.” Tealy hovered in the air near me, her voice listless. “I may as well enjoy it while I can.”

She settled on to the sofa near me and shook her head when I asked if she needed anything.

“You know,” she said, “It was fantastic of Bilby to come and warn us but in some ways I do wish he hadn’t.” I gave her a startled look. She was looking steadfastly at her hands. “For the next two weeks it’s all about doing things while we can isn’t it?” She looked up into my face and her huge eyes were full of tears. “It would have been better if we didn’t know.”

“Zaea,” I leant forward and grabbed her arm. “Don’t you dare talk like that. Do you think I’m going to stand by and risk losing you ever again?”

She put a gentle hand over mine but her voice was just as passionate as she said:

“Oh darling, stop, it’s no good talking like that, they’ve got me in a corner.” Her beautiful head dropped and two big tears fell on to her hands. “I called one too many tunes, as they say, now I’ve just got to pay the piper, I can’t think of a way around it.”

“You could run away.” I suggested.

“Oh Bert.” She put her arm around me and her cheek against mine. “Gold of my heart, if I’ve learned one thing from this awful year it’s that running solves nothing! I can’t run, I’d lose you all the same and you definitely can’t, you’ve far too much to leave behind: your family, Brian and L, your work, your home.”

I sat up, took her hands, turned to face her and looked her in the eyes. Now for it, I thought. Oh hand, help me to say the right things.

“Tealy,” I said with every ounce of conviction I could muster, “Listen to me, and believe what I say because I’ve never been more serious in my life. I’ve learnt something from this year too. All the things and people in the world couldn’t make me happy if I didn’t have you.”

I saw her eyebrows raise and her mouth opened but I absolutely had to say what was in my heart.

“No, listen,” I said, raising a hand to stop her from interrupting till I was done, “It’s true. When we broke up I tried to comfort myself with all the things you just mentioned and it was useless. I can’t, I won’t go back to feeling that way again, Zaea, and nor can you, We have to find an answer.”

Tealy pulled her hands out of mine and for a moment I thought I’d blown it. Then I saw she was wiping her face.

“What do you think I’ve been trying to do?” she asked in a choked voice. “I can’t think of one.” Her head dropped. “There isn’t one.”

I put a hand under her chin and lifted her face to me.

“There is.” I told her. “One so simple I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before.”

“Well?” the huge eyes bored into my face.

“You could marry me.”” There. It was out. I had said it and for a moment that held all the prayers I had ever prayed I waited while my heartbeat escalated to something completely silly and definitely unhealthy and I felt more scared than I ever did in my life. What if she said no? . The eyes seemed to get bigger.

“Oh, oh holy golden moon.” Tealy whispered.

I wanted to leave it there, wait for her to get used to the idea, but my tongue seemed to have got hold of my jaw and was making it flap up and down. After a while I became aware of what it was saying and I was rather pleased with it in a detached kind of way.

“I know it’s not the way you might have wanted this to happen,” my tongue was babbling, “But honestly, Zaea, I have been thinking about it for longer than you’d believe. If we got married you’d be free from Elfhold’s durisdiction. Then comes the tricky part. If Brian and L cut up rough I’d have to ask to be relieved of my post and not take another, which would mean Shana-sherin would give me an early discharge. That wouldn’t be too bad, I have quite a bit saved, we could go to my colony or find a place a bit less crowded, maybe out in the country somewhere near my brother Nile, you might like it out there better and it would be healthier for Cass.”

Who told you we’re going to live in the country! I asked my tongue. I zlanny hate the country and Tealy certainly would!

“Shut up,” it whispered, “Can’t you see I’m zlendt well busy?”

I became aware that Tealy had tried to speak, but my tongue was liking being in the driver’s seat and he and my jaw were showing no signs of slowing down any time soon.

“I know it’s not the life you’re used to, honey,” My tongue was saying, “But we’d manage. I have a lot of qualifications so I’d get a decent job and you could work too if you wanted to.”

Hey, I thought fuzzily, that’s just what I’d been planning to say! That tongue of mine had no zlendt right to muscle in and steal my proposal! What was going on here? Tealy’s eyes seemed to be getting bigger all the time.

“Bert…” she tried again but my tongue was just not having any and now my right knee was joining in. It hit the tiled floor with a sickening crash. The pain brought me back out of my terrified haze and I could hear what I was saying, words I meant with every atom of my being.

“I’ve done this all wrong and put the most important bit last. Tealy I absolutely love you and I won’t live without you and I’d want to marry you even if you weren’t being reclassified and please please, oh please say you will!”

And there it was, I thought, possibly the most inarticulate marriage proposal ever, but oh helping hand, please, let her say yes. Just let her say yes!

My crash on to the tiles had torn my eyes from hers. They were now on a level with her knees. I lifted my head and saw that she was crying. My heart sank into my boots.

“Oh tealy! Zaeahana! Why are you crying?”

Tealy laughed through her tears.

“I’ve been trying to say yes for the last five minutes and you wouldn’t let me get a word in!”

No good telling her that it wasn’t me, it was my tongue. We were laughing and hugging and I was asking if she’d really meant it and Tealy was telling me that yes, she would live in a lep colony, in fact she’d live in a bird’s nest as long as she could live in it with me and Cassie.

Can you imagine what that meant to me? The girl who had done her absolute level best to get Cassie out of my life to mention her name without even being prompted only a few minutes after agreeing to marry me. The acknowledgement that Cassie was part of our family and that she accepted it. Oh helping hand, I was glad I’d lived long enough to hear that, it was just so incredible!

All that happened just over two weeks ago. Of course, Tealy’s official convalescence is over now so nobody’s very pleased with her. Elfhold knows about her removing her monitor, though they haven’t the first idea how she was able to do it, those things are supposed to be failsafe. When our amazing, awesome time at ClairGlorius was finished I came back here to the Lair. Everyone was pleased to see me, including Bytes who nearly went mad with joy.

A couple of days before we left ClairGlorius, Tealy, Bilby and I had held another impromptu meeting. We’d brought him up to speed on things, including our engagement, and we’d told him about a rather spiffy idea we’d had. Of course, there are lots of iffs, buts, might nots and maybes in this idea, but if it works out it might just be the absolutely best thing since O’Mulligan’s Sunday Breakfast, as they say at Shana-Sherrin, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

Yes, look, I know you want to know what I’m hinting at and where Tealy is now, and I’m sure you have a million questions, but stars above! Isn’t this entry long enough already? If I finish it now there might just be time to pop over to, er, never mind where and see my beautiful Fiancé for an hour before dinner.

Right, well, that’s me finished for now. I hope you’ve had a wonderful month. I’ll write again as soon as I have any news. Until then, thanks so much for reading my rambles and take care. Very big, biggity big, biggest ever, big smiles.