A New Beginning.

Dear Toby,

So many times, as I look into those great big eyes of yours, I wish I could talk to you. There are so many things I wish I could tell you. I have only recently known for certain that you are mine, and that you and I will be together for always. But because of things that happened before you were born and after, things I don't want to dwell on here, you were taken to my human employer L after your birth. She loved you when no one else would, gave you your name, Tobirian, and sent you to SparkleHome, that magical land where babies and children who have known sadness through no fault of their own are loved and cared for, healed of their hurts, and stay pure, innocent and ageless.

So now I know you, love and care for you myself, but you will always be as you are now, and will only know me as you do now. And I would so love to just be able to talk to you. Not seriously like this, but about ordinary things. About my day to day life, about things I'm thinking of, things I'm feeling. So I thought I would write you letters, as if you were visiting a faraway place and would someday be able to read them. If nothing else, they will help me remember things, give me an outlet for my thoughts, and a place to remember you that I can keep forever.

So, let's talk about what's happened in my life since I last wrote anything down anywhere. Now the last time I made any journal entries was January 2017. Stars, how long did that journal last, not very long! The road to the low country is paved with good intentions. Well, I meant to go on with it, but the very day after my last journal entry, something truly awful happened. Our boiler, which provides heat and hot water in this flat, exploded. It went in the middle of the night and we had major floods here. It took absolutely months until everything was cleared up again, and by that time, things had moved on so far that there just seemed no point to going on with a daily journal, I had missed out so much time.

In my last journal entries I had said that I was going to take some official leave and spend some time in the states with my elfin best friend Hinky. Well, in spite of the place still being in a muddle, Brian and L insisted I go. I really needed a break, and I was very glad of it. I had a wonderful time at the Elfhold where Hinky and his wife Lintie live with Lukey, their little elfling. He's a great little elf, just like his Dad, and we all had wonderful times together, though i did manage to avoid drinking the severial beers that Hinky kept threatening to make me have! Actually, Lintie discovered that I liked wine, so she got some of that for me, and Hink and I did have a few rather long sessions where some singing may have occured by the end. I would have been sorry to leave if I were going anywhere but home. Home to Brian and L, my darling Lacey, or Impy as I always call her, and good little Bytes, our furry purple pet monster and my best friend.

Later that year, I heard from Hinky that Lintie had given birth to a little elfina, Jency. They now have another one on the way. Lintie wants a big family, and Hinky doesn't seem to mind a bit. Dear old Hink, nothing will ever change him, but he is thoroughly enjoying being a married elf and a father!

We began to have our own new arrivals, starting last year. I mentioned in my last journal entries that Alfie was on the way. He arrived at the end of August, a huge, chunky human toddler, full of mischief with a cheeky smile and a cry that could wake the whole flat, if not the dead! He was insecure at first, as everyone who comes from SparkleHome is, as you were, my Tobes, but he has settled down and is happy with us. Lacey adores her brother and I, well, he's not bad really. He's not like Impy, but then, not many are.

The rest of the year passed in work and play, caring for lacey, visiting the family, more about them in a minute, we had a wonderful Christmas, then the real madness started to happen! SparkleHome began to send us more babies. We always did have a few which we took care of in the day. L did it mostly, they went back to SparkleHome at night. but this year there has been a huge, sudden influx of them. We now have twenty, and we are expecting new arrivals all the time. We also have six baby monkeys who live in a magical extension of our building which was built by LoveHome, the animal equivalent of SparkleHome, for us. Luckily I do not have much to do with them, they are L's department. Bytes helps with them sometimes, he is actually very good with them. and then, we got word that we were to expect two new arrivals from FarHome, that is a place for unlove magical creatures. Actually I do not quite know why you did not go there, but you did not, maybe because L didn't know of it. Anyway, a new magical extension is being built, actually has been built, has been filled with an indoor water feature and both a heating and an irrigation system to produce a warm, moist tropical rainforest kind of atmosphere. For the past few weeks we have had three landscapers here, taking massive deliveries of plants, and what plants! They are like nothing I've ever seen. Spindly trees, trailing vines, amazingly colored flowers. L has said they will grow really fast once they're planted, and both cover and canopy the whole room. I wonder what kind of creatures will live in there? L has said I'll find out in time.

The family is going along as usual, drama drama drama. When I last wrote, there were two things engaging the family's attention. My sister Tulia's husband Shay had left home and set up cube somewhere else with someone else. Tulia was hopping mad about it, but for all the wrong reasons. Well, Shay got a dissolution, the fourth in our family in recent years, Mum had a flock of birds! Now he is trying to get his family to come and live with him, and Tulia is fighting him tooth and claw, with the family rising up on either side. Actually, most are on Shay's side, Tulia never was a very good mother, and Olivina, Shay's new wife, is an excellent little worker, a wonderful forager, and will do so much better by them all. But Tulia's pride will not let them go. I don't think anything else is involved. I honestly don't think she really loves them.

The other thing that had a lot of the family up in arms was that Uncle Arf's youngest lep, Perry, was far too delicate to live in the colony and had a place at the Gardens of Everlasting Peace, only some grains had to be paid each year for his keep. Before setting out for High Country, Uncle Arf had written a letter of wishing, setting grains enough aside for Perry's keep, which left precious little for the rest of the family. Mostly everyone was ok about this, except three of Uncle Arf's older lings, including that snake in the grass Milo. I wanted to help, but Auntie Kitty had made me promise on the hand, as Uncle Arf had wanted me to, not to get involved. Well, luckily, Milo's pettition to have the letter unwritten was denied by the council, with my help. I had given testimony at the hearing, talking about the gardens, which I'd had experience of on several occasions, and telling how they were the only hope for Perry. Most of Uncle Arf's leplings were really glad that things went the way they did, but Milo, who never liked me much, and really wanted to get Bytes out of my hands to be some kind of colony slave, is gunning for me. I can't ever take Bytes back there, it's far too dangerous. Luckily though, we've managed a work around, which still lets him do things for Mum and Dad, or for the family, and no one can get near him or give him thinks except me.

Maybe I'll tell you about that, but I think I've written enough for now. Tomorrow is going to be our busy day, shopping in the morning and shooting videos in the afternoon. Oh, and we have a new lep in our flat. I'll tell you about that next time too. And about my new friend Elli in America. Now though I need to get you to bed, and then go and deal with Lacey's bath and bedtime.

I'll write again soon. Stars shine on you, Toby-Tobes.

Love.

Zan. (Dad).