[Elektra]

"Huh?  What is it?"  Meta said.  Fire had said something, but he didn't make it very clear as to what he wanted.  Mace, never having been away from people he knew, began to cry a little, which made Hal wonder about him.  "Thalia, is Mace ok?  He's crying."  Thalia looked down, and chuckled a bit.  "Yeah, he's fine.  Mace is probably just tired, or maybe even a bit scared."  She looked at Fire, hoping he might be able to explain a bit more to Hal.  When Alarice had called to Arya, she looked at her for about two seconds, and then ran over to her, almost knocking her down.  "Where have you been Al?  I haven't seen you for such a long time, I mean, jeez, way to scare me!"

[Remedy]

Alarice was very surprised when Arya almost knocked her down.  "Yah, it's been forever!  Like what, twenty years or so?  Maybe not that long...  Hey, I heard you got lucky." she said, winking at Arya.

"Nevermind..." Fire mumbled to Meta.  He seemed to catch on to Thalia's expression, so he bent down and said to Hal, "You see Hal, sometimes little children get very homesick.  Sometimes they're just hungry, and sometimes they have to go to the bathroom.  Babies cry for a lot of different reasons.  Sometimes it's actually for no particular reason except to be annoying." for that last part, he got a small flick in the head from Thalia.  "Whaaat?  It's true!" he reasoned.  She didn't seem so convinced.
{10.3}{10.3}

[Elektra]

"Hehe, ok."  Hal sorta understood what Fire meant, but she was just amused at Thalia flicking him.  She walked over to Alarice at first, but she saw Arya and her talking about something, so Hal felt a bit out of place with no one to actually talk to.  Meanwhile, Arya was firing questions at Alarice.  Or she was once she stopped blushing so hard at what Alarice had said.  "So where did you go?  I don't know when the last time that I saw you was, and I want to know where you were then.  And yes, but I only have Oro and Kurenai now.  But it's ok."  

[Remedy]

Fire blushed deeply when Hal lauged.  He knew it was at him.  Rubbing the back of his head, he turned to Thalia.  "So... Can I... Ya know... Hold him?" he blushed again, of course refering to Thalia's son, Mace.

Alarice smiled.  "Oh, I've just been around the Valley.  I tried to send some letters to you, but lately I've found out that Faye isn't such a truthful mailcarrier... But never mind that.  Oro and Kureani?  How cute!  But... What do you mean by 'only'?  There were more?"she thought back a little.  How ironic would it be if one of the two little kits that had just recently been adopted into the Valley be one of her's?  But that could never happen... What are the chances?  
{10.4}{10.4}

[Elektra]

"Well, yeah, but that's nothing.  Just forget that.  So what have you been doing anyway?"  Arya was so engrossed with talking to Alarice that she didn't really notice anything else going on around her, so she just kept on talking.  Meanwhile, Hal was trying to get Alarice to play with her again.  Since to her, it was getting boring.  "So Fire, uh, well, so what do you want to do?"  Thalia knew that was probably the most awkward question ever, but she was running out of things to say to him.  "So, uh, Alarice.  You know Arya?" Meta inquired.

[Remedy]

"Uh, well...  Can I see the kid?  Mace?" it was a stupid question that was asked in the most akward fashion, and he probably should have just gone with an 'Er... Nevermind.'  But of course, you know Fire.  That fruit loop, him.

Alarice turned to Meta.  "Oh, yeah, Arya and I are old friends.  From somewhere... We met at this place.  With this thing.  At this time.  Uh..." Yeah, that was smooth of her.  Very smooth.  "Oh, well, lately, multiple new residents have appeared around the Valley.  Our two newest and youngest are Kuhna Kits from the last two breedings.  Honestly, I don't know where they came from.  Jack just appeared in the Valley with one if them and a bag of poker chips with a broad smile on his face, and the other kinda came out of no where," she said, turning back to Arya.  "Oh, if you don't mind, I'm gonna play with Hal some.  I don't want her to get too bored."
So off the two went, giggling and running, leaving Fire, Thalia, Meta, and Arya a chance to talk.  Oh, and Mace.  That is, if he can talk...    
{11.0}{11.0}

[Elektra]

"Sisi!"  Mace squeeled.  "Huh?  What does he mean?" Thalia asked.  "Who knows.  But anyway, let's keep walking, or something.  It's kinda boring just, well, talking here.  Let's do something." Meta said.  He wasn't exactly the outgoing type of person who wants to be known to everyone, but at a certain point, he would get bored enough to start something fun.  "So, you want to?"  he said again, waiting for a response from someone.  


Meanwhile, Arya was just sitting around, kinda feeling out of place, since Alarice had gone off to play with them.  Now, normally, she would have gone right ahead and started playing with them, but she was getting tired.  That had been happening lately, and Arya had her own speculations.  That adventure Thalia had mentioned, and the things that had happened on it, these were the consequences.  


(Sorry, I kinda thought that if it's ok, I'd use this to lead up to the you-know-what. )

[Remedy]

Alarice skidded to a stop.  She really wanted to talk with Meta, so she came up with a plan.  "Hey Hal," she whispered, "How about you go pull a prank of Fire?  Hit 'em with your best shot~!" It seemed to do the trick, though it was a bad influence on her part.  She walked up to Meta in human form and tapped him on the shoulder.  "Wanna walk and talk?" she asked, hoping that he would say yes.

Fire, meanwhile, was curiously looking at Mace.  "Sisi?  What does he- uh...." fire descreetly pulled a small slip of papber out of his pocket.  It appeared to be a photoghraph.

'Here, sir, is a picture of what she will look like whe she grows up.  Apparently she is said to be the exact split image of her mother and father.'

He looked at the photo, then at Thalia, then at Meta.  Why hadn't he seen it before?!
But how could he tell Thalia about Anna right now?  What if he was wrong?  It would brake her heart to get her hopes up.
Beads of sweat formed on his forhead as he stuffed the paper back into his pocket.  "S-soooo,"  he asked nervously, trying to make it look like nothing was wrong, even though something was wrong.  Very, VERY wrong.
{11.1}{11.1}
((It's fine.  As you can see, I'm just going to roll Fire along with it~))

[Elektra]

"Fire, Fire, what's wrong?"  Thalia looked alarmed at first when he looked at a paper of his and started sweating.  Something was definitely wrong with him, but hopefully she'd find out without Alarice having to dig into him.  Walking over with Hal, she barely had any time to say something before she dashed off toward Fire.  Running up to him, Hal reached into her bucket and pulled out a perfectly round key stone.  "Hey, watch this Fire!"  Putting it at the top of her nose, she rolled it down, and caught it.  "Bet you can't do that."  Alarice had told her to play a trick on him, and that was exactly what she planned to do.  Handing a seemingly same key stone to him, she told him to try it for himself.  The only thing Fire didn't know, was that the key stone he had was one that Jakai used for pranking people.  It was outlined in graphite, so if Fire did somehow roll it down his face, he would find a long black line down his face too.  Arya was chatting with Alarice, but backed off when Meta came over.  Trailing the two love birds, she caught on to some of what they were saying.  The two obviously like each other a lot. "So Alarice.  Um, well, I...I don't really know how to say this, but since, well, Thalia isn't really, you know."  Meta didn't want to appear desperate, or heartless for being over Thalia so quickly, but Fire, he was impossible to compete with.  And besides, now that he knew Alarice, he wouldn't love Thalia as much as he should, which meant that Fire was better for her.

[Remedy]

"Uh, okay." Fire said, taking the Keystone.  He decided to use this 'game' as a chance to avoid Thalia's questions, so he did as Hal instructed.

Alarice, meanwhile, was enjoying her stroll with Meta.  
She turned tward him, almost knowing what he was going to say.  "Meta, I think I know what your saying- correct me if I'm wrong...  Do you... Like me?" Oh what a fail.  Oh what a stupid, stupid fail way of saying it.  She sort of wished she hadn't just blurted it out and had just let him finish as she waited for him to say something.
{11.2}{11.2}

[Elektra]

As soon as the coin rolled down Fire's face, Thalia started giggling.  She realized that the key stone he had was a prank one, and man did he look crazy.  All down his face was a thick black line, and when it started rolling everywhere else, it just made a bigger mess.  "Uh, Fire, you got a little something there."  she said between her giggling fits.  Hal didn't do this often, so she guessed that Alarice had told her to in order to just talk with Meta.  Looking around, she confirmed that thought, as she saw the couple walking down the path.  Hal was laughing even harder, and yet Fire still hadn't seemed to have caught on.  It wouldn't be long though, so she was going to enjoy it while she could.


"Well, yeah.  I don't see how I couldn't, I mean.  You're, you're just amazing."  Meta was blushing this whole time, which wasn't really something he did often, so he looked away, trying to stop.  Arya meanwhile, had decided to just lay on a stump and rest.

[Remedy]

"What?  What it it?  What's wro-  HEY!" Fire said, reaching up to touch his face only to find his hand all black.  Then he tried to wipe it off, but little did he know, it only smeared moreso all over his face.  

Alarice blushed furiously.  "R-really?" she stuttered.  "I r-really like you, too." she said.  She started getting a bit nervous, so she twisted her hair in force of habit.  "So..." she said, wishing that there was something that could make her stop being so jittery.
{11.3}{11.3}

[Elektra]

The fact that Alarice liked him back was enough to make Meta  bit more bold, so he gently put his arm around her as they walked.  "Thanks.  I haven't felt this way for such a long time, not even with Thalia."  Meta didn't really mean that in a mean way, but the spark was intense when he was with Alarice.  


"Sorry Fire.  Alarice tol-" she said haltingly.  Hal pulled a napkin out of her bucket as well.  Hopefully he wouldn't dwell on that last part very long though.  Thalia gave her a how-much-do-you-have-in-that-bucket look, but she just shrugged it off, and gave her a mischievous smile.  "Here, Fire, let me help you before you paint your whole body black."  He had managed to smear it all over his face, and his scrubbing wasn't making it any better.

[Remedy]

"Thanks..." Fire said when Hal gave him the napkin.  "You remind me of this guy I know.  He pulls pranks not so often, usually by accident, or when he's helping someone out.  And of course, I see you've helped out Alarice pretty well.  Anyway, the ironic thing is, he's a Candycorn Kuhna, too.  You would like each other." he added jokingly.  He blushed a lot when Thalia insisted on helping him get the black off his face.  How embarrassing.

Alarice blushed.  This whole adventure of theirs had turned into a love fest-  Thalia with Fire and Meta with Alarice.  She didn't want to fully admit it due to her ongoing feelings for Fire, but... she kind of liked it this way.  The problem was, if Zeul ever returned, she wasn't sure if she'd kick him in the place where guys shouldn't be kicked, or if she'd fall for him again.  Best not for her to think about that now, though.  She was considering kissing Meta, but that might be too sudden.....
Then, her ears flickered.  She turned around.  "Meta, did you hear that?  I think someone's calling my name..." her hearing was very sharp, so sometimes she could hear things before she could see them.  As she peered tward the horizon, she could see two figures running in their direction.  "Alarice...!"

((THE post is coming right after this one, so hold on to your hat...  I'm making it into two posts so this one isn't like, omega long.  ))
{11.4}{11.4}

[Remedy]

And of course, Alarice was right.  In the distance, two figures could be seen running tward them.  When they finally got to where Meta and Alarice were, it took them a while to catch their breath.  "Alarice!  Oh, I'm really sorry, but I can't watch the kids right now...  It's serious.  I just have too much stress-  Meggan needs help because Kawena caught Madison on fire again, and then I have double shifts at the shop, as you know, and then I have to go to the court room at six to plead Jack's case, even though we both know he's actually guilty.  I just-  look, I'm really sorry..."  she felt really bad, then she saw Meta and raised an eyebrow which quickly returned to it's normal position as she got a sharp look from Alarice.  She smiled at Meta and said, "Hi.  I'm Theresa." She then lookied him up and down, nodding to Alarice.  "Nice choice.  He's hot."  She could tell thet Alarice was about to explode, so she quickly took off her abnormally poofy large hat and pulled a kuhna kit out of it without a word and handed it to Alarice.  "Auntie!!!!" the kit called out at the sight of Alarice, then climbed onto her arm and refused to let go.
 
The Kuhna that had originally been following Theresa seemed to have run on over to where Fire and Thalia were.

"Well, I guess that settles it.  Um, see you later.  Heve fun." she looked at Meta again. "Lots of fun.  Well, bye!" and without another word (thankfully, because then she'd probably be dead), she was off.

((The one introducing her will be next after you reply.  oDo))
{0.1}{0.1}{0.1}