Finally a Permanent Place to be

Isaac and Leify Nosompos were comfortably situated in their “bedroom”. The morning after the wolf incident, Grandma awoke suddenly in the very early hours and worriedly rushed out to the back yard that was completely empty except for a very wolf mangled empty tent. Terrified for the worst, she had alerted the wizard and he informed her that the two small boys had escaped into the-house-that-could-be-anything during the night. He had coincidently noticed and watched with great trepidation the last part of the great escape, and after the wolf crashed into the door, he’d placed a protection spell over the house for the night.

Grandma had sighed a great sigh of relief and peeked into the house for a check on the boys before heading back for the rest of her sleep.

The boys stayed in the HTCBA for nearly a week and were, of course, very comfortable. After all, it was their bedroom. They knew where everything was and could get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom with out bumping into anything in the dark.

But one can not just stay in the HTCBA for ever and the boys knew that. So when Grandma announced that their place was finished in the castle, they had mixed feelings. They would miss their “bedroom” but were relieved to be finally settling down into permanent quarters.

They had a really great place and they both agreed after touring the place that it was well worth the wait. Their bedroom was a series of levels and large shelves and steps. They each had a four poster bed on opposite sides of the bedroom and in the middle of the room was a large round raised step for—well anything they wanted to put on there. They decided to place their train track on it for the first month and they started setting that up before they even unpacked their clothes into the really nifty closet/shelves. Everything was either polished hard wood or nicely finished wood painted in bright colors: red, green, blue, yellow etc. Where there was carpet it was soft and inviting and they had their own bathroom with a huge sauna tub for washing and playing in. They had a little kitchenette with a small fridge and sink and microwave. A built-in entertainment center featured a computer monitor for both computer use and watching movies. It was definitely the coolest kids room in the entire castle. One window was kind of bay style and one could sit in the large flat round sill and look out on the moat and countryside. The glass was rounded and it was nearly like a space pod. (In fact, it was a space pod but the boys will discover that much later).

There was a laundry shoot that the boys would toss their dirty clothes and towels into and once a week the Genie workers would wash them, dry them, fold them and deliver them to the boy’s room. The Genie workers didn’t really have anywhere else to go after the huge remodeling job of Grandma’s so she employed them as workers in the castle. They had a whole three floors sublevel (somewhere between the Patrick’s floor and the Horner Creatures floor) for their living space and they did most of the cooking cleaning and maintenance around the castle. They really kept that place in tip top shape.

Sivart stuck around for a long time—mostly because Grandma had one more wish left but he also really enjoyed the atmosphere of the castle community and everyone loved him.

The other two orphans, Shelly and Nathan, had a really cool room but it just wasn’t as cool as Isaac and Leify’s. They had a sort of divided up room because they were different genders and couldn’t very well share a room. One side was all girly and the other was, of course, really masculine and cool. They had to have two separate bathrooms too which took up more room. Isaac and Leify’s room was especially cool because it didn’t have to be divided and it was all boy stuff and bigger.

Isaac and Leify got all unpacked and situated and went down to Grandma Dragon’s Kitchen which was nearly all done. She was baking peanut butter cookies and had just pulled some out of the oven. It was Saturday and there was no school, so the boys sat on the nifty new counter stools and watched Grandma lift each cookie off the hot pan and onto the cooling rack. They thanked her for the beautiful new room and sat and just talked about stuff for a long time. They loved to spend time with Grandma. She was so beautiful and big- with shiny purple and green and orange scales that shimmered when she moved. Her pink cooking apron covered her belly and the big bow in the back hung down onto her enormous tail. She was still getting used to the new kitchen and she accidentally hit her tail into the bottom cupboards a few times. It didn’t seem to harm them much. The Genie must have thought of everything when he was instructing the Genie workers on the remodeling work.

Most of the other children were swimming in the pool that day. It was warm out side and the parents were doing little church or work projects or out enjoying the sunshine. It was a calm and beautiful day at the castle and it seemed like all was right in the world…
UNTIL...

There was a huge splash in the moat. It was so big it washed water all over one of the pirate ships. Everyone heard it- everyone! The creatures in the pool all looked over towards the moat and some got out and put their towels on and started walking over there.

Dolphinian had stayed in the moat with all the other moat creatures for a while. Mostly because Mrs Hammerhead was going to have all her little babies. Hammerhead sharks are viviparous with the eggs hatching inside the body and nourishment provided by a yolksac placenta. She was about to hatch about 30 new pups (baby hammerhead sharks) and so Dolphinian stayed on to help her during the recovery. But something terrible happened and during the birthing and Mrs. Hammerhead Shark died. Only three little baby sharks were birthed and the rest died before being able to be born. Mr. Hammerhead was so despondent that he thrashed around the moat and made a huge splash that washed a huge wave up onto the shore and alarmed everyone.

As everyone gathered around the edge of the moat Dolphinian came to the surface and told everyone the sad news. Mr. Hammerhead swam very fast down, down, down deep into the moat and out to the tunnel to the sea leaving his little pups behind to fend for themselves. He just couldn’t bear to look at them and be reminded of his dear wife.

Grandma was alarmed at the events. She had the body buried in a little grave in the back yard near the woods. It was the first death anyone had ever known in the castle and everyone was so sad. Some of the children lay in their beds that night and cried and cried. Some just stared at the ceiling and thought very deep thoughts. Everyone was sad.

They were glad to go to church the next day to be reminded of the life after death but they were still very worried about the three little shark babies. Who would take care of them?