As Alena, Elijah and Tatalia finished their meals, a knock sounded at the door. Opening it, Alena's father Sem stepped in. Alena seeing him was filled with surprise as she rushed over to greet him. "Daddy!" she exclaimed joyfully, jumping into his arms. Sem grasped his arms around her as he lowered down towards the floor. He was devastated, consumed with worry upon receiving the news of Alena's collapse, and dropped everything to come back home. Tatalia seeing him was relieved as she too hurried over to his side. "Sem!"
Elijah remained on his perch and Alena not noticing her father's concern was filled to the brim with joy as she hugged her father tight.
"Welcome back daddy! I missed you!"
Sem carressed his daughter's head amongst his concern.
"My sweet girl, are you okay?" he asked her.
"Of course I'm okay daddy. Why wouldn't I be? You're home!" she answered innocently, too thrilled to be troubled in the least.
"Dear it's okay, our daughter is fine," Tatalia tried to assure him. Alena was so happy, she was too occupied in nuzzling her cheek into his shoulder.
"What happened?" Sem demanded to know.
Tatalia, seeing just how serious he was, started to usher Sem into the other room. Sem carefully tried to pull Alena off of him, leaving her confused.
"Alena dear, I'm sorry but I need five minutes alone with your mother alright?" Sem calmly asked of his daughter, "I'll be right back."
As the two of them moved into the other room, Alena paused, standing there quietly for a moment before she pounced over to Elijah with a great big smile on her face. "Elijah! Do you want to play?!"
In the other room, Sem and his wife were discussing the matters of their daughter.
"Sem, I don't want to cause you alarm, but our daughter froze up yesterday when we visited the tree, and you know what that means," Tatalia started to explain.
"She what?" he called out, now even more concerned than before, "But she's too young! How can this happen?" he asked semi-rhetorically.
"I understand your concern. When it happened I knew she needed help, so Mora and I went to see the oracle," she continued.
"The oracle?!" Sem repeated. His troubled worries were now boiling into anger. "You took our daughter to the oracle?" He was not pleased.
"What else was I meant to do? Our daughter needed help. She needs to be ready," Tatalia remarked defensively.
"And what of our daughter? What of her safety?" Sem argued.
"The oracle said she may be able to help her, even if only a little," Tatalia explained.
"And just what did she do?" Sem inquired fumingly.
"She just gave her a little push," Tatalia said, trying to defend the oracle as she truly believed what she did to help was right.
"To our daughter?! And what of the risks? What of the consequences? We should have at least tried to figure things out together without getting the oracle involved! Don't you understand how getting this kind of assistance from her can jeopardize our family?" Sem was very well heated, and did his best to compose himself.
"I–," Tatalia began.
"No, forget it. Please Tatalia, what's done is done. I'm sorry for snapping at you."
Becoming level-headed, Sem stepped forward to embrace his wife. The two of them held each other close, pulling comfort from one another.
"I'll reach out to Kenrir and explain to him what's happened," Sem insisted.
"Will he be able to teach her what she needs to know in time?" his wife asked.
"If there's anyone I can count on to rush their teachings properly, it's Kenrir," Sem declared confidently, "I just hope it's enough."
The two of them released each other as Sem placed his hands within Tatalia's, "Before I leave to speak with Kenrir, may I have you stash something away for me?" Sem reached into his pocket and handed Tatalia a small, neatly wrapped box, a scrap of paper, and a handful of ribbons.
"The instructions are on the slip," Sem informed her.
When looking at the slip, Tatalia put on a gentle smile as she read the contents.
"She'll love it," Tatalia responded, "I'll tend to this right away."
"Thank you," Sem said as he hugged his wife once again. He took hold of his wife's hand and planted his lips upon hers before exiting back into the main room. Tatalia stood still for a moment, bringing her hand to her lips as she retained her gentle smile. She was relieved.
In the main room, Alena was giggling as her and Elijah were playing with a ball of yarn, knocking it back and forth, but also flinging it into the air to catch it before it could reach the floor. Elijah's tail flicked around as he positioned himself to pounce. Each of their eyes were sharp with instinct as they continued to play.
While the ball of yarn was in the air, it was suddenly caught, not by Alena nor Elijah, but rather by Sem. There he stood with Tatalia calmly stepping out behind him. She approached Sem from behind, wrapping her arms around him. As Sem held the ball in place, Alena's eyes dilated back to a human shape.
"Daddy!" she pouted.
Sem could only smile hearing her, as he continued to hold the ball of yarn with an outstretched hand.
"Now, now my dear, I've got a fun activity planned for us so we can spend some time together. Are you ready for that?" Sem asked.
Alena gasped happily, "Really?! We're going to play together?" she replied.
"Yes dear, we're going to go on a scavenger hunt," he explained.
Tatalia went up to approach her daughter.
"Sweet heart, I have a small errand to run, so I'm going to leave you here to play with your father for a bit," Tatalia announced to her.
"Okay mommy," Alena replied.
When Tatalia left, Sem spent a little time playing with Elijah and his daughter before kneeling down in front of her. "Alright my dear, are you ready?"
While stepping outside their cabin, Alena held her father's hand as Elijah rested within her harness. It truly was a beautiful morning as the horizon had a golden glow and the clouds above were shades of purple and red rippling in the blue sky.
"Well my dear, do you see anything out of the ordinary here?" Sem asked his daughter.
Alena's eyes scanned over everything in front of their cabin, but everything was just as she remembered it.
"No," she answered.
After a brief moment, Alena spotted a ribbon waving about in the morning breeze. It was tied off to a branch on a nearby tree.
"Wait, what's that?" she pointed out.
"Let's go see," her father replied.
When getting close, her father grabbed Alena around her waist, "Hang on," he instructed her as he lifted Alena onto his shoulders. Alena being propped up, grabbed onto her father's cat-like ears for support. Looking up to the ribbon before her, she reached up to grab it, slipping the ribbon from its loosely tied knot with ease.
"There's writing on this," she exclaimed.
"What does it say?" Sem asked her politely.
"'A quiet place where wiffle flaps roam,'" she read out.
"Wiffle flap" was what Alena referred to the carnivian hare as, back when she was learning about the animals of their forest. It was a small creature similar in size and shape to that of ordinary rabbits, only their coats of angora were frilled and rigid. Their long, wide ears flopped in the air behind them with every hop, and their eyes were that of jade. Their coats were black and they had ear tufts of grey; as for their tail fluff, the fluff was wide and came out in a long and narrow, pointed strand which trailed like a whip behind them. They have sharp frontal claws, and thick, rear nails which are better suited for digging.
As Alena read out the contents of the ribbon, Sem wore a proud expression on his face.
"And where would that be?" he asked her.
"Straw Fern Quarry!" she announced cheerfully.
"And which way do we go to get there?" Sem followed.
Alena giggled with delight holding the ribbon as she then pointed into the distance behind them. "That way!" she proclaimed.
"Alright then, are you ready?" he asked her.
"Ready!" she called out joyfully.
"Okay then, let's go!" Sem exclaimed as he turned and ran in the direction Alena pointed atop of his shoulders.
Alena was full of glee as they trailed off together into the distance.