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OK, this is pretty much the life and times of Dawn from Schrödinger’s Cat, because I really liked her and felt she got underused.

Since I’m too lazy to figure out elfin life spans compared to human counting and dates and all that other stuff, this will be told in correlation to Dawn’s life, and I’ll use human years and months and days.

Enjoy!

Seven Years Before Birth:

“I can’t believe it…”
“Shh, honey, it’s OK. I can’t either. And you’re the only one that’s gotten to hold her!”
The new mother laughed and raised the baby gently, her husband’s hands flying to hover under her own, his expression protective as he handed his daughter to her grandfather. The old man cradled her to his chest and looked at the parents. “Have you chosen a name?”
Angel nodded, “Rose. After Mama— she has her eyes, did you see?”
“How would you know what your mother’s eyes looked—Oh my… She does. She truly does…” He stared into the oddly sapphire eyes before looking up at his daughter. “You’ve outdone yourself again Angel… Not only a grandchild, but one with Rosie’s eyes. Thank you, darling, here’s your daughter back.”
She took her daughter and looked back at her father. “I decided all of my children’s names would mean something. I told her that while she was still inside me—told her to be ready for her name. Looks like she was ready.”
For the first time since the birth, her husband spoke, “This moment is so perfect… Do I really get one of these moments every time I have a child?”

Two Years Before Birth:

“Another strapping son!”
“You’re even prouder than when Bryce was born…” The grandfather bounced his granddaughter on his knee, as she’d come to him for refuge when she’d heard the words ‘it’s a boy.’ The five year old was put out, because she wanted a little Terra-girl, not a boy. And since it was a boy, did that mean Bryce got to name it.
No! She wouldn’t let him do that, not even if the baby WAS another brother. Bryce would name him something horrid, like Deer or Stick.
“What’s his name, Mama?”
“We don’t know yet Rosie… It’s so hard to know until you’re actually holding your baby…”
She looked at her father, who straightened up, “I’ve got one. Rowan.”
“That’s like my name, Grampie!”
“I know Rosie, but a rose is a flower, a rowan is a tree.”
“He can’t be named after a tree!!”
“It’s not a normal tree, Rosie-girl. Rowan’s are special trees, some say they’re magic. They protect people and are used in lots of medicines.”
“Oh… Well, that’s OK, I guess.”
“You’ve done it again, Da!” Angel looked at her husband, who was celebrating with his oldest son. While Bryce didn’t understand why they were dancing around, his mother knew the name was a hit.
“That’s two of my children you’ve named now… What would we do without you Da?”
“Be miserable and have children without names.”

Two Years Old:

“Deryk. His name is Deryk.”
“Aaron…” Rose was holding the newest member of their family, showing him to the younger ones and letting them compare his size to Dawn’s. The little girl putting up with it well, as it meant she got to hold her brother while her other brothers watched.
Their parents watched without seeing, and Aaron took his wife’s hand, squeezing it comfortingly.
She smiled sadly and let out a small laugh, “His last gift… A name for our child. He wouldn’t tell us what he was planning, but he gave us a name anyway…”
They both glanced at the empty chair that had always been occupied by the grandfather, now home to a pile of flowers Rose had gotten her siblings to pick before they were allowed inside. Angel looked back at her children and smiled a real smile. “Did you hear Rosie? His name is Bryce.”
The nine-year-old nodded solidly. “Good choice.”

Part One: Sunshine


Eight Years Old:

I was the last kid born in my family that my grandpa got to see. I never knew him that well, but Mama and Rosie get all sad when he’s mentioned. Even Da gets that look on his face, like the one when we fight, like all the sunshine is gone.
That’s what they call me sometimes, Sunshine. Da says it like he means it, like I’m a little firefly or something, carrying my own little light. Bryce says it when he wants to tease me, and when it’s cloudy or dark he asks me, “What’d you do with the sunshine, Sunshine?”
Rowan says Rosie hit Bryce on the head when he was little and he hasn’t been able to stop talking since.
I like Ro, he’s so nice. He calls me Sunny, or Do. Ever since he told Mama that, whenever we say something together, or team up in fights, she’ll call us ‘Ro and Do’ all fast like a chant, and laugh.
I like Mama’s laugh, it’s pretty, like her eyes. Mama’s name is Angel, and she looks like one. She has really super-blue eyes.
Da’s eyes are brown, like Rowan’s and Bryce’s and Deryk’s and Iris’s. They’re always warm, all of them. Like a hug.
Rosie’s eyes are kind of weird, but pretty. They’re what Mama calls ‘sapphire’ blue. I don’t know what a sapphire is, but it sounds pretty. Maybe it’s a flower.
My eyes are blue, too, but they change colors. Bryce tells me what color my eyes are all the time, because he likes making up names for the colors and teasing me about it. He says they change from super-dark-blue to super-light-blue to GREY.
How can blue be grey?
Mama says they’re ‘hazel.’ I like how Da says it best. He says I have the sky in my eyes. He says they can be like storm clouds, or twilight, or like just after it rains and he clouds break apart and the sun comes through.

ROSIE’S BEING COURTED(or whatever the word is—that’s just what Mama called it…)!!!
See, this morning Rosie and Rowan were s’posed to go and buy a new horse, cuz Da’s been wanting one for a while. But when we were about to send them off, Bryce said he’d go instead of Ro. Ro told him it was fine, but he just said that he’d been wanting to go to town.
And then he said, “Besides, didn’t you promise Sunshine you’d take her faery-hunting today?”
And me and Rowan gave each other funny looks, cuz we usually—never—tell anybody about our faery-hunts. How’d Bryce know?
But, since Ro had to say that we WERE supposed to be going faery-hunting today, Da said it was OK for Bryce to go to town with Rosie. And the weird part was that Rosie looked kind of mad!
Me and Ro talked about it while we started the faery-hunt. Ya see, the best way to start hunting for them is to clear your mind and soul. Ro figured it out, he says they like people with clean hearts.
Eventually we started talking about the horse we hoped they’d bring back, and then we reached the tree.
It might not be a rowan tree, but I think it’s the most magical tree of all. It’s huge and even when it loses its leaves it seems ALIVE.
We always start our searches from that tree, and today we went past it to look. We had just found a trail of acorns when Ro said it was time to go back. We’re going back tomorrow…
But when we got back, Deryk and Iris were making mud pies, and they jumped up to run at us. Rosie and Bryce weren’t home yet, and they wanted to go down to the place where the trail to our house met up with the road that they’d be coming home on, but Da said they couldn’t go without Ro.
By the time they got through telling us that, we were both muddy too, so when we got to the spot, we played around without caring if we got dirty while we waited.
After a little bit, we saw them coming. We were so excited to see TWO horses we didn’t pay attention to the people.
We ran up to them, and Ro went straight to the horses and swung onto the new horse. I went up to Apples and got on, but nearly as cool as Ro did it. Iris and Deryk went up to Rose and started trying to pull her to see the mud-kingdom we made while we were waiting. Bryce was talking with Ro about the new horse.
So apart from Rosie, I was the first person who noticed what was wrong with the air. Whenever the six of us come together, I get this sense of RIGHT. Like, it was meant to be, like our spirits found each other before we were born and we’re getting a glimpse as to why they chose to stay together in that instant.
Something was off in that feeling now—someone was watching us. I twisted around in my seat on Apples and my mouth fell open, like Da’s and Bryce’s does when they smell really good food.
There was a GUY walking in between the horses, near the butt. He was watching us all with a big grin, that got bigger when he saw my face.
“ROSIE!! THERE’S A PERSON BACK THERE!!” I pointed at him and waited for Bryce to tackle him, or Rosie react or SOMETHING, but all that happened was that we all stopped. Iris and Deryk stared like I was and Rowan frowned and his eyes got all narrow.
Then Bryce burst out laughing.
I’m a pretty good jumper. I stood up on Apples, since she wasn’t moving anyway, and jumped onto Bryce’s back. “Stop LAUGHING Bryce! Tell me who he is!!”
Rosie sighed and put her hand on her forehead, “THIS, is Sam. He’s a friend of mine.” Her voice betrayed her annoyance, and I started wanting to stick with Bryce for protection, instead of annoying him. He gripped my foot and gave me a look that said the same thing.
Rosie is SCARY when she’s mad.
But we went up our house, and Da was lying in the grass like he does sometimes, smelling it. He looked up and choked on his laugh when he saw me, Iris and Deryk, and he spotted Sam.
He took it better than I did. “Who’s this? Find another stray in the market place, Rosie?” He meant the time Rosie brought back our dog, Berri.
“No, Da. This is Sam.”
He spoke for the first time then, saying only, “Hello.” He sounded kind of awkward.
Bryce, Ro, Deryk and me all lined up next to Da, crossing our arms and looking at him and Rosie. Da took that in and grinned again, before waving like we should come inside.

Ten Years and Three Months Old:

I don’t really mind having my birthday in winter. It’s not even near the Winter Solstice or anything, which is the only reason Makayla in town likes her birthday. I don’t really like winter, I just don’t mind that my birthday’s in it.
But I think Rosie was right—spring is the best season for weddings.
I couldn’t really believe that Sam and Rosie were getting married. It had been six months, and he’d practically LIVED at our house the whole time, but still. She was seventeen, which is a year or two or three younger then Mama was, but she didn’t even care. Sam was the same age, and he didn’t seem to care either. There seems to be a couple topics in our house that no one has an opinion on. My birthday, their age, Bryce’s funk-ish beard…
He trimmed it off for the wedding, thankfully. He was too young to have a beard, only fourteen, and it looked really really silly.
Ro says our family’s men weren’t meant to have beards, which I’m glad to hear.
Anyway, since me and Ro weren’t anything special for the wedding, we were the wrong age for everything, so we were the go-fors.
The job wasn’t a lot of fun, but it only lasted up to the wedding, and after that we got to do whatever we wanted.
That was some of the best cake ever. I had three slices, Ro had five.

End of Part One