I don't know much about that new FFXII game, so I apologize if anything in here clashes with what's in that game. Enjoy anyway!

Sometimes, life catches you by surprise. Sometimes, it won't exactly be a fun surprise.

But as long as you don't give up, things will work out in the end.

Here's a case in point.

One fine Emberleaf morning, my husband and I were in the kitchen of our nice, cozy island fortress, helping with dishes. Even though we're the Pirate King and Queen, we don't consider ourselves above chores. At any rate, dishes aren't too much trouble at all when you're with your best friend. And okay, magick helps too.

"I'm so excited for the Harvest Festival!" I said as I plunged a few plates into the swirling vortex of soap and hot water I had ensorcelled in the sink. While I waited for the crumbs on them to soften, I reached for a bowl and began attacking it with a scrubber. "Can we really see what the Festival's like in Rabanastre this year?"

"Aye, definitely!" Qrrog said as I handed him the bowl and he dried it with a towel before nesting it on a stack of similar bowls. "I hear autumn's a nice time to visit Rabanastre. Definitely not as hot then."

"Yeah, Rabanastre in the summer was awful," I said with a laugh as I pulled the plates out of the water and scrubbed. "Never again. Er, unless Saskia gets us a mission there."

Qrrog chuckled. "May she never be that cruel."

"Cap'n!" A bangaa ducked her head into the kitchen. "We got guests!" She looked concerned, and I paused in my washing to see what was up.

Qrrog turned to her. "Who?" he asked. We weren't expecting any visitors.

The bangaa swallowed hard. "Horgan the Devourer and Black-Tide Iretha."

My husband's eyes widened and he fumbled with the silverware in his claws, dropping several forks and knives to the floor with a loud clang. "What?!" he choked. "Go—tell 'em I'll be right out to greet 'em."

Qrrog's reaction had me concerned. As the bangaa left, I asked, "Who are they?"

His shoulders sagged as he turned to me and said, "Me parents."

I winced. "That bad, huh?" I asked. Qrrog and I have been married for some years now, but we've never talked to each other much about our childhood. And it seems it's been something easy to forget what with so much clan adventuring and pirate-ruling.

But now it appeared to have come back for Qrrog with a vengeance.

Grimacing, he picked the silverware up off the floor and put it back in the sink. "They're supposed to be in prison fer life," he said as he rinsed the forks and knives in my dishwashing spell.

"Yeah, that's not good," I said. I put a hand on his shoulder. "So let's make them leave. They shouldn't have showed up without asking anyway."

"Well, I—" He licked his lips and looked away. "They are family, love… maybe they've changed."

"I'm not sure breaking out of prison is a good sign," I said, folding my arms.

Qrrog chuckled. "That doesn't make a pirate bad, just smart." His smile faded. "Still, you oughtta stay here while I see what they want. Maybe they just wanna see their boy again… maybe make amends," he added under his breath.

As he turned to leave, I caught his arm. "No, let me come with you, please," I said. "You look scared to death of them. I won't let you face them alone."

For a long moment, he searched my face. "I don't want you gettin' involved in this," he said. "I don't know if I can trust 'em."

"I don't want you getting hurt," I said. "I know you haven't told me much about your past, but if they have you this scared, I'm going to protect you with everything I've got. Whether that just means moral support or—or magick, if it comes to that." I held up my hand, congealing shimmering mist around it to remind my husband of what I was capable of. I was not afraid to fight by his side.

"I appreciate that, love," Qrrog said, "but I just couldn't stand to see 'em be mean to you on top of everything else. This ain't a clan mission—"

"Oye, Qrroggie, there you are, lad!" a deep, throaty female voice bellowed.

Qrrog stiffened. Into the kitchen lumbered two seeq, just as enormous as he was, wearing sturdy traveling gear, weapons slung at their sides and backs.

The sunburst-yellow male leaned a large arm on the countertop and grinned toothily, stretching an old scar that ran down one side of his snout. "So it is you!" he said. "Our own son, the Pirate King! You really amounted to somethin' after all, eh lad?"

The female, whose skin was a dusky shade of cyan, wore a critical sneer as she poked into the nearby cupboards, didn't seem to like what she saw, and then turned her golden eyes to the two of us. "Tell yer scullery maid to fix us up some grub, Qrroggie," she said. "It's been a long journey from Graszton, and you know how yer father gets when he's hungry."

The male laughed. "Aye, they don't call me Horgan the Devourer fer nothin'! Last time I got real hungry, I ate a whole village's food stores! What a feast that was!" He patted his gut as he reminisced.

Qrrog scowled and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. "Mam, Dad," he said, "this be me wife, Terra."

His parents stopped and blinked. Then his father slapped a hand down on the counter. "Lad, you married a hume?!" he snorted. "But they're so small and weak!"

"Aye, I ain't havin' no weakling fer my daughter-in-law!" his mother said, glowering down at me. "How d'you ever expect her to fight by yer side?"

"She fights blasted well," Qrrog said, his eyes hard and glittering, "and I'll thank ye to stop insultin' her." He gave my shoulder a squeeze and I put an arm around him. These seeq were definitely not earning any brownie points in my book, but that just made me extra determined not to leave my husband with them. They didn't deserve to be his parents. "Why are you here?" he asked before they could say anything else about his choice of a wife.

Iretha brushed past us to inspect the larder. "When we got out of that hole," she said, "first thing we did was catch up on the news. They said there's a new Pirate King, Qrrog Squallhammer, and o' course we wondered if it was our wee Qrroggie."

"Figured here's as good a place as any to lay low," Horgan added as he eased himself into a nearby chair, which sagged and groaned under his weight. While just about as tall as Qrrog, he was a lot fatter. Okay, seeq are naturally rather rotund, but this guy was grotesquely large. I could tell he certainly lived up to his title of "The Devourer". "You got yerself a nice setup here, lad!" he said, picking at his teeth with one claw. "Aye, this'll be the best Harvest Festival ever!"

Qrrog reached out and put a firm hand on his mother's arm, preventing her from going any further into the larder. "I never said you could stay," he said.

"Qrroggie," Iretha whined. "Would you really turn away yer own flesh and blood like that? We got nowhere else to go—and they're probably lookin' all over fer us! But they'd never find us on good old Worgen Island!"

"I'm not goin' back to that blasted prison if I can help it," Horgan muttered. "And I told ye I wanted grub!"

Qrrog and I exchanged glances. "Give us a minute," he said to them as he escorted me out into the hallway. "And don't touch anything!"

"Just make them leave," I said under my breath when we were out of earshot. "I don't think I like being around them any more than you do. And they're obviously not interested in being a functional family to you."

"I know," Qrrog sighed, "but a thought came to me back there. If I kick 'em out now… they'll likely go right back to doin' what it was that landed 'em in prison." He closed his eyes tightly. "I can't let 'em cause even more destruction and sufferin'. If we keep 'em here, at least they can't hurt anybody."

I looked aside. "That's a good point," I said. Putting a hand on his arm, I added, "I trust you, sweetheart. You know your parents better than I do. If you think this is best, then I believe you."

"Thank ye, love," Qrrog said. "I'll keep you safe from them, I promise."

"Thanks," I said. "But we are definitely contacting Basch and telling him to get an Archadian Judge or two out here, posthaste. They've got the most secure prisons I know of."

My husband grinned and nodded. "Aye, definitely. But until then, let's play the gracious hosts."

"All right," I said, squaring my shoulders. "We can do this, sweetheart. We've been through worse."

I don't believe in jinxes, but I do believe life is sometimes intentionally ironic.