AN: The gang comes in soon, I promise! Anyway, I feel bad because I just looked at the reviews for this and found I'd totally forgotten how much Pia really wanted me to finish this '^^

Chapter Four:

He smiled at her, she truly was beautiful. Her long, richly golden brown hair curled at the end and was tied with a forest green ribbon of silk thread and her pale skin glowed brightly against her emerald dress that reached down to her knees. The skirt was ruffled and the sleeves ended at her elbow and flowed down to her calves. The neckline ended in a v just at the top of her bosom. The front of the bodice was a darker, richer green with two lines of gold going from the neckline to her hips. Golden leaves and reaching vines were embroidered over the entire dress.

From her neck hung a lace of gold with a charm shaped as a night-flower, the petals spread open and giving the shape of a sun. On her ears golden cuffs with golden leaves dangling from them clung to the sides of her ears. Her dark green eyes speckled with earthy brown were warm and inviting. She moved her foot forward and looked at her shoes with a smile of achievement. They were the rich green of the forests with gold lining and the a golden leaf attached to the top of the shoe over where her toes were hidden. Lastly on her wrist a bracelet of gold sparkled and hung delicately from her skin.

"You look the picture of an elf," He told her, his voice warm with sentiment. She gave him one of her rare smiles and kissed his cheek, placing a hand on each of his shoulders as she lifted herself up on the tips of her toes to reach it. The black stubble on his cheek tickled her lips and she wrinkled her nose as she pulled away and gave him a wry smile. He laughed, deep and true. "Come, we'll be entirely late for own event." In a different room a baby cried. The woman held a finger to her lips and went to the doorway on the wall to their right.

She crept her way to a crib in which the baby slept and reached in with tender arms and retrieved the infant. The woman sat in a rocking chair and began softly singing to the child in her arms. The man had followed her to the door and watched as she began her song.

"Hush my little child,

The world sleeps now.

You must follow the fairies and dream how

They'll take you into the whispering wood.

They'll lead you to the angels

If you only believe they could."

As she sang he walked to the crib and removed the second child, silent but as awake as her sibling. Her gray eyes inspecting the man with curiosity.

"In the wood the elves lie in wait

To laugh and dance the world away.

Wisps fly in the wind out there

Waiting for those who truly care.

Hush my little baby,

And join them now

Let the moonlight kiss your brow

As you dance with elf and dream with wisp.

Just remember to come back to me come morn

Into my arms so soft and warm..."

Xx

Jane woke in her bed. She felt, if only for a moment, as if she were in that room and her insides warmed with a familiarity she wasn't sure she'd ever felt. She sat up and slowly moved her legs over the edge of the bed. When she raised her head and saw the photo-album sitting on her bureau a stark reality bludgeoned the warmth from her chest. She stood with shaky knees and walked towards the album, laying a gentle hand on the leather-bound cover and slowly spreading her fingers over the soft worn leather.

When she heard a creak below her she immediately grabbed the album and thrust it into the bureau drawer and retrieved her brush. When her a knock resounded on her door she immediately began brushing through her hair. "Come in," she said as calmly as her voice allowed. A woman with short brown hair walked in and smiled at Jane.

"Good morning, my dear. I trust you've slept well?" Jane nodded and set her brush aside as she reached for a hair scrunchie lying on top of her bureau. She slipped it onto her wrist and began braiding her hair as the woman continued. "Very good, however I received knowledge that you left your room last night past hours and hurriedly made your way to Fort Niagara. May I ask why?" Jane's face went pale. Her fingers froze and her braid slipped from her hands.

"I... I just wanted to get some fresh air..." The woman raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"More than an hour's walking distance from the ward?"

"I thought a walk would do me good... I felt shut up in here and so I just... went." The woman nodded.

"So you walked to the fort, a three hour walk, another three coming back, because you wanted fresh air and you felt 'shut up.' Jane dear, I'm not an idiot. Why were you out?" Jane hung her head.

"I got a text message from some kid at school. He made it all cryptic and to me it sounded like he wanted to ask me out so I went to the fort. Stupid, I know."

"Where is this text message?" Jane retrieved her phone from her nightstand and handed it to her caretaker. The woman read it and with a humph gave it back to Jane.

"I can't fault you for being young. Anyway, get dressed, your breakfast is ready." Jane nodded and her being flooded with relief. She was lucky she'd thought of altering the message and sending it back to herself last night. When her caretaker left, Jane fixed braid and tied it off. As she got dressed she thought of the woman and subconsciously she touched her hair.

Xx

Pia opened her eyes and for a moment her breath and her heart stopped. She'd had a dream about her mother and supposedly her father, but what made her chest warm with familiarity was the sight of her sister, squalling in their mother's arms so many years ago. "Colby..." she whispered. The warmth flooded from her and the numbness returned as she remembered the present. She looked around herself, she was in Irene's room again.

"You fell asleep, my love." Irene's voice floated to her from the other side of the room where she sat spinning silk through an old-fashioned spindle. The room was changed, as it always did when Irene was alive in it. The stone walls were covered with red hangings and the wooden floor no longer creaked and groaned with age as Pia stood.

"What time is it?" Pia demanded.

"You have not missed your hearing. You still have three hours. Sit, have some tea, darling." Pia shook her head.

"I need to get ready."

"Darling you're as ready as you'll ever be. Have some tea, dear." Pia shook her head again and left. Irene vanished immediately as Pia walked into her bedroom. She brushed out her curly hair and tied it back. Her steely gray eyes were stark as iron. She tightened her combat boots and fastened her cloak around her shoulders. She opened her backpack and began placing clothing, her brush, and other personal items into it. When it was stuffed full she placed it at the foot of her bed and touched her snowflake necklace, thinking on the dream. They must have been around a year old in that dream, which meant their mother was pregnant again. They would have been a family for another half a year before she faked her death and left.

Pia closed her eyes for a moment and pushed herself out the door and began her run to her sister's room. When she got there the door was cracked open. She slipped it open and saw Jaz asleep with a book in her hand in her desk chair. Soundlessly Pia removed the book and placed it on the desk before she picked Jaz up placed her in the bed. She took the quilt from the edge of the bed and unfolded it, throwing it gently over her sister's body. Pia knelt and placed a kiss on her sister's cheek and then left as if she had never gone in.

Xx

An hour later Jaz awoke, strands of curly red hair hanging in her eyes. For a moment she was confused, she could have sworn she'd fallen asleep in her chair reading a book about badgers, but the confusion was soon swept aside as she remembered her dream. She supposed she dreamt of her mother, but she couldn't see how or why she'd been able to dream of her as the mother of just her sisters and not her. Perhaps her mother was pregnant with her, the twins did seem to be the right age... Jaz stopped herself. She did her best everyday not to think about the past, it hurt too much. But then the present wasn't much to live for at the moment either. Jaz sighed and sat up.

She thought on Pia. Why, she wondered again as she often did. Of course she knew the answer, she felt that way herself, but why, she would ask, does the one sister she had left, feel the need to risk herself for the sister she had already lost? Then there was the other one... a third sister. Sometimes Jaz wondered what she was like. Did she have red hair like her, or did she have Colby's golden brown? Maybe Pia's brunette... Did she have blue eyes, gray eyes, green, brown like their father's. Maybe she was dead too, lost as Colby was. Or perhaps she was alive out there with her sister. That was what Jaz often hoped. That Colby had managed to escape with this other sister an her death was some lie made to cover it up.

Any way that it happened, she was still down a sister and she was about to lose another no matter how much it hurt.