Chapter 21 - Surprise

Disclaimer I do not own Twilight. All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. All songs used in this story belong to the writers, studios, and artists. No copyright infringement intended

BPOV

I refused to be seen in my Star Trek outfit, so we changed in the little cove we had used last night before we continued down the beach. As soon as we appeared around the bend, there were a few of our guests hanging out on the picnic area we had created.

"What are you doing with that cat?" Garrett asked.

"It's a surprise." I answered. We were waiting for everyone to gather to break the news.

"Hey guys, get out here, Bella and Edward has a surprise." He called. With their vampire senses, every vampire in the area would have heard him. I heard doors opening and closing as the others came out of the cottages and the villa and they all fell in behind us. It was like a parade - Edward with a cat slung around his shoulder, me at his side, and a half dozen vampires behind us. I tried to hide my smile as I heard them speculating about the reason we had brought back the cat. Everyone knew we had gone hunting, it was no secret that the Cullen and the Denali covens, and now Nahuel and his aunt fed off animals, but no one had come back from a hunt with an animal before. To distract them, Edward turned to Zafrina.

"Zafrina, I've never seen a cat like this before, what is it?"

"We call it Oncilla, Tigrillo, or Cunaguaro. The English names would be little spotted cat, or tiger cat"

"Are there lots of them in the jungle?" I asked. I had enjoyed the tasty blood, but we had a responsibility to let the animals thrived, so if there were rare, we'd have to stop hunting them.

"There are more of them in the interior, but in places where the trees are cut down for homes or lumber, you don't see as much."

As we walked further up the beach, we picked up more of a following. Everyone wanted to know what the cat was for, but my answer was the same. As we got within sight of the dock, our siblings and the few vampires with them, jumped off the boat and joined us.

"Hey little brother; brought home a doggie bag again?" Emmett teased. I was glad he didn't spill the beans.

We ignored him and headed to the backyard. Carlisle, Esme and Allistar came out of the house as Edward was tying the animal to a branch. Carlisle looked around to see if everyone was present.

"Now that we are all here, Bella and Edward have an announcement."

Edward came to stand next to me. "Bella, do you want to tell everyone why you brought this animal back?"

There was more whispering among the group.

"Breakfast for the kids," I responded.

The whispering stopped. All eyes settled on me. My family and a few others smiled indulgently while a few of them shook their heads. The Romanians as usual exchanged their knowing looks. Edward gave me a comforting squeeze and kissed the top of my head.

"Bella and Edward have decided to give you a treat. When the children wake up, they'll be given blood, and you will get to see the effect blood had on their development first hand."

Excited chatter broke out as everyone started speculating on how much they would grow; wondering if it would be the same as before or less. Carlisle laughed and told them they had to wait to see the changes themselves. At this stage, he had no idea how much they would grow or how much their mind would develop, but he promised them it would be an interesting day. I left them to collect the blood while I got ready for when the children woke up.

~~~~~HEA~~~~~

"Momma, daddy has a surprise." Antonia called.

I was called, Mommy, mama, momma and any other name similar to that, depending on the kids' moods or what they were reading at the time, or just as Edward was daddy, dada, pops, and anything similar too. We just smiled and go along with them - sometimes I suspected they did it to be different from each other.

"Really?" I asked, pretending that I hadn't heard when Edward told them about the surprise.

"Yes, we are all going to see the surprise." Eddie chimed in.

"I love surprises." Beth said. She was so excited she was bouncing on her heels. In fact, they were all hyper. Once again, the fresh animal blood had them bouncing off the walls, running on the beach, and swimming. They couldn't sit still for two minutes. Maybe whatever Edward had planned would calm them down a bit. I followed the excited kids to the deck, where Edward, Alice, Rosalie and Emmett were waiting.

"Are we going to the waterfall?" I asked Edward.

"No, but even if we were, I couldn't tell you."

"Where is this surprise?"

"What part of surprise don't you understand, Mrs. Cullen." Edward said. I took a playful swipe at him, but he captured my hand easily and brought it to his lips.

"Surprise! Surprise!" The kids started chanting.

"We want our surprise now." Tony demanded.

We all looked at him and laughed. He was usually the calm one in the bunch. The blood must really be making him crazy.

"Okay, sweetie, we'll go see our surprise now."

I watched as my crazy husband pulled out a colorful bandana from his pocket.

"The last time we did this, I got a boat."

"Not a boat, a yacht little sis." Emmett said, holding his hands out wide.

"Yes, a Loveboat." Rosalie said with a smirk.

"Ssh." I looked around to see if the kids were paying attention to us, but they had already started walking down the steps to the beach.

"I'll take you, and Rosalie and the others will follow with the kids. I want you to see this first, without any interruptions."

"Here, put this on." Edward said and handed me my iPod. Then he put on my blindfold. "Get on my back and hold on tight."

He took of at the speed of light. I closed my eyes and relaxed, but I couldn't think of what was waiting for me because he cheated. The song that started was the same song he sang to me last night, so instead of thinking about the surprise, I thought about our time in the jungle last night and early this morning. When that finished, there were other love songs that featured prominently in our lives.

I was so lost in the songs and the memories they invoked. I didn't realize we had reached our destination until he released my hands from around his neck. I shook my head to get back in the present and took out the ear buds as he removed my blindfold. Now, instead of the beating of my heart and the sound of the music, I heard heartbeats that were not my kids' and got a whiff of the different scents. We were on the farm. They had the animals delivered and didn't tell me. This was a wonderful surprise. We had stopped under a tree, close to the back fence at the edge of the farm. He turned me slightly and right in front of me was the strangest sight. This was typical of Edward or maybe it was Alice who did this. My family does everything in extremes.

"Edward, isn't that a bit much?"

I pointed at the A-framed structure that looked like a mini barn. It was painted a dark red, with white trim it had a white door with a glass insert in the top which was flanked by two four pane white trimmed windows. On either side of the building were fenced in pens. Each pen had a door. The wooden frame supporting the wire of each pen and the frame of the gates were all painted in white. If it wasn't for the chickens I saw in one of the pens, I wouldn't have believed that it was a chicken coop. The little building could have been a large doll house. There was a window on either side of the house, something that looked like a cross between a ladder and a slide, leading up to a small opening – like a doggie door. Inside each pen, were things which looked like an upside-down white bucket sitting on a red base; these were filled with feed and water for the chickens. I noticed that the fence went all the way to the back of the structure, so I flashed behind the little house. The back was similar to the front, except this door was cut in two, so you could open the top or the bottom half separately and there was no glass insert.

I opened the door and went inside. The bottom had an area for them to roam. There were more feeding and watering containers around, but inside, the containers were suspended a little off the ground, by a wire hanging from the roof. Most of the floor was covered with straw, and a hen was sitting in a corner with about six chicks under her wings. Next to the hen was a frame which looked like a wooden clothes drier, but the bars were wider. On the opposite wall, about a foot off the floor, were wooden cubes. A plastic trays with hay or straw were in each of them, and one was occupied by a lone chicken. From the floor to the little platform or ledge in front of the bottom row of cubes, was a ladder for the chickens to climb. This ledge was covered in chicken wire - maybe that was to provide traction.

When Edward joined me, I pointed at the contraption that looked like the dryer.

"What's that?"

"Those are roosting poles for the chickens to sleep on – chickens like to roost, so we're giving them to option to sleep in the nests or on the poles."

"Is that where roosters got their names?"

"Probably."

"Why are there containers in the cubes?"

"That's for the chickens to nest. Hopefully, they'll lay their eggs in there. It will also catch their poop. It would be easy to remove the eggs and clean out the containers each day. We have to keep the coop clean for the chickens to remain disease free. That hen sitting in the bin is sitting on a dozen eggs."

"You mean we'll have more baby chicks soon."

"Yes, we thought it would be educational for the children to see the eggs turn into chicks."

"That would be fun for them." There was so much to take in. Thank God my enhanced abilities will make learning to take care of the animals easy.

"Why are the chickens inside this cage and not out with the other animals?" It was a huge cage, but it was still a cage.

"We have to keep them in here for a few days, so they would think of the coop as home. This way, after we let them out, they'll know this is a safe place and will return here at night or if the weather is bad or if they feel threatened, and if they get used to laying in the nesting box, we wouldn't have to look for eggs among the trees. Plus, we know they are animals in the woods, this high fence should keep them safe. With our scent all over the place, the animals may stay away from the farm; if not, the chicken have this large space that's fully protected."

"Wow. There's so much to learn."

"Don't worry sweetheart. Carlisle hired a consultant to educate us about raising farm animals. We'll teach you everything we learned from him. If it would make you feel better, we could arrange another call with him, and you could talk to him about any concerns you have."

"That's not necessary. With you and everyone else in the family helping out, everything will be alright." I assured him.

I walked out the front door and gazed in wonder at the scene before me. The farm was more beautiful than I pictured a farm could be. The freshly painted barn, the white fences and the rolling green grass that was dotted with little clusters of animals. There were horses, goats, sheep, a cow with two calves. It was as if Alice's picture had come to life. Everything was perfect.

"You bought babies. Oh, they're all so cute."

There was a goat, with two kids. One was tan and white. Tan fur covered its shoulders, neck and head, and the rest of its body was white with a tan spot next to his tail and another on the top of his left hind leg. The other kid was black with white ears, white spots around its eyes and head and a white stripe on its back, and its belly and parts of its legs were white also. It looked as if someone held his legs out and dipped his dipped him in some bleach.

"Why are the kids different colors from their mothers?"

"They were cross bred. The Boer Goats are known for being docile, having high fertility and a fast growth rates while the Nubian breeds were supposedly from the Middle East, Northeastern Africa, Egypt, Russia, or India. Their warm climate heritage accounts for their longer breeding season than other dairy goats. Boers and Nubians are often crossed to create a goat with exceptional growth, meat quality and they excellent milkers. In fact, all the animals on this farm were crossed bred to be gentle, and to provide the best meat for you and the children."

"Great, we get milk and meat. You're so smart to choose that breed." I wondered if we could make cheese or yogurt. Maybe Esme could help me with that. And we could make butter from the cow's milk. Even with an old fashioned butter churner, my family, with their super human strength and speed, would have butter made in no time.

"I'd gladly take the credit, but everyone in the family, pitched in to get the best animals and make the farm ready, and as you know, all our visitors helped with the manual labor."

"We were blessed. I'm glad we gave them their little surprise." I said, but I didn't want to think about anything but the farm right now.

I concentrated on the rest of the animals. One lamb had two little babies. The lamb was white, but both baby lambs were black. It was cute to see the mother nuzzling the babies. Then there was another white lamb with three snow white babies, laying close to the fence, and there was a cow with two calves under a tree. One of the calves was under the cow, nursing while the horses were grazing in their own paddock, tails swishing as they nibbled on grass. With the exception of the horses, all the animals were in little groups around a mother - I'm sure Edward would explain it to me later. I also wanted to learn about the different breeds of animals, but first I was too busy taking everything in before the frenzy started when the kids arrived.

~~~~~HEA~~~~~

EPOV

While Bella took in the other animals and oohed and awed at each little group, I thought about how we went about getting the farm just right.

The night of our family meeting to discuss the farm, I rejoined my family in the dining room after Bella fell asleep, so we could discuss the logistics.

"I know we all want to give Bella what she wants, but we have to think about this logically. My major concern is whether the animals would be afraid of us, like the animals in the wild. We've never been on a farm or been exposed to any domesticated animals, so the first thing we have to do, would be to determine which animals would tolerate our presence." Carlisle told us. He looked at each of us, to see if we were in agreement, then he continued. "It was imperative that we find animals which were treated humanely and would be gentle enough to be around children and not be too afraid of us." We all knew the kids were as strong as an ox, but to us, they would be fragile, precious bundles to be protected - just like my Bella.

"I've thought about that, and I think animals that were bred to be around children, like animals in a petting zoo, and horses trained to teach children to ride, would be our best bet." Jasper said.

"We'll have to find animals and test this theory." I mused, more to myself than to anyone else.

"Let's search for ranches that breed animals to sell to petting zoos, or Hobby farms or places that offer kids' camps, dude ranches or anything similar" Carlisle told us.

~~~~~HEA~~~~~

"Carlisle, look at this." Emmett called out. "I think it's perfect."

We all stopped what we were doing to hear what Emmett was so excited about. Carlisle looked at his screen, then he read out loud.

"A group of four ranches in Brazil recently became the first in the world to earn Rainforest Alliance certification for sustainable cattle production. The ranches, all belonging to the group José Eduardo Tavares Silva Ltda., met a rigorous set of standards that promote the humane treatment of livestock, the conservation of natural resources and the rights and well-being of workers. The standards were developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) in response to the vast destruction of rainforest that results from cattle farming. In addition to protecting wildlife habitat, the certified ranches ensure that the animals are well treated and provided with tree-covered pastures, which shield them from high temperatures, wind and rain."

"Good job. This is exactly what we needed." Carlisle agreed after he had read the article. "I'll call to set up a conference call with someone in that company. Maybe we could hire the owner as a consultant so we could get some ideas on how to provide the best environment, for the animals we bring to our farm."

When Bella had decided she wanted a farm, we jumped at the chance. We knew how much saving the planet meant to her, and she felt that by growing her own food, she would be doing her part toward that goal. We wanted to do our part also, not only to please her, but it was the right thing to do.

Living off the land – wasn't that what we did? We fed off wild animals and did our best to protect the species. It was to our benefit for the animal population to keep thriving. If all the animals became extinct, what would we feed on? We had known, all of that, but having Bella in our lives, stressing how important it was to save the planet; we had developed a new mantra - "if we're going to live forever, we have to ensure the planet does too."

Now, we took more of an interest in the environment as a whole. We increased our donations to environmental foundations to help make an impact in protecting the planet. We became more conscious of buying green, and we started looking for ways to make our homes more energy efficient - the electricity on the island was generated by solar power, so we've come a long way from before Bella to now.

This would be the ideal company to get information from, and it would also be the best place to buy livestock, and using someone from the company to guide us as we started this venture would me more than perfect.

The kids arrived with Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie, and it was pandemonium. They were all talking at once - pointing, running up to the fence, and wanting to know about all the mommies and baby animals. Then they realized that there were no daddies. Didn't the animals have daddies? Where were the daddies? They formed questions in their heads faster that they could ask, but I waited for them to verbalize because they didn't know I could read their minds, without them offering to show me pictures.

Eddie tugged my pants to get my attention. "Papa, why are there no daddy animals."

I stooped down, so we were eye level. Antonia, Tony and Beth gathered around us. I looked at the four earnest faces staring back at me, and tried to be as honest as I can. "We didn't buy daddy animals yet because we wanted the mommies and babies to spend time together until the babies were stronger. Anyway, some of the babies are male, and will grow up to be daddies one day. We'll talk about it more tonight."

"Okay," he said and moved on to other things.

They went on and on with the questions. Do we have bunny rabbits? Or pigs? Or ducks? Can we get a dog? I tried to suppress my laughter, but at the same time, I thought I was getting a headache. Now I knew how Alice felt when she tried to see Bella or one of the children's futures. I decided to address some of their issues.

"We cannot get every farm animal. We have to see if these animals like us, or if they like being on our farm, or if we could take care of them, then maybe we'd add different animals next year." I explained.

"Of course they're going to like being on our farm," Beth and Antonia insisted in unison.

"Yes, we'd take good care of them." Eddie said.

"Grandpa Carlisle is a doctor." Eddie stated.

"He would keep them from getting sick just like he takes care of us." Tony joined in. They looked at each other and nodded.

This made perfect sense to them. I was so proud of how logical they were; this was not the time to explain that Grandpa Carlisle was not an animal doctor - then again, Carlisle had already started reading books on veterinary medicine, or why the animals may not like us. I looked at Bella over the tops of their heads, and we share a proud parents moment. Our babies were growing up.

They left us and ran over to the horses.

We had as much fun as the children as we watched them interact with the animals. We gave them cups of chicken feed to scatter in the pens for the chickens - Emmett told them they had to say, "Hey chickie, chickie" as they threw the food. The chickens followed them around pecking at the loose food, but when one of the children tried to grab a chicken, it would fly away. We all got a kick out of that.

They fed chopped carrots and lettuce leaves to the sheep and goats. The sheep and goats stood still and allowed the kids to pet them and ate out of their hands. Bella told the kids to scratch behind the sheep and goats' ears - she remembered that from visiting a petting zoo as a child. The animals loved that. They fed the horses, sliced carrots and a few sugar cubes. The horses bent their heads and nuzzled the children while they munched on the treats. After the kids had fed them all their carrots and sugar, the horses started poking their noses at the children looking for more treats. It was so cute.

Although they wanted to, we didn't allow them to get on the horses. We thought it was best for the horses to get used to us before we attempted that. To compensate for that, we picked them up, so they could pat the horses and run their little hands over the horses, neck and sides. Then Alice produced brushes, and we put the children on our shoulders, so they could groom the horses.

Through all this, our visitors had been perched in trees, watching us. They respected our need to keep the animals calm, so besides Bella and the kids, only our siblings were with us. The horses had been trained to be around children and large crowds of strangers, but it had been a long journey to get to farm, and they may get a little excitable if we tried to do more that pet them. Jasper knew a great deal about horses, so he told the kids stories about when everyone rode horses, and about capturing wild horses and training them for everyday use on farms or the army. I was happy the animals were all calm around us; I don't know if Jasper's power worked on them, or if it was the kids' presence. Whatever the reason, I was happy everything was going well.

After hours with the animals, we decide to call it a day. The kids were still full of energy, but we didn't want the animals to get stressed. The day had been a success. Our visitors got to see the children's features change from toddler to a preschooler. You could see the changes clearly. All their baby fat had been replaced with muscles now. They still have their dimpled cheeks, but no dimples on the fingers. Their hair was longer, they were more logical, their limbs were longer, they were agiler, and they run like little gazelles now. After Carlisle measures them tonight, we'll see exactly how much they grew, and of course, if the blood affects them as it did the last time, they would grow just as much while they sleep tonight. Mentally, they have aged another year or two, maybe more.

A/N:

Rainforest certification mentioned was found on this site: - (http:)(/www.)(rainforest-alliance.)(org/newsroom/news/first-certified-cattle-ranch)

The standards were developed by the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN) in response to the vast destruction of rainforest that results from cattle farming.

Rainforest Survival Challenge is a real iTunes app.

Idea for chicken coop taken from – (http:)(/chickencops.)com

Inside coop taken from – (http:)(/www.)(cityfarmer.)(info/2010/03/22/ikea-hackers-build-chicken-coop/)