Kehlan - I hope you see at least a slight improvement her on the punctuation. :-)

Chapter 49 - Kanlar ki' Mihrsh - Children Having Fun!

Avarak and T'Shahel followed Peter and Adam out the backdoor of the kitchen into the garden. Madra and Dug ran ahead of them.

Avarak looked around. The back garden was rectangular in shape enclosed by a large, 1.8m high, stonewall. There was a central flowerbed, of rectangular shape. Although it was autumn and the garden had passed its best there was still a lovely display of flowers and colour. Hydrangeas light purple in colour; roses, pink and yellow; bushy fuchsias deep pink; geraniums white, pink, red, orange and purple; gladiolus all the colours of the rainbow, and lavender to name but a few.

Two gravel paths, one on the right and one on the left, went down the length of the garden to the very back. Approximately half way down, the path cut across through the flowerbed and became the dividing line between the flowerbed and a vegetable patch. A battered looking wheelbarrow, filled with leaf litter, took up most of the width of the central path.

At the back left there was a small orchard, consisting mainly of bramley apple and plum trees.

"The bramley apples are best left for cooking," Peter said. "Try one of these though." He handed T'Shahel and Avarak a plum each, not realising that this could potentially be poisonous to a Vulcan. "They taste very sweet!"

"What is it?" T'Shahel asked, with caution in her voice, while examining the fruit.

"It's a Victoria plum," Peter replied.

T'Shahel turned to Avarak. "They are safe to eat," she said neutrally.

They both bit into the plums, their mouths were filled with a sweet and succulent flavour.

"They are really nice!" Avarak said while tucking into another one.

"Lets gather some for supplies!" Adam suggested. The children picked some more plums from the tree and put them in their pockets, before continuing the tour...

Peter led them to the back right of the garden where there was a small arch, made from honeysuckle. "This is the secret garden!" Peter said excitedly.

Avarak raised an eyebrow, this sounded quite interesting. Avarak looked around. Through the arch the garden opened up into a small square shaped plot, enclosed by another stonewall. There were more flowerbeds around the edges and a nice piece of green grass in the middle. The central feature was a bird table and birdbath. When they entered, quite noisily, the sparrows and other small birds quickly flew away. In the back corner of the secret garden there was a large copper beech tree. Trying to maintain his Vulcan disciplines Avarak repressed an excited smile on his face. Much to his delight there was a wooden tree swing hanging from one of the boughs and up high in the branches he could see a tree house, or what Peter and Adam called a 'den'.

*'*

Avarak who was more than halfway up the copper beech tree, followed closely behind by Adam, looked up at Peter who was already up in the den.

"Grab that branch to your right," Peter said.

Holding tightly onto one of the branches, with his left hand, he reached up his right hand to grab hold of another branch. With a pull he managed to leaver himself up onto the platform and in the process the knee of his trip uniform ripped. He also managed to squash some plums, which were in his pocket. (The only person who had not squashed their plums was T'Shahel who, being a bit older, had passed the age of climbing trees and decided to sit on one of the benches in the secret garden. Madra and Dug lay at her feet, in contentment, waiting for the boys to come down again).

From the tree house they had a 360° view of the farm and the surrounding area. They could see the outbuildings, the cottage where Avarak was staying, the fields, the harvesting machines, the river that flowed through the middle of the farm into the North Sea, and many other things which are too many to list. Adam pointed out 'West Lodge' where Avarak's Uncle Sarek, Aunt Manda and Spock would be staying for the duration of their visit.

In the den there was a small table and four stools. The boys removed the remaining whole plums from their pockets and put them on the table. They threw the squashed ones out for the birds, being careful not to hit T'Shahel in the process. The dogs Madra and Dug thought this was some kind of game and went after them, only to find out that the boys were not throwing balls after all. They duly returned to sit at T'Shahel's feet.

Under the table was an old wooden chest, which Adam lifted up from underneath and opened. Avarak looked in with great interest.

"We have catapults, bow and arrows, antique nerf gun, and a toy Andorian plasma rifle which fires projectiles like the nerf gun," Adam said.

"I have more phasers at the cottage," Avarak replied. "We could go and get them?" He looked up at Peter and Adam. "We could play Vulcans and Andorians?"

"Lets go!" Peter said.

They clambered back down the tree as fast as they could.


Thank you RobertBruceScott, Kehlan and Wildblume for your continued reviews and helpful suggestions. If you haven't checked out their stories you should, they are fantastic!