Otto took a deap breath as he peeked at the food in the oven. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to calm down. Toby and Mary seemed unfazed by the evening's plans, why was he? Before he had time to answer his own question, there was a nock on the door.

Lenora let herself in after nocking on the door. Toby and Mary waisted no time greeting their Papa's girlfriend.

"Ms. Lenora! Ms. Lenora!" They squealed, clinging to her skirt and hugging her legs.

"We have something to teeell yooouuu!" Mary sang.

"Not yet!" Otto scrambled from the kitchen in a panicked frenzy to cover his daughter's mouth, "After dinner, Princessin. After dinner."

Mary nodded and held up her arms as he picked her up. Lenora stooped to scoop up Toby.

"Sorry about zat. I promise it vvill make sense after dinner. So," He kissed her around the kids, "How are Eli and Maranda."

"The usual. Maranda is smothering him and Eli wanted to come with me tonight, like he always does."

Otto nodded. Mary and Toby may have missed the dispare in her voice but he never would. He knew just how much she missed Eli when they were apart. The five-year-olds were released once more to wash their hands before dinner as the Hot Weals track they had been playing with included a slime pit.(1)

As dinner drew to a close, Otto felt his anxieties creeping back in.

"Is Ms. Lenora gonna stay the night again?" Toby asked around a mouthful of macaroni and cheese.

Otto swallowed thickly, "Zat vvould be up to her, Bärchen.

"Maybe, Toby. We'll see what happens after dinner," Lenora handed him a napkin, "And don't talk with your mouth full."

Toby nodded and whipped his cheeks.

As soon as dinner was finished, Mary and Toby led the way into the living room. They bounced and chattered the entire way. Rarely had Otto seen his kids so excited.

"Alright! Alright! You two! What's this surprise you have?" Lenora chuckled as she sat on the sopha.

Otto licked his lips and put a hand on each Toby and Mary's shouders, "Lenora, zere-zere's somezing I've been neglecting to tell you. About Toby, Mary, und I."

Lenora's smile began to fade, "What?..."

"None of us are human."

There was a beat oof silence.

"What are you? I thought the kids were adopted."

"Zey are! VVe are all different species, too."

With one more deap breath, Otto transformed into his natural troll form. He then watched as Toby transformed into his Akoridian form and Mary summoned a ball of water from the kitchen. The mermaid dropped the water on her head and swiftly grew a tail. Lenora's jaw dropped as she watched.

"I am a polymorph changling. I can turn into anyzing I vvish to be. Mary, as you can see, is aa mermaid. Und Toby is and Akoridian. His grandfazer came tto Earz from a planet called Akoridian 5."

Lenora didn't move for a moment, she simply stared at them all. Then she grinned and stood up. She scooped Mary into her arms and suddenly changed. Her violet turtle neck and skirt were replaced with a sky blue chiton and an elegant gold cape. No! It wasn't a cape. It was wings! Elegant, gold wings. Her black curls were clipped back with thick gold rings.

Taking a step forward, she cupped Otto's cheek andd kissed him gently.

"I love you more than words can yield the matter," She whispered before turning to the little ones, "Dearer than eyesight, space, and libery."

Now it was Otto's turn to stare.

"You're a fary?!" Mary all but screeched.

"Yes," Lenora bit her lip and looked at Otto once more, "I've been meaning to telll you for a few days but I kept getting interrupted."

Tears rolled down his cheeks.

"So...can I still stay?"

"Stay? Don't you ever zink of leaving!" Otto pulled her close and pressed his face into her neck.

Lenora's laughter rang in his ears as she curled her face into his neck. Toby wrapped his arms around her knees and Mary leaned forward to hug Otto's arm. For a moment, they all just stood there.

"So, was that an invitation to move in?"

Otto chuckled and nodded, "Oh, vvone more zing. Fragwa's not a cat, eizer."

"Oh, that I knew."

LLB

After they put the kids to bed, Otto and Lenora ventured outside for a late night walk. Fragwa was perfectly capable of watching the little ones of a little while, it's what domesticated goblins were ment to do after all.

Before long, they managed to find their way to the kissing tree.

"Ha, I found Walt and Barbara!" Lenora tapped the tree.

"I zink I found my sister and her ex," Otto pointed to a tiny 'ZN+DD', "Zat vvas a rough vvone...Do you zink you could change vvone? I'm not entirely sure how your povvers vvork..."

Lenora thought for a moment, "I think I could...I've never tried to. Why?"

"Just...to help somevvone."

She closed her eyes and placed her hand on the tree, "OK. Which one?"

Otto took her hand and guided it to one of the carvings on the tree, "Zis vvone."

"Alright. What do you want it to say?"

"Scaarbach."

Lenora froze and opened her eyes. Her hand was over her own last name. She turned to look at her boyfriend and found him down on one knee, a black velvet box in hand.

"Lenora Janez, vvill you mary me?"

It took her a moment to find her voice. They had talked about getting married but this was far from how she expected the proposal to go.

"Yes!" She flung her arms around his neck and kissed him hard, causing both of them to topple over into the fallen leaves at the base of the tree.

LLB

AN: One more Scaarbach centric chapter then I promise I'll write about other characters. I wasn't joking when I said that I cut enough Scaarbach to make a whole 'nother book. This is far from the end of them. There will be a lot more of them in later chapters. Gee...I wonder who my favorites are...

1) I shit you not, this was one of my sister and my favorite toys to play with at our Grandparents' house.