Chapter Three
"Ano, I'm taking the kids to the doctor!" Nathyrra told him. Ano looked up from several blue prints. "Good. You'll be back just in time."
"Anotalex," she pointed at the piles of wood, "You're skill at carpentry is abysmal. Please just buy-"
"Are you saying that I can't make a simple design like this?" he pointed at the prints.
Nathyrra shook her head. "No, go ahead. If you crush your fingers however, that's your problem."
"Don't worry, Nat. Drak won't let me do anything stupid."
"Yes I will." said Drak.
Ano glared at him. "I would ask Joragin to help me if he and Sharwyn weren't so busy."
"Yes, only three months left, right?"
"Yep. Jor said something about naming the baby 'Delilah' if it's a girl."
AJ and Ana walked into the room. Ana stared at her father, who looked rather odd holding a hammer, blueprints, and wearing a shirt that said 'World's Greatest Carpenter' with the words 'Liar' scratched in underneath, courtesy of Drak. "Daddy, what are you doing?"
"Your father's being an idiot." Nathyrra said flatly. In truth, he was attempting to make something for his children but it was meant to be a surprise. Ano scowled but held his tongue.
Nathyrra smiled. "Oh don't sulk, Ano. It's not good for you." she reached up and gave him a kiss.
"Ewwww." chorused the twins.
Nathyrra smirked and ushered the children out the door. "We'll be back in a few hours."
Ano smiled as his family left. He then got back to his work. "Drak, will you help me with this?"
"Do it yourself, jackass."
-
The three walked into the waiting room. After speaking to the receptionist, Nathyrra sat down, picked up a 'Parenting' magazine and occasionally reached out to keep AJ from running up the walls. Ana crawled onto her mother's lap, preventing her from reading her magazine. Despite herself, Nathyrra smiled as Ana started to play with her mother's hair.
"Mommy?"
"Yes, Ana?"
"Why am I called 'Anathyrra'?"
"Because it's a combination of 'Anotalex' and 'Nathyrra'."
Ana looked at her. "Why did you and Daddy do that?" she asked puzzled.
"Because your father is a sadist." the drow said flatly.
"What's a sadist?"
"Someone who combines their child's name with their parent's name when they easily could have named her 'Vasenna'." Nathyrra said, a bit bitterly.
"Why is a daddy a sadist?"
"Because his parents were sadists and his grandparents were sadists as well." This was true. Jaheira had told her that Anomen had a sister named 'Moira' after his mother, 'Moirala.'
"Why?"
"Because…they just were."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
"I never really thought about it."
"Why?"
Nathyrra stared at Ana. "Are you consistently asking 'why' on purpose?"
"Drak told me to before we left."
"I'm going to speak to him when we get home."
"Are you gonna to kill him?"
"No, I'm going to attempt to gouge his eyes out."
"And you gouge his eyes out by putting your thumb on the bridge of his nose and dragging your nail across his eye." Ana recited.
Nathyrra grinned. "Good. You remember what I told you."
The door opened. A balding man stepped out. "Ah! There's the Derlyn family!"
Nathyrra took her children's hands and walked over to him. "Hello, Dr. Rogers."
He smiled. "Let's step into another room, shall we?"
Rogers closed the door behind him. Nathyrra placed both of her children on the large metal table and sat down in a chair. Dr. Rogers began inspecting Ana's ears. "Now what seems to be the problem?"
"Well, Ana's here for the you-know-what's and AJ's here because-" She was cut off by AJ sneezing. A stream of fire shot out of his nose and started a small fire on the doctor's tie. He hurriedly put it out.
"-Of that." Nathyrra finished, wincing a bit.
"I see." he said as he looked at his tie. "Well, in truth it's like a common cold. There's not much I can tell you except to have him get more rest. Oh and buy some protection against fire scrolls."
"I'll do that." Nathyrra said wryly.
"Now then, Ana." He opened the door for a nurse. Ana's eyes widened when she saw that the nurse held a needle in her hand. "Mom…"
"You need your shots, Ana." Nathyrra informed her.
AJ sneezed again, creating a small fire on the floor. The three adults immediately tried to put it out. Ana took advantage of this and ran out of the room.
"Run Ana! RUN!" shouted AJ.
Nathyrra spun around just in time to see her daughter slip out of the room. "Damn it!" she cursed. "Don't repeat that." she ordered AJ before running after her daughter.
Ana ran into the waiting room. She tried to get out of the room but the doorknob was too high for her. She turned around and saw her mother approaching. Thinking quickly, she ran up the wall and stood on the ceiling, safely out of Nathyrra's reach.
"Argh! Anathyrra Vasenna Derlyn! Get down here NOW!" yelled Nathyrra.
"NO!" Ana shot back.
Nathyrra sighed. "Please?"
"No." she said firmly.
"I'm counting…one…two."
"Nope."
"Do you want your father to hear about this?" she waved her hand dramatically. "He'd be so disappointed, his little girl. He'd say 'Ana, how could you let me down like that?' and then Drak would be upset…"
"What about Snuggles?"
Nathyrra blinked. "Err… I'm sure Snuggles would be devastated."
Ana jumped down. "Let's go."
Nathyrra blinked several times before taking her daughter's arm and walking back into the room. Ana spoke to her mother as she walked, "Snuggles would be upset. He told me so."
Nathyrra stopped in her tracks. "He did?"
"Yeah. He tells me lots of stuff."
Nathyrra frowned and continued walking. Is it possible that she has animal empathy?
-
Ana scowled and rubbed her arm. AJ laughed and pointed at her, "Ha-ha! Ana got a shot!"
"Shut up, you big sack of dog poop."
"Quit fighting, you two." Nathyrra commanded.
-
Later that night after dinner, Ano spoke to his children, "Time for bed."
"But Daaaaaad…"
"No buts. Besides, I spent all afternoon working on a surprise for you two. It's in your room."
The twins gave each other a brief glance before running towards their room. Two twin beds had been placed in their rooms, replacing the twin's cribs.
"Cool!" they both chorused before running towards them. Ano smiled at his children. Nathyrra raised an eyebrow at her husband. "That doesn't look like your craftsmanship."
"Yes…well… I gave up on building after the fifth blood blister."
Nathyrra shook her head. "Go to bed."
"We don't want to." they whined. "We don't like the beds." Ana said.
"No, you like the nice beds. The very nice very expensive beds." said a tired Ano. Ano picked up Ana and tucked her in as Nathyrra did the same with AJ.
"We don't want to."
"Come on." pleaded Ano. He lay down next to Ana. "They're so comfortable…"
"We're not tired."
Nathyrra lay down next to AJ. "You're not?"
"Nope."
"I'm exhausted." said Ano, yawning.
"Could just fall asleep right here…" said Nathyrra as she put her head on the pillow. Within minutes the two parents were asleep.
AJ and Ana looked at each. They pulled the covers closer around their parents and walked out of the room. They made their way down the hall into Nathyrra and Anotalex's room. The twins climbed onto their parent's bed and crawled under the covers.
"Night, Ana."
"Night, AJ."