Sorry for the delay! A lot of your various suggestions were things I'd honestly already planned to incorporate into this story in future chapters. So, yes – a lot of you will see your ideas coming into play soon! Good guesses!

Chapter 13: Thanksgiving

Warren opened the door for Kendra and they both hurried inside the house, away from the falling snow that was steadily accumulating in large piles all over the front yard. "Hello? Everyone? I'm home!" Kendra called out. She heard an excited yelp from the hallway and was quickly met with a warm hug from her mother.

"Kendra's home!" Marla yelled, and soon there was a swarm of people surrounding the young woman. She received embraces from her grandparents and Dad. When she turned to greet Seth, her jaw dropped.

He had grown. A lot. He was easily a foot taller than her now; where she'd been able to see his chin at eye level before she'd left for school, she was now eye level with his clavicle.

"Hey, Sis," Seth said, fist-bumping her shoulder.

"What the heck happened to you!?" Kendra cried. "I go away for a few months and all of a sudden you're gigantic and your voice has dropped like five octaves! Who said you could do that!?"

Seth grinned as the rest of their family laughed lightheartedly. "Did you hear that?" he asked, looking around at everyone. "She just called me a man." He puffed out his chest with pride.

"Uh-huh, sure… whatever, you tall, immature weirdo." She hugged him tightly as he said, "That sounds more like my short, bossy sister." Kendra punched him softly in his side for that remark, and he good-naturedly feigned injury.

"It's like she never left," Marla sighed happily, leaning against her husband. "Our family is back together again."

"As fun as it is to stand around in the doorway, can we move this reunion somewhere more comfortable? I, for one, would like a warm cup of tea," Warren said after he'd removed his coat and hung it up. "That was a decently long drive, after all."

"Absolutely," Ruth agreed, wrapping one arm around Kendra and leading her through the kitchen and into the dining room. "Tell me about school. Do you like it? How are your classes? What's it like?" she asked her granddaughter.

Kendra chuckled. "It's like we haven't had weekly phone conversations," she said. "Everything's the same as last week – classes are great but tough, and I'm glad to be getting the full college experience even if the girls in the dorm room next to ours like to blast their music a little too loud."

"How's your roommate doing?" Marla asked, sitting down at the dining room table to Kendra's right.

Warren wandered into the kitchen and asked, "Anyone else want some tea?" No one spoke up, so he shrugged his shoulders and continued bustling about the cupboards.

"Julie's doing well," Kendra replied. "She said her classes are starting to get complicated. Something about ionizations and some quantitative analysis or other… I didn't really have the time for her to explain it to me, since I'm busy with my own workload. But we're turning out to be pretty good friends. I think you'd like her."

"She's majoring in physics, right?" Scott asked.

"Yes. Right now she's mostly taking a bunch of chemistry and math classes, but we both also have a bunch of general classes to get through as well."

"Are you having any trouble with your name?" Grandpa Sorenson asked.

Kendra had had to assume another identity in order to attend school, since "Kendra Sorenson" was legally dead and buried. It would have raised too many questions both on a personal and federal level if she were to suddenly turn up alive after having been confirmed deceased by the county coroner where she'd grown up. That and, if things did wind up working out with Bracken for the long run (or even if they didn't), she might want to try and become an Eternal – it would be extremely helpful to have a false grave if that ever happened. So she'd worked with her Grandparents Sorenson and Larsen to craft another persona for herself – Kayla McPherson – who had legal, recorded documentation depicting her birth, former addresses she'd lived at and phone numbers she'd been associated with previously, as well as the names of the schools she'd attended in the past. All of the information was false of course, but "being part of the Knights of the Dawn is very useful when creating or erasing your personal history," Vanessa had pointed out. "Eyes and ears all over the place."

"Yes and no," she responded. "'Kayla' is close enough to 'Kendra' for me to want to respond to whoever is trying to talk to me anyway. The last name is worse. 'McPherson' doesn't really sound much like 'Sorenson.' I've had two near-mistakes so far when professors have called out my last name instead of my first and I just sat there wondering why 'McPherson' didn't stand up… until I remembered that was me."

"But you haven't slipped up and told people your true name?" Grandpa Sorenson leaned forward and asked again.

"No," Kendra insisted. "I've been careful."

"Take it easy," Ruth reprimanded, lightly shoving Stan. "You're talking to your most responsible grandchild here. Give her some trust."

"Hey!" Seth protested. Kendra thought it sounded kind of funny to hear a childish remark like that spoken in such a deep voice. "I'm responsible, too!"

"Sorry, Seth," Ruth apologized. "That was poorly phrased. You've been doing very well with your duties."

He stuck his nose up in the air as though offended. "Thank you for noticing," he stated.

"Seth has taken on a couple of the daily tasks that Dale has primarily been in charge of around the preserve," Grandma Larsen explained.

"Really?" Kendra asked. "Like what?"

"I set the milk out for the fairies every morning," Seth began. "They're starting to like me again. I think. At least they don't glare at me anymore."

"He also shuttles Viola's milk to a few of the other milder areas of the preserve," Grandpa Sorenson said. "He's starting out small, but will work his way up." There was a special gleam in her grandfather's eyes as he smiled at Seth. He was obviously pleased with his grandson.

Dad opened his mouth presumably to say something, but was interrupted by a sudden, "Kendra!"

Everyone at the table looked around at each other, wondering who had called her name. It sounded a little distant or muffled. "Kendra – come outside! I'm out here!" they heard again.

Grandpa Larsen winked at his granddaughter while the women in the room smiled and Scott's expression soured as he muttered, "Can't he wait until after we've finished saying hello?"

Kendra smiled brilliantly as she recognized that particular voice, then jumped up and walked energetically to the back door. She opened it up and saw Bracken standing in the yard near the birdbath, which had frozen over from the cold. The unicorn was dressed in jeans and a stylish pea coat, with a bright red scarf around his neck and an equally brilliant smile on his face as he spotted her. She ran toward him and slipped on the last step off the porch, bracing herself for a hard fall at the same time that Bracken ran forward and sort-of caught her – they both wound up slipping on the slick stones of the sidewalk and landed in a pile of snow to the side of the pathway. Kendra broke into giggles and Bracken laughed as well as he pushed himself up and then grabbed hold of her hand to pull her into a standing position as well.

When they were both upright again, she threw her arms around his neck and he kissed her lightly before pulling back and saying, "I'm only here for a quick visit. I wanted to drop by and give you something."

"You're not staying?" she asked, disappointment creeping into her voice.

He grinned. "We're just about ready to open a sixth shrine. I can't be away for very long – we've got a goal to meet, but I couldn't resist seeing you – it's been a while!" He embraced her again and kissed her on the cheek before pulling a rectangular box out of his pocket and giving it to her. "This is for you," he said. "I thought of you when I saw it."

"You didn't have to buy me a present," Kendra said as she cradled the small box. "It's not even Christmas or anything."

"Does it have to be a holiday for me to give you a gift?" he teased, brushing a stray lock of her hair out of her face. "If it makes you feel better, I didn't buy it. You can consider it a gift from both me and the Fairy Queen."

Her eyes widened dramatically. "What…?" she asked, astonished.

"There's a story behind it. Go on – open it up!" He waved at her hands, which were still just cradling the box.

She reverently lifted the lid and found a silver necklace with a pendant in the shape of a small fairy who wore a peaceful, happy expression on her face. Kendra was amazed by the workmanship of the pendant – it was absolutely stunning.

"Bracken, this is beautiful," she said, practically speechless.

"Let me put it on you," he said, taking the chain from her hands and draping the necklace over her head. The clasp was unusual – more of a delicate knot than the typical clasp she was accustomed to, yet still simple enough to interlock.

The best part about this, she heard Bracken's voice in her head, is that the pendant is enchanted. We can keep in touch while we're apart. I was kicking myself for not thinking to give you some sort of communicative device before you left. That was an unfortunate oversight on my part.

"I hope you like it," he said aloud. "It suits you."

"It's amazing," she managed to say. "I can't even imagine – where did this come from?"

"It belonged to my mother," Bracken explained. "And now it belongs to you."

Kendra felt like she was going to pass out. "What?" she asked stupidly, obviously dazed.

The young man chuckled. "It's alright to relax, Kendra." He embraced her and said quietly in her ear, "Mother sends her love. She would like to speak with you after the turn of the New Year."

She stiffened at his words and he laughed. "Again, Kendra… it's alright to relax. I did tell you before that she approves of you, remember?"

"…That was before I started dating her son," she squeaked.

"She loves you," Bracken placated. "Probably more than she loves me," he added as an afterthought.

Kendra remembered the rush of pure emotion she'd felt from the Queen as they'd first approached one of her shrines after releasing her son from his long imprisonment and quickly said, "Yeah, I highly doubt that one. As in… you couldn't be more wrong, even if you tried to tell me that snow is purple or the satyrs have decided to give up song and dance."

Bracken laughed again at her examples. "Well, she seems to think the world of you. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. Why are you so nervous, anyway?"

"You're right – I shouldn't be," she answered. "I don't know why I am. She and I parted last on good terms-"

"Excellent terms," he interrupted.

"-alright, fine then, excellent terms," she continued on. "Are you sure she's not weirded out by… us?"

"Definitely not," he answered with a smile on his face. "There's honestly nothing to worry about. You'll be here for the New Year, right?"

"Yes," she answered. "I'll actually be back here the week before Christmas. My first term of school is almost over – just a few more weeks to go. Winter term begins the second week in January."

"That means we'll get to spend more time together very soon," he said. "I'll have to take you on another date during your next visit. Think of somewhere you'd like to go, okay?"

"Alright, it's a deal," she smiled, leaning forward to give him a light peck.

"I have to leave now," he said. But I'm happy to know that we can at least talk to each other this time! his voice sounded in her head again. "I promise I'll be around a lot while you're on break between terms."

He finally released her from their embrace, then turned around and jogged back toward the woods. "See you soon!" he called out.

As she turned around to walk back inside the house, Kendra found her parents, brother and grandparents staring at her through the sole window that didn't have bubbly glass. They all started coughing or making excuses and moving away from the window, trying to pretend that they hadn't been observing the interaction between her and Bracken. She shook her head and blushed a little in reaction to their eavesdropping, making a mental note to be wary of prying eyes during future conversations with the unicorn. As she walked closer to the door, she heard her father whine to her mother, "I thought the necklace I gave her was plenty special. Where does he get off thinking he can just outshine my presents like that, anyway?"

Marla rolled her eyes and walked away from him, leaving Scott to complain to himself.

"Hey!" Scott called out. "The kissing? Are you going to talk to her about that, or am I?"

Marla spun around and poked him in the chest. "You leave her alone," she demanded. "Or else there's someone else in this household who won't be getting kissed."

"Yikes, Dad," Seth interjected. "Mom just pulled out the big guns."

"Hush, you," Scott chided.

Happy Thanksgiving! Have a safe and happy holiday! As always, thank you for reading. :)