She didn’t know if he got her apology but he appeared to be accepting of it for now. What came next would be horrible for Mia. It took a full week for Xeik to get rid of the toxins in her body. A full week of Mia having to fight through the withdrawals of the heavy drugs.

Thanks to Angela’s tonics Miranda’s natural healing was able to kick in and help get rid of the toxins. The first morning she woke up where she was able to get up on her own she found Xeik asleep in his hammock and it made her smile. She wanted to have snuggle time with Xeik which had often happened because he would stay near her. She remembered his warmth.

Because of her height, the hammock was up just a tad too high for her. Mia stuck her tongue out in thought before she got a running start-up and flopped herself next to Xeik. There was a surprised look on her face as the leaf hammock came crashing down.

She held a sheepish smile on her face as she quickly laid down next to Xeik and pretended she didn’t do it. Even if he saw her.

It had been a restless week for Xeik. With everything going on with Miranda, he barely got a wink of sleep, and instead had found himself teetering on the edge of hallucination by the end of it all. On that particular morning, it had been the first time that he had slept during that week, and he was out cold. The leaf hammock swayed gently as the mender snored, completely and blissfully unaware to the world.

It was, unfortunately, interrupted though as a now well Miranda found herself leaping into it, snapping the supports and causing Xeik to fall to the ground. Hard. He bolted up, looking around only to see Miranda laying next to him. Even though she was turned away from him, he could feel the aura of mischievousness about her, and he let out a deep, deep sigh.

Let it go/ He couldn’t be mad at her. Not right now. She didn’t know better.

“It seems like you’re feeling better at least,” he said, groaning as he tried to get up. His body was aching from both the lack of sleep and hitting the ground so hard. Even with the little bit of rest that he had managed to get, there were still dark circles under his eyes from the exhaustion.

“How are you feeling this morning, Miranda?” he asked as he finally got to his feet.

Miranda could hear the sigh and she frowned a bit. She sat up and nodded at him. She felt tons better she had lots of energy! She tilted her head when she saw his face though. Getting up she put her hands on his face much as he did hers when he was feeling if she was ill.

She touched his dark circles, his chin, and she tilted her head. She didn’t know what he needed exactly but she took his hand and dragged him over to her bed. Throwing him into it she climbed in next to him and pulled a blanket up over them.

She was laying on her side looking at him. When he didn’t close his eyes she reached over and covered them. She snuggled in close and put her chin to his shoulder. He needed sleep and she could tell he was tired at least she thought so. He had been watching over her all this time and she woke him up!

Once he had gotten more rest she was bolting out of the bed and she got a book. She bounced back to him and onto his lap before flipping to the page with the flowers. Quickly she flipped through the book and pointed out all the things she wanted to see. She was all excited as she bounced around and tilted her head up at him with a smile.

It was interesting to see that Miranda somehow understood that he was exhausted. What was more amusing though was her insistence on him getting some sleep, and what surprised the mender was that, within a few moments of being dragged into her bed and told to rest, that he actually passed right back out.

A few hours later, Xeik woke up. He was still tired, and knew that he needed more sleep, but for the time being it was more than enough to run off of. Besides, there were other things that needed to happen. He stood up and stretched as the woman went about excitedly, showing off the things she wanted to see in the book.

“I know, I know,” Xeik said with a smile and a laugh. “There’s plenty of time for that. We’ve got to get you situated though. Breakfast first, and then we need to have Angela fix your body…well, as best she can.” He yawned. “And I have an appointment today, so you’ll be by yourself for awhile. I’ll drop you at breakfast. I’ve already told the staff that you are to be left alone unless you otherwise ask for help. They’re all here for you, but they won’t approach you unless you let them.” He thought for a moment. “And I’m sure Raine will be at breakfast as well.”

He took her to the dining area of the temple, where he sat down the lycan woman and helped her order food. Xeik ordered himself something to go, and took it.

“I’ll only be gone for around two hours,” he said to Miranda. He looked to Raine, “Can you take her back to my room once she’s done eating? I have to take care of the Terrowin kids today. Just a checkup.” He smiled back at Miranda. “Have a good time. I promise I’ll be back.”

With that, he slipped out of the room, and down the hall to the preset portal.

Mia nodded and smiled up at him. Xeik had been good about keeping his word with her. Once she saw that Xeik was leaving she got sad but she instantly perked up at the sound of food. She nodded to all of Xeik’s instructions and sat down in the dining room.

Raine got excited to see them, “Miranda you look so much better!”

Mia just at first but then she smiled and nodded at Raine.

“Yeah, I can do that!” Raine gave a salute. “Consider her under my protection!”

In the middle of Mia eating Raine heard that Maalik was here delivering papers, “Mia you have to stay here okay? I have to go get these papers from Maalik!” Mia nodded and had the banana hanging out of her mouth. Before long Raine left her and Mia got up.

Following Xeik scent was easy enough and she was curious where he went. How mad could Xeik get at her if she followed him? Finding the portal she sniffed it and sure enough, Xeik had gone right through. Once she was through the portal she found herself in a house and out the door she went. Her eyes got big as she spun around.

“Whoa! You are pretty!” Alshaya ran up to her Mia got scared and fell down. Looking at the tiny child she tilted her head. “It’s okay we’re not going to hurt you! Are we Everett?”

“No! Will you play with us?” Everett got excited and they helped Mia up. “Are your feet okay?” Mia looked down and shook her head but smiled anyway. She liked these littles. They began to play and Simone noticed the blonde woman from the study. Getting up the mother calmly made her way down to where Lewis was discussing things with Xeik.

“Xeik? Who’s the blonde woman playing with Everett and Alshaya?”

Xeik had taken a look at Everett and Alshaya first when he entered the Terrowin Castle. For the most part, the first two little ones had not had any issues, other than the one time that they had been sick. Their check up went smooth, and he smiled, ruffling Everett’s hair and giving Alshaya a hug before moving on to let them play.

Before he could make his way up to the twins, he was stopped by Lewis to ask questions about their exercises to fill the magic void in them. It wasn’t a complicated conversation, but it was time consuming, and soon the mender lost track of the time. It was when Simone came over and asked him if he knew who the blonde woman was, that he realized he had been rambling on.

“Blonde…” He paused. “I don’t know an-” His eyes widened. “Miranda.” Xeik let out a long sigh. “She’s not dangerous…but she is a handfull…” He quickly apologized to Simone, and as they went to collect her, he explained who she was and where she came from.

“Miranda!” Xeik said, giving her a disappointed look as he crossed his arms. “Why did you come here? I thought I told you I’d be back.” It was clear he was frustrated, but not mad. “It’s dangerous out here for you. You could have gotten hurt…”

Everett and Alshaya both looked at each other, and then to Miranda. “Ooooohh….Miran…Miira……Mia is in trouubblllee!”

Simone tilted her head, “Miranda?” She was definitely new and it made sense once Xeik filled them in. “She’s probably never seen kids before.”

Once they were outside Miranda perked up at Xeik and held a big smile on her face as the kids had her hands. She looked down at that them when they said she was in trouble and shook her head but was obviously excited at the name.

“You like Mia? We can call you Mia!” Mia nodded and smiled at them before coming over to Xeik. She spun around and smiled up at him showing she wasn’t hurt at all.

“Miranda,” Simone was gentle. “It’s not that you would have hurt yourself… but we’re very protective of our children and we didn’t know you.”

That got Mia’s attention and she looked at the kids and back at Simone before nodding.

“She can’t talk Mama?” Alshaya looked sad for a moment.

“No, Uncle Xeik said that she lost her ability to a long time ago. Be gentle with her okay?” Simone smiled at them and the kids got more excited.

“We like Mia!” Alshaya told Lewis. “Can she stay Uncle Xeik?” Alshaya ran to his leg and held onto it looking at him. “She’s fun to dance with! We showed her how to dance!”

The children grabbed Mia and pulled on her. She went willingly but stumbled thanks to her feet. “We thought you said your feet would be okay?” They got all worried for her.

Mia sat on the ground for a while and pouted at them. But then she had an idea to cheer them up. Looking up at Xeik she started to tap her feet wanting him to explain about her upcoming surgery. Angela was going to fix them. She tapped her feet and pointed at the children.

"Xeik, if we taught her to read and write she could write on a board… It would be better."

Xeik sighed. Yet again, she had an excuse so the mender couldn’t be mad at her, but it was getting really hard to let her get away with things. Still, at least Simone had been more willing to have a conversation. Had it been Lewis, things might have gone horribly wrong.

“All right then. Miran-…Mia. You can stay while I check up, as long as Lewis is okay with it.” The healer looked to the assassin. “Well?”

“Simone?” Lewis asked. They had a quick conversation, and he nodded. “Fine. She can stay.” He gave her a look, “If you so much as harm a hair on any of my kids, I’ll-”

“Annnnd I think that’s a good place to drop the conversation,” Xeik said as he interrupted. He smiled as the kids took her off, but she stumbled, and the healer frowned. They still hadn’t heard back from Angela on when the surgery was happening to fix her feet, but it should be soon now that she was over the worst of her addiction withdrawals.

“She’s getting her feet fixed soon. Lady Angela herself is going to do it. It’s just a matter of time,” he told the kids. He looked to Simone at her suggestion, and nodded. “It’s less about it happening, and more when. We just got over the worst of her issues. Now it’s getting her body fixed. Then, maybe we’ll have time to teach her once she’s more functional.” He sighed. “Is what I want to say, but things are ramping up again, and I can only put my duties off but for so long….”

Mia got excited and she looked at Lewis and nodded a bit reaching over and patting his head. She could feel similar energy off him as she did the slavers but for some reason, he didn’t scare her. Maybe it was because he had a reason to feel the way he was.

Simone was highly amused by Mia and how she was acting. Telling Lewis to be gentle with the strange girl. “I’ll tell you what. While you work, Mia can be here on the island. There’s not that many of us and she can use the education. I can help teach her after all I taught Lucas. She’s just mute so it means teaching in a way where she can’t use syllables to help. Plus I’m sure that Lucas would love to help.”

Once things with the Terrowin kids were settled Everett and Alshaya hugged Mia. Mia was blushing, and it was really cute to watch her. “Can you come back to play? PLEASE?!”

Mia looked towards Simone who nodded. Once she got permission she was enthusiastic to respond with a nod as well. Back at the temple, she was immediately taken to Angela who put her up on a table.

“Mmm… Good job Xeik. She has all the toxins out of her. I bet you feel a lot better.”

Mia nodded and smiled at Xeik. She looked sheepish. “I can do the surgery now. She will just need help for a while getting around. After she recovers which will be a few days because of her lycanthrope blood… You can return to duties. Might I recommend a dinner tonight though? To celebrate Mia being with us?”

The rest of the visit with the Terrowin kids went about as well as expected. The children were doing quite well for everything that was going on, and even with the new twins drawing magic from Simone and Lewis, everyone seemed to be in good health. With their plan in place for Mia, Xeik and the lycan woman stepped back through the portal to Elysia with the promise to return.Almost immediately, Angela was on them and ready to perform the surgery for Mia's feet. Xeik was surprised, but glad that the goddess had decided to do it earlier rather than later. Watching Mia try to get around was rough, and he wanted her better as soon as possible.At the mention of dinner, Xeik smiled. "That's a good idea. I'll let Raine know so she can come. And Mia seemed to like Everett and Alshaya… wouldn't hurt to see if the Terrowins want to visit as well. It's not like they get off the island much these days."He was already excited about the plans. "But surgery first." Xeik wasn't sure what he needed to do for this particular one. In fact, he had rarely done such intensive surguries like this one, and despite it being Mia, was eager to learn what was involved. Xeik was ever the student.