Some Time Alone

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra waited patiently as she looked over the site where the shuttle would arrive and drop off the passenger who Alexandra had wanted to see for a long while. That one person is one [member="Adara Raxis"], the daughter of someone Alexandra had grown fond of. She didn't mind housing the child for a few days and even looked forward to it, it would be a chance to grow closer and Alexandra always enjoyed being around the young one. She had since Adara had been first introduced and since the young girl had first come to visit her home. It was amusing watching adara move through the home and the garden in particular, curious but bright and quick to understand she was safe here.

The home was the same as normal, largely empty most days aside from the now constant people on the staff. She did not enjoy having so many eyes around but she knew the intent was for protection so Alexandra did not complain. She knew that Adara herself would have eyes keeping watch as, some likely on Alexandra herself but that was to be expected. The girl had a long history of people taking advantage of her or trying to use her, or simply wanting to let her die. Alexandra did not understand this mindset, but knew it existed.

The thought caused Alex to glance over her shoulder, wondering if one of those eyes were there already. The woman would bend down, patting Daeda on the head and watch as the ship started falling from the sky and to the ground. It would not be long until it landed and it would not be long until Adara stepped out, and when she did the tiny white furred wolf would be ready to greet her ahead of Alexandra.

 

[Adara Raxis]

A weekend with [member="Alexandra Feanor"], how lovely! Yasha’s bouncing firstborn loved her little trips to Alderaan, which from her Boarding School was a short flight away. While the ten year old was often accused by her siblings as having alllllll the luck for being allowed to venture off at ten years old, the little ‘princess’ knew how lonely it got without her family near.

Alex would do, and she always did. Pressing her lace gloved hands to her skirt, Adara smoothed out the cloth and petticoats of the hunter green affair, which was a quite fashionable dress of the dark green velvet overdress opened to layers of soft green chiffon and tulle beneath. Cinched in the middle by a cream white ribbon, tied at the base of her waist with a large bow. Her hair bobbed in its curls, half braided away from her face, which while pale sported an effervescent quality she utterly lacked on Mandalore.

As the shuttle landed and her Anubian Militibus ex Infernis stood to exit half-first, half after the girl, two Handmaidens stood enshrouded in burgundy velvet and long grey gloves, offered Adara their hands. She took one of each and rose, her prim white boots finally touching the ground.

Her cycle owl Mr. Wimples ruffles her kaleidoscopic feathers. The companion bird a nigh two metre wingspan and quite thoroughly done with being cooped up, trotted on her talons, then took flight to circle Alex and Noah’s Estate. If Adara willed it, she too would see through Mr. Wimples’ eyes, as well as her own.

A princess in everything but name, Adara flounced down the gangplank of the shuttle and was met by Daeda.

“Oh, Daeda!! I’ve missed you so!” Bending down to give the Wolf a pet, Adara’s mismatched eyes sunk onto the form of Alexandra Feanor, and the child started trotting over. “Ba’vodu Alex! Oh Alex! Thank Manda I’m finally here! It’s been impossible, simply impossible!”

She raced to throw her spindly as around Alex’s waist, the darkness of her natural aura unfurled in this place of safety.

Unlike Mandalore, there was nothing to hide.

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

Alexandra was happy to see the ship come to a rest, and soon happier as Adara came out of its belly, dressed in a manner that made Alexandra's eye raise ever so slightly. The girl looked like some kind of prim and proper princess which humored Alexandra as that was the last thing she expected to see from a child of the Mandalor. The difference was something Alexandra couldn't help but smile about and be amused by, how different the two could be as children.

But, there was something that made Alexandra sick for a moment, not that she would ever show it. Adara's darkness was something that made Alexandra feel ill and she knew it was not Adara's fault, but rather the choices of individuals she blamed for the girl's fragile state. But Adara was happy here and that kept Alexandra from so much as even showing a hint of her revulsion for the dark.

"Adara, me and Daeda have been waiting for you. How have you been? Has school been fun?" She gave the younger one a few questions as she kneeled down and placed her hands on her lap, listening to Adara.

The guards and handmaidens made her eye twitch to the side for a second, Daeda sharing his sight with her and informing her of their movements. She trusted Adara and Yasha but others made Alexandra uneasy in her home. They were foreign and beings she did not know. People who could bring harm if not carefully watched and directed.

She didnt used to be this... paranoid about others, developing it from the bouts of schizophrenic splitting of her mind and the past. Was she afraid of them, no, but she did not trust them for now, even if Adara did.

 

[Adara Raxis]

It was beyond good to have time with her favourite Auntie. [member="Alexandra Feanor"] understood the travails of Adara’s dramatic (and overly dramatically told) life. The Mand’alor’s daughter was used to having the centre of attention firmly around her person, whether in fear on Mandalore, or with interest at boarding school.

Not even her mother let her stay on Mandalore, but even if she was repelled by the Darkness which cloaked Adara perpetually, Alex let Adara stay.

“Oh Ba’vodu Alex, I’ve got so many things to tell you! The girls at school were ghastly, or wonderful in turns, but I got an excellent mark on everything but physical education and I don’t know what to do. Buir will be simply terrible knowing I didn’t get a good grade. What.. can… I …. do!?” Flopping into Alex’s arms, Adara peeked with one eye and giggled. “I love my school, but I do miss my siblings and all of you.”

The Anubians fled into the forest, creating a perimeter from which to stand guard. They were a natural part of Adara’s life she barely seemed to notice anymore. Her Ba’vodu [member="Skorvek"] ’s elite trained guards would protect the small Cadera child with their lives. Yet.. the two Handmaidens stood in silent repose. Near the shuttle they stayed, cloaked and still. They made no move to journey closer.

“But how are you? How is Morgan and Junior? Is Ba’vodu Noah well? Tell me everything, I’m starved, Ba’vodu Alex! Starved for anything other than the drafty old dorms at school.”

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Adara Raxis"] as usual was the same spirited little girl and Alexandra continued to smile as the girl started to spit out sentences like the whole visit was going to end in only a few minutes. Alexandra admitted that she even found it hard to follow the girls words but she remained still and listened, patiently waiting for her to finish or catch her breath.

To Alexandra, this was like having her own kids running around, so having Adara visit simply felt right to the woman who loved her like a child of her own. After all, Adara needed some form of stability, something to lean on and rest against considering her home life was a tad chaotic and difficult. It also remained one of the few places that Adara could be without there being any disgust for her, or without Adara being in danger.

"I'm sure you will improve, I can tell you are getting stronger already, and I missed you too Adara. I know your mother and siblings miss you as well, we should get them here one day so all of you can relax for a few days?" Alexandra's eyes moved for a moment, feeling the guards disappear into the forest and watching them through the force for a moment before smiling back at Adara again.

"Morgan and Junior are sleeping right now, and Noah is off helping your Mother these days. He cant sit still for too long or else he might start getting lazy and lose his muscles." She smiled, letting Adara hear the joke as she led the girl over to the main portion of the estate. Alex had left out how she was doing for now, focusing on the young one.

"I just made eggs a little bit ago and there are some left over, do you want some? There should be some blue milk left too."

 

[Adara Raxis]

Keeping still on a shuttle for hours and hours wore on the child. However bound to proper etiquette Adara was, she still remained a ten year old girl, for all the energy and verve that required. Never mind the revisions her Handmaidens made her focus on, while she did make the journey on the ship. Papa would be truly disappointed if she let her academics slip in any way. But now Alex would protect her from math problems! She would protect her from homework already done, and advanced work being composed.

Alex always protected all of them from overburdening with work. It's why Adara hoped Buir would listen and take time off to be with Alex too.

"I try to do well, but... but the other children are so ghastly, when it comes to physical education. They all run leaps and bounds and there's me, trying not to faint. If Lucy McGoven hadn't thrown her ball at me, thus making me feel better about draining her little wounded soul, I wouldn't have survived... oh, she got better. The little beast knew what she was getting into, when she picked on me." Adara harrumphed, as if her slip to Force Drain made it somehow better, or okay. Yet, a second later she knew the damage she did...

"Oh, he is? Then it really is just you and me for almost a whole day!" Adara squealed and hugged her arms around Alex's forearm. "Yes, we simply must get them... but Buir is always so busy. And Baba just got out of his house arrest again. Maybe he can help ba'vodu Noah from getting flabby muscles?"

Innocent to what she was suggesting, Adara grinned up at Alex at the mention of breakfast. It took an exorbitant amount of fuel to give Adara's metabolism a chance - part of her many medical conditions. In the earlier days, none suspected how much food she actually needed, until Carnifex got hold of the infant, and showed Yasha how hungry an Epicanthix-Human halfbreed could be.Yet, it was not only physical food the child desired. But! Eggs would do.

"Yes, please. I am terribly hungry! We had so few appropriate snacks on board." Placing the back of her hand on her forehead, Adara teetered around, pretending to be too weak from hunger to move. She giggled a few seconds later, trotting off to follow [member="Alexandra Feanor"].