Strange Cousins Are Common

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Spoiler

Loreena, or Lori for short had spent most of her life with her brother. But now that they were getting older, ten standard years to be exact, the twins were started to get a little more independent too. [member="Caedyn Arenais"] was busy with his Dad [member="Veiere Arenais"] while their Mom [member="Lady Kay"] was busy at the Royal Palace or the Senate Hall doing her grown up Queenly duties. So here Lori was, all by herself.

At least for the moment.

The young girl stood near the landing platform for the hideaway Estate in the mountains, chewing the inside of her cheek; a bad habit that she had learned from her Mom. Either [member="Darben Skirae"] or Renla or both were coming to visit and to keep Lori 'out of trouble'. Ha! Lori loved to prank her brother and tinker at making booby traps and such. [member="Minna Balin"] taught her some, though neither of them spoke to anyone about such a secret. Handy skills they were. Dangerous too.

But who knows what today's fun would be. She rocked on her feet back and forth as she waited with about as much patience as a little girl could--Oh look! A pretty winged insect! Lori wandered off a bit to follow it so that she could get a closer look.

 

[Darben Skirae]

Darben Skirae drove the air speeder toward the estate. He was surprised that [member="Lady Kay"] trusted him to take care of the estate, although he had cared for Renla for quite a while and she was still around. She seemed quite excited to come. Despite how old she was, being an adult now, she still sometimes acted like quite a child, always cheery and skipping about when she was excited. She had a green dress, her favorite color while Darben had his old jacket. How long had he had this jacket? He didn't quite count, but he knew it was a while.

Rubbing at his graying beard, he spotted the landing pad and quickly put both hands on the wheel of the speeder. He spotted someone on the pad as well, and had almost forgotten that one of Kay's children would be here. As they landed, Renla was just about to hop out while the speeder came to a landing, hovering just above the pad. "Loreena!" she called out to her in excitement over to [member="Loreena Arenais"]. Her voice from time to time was still a little static, but the scar was almost gone thanks to continuous treatment.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori heard the speeder first, just as she was getting close to the flying instect. Quickly she turned around, beaming as Renla called out to her. She grinned and waved as she ran towards her. "Renla!! Uncle Darben!! HI!!" Her quick run brought her to the speeder in no time and she skidded to a halt right before it. Lori just grinned, glad to have not been alone for long. Being a twin, she wasn't used to being alone. In time she might want to be, but not now.

Renla was wearing a dress. That could pose a bit of a problem when it came to climbing trees and building forts. Hmm. Guess they'll have to play in the house. "You look so pretty Renla!" Her eyes looked up to [member="Darben Skirae"] . "And you look...umm...very uncle-ish. I mean, very well. Let's go inside!" Her hands were held out for them both.

 

[Darben Skirae]

Renla looked down at [member="Loreena Arenais"] and put her hands on her hips. "Just a hi? Come on!" she opened her arms for a hug, getting down on a knee. She had grown quite tall, slightly taller than Darben himself in the past couple years. "I'm fine without one" Darben spoke up, but Renla with a smile gestured with a head flick to Darben, which he didn't catch.

He had both hands at his side, and when Loreena adressed him, he couldn't help but smirk a little. "You can call me old, if you want. I've come to accept my age..." Which was old, judging by his almost fully gray beard and graying brown hair. Luckily, he wasn't going bald. He followed Loreena inside, as did Renla who stuck close to Loreena. It had been a bit since he had last been here, he rarely did come here. Always spending time at his store.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori laughed as Renla teased her about not asking for a hug right away. She wrapped her arms around her cousin tightly. "I just didn't want to wreck your pretty dress." She turned her head and gave [member="Darben Skirae"] a playful smirk while he denied wanting a hug.

Then with a quick turn she grabbed both of their hands and pulled them inside. Whith such determination, the two had no choice but to follow along. Lori brought them inside the vast Estate. "Want something to eat? Or drink? Uncle Darben you can watch holo-news or...whatever grown ups like to do. Renla, wanna come in my room and play?"

 

[Darben Skirae]

Renla smiled to [member="Loreena Arenais"], covering her mouth as she laughed. "I have many others. One dress won't matter" she assured softly, then she stood up. Loreena pulled them inside. When told he could do whatever adults do, he almost said that he could go for a drink. Then he realized how young Loreena was, and decided against that. He doubted [member="Lady Kay"] would like him drinking any sort of alcohol in front of her. "Um...tea, thanks." It was just as good to him.

Renla nodded to Loreena, she would be glad to go play with her. "You just stay here, and rest old man" she teased, and Darben let loose a light glare. That got a static laugh out of Renla.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

"Tea. Oh right! I know how to do that!" She let go of [member="Darben Skirae"] 's hand and pulled Renla along with her into the kitchen. "Could you get the water boiling for me? I'm going to get the tea leaves crumpled. Mom taught me how." Of course, ever since Lori was four standard years old, Kay had taught her the art of making a fine cup of Sapir tea. She showed her the ins and outs of it, such as how many leaves to use, how small to crumple them and all about how they dissolve in the water when it's fully steeped. By now she was a master at it in her own right. She just wasn't allowed to boil the water on her own yet without supervision. Renla was a perfect supervisor.

With the aid of a chair, Lori climbed up to the cupboards and fetched a tea cut, saucer, and tea leaf pouch, setying them carefully onto the counter top. Then she proceeded to focus on counting the leaves that she took out of the pouch, crumbling them one by one into the cup. "How's the store? Any neat stuff in there lately?"

 

[Darben Skirae]

Renla was once again pulled away while Darben looked about. He found a seat a table to sit down, and then pulled out his datapad and linked to the holonet. He found no messages from anyone, so he turned to the news. News wasn't stuff he usually looked at, but what else was there to do. The least he could do was look for more calming news, perhaps something local.

Meanwhile, Renla fetched a container and filled it with water, before filling it with boiling water. Unbeknownst to Darben, she too quite liked some alcoholic drinks. Ever since seeing him do so, she tried it sometimes, and she grew a taste. Not so much as his, it was more of a celebration thing, but she still did not let him know or drink in his presence. "Here you go" she said to Loreena, turning just in time to see her climbing to one of the cupboards. She was about to head over and help [member="Loreena Arenais"], only to watch as she got down just fine. She set the container down, smiling lightly. "You remind me of myself" she started. "Climbing things, helping around. Your mother must be proud of you."

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori grinned. "Oh Mom hates it when I climb around. She says that's what chairs are for. And older people." She continued crumbling up the leaves. Her Mom would freak if she saw her climbing some of the trees that she did. But Lori loved it and she was good at it.

"I try not to get in trouble, but...it's hard." Well she didn't try as hard as she could. But the advantage of being little was that you could get away with it. And boy did she get away with a lot.

Maybe too much.

[member="Darben Skirae"]

 

[Darben Skirae]

Renla laughed a rather loud static laugh, covering her mouth quickly to stifle it. She liked [member="Loreena Arenais"] a lot, and she was quite the troublemanker. Sometimes Renla herself was, even though she was an adult by now. She still got in her bits of trouble, but nothing serious as of yet. Renla felt a bit mischievous, and leaned down toward Loreena to whisper, "You know...Darben is a bit lax on giving out lectures...you could always come over, then how about we make some trouble?" she asked.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

The water was ready now, having come to a boil. Lori had to wait for Renla to pour it, given that it was too hot and too heavy. But at least the tea leaves were all prepared in the cups.

Lori glanced over to [member="Darben Skirae"] and then looked to Renla with a mischievous grin. "What kind of trouble? And do you think my Mom and Dad would find out?" The last thing that she wanted was to be grounded. Again. But at least in her room she could tinker with stuff.

 

[Darben Skirae]

Renla saw the water was ready, and began to pour into the cups with the leaves inside. She got a look as well. "Well, that depends on Mr.Grumps over there....don't worry, they won't." Renla had never felt so mischievous, and she could think of a few things they could do for fun. Like taking Darben's air speeder out for a spin on the country side, or climbing a building. She'd done both, and both had gone well for her. "You come up with something, how about that?" she asked to [member="Loreena Arenais"].