Nastasha

It turned out that Brother Pelles needed more time to learn exactly how to properly connect Coulta and Jaimathan so that the Algoman could use his abilities to save Phelin. This made for more stress, as everyone expected an attack to come at any time. But hope grew when the Shifters began to arrive. A flock of flying creatures arrived, led by a great dragon carrying a large white flag in its claws – if it hadn't been for the flag, most of Ryal would have thought they were under attack from Ree

"We have no concrete proof that Dyrai will be targeting Phelin next, but it seems the most likely choice for Reesh to make," Jaimathan explained during the meeting the next morning. He took a long sip of his strong tea before going on. "Our spies got very little information about the motives behind the withdrawal, but many questions were asked about my absence. Several of my mother's aides have gone missing, so it is possible that they were captured and forced to disclose my location – some of t

Ema came to them an hour later, after Anil and Kylar had some time to begin bonding. Though Anil was determined to raise her children herself, as her parents had, she had given in to Wildas' and Myri's requests to have a nurse there to assist her. Of all the castle nurses, Ema was the one Anil had chosen. The women had become friends in the month before for the birth, though Ema was a decade older than the twenty-two-year-old queen. Both Myri and Ema were with Anil for the first night, while Cou

Coulta felt servants staring at him as he followed Wildas to Anil's room, with Shelton, Jaimathan, and Teeya behind him. Inside the queen's room, only Fae, Yvona, and Xiao remained with Anil. Everyone looked confused, everyone but Anil, who was smiling tiredly at the bundle she was cradling. Yvona rose from her seat beside Anil when the men entered. "What is going on?" she demanded. "Shel, how is this possible?" Shelton held up a hand to quiet his wife. "Let's let Wildas and Coulta see their s

Exactly two weeks after the news of Queen Cyra's death, Anil gave birth to the Grand King's first son. She began labor just before dawn. As the expected time for the birth had grown closer, Myri had taken to sleeping with her wife instead of Coulta and Wildas, in case such an event occurred. The healer was in control of the situation from the start, waking her husbands almost violently and ordering them around. "Get a servant to fetch me cold water and a cloth. Find the castle midwife, too. I'

The man was executed by hanging the next morning, in a private courtyard on the castle grounds. The only people present besides the executioner were Grand King Wildas, Second King Coulta, Former Second King Shelton, Brother Pelles, Prince Jaimathan, and several heralds who would spread the news of the man's death. Tradition called for at least five witnesses of regard, and because Rohan was determined to keep prying eyes away outside the courtyard and none of the queens – current or former – wan

Coulta kept a careful eye on the celebrations that day and into the night. There was dancing, feasting, and various forms of entertainment involving magic and animals, not to mention the famous dance troupe that had graced the hall before. The troupe performed with all its heart and soul, some members hoping to find royal spouses to complete their fairy tales, others hoping to end up in more well-paying performance positions in the capital. To Coulta, nothing seemed out of sorts at the castle h

I think this is a case of parents just not caring, and thinking their kids are good little angels, despite evidence to the contrary, but not bothering to actually raise them as good little angels. Karen claims they were never this bad before, so she didn't bother reporting it. She also says she did not feel threatened, so the extent to which legal action can be taken is limited because the students were all minors. She is also hearing impaired so she didn't hear everything they were saying at the time, until she watched the video. She does not want the kids to face criminal charges, only to be grounded and to apologize. From this article: http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20120620/NEWS01/306200023/Greece-bus-monitor-bullying-video?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Home The Greece school district is having a press conference at 1pm today. They have already said that the students will be disciplined, but to what extent, who knows. Hopefully they are forced to make a public apology.

I'm not sure if it only seems like it's viral to me because it happened at a school district in my area, but has anyone else seen this video? A group of middle school students started verbally harrassing their bus monitor, Karen, for no apparent reason, and had the nerve to record it on their phone - which I guess turned out to be a good choice for Karen. The kid who recorded it posted it on Facebook, calling it, "Making the Bus Monitor Cry." Someone else took it from Facebook and posted it on YouTube so that people would actually see it and something would be done. The school district and the police are now investigating, and with all the news it's getting, I doubt they'll let it go. The students repeated over and over again just how "fat" she was, asked her to tell them where she lives so they could steal her stuff, and threatened to vandalize her property. They also told her that she was so awful that her kids should just kill themselves, not knowing or caring that her son actually did commit suicide ten years ago. The video is ten minutes long. I couldn't even watch half of it, I was so disgusted and enraged. If anyone wants to see for themselves, this is the video link: But there is a bright side. Because one student posted the video, people know, and people are ticked off. Facebook and the local news outlets have been exploding with it today, and one person set up a fundraiser to raise $5,000 to send Karen on a nice vacation. That fundraiser is now pushing $100,000 ($98,000 as I write this), and it only started less that 24 hours ago. The fundraiser page is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/loveforkarenhklein?c=home I'm wondering if maybe there really is some good in humanity after all, seeing how people are responding to this.

Yes. My faith in humanity died long ago, because of him.

Winter arrived only days later with the first storm of the season, blanketing the city in a layer of snow that was ankle-deep and gave trouble to anyone who didn't own a decent pair of high boots. Paths along the castle grounds were cleared by servants and soldiers with shovels designed for such a task, and fires blazed day and night in every room that was used daily within the castle. Myri again forbid Anil from going to the barns, afraid she would take sick during the cold walks and possibly c

I wanted to be a wolf, but the quiz tells me I'm a swan. Interesting. "Swans are idealistic, open-minded, and passionate. Your good nature often leads people to think they can take advantage of you, but they should be careful—beneath that serenity lies a fighting spirit. Your love is fierce and unconditional, fueled by the certainty that it should last forever." Sounds like me, though.

Irregardless: NOT A WORD STOP SAYING IT! Fabulous: I just find it to be an annoying word. Maybe because some obnoxious girl I knew in junior high used it all the freaking time. Elite: I say, stop being a snob or prove it.

I'm stuck on Xbox for now, though I've been dealing with friends trying to pressure me into going with a PlayStation. I don't play a ton of games, really - the only game I currently own is Skyrim... But I enjoy playing casually. I just bought my own personal Xbox 360 because my brother decided to take the one that we share and hook it up in the basement, in his "personal bro-den" (his words) with a crappy TV. He was very strict about when I was allowed to play and when he needed to be playing one of those military games online with "the bros." I was sick of arguing with him, so I just got my own. It's hooked up to my computer monitor, which has MUCH better definition than the TV he is using in the basement. I also play games on my PC, but never any really involved games like what I've played on Xbox. Just some Zoo Tycoon and Age of Empires. I don't know why, I just don't ever feel like playing much of anything on my computer.

I love accents. I have a friend from high school whose father has a British accent, despite living in New York for 20 years. I loved hanging out at her house just to hear her dad talk. I hear a lot of really cool accents where I work, too. I'm a cashier in a grocery store, and you meet lots of awesome people stopping for groceries, since we're just off the NY thruway. We're also really close to a racetrack (as in, horses) so there are A LOT of hispanics during the summer - we all know when the trainers are bringing the horses back from Florida as spring approachs because short, skinny, young guys who hardly speak English start showing up. I also got a very good sense of various American accents over the winter when the racetrack had a snowmobile racing event. Teams came from all over the country, and most of us cashiers started asking them all where they were from. It was really interesting. It's also not just how people talk, but what they say. For example, I live in a region where most people refer to carbonated beverages as either "soda" or "pop." Last night I had this conversation with a customer who bought a six-pack of Pepsi: Me: Would you like your soda in a bag? Customer: My wha- oh, the coke. Nah. Me: Uh... did you want Coke? This is Pepsi. Customer: Yeah, I know. Me: Uh... okay. It all definitely makes life more interesting.

Coulta returned from training his spies the next afternoon and decided that he needed some of Myri's tea to ease the throbbing in his head, before he tried once more to find out from his spies what was happening around them. Myri was out working with the healers, likely putting her new abilities to the test, so it was up to him to figure out which tea he needed. She kept an organized assortment of pre-mixed herbs in her room, but Coulta quickly realized that he wasn't knowledgeable enough to cho

It was a tense wait for Shelton to return with the other mage. None of them knew what having Coulta's powers could possibly mean, and Coulta himself was worried about their unborn child. Could he have passed on his powers to the baby, as well as Anil? Would that harm the child? What if it was born with similar markings on the skin that Coulta had? How could they explain that to the court? Punishments for Second Kings who failed to prevent themselves from impregnating a queen were severe – tradit

"What happened?" Shelton questioned. Anil slumped down into a chair, one hand on her swollen belly. "I was in the stables," she explained as she caught her breath. "I was thinking about the news from Algoma and that we will likely be at war soon. I stopped to rub the face of one of the horses, thinking of how I wished I could protect them from harm. Then this... sheet of light – that's the only way I can describe it – came from my hand and covered the horse's entire body. He didn't even react.

"We are completely unprepared," the Algoman prince explained that evening. "We had no information suggesting that Reesh was going to attack us. All we had gathered was that he planned to attack Phelin. We were preparing to send an envoy here the very day we were attacked, but he never had the chance to leave." "We've been aware of the threat," Wildas assured him. "We weren't aware that Algoma would be attacked, though." Coulta, who had spent all afternoon contacting his spies to be sure of thi

The next two weeks passed in relative calm, until the day that Shelton arrived at Coulta's office and demanded to speak to him and Wildas. They had to wait for Wildas to finish hearing petitions, and in the meantime Shelton refused to discus anything with Coulta. Finally, Wildas arrived, looking worried. "Rohan said you needed me," he said to Shelton. "I just spoke with a sorcerer by the name of Braith," Shelton began, turning a violet stone over in his hands – one of the communication crystal

I definitely see your point. Unfortunately, I felt it was a part of the story that had more need for narration than dialogue. I tried using characters to explain more things in this chapter, but it just felt awkward when I read it through. I do see your point, though, and I definitely do prefer dialogue whenever possible.

I am really not a football fan, but I usually watch for the commercials. This was the first year that I missed it, though. I had to work all evening, selling lots and lots of beer and frozen pizzas (I cashier at a grocery store). The only thing that mattered to me was my family leaving me food from the party. Though, now I have to endure my mom going on about how her team lost for the next week.

Myri extended Anil's bed rest to be sure there were no ill effects from the attack, which neither woman was happy about. After hearing about the assassination attempt, Prince Rohan assigned a guard to the bedridden queen at all times, then confronted his lord brother in a quarrel that took four people – Coulta, Myri, Yvona, and Shelton – to finally force an end to. The brothers didn't lay a hand on each other, but they were practically yelling loud enough to disturb the entire castle and were ve

I have read exactly four of those books, three of them for English classes in high school. I'm really surprised not to see Lord of the Flies on the list, I have to say. Or Catcher in the Rye. Or Of Mice and Men. I thought those were pretty great, too.

Over the next several days, Coulta met privately with all twenty of his spies currently in Ryal, with Teeya present to help fit the new fighting gear to each man or woman's specific proportions. The masks that went with the uniforms were made of a dark, breathable fabric that would allow each spy to breathe while being unidentifiable by any of the others. The rest of the uniform was made up of long leather pants, long-sleeved leather shirts, gloves, and hood to cover the hair that was attached i