fairydust -- Awe! You are such a sweetie! Thanks so much for your post!
<--- you made me bounce-y!
As promised heeeeeeere's more! (it's only a little bit... but there's even more coming soon!)
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Ghaena awoke with a start. She sat up, quickly throwing the covers off of her as she leapt out of bed and over to wear Morrigan was sleeping on the couch.
“Up!” she bellowed at the sleeping woman. “Up! Up with you now!” She yanked the blanket from off of the slumbering form. Morrigan jumped awake.
“Ah! What is it?” the dark-haired woman asked, sitting up.
“Sh!” Ghaena commanded. “Listen”, she said, angling her head so that her right ear was turned up to the air. “Do ye hear it?”
Morrigan sat silently for a moment, listening as well. She grabbed Ghaena’s arm in alarm, “The call.”
Ghaena only nodded, “The child is ready.”
*****
“Willow. Willow, wake up!” Tara practically yelled, shaking her wife out of her dreams. Slowly, the redhead came around.
“What is it baby”, she asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Emily”, her mother said, turning back to her, “Tell your mama what you just told me.”
“I have to go to Avalon now, Mama”, Emily said with a certainty beyond her years. “It’s time.”
“What?” Willow yelped, turning on the bedside lamp as she struggled to sit up from her tangled position under the covers. “No. No, no. No Emily, not… time. It can’t be time. You’re too young… how do you know”, she asked in a rushed and panicked voice.
“I know.” Emily replied.
“How?” The redhead pressed, her tone almost becoming angry.
“I just know, Mama”, Emily answered, upset that she had upset her parents so badly.
“Emily”, Tara said firmly, “who told you it was time?”
“The ancients”, answered Ghaena, who suddenly appeared in the room.
“Jesus Christ!” Willow cried out, so startled was she by the priestess’s entrance.
“Interesting that a Jew should call out to the most holy Christian martyr”, said an amused Morrigan as she filed into the couple’s bedroom behind the elder priestess.
“Buffy!” Tara called out.
“Let her sleep”, said Ghaena, “this does not concern the slayer.”
“What I am killing?!” Buffy yelled as she came careening into the room, battle-ready. “What are you two doing here?” she asked the two women. “More importantly, how did you get in?”
“It is alright, warrior”, soothed Morrigan, “Stay your hand. We are here to help.”
“It’s okay, Godmommy”, said Emily, going to Buffy and taking her hand. “It’s almost over.”
“Somebody want to give me the Cliff’s Notes version of what is going on?” Buffy queried.
“I need to go to Avalon now”, the young girl explained.
“What?!” said the slayer.
“No.” stated Tara. “NO! No, Ghaena! She is only eight years old! She’s only a baby! You can’t…”
“STOP!” Ghaena bellowed, startling everyone in the room. Michelle could be heard beginning to cry in Emily’s room down the hall. The priestess looked to Buffy and said softly, “Tend to the infant.” The slayer only looked at her. Unwilling to move. “Please”, Ghaena added after a moment. Buffy looked to Willow and Tara for the “okay”. The two women hesitantly nodded and Buffy moved to the hall.
“Hurt them”, Buffy said, staring Ghaena down, “and I don’t care if you’re immortal, I will break you in ways that will cause you to live in pain for the next five centuries.”
Ghaena nodded in a manner similar to a small bow as the slayer excused herself the rest of the way out of the room. The brunette turned back to Tara and spoke in a calm and even tone. “Stop your frenzied worrying and just listen for a moment. You are my descendant and should be able to hear
what I do. What Emily does. Just stop a moment and… hear.”
Tara did stop, and she did listen… and she heard.
“Baby?” said Willow, “What is it?”
“Whispers”, answered Tara. “Voices. Almost… almost like singing. I don’t understand the language… it… it sounds almost… like Gaelic?”
“It’s Elvish”, Ghaena illuminated. “The root of the Gaelic language.”
“Who is it?” asked Tara, “What’s doing it?”
“It’s the Ancients”, said Morrigan, once more joining the conversation. “The priestesses of Avalon. The ones who were left behind on the isle when it faded. They are singing for their freedom. They are calling out to the child.”
“They know she is ready”, Ghaena finished.
“It’s okay Mommy, Mama”, Emily whispered, “I know what I have to do.”
“We must make for Avalon immediately”, the brunette pressed.
“Wait a minute!” Willow shouted. “Hello? Avalon is in another
country! We can’t just up and leave in the middle of the night. We have a two-month old baby and Emily has school and we don’t even know what the weather is like there! I mean, this sort of thing takes planning! Years and years of planning. Maybe when Emily is older… I don’t know… like thirty…”
“The journey is far from arduous”, Ghaena assured her. “We can travel through the mists and arrive before the day is out. Time is of the essence. If you are concerned for your wee one, you may stay behind and care for her while we are gone.”
“No.” Willow stated firmly. “Not an option. This is my family. MY family! And I go where they go. I am not just going to sit here while you take my wife and child into weird misty peril.”
“We don’t have time for this”, complained Morrigan, turning to Willow. “Decide what you are going to do and do it quickly. We are not the only ones who hear the Ancients cry. Le Fay has heard it too by now, which means that she knows… Emily is in far more danger now than she has ever been in. Le Fay will stop at nothing to prevent Avalon from being raised, up to and including, taking the child’s life.”
Willow looked into Tara’s eyes. “Maybe we could leave Michelle with my mom.”
“We can’t”, answered Tara, “you’re still nursing.”
“Then we all go”, said Willow, “including Buffy.”
The married couple looked up at the two priestesses. Morrigan and Ghaena shared a quick glance. “That is fair”, Morrigan conceded. “Get dressed. We leave now.”
*****
TBC...
"Promise me you'll never be linear." "On my trout."