94 New To The Area

Flora zoomed toward them without preamble and did an excited somersault in midair. "This castle is so cool! Can I have my own room this time? I wanna decorate it like My Little Pony."

Ruby pulled back, embarrassed. "Sure thing little flower. I need to go into town tomorrow anyway so we can get your stuff then."

"Yay!"

"It's almost your bedtime but can you come here for a minute? Ash needs to do something so you can come and go from the barrier."

He hadn't bothered before because she was always holding onto one of them on the rare occasions she came or went but he figured she would want more freedom as she got older. It truly did sound like he planned on staying long-term to see her grow up.

That was no small commitment. If he stayed all the way until she was an adult that would be nearly 120 years of living with fairies instead of his own kind.

Flora flew up in his face curiously. "What is it?"

"Ruby, why don't you lift your hair and show her?" Ash suggested.

She did and the little fairy inspected it. "It looks like a little red diamond with a bunch of lines in it. Do I get one too?"

He nodded. "Yes but you need to hold still for a minute."

Flora took his missive seriously and became a floating statue as he cast the spell. Once he finished she eagerly lifted her hair to show Ruby. "Is it there? Is it? Does it look like yours?"

The little fairy's description hadn't been wrong. It was a tiny square tilted so it looked like a geometric diamond with a series of crisscrossing lines running through it. The seal was about the size of Ruby's thumbnail so it really wasn't noticeable unless you looked for it.

"Yes, it looks like hers," Ash said patiently.

"Cool! I'm like you, Ruby!"

A lump formed in her throat. The three of them truly did seem like a family like this. They were linked together by magic for as long as Ash wanted them to be. Part of her hoped it would be forever.

===

Ruby took Flora into town the next day while Ash was asleep with a rather long list of things to get. First and foremost, she needed a van or truck so she would be able to transport all of the trees and shrubs she wanted to plant. That and groceries. Groceries were important too.

Flora played on her iPad while they were in the car dealership working things out. Ruby walked out of there a couple hours later as the proud owner of a brand new four-wheel drive truck that was paid for in cash.

The edge of their property was less than fifty miles from Juneau. They flew most of the way without being spotted by humans but after that spent about an hour "running" at a human pace as they hovered just above the ground. Having the truck would be very helpful.

The next thing on the priority list was finding the local witch coven. Ruby didn't exactly have a plan for this beyond checking all of the health related stores and testing the code phrase at each one.

She got a lot of funny looks before trying the seventh place and getting what she was looking for. The witch behind the counter closed the shop with a snap of her fingers and smiled cheerily as her glamour fell away to reveal glowing orange eyes that matched her hair.

Ruby decided it would be easier to look like an earth fairy here because of Flora so she changed her glamour up and ignored the questioning look her cousin was giving her. At least she knew to keep her mouth shut by now.

"Hey there! I don't think I've seen you around here before and I know everybody in these parts. I'm Maeve Horan, what are your names?"

"Ruby and Flora Gardner. We're new to the area. I actually don't need to buy anything today; I just wanted to know where your coven was," she confessed. "It's nice to meet you."

Maeve laughed. "Nothing wrong with that! We're always happy to see new faces around here. It seems like a new fae family moves in every few years. I guess they like the relative seclusion of the far north. It is pretty nice though the snow is no joke.

"We have about a dozen fairies up this way but no fire types, which makes sense considering the climate. I'll have to tell them about you two! Are there any more with you or is it just the two of you? Your daughter is adorable by the way."

Ruby didn't want to say that Flora was her cousin because then she would have to explain what happened to her parents. She simply smiled and thanked the witch.

Maeve ended up being a fount of information about Alaska's fae community. Not everyone was concentrated around Juneau but throughout the state they had four werewolf packs, a vampire coven with around twenty members, scattered groups of elves, tons of kelpies in the rivers and lakes, and the fairies she had already mentioned.

Her heart sunk slightly when she heard about the vampires. When he did decide to leave her it would be fairly easy to find his own kind.

Ruby thanked the witch once they wrapped up the conversation and headed to their next destination with a heavy heart. She wanted to scope out local nurseries and see what she had to work with for the garden.

By the time they finally made it back to the castle, the truck was loaded up with plants, unbuilt furniture and decorations for Flora's room, and groceries. Thankfully Ash was awake to help them carry things in.

She left the plants outside to be dealt with later because Flora was so excited about setting her up her room that she insisted they handle that first. The only thing Ruby hadn't bothered buying was a bedframe because she hadn't wanted to deal with putting it together.

Instead she summoned metals from the earth and molded them into the shape she wanted. Unfortunately, the same could not be done for the wooden dresser she bought. That had to be put together by hand.