Roses [Finished]

[The Jenn]

Femi rolled around on the floor or the foyer with her Mome, playing with the cuddly thing and giggling as he crawled across her stomach, warming the fur as he snuggled down into her soft chest fluff. She pulled her tail up to cover her stomach and companion, curling her limbs in around it and giggling as she continued to roll. She was feeling quite good!

It was a sunny day through the leaves of the thick Tulgey foliage and the stray ray or two of sunlight shone in through the windows in the front room. She moved near the stairs and kicked off from them, jumping to her haunches and cuddling the soft, loving little Mome. He was such a good thing, and so patient. The purple bow around his neck attested to that fact.

A noise at the front door made her pause and roll back on her side, glancing at the wooden object. The sound came again and she realized it was a knock. How novel! Carefully setting down her warm burden, she bounced up and skittered to the door, still in her animal form. It was an unusual sight on her, but she'd just felt like it while she played.

Curiously, she opened the door.

[Kari Muffin]

Breaking. Kazifel could feel everything falling apart as he sat alone in his workshop. It was one of the bad days where Femi wasn't putting things together properly. He could only hope that nothing horrible would happen.

He never expected Rosemary to visit on a day like this. He was oblivious to the knock on the door as he tried to ignore everything in his workshop. If he just worked on his dolls things wouldn't bother him as much. Femi was play with her Mome the last time he checked anyway, she should be entertained for a while.

--

It had been entirely too long since her last visit. The wolf-squirrel figured it was finally time to come home, even if she had several embrassing experiences before her return. Dad would be happy to hear of her adventures and how Parsley was doing. Mom would be happy to see her, she hoped.

She knocked on the door. And after a moment there was no answer so she knocked again. It took a bit but finally the door opened to reveal her mother... in her animal form?

"Hey Mom!" she said cheerfully. "What's going on?"

[The Jenn]

Femi sat on her haunches in front of the open door, blinking at the person in front of her with a polite expression. "What?" Then the smell hit her. She closed her eyes and inhaled, a smile appearing on her small face.

That was a good smell. One of her favorite smells. "Oh, roses! I smell roses. Did you bring some? I haven't seen any in so long. They don't grow around here, you know. Can I help you?"

Behind her, Mullen trotted up and rubbed against her side. She looked down and giggled, scooping up the warm, furry creature and bodily rolling across the floor with him. She had seemingly forgotten about the open door, the roses, and the person in front of her in favor of the sweet, playful Mome, who she rolled with and chased in the foyer. The smell made her ridiculously happy. Nothing besides roses smelled like roses, so there had to be roses around somewhere.

[Kari Muffin]

Rosemary tilted her head. Her mother was just being her normal fluffy headed self. Honestly, how could she forget that her own daughter smelled like roses thanks to the tattoo that she had gotten. The wolf squirrel watched as her mother suddenly changed attentions to the Mome. It had been a long time since Rose had seen the adorable little thing, and was quite surprised to watch her mother play with it.

"Mom... that's not funny." Rosemary said as she made her way inside, closing the door behind her. "I just wanted to see how everything was."

Her mother had always been weird. She was never quite all there, but Dad had always made up for it. This was probably just another display of special.

Rosemary.... something doesn't seem right. Forge softly prodded in the back of her head.

"That...." Rosemary paused, "Mom. Are you okay?"

She might as well throw it out there?

[The Jenn]

The voice behind Femi, closer now, made her pause her play with the fuzzy little Mome. It was closer, she was sure. She flipped around from where she'd rolled with her back to the door and stared at the young woman, her expression now unsure. "Ah. Should you be coming inside? Only I think I should check with Kazifel first. He doesn't like people coming inside unless he knows about it."

She rolled to her feet and stood on her haunches once more, twitching her nose in unease. Then she sniffed the air again and sneezed. And giggled. "They smell so good! Where are they? Did you bring them for me, or for Kazifel?"

Considering for a moment, she quickly changed to her biped form and smiled. It was still a polite expression, which always looked rather sweet on Femi. Easier to hold flowers with hands. Maybe she could put them in the kitchen? "I should probably go and tell him that you're here. Only I didn't catch your name?"

[Kari Muffin]

What?

WHAT?

Rosemary stared at her mother in disbelief. Was she playing around with her or... no. She wasn't playing around. Mom didn't do that sort of thing. She wouldn't joke about something like this. She liked to play games... but this was something else entirely.

Rosemary. Just calm down. Don't panic.

Unfortunately his efforts were too little too late. Rosemary panicked quite fantastically. "Daddy! DADDY!" she yelled at the top of her lungs before flopping on the floor as if she was throwing a tantrum. She could feel the tears in the corner of her eyes as she tried to cover her face.

Kazifel froze. His heart skipped a beat when he realized what was going on, and yet he stayed there for a solid minute, hoping that it was just some sort of nightmare. He knew better. Getting up he didn't rush towards the door, he walked at his normal place trying to stay calm.

This was one of Femi's bad day's after all.

He made it to the living room, still silent to look at the scene in front of him. No. He really didn't want to deal with this right now.

[The Jenn]

Femi stared back at Rosemary, and then squeaked and jumped back at the girl's scream. "Wh- what are you doing?" she asked with wide eyes, watching the girl flop around in mild horror. This wasn't what guests did. Guests came in and said hello to her and asked to see Kazifel, and maybe they stayed for tea while they talked to him. This wasn't at all like that.

"Stop it," she tried, voice too small to be heard. She had drawn back from the flailing form on the floor, unsure what to do. Mullen had run to her leg in the confusion and she quickly de-summoned her. "My husband will hear you and come," she warned, testing that route. No, it didn't seem to make the young woman stop. Huh.

And she still didn't see any roses.

When she saw Kazifel in the doorway leading into the living room, she skirted around the girl and scooted over, wrapping her arms around his waist and staring at Rosemary. "She just came into the house and started screaming," the squirrel said in a scared voice. "I don't know what she wants. She brought flowers, but she must have left them outside."

[Kari Muffin]

Kazifel just wanted to tell her daughter to shut up. That was wrong though. Rosemary just didn't know what was going on, he shouldn't take it out on her. She'd been having a rough time too. Things were just building, especially since she kept things to herself. Plenty of things. Kazifel knew that. It didn't help the situation.

He hugged Femi lightly. "She's our daughter Femi. I know you can't remember right now but she's ours." He said quietly, giving her a light kiss on the cheek before carefully trying to release himself from her grip. "It's important that we talk to her."

"Rosemary. Stop it. You're making things worse." he said flatly. It was the same tone he had always used when the little girl had gotten in trouble. It worked just as well this time as it had so many other times. Rosemary fell silent. However, she curled up on the floor, her paws covering her face.

She whimpered rather pitifully.

"Femi... could you go to the kitchen and get some glasses and the pitcher of water for me?" Kazifel asked in hopes that his wife would comply so he could be alone with his daughter, no matter how brief.

[The Jenn]

Femi accepted the kiss with a confused little frown, looking from her husband to Rosemary and back again. "That doesn't make any sense. We don't have a daughter. We lost our baby." No, it didn't make any sense to her at all. She didn't understand. Who was this person? Rosemary. What a pretty name. She thought that was lovely. But where were the roses?

At least Kazifel knew her. That was reassuring and it helped her to relax.

"Yes, love. That should be fine. I'll bring back a vase, too, and make sure there's enough water." She reluctantly let go of his waist and headed towards the kitchen, giving the girl on the floor one last strange look.

Into the kitchen. She hummed and prepared some water and a vase on a tray left over from tea that morning. She should probably make sure there was a bowl for the girl with the animal form. Rosemary. Yes, they had suitable drinking bowls.

[Kari Muffin]

He was silent until Femi left. "Rosemary.... I--"

"She doesn't remember me?" Rosemary interrupted from her place on the floor. They lost their baby? That meant Alphonse. But she was still here. And what about the rest of them? Didn't they mean anything? How could Mom forget that? "Why doesn't Mommy remember me?"

Kazifel really didn't want to deal with this. "Just, please get up off the ground. I'll explain... just... get up off the ground."

Something didn't sound right with Daddy either. Rosemary swallowed hard before getting up and doing what her father said. She gave him a rather pitiful look, only to watch him turn away and walk towards the living room.

Why didn't her parents love her anymore?

Her heart shank as she moved towards her normal spot on the couch. She felt the comforting of her sword. It didn't do much. "You don't love me anymore?" she asked in a whisper.

Kazifel watched her normally cheerful daughter's dejected face. No. No. This really couldn't be happening. "That's not it Rosemary.... your mother she...."