"Well to be honest, I had a very hard time deciding on what pet to get. He was too...well cute. So I decided on him. Shiva came up with his name and Jamil takes care of him whenever I'm out of the house." Rurik explained. "I'm surprised that you don't have a pet of your own. I mean, after all of your travels I thought you'd bring back a pet." he commented.

"Oh... well I do have a pet... I guess you could say, one of my friends was looking after her until he knew I was safely home, he'll be here for the party... I think Shiva might like her." Mel smiled a little.

"What is it?" Rurik asked before sitting down on the soft grass and yawning a bit. "A Phoenix? A dragon?" he guessed. He didn't know his sister at all so he didn't know what sort of pet she got, but what he did know what that he wasn't going to let Shiva slack off just because some animal was arriving tomorrow.

"No... she's a fox... I kind of have a hard time explaining it exactly... so you'll just have to wait and see her for yourself so you can understand, I still don't quite fully understand it myself." Mel explained softly but then smiled a little "i hope you get a chance to meet some of my friends tomorrow, I'm sure they would love to meet you." she smiled some.

Frowning some at the mention of her friends, Rurik whistled for Sylph to come over. "I would rather not meet your friends..." He started and glared. "As for your pet, I don't need Shiva to be distracted by some other animal." Rurik said simply before petting Sylph. "Come inside Sylph, I'm sure you're hungry." With that, Rurik stood back up and walked inside with Sylph where he had a servant give him some food in a bowl which he took with him upstairs to his room with Sylph following close behind. "Time to open some gifts. Here you go." Rurik said as he set the bowl down for Sylph to eat while he opened his closet door and stared at the gifts. Taking them all out, he set them on his bed and started to open them one after the other.

Mel was surprised at this and rather saddened, why did he get so madd at her all of a sudden? had she said something wrong?

Several of the gifts were very extravigent items, swords, beautifully made statues of dragons and other creatures, even gryphons, a few were pictures of some of the places Mel had went and almost all of the boxes had letters in them to be opened at certain times, all being birthday's passed.

the letters
All of the different letters had different dates on them but the last few had only been signed a year before, there was at least one gift for every year Mel had been gone, probably even more but not all of them had letters in them, in fact most of them didn't

Rurik read every letter at least three times before putting them to the side and stared at the gifts. He felt bad that he was mean to her, but that was all in the past now and he was who he was. He wasn't going to change from one day to the next, It was obviously going to take time. "All very nice gifts. Now I have to find some room for them." Rurik said to himself quietly and let out a soft sigh. The letters really messed with his emotions, they saddened him because she sounded like a very nice person. Now that she was here though, it upset him to see that they really weren't getting along.

Shiva smiled as she got word that dinner was almost ready and easily headed up to Rurik's room and knocked softly. "Master dinner is ready" she smiled easily before waiting to hear his response wondering a bit what he had been doingg, she hadn't seen him since that morning which was rather odd since he normally checked in on her bust she guessed he must have been busy with getting ready for tomorrow as well

"Oh...I...I'll be right down." Rurik replied softly and looked over at Sylph who had finished his food and lay curled up on the floor. Picking up the empty bowl, Rurik opened the door and looked at Shiva before quickly going downstairs to the kitchen where he placed the empty bowl in the sink and went to take a seat at the dinner table.

Shiva was a bit surprised at how Rurik looked but just shrugged it off and went to get herself some dinner as well knowing she would need to eat quickly so she could get back to work.

Meleanie was sitting at the table chatting with her mother easily and happily. "Oh I never got to ask how did that dress fit you? I hope it wasn't too big or too small." She asked curiously hoping the dress she had gotten her mother fit well and also hoped to steer the conversation in a way that they wouldn't ask about the suitor that had been there earlier.

"The dress fit perfectly fine deary, I'll be wearing it tomorrow for the party." Irsa replied easily. Seeing Rurik take his seat, Irsa turned to him and raised an eyebrow. "Hello dear, are you alright?" She asked. Hating to look weak in front of others, he put on a serious face and nodded. "I'm perfectly fine mother." he answered and poked at his food once it had been served before taking a bite. "Are you both looking forward to the party tomorrow?" Asked Irsa. "Not at all." Replied Rurik after taking a sip of his water.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing my friend and my pet again... oh I completely forgot to tell you both... I'm sorry Rurik just reminded me of her myself. Tomorrow some of my friends should be coming and one of them has my fox with them, I didn't want to bring her with me in case something happened on the way here so I left her at my friends house." Mel explained with a smile before she started to eat and wondered a bit what might be wrong with Rurik, he didn't look quite well.

"Oh that's wonderful news Mel! So your friends will be coming to the party? That's great, it's perfect! I'm sure that this party will be a huge success. I must say I look forward to meet in them." Irsa said happily. Atros noticed the look on Rurik's face and motioned at Irsa to see. "Rurik, what's wrong?" Atros asked. Rurik only shook his head. "I'm fine." he replied and looked at Mel. "Thanks for the gifts and Letters. They....well they were surprising is all I can say." he said quietly and frowned. "May I be excused?" he asked his parents. "You haven't even eaten your food." pointed out Irsa. "I am not hungry..." Rurik replied. Atros knew what was wrong and nodded. "You're excused." he said and watched as Rurik quickly left the dining room.

Mel smiled a little at her mothers reaction but then looked at Rurik and was surprised when he mentioned the letters. "Oh dear... should I go talk to him? I never meant for them to upset him... in fact... I really didn't expect him to read them with how he had been acting" she asked worriedly as she looked at her parents not sure how to handle this. He was clearly upset, but at what?

"I don't think the letters are what upset him Mel. I mean, you can go talk to him if you wish. If I were you though, I'd just leave him alone." Atros explained. "Your father is right deary. When your brother gets upset, the best thing to do is give him space and time. He gets over it all eventually. But like your father said, you can go try to talk to him if you wish." replied Irsa before continuing to eat alongside her husband.

Rurik left up to his room and closed the door behind him, quietly so that he wouldn't wake up Sylph who was sleeping peacefully. Quickly, he grabbed the letters and put them away before grabbing the gifts and putting them around his room. They sure did help make his room look a lot nicer which was good.

"If you say so." Mel said softly before going back to eating hoping that Rurik would be okay.

Shiva smiled some as she finished eating and quickly went to start help cleaning up since there were allot more dishes then normal, it was certainly a good thing that there was more then one sink in the kitchen with this much dishes.

The next day, Rurik showered and got dressed up for the party he was dreading. He knew he had to attend though, he didn't want to upset his parents since they worked hard on planning this. Fixing his hair, he flashed himself a smile and then hissed softly before looking over at the still sleeping Sylph. Quietly, he headed down stairs where the servants were busy preparing for the party. It was only a matter of time before he parents woke up to check on everything.

"Good morning master~" Shiva smiled as she was quickly and fluidly moving about checking on this and that to make sure that everything was nice and tidy. She had already been up for about two hours or so having woken up at about dawn to start really setting up for the party just as all of the servants were. But she seemed to have a special knack for quickly and carefully moving about without running or making a sound. Just as the first time he met her she almost looked like she was dancing as she moved about cleaning and seeming to barely miss being hit by a rushing servant or two.

"Morning..." Rurik muttered before leaving to the kitchen to get something to drink. Just as he was pouring himself some red wine, he heard his parents coming down the stairs. "Well this is looking very nice so far." noted Atros. "Agreed, this is looking lovely! Great work everyone, keep working though. I want nothing short of perfection!" Irsa ordered. "I wonder if the children are awake." said Irsa. "I'm right here mother." Rurik said as he stepped out of the kitchen with his glass of wine. "Okay good, that means we just need your sister to wake up and get ready. I hope she didn't forget that the party was today." she said softly.

"I believe Lady Meleanie went out to the garden with Mena" Shiva informed softly as she worked before moving onto the next area since everything was set up where she had been. Things were certainly getting done quickly.

"Her Mena?" Irsa repeated rather confused."Well, no matter. Come along love, we must be getting ready. The guests could arrive at any second. We'll be back. In the meantime, Rurik is in charge." Irsa stated and quickly left to her room, with Atros right behind her. Looking around, Rurik made sure that the servants got every little detail just right. "Wouldn't want to upset my mother now, do we?" He asked and wondered how the party would go. Would it go by smoothly? Or would there be a problem? He wasn't sure but he hoped it went well just so that his parents would be happy.

Soon Mel was back inside with her personal servant and went to her room to get ready having already eaten a bit of breakfast knowing that there would be snacks all day pretty much. She easily got dressed in one of her nicest dresses and went to see how everything was going noticing that the last minute details were being sorted out.

Rurik said nothing and just drank his wine in silence. He really didn't want to be here, he would much rather be in his room sleeping or outside walking around the kingdom with Shiva and Sylph. When he finished his wine, Rurik quickly left to the kitchen and got some more then came back and continued to watch in silence. It wasn't long before his parents arrived, and they were happy to see Meleanie. "Hello deary, I see you're ready. We are all ready, that's good. Now we just need the preparations to be finished and wait for the guests to arrive." instructed Irsa.

http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/a...se7v1ld1y.jpeg
http://i984.photobucket.com/albums/a...psqpc0p58t.jpg

soon everything was set up and most of the servants went to start preparing the food while others took their places to greet guests and take their hats and coats, while a few were scattered about here and there doing odd jobs. Shiva easily made her way over to the royal family and gave a slight bow. "Everything is ready and it seems a few guests have already started arriving." she smiled some before looking to Rurik to see if he had any special job he wanted her to do or if she was to go back and help in the kitchen or wherever she might be needed, not that there was much left to help with really.

Six of the first guests to show up early were two men, three woman and what seemed to be a little kitsune girl with a child's backpack leash on that looked like a little blue fox. "Ooooh~! Everything's shiny and pretty!" she squeaked a bit then her tail started to go a mile a minute and her ears perked. "Master! Oh! I smell master!" she said excitedly and tried to run in the direction of where Mel and her family was but the male that was holding the end of the leash just grunted and frowned. "Calm down calm down." he said softly as they walked into the castle and started to make their way towards where Mel and the others were.

"That's good to know. I guess you deserve a break then Shiva." Rurik said and noticed the guests arriving. Seeing the male approaching with what Rurik could only assume was Meleanie's pet, he decided to vanish. "This is my cue to leave. Excuse me." he said and frowned before quickly leaving the room. He really didn't want to be there, but he couldn't stay in his room forever. What he needed was a distraction from the party, and looking at Sylph he knew he had one.