The Phoenix Ghost

California

Patio area for their California home...

This was a hard chapter to write. I'm sorry @NicholeSkeleton6 - I couldn't release the chapter last night, I had to rewrite it three times before I was even relatively happy with the result.

I'm seriously going to be walking away from the PG nature of the stories origins and focusing on the development of the intimacy within the Ghost family with glimpses of what is going on back in South Carolina and in Estonia....

Enjoy.
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The move to California was so sudden and there was so much to do between caring for the septs, packing up our lives and then the actual travelling with seven newborn babies that finding ourselves in the new house in Napa Valley was almost anti climatic.

I say almost because the property is just... wow, unbelievable. There's 950 acres of vineyard and stables plus the main house and guest house. There is so much space and light in the design of the main house that there is a strong atmosphere of peacefulness that pervades the whole house and immediate grounds.  The eight of us and the septs have taken long walks; shared picnics together; gotten to know the horses in the stables; sat outside on the patio, with a beautiful granite top table beside a stunning fire pit, overlooking the horses pasture watching the sun both rise and set just... talking, laughing, kissing and touching while getting to know the personalities and individual needs of our children.

We had a small celebration to mark mine and Iris' birthday at the end of the first week after we moved in. Our men would've liked to have done so much more to honour the occasion but we'd all admitted we were just too spent to do more than order take away and have a cake. The boys had given Iris and I both a stunning charm bracelet with charms that represent each of us and also one to represent the septs - an imperial rose (Sang) and an iris (Iris), a crown (Axel), a crow (Raven), a keyboard (Corey), a wrench (Brandon), a moon - Iris/a star - Sang (Kevin), an emerald - Sang/a sapphire- Iris (Marc) and a baby rattle (septs). Each charm contained the birthstone of the one represented.

I gave Iris the pre order form for the new Ducati Superleggera V4 I'd advanced purchased for her with Pop's help. She was beyond excited and kept guerrilla style kissing and hugging me all night.

Iris gave me both the 1819 and 1857 editions of the Fairy Tales of the Grimm Brothers. The 1819 version is actually the second edition of the Grimm Fairy Tales, but is the first edition that my favourite story, Tale 65 - Allerleirauh was included in. The original versions in 1812 and 1819 were much darker than the more 'child friendly' version of 1857 where after six additional publications through 1820-1857, fairies had been removed and step mothers made the villains rather than biological mothers to satisfy the Christian beliefs of the many. Iris knows that I see this as an analogy of my life. The darker version came first... Let's hope by the time I get to the 1857 edition stage of my life, I can be both - happier while still able to refrain from deceiving myself about the contents. I have no idea how she even got those two books as I've looked for five years. I've never even seen mention of one for sale, I'd thought those copies were lost to time. Needless to say I was ecstatic. The Tomas had been fascinated with a new facet to my personality when faced with the unusual blend of macabre and magical that I preferred in the story telling of the Brothers Grimm above all other books.

The fellas and Iris split themselves into teams A, B and C and they rotate helping me out with the septs daily routine. Their obsession with team behaviour has been hilarious as they actually compete to be the most efficient team, the team the babies prefer the most and the team that takes care of me the best - with justifications for why their team deserves the award. I am forced to adjudicate.