It had been a week or so, and Dianne couldn't get that damn man out of her mind. She didn't like him, no. But how much he infuriated her, she wished she could just strangle him and leave him be. But the facts are the facts, and motherhood is not easy. Especially when you have five squalling children that had feathers, beaks, and huge appetites. This fairy was in love with one thing, and one thing only. She loved the forest, and that included everything in it. Everything that was there from the beginning, at least.
"Haul your bones, lazy ass."
She whipped at him, trotting ahead with the pack of griffin babies bouncing around, kitten-like at the moment. She was taking them to a more permanent home, her own home away from home, because she didn't like living in a cave all the time. Besides, the pixies were annoying. Dianne spun on her heel, stopping for a moment to make sure he was still behind her. She didn't believe that he would run away anymore, but at times she wasn't sure about him. The thick foliage, heavy and green, did nothing to hamper her, but, she thought with a wicked twinkle in her eyes, he was at least four or five inches taller than he was.
"Come on guys."
Bouncing on the balls of her feet she was back off, the pack on her back looking very light, although it wasn't. Although Dianne had sat there and evenly distributed everything into two packs, she had taken secret delight in choosing the one that looked lighter. It took less than a few more minutes, although they had been hiking for several hours, for her to pause again, looking confidently at a patch of green shrubs that looked excatly the same as everything else in the forest.
"Home!"
And slipped right through the bushes, which actually opened into a clearing, bewitched by magic to stay hidden.
"There. Home until they get too big to keep here."
A fire ring sat comfortably, big and clean, with an oven made from rocks covering half of it, and a spit covering the other half. Near that was a small hut, with a dirt floor and two rooms that were simple, like everything else that was in the clearing.
"So, machoman. Go check it out."