[ShiffDrgnhrt]

*Shiff sits in a winged chair in his room in Llast, playing with the eight month old Tyra in his lap. She is occupied with her Teddy Bear, which over the past four months has been beaten against things, chewed on, thrown and sat on by Tyra. Shiff grins and plays with her as well, tickling her with fresh picked spring flowers. A few moments later Valmara comes in the room, taking Tyra from Shiff to play with her daughter. Valmara sits on the couch, talking childishly to Tyra, who burbles and giggles at her mother, bopping her on the nose with her bear. Shiff then goes to his desk and retrieves his Black Book, opening it to a blank page.*

So much has been happening lately...

Tyra's getting bigger. She started crawling recently, and boy can she move. Me and Val have to keep an eye on her every time we let her down, even if she's sitting there playing with her bear. We never know if Tyra is going to just take off and end up under something. She's adorable though, so cute... Her eyes are the most amazing shade of purple with little dark lines, as if her eyes were two big Phenalopes. Her hair is also starting to get longer and its curly and so soft... I love just running my fingers through it...

Valmara's been such a doll lately. Watching her with Tyra makes me wonder how a woman who used to break Gaint Skulls along side me without trying can be so gentle and loving. I guess its not really a surprise... She's been a wonderful friend and companion over the years, always being there for me when I needed her, just as I've always tried to be there for her...
She talks about me leaving her behind though... She loves Tyra very much, and I know she loves being home to take care of her, but I think she is beginning to miss the life we once lived together... I've been trying to find a way that we can leave Tyra and spend time together, like when we first met, and travel around everyonce and a while to give a demon or something a bad day... But only time will tell if I must be the one out and about, earning a living for them, or if Val will be able to rejoin me with a home and a daughter to come home to each night... but even if things do change... I will not stop loving her... Valmara has been a blessing of love ever since I met her.

*He looks over to Valmara, who looks back, a warm loving smile on her lips. She holds Tyra in her arms, making faces at her as Tyra giggles and babbles, hiding her face behind her Bear. He smiles back brightly, admiring the two most important people in his life before turning back to his writing.*

My schooling with Elohanna has been progressing at an... interesting pace...

One of the first things she taught me (aside from the different schools of magic) was how to meditate. It's kinda odd, meditating. I know elves do it in place of sleep, but I've never seen a human do it, not to the depth an elf can do it. But... when I did it...

It felt different from sleeping, because I was still awake... I just focused on the flame Ely had burning in the room, trying to remove all thoughts from my mind, and then it felt like everything just changed. I could hear everything in the room from the flicker of candles to little ants crawling across the floor to the wind outside. I couldn't feel myself, but I could feel everything in the room, knowing almost exactly where it all was...

Ely woke me up from it and I was laying on the ground, which is not the way I was when I started meditating. She even draped a cloak over me, and I felt alive... As if I had just slept for days, but Ely said I was only in that trancy state for about fifteen minutes...

I've tried meditating since but not with much luck. I manage to be able to get to the point where I feel rested, which Elohanna said is the basic goal of meditating, but I have not since felt as I did the first time.

*he looks over at Tyra and Valmara, who are know laying on the carpet, Tyra sitting on her mother's belly, the two of them playing with Tyra's bear, Tyra trying to stuff the bears head in her mouth as Valmara gently bops Tyra's nose with the bear's*

As for me...

Nothing has changed much... Still having nightmares, but I don't really care about them anymore. It's rare now that I awake screaming at night, but it still happens. Val gets worried when that happens, I think she's afraid of me falling apart again... But I know my God Parents are safe, even if I did a horrible job of saving them... But I don't dwell on those things anymore. I've been trying to find information as to what happen to the people of Val's old home, Melnon. I doubt everyone just died since there was a new grave when Val went, so they must have gone somewhere. Val thinks maybe Lor but I doubt it. The troubles in that region with the Giants would have made any sort of migration near impossible, although Val did mention her father being a Dorandite, and the Dorand's Temple is in Lor, or nearby at least, so it's possible he or Val's brother tried to get there on their own.

I'm hoping I find something, even just rumors, of where the people of that town went, but so far nothing.

*he closes the book and puts it away, and smiles. Looking up at his family, he realizes something... Maybe something he never truly embraced before: No matter what happens, no matter what is said, he finally really has a family that loves him, made up of dear and true friends. He joins his wife in playing with their daughter, ready for anything*