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[TheLivvingDoll]

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“Mommies! Mommies!” Dark skinned Jhaelra rounded the corner of the stairs on the second floor of the meadhall. With her bow in hand she skidded to a stop at Livvie's side and looked expectantly up at the human. Violet Drow eyes met deep emerald and locked there. Dressed in her green leather and matching headress, Livvie's little girl was the epitome of cute.

“My Warrior-Drow, what have you been up to?” Her tone was soft and filled with love. From the moment the little girl had stepped into her life, things had changed. No longer was it just her.

“Deers!” The girl took her hands and made mini antlers beside the real ones on her headdress. As if to charge she put her head down and knocked softly against Livvie's side. Busting into laughter the albino white hair and her own sunset colored tresses mingled in the kitchen light.

“Are you going to help me with these chocolates?” Livvie quirked her brow and looked down at Jhaelra. Taking a flour covered hand she patted her back and watched as the girl nodded with pride. Despite their language differences they had managed to overcome most obstacles. It hadn't been easy. But they had made it. Sugar, was something they both understood. Jhaelra loved it and Livvie did her best to control the amount her little drow got.

Taking the chocolate she had set to the side she grabbed her rolling pin and began to demonstrate how to flatten the semi-warm mixture. “Why we need do that?” Livvie listened as some of the words were glossed over in the heavily accented speech. Thankfully she had been here since the beginning of the translation process. So much like a Mom understands her four-year old's sentences before anyone else does, Livvie understood Jhaelra.

“We are going to shape it.” Taking her hand she moved the pin back and forth until the piece before her was the thickness of tissue paper. With her thumb and forefinger she rolled the round flat chocolate pancake into a long tube. “ Like this!” Livvie smiled down at her and held the tube out for inspection. A small drow hand reached out to try and gently grab the tube of chocolate. As soon as her fingers were around it, it crumbled into pieces on the floor. Little eyes grew brighter as tears brimmed at the surface.

[TheLivvingDoll]

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“It's alright, it's only chocolate.” Livvie tried to reassure Jhaelra, to calm her fears but the drops had already started to roll.

“But I messed up your chosslate.!”

Running her had through the white hair, foregoing the fact that she was covered in flour, Livvie's own eyes began to brim as a similar sentence grated at her from her memory.

- - - - - - - - - -

“I'm sorry Mommy!” Eight-Year-Old Livvie stared up at her Mother from the back of the hallway. “I didn't mean to.” Her carrot colored hair in pigtails and her overly large eyes sat deeply in a heavily freckled face.

“You didn't mean to!” Loraine Dell bit the words out through clenched teeth. “No, you never mean to. You or any of your damned brothers. Why the hell can't you be quieter?” The little girl took a step back as if to try and fade into the wooden boards of the farmhouse. “That's all I ever hear from you four. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I was wrong.” Taking a set of mittens in her hands, the adult version of what Livvie would be began to scoop up the ruined tart into a bowl. “This is all your fault, you pathetic little wretch. And as soon as I am done with this ruined dessert you are getting locked in the closet.”

At the sound of that Livvie sank onto the floorboard, tears pouring down her face. “Please Mommy, I won't do it again. I promise.” It was the last time she would plead for something from her Mother. The request fell on deaf ears and six hours later, Aaron unlocked the door and pulled his puffy faced, scrawny legged little sister from the bottom of the hall closet. With their Father away for the week taking a shipment of furniture to Luna, there was no way out. And even if he had been there, he would have sighed, shook his head and done what his wife had wanted, which was to apply the belt to Livvie's backside.

Livvie wiped the tears from her face and tried to clear out her nose. “Where is she?”

“She left about 10 minutes ago. Said she needed to go see someone.” For a ten-year-old, Aaron's voice was more adult than child. It had come from years of following his brother around trying to stay under their Mother's radar and make their Father proud at the same time.

“Does she know you let me out?”

“Does it really matter?”

[TheLivvingDoll]

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For the next few weeks Livvie did her best to stay out of sight and out of mind. The fact that she had washed her own clothes, fixed her own meals and helped her brother's with their chores as well as her own seemed to have escaped her Mother's attention. It didn't escape any of her brother's though. Livvie's cooking was horrible at best, they all knew it. So they took turns sneaking food into her room at night.

Curtis, the six-year-old, on the fifth night of the third week had creeped into Livvie's room at a quarter to midnight with something clasped in his fat little hands. Placing it on top of her chest he smiled a big toothy grin in the dark that almost seemed to light up the room. It wasn't until Livvie heard the Croak, that she realized what her baby brother had given her as a cheering up gift.

There on her chest sat the fattest horned toad Livvie had ever seen. Croak. It's belly seemed to extend into its throat creating a green sort of clear bubble. Livvie's emerald eyes grew wide as she stared nose to throat/belly with the creature. Croak. That was it. Screaming at a pitch that would make a dog whistle seem low, she jumped out of bed sending the frog flying against the door and scrambled into the hallway. Curtis, hot on her heels, bent to scoop up the creature and chase after her. “But Livvies, he'll make you feel better!”

“Aaron! Aaron!” She called for her older brother at the top of her lungs only to be met by Bastian instead. It was an older brother, but not the one she was looking for.

“You wanna go back in the closet? Or worse?” He glared down at her. The logic of his twelve-year-old thinking seeping into every word. Bastian always thought of consequences first. He was a long term kinda boy, which made him perfect for what their father wanted. Horrified Livvie shook her head no. Her carrot hair flying out of her braids in quick fashion. “Then calm down. You aren't helping yourself or any of us what your screamin'.”

[TheLivvingDoll]

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Loraine Dell, appreciated silence. She felt that children should be seen and not heard. So Livvie tried to give her just that. For the next few months after the frog incident Livvie kept her head down and her mouth closed. Every so often she would catch a sideways glimpse from one of her brother's or the quirk of an understanding smile from her Father.

Her Father. Jonathon Dell had been a relatively quiet man. The one thing they could all say for certain was that he loved their mother very much. For only a man who is capable of unconditional love would have put up with that woman that long. The four of them knew very little about what Loraine and Jonathon were like prior to four kids. And from the best they can tell, the back to back pregnancies had somehow changed her from a sweet, loving woman to what she was now. Livvie's Mother had seen fit to leave her be lately. Livvie wasn't sure if it was the silence on her part or the fact that Loraine had turned her argumentative nature to their Father instead. Nightly however, there were loud voices coming from the Master Bedroom of the farmhouse. Livvie didn't know who Franklin was, but she recognized the fact that it pissed her father off to no end whenever he was brought up.

She also knew, from her Mother's increasingly high pitched yelling, that "This damn place is not big enough." She really didn't know why it wasn't big enough for her Mother, after all it had 7 rooms, 2 bathrooms and a 15 acres. But maybe those weren't things you judged on a farmhouse, Livvie thought to herself. And when their father brought home the biggest diamond Livvie had ever seen in order to appease his beautiful red haired wife, Livvie thought that would be the end of it.

But two nights later, as Jonathon Dell sat on one of the kitchen chairs with his head in his hands a wrinkled 1 page letter laying next to him, Livvie knew it had not been enough. Livvie had never heard her father cry. He wasn't a happy man per say, but he was never to the point of tears. In fact he dested them, seeing them as a sign of weakness in his boys and even in her. Carrot hair in two ever present pigtails peeked out from behind the kitchen door.

"Daddy, why are you cryin'?" Her voice was soft and echoed the fear at seeing him this way. Jonathon's deep blue eyes turned to his only girl as tears rained from them onto his calloused hands. He didn't say a word. Instead he shook his head and got up from his position quickly exiting the room.

The image of her father walking away from her would forever stick in Livvie's mind as she leaned to grab the letter. Aaron had taught her to read. It wasn't something all girls could do, but he had said if she was a Dell then by Gods she would do what the rest of em could.

"Jonathon,

I can no longer see myself living in these conditions with you and your offspring. I deserve better and I have found someone willing to give it to me. Franklin has agreed to treat me in the manner of lifestyle to which I should become accustomed. Do not try to find me. I want nothing more to do with the rubble and sham you call a family.

Loraine"

- - - - - - -

Twelve years later, Sunset colored hair poured over the side of Livvie's face as she kissed the top of Jhaelra's head. "I will never leave you, my girl." Jhealra gave a small smile. She would never know why Livvie did what she did but that wouldn't matter. What mattered is that Livvie knew.