#home loans for physicians

[investingdrone]

How To Qualify Professional Mortgage Loan Programs In 2024?

Professional mortgage loans are designed for young professionals like you, even if you have a lot of debt compared to your income (DTI) or need a larger loan for the house (LTV). These loans help doctors, lawyers, and other high-earning professionals achieve their dream of homeownership. These programs understand you might have high student loans but also have a bright future with a good salary.…

[a-edgar-allan-hoe]

Wild Horses

Part 1

Simon "Ghost" Riley x Female Doctor!Reader

Part 2 , Part 3 , Part 4

A/N: Just a little idea I had after seeing all the TikToks and now I am yanked onto the Ghost train. I used to watch my brother play the game but that was a while ago so bear with me here. (advice or little pointers are much appreciated). I also might make this into a short story or add another part to it, let me know y’all. Comments and reblogs are much appreciated!

Summary: Imagine being the new physician assigned to the team and a certain masked individual takes a new keen concealed interest in you. The two of you are too awkward to function.

Warnings: language, fluff, angst

You were assigned to the team as their personal physician, as requested by the higher ups in order to make sure the soldiers stayed in best health, both physically and mentally. You used to work at your local hospital before you were offered the position.

You knew the dangers and the risks involved, but you were in debt and had student loans that needed to paid. So after much hesitation, you accepted the offer, eventually being convinced by the fat paycheck.

You remembered the day you were first introduced to the team, the way everyone's eyes glued to you like a hawk, their large forms towering over your small frame in the room while you picked at the skin around your nails in nervous habit.

They were curious to say the least, wondering what the hell someone like you was doing in a place like this. And since when did they get the chance to have a full on doctor to treat them, usually they were offered combat medics. You had guts, that's for sure.

You on the other hand were nervous, frightened even, with the thought of living in the same quarters of men wrapped up within the tumults and afflictions of war without a single clue as to their current psychological state. You had seen the worst of men and humanity growing up and you no idea who these soldiers were, what they were capable of, or what their intentions might be. Maybe you should have requested that briefing before you hopped on that plane.

Amongst all of their gazes, you had failed to notice a certain masked individual in the far back of the room, his form shrouded amongst the others as he studied you. His eyes, hidden underneath the grooves of his mask that only seemed to be darkened by where he stood blocked by the only source of light, watched your every movement, from every gesture of your perfectly manicured fingers to every smoothing of the lint-free fabric of your sweater to the way you kept shifting your weight from one foot to another.

One thing was apparent; during the entire length the high ranking officer next to you introduced you and debriefed the men on what was expected and such, you had not uttered a single word, minus the small polite and somewhat strained smile on your face while your eyes told another story. Why the military truly hired you, he may never know.

After being shown your little office and workspace including your room, you were quick to settle in, decorating the area to the best of your abilities with what you had taken with you from back home in order to bring some life into the dull and two-dimensional area. If anyone questioned you on it you would just say that your own sanity is extremely vital in order to ensure quality treatment for your patients.

Once everything in your office was set up, you threw on your white coat and retreated yourself to your office space, sitting at your desk and hastily going over the files that you had completely forgotten about that were given to you regarding the soldiers' previous health before they come pouring in reporting symptoms of god knows what. Best be prepared. Jesus how many bullet wounds can a single individual have.

The soldiers were advised to do their routine physical examinations with you so the first one to come waltzing in through your office door was none other than Johnny "Soap" MacTavish, a cheeky grin plastered on his face and much too excited for his own good. That boy's got a crush on you I swear. To be honest I'd be lying if I said the whole team didn't have a schoolboy crush on you.

The men were quick to warm up to you, relieved to have a gentle soul in their midst after all the shit that goes down outside, you were like breath of fresh air. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to bring a doctor on board, as quiet and reserved as you were. They speculated you were just shy, the reason why you never spoke much, not knowing that you just couldn't hold a conversation if your life depended on it, especially around those you weren't close with. At first they couldn't tell because of your major rbf.

During their routine check-ups or whatever issue they had going on, they would do most of the talking, which was a good thing on your end because it helped you to piece together their temperaments. Thank the lord no one is a psycho murderer. Oh wait.

Soap is the most chattiest of them all. Boy wouldn't shut his mouth when he sat in your office. He's super flirty. But not as flirty as Alejandro.

Ghost on the other hand was reluctant to step into your office for his check-ups. After all he was usually the one to tend to his own wounds or just push through whatever it is that is going on, so he did not know what all the fuss was about in having to get his health checked. So when you call out his last name more than once might I add, clipboard in hand and scanning the area for whoever looks to be headed in your direction, he can't help but heave out a sigh, trudging over to where you stood, your clean white coat a stark contrast to the rest of the environment as you leaned against your door to hold it open.

You muttered out a small hello to which he let out a small huff as you moved aside to let the man enter, watching him walk into your office and seat himself down. That man intimidated you a bit not gonna lie. Not only could you not see his face but he had also not said a single word to you. And not to mention he was absolutely huge as compared to you, even more so in person. You also had heard a lot of stories from the other guys.

"How is your day?" You ask, shutting the door behind you as you briefly read over his previous but extremely short records on your clipboard. There's barely anything on this man. Does he not get ill?

Ghost is quiet at first, watching your eyes scan over the clipboard and curious to know just what is on those papers before your eyes flit up to meet his and catch him off guard, which causes him to answer abruptly. "Fine."

"Okey dokes." You give a quick smile.

Did you just say okey dokes.

Clearing your throat, you go over to where he sat and set the clipboard down on the table next to you beside your laptop. You didn’t have to read his body language to know he did not want to be here at all. So you were going to do him a favor and make the appointment as quick as possible.

"So do you have any allergies to any medications, any allergies I need to know of?" Your fingers hover over the keyboard of your laptop as you turn to face him, only to be met with an expressionless skull of a mask and the expressionless eyes beneath. Oh boy this session was going to be something. You had heard of how he had never shown his face, so you made sure not to question on it.

"No ma'am."

"Are you currently taking any medication?" You ask the same standard set of questions you have asked every single patient of yours, typing as you go.

"No ma'am."

Any previous illness? Disease?"

"No."

The more you ask him questions, the more he strangely finds it easier to answer. Your voice is surprisingly soft, warm even, like the start of autumn, and he finds it comforting to listen to. Or maybe it's just some technique doctors learn during training in order to relax their patients.

"Do you have any history of smoking, alcohol, or illicit drug use?"

".......sometimes I'll have a smoke, and a glass of bourbon." He's almost waiting for you to hand him a pamphlet about the dangers of smoking.

"How many times would you say?" You ask for details, your eyes still glued to the screen of your laptop as you await his answer.

Ghost is a bit confused by the amount of questions you ask, but he also has not been to the doctor's so how would he know. "Um I don't know."

"A rough estimate is fine."

"Not much, maybe 2-3 times a week or so when I'm not on duty."

"How many times a week do you exercise?" You feel silly for asking this question to a man like him but it's all part of the procedure and you almost pray he doesn't hate you for it.

"Every day." So no pamphlet?

Jesus this man has more discipline than you. You can barely get up in the morning.

"Okayyy." You mutter out, more to yourself as you enter in his responses.

Ghost finds himself watching you from his seat on the chair, his eyes tracing over and studying your features as you type away on your laptop. He thinks you're really pretty but either doesn't want to admit it or just flat out does not know that he finds you attractive.

There are certain details about you that he can't help but find himself intrigued by, like the small black outline flower tattoo on your hand that was located near the area of your thumb, running along the curve to meet the knuckle of your forefinger. He's curious as to the meaning behind it, if there was one. He wanted to ask what type of flower it was, perhaps it was your favorite? It would give him an idea as to what flowers to get you.

"Have you ever been hospitalized, had any surgical procedures done or been treated for any chronic conditions?"

"No." Ghost shakes his head before remembering his wounds from combat, wondering if that is something you should know. "Just the bullet and knife wounds from combat. Nothing too serious."

Jesus fucking christ. You were willing to bet he treated those wounds himself.

Ghost is not a fan of hospitals. Pretty sure this dude just looks up YouTube tutorials on how to fix himself instead of just going to the doctor like a normal human being.

"When was the last time you visited your general practitioner.......or just any doctor in general?" You ask the last question, willing to bet it never.

There was silence on his end as you looked towards him waiting for an answer, the clicking of your keyboard coming to a stop and only loudening the silence. Ghost could not remember the last time he had been to a hospital or even scheduled a visit. And as you looked at him, your eyes almost staring into his soul, still waiting for a response, he could not help but feel a tad bit embarrassed, as if you were judging him for not being a responsible adult. Also it didn't help that you were goddamn pretty.

"I'm gonna take that as a very long time, the last time being the prehistoric ages, correct?" There's the slightest hint of a tease in your voice.

"Uh.......yes ma'am." Ghost squints his eyes at you as you go back to typing on your keyboard. Did you just.............did you just call him…..He does not know how to feel about that. Did you just try to crack a joke? He always thought doctors were the serious type.

"Okay then." You straighten up, grabbing your sphygmomanometer off the table and turning yourself to face him. "Is it okay if I check your blood pressure?"

The man is stunned. No one has ever asked his permission for anything before. He's so used to either taking orders or giving orders that he doesn't know how to respond and stares at you for a moment, forcing his brain to process what to do next before eventually giving a nod.

"Is it okay if you take your jacket off so I can get a clearer reading?"

He nods again, still in shock as he takes off his jacket, leaving him in his black long sleeve thermal. He's almost thankful he wasn't in his full tactical gear, having to imagine you standing there waiting for him as he removes every single piece of equipment off his torso.

"Thank you." You give him a short smile, placing your hand under his tricep and gently lifting his arm in order to wrap the inflatable cuff around his bicep. You almost blush at the mere size of this man's arms. "Now you're just going to feel a slight pressure okay."

Ghost can't help but feel a slight warmth spread to his cheeks at the way you handle him with such care, as if he were the small delicate thing and not you. Now he knows why the others were so giddy after leaving your office.

As you place your stethoscope on his forearm near his elbow to listen to his blood pumping through the artery, your other hand pumping air into the cuff using the inflation bulb with your eyes glued to the numbers on the gauge, he can't help but to notice the old Donald Duck watch that sat at your wrist, the ones with the moving arms and the vintage style black leather straps.

And as he further investigated your attire, he noticed a few other details, like the colorful glittery badge reel in the shape of a pill container with the words "licensed drug dealer" printed on it that was attached to your scrub top, the glitter sticker with the words "I'm nicer than my face looks" as well a few Disney character stickers and the little frog looking keychain that hung off of your badge. He was wondering what the hell that thing was. Your accessories were awfully colorful for a general doctor. Something was telling him you either used to work with families or children. Whatever the hell managed to bring you to such a drastic change.

You brought him out of his thoughts as you shifted from your position, unwrapping the inflatable cuff from around his bicep and placing it back on the table before typing the results into your laptop. "Okay," You adjust the ear pieces of your stethoscope back into your ears as you turn back to him, "I'm going to perform some auscultations, which is just listening to the sounds of your heart and your lungs so if you could just sit up straight and relax that would be wonderful."

Simon straightens up his posture as you place your free hand on his shoulder, at this point you're not sure if you're steadying him or yourself, your fingertips just barely grazing across the bottom of his neck. He doesn't know why but, it's as if your fingers are directly touching the skin underneath, despite the fabric of his mask that separated your fingers from his skin. Your hands feels hot, like really hot and he has no clue why.

The soldier only feels his cheeks warm up even more so now as you inch closer to carefully place the diaphragm of your stethoscope on his chest, your head tilted and your eyes lowered to the floor as you listen for his heart beat. He gets a whiff of your perfume and he finds himself drawn to it. You smell like something along the lines of jasmine petals, geranium, myrrh, frankincense, and a hint of sandalwood. Now he definitely knows why the others are fawning over you. Poor Simon is praying you don't hear how his heart is nearly racing. He does not know why he is feeling this way and it slightly bothers him in the way that he has no clue what it is he is feeling.

He catches how your brows slightly furrow at the center and his heart skips a beat. Now he's fucking embarrassed and this man rarely ever is embarrassed. Maybe he's even starting to panic. Can you tell? Do you know? You open your mouth to say something but he quickly interrupts he just got back from a run so you dismiss it with a shrug, placing the diaphragm on his back now and asking him to give you a couple of deep breaths.

"Okay. Take a deep breathe in, breathe it out. Breathe in, and out."

He complies with your instructions, breathing in slow and deep breaths as you go from one side of his back to another.

"Good job." You remove the earpieces and let your stethoscope hang around your neck as you go back to your table, recording in more info. Hang on did you just, did you just tell a grown 6'4" man good job.

Even Simon is confused. Like bitch.

"Okay, so we're all done with that." You inform him, before going over to one of the drawers and sliding it open. "Now if you don't mind, I would like to have some blood work done on you, just to make sure there are no underlying issues that need to be taken care of."

Simon is silent so you turn to him. "Is that okay, Ghost, is that what the others call you? Would you like me to call you Ghost?"

Goddamn you're too polite. "That's fine by me ma'am."

"Perfect. Now is it okay if I take your blood sample?"

Ghost nods, so you grab the tools necessary and place them on the table next to you.

"Could you please roll your sleeve up and make a fist for me? Thank you." You ask him once you sanitize your hands and throw on a pair of fresh gloves. You grab the tourniquet and catch sight of the tattoos that cover his forearm as you tie the tourniquet around his arm above the elbow. You're curious to know the story behind them but you have a feeling he's not one for storytelling or just talking in general so you remain silent. You tear open the small packet of the alcohol wipe and apply it to the area. The chemical is cool against his skin as you sanitize the area before letting it air dry. Simon can't help but notice how small your hands are.

Simon watches you intently as you work, the way you are so focused and so precise with each step, and yet so gentle. It's almost cute.

"You're just going to feel a little pinch." You tell him in a soft tone, a tone you were used to using on all your little patients before inserting the needle into his vein. As if the man hasn't been shot or stabbed and god knows what multiple times before.

At this point Simon doesn't even notice the needle in his arm, he's too focused on the details of your face. He can sense that you're nervous around him and he feels bad. Even though he's just met you, the last thing he wants is for you to feel scared or unsafe around him. And even though this whole situation is awkward for him since he never was a fan of visiting the hospital, you're their physician, and at the end of the day you're there to patch them up. So he comments on your dark circles, thinking you haven't gotten any rest since you arrived here. "You look tired."

"............that's just my face." You give him that distinct smile, the same smile you have given anyone who ever commented on them as you connect the vacutainers to the needle to draw his blood, your eyes glued to the dark red liquid seeping through the thin clear tube before pouring into the sample tube.

If you thought it was quiet before, well you are most definitely wrong because the silence is absolutely deafening now.

Simon nearly punches himself for his stupidity. Why in the bloody hell did he say that of all things. He wanted to tell you he liked your dark circles but decided to bite his tongue instead. Now he's definitely not going to say another word. Better yet, once he leaves your office, he's not coming back. He's just going to avoid you at all costs in order to save both you and himself the embarrassment. He's willing to bet the others handled this way better than him.

"But I suppose I am a bit jet-lagged though. Haven't really gotten any rest since I got on that plane." You add. "I appreciate your concern."

You most definitely said that to make him feel better about himself, Simon thinks to himself as he stares at the wall and avoids your face. There was no other reason.

Once your done drawing his blood you ask him to hold the piece of cotton pad down onto where the needle was punctured as you open up the drawer where the gauze is located. "Do you have a favorite color?"

Did you just ask him his favorite color? Simon stares at you blankly. Were all doctors this odd?

"I'm guessing you like black?" You pull out the roll of black gauze, displaying it in front of you with the most deadpanned expression possible.

You've got jokes. Simon thinks to himself. If he had looked a little closer he would have noticed the ghost of a smirk on your lips.

"You should see the colors the others picked." You tease as you wrap the gauze around his arm at the elbow, making sure it isn't too tight but also not loose enough to the point where the cotton pad underneath slips out.

Simon narrows his eyes at you. Bloody fucking hell. The others picked a color?

You're pretty sure Gaz requested you get an Elmo print one he saw online once somewhere. Soap asked if there a print of the Scotland flag available. The look of hurt on his face when you said there wasn't so you improvised and gave him both the blue and white gauze. You gave him a Dum-Dum lollipop to make him feel better. The others may have also gotten a lollipop as they left your office, especially after seeing the special treatment that Soap received. Were they jealous? Maybe.

Once you tell the man he is all good to go and that you will call him once you're done getting the results from his blood sample, he nearly jumps out of the chair and bolts out of your office. He prays some unknown miracle happens and that his blood sample magically disappears so that he doesn't have to face you, firmly believing he insulted you and that you thought he called you ugly when that is not what he intended. I am telling you this man does not know how to compliment. They should make a guidebook for dummies specialized just for him.

You watch him disappear out your door with a quirked brow. Well that was fucking weird.

When Simon leaves the area he finds Soap lounging about on a chair with a sucker in his mouth.

"The hell is that?" Simon squints at the sergeant.

"Mph mph." Soap's voice comes out muffled.

"What?"

Soap pauses and turns to see Ghost looming over him. "It's a Dum-Dum."

"A fuckin what?"

"Y/n said they're called Dum-Dums." Soap pulls it out of his mouth, twisting the stick of the lollipop around in his fingers as if he were inspecting it. "This one's a cotton candy flavor."

"She gave you a fuckin lollie?"

"It's pure dead brilliant I tell ya. Why, did she not give ya one?"

More silence. Simon would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't a tad bit butthurt.

"Maybe you scared her." Soap jokes.

Simon lets out a grumbled incoherent huff and walks away.

Soap just shrugs and pops the lollipop back in his mouth.

Simon has a feeling he is going to go to bed thinking about his actions.

Part 2

[copperbadge]

Radio Free Monday

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Radio Free Monday!

Ways to Give:

personalmoshiakh's physician has been obstructing their access to gender affirming surgery, and his wait time for top surgery within the NHS is only getting longer; he's also unable to get a loan for privately funded top surgery. He's raising money to try and fund the surgery himself. You can read more and give at GoFundMe here.

the_rainbow_jen's colleague Madison is struggling with immense medical debt due to gender affirmation surgery; you can read more and give at GoFundMe here.

joseph-lavode's sister has recently gotten a good job after a long stretch of unemployment or underemployment and just as things were stabilizing, a number of expenses came up unexpectedly in the same week, including car problems, plumbing, and water heater issues, to the point she is in danger of losing her home. You can read more and give at GoFundMe here.

Anon linked to a couple of posts about the recent fire which is devastating Maui; unavernales has a links list here and metalheadsforblacklivesmatter has a links list here, both rebloggable, of places you can give to provide aid.

thegeeksqueaks is a teacher fundraising to provide support for her queer and neurodivergent students, both in class and in the student-organized GSA and D&D clubs she sponsors; as with many teachers she is already supplying a lot for her classrooms out of her own budget but needs help to go the extra mile. You can read more and reblog here, give directly at paypal here, or purchase items from the classroom Amazon wishlist here.

News to Know:

MB linked to a study by Northwestern University regarding LifeSkills Mobile, an HIV prevention app for "trans women and nonbinary femmes". If you are eligible and join the study, they provide you either with the app or with information about HIV prevention, and ask you to complete an online survey and a mouth swab HIV test at home every 6 months for up to 4 years. You can opt out at any time, and can receive up to $250 for your help.

Recurring Needs:

Anon linked to a fundraiser for dee-the-red-witch, a trans woman who needs to raise $10K to keep her home. You can read more, reblog, and find giving information here, give via paypal here, or purchase her leatherwork here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for littlefluffbutt, who is facing homelessness with two daughters due to a predatory loan and support falling through; the house has received a stay of auction, but the family still needs to raise funds to keep it. You can read more and reblog here or support the fundraiser here.

Anon linked to a fundraiser for maximumsunshine, who has just received life-saving surgery but is behind on rent, bills, and food until their first paycheck comes in at the end of the month. You can read more and reblog here, or support them via patreon or via paypal.

And this has been Radio Free Monday! Thank you for your time. You can post items for my attention at the Radio Free Monday submissions form. If you're new to fundraising, you may want to check out my guide to fundraising here.

[emmatgc]

Wonderful World FanFic (Chapter 6)

(This is only for Seon Yul and Soo Hyun shippers, nothing more. This is my own interpretation . This is a sequel to their story. New characters were added. This will be a mini novel for most probably 10 parts. Enjoy and thank you for the few who are supporting this! This is for you who made a request ❤️)

Chapter 6: The Moon is Beautiful 

“He likes you” is on a loop on Soo Hyun’s mind a lot after that fateful night talking to her sister. Seon Yul on the other hand is feeling good. He likes seeing Soo Hyun happy or at ease. He is worried about Yoo Ra but he has always been a very private person and for him she is just a friend, nothing more. She wonders why Soo Hyun brought her up during their time together and it made him smile. Was she jealous? nah , it is impossible, he thought. 

 A lot has happened in 3 months. Soo Hyun managed to get a loan for her staff and the physicians even if those were really volunteers but with her connections, even though she rarely uses it, the orphanage is thriving under her care. It is an exclusive one but one open for an opportunity of a foster home and care if a family fit to be one will adopt a child. Their daily routine was to start their day at 8am, have breakfast at 7am and lunch at 11am and end by 5pm. It is a whole day of work and “Wonderful Smiles” just like Soo Hyun, is a work in progress and like their owner, a very good one. Soo Hyun is not always present everyday at the orphanage for her other duties as an author. She is thinking of coming back to teach in a university should her schedule allow.Seon Yul on the other hand, is present and available to the kids everyday not missing a day or an hour. The children adore him and the staff loves him. From time to time he would do conference calls and talk to his Chief Resident at the hospital. 

One day, he got a call from his best friend , Soo Jin.  “Hey, how is our prodigy doing there?. He replied, “I am just doing fine, thank you for asking”. “Any news to share with me, bro? “Ummm, Nothing that would entertain you, Soo Jin. “You always entertain me, Seon Yul”. They both laughed and shared some hospital stories while Seon Yul was gone and stories from the orphanage. Before their phone conversation ended, Soo jin told Seon Yul that Yoo Ra has been asking about him and Soo Hyun and it is exhausting to constantly reply to her that it is none of her business. “Our pretty friend might have a little crush on you, Seon Yul, better be careful” “You sound like it is a bad thing, Soo Jin”. “Well, love can make pretty girls crazy”. “I'll talk to her when I get back”. “Oh good, are you finally getting back? I was thinking you might live there and give up everything here for your lady love? “ What are you talking about? Seon Yul was puzzled but also smiling. “Seon yul, my man, you are a smart man, don’t go stupid on me now. You are there for her. You liked her, always has been. Your revenge is done and what's left? Love”.  That is impossible Soo Jin, he replied. “Is it really? Impossible? For you, two? I don’t think so but anyways, it's your life and again, I am telling you to be careful always but I also want you to be happy and I hope you are”. “Seon yul nodded and smiled, Soo Jin’s words comforted him and before they finally hung up the phone, he said “I am happy, truly”. 

Soo Hyun and Seon Yul are two people who share the same silence and experiences over the last 10 years. People are baffled why they are almost “in sync” with each other. Even the staff are surprised at how smoothly they work together and it seems that both know each other too well. There was a week when Soo Hyun got sick. Seon Yul, as the Doctor notices Soo Hyun coughing. Typical Soo Hyun just brushed it off as a normal cough until she fainted one afternoon. She had an allergic reaction to a food she had eaten in one of her book tour signing events and it is a good thing they already had a pharmacy in place inside the orphanage. Seon Yul got so worried and acted as her nurse during her recovery stage. Seon Yul realizes he doesn't want Soo Hyun getting hurt or in pain. Soo Hyun was treated at the orphanage for the 1st 2 days and her medical care continued at her house. Seon Yul wanted first hand to take good care of her. He monitored her day and night. 

Soo Hyun woke up late one night and she saw Seon Yul sleeping near her bed, his arm in her bed and his head down on it. She didn't want to wake him up but as soon as she wanted to move or attempt to go down her bed , she was surprised to hear “Don’t you dare get off your bed, Dr. Soo Hyun”. Jumping and acting a little scared, it is actually kinda dark in her room, she replied “I thought you were asleep, you scared me!” “Well, i wasn't really asleep, I was just pretending to be, besides, I know you are stubborn , stubborn enough to get off this bed and go back to work!” Seon Yul was being funny she thought but he aint smiling at all, he was serious. Soo Hyun, being the joker at times said “You sound so serious, it was just a minor thing”. 

“I don't want you getting hurt, alright? I need you to be ok, Soo Hyun”. Soo Hyun was shocked to hear him call her first name for the 1st time ever. I’m sorry, I hope it's ok to call you by your 1st name? Seon Yul was shy and nervous. “I am too old to be called by you by just my 1st name”, she replied. “I don’t care,” he replied almost instantly. Soo Hyun’s chest tightened a little bit. She got butterflies seeing how nervous Seon Yul is and hearing her name that way, is a pleasant but awkward surprise. “I am sorry for making you worry, Seon Yul. I am sorry you had to look after me. I am alright though, no need to check up on me all the time”, she reiterated to him. “Please, let me take care of you, Soo Hyun”. Soo Hyun bursted out laughing and said “are you taking care of your guardian?” He seriously replied, “You are not my guardian anymore remember” Seriously, you’ve got to take good care of yourself. You are not only allergic to some food but you are clearly exhausted. You need to rest and sleep more. I did some laboratory tests on you and it seems you haven’t gone for a regular check up for a year! Soo Hyun is smiling, is he mad at me? She asks herself. He seems so mad at the thought of her neglecting her health and so on and she can’t help it but think, this might be the feeling when somebody is worried about someone, or maybe if her son is old enough to care, if he was alive, and he will tell her this? Soo hyun and her thoughts were shut down when Seon Yul stood up and walked away from her a bit. Why is he acting this way?

“You are not listening to me”, he said. Soo Hyun is grateful , but she is confused as to why Seon Yul is acting so worried and weird at the same time. Seon Yul, Thank you, she replied. “I am listening but I guess I am also still on a high from the painkillers you gave me”. They both smiled. I will see you tomorrow. Sleep well. The next day, when Soo Hyun woke up, there were flowers in a vase. Her staff said it was from Seon Yul, that he picked it outdoors while he was jogging early in the morning. Seon yul gave her “Mugunghwa” also known as the rose of Sharon. 

Soo Hyun’s ex husband came to visit her after knowing at her Mom’s house that Soo Hyun is recovering at the orphanage. He brought flowers, too. He brought white lilies. It’s Soo Hyun’s favorites. Both chatted a lot and discussed some “work” related stuff and he opened up about her wanting to teach again. Seon Yul was told by the staff Soo hyun got a visitor and he wanted to check who. He entered her room and saw the two of them laughing at each other. Seon Yul was again, so serious checking up her blood pressure and her IV. He looked at him earnestly and he just smiled and greeted him. He thanked Seon Yul for taking care of his ex wife. “Thank you for taking good care of my ex wife, Dr. Seon Yul”. It is good she listens to you and stays treated here. She can be stubborn, you know. Seon Yul got a bit irritated hearing the words “ex wife” and answered, “I know” and excused himself. 

“Well, somebody’s jealous. Haha” Soo Hyun smacked Su Ho’s hand in return. “You dont have to say that!” He replied, “That you were my ex wife? It's the truth! Haha still laughing at Seon Yul and her. He is so obvious, my goodness, it is so obvious, you two! What is? Soo Hyun asked. “Come on Soo Hyun, the boy gave you “rose of sharon” flowers and I gave you lilies! So? She was confused. Oh my, you don't know what “mungunghwa” means? It is deep affection. Like eternal adoration and devotion or something. That kid is smart. He doesn't do things without thinking about it. Oh, don’t tell me “he just picked it out outside “ hahaha he didnt’ .

The guy was obviously jealous of me and that is why I mentioned you as my “ex wife”. Please leave now So hu, Soo hyun shouted at him embarrassed by what she heard from him. They laughed out loud and just felt warm to be having this conversation with her ex husband. Before So hun left, he told Soo Hyun “I will always have your back, Soo Hyun, you know that right? If he makes you happy, go for it. It's not gonna be easy but hey, nothing is. At least, he is a million times better looking than me” hahaha. So Hun left and again, a lot of feelings are intertwining in Soo Hyun’s thoughts. 

Seon Yul was indeed jealous and he knows it. He shouldn’t be, they are exes, of course he will visit her. His thoughts are running wild. He seems irritated that he didn't know her favorite flowers. He also seemed bothered that they were laughing and they hugged each other, too. Seon Yul has always been an introvert and one thing’s for sure, he has never been in love. So, he doesn't know just yet. He was reading a Japanese book to kill time until he came back to Soo Hyun’s room. He wanted to ask Soo Hyun to eat outside since she is now almost healed and recovered. He had it all planned out with the staff. Together with the flowers in the table, her favorite and allowed foods to eat, Soo Hyun was happy to be asked out since she was dreading staying for a couple days in a room confined and strictly monitored. Under that same moonlight there they were, both sitting and eating casually. He handed her a plate and got her food even if she insisted it was hers to get but Seon Yul won’t let her. They were music sort of and the trees, and the leaves were swaying like in the movies. It was a great ambiance, a romantic one. 

Seon Yul started the after dinner conversation. “ How are you feeling?” I am great, thank you. I have the best Doctor”, she replied. I’m sorry, he said. For what?, she replied. “For not knowing your favorite flowers”. Soo Hyun laughed loudly “hahaha, Oh God, don’t be! I don't even remember anymore. It has been a long time since” He then seriously replied “ But Soo Hu didn’t”. Of course, he was my husband. I would be angry if that detail was left out or erased, she honestly replied. They talked about the orphanage and they talked about her plans to go back to teaching. 

Seon Yul doesn't know what took over him but when Soo Hyun started talking about her plans and the way she smiles, he noticed her eyes lit up, her face blooming and her lips, so soft and all in 1 slow motion. All this pent up emotions for the last 6 years. He doesn't know if he hears everything she is saying, and in that moment he knows. This is the moment he is waiting for. With his heart beating so fast, and another lifeform taking over his body, with a thousand times of confidence and desire,  he held her hand softly and he said the words “The Moon is Beautiful”. 

The feeling of being so close yet so far. Suddenly, there was silence but there was music in the air. They stared for a while, until Soo Hyun finally opened her mouth and said “Are you in love with me?”

(The Moon is Beautiful means “I love you or I am in love with you" in many cultures especially in the Japanese culture. This is an inspiration I got from the Kdrama “Romance is A Bonus Book" which is one of my personal favorites of all time. Chapter 6 is coming up soonest. I am sorry something came up today but I hope I made you smile with this chapter 😘) 

[blueshistorysims]

Easter Holiday, 1909, Newcrest, England

The moment Byron and Alexander returned home for Easter, Alexander sat his parents sat down and told them he’d been invited to have Easter dinner with Edith’s family.

“I told Mrs. Smith I accepted. I don’t think it would be proper for me to continue courting the Smiths’ daughter if I have not met them.”

Peter nodded. “I understand. I am glad our family does an Easter brunch rather than dinner, that way you’ll be with us for most of the day.”

“Edith is a lovely girl,” Rebecca added, smiling. She was proud of her son.

“...While I am there, I am going to ask Mr. Smith permission to marry his daughter, and when I graduate from Willow Creek College, I intend to propose.”

Peter and Rebecca stared blankly at their son with the exact same expression.

“You will not!” Rebecca shouted.

Alexander stared back. “Why not? I love her, and she loves me.”

“...You’re young, Alexander. You shouldn’t be getting married the moment you set eyes on a girl.”

“Edith and I have been official beaus for over a year, and we’ve been courting since I turned 14.”

“And where would you get a ring, you have no job.”

“Granny said I could have hers.”

Rebecca pursed her lips. She would have a conversation with her mother-in-law later. “No, I forbid it.”

Alexander crossed arms. “Like you forbid Edeline from following her dreams?”

“Watch your tone, young man,” Peter warned.

“I don’t understand why she can’t go to school. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful to have a doctor in the family? There have been female physicians for many years. The world is modernizing, and I don’t think England nor Edeline should be left behind in these matters. If it means I must take loan out, I will help my sister.”

Rebecca was silent, looking away from her son and husband.

“...You may ask permission to marry Edith, but do not consider prorposing until you have a year of university under your belt. I would feel more at ease. I like Edith very much, and it will do you good to wait. I waited until I graduated until I proposed to your mother for that reason.

Alexander sighed, knowing this was the best outcome he would get. Edith had already promised to wait for him. Two years was a long time, but not unbearable.

Her eldest son had given her much to chew on. He would risk his own financial ruin just to give his sister a chance. Just because she thought it was improper, was it really worth losing her relationship with her eldest?

Rebecca knocked on the door and opened it after being a muffled yes. “Edeline? Can I speak with you?”

Her daughter looked up but didn’t respond. 

Rebecca sat on her bed and sighed. “I’ve been terrible to you these past nine months. I have been ignorant, and in my ignorance, I’ve failed to see your plight and suffering. I didn’t eye to eye with my mother either.”

Edeline swallowed. “You mean you’ll let me attend university?”

“I will speak to your father about costs, but I suspect I have held him back with my stubbornness. I will have your brothers help you, whether they want to or hot. But at least one of you will have to have some kind of scholarship. 

“Oh, thank you, Mama!” She squealed, flinging her arms around her mother.

Rebecca swallowed back tears and hugged her tightly. Oh, how terrible of a mother she had been.

[rabbitcruiser]

American Zoo Day

Philadelphia has always been an important city in America. It is one of the top ten biggest cities in the country, and once was the second biggest. It is also home to important historical artifacts and buildings such as the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, as well as the nation's first zoo, the Philadelphia Zoo, which opened on July 1, 1874. Today we celebrate this zoo, along with other American zoos!

A Zoo—short for a zoological park—is a place that contains animals and exists to entertain, educate, engage in scientific research, and focus on conservation. Early zoos, known as menageries, were private collections of animals held by the wealthy. They existed as early as 2,500 BCE, being found in Egypt and Mesopotamia. They were found soon afterward in ancient China, Greece, and Rome. Aztec Emperor Montezuma II had one of the first collections of animals in the Western Hemisphere.

Modern zoos came about during the age of Enlightenment. One of the focuses of the era was on science, and this extended to zoology. There was an increased interest to study animals, with the goal of better understanding their behavior and anatomy. In order to do this more accurately, animals needed to be observed in more natural habitats. This was a driving force behind the establishment of modern zoos.

One of the first modern zoos, Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes, opened in Paris, France, in 1793. This followed the French Revolution; the menageries of the aristocrats, including those of the king and queen, were used to start the zoo. This early zoo did not have much for natural habitat, though, and was set up more like a museum, having small display areas.

Shortly thereafter in America, in 1804, Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark on an expedition out West to find and document the animals living there. This demonstrated the new country's interest in animals, but the country was not quite ready for a zoo. When the London Zoo opened to the public in 1847, it influenced some in the United States to start thinking that it was time to open their own zoo.

A physician named William Camac spearheaded the cause for a zoo in Philadelphia. On March 21, 1859, the Pennsylvania State Legislature voted to establish the Philadelphia Zoological Society, and Camac became its president. The Society—the first of its kind in the United States—worked to raise public and private funds to build the zoo. With the start of the Civil War in 1861, the plans were put on hold, as money was not available to devote to the zoo until after the war.

Eventually, the Zoological Society was given 30 acres of land in Fairmount Park on the banks of the Schuylkill River. "The Solitude," a house built by John Penn, the grandson of William Penn—the founder of the province of Pennsylvania—was included on the land. The size of the zoo was later extended to 42 acres. The entryway included a wrought-iron gateway and gatehouses designed by Frank Furness, which are still in use today.

On opening day, 3,000 people visited the zoo and were welcomed by a brass band and flags. Adults were charged 25 cents for admission, while children were charged 10 cents—this was the cost of admission for the next half-century. Yearly memberships were available for 10 dollars, with lifetime memberships being 50 dollars. During its first year of operation, 228,000 people visited the zoo. Today it has 1.2 million visitors each year.

There originally were 616 animals (another account says 813) at the zoo, some of which were on loan from the Smithsonian Institution. The Smithsonian had collected them from Africa and Asia but did not yet have their own zoo in Washington D.C. to house them at. The zoo had 3,000 animals by 1976 but then began downsizing to the 1,300 it now has. Today we celebrate the animals at this zoo, the zoo itself, and those all across America.

How to Observe American Zoo Day

The best way to celebrate the day is to take a trip to the Philadelphia Zoo. If you can't make it to Philadelphia, perhaps you are nearby one of the best zoos in the country. Otherwise, find another nearby zoo to visit!

Source

[grumpygreenwitch]

The Fairy and the Prince #9 + #10

Part 1 - Part 2 - Parts 3 & 4 - Part 5 - Part 6, 7 & 8 - Part 9 & 10 - Part 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 - Part 17, 18, & 19 - Part 20, 21 & 22 - Part 23, 24, 25 & 26 - Part 27, 28, 29 & 30 - Part 31, 32, 33 & 34 - Part 35, 36 & 37 - Part 38, 39, 40 & 41 - Part 42 & 43 - Part 44 & 45 - Part 46 & 47 - Part 48, 49, 50 & 51 - Part, 52, 53 & 54 - Part 55 & 56 - Part 57, 58, 59 & 60 - Part 61, 62, 63, 64 & 65 - Part 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 & 72

Hm. I considered, very much, posting these chapters separately. But 9 ends in a cliffhanger and that seemed incredibly mean, and so I didn’t. I’m a grumpy goat, not a mean one.

On a rainy day of early spring, Prince Rickard accused Prince Ulster of stealing a favorite book. The book, of course, was found in Ulster's room; he claimed it had been loaned to him, a gift between friends. The argument came down to the only solution available where every wronged party had only words, not witnesses.

Rickard ran Ulster through, and all the Queen's physicians could do was stabilize him long enough to make the trip home and die with his family. Prince Alexander formally abandoned his claim to the throne and rode away on that day. Adam watched the train leave, perched on his windowsill. They wouldn't be the last, he was sure; Rickard had opened a door the older princes would be too eager to troop through.

Meanwhile Adam found himself having to sneak away again. Aware that the youngest prince had, for some reason, caught the Dowager's eye, master Leminy stuffed Adam's schedule full without so much as the prince's by-your-leave. Adam retaliated by beginning his disappearing act once again. No amount of shouting at Beli or Dane would make them chase after the young prince when he took to the rooftops, and when the Master of Scions tried his temper against Arditty, he discovered himself at the receiving end of someone who could, and did, out-shout, out-shriek, out-talk and out-curse him. He beat a hasty retreat, not wishing attention brought to his faults, gritted his teeth, and tried every other trick in the book to figure out where the foul little urchin was going off to.

It couldn't be a girl. The disappearing had started long before Adam's interest in the fair sex had been roused, and he seemed about as interested in the lovely Arditty and her occasional companions as he was in his jousting lessons.

It couldn't be extra classes. Every teacher in the palace accounted for their time down to the last minute, the last tick and turn of a toothed wheel, and Leminy's careful investigations had revealed no other source of education, noble or plebeian.

No, the boy was larking off, and gods only knew where. In all honesty, if he'd known Adam kept going into the woods to wait for Linden, master Leminy would have likely backed off and waited gleefully for him to disappear. He would have taken away the prince's friends, his horse, his hawk, his books, everything, but the Queen Dowager thought it utterly adorable that the youngest of her potential heirs was organizing a tidsy-bitsy court around himself. If they were to suddenly vanish, she would want to know why.

So Leminy raged impotently and Adam waited impatiently. Wary of the woods, where the fog might creep up on him from ambush, he waited at the very edge, on the roof of a water mill in the newly finished Royal Gardens, or climbing up the trees that had been moved into them. It was there that he saw Boul, creeping out of the woods by small measures, squinting at the bring afternoon sunlight, shading his face with an upraised hand and looking at least twice as big as he'd been when Adam had last seen him.

"Boul!" he cried out gladly, forgot he was nearly twenty feet off the ground, and stepped on a too-thin branch that snapped right out from under his boot.

A strong, nut-brown hand caught his, and the wild and merry laugh he knew so well made his heart soar. "You're never getting good at this, are you?"

"Why should I?" He grinned up at Linden, his grip around their wrist as strong as his friend's around his. "You're always there to catch me."

Linden laughed again, pulling him up, and they slid together down the tree and into a hug as soon as they hit the ground. The young troll had indeed grown, and he rumbled in flustered surprise when Adam hugged him as well, long arms coming around the prince and very carefully patting him in welcome. They exchanged leaving-and-returning and staying-and-waiting presents, and Adam watched in fascination as Boul pressed the stone arrow-head to his arm, where it sank seamlessly into the pebbled gray skin, only to reappear a moment later, point up, between the young troll's knuckle. Boul looked incredibly pleased. Linden wove the striped, long feather of a hawk into their hair, and then helped secure around Adam's neck a grass necklace with a shell that had long ago turned to shimmering stone.

They ran wild through the woods and crept along the raw new edges of the Royal Gardens. They spied on the late afternoon classes in the inner and outer yards. Adam tried to teach Boul to fight and gave up when he realized he was only bruising his knuckles against the pebbly gray skin of the troll. He tried his luck against Linden, but his friend with their shattered eyes and the wild mop of their fine white hair was as fast as the swift-traveling clouds. The young prince tried to practice his wrestling on Boul, too, but even their weight combined was still not enough to even budge the young troll, who took to racing wild and gleeful through the woods with both his friends dangling off his neck like the twin ends of a scarf, all of them laughing.

They met the kelpie right in the middle of summer's highest heat, when the air was still and full of motes, the leaves at their darkest green, the light golden. Boul could only come by once a week at that point, and they both missed him terribly. Linden was flopped on one immense, exposed root from the linden tree, half-drowsed and whistling back to the birds in the canopy, who found the conversation both invigorating and maddening, if their enthusiastic replies were anything to go by. Adam, having shed everything but his pants and shirt, was lying with his back on the sweet green grass and his feet propped up on the tree of the trunk, the bark a pleasant scratchy feeling against his heels. He was bouncing a piece of Linden's sunlight, bright and warm, from one hand to another, and he was nearly asleep.

The scream that cut through the woods sent every bird on the wing in perfect, panicked silence, as if a hawk had swooped at them from the empty blue sky. Adam rolled and scrabbled to his feet and nearly got trampled by a deer that had been grazing startlingly close to the children. Linden fell right off the root with a squawk, coming back up on their knees behind it, eyes wide on a face so pale their green freckles were starkly visible.

"What was -" The scream repeated, louder, full of madness and fury and agony, and Adam felt the nearly uncontrollable urge to join the deer in its heedless flight. "Linden."

"Oh, no," his friend whispered.

"Linden, what is that."

"Adam, we should -"

"Linden."

"We should go -"

The scream came again, rising to a shrieking note that rang against Adam's bones and rattled in his teeth, making every inch of him clench in pain. All he could think at the moment was that, if that was how the sound of it made him feel, what sort of torture was the creature screaming feeling? A moment later he was running, barefoot, panting, through the woods.

"Adam!" Linden was just a breath behind him. All around them the trees whispered, and for all that he could never fully hear them, the prince felt their concern, their worry and their fear. He raced on. They passed the great fallen giant that had once been their fortress, their ship, their dragon, until decay had sent it back to join the rich ground from whence it had once sprung. They passed a low, ruined wall of tumbled stones and roses gone to briars. They ran until the ground under their feet went muddy and soft and Adam nearly fell and was forced to check his speed, breathing hard, shoving cattails and wild irises out of his way.

"Adam, we can't be here!" Linden whispered, trying to catch his breath.

A new scream deafened them, and they both dropped to a crouch on the soggy ground, curled up, trying to escape what couldn't be fled, driven by instinct to make themselves small. Adam recovered first, inching forward, but he could feel the sun-warm presence of Linden at his back after a moment, and then the clinging hands of his friend clutching the back of his shirt.

The ground opened up to a pond. There were rotten stumps of wood off to one side that said once it had been a tame place, but that had been a long time ago, long enough that the stumps were soft and rounded, covered in moss and barely peeking out of the water. It was a beautiful place. There were two willows and several cherry trees growing by the water, gnarled with age and the passage of the wind. The shores were screened here and there with cattails and wild irises, with wort and mint, but for the most part there was a vast ribbon of clear, soft and short green grass all around the water, as if inviting anyone who passed by to sit, to rest and enjoy the cool breeze and the pretty sights.

It was a very well crafted trap.

The water, normally clean and with a delicate embroidery of wild water lilies, had been churned to a muddy frot, thrashed to chaos by the heavy links of a chain. One end of it disappeared into the depths of the water, and Adam knew instantly what it was: a storm chain. At some point the pond had been part of a river's sluice system, likely the same river that had been partially diverted to cavort and twist in artificially wild whorls and cascades through the Royal Gardens. The gate and its mechanism had likely gone to ruin eventually; when they'd done so, the chain that controlled both had grown loose.

And the pond's master had, somehow, got caught in it.

The kelpie was running in narrow, maddened arcs at the other end of the chain. It wasn't disguised; this was no beautiful white horse, no magnificent stallion, no sweet mare. Adam could count every bone under the sagging, mold-splotched white hide. Its eyes were a poisonous green and most of its face was bare bone, a few scarce strands of rotting flesh holding together its jaws, jaws full of teeth even a dragon would have envied. Froth and spittle flew from those jaws as it bucked and twisted and writhed, but the chain, the iron chain, had tangled up around a foreleg and, in trying to get free, the fairy horse had somehow ended up with both leg and neck caught in a loop. The broken end of the chain ended in a hook that no longer attached to anything, and that hook kept slamming into the side of the kelpie's neck, which was slowly oozing a black, sickly slime from a dozen wounds.

It would have fled into the water, Adam was certain, if it weren't because the chain was coming from the water, and likely the kelpie thought there was an enemy, a predator, on the other end, instead of whatever hundredweight counterweight stone had been placed there an unknown age ago.

The kelpie paused in its frantic struggles, sniffing the breeze. Adam felt Linden gasp tinily.

The monster lunged at them, its scream fury and hunger. Linden yanked at Adam's shirt.

"Wait," Adam caught Linden's hand. His math was nowhere near Beli's level, but his archery was excellent.

He wasn't wrong. The chain yanked taut and the kelpie crashed down a good four body lengths or more from them, shrieking impotent fury. It fought itself to its feet with tremendous effort, the chain's hook now embedded into a shoulder, faced them, and hissed.

"Adam," Linded whispered urgently, "we should go."

"But it's hurt. It's caught."

"It's caught in iron, Adam, we can't help it, and even if we could, it's a kelpie!"

"And?" Adam turned to face those beautiful many-colored eyes. "That's his nature, not his fault. That's like blaming me for being a prince when I never wanted to be."

"Adam, I can't make you not a prince," Linden declared impatiently, "but I hope I can keep you from getting chewed up to bits!"

Adam looked away. Linden was right, of course. The kelpie didn't care. It wouldn't care if they tried to help it, it wouldn't care if they had good intentions. It was a kelpie. It hunted, it drowned, it ate. As fairies went, it was one of the simplest, for all that it also was one of the most dangerous.

"It's just wrong, to leave anything to die like that," Adam said quietly.

"Yes, it is," Linden agreed after a moment. And then, because they had been friends for so long, they added, "I would help you, but I won't risk you. You're my friend, the kelpie's not."

Adam couldn't help but grin. "I don't think he's anyone's friend, Linden."

"Do you really think we can help it?"

"I don't know. Let me think." Adam chewed restlessly on his lips. In the distance he heard horns from the castle, saw the kelpie's head come up, ears pricked. "Oh, butter and burrs," he muttered, Culli's favorite non-swear.

"What is it, what's happened?"

"They heard him screaming at the palace. They're calling for everyone to go indoors." Adam blew a low breath. "I'm going to be in so much trouble."

Linden made no comment, but from their expression Adam had a sudden, unexpected insight into his friend's life. "Are you going to be in trouble for helping it, Linden?"

"Not for helping it," his friend replied. It would have probably worked on any other twelve-year-old.

"For helping me?"

"No!" Linden blew out a sharp sigh. "For getting this close to it at all." When Adam looked faintly frustrated, they pointed both hands dramatically at the monstrous creature. "It's a kelpie, Adam," they pointed out tartly.

"Ugh!" Adam tugged impatiently at his hair, as if by doing so he could tug out some miraculous fix to the problem at hand. "Can you get us some rope?"

"You can't trap a kelpie with rope."

"It's not for him, it's for me."

***

Adam had meant to use himself as bait but Linden wouldn't have it, and they were, the prince had to admit, the quicker and more agile of the two. He waited and watched, chewing restlessly on his nails and nursing a near-painful pit in his stomach, as Linden slipped out of the cover the wild irises had given them both. The kelpie turned immediately, one side lathered in its black, oozing blood.

Linden bowed, graceful and polite, never taking their eyes off the creature. With an awkward hobble, the kelpie bowed back, and lunged.

Linden ran, fleet as a stray breeze, and the kelpie's teeth closed on nothing. The fairy predator twisted around with preternatural grace, but Linden was better and the false horse nearly went down trying to keep up. They ran for the willow trees and the kelpie surged forward on the straight sprint.

Linden twisted away and slid on the mud, and from his spot among the irises Adam winced as he heard the kelpie's fangs snap shut. Like thistle down, a few white hairs flew away in the breeze and the monstrous horse howled fury, leaping to re-orient itself, stumbling. Linden was halfway to the gnarled cherry trees when the kelpie surged finally after them.

Adam, watching with his heart in his mouth and drowning in preemptive regrets, saw it at last, saw it as clearly as he'd never seen it before: a branch swung low, covered in glossy green leaves, like a gnarled hand. With the kelpie's hungry breath washing over the back of their fragile neck, Linden caught that hand and twisted around the cherry tree, turning right back the way they'd come. The false horse slid, crashed down, scrabbled to its feet and launched after its prey, blind with hunger, all its cunning drowned in rage. Linden whipped around another cherry tree, the ground under their feet impossibly free of gnarled, jutting roots, and the kelpie followed, neck stretched out after the promise of warm flesh and hot blood to sate its hunger -

The chain it was trailing abruptly drew up short; the kelpie went flying ass over teakettle in a crash that would have absolutely killed a normal horse. It righted itself, legs flailing at angles nothing alive should have been able to exhibit without immense pain, and simply rested there, on the ground, looking absolutely perplexed. It looked behind itself, as if to confirm the obvious, and snorted in absolute disbelief: the chain was a knot of twists and loops and turns.

Adam rushed over to where Linden had stopped, hands on their knees, breathing hard. "You did it!"

"Uh-huh," was all Linden could wheeze. "Your turn."

"Right." Adam looked at the kelpie; it had fixed its venomous, alien gaze on the two of them, ears as flat to its bare skull as any real horse's, and likely for the same reason. It took every ounce of courage the prince had never known he had to take the first step forward toward the monster.

The kelpie awkwardly surged to its hooves and growled, a low and burbling sound. Adam faltered, and then stepped forward slowly again. "Wait until I call, Linden," he cried out over his shoulder, never taking his eyes from the fairy.

"I don't want to, but I will!" his friend replied, already climbing up one of the ancient willows.

Adam drew a deep, shaking breath. He had a stick in one hand, a good long one that had many times served as both spear and flagpole, and every now again as an impromptu fishing rod. It was sturdy oak, polished by his years of favoring it. Around his shoulders and waist were the knots of a slender, golden rope, as thin around as his littlest finger. He knew better than to look at it too closely; like Linden's many-colored, shattered eyes, he might see the truth of it if he did, and it'd be useless as a rope then.

He grew as close to the kelpie as he dared, and bowed as he'd seen Linden do, though nowhere near as gracefully. The kelpie's ears came up in surprise and, after a moment, it bowed back.

Adam blew out a long breath, steeled himself, and reached out with the stick, blowing sweat and sticky hair out of his eyes as he worked to keep it steady. Carefully, so carefully, he slid the tip of the stick under the hook where it had shallowly buried itself into the predator's shoulder. The white, mottled and sickly skin gave way as he pushed with a sickening squelching sound, but when Adam pulled the stick away to try again, it came free without issue. The kelpie watched him with feral intensity, and its growl never abated.

He slipped the pole under the hook on the third try, and realized gentleness would not avail him. He yanked, hard and sudden with a grunt, and the iron hook slipped free, black slimy droplets flying through the heated air. He staggered back and the kelpie lunged forward with a shrill cry, only to nearly go down face-first, checked by the chain still wrapped around its foreleg.

"Adam!"

"It's fine, it's fine!" It was so many things far beyond fine that it had come right back around to it, Adam thought as he picked himself up. He paced back and forth a bit, squinting at the sight of the chain and trying to figure out how to untangle it, the water horse's predatory gaze never wavering from him.

The easy part was dragging the chain off the kelpie's neck. It left a ragged, oozing path of rotting gray and murky black as it went, and the horse shook itself from nose to tail as it did, just as the real animal would have. Adam had to get far too close to catch the first loop tangled around the predator's leg, and when he looked up from his work it was to find that the kelpie had stretched its neck as far as it could, a long tongue like a mud eel writhing between its fangs trying to latch onto any part of the young prince it could reach. It was barely three inches away, but they were three inches it couldn't ford.

Adam swallowed the stone in his throat and sent it to join the one sitting heavily in his stomach. "Linden, get ready!"

"Ready!"

He caught the hook and lifted it with the tip of his stick, unwinding the chain by slow measures. He struck the kelpie's chest once and the horse hissed at him like a goose, but it didn't otherwise react. The leg was a blackened, sorry mess.

Moving as quick as he could, Adam swung the hook aside. Almost before he knew if he'd done it right he was scrabbling back and away, yanking the pole up like a shield. "Linden!"

The kelpie leapt forward, free, and its head struck like a viper's, aimed for Adam's throat. Instead its jaws found that faithful length of weathered oak. Its fangs closed like a cleaver striking a carcass, and the pole splintered with a terrible crack.

Adam went down on his butt, but he was already flying back, back and away, sliding over the mud and grass as if he were a leaf and a strong wind had caught him, Linden pulling on the rope as fast as their hands could move. The kelpie, bad leg or not, screamed a challenge and lunged after prey that kept denying him. It tripped, the leg unwilling to fully hold it upright, and it tried to snap instead at one of the prince's bare feet. Adam threw one of the stick halves at it and it reared in shock, its whinny almost a horse's if not for the note of utter disbelief in it. As if it couldn't fathom having a stick thrown at its face as a defense mechanism.

And then Adam was at the willow, and he scrabbled for branches that were simply there, where his hands would find them. He climbed, in panic and desperation, trying to catch a breath terror would not let him have. Strong hands found his and yanked him up even as he kicked himself away from the ground. The kelpie's teeth snapped shut one last time, just below him. Under the willow, the fairy horse dropped from its rear and spun, squealing in fury, cow-kicking at the willow's trunk. It paced and trotted underneath, head cocked so it could stare at the two children, first with one eye, then the other, snarling openly.

Adam and Linden climbed a little higher.

The kelpie chewed on the willow's bark, likely out of spite more than any thought that it could actually take the venerable tree down. It yanked on the trailing boughs, brought several down and grew incensed all over again when they draped over the wounds on its back. It crow-hopped and kicked and circled the tree like a prowling wolf. And finally, after pawing at the ground restlessly with its bad leg and bending down to sniff at it, it hobbled away, proud and slow, tail held up like a banner. By the time it disappeared beyond the cherry trees, it was a magnificent white stallion with bright blue eyes and a leg bathed in crimson blood.

The children fought to catch their breath, harried and ragged, Adam's head nearly at the top of the willow, Linden halfway out of the canopy.

The willow creaked in the breeze.

The cherry trees sighed.

"It's gone," Linden whispered. "Adam..."

Slowly, unexpected, laughter bubbled up from them both. They looked at each other and for some reason that made them laugh even harder, the sight of them, the knowledge of what they had achieved, with a weathered oak pole and a rope made of woven dandelions and the two of them and nothing else.

Linden tumbled off the willow, laughing like the ringing of crystal bells, and landed sprawled on the soft grass beneath the willow. Adam scrambled down and dropped on his stomach, and they could do little but laugh until they couldn't breathe, next to the beautiful pond and in the shade of the whispering willow boughs. In the end, Adam rose to his feet and offered Linden a hand. "Come on!"

They raced through the woods, laughing still, whooping gladly into the golden, still air. Occasionally in the distance they would hear the palace knights shouting, calling out to one another as they tried to find the source of the screaming, bereft of guidance now that it had stopped. None of the searchers found the two friends as they sprinted beneath the trees, none of them saw them pass, or heard their merry sounds, or the whisper of their footsteps. They ran out of the woods and through the primly manicured lawns of the palace, across empty courtyards and over low hedges. Linden took the lead, leaping gracefully as a hart atop a low wall, Adam following, fearless in the wake of his best and first friend. They raced over the ledges and roofs and narrow heights of the palace as wildly as they had run through the woods, unafraid and unfaltering, calling out greetings to the water spouts and the nesting swallows.

Culli-maid was sitting next to the cold heart in Adam's rooms when she heard the rapid tapping on one of the windows. At first she'd thought it was herself; she had a terribly unladylike habit of tapping her foot rapidly when she came under stress. But a quick look down reminded her that she was wearing soft leather slippers and, anyway, they would have made no sound on the thick pile of the rug before the empty hearth.

She thought it might be the boys, but the last time she'd checked on them Beli had had his nose buried in one of Adam's homework journals, checking against it his own work, and Dane had been asleep, snoring faintly, on a couch. Neither had reason to draw attention to themselves, least of all at that moment.

Eventually, she realized where the sound came from, and gasped hugely. The mending she'd hardly been tending to tumbled from her lap to the ground and she rushed to the window; there, on the other side, Adam pointed at the locks.

"Oh, tree-father and night-mother!" the maid whispered, flapping a hand at the prince. "Alright, well, step away so I don't shove you off whatever it is you're standing on!" she hissed at him before throwing the window open. "Your Highness, where've you been!"

Adam grinned at her and leaned back some, and Culli's breath caught very sharply. The prince was clinging by his fingertips to the graven stone windowsill, filthy and unafraid, the bright blue of his royal-blood eyes alive in a way she had never seen. There were green smears on his shirt, flecks of mud and dirt everywhere on him, and his hair would have made rats a proud nest. He was standing, as far as she could tell, on the slippery clay of a rain sluice pipe, unconcerned at the fact that only his toes had room to perch on it, or that he was four stories above a rose garden.

"Having fun," Adam replied, releasing one hand to rub it against his shirt. As his weight shifted, Culli lost her ability to breathe altogether.

Linden, inhuman and beautiful, graceful and wild, blinked at the maid with their shattered, many-colored eyes, and the maid blinked back.

"Culli, this is Linden. Linden, this is Culli-maid; she's good."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance," Culli wheezed out, manners kicking in where everything else she'd ever learned in life was failing her. She even offered a little curtsy, though it came out stiff and trembling. The motion forced her to let go of the window, and Adam scrabbled in like a squirrel.

"Pleasure to make yours, Culli-maid," Linden replied, their voice lilting and their eyes the most astonishing shade of green Culli had ever seen in a face as sharp and brown as finely carved and polished wood. She would never remember what she'd glimpsed before, buried in that green.

"Are you..." Culli swallowed to try and get her voice to work anywhere near properly. "Are you coming in?"

"Me? No! What good would it do me, what good would I do?" Linden laughed. "Adam?"

"Have they been by to check on me, Culli?"

"No, highness. But they'll be here soon, I heard them pass on the way to the other wing."

"I'll be fine, then, Linden. Will you?"

"I don't know," Linden admitted, shifting restlessly on the sluice until they noticed the Culli-maid was beginning to be more terrified of them falling than of their presence. "I'll send Boul if I get in trouble!" And with that warning Adam had to be satisfied as Linden bolted down the clay pipe, swift and light and out of sight a moment later, a leap up taking them to the roofs and beyond anyone's reach.

[healthtunnel-app]

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WARNING: REVEALING REVIEW, SPOILER ALERT

I had this review typed up on my tablet the other night when I finished reading the book, but Emma stepped on the keyboard and it got deleted! It was not meant to be. I have spent the past couple of days thinking about the review I wrote that night and Emma was correct. I had too much of the book in my review. So here goes my second attempt to tell you about this incredible book.

This is the third and probably last installment of the Thomas Tallant Mysteries. If you haven’t read either of the previous two books, you are certainly missing out on some really good reading. This third book takes place in the autumn of 1642. That in itself should tell you that this is an unusual series. Not too much historical fiction is written for this period. Our main characters are Thomas Tallant and Elizabeth Seymour. Thomas is from a merchant family. They own ships and bring merchandise into the London docks near their home. His father is Sir Ralph and his mother is Lady Beatrix. They are all for keeping their noses in the business and trying to ride out the current political troubles as best they can. In case you don’t know your history, this is the beginning of the Civil War between the King and Parliament, the royals and the roundheads.

Elizabeth is Lady Elizabeth Seymour. She isn’t important in the court, but she does know some highly-placed people in the court circles. William Harvey, Physician in Ordinary to King Charles for one. She and Sir William enjoy discussing astronomy, anatomy, and other scientific things. They also enjoy partaking in tobacco. Elizabeth smokes a pipe. Another is Lucy Hay, Countess of Carlisle, who has recently changed sides along with lovers. She summons Elizabeth as she has a message for her and a request. Sir William is looking forward to having Elizabeth’s company. And could Lucy perhaps borrow Thomas for a task? Oh, by the way, your necklace is mine. It was stolen from my home a couple of weeks ago. Elizabeth ends up sleuthing into the case of the gang of jewel thieves currently tearing around London, as well as the long and hazardous journey to locate William Harvey and the King. She finally locates him at a battlefield where the two of them end up treating the wounded and they both are rather overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of injured and dying soldiers. Surely tracking down jewel thieves is easier.

Thomas meanwhile has been loaned out to the Parliament militia, The London Trained Bands, under the command of Philip Skippon. The two men hit it off and Thomas is sent off with two favored troopers on a special mission to resolve the gunpowder source for the royalists. Spite and betrayal play a very large part in Thomas’ mission and he comes close to dying several times. He does see friends die in the process and becomes a bit bitter due to the betrayal.

My favorite scene in the whole book is when Elizabeth goes back to Lucy to let her know about the jewel investigation and loses it. Elizabeth is physically and emotionally worn out from the jewel thief who had been stalking her and threatening her as well as her journey to Sir William Harvey and their time at the battlefield. She is faced with this woman who hasn’t left her comfortable home through it all, who is practically hissing in her face about baubles while people are dying. Elizabeth simply lets go with all of the pain and anger she has inside her. I loved it. Granted, the Countess then banishes her, but I think it was worth it for Elizabeth to have her say. Brava! 

I know this is intended to be the last of the Thomas Tallant Mysteries, but I really hope that the author listens to what his readers are saying in these reviews and keeps going with them. We love these books. His way of putting history on paper and the story of this young couple is just so appealing. Too appealing to end here. CORRECTION: THIS IS NOT THE END..MORE TO COME!

Recommended.

[galleryyuhself]

                   G    A    L    L    E     R    Y    Y     U    H     S    E    L    F

Charles Petioni was a co-founder of the Trinidad Co-operative Bank, popularly known as the Penny Bank.In 1914, Petioni and friends raised the capital to finance the establishment of the bank which allowed deposits as small as a penny. He served as its secretary-treasurer.The move was in response to the policy at the British Colonial Bank (BCB), then the only commercial financial institution in Trinidad, which made the opening minimum deposit unaffordable by low-income people.

The BCB, by its policy, catered to upper-class merchants, plantation operators, and government officials.Petioni, however, was not able to see the Penny Bank overcome the resistance it faced from elements in colonial Trinidad that did not want a black-owned bank to succeed. His social activism against colonialism forced him to go into exile in the United States within four years.Petrioni had been a journalist and subeditor with local newspapers from 1908 to 1918.His anti-colonial newspaper articles got him in such trouble that he was fired.

It is reported that “the colonial government sent word to him that his outspoken views about local political and economic conditions had permanently future career opportunities for himself and his family”.When Petioni moved to Harlem, New York, in 1918, he had “never lifted anything heavier than a pen”, and had to take work as a stockman in the shipyards, then as an elevator operator, and later as an elevator operator. Eventually, he attended pre-med night classes at City College of New York until he was able to enroll at Howard University College of Medicine.After graduation in 1925, Petioni became one of Harlem’s first black physicians. He opened a practice at his home where he attended to low-income patients, joining a complex struggle for better conditions for blacks in Harlem.

Petioni devoted much of his later life to African American and West Indian social, political, and economic, and medical organisations. He became president of the West Indies National Council, and joined the United Negro Improvement Association.In time, he became a founding director of the Carver Federal Savings and Loan Association which, much like the Penny Bank he had founded in his native Trinidad, helped poor people be able to save money, obtain mortgages, and purchase their own homes.Born in August 27, 1885, Dr. Charles Augustin Petioni died in New York on October 15, 1951.

His daughter, Dr. Muriel Petioni, born in Trinidad in 1914, followed in her father's footsteps, set up a private practice in the same office he had used for his practice, and worked diligently help underserved communities receive proper medical attention and equitable access to health care.More: 1. Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience2. https://www.marxists.org/.../works/1939/10/negro3.htm...

[snakepolo6]

How To Protect Your Facebook Account - 5 Internet Security Pointers Exposed!

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The Fairy and the Prince #9 + #10

Part 1 - Part 2 - Parts 3 & 4 - Part 5 - Part 6, 7 & 8 - Part 9 & 10 - Part 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 - Part 17, 18, & 19 - Part 20, 21 & 22 - Part 23, 24, 25 & 26 - Part 27, 28, 29 & 30 - Part 31, 32, 33 & 34 - Part 35, 36 & 37 - Part 38, 39, 40 & 41 - Part 42 & 43 - Part 44 & 45 - Part 46 & 47 - Part 48, 49, 50 & 51 - Part, 52, 53 & 54 - Part 55 & 56 - Part 57, 58, 59 & 60 - Part 61, 62, 63, 64 & 65 - Part 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71 & 72

 Originally posted 10/26/2022

On a rainy day of early spring, Prince Rickard accused Prince Ulster of stealing a favorite book. The book, of course, was found in Ulster’s room; he claimed it had been loaned to him, a gift between friends. The argument came down to the only solution available where every wronged party had only words, not witnesses.

Rickard ran Ulster through, and all the Queen’s physicians could do was stabilize him long enough to make the trip home and die with his family. Prince Alexander formally abandoned his claim to the throne and rode away on that day. Adam watched the train leave, perched on his windowsill. They wouldn’t be the last, he was sure; Rickard had opened a door the older princes would be too eager to troop through.

Meanwhile Adam found himself having to sneak away again. Aware that the youngest prince had, for some reason, caught the Dowager’s eye, master Leminy stuffed Adam’s schedule full without so much as the prince’s by-your-leave. Adam retaliated by beginning his disappearing act once again. No amount of shouting at Beli or Dane would make them chase after the young prince when he took to the rooftops, and when the Master of Scions tried his temper against Arditty, he discovered himself at the receiving end of someone who could, and did, out-shout, out-shriek, out-talk and out-curse him. He beat a hasty retreat, not wishing attention brought to his faults, gritted his teeth, and tried every other trick in the book to figure out where the foul little urchin was going off to.

It couldn’t be a girl. The disappearing had started long before Adam’s interest in the fair sex had been roused, and he seemed about as interested in the lovely Arditty and her occasional companions as he was in his jousting lessons.

It couldn’t be extra classes. Every teacher in the palace accounted for their time down to the last minute, the last tick and turn of a toothed wheel, and Leminy’s careful investigations had revealed no other source of education, noble or plebeian.

No, the boy was larking off, and gods only knew where. In all honesty, if he’d known Adam kept going into the woods to wait for Linden, master Leminy would have likely backed off and waited gleefully for him to disappear. He would have taken away the prince’s friends, his horse, his hawk, his books, everything, but the Queen Dowager thought it utterly adorable that the youngest of her potential heirs was organizing a tidsy-bitsy court around himself. If they were to suddenly vanish, she would want to know why.

So Leminy raged impotently and Adam waited impatiently. Wary of the woods, where the fog might creep up on him from ambush, he waited at the very edge, on the roof of a water mill in the newly finished Royal Gardens, or climbing up the trees that had been moved into them. It was there that he saw Boul, creeping out of the woods by small measures, squinting at the bring afternoon sunlight, shading his face with an upraised hand and looking at least twice as big as he’d been when Adam had last seen him.

“Boul!” he cried out gladly, forgot he was nearly twenty feet off the ground, and stepped on a too-thin branch that snapped right out from under his boot.

A strong, nut-brown hand caught his, and the wild and merry laugh he knew so well made his heart soar. “You’re never getting good at this, are you?”

“Why should I?” He grinned up at Linden, his grip around their wrist as strong as his friend’s around his. “You’re always there to catch me.”

Linden laughed again, pulling him up, and they slid together down the tree and into a hug as soon as they hit the ground. The young troll had indeed grown, and he rumbled in flustered surprise when Adam hugged him as well, long arms coming around the prince and very carefully patting him in welcome. They exchanged leaving-and-returning and staying-and-waiting presents, and Adam watched in fascination as Boul pressed the stone arrow-head to his arm, where it sank seamlessly into the pebbled gray skin, only to reappear a moment later, point up, between the young troll’s knuckle. Boul looked incredibly pleased. Linden wove the striped, long feather of a hawk into their hair, and then helped secure around Adam’s neck a grass necklace with a shell that had long ago turned to shimmering stone.

They ran wild through the woods and crept along the raw new edges of the Royal Gardens. They spied on the late afternoon classes in the inner and outer yards. Adam tried to teach Boul to fight and gave up when he realized he was only bruising his knuckles against the pebbly gray skin of the troll. He tried his luck against Linden, but his friend with their shattered eyes and the wild mop of their fine white hair was as fast as the swift-traveling clouds. The young prince tried to practice his wrestling on Boul, too, but even their weight combined was still not enough to even budge the young troll, who took to racing wild and gleeful through the woods with both his friends dangling off his neck like the twin ends of a scarf, all of them laughing.

They met the kelpie right in the middle of summer’s highest heat, when the air was still and full of motes, the leaves at their darkest green, the light golden. Boul could only come by once a week at that point, and they both missed him terribly. Linden was flopped on one immense, exposed root from the linden tree, half-drowsed and whistling back to the birds in the canopy, who found the conversation both invigorating and maddening, if their enthusiastic replies were anything to go by. Adam, having shed everything but his pants and shirt, was lying with his back on the sweet green grass and his feet propped up on the tree of the trunk, the bark a pleasant scratchy feeling against his heels. He was bouncing a piece of Linden’s sunlight, bright and warm, from one hand to another, and he was nearly asleep.

The scream that cut through the woods sent every bird on the wing in perfect, panicked silence, as if a hawk had swooped at them from the empty blue sky. Adam rolled and scrabbled to his feet and nearly got trampled by a deer that had been grazing startlingly close to the children. Linden fell right off the root with a squawk, coming back up on their knees behind it, eyes wide on a face so pale their green freckles were starkly visible.

“What was -” The scream repeated, louder, full of madness and fury and agony, and Adam felt the nearly uncontrollable urge to join the deer in its heedless flight. “Linden.”

“Oh, no,” his friend whispered.

“Linden, what is that.”

“Adam, we should -”

“Linden.”

“We should go -”

The scream came again, rising to a shrieking note that rang against Adam’s bones and rattled in his teeth, making every inch of him clench in pain. All he could think at the moment was that, if that was how the sound of it made him feel, what sort of torture was the creature screaming feeling? A moment later he was running, barefoot, panting, through the woods.

“Adam!” Linden was just a breath behind him. All around them the trees whispered, and for all that he could never fully hear them, the prince felt their concern, their worry and their fear. He raced on. They passed the great fallen giant that had once been their fortress, their ship, their dragon, until decay had sent it back to join the rich ground from whence it had once sprung. They passed a low, ruined wall of tumbled stones and roses gone to briars. They ran until the ground under their feet went muddy and soft and Adam nearly fell and was forced to check his speed, breathing hard, shoving cattails and wild irises out of his way.

“Adam, we can’t be here!” Linden whispered, trying to catch his breath.

A new scream deafened them, and they both dropped to a crouch on the soggy ground, curled up, trying to escape what couldn’t be fled, driven by instinct to make themselves small. Adam recovered first, inching forward, but he could feel the sun-warm presence of Linden at his back after a moment, and then the clinging hands of his friend clutching the back of his shirt.

The ground opened up to a pond. There were rotten stumps of wood off to one side that said once it had been a tame place, but that had been a long time ago, long enough that the stumps were soft and rounded, covered in moss and barely peeking out of the water. It was a beautiful place. There were two willows and several cherry trees growing by the water, gnarled with age and the passage of the wind. The shores were screened here and there with cattails and wild irises, with wort and mint, but for the most part there was a vast ribbon of clear, soft and short green grass all around the water, as if inviting anyone who passed by to sit, to rest and enjoy the cool breeze and the pretty sights.

It was a very well crafted trap.

The water, normally clean and with a delicate embroidery of wild water lilies, had been churned to a muddy frot, thrashed to chaos by the heavy links of a chain. One end of it disappeared into the depths of the water, and Adam knew instantly what it was: a storm chain. At some point the pond had been part of a river’s sluice system, likely the same river that had been partially diverted to cavort and twist in artificially wild whorls and cascades through the Royal Gardens. The gate and its mechanism had likely gone to ruin eventually; when they’d done so, the chain that controlled both had grown loose.

And the pond’s master had, somehow, got caught in it.

The kelpie was running in narrow, maddened arcs at the other end of the chain. It wasn’t disguised; this was no beautiful white horse, no magnificent stallion, no sweet mare. Adam could count every bone under the sagging, mold-splotched white hide. Its eyes were a poisonous green and most of its face was bare bone, a few scarce strands of rotting flesh holding together its jaws, jaws full of teeth even a dragon would have envied. Froth and spittle flew from those jaws as it bucked and twisted and writhed, but the chain, the iron chain, had tangled up around a foreleg and, in trying to get free, the fairy horse had somehow ended up with both leg and neck caught in a loop. The broken end of the chain ended in a hook that no longer attached to anything, and that hook kept slamming into the side of the kelpie’s neck, which was slowly oozing a black, sickly slime from a dozen wounds.

It would have fled into the water, Adam was certain, if it weren’t because the chain was coming from the water, and likely the kelpie thought there was an enemy, a predator, on the other end, instead of whatever hundredweight counterweight stone had been placed there an unknown age ago.

The kelpie paused in its frantic struggles, sniffing the breeze. Adam felt Linden gasp tinily.

The monster lunged at them, its scream fury and hunger. Linden yanked at Adam’s shirt.

“Wait,” Adam caught Linden’s hand. His math was nowhere near Beli’s level, but his archery was excellent.

He wasn’t wrong. The chain yanked taut and the kelpie crashed down a good four body lengths or more from them, shrieking impotent fury. It fought itself to its feet with tremendous effort, the chain’s hook now embedded into a shoulder, faced them, and hissed.

“Adam,” Linden whispered urgently, “we should go.”

“But it’s hurt. It’s caught.”

“It’s caught in iron, Adam, we can’t help it, and even if we could, it’s a kelpie!”

“And?” Adam turned to face those beautiful many-colored eyes. “That’s his nature, not his fault. That’s like blaming me for being a prince when I never wanted to be.”

“Adam, I can’t make you not a prince,” Linden declared impatiently, “but I hope I can keep you from getting chewed up to bits!”

Adam looked away. Linden was right, of course. The kelpie didn’t care. It wouldn’t care if they tried to help it, it wouldn’t care if they had good intentions. It was a kelpie. It hunted, it drowned, it ate. As fairies went, it was one of the simplest, for all that it also was one of the most dangerous.

“It’s just wrong, to leave anything to die like that,” Adam said quietly.

“Yes, it is,” Linden agreed after a moment. And then, because they had been friends for so long, they added, “I would help you, but I won’t risk you. You’re my friend, the kelpie’s not.”

Adam couldn’t help but grin. “I don’t think he’s anyone’s friend, Linden.”

“Do you really think we can help it?”

“I don’t know. Let me think.” Adam chewed restlessly on his lips. In the distance he heard horns from the castle, saw the kelpie’s head come up, ears pricked. “Oh, butter and burrs,” he muttered, Culli’s favorite non-swear.

“What is it, what’s happened?”

“They heard him screaming at the palace. They’re calling for everyone to go indoors.” Adam blew a low breath. “I’m going to be in so much trouble.”

Linden made no comment, but from their expression Adam had a sudden, unexpected insight into his friend’s life. “Are you going to be in trouble for helping it, Linden?”

“Not for helping it,” his friend replied. It would have probably worked on any other twelve-year-old.

“For helping me?”

“No!” Linden blew out a sharp sigh. “For getting this close to it at all.” When Adam looked faintly frustrated, they pointed both hands dramatically at the monstrous creature. “It’s a kelpie, Adam,” they pointed out tartly.

“Ugh!” Adam tugged impatiently at his hair, as if by doing so he could tug out some miraculous fix to the problem at hand. “Can you get us some rope?”

“You can’t trap a kelpie with rope.”

“It’s not for him, it’s for me.”

***

Adam had meant to use himself as bait but Linden wouldn’t have it, and they were, the prince had to admit, the quicker and more agile of the two. He waited and watched, chewing restlessly on his nails and nursing a near-painful pit in his stomach, as Linden slipped out of the cover the wild irises had given them both. The kelpie turned immediately, one side lathered in its black, oozing blood.

Linden bowed, graceful and polite, never taking their eyes off the creature. With an awkward hobble, the kelpie bowed back, and lunged.

Linden ran, fleet as a stray breeze, and the kelpie’s teeth closed on nothing. The fairy predator twisted around with preternatural grace, but Linden was better and the false horse nearly went down trying to keep up. They ran for the willow trees and the kelpie surged forward on the straight sprint.

Linden twisted away and slid on the mud, and from his spot among the irises Adam winced as he heard the kelpie’s fangs snap shut. Like thistle down, a few white hairs flew away in the breeze and the monstrous horse howled fury, leaping to re-orient itself, stumbling. Linden was halfway to the gnarled cherry trees when the kelpie surged finally after them.

Adam, watching with his heart in his mouth and drowning in preemptive regrets, saw it at last, saw it as clearly as he’d never seen it before: a branch swung low, covered in glossy green leaves, like a gnarled hand. With the kelpie’s hungry breath washing over the back of their fragile neck, Linden caught that hand and twisted around the cherry tree, turning right back the way they’d come. The false horse slid, crashed down, scrabbled to its feet and launched after its prey, blind with hunger, all its cunning drowned in rage. Linden whipped around another cherry tree, the ground under their feet impossibly free of gnarled, jutting roots, and the kelpie followed, neck stretched out after the promise of warm flesh and hot blood to sate its hunger -

The chain it was trailing abruptly drew up short; the kelpie went flying ass over teakettle in a crash that would have absolutely killed a normal horse. It righted itself, legs flailing at angles nothing alive should have been able to exhibit without immense pain, and simply rested there, on the ground, looking absolutely perplexed. It looked behind itself, as if to confirm the obvious, and snorted in absolute disbelief: the chain was a knot of twists and loops and turns.

Adam rushed over to where Linden had stopped, hands on their knees, breathing hard. “You did it!”

“Uh-huh,” was all Linden could wheeze. “Your turn.”

“Right.” Adam looked at the kelpie; it had fixed its venomous, alien gaze on the two of them, ears as flat to its bare skull as any real horse’s, and likely for the same reason. It took every ounce of courage the prince had never known he had to take the first step forward toward the monster.

The kelpie awkwardly surged to its hooves and growled, a low and burbling sound. Adam faltered, and then stepped forward slowly again. “Wait until I call, Linden,” he cried out over his shoulder, never taking his eyes from the fairy.

“I don’t want to, but I will!” his friend replied, already climbing up one of the ancient willows.

Adam drew a deep, shaking breath. He had a stick in one hand, a good long one that had many times served as both spear and flagpole, and every now again as an impromptu fishing rod. It was sturdy oak, polished by his years of favoring it. Around his shoulders and waist were the knots of a slender, golden rope, as thin around as his littlest finger. He knew better than to look at it too closely; like Linden’s many-colored, shattered eyes, he might see the truth of it if he did, and it’d be useless as a rope then.

He grew as close to the kelpie as he dared, and bowed as he’d seen Linden do, though nowhere near as gracefully. The kelpie’s ears came up in surprise and, after a moment, it bowed back.

Adam blew out a long breath, steeled himself, and reached out with the stick, blowing sweat and sticky hair out of his eyes as he worked to keep it steady. Carefully, so carefully, he slid the tip of the stick under the hook where it had shallowly buried itself into the predator’s shoulder. The white, mottled and sickly skin gave way as he pushed with a sickening squelching sound, but when Adam pulled the stick away to try again, it came free without issue. The kelpie watched him with feral intensity, and its growl never abated.

He slipped the pole under the hook on the third try, and realized gentleness would not avail him. He yanked, hard and sudden with a grunt, and the iron hook slipped free, black slimy droplets flying through the heated air. He staggered back and the kelpie lunged forward with a shrill cry, only to nearly go down face-first, checked by the chain still wrapped around its foreleg.

“Adam!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine!” It was so many things far beyond fine that it had come right back around to it, Adam thought as he picked himself up. He paced back and forth a bit, squinting at the sight of the chain and trying to figure out how to untangle it, the water horse’s predatory gaze never wavering from him.

The easy part was dragging the chain off the kelpie’s neck. It left a ragged, oozing path of rotting gray and murky black as it went, and the horse shook itself from nose to tail as it did, just as the real animal would have. Adam had to get far too close to catch the first loop tangled around the predator’s leg, and when he looked up from his work it was to find that the kelpie had stretched its neck as far as it could, a long tongue like a mud eel writhing between its fangs trying to latch onto any part of the young prince it could reach. It was barely three inches away, but they were three inches it couldn’t ford.

Adam swallowed the stone in his throat and sent it to join the one sitting heavily in his stomach. “Linden, get ready!”

“Ready!”

He caught the hook and lifted it with the tip of his stick, unwinding the chain by slow measures. He struck the kelpie’s chest once and the horse hissed at him like a goose, but it didn’t otherwise react. The leg was a blackened, sorry mess.

Moving as quick as he could, Adam swung the hook aside. Almost before he knew if he’d done it right he was scrabbling back and away, yanking the pole up like a shield. “Linden!”

The kelpie leapt forward, free, and its head struck like a viper’s, aimed for Adam’s throat. Instead its jaws found that faithful length of weathered oak. Its fangs closed like a cleaver striking a carcass, and the pole splintered with a terrible crack.

Adam went down on his butt, but he was already flying back, back and away, sliding over the mud and grass as if he were a leaf and a strong wind had caught him, Linden pulling on the rope as fast as their hands could move. The kelpie, bad leg or not, screamed a challenge and lunged after prey that kept denying him. It tripped, the leg unwilling to fully hold it upright, and it tried to snap instead at one of the prince’s bare feet. Adam threw one of the stick halves at it and it reared in shock, its whinny almost a horse’s if not for the note of utter disbelief in it. As if it couldn’t fathom having a stick thrown at its face as a defense mechanism.

And then Adam was at the willow, and he scrabbled for branches that were simply there, where his hands would find them. He climbed, in panic and desperation, trying to catch a breath terror would not let him have. Strong hands found his and yanked him up even as he kicked himself away from the ground. The kelpie’s teeth snapped shut one last time, just below him. Under the willow, the fairy horse dropped from its rear and spun, squealing in fury, cow-kicking at the willow’s trunk. It paced and trotted underneath, head cocked so it could stare at the two children, first with one eye, then the other, snarling openly.

Adam and Linden climbed a little higher.

The kelpie chewed on the willow’s bark, likely out of spite more than any thought that it could actually take the venerable tree down. It yanked on the trailing boughs, brought several down and grew incensed all over again when they draped over the wounds on its back. It crow-hopped and kicked and circled the tree like a prowling wolf. And finally, after pawing at the ground restlessly with its bad leg and bending down to sniff at it, it hobbled away, proud and slow, tail held up like a banner. By the time it disappeared beyond the cherry trees, it was a magnificent white stallion with bright blue eyes and a leg bathed in crimson blood.

The children fought to catch their breath, harried and ragged, Adam’s head nearly at the top of the willow, Linden halfway out of the canopy.

The willow creaked in the breeze.

The cherry trees sighed.

“It’s gone,” Linden whispered. “Adam…”

Slowly, unexpected, laughter bubbled up from them both. They looked at each other and for some reason that made them laugh even harder, the sight of them, the knowledge of what they had achieved, with a weathered oak pole and a rope made of woven dandelions and the two of them and nothing else.

Linden tumbled off the willow, laughing like the ringing of crystal bells, and landed sprawled on the soft grass beneath the willow. Adam scrambled down and dropped on his stomach, and they could do little but laugh until they couldn’t breathe, next to the beautiful pond and in the shade of the whispering willow boughs. In the end, Adam rose to his feet and offered Linden a hand. “Come on!”

They raced through the woods, laughing still, whooping gladly into the golden, still air. Occasionally in the distance they would hear the palace knights shouting, calling out to one another as they tried to find the source of the screaming, bereft of guidance now that it had stopped. None of the searchers found the two friends as they sprinted beneath the trees, none of them saw them pass, or heard their merry sounds, or the whisper of their footsteps. They ran out of the woods and through the primly manicured lawns of the palace, across empty courtyards and over low hedges. Linden took the lead, leaping gracefully as a hart atop a low wall, Adam following, fearless in the wake of his best and first friend. They raced over the ledges and roofs and narrow heights of the palace as wildly as they had run through the woods, unafraid and unfaltering, calling out greetings to the water spouts and the nesting swallows.

Culli-maid was sitting next to the cold heart in Adam’s rooms when she heard the rapid tapping on one of the windows. At first she’d thought it was herself; she had a terribly unladylike habit of tapping her foot rapidly when she came under stress. But a quick look down reminded her that she was wearing soft leather slippers and, anyway, they would have made no sound on the thick pile of the rug before the empty hearth.

She thought it might be the boys, but the last time she’d checked on them Beli had had his nose buried in one of Adam’s homework journals, checking against it his own work, and Dane had been asleep, snoring faintly, on a couch. Neither had reason to draw attention to themselves, least of all at that moment.

Eventually, she realized where the sound came from, and gasped hugely. The mending she’d hardly been tending to tumbled from her lap to the ground and she rushed to the window; there, on the other side, Adam pointed at the locks.

“Oh, tree-father and night-mother!” the maid whispered, flapping a hand at the prince. “Alright, well, step away so I don’t shove you off whatever it is you’re standing on!” she hissed at him before throwing the window open. “Your Highness, where’ve you been!”

Adam grinned at her and leaned back some, and Culli’s breath caught very sharply. The prince was clinging by his fingertips to the graven stone windowsill, filthy and unafraid, the bright blue of his royal-blood eyes alive in a way she had never seen. There were green smears on his shirt, flecks of mud and dirt everywhere on him, and his hair would have made rats a proud nest. He was standing, as far as she could tell, on the slippery clay of a rain sluice pipe, unconcerned at the fact that only his toes had room to perch on it, or that he was four stories above a rose garden.

“Having fun,” Adam replied, releasing one hand to rub it against his shirt. As his weight shifted, Culli lost her ability to breathe altogether.

Linden, inhuman and beautiful, graceful and wild, blinked at the maid with their shattered, many-colored eyes, and the maid blinked back.

“Culli, this is Linden. Linden, this is Culli-maid; she’s good.”

“Pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Culli wheezed out, manners kicking in where everything else she’d ever learned in life was failing her. She even offered a little curtsy, though it came out stiff and trembling. The motion forced her to let go of the window, and Adam scrabbled in like a squirrel.

“Pleasure to make yours, Culli-maid,” Linden replied, their voice lilting and their eyes the most astonishing shade of green Culli had ever seen in a face as sharp and brown as finely carved and polished wood. She would never remember what she’d glimpsed before, buried in that green.

“Are you…” Culli swallowed to try and get her voice to work anywhere near properly. “Are you coming in?”

“Me? No! What good would it do me, what good would I do?” Linden laughed. “Adam?”

“Have they been by to check on me, Culli?”

“No, highness. But they’ll be here soon, I heard them pass on the way to the other wing.”

“I’ll be fine, then, Linden. Will you?”

“I don’t know,” Linden admitted, shifting restlessly on the sluice until they noticed the Culli-maid was beginning to be more terrified of them falling than of their presence. “I’ll send Boul if I get in trouble!” And with that warning Adam had to be satisfied as Linden bolted down the clay pipe, swift and light and out of sight a moment later, a leap up taking them to the roofs and beyond anyone’s reach.

[zerosecurity]

The Aftermath of a Crippling Cyberattack on the US Change Healthcare Provider

The U.S. healthcare sector has been reeling in the aftermath of a devastating attack on Change Healthcare, the nation's largest medical claims clearinghouse. The attack, described by the American Hospital Association as "the most serious incident of its kind" to strike the industry, has had a severe and far-reaching impact, crippling revenue flow for medical providers across the country.

Ransomware Disruption and Investigations

The ransomware group ALPHV, also known as BlackCat, has claimed responsibility for the attack, which forced Change Healthcare to disconnect more than 100 of its systems on February 21st. Since then, the company has been unable to process medical claims through its primary platforms. UnitedHealth Group, the owner of Change Healthcare, is now under investigation by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over its handling of patient data amid the ransomware incident.

Devastation for Healthcare Providers

The fallout from the attack has pushed many healthcare organizations to the brink of closure. Physician-owned medical groups, psychiatry practices, and private practitioners across the U.S. have seen their cash flow dry up, forcing some to furlough staff or dip into their funds to meet payroll. A Pennsylvania care home, the Jefferson Hills Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center, even cited the cyberattack as one of the reasons for shutting its doors.

Ripple Effects Across the Industry

The impact of the Change Healthcare outage has been felt far and wide. Dr. Bryan Turner, a family medicine physician in Salt Lake City, Utah, described the situation as "a disaster," with his practice considering taking out a loan to cover expenses. In Pennsylvania, the Kane Community Living Centers were informed of Jefferson Hills' closure and had to transfer 35 patients to their senior centers on short notice. Change Healthcare has been working diligently to restore its various platforms and services. As of March 7th, the company's pharmacy services were largely back online, and its electronic funds transfer platform went live on March 15th. The Assurance platform for claims preparation was back online as of March 18th, and as of March 22nd, the company had staged $14 billion in claims, ready for transmission. The healthcare provider has been collaborating with major technology firms, including Alphabet's Mandiant and Palo Alto, to provide attestations that its systems are secure and ready for a full resumption of operations. The company has also been working closely with payers and other clearinghouses to ensure there is enough capacity to handle the expected surge in claims.

UnitedHealth's Response and Emergency Funding

UnitedHealth Group, the owner of Change Healthcare, has expressed a "deep sense of responsibility for recovery" and is working to ensure that healthcare providers can continue to care for their patients and run their practices. The company has launched an emergency funding program, providing interest- and fee-free loans to struggling medical providers. However, some applicants have initially reported that the funds offered were tiny compared to their expenses.

Financial Toll on the Industry

The financial impact of the Change Healthcare cyberattack on the healthcare industry has been staggering. An American Hospital Association (AHA) survey of 1,000 hospitals found that 60% of respondents said the impact on revenue was $1 million or more per day. The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association estimates the outage is costing the state's healthcare system around $24.2 million per day. The federal government has taken several steps to address the crisis. The HHS has launched an investigation into the incident to determine whether hackers breached patient data and if UnitedHealth complied with health privacy laws. Lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senator Maggie Hassan, Senator Mark Warner, and Representative Ruben Gallego, have also become increasingly involved, issuing statements and sending letters to federal agencies. In response to the crisis, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has said it will accept applications for accelerated payments, similar to a program implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic, on a case-by-case basis. The agency has also stated that prior authorization requirements should be waived for the duration of the outage.

Ongoing Challenges and the Path Forward

As the healthcare industry works to recover from the devastating effects of the Change Healthcare cyberattack, the road ahead remains challenging. With the financial toll estimated to be in the millions of dollars per day for many providers, the long-term impact of this incident is yet to be fully understood. However, the collaborative efforts of healthcare organizations, technology firms, and the federal government suggest a determination to support the industry and ensure the continuity of care for patients across the United States. Read the full article

[johnmoakler]

Investing in Your Future with John Moakler: Wealth Building Strategies Tailored for Physicians

As medical professionals, doctors devote years to rigorous education and training to become experts in their field. However, when it comes to financial planning, many physicians may find themselves navigating unfamiliar territory. Financial planning for doctors is essential not only for securing their own financial future but also for maximizing their earning potential and achieving long-term financial goals. In this blog, we will explore the basics of financial planning tailored specifically for physicians, focusing on wealth-building strategies to help doctors make informed decisions and build a secure financial foundation.

Understanding Your Financial Landscape

The first step in financial planning for physicians is to gain a clear understanding of your financial landscape. Assess your current financial situation, including your income, expenses, assets, and liabilities. Calculate your net worth and review your budget to identify areas where you can save or reduce expenses. Additionally, consider your short-term and long-term financial goals, such as saving for retirement, paying off student loans, purchasing a home, or funding your children's education.

Once you have a comprehensive overview of your financial situation and goals, you can begin to develop a personalized financial plan tailored to your needs and objectives. Consider working with a financial planner such as John Moakler who specializes in working with physicians to help you navigate complex financial decisions and develop a strategy to achieve your financial goals efficiently. More about John.

Managing Student Loan Debt

Many physicians graduate from medical school with significant student loan debt, which can have a substantial impact on their financial well-being. Developing a plan to manage and pay off student loan debt is a crucial aspect of financial planning for physicians. Explore options for student loan repayment, such as income-driven repayment plans, loan forgiveness programs, or refinancing options, to determine the most suitable strategy for your situation.

Consider allocating a portion of your income towards paying off student loans while also balancing other financial priorities such as saving for retirement and building an emergency fund. By creating a structured repayment plan and sticking to a budget with the help of professionals such as John Moakler, you can gradually reduce your student loan debt burden and move closer to achieving financial freedom.

Building Emergency Savings

Building an emergency fund is essential for physicians to protect against unexpected financial setbacks and emergencies. Aim to set aside three to six months' worth of living expenses in a liquid savings account to cover expenses such as rent or mortgage payments, utilities, groceries, and medical bills in the event of job loss, disability, or other unforeseen circumstances.

Start by setting achievable savings goals and automating contributions to your emergency fund to ensure consistent progress towards your target. Consider keeping your emergency fund in a high-yield savings account or money market fund for easy access and liquidity. Having a robust emergency fund in place provides peace of mind and financial security, allowing you to focus on your career and other long-term financial goals without worrying about unexpected expenses.

Saving for Retirement

Planning for retirement is a critical component of financial planning for physicians, given the demanding nature of their careers and the importance of securing their financial future. Take advantage of tax-advantaged retirement accounts such as 401(k) plans, 403(b) plans, or individual retirement accounts (IRAs) to save for retirement and benefit from tax-deferred growth on your investments.

Contribute as much as you can afford to your retirement accounts, aiming to max out annual contribution limits to maximize your retirement savings potential. Consider diversifying your retirement portfolio across different asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, to mitigate risk and optimize long-term growth. Review your retirement savings strategy regularly with the help of professionals such as John Moakler and adjust your contributions and investment allocations as needed to stay on track towards your retirement goals.

Investing for Wealth Building

In addition to saving for retirement, physicians should also explore opportunities for wealth building through strategic investing. Consider investing in a diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, real estate, and other asset classes to generate passive income and build long-term wealth. Work with a financial advisor or investment professional to develop an investment strategy tailored to your risk tolerance, financial goals, and time horizon.

Explore options for tax-efficient investing, such as investing in low-cost index funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and take advantage of tax-deferred accounts such as health savings accounts (HSAs) or 529 college savings plans to maximize tax savings and investment growth. By incorporating strategic investing into your financial plan with the help of professionals such as John Moakler, you can accelerate wealth accumulation and achieve financial independence more quickly.

Protecting Your Assets

Protecting your assets is essential for safeguarding your financial future and mitigating risks associated with unforeseen events such as lawsuits, disability, or premature death. Consider purchasing adequate insurance coverage, including life insurance, disability insurance, liability insurance, and malpractice insurance, to protect yourself and your family against financial losses.  

Review your insurance policies regularly to ensure that your coverage aligns with your current needs and circumstances, and consider increasing coverage limits or adding additional coverage as your income and assets grow. Work with an insurance agent or financial advisor to evaluate your insurance needs and explore options for comprehensive coverage that provides peace of mind and financial security for you and your loved ones.

Financial planning for physicians is essential for building a secure financial future and achieving long-term financial goals. By understanding your financial landscape, managing student loan debt, building emergency savings, saving for retirement, investing for wealth building, and protecting your assets with the help of professionals such as John Moakler, you can create a comprehensive financial plan that aligns with your needs and objectives. With careful planning, discipline, and the guidance of financial professionals, physicians can navigate the complexities of their financial lives with confidence and achieve financial success. By investing in your future today, you can lay the foundation for a prosperous and fulfilling tomorrow.

[preheal-indiakatotalhealth]

Complete Health Solution at Your Fingertips Preheal is a technology- based innovations i.e. one stop solution innovation for complete life cycle of the patient. This innovation provisioned services and products and allied services like travel, accommodation, insurance, special schools for children with special needs, blood Bank, loan assistance for treatment and etc. to make it more customized to the actual needs of the customers.

General Physician Home Visit In Patna: Preheal - India Ka Total Health, technology-based innovations provide one-stop solution innovation for the complete life cycle of the patient i.e. from the onset of disease to the recovery of the patient. Web: https://pre-heal.com/