The Three R’s
By ABs and Donna

"Are you finished with your assignment?" Katherine asked Glenn, who was sitting at her kitchen table, working diligently on a page full of math problems. 

"Almost, Auntie Kat," the boy said. He was now physically nine years old. Across the table, Angel was doing a page of lettering, and after finishing up the last one, showed the page proudly to Katherine. 

"It looks wonderful!" Katherine told her, giving the beautiful little red haired girl a hug. "Go get your coat on. As soon as Glenn is done, we are going to head into town." That bit of news lit a fire under Glenn, who raced through the rest of the problems. 

Meanwhile, in the Secret Garden, Diana, a lovely blond, and Rhiannon, as dark as her sister was light, ran into the cottage excitedly. "Mummy!" the girls yelled in unison, "Glenn's coming to town!" Though really only 2 months old, physically they were 6
years!

Endora, who was already expecting her next, patted her daughters' heads and smiled. "Okay, you can go out of the garden, then." Far be it for *her* to stop them from seeing the boy. 

While the twins were getting ready, Katherine was being driven to town by Andrew, who wanted to visit with Tess and Monica. It was a short trip, and as they pulled up in front of the library, Endora's little girls came racing up to greet them. 

They stood, waiting, not saying a word, but literally trembling with excitement. Glenn's face lit up when he saw them, and he jumped out, kissing them both and
holding each in turn. Andrew watched and was surprised how physical he was with them. Not only were they children, but they were cousins! 

"Looks like I will be helping four children pick out library books," Katherine chuckled as she cradled her baby to her chest. Angel hugged her father goodbye, and then took Katherine's free hand. "Come on, you three," she called out. "Glenn, would you be a gentleman and open the door for us please?" 

Of course Glenn held the door open, like the gentleman he wanted them all to see him as. The group trooped in to see a strange woman standing in the middle of the library, confusedly looking about.

"Hello!" Katherine said pleasantly as she herded the kids in. "Are you sitting in for Adam? I'm Katherine Dixon, by the way. I live on one the farms just outside of town." 

"I just came in and no one was here," said the girl. "Is that the librarian? Adam?" 

"Yes, Adam Pierson. He looks just like Methos. Have you met him yet?" 

"No, I just got here. Philadelphia Johnson," she said, offering her hand briskly. 

"Welcome to Edan then!" Katherine chuckled. "What did you do before you came here?" she asked as she watched the four older kids all head straight to the
children's book section. 

"Study, mostly. Dad was a stickler for it. I had planned to open a school when we settled." Her pale green eyes followed the children. "Why aren't they in school? Or are you their teacher?" 

"I am their teacher," Katherine told her. "At least the boy and the little redhead. We don’t have a school here in town yet. Perhaps you can start one here!" She left out the special challenge of teaching children that were growing at an equivalent to three years for every month they had been alive. 

"That would be nice," said Philly. "I am still a little lost, and concentrating on something, like teaching children, might help. How many are there?" 

"Lots of babies," the midwife chuckled. "This one is mine. And there are a lot more on the way!"  

"But she wouldn't be going to school," clarified Philly. "I'm afraid I am not too good with babies.  Any bigger kids?" 

Katherine smiled. "Have you been told much about some of the special members of our society?" 

"I just got here. All I know is that we just arrive here from nowhere, and some of the men seem to look alike. Very odd," she said sourly. 

"Wa' do ye ken about the wee folk?" Katherine asked, lapsing into a soft Scottish brogue. Across the room, Glenn and Angel both looked up. When Auntie Kat talked
like that, there was usually a very entertaining story about to be told. 

"Wee folk?" Philly asked, then laughed. "I was raised in a very scholastic environment. Father was a lover of the Greek philosophers, and we learned some of their myths. My sister Sidney loved romance and the Arthurian Legends, which is why she went to Camelot.  But I . . . I never found a similar interest. The truth is, I always thought she was a little silly."  

Katherine's blue eyes sparkled with mischief then. "Ha' a listen then while I tell ye about those that lived here on this world 'for those such as ourselves 'er stepped foot on it!" She smiled as Glenn took the twins by the hand and led them along with his sister over to sit at her feet so they could listen to the tale as well. 

Philadelphia laughed unbelievingly, then stopped when she saw the children. She wasn't much good at this sort of thing; if she started a school Katherine would have to come and do the story telling. 

Little did she know that Katherine had been telling stories to children for well over 400 years! The Scotswoman wove the tale in and out, of faeries, and elves, and mermaids swimming in the sea, and how their *father* gathered them together, telling them that soon the world around them would be filled with people, and the sound of children's laughter. On cue, the four children at her feet giggled. 

Philly looked at them, and then at Katherine. She did not believe a word of it. Any of it. 

And then one of the twins brushed her cloak back, revealing the wings that tended to sprout when they were excited! "Me mum is a forest faerie," Glenn said proudly. 

Philly looked at the wings and gasped, hardly hearing Glenn's words. Angel stood and came to her, saying, "And my daddy is the Angel of Death, but he says he is taking a holiday here." 

"Are you all right?" Katherine asked. "There is a lot more I can tell you, but the main thing you would know as a teacher here on Edan, is that children with fae blood in them tend to grow very quickly. These darlin' little lasses for instance were born just last November!" 

"But that means they are just two months old! Yet they appear to be around five or six . . . This one too," she indicated Angel. "They can't have gotten the proper schooling for that age in two months!" 

"They learn as fast as they grow!" Katherine chuckled.

"Then we should get them started on schooling quickly," Philly said. She was focusing on the learning needs of the children, not the outrageous nature of who and what they are. Possibly at some later time she would accept that, but not right now. "Is there a school building? I'd teach them in my home but I haven't one, yet. I'm staying at the women's boarding house." 

"There is one that has been earmarked as being our future school. If you like, I'll take you over there!" Katherine said, telling the children to go pick out their books so she could check them out for them. 

Just then Harper the younger came rushing in, all out of sorts. "Sorry!" he said. "I didn't think anyone would come in. Adam's on his honeymoon but Lila wasn't feeling well . . ." Kat told him it was all right, and that she understood. They were going to
write down the books they were taking in a little ledger. The young man didn't seem to mind that they were doing it on their own, so much as he was afraid someone would tell Adam that Lila had not been there. 

Once they had signed for the books, they all left the library and placed the books in a basket in the buggy that Andrew had left for her use. Once more, Angel held Katherine's free hand, while the boy held his protectively over each of the twins’ shoulders as Katherine led them to the building she had been talking about. 

Amazingly, the place chosen was right next to the ladies' boarding house, where Philly was staying!  "This couldn't be more convenient!" she said happily.  "There is only one problem. Aren't they a little *young* for him to be holding onto those girls that
way? Even at that rate of growth? It seems a bit . . . inappropriate." 

"The way it was explained to me, they are destined for each other. All three of them could best be described as 99 1/2 % fae, even though they had human fathers,"
Katherine said with a shrug. “It is hard to imagine that in a few months, he will be a teenager!" 

"Won't that get in the way of their studies, though? If only we had two teachers, and could separate them. Ah well, I suppose this whole thing is a challenge!" Philly's eyes said she liked challenges. 

"I can continue to home school Glenn if you want to take the girls. I was thinking of having him spend one or two days a week with some of the men here in town. There is such a wide variety of backgrounds and talents here, he can learn a lot from each and everyone of them!" 

"That would certainly help. The girls are all about the same age and I could concentrate on that stage of learning, without having to make up harder work for
him. And you said they are aging quickly, we really won't have much time to complete this process." 

"That would be a good idea," Katherine said. "Angel won't mature quite as fast as the twins, but she is a smart little girl." 

"How about him?" Philly asked. "Is he maturing faster than the girls? How long until he is fully mature?" 

"He is a month older," Katherine told her. "So he has had a head start." 

Philly figured it out in her head. "So, they are maturing at three years a month? That means he will be 12 next month, they 9. A month after that, they will all come to maturity, since females mature at a younger age!" 

"And then the fun begins!" Katherine laughed.