Chapter 21

Home is where the heart is and where people accept you for being you.

The winter is long, rough and very cold. In the middle of the night they awake to the sound of rolling thunder, but it sounds a little ways off. The rumbling is growing louder and louder until even the ground starts to shake. It is fortuitist that this night the ten-year-old princess chose to climb in bed with her Great Protector because the rumbling is getting closer, and it appears to be coming from the backside of the cabin.

With a rumbling so loud that Sorbo can barely hear Dakota yell out, “What is happening?” It finally dawns on him.

Sorbo grabs Dakota and puts her between him and the wall, which will put him between what he believes is coming and her. With a great crash and jolt the snow landslide hits the back of the cabin with great force. Sorbo can hear wood breaking and then he hears the fairies call out in fear.

Once the rumbling stops he tells Dakota, “Wait here.”

He goes out his bedroom door, which he has to fight to get open. The snow that has broken through the back door is piled several feet high all the way down the hallway and it gets thicker as it goes towards the back door. Dakota’s and the fairies bedroom doors are more than half way buried.

Sorbo turns around and hurriedly puts on his pants and boots and starts fighting his way over and through the snow to get to the fairies. Luckily the main bedroom’s door opens inward. The snow has already broken it open and Sorbo climbs in over the snow and finds most of the fairies on the far side of the room, but several of them are digging in the snow that has broken through the window opening, completely shattering the shudder that blocks it off in the winter time.

With tears in her eyes Katarina turns to Sorbo and says, “Two fairies are under the snow somewhere on the bed.”

Sorbo hurries over and gently starts moving snow out of the way. As the cold starts to take him he turns to the other fairies and says, “Go into my room with Dakota and have her throw another log on the fire.”

As Sorbo is digging, trying to see in the dark, all of a sudden there is a bright light hovering over his shoulder. He turns thinking maybe it is Andromeda come to help, but it’s not. “Sphere, where the hell have you been? We haven’t seen you in a year or more! Well, I’m glad you are here. There are two fairies buried in the snow and I can’t see and I don’t want to accidentally hurt them trying to get them out of the snow. Can you come over here just above the snow so I can see better?” The sphere bobs up and down and then comes over.

Handful by gentle handful Sorbo removes the snow from the bed until he sees two little fairies hanging on to each other for dear life. Because the snow had them pinned down they couldn’t use their magic. As Sorbo is digging around them one fairy stands up and starts flapping her wings to get the snow off of her, but the other fairy seems to have a broken wing. Sorbo picks her up in his cupped hands and takes her into his bedroom with everybody else.

Dakota, with fairies surrounding her, sees the hurt fairy and says, “Here, put her on the pillow.” He does and then he throws another two logs in the fireplace.

As they are standing there Sorbo says, “Dakota, an old friend is back and it is thanks to him that I could find her.”

“Really! Who?” Just then Sphere comes floating into the room. “Sphere! Where have you been?”

All of a sudden Sorbo gets a worried look on his face as he says, “Oh, son of the abyss!”

“What?” asks Dakota, concerned.

“Stay in here and I’ll be right back. Sphere, you come with me.” On their way out Sorbo shuts the door behind him.

As he is making his way to the front door he hears an annoyed and concerned Dakota yell out, “Sorbo!”

When he goes out the front door the night is illuminated by both moons so he can easily make his way to the barn. It appears the snow landslide has destroyed the barn on the west side completely, but the barn on the east side was barely hit. Sorbo takes in a deep breath. He goes inside and finds Hugs and Kisses both very agitated and skittish, but otherwise unharmed. Sorbo looks over and the storage shed is completely covered in snow, possibly destroyed, so he looks around and finds a big flat shovel that is for scooping horse poop, but now it will become a snow shovel.

For the rest of that night Sorbo starts making a path to the back door and then on to Dakota’s bedroom window opening. Luckily, or not so luckily, the dragons had left to go hunting. The one dragon they always leave behind is helping significantly with her massive claws. It only takes about an hour of that and the centaur herd that had moved into the region to help watch over the White Sorceress shows up and starts helping. Even once the other three dragons show up it is going to take weeks to clear this away and they have to make sure as they are cleaning the bottom part away in a way that it doesn’t cause another avalanche. As the years are to go by the dragons start watching the snow and they make sure it never gets too high.

Dakota and the fairies have made food for those that will eat that kind of food. Dakota may be ten now, but she is still very petite and he does not want her to get hurt so he has her stay inside and take care of the rattled fairies.

Well into that first day Sorbo is exhausted and finally seeking sleep. Once the doors can be closed, the shutters repaired and all the snow is out of the cabin, Sorbo goes and falls asleep in a matter of seconds. When he wakes up well into the next night he finds a little arm of a wonderful princess holding him tight and keeping him warm. He turns around, kisses her on the forehead and falls back asleep with his arm around her.

Over time things once and again return to normal. As summer hits, Cathy shows back up, and Cathy and Dakota have taken to doing their own nude dancing around a small campfire in the center of the front courtyard. It is at those moments that Sorbo uses his time to go hunting. Dakota might be a little girl, but Cathy isn’t and as the months and years fly by, Sorbo is finding it harder and harder to deny he has feelings for Cathy.

But Sorbo has a singular purpose to see Dakota reach her destiny and save the world. So grudgingly time moves forward and once and again it is late September and Sorbo has just turned forty-five.

Soon it is Gift Day again and it feels like old family times. Dakota gets another wood carving, this time of a dog standing up and dancing.

“I love it!” The adorable little princess says, with a fond smile.

Sorbo gets another rock and clothes and most of all he gets the pure love of a sweet-hearted ten-year-old babygirl.

And then even that moves on and it is time for the Gathering once more. Snowfall has been light this late into February so they take their time and ride. Braylard has shown up again and Sorbo is glad for it because even though he is surrounded with amazing females, it is still nice to be around another man sometimes. Not just another man, but one you have gone into battle with and you know you can trust beyond all doubt.

The Gathering again is a wonderful occasion and Dakota is now eleven. It appears Andromeda herself has taken great effort in hiding portals to other worlds and dimensions from the ever exploring Dakota and Sorbo. They listen to the updates of the troubles and successes of the world and they attend the witches gathering every night, but that does not stop them from continuing to look for adventures during the day.

Eventually The Gathering comes to a close and they return home. A week later Braylard returns to his home and once and again it is Dakota, Sorbo and the fairies. Of course there is always at least one dragon present, usually four, and then there is the herd of centaurs that move about the Andromeda Mountains looking for any brewing trouble.

As summer comes and goes Sorbo can tell Dakota is really starting to mature. For some reason this year Cathy has been making herself scarce. Another September has rushed by and as another December is upon them Sorbo now finds himself forty-six and thinking a lot about what life has to offer. He wouldn’t change his time and love with Dakota for anything, but as the years pile up and his time on this plain of existence gets shorter he longs for a different kind of companionship.

Finally, two weeks before Gift Day, Cathy shows back up.

“Where have you been, young lady?” Of course the pretty and petite Cathy is now in her mid thirties.

She takes a deep breath and looks up at Sorbo with her beautiful hazel eyes and starts to say, “I have been fighting growing feelings for you, but I didn’t want to get in the way of your destiny and...”

She gets cut off when Sorbo places his hands on each side of her head and kisses her. Just then they can hear Dakota calling for Sorbo from around the back of the cabin.