Samantha Edwhan

End of the Winter Star

Chapter 6

Spring rolled around and the days began to warm up again. Gerold didn’t try including his family in the courts again. Instead, he worked alone until Misti had her nest and Griffin finally returned to helping him. They only had a single egg this time, but Gerold was confident they would be good parents to the new addition to their family.

With Misti now incubating her egg, Adelaide had taken on caring for Modesty and Clement. Between that and Griffin returning to his duties, the fledglings were seeing even less of their parents than ever before. But the work of the High Caln and Prinze still needed to be done. Gerold had accumulated a backlog of paperwork while Griffin was away from his duties.

Today, they were going through all that paperwork.

“Here’s another request that got buried under everything,” Griffin said, lifting up a piece of paper. “A request for winter financial aid for businesses.”

“Drat.” Gerold took the paper from Griffin and quickly read it. “I was supposed to look at that two months ago.”

“Do they really need financial aid?” Griffin asked, “Surely their profits throughout the year should be enough to get them through.”

“In an ideal world, that would be the case. However, this is the third year in a row that I can remember seeing requests like this,” Gerold explained. “It’s possible that something has gone seriously wrong with the balance of income and expenses in the Calndom.”

Griffin groaned. “Gerold, if you’re talking about inflation again I think we’re okay. The castle has always been very watchful of the amount of money produced and released to the public.”

“I know you don’t like these money conversations, Griffin, but this is very important. If something has gone awry, we could be looking at the entire economy collapsing,” Gerold told him.

Griffin sighed and leaned his head on the desk. “Do you have something a little simpler I could look at?”

Gerold put the paper down and tilted his head. “Are you alright? Is something on your mind?”

“Modesty’s been acting out more than normal,” Griffin explained. “I think it’s related to the egg. With Misti staying in our room all day to incubate and me being back here… I think she’s feeling left out.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Gerold said. He couldn’t recall seeing any changes in Modesty’s behaviour, but perhaps it was happening when he wasn’t there to see it. “Is it just Modesty, or is Clement acting out too?”

Griffin shook his head. “Clement’s been his usual quiet self. Modesty, however, has been more destructive with her toys and has been crying at bedtime a lot. She won’t let us leave the room easily. Last night, I had to wait with her until she had fallen asleep.”

Gerold thought for a moment. He’d never had anything like this with his young. He couldn’t give any advice that might help.

“I think the library has some parenting books. Perhaps you could look through them for what to do,” he suggested.

“I’ve tried that. But she still won’t settle,” Griffin explained. “I feel bad for Adelaide, having to deal with her outbursts while looking after all five of our young.”

“I’m sure she’s got it under control on her side,” Gerold reassured him. “The castle staff will be helping plenty. Plus, Markos is old enough to be unsupervised for brief periods, and Luana and Clement are both sweet fledglings. If Modesty is acting out, Adelaide will be able to focus more attention on her.”

“I guess,” Griffin muttered.

Gerold watched him for a moment, then picked up a new piece of paper from the desk. It was a trade report on the exchanges done between Hiza Calndom and Tribe-Ali over the winter. Gerold placed the paper next to Griffin.

“Why don’t you review this?” he suggested. “You’ve always been better than me with trade reports.”

Griffin lifted his head off the desk and read the paper. He nodded and nudged it closer to him. Gerold smiled and took the request paper back to his own desk. Even though winter was over, he still needed to look into the reason for why the request came in. He didn’t want to leave it only to have the same issue arise next winter.

Gerold began rooting through the paperwork throughout the room for records of currency releases and income and expenses reports from business. Every now and then, he would make a note on a blank scroll on his desk, then return to reading. It was mundane, boring work. But it had to be done for the good of the Calndom. If he had kept on top of it with his financial advisors, there wouldn’t be so much to sort through now. But the duty of paperwork was usually assigned to Calns, such as Adelaide, and she certainly wasn’t the type to look twice at a sheet of paper. Gerold had learned that in the years they had been married.

Periodically, Griffin would sigh and shuffle around where he sat. Gerold noticed he was taking longer than normal to review the trade report. Clearly, his mind was still focused on his son and daughter.

“Hey, Griffin,” Gerold said after two hours of this.

Griffin looked over at him. “Yes?”

“Why don’t you go spend some time with Modesty and Clement?” Gerold suggested. “Take the rest of the day off and focus solely on them.”

“Are you sure?” Griffin asked, his eyes widening a little.

“Yeah. This’ll be a lot of work to get through and it’s better we’re both focused on it,” Gerold said. “Plus, when the financial advisors both come back from their day off, we can get them to help too.”

Griffin smiled and stood up. “Thank you, Gerold.”

Gerold nodded with a smile. Griffin quickly left the room to find his son and daughter. Gerold turned back to the paperwork spread out on his desk. There was still a lot to get through, but he could go through the easier stuff while he was by himself and fully focus on the more complicated matters on a day where he had more help.