Ellen was slowly getting used to her role as a handyman in the mansion.

It had been a slow start since there was a couple of areas she needed to study more before even start working with it. But it had turned out just fine in the end.

She couldn’t help but feel proud of the important work she did there. Even if she only was there until she and Alice could afford to buy back their old home.

Ellen and that little “princess”.

They hadn’t talked since their fight. She hadn’t come back to the room and lived together with Sain until she finally got a room of her own. Alice didn’t even want to come closer to the workshop more than when she really needed to.

She was really childish for acting like a spoiled princess. It could be so much easier if she just tried to understand Ellen's point of view when it came to the economic survival. An apology wouldn’t be wrong either, since it was the “princess” that had done wrong by turning a blind eye at such important thing.

Ellen dropped a heavy sigh and turned on her prototype.

She had made a few changes to it so it now could pull dust out from clocks and other gear-driven constructions.

It had taken her quite some thinking and trying before finally succeed with it. But had all been worth it.

The machine that was made for a horrific purpose had finally shown to do more than only harm, which she honestly never could have guessed.

The time had been flying by and it was time for the wintertree blossom once again.

Ellen was humming for herself while working on a task in the workshop.

It was a simple task she had got from the fat bowling ball, that was proving that he really took every chance he got to save some few coins. And in this case it had been that he asked Ellen how much it would cost to build small lamps to hang up during the winter tree blossom.

In the end it turned out that he would save a few copper coins and with that Ellen had to do studies about light giving gears.

It was morning and they would be celebrating at later on.

The other girls had been chirped happily about it during the breakfast, which only made Ellen gladder that she had found a speed at the gear so it gave off a more dimmed light.

Even if Sain had joined Alice's side, so could she at least make sure that they had something extra to enjoy during the celebration. Only because they did their best to make sure that the household was so comfortable as possible.

Ellen spends the time between breakfast and dinner with the fine adjustment of the lamps. It wasn’t really necessary, but she couldn’t find a reason to why she wouldn’t do it.

Not to mention that it was calmer in the workshop than in the rest of the mansion.

Ellen had just finished the last fine adjustment of the lamps when Sain came to tell her that she should wash herself off, even if she needed to use a steel brush to be really clean.

Taija had spent some time to make clothes to them all, so it was more important than ever to be clean.

Sain and Alice had spent most of the day to make the snacks for the celebration, while they had let Mair too pick out the wine.

Ellen almost felt guilty that she had spent her day to work with the lamps. They seemed to have been really busy with breakfast, snacks and then dinner. So they had probably not got a chance to calm down during the day. If Ellen would have helped they could have taken at least a short times break.

They all changed clothes after dinner and started preparing to leave for the wintertree celebration.

“Mair, please make sure that those small girls don’t create any problem during the celebration.”

“And Taija, make sure to behave like a woman during the celebration. There will be consequences if you stain our family name.”

Mr Halluv wouldn’t join them for the celebration since he and some other rich and greedy, fat lumps would have their own celebration. But left Mair in the group to keep an eye at them.

They had both wished him a safe trip and made sure that they had everything they would have with them before leaving.

Ellen got helped by Mair to put up the lamps in the tree they had chosen to sit under while the other three packed up the food and bottles.

Alice and Sain had been putting a lot of effort to make the snacks. Or at least Ellen thought they had since it did look delicious.

“How about some wine?” Sain offered herself to pour up some wine to both Ellen and Mair while Alice was doing the same to Taija.

“Please do Sain.”

Mair had already explained for them that she wouldn’t mind their different role during the celebration. The celebration was after all meant to be used to have a good time together and a time for them to get to know each other better.

Ellen was quick to notice one difference from the last and first time she celebrated the wintertree blossom. The other groups around them weren’t starring as they did when it just was her, the “princess” and Jack. Where they more accepted as a group like this than a father with two adopted daughters? Or could it be that they already then suspected Jack for creating the crystals?

She didn’t get far too much time to think about that before she got forced into a conversation with the rest of the group.

They had been talking like there was no next day, and been drinking in the same way.

“Don’t you like that wine?” Mair looked surprised at Alice that had grabbed a bottle to look closer at it.

“If you don’t I can sacrifice myself to drink it up for you.”

Sain had been drinking just as frisky as Alice, but seemed to have lower tolerances. The poor fox couldn’t even sit straight anymore.

“I really like the wine. So I did want to look up what wine it was so I can buy it when I am old enough.”

Alice gave of a gently and shining smile that easily could melt every male's heart in an instant.

Apparently even Taija's heart. At least it seemed like that since she threw herself into hugging little Alice, rubbing her cheek to cheek.

Ellen couldn’t help but cracking a silly smile. Her sister was really popular, which wasn’t surprising with that cute behaviour.

Alice was probably the best sister that she ever could get. Cute, kind and strangely forgiven. All the trails that Ellen herself hadn’t got. Not that it really bothered her for the moment.

At last Mair declared that it was about time to get back home. And she sure did have a point.

Both Sain and Alice had passed out, while Taija seemed far to wasted for even walking.

“You are strong Ellen. But can you carry two persons at your back?”

Ellen glared at her, was she wasted enough to believe that or was she just stupid?

“You have to high thoughts about me.” There wasn’t anymore for Ellen to say before looking around to see if there could be any solution to the problem.

“Oii, baby girl!”

A short and fat man had noticed her and greeted. And judging from the greeting it had to be Thom that had noticed her.

Ellen had to take the chance, calling him over and asked him for help to carry one of the girls home. On second thought, carry Sain home so would she herself carry Alice.

“You know that the service will cost. Right baby girl?”

“Of course, We might have a bottle of wine you can take.” Ellen had expected that he would ask for a kind of fee.

“That is a little too much. I would rather have you follow me and the other guys out on a bar trip instead.” He burst out in a laughter and patted Ellen on the head.

Did and done.

Since they didn’t meet each other so much, so would they decide a date to get out through Chris.

All the problems were solved and everyone in the household got home, without giving Alice defenceless body a chance to charm Thom by pressing the breasts against his back.

Ellen had to make sure that she protected her sister.

Back in her room Ellen silently cursed the reality. She had got really exhausted from carrying Alice back and then to her room. Thom had even been laughing at her for getting so tired by carrying her sister, which wasn’t wrong. Something needed to get done about it.

Ellen was leaving the house again.

She left in the morning and didn’t come back until about the time for dinner.

She hadn’t told anyone what she was doing during the time she was gone, not even Sain that Alice had sent to ask.

Alice let out a heavy sigh, she was worried about what her sister was doing and didn’t tell anyone about.

Could it be that she had found Jack, or even a more sinister man? She couldn’t have done that, right?

“Daydreaming about your sister again?” Sain gave her a small playful push.

Sain already knew the answer, but she would never miss a chance to tease Alice for her almost “in-love-like” thoughts toward Ellen.

“You did notice that she was exhausted two days after the wintertree blossom.”

“ Wasn’t that because she did start to do some small training?”

Sain really didn’t understand the problem. Ellen got exhausted during the morning and then tired during the rest of the day. It really wasn’t like her. And then it was the problem that she had started to leave the mansion regular after Mr Halluv left for a business trip with Mair.

“Pardon, I noticed that Ellen left. Do you know when she will come back?”

Taija had arrived too the room with an old clock in her hands.

“If it’s that you want Ellen to clean the clock so can I help you.”

Sain seemed to be sure at her words. And it shouldn’t surprise Alice if she knew how to use “that” machine after all those times she brought different things to Ellen to get cleaned. Not to mention that she also had spent some of her spare time in the workshop together with Ellen too.

“Isn’t it better to let Ellen clean it?”

Taija seemed to be unsure about the idea, but Sain didn’t give up until she got her will through.

Ellen let out a light sigh as she walked back to the mansion after meeting up with Chris and another.

She felt bad for running away from her duties like that, but she didn’t have another choice. The meeting had been very important for her very life.

The only two things remaining for today was to ask Taija for a week off and then leave for meeting up with Chris again. She really had no other choice.

A shocked, short scream could be heard behind her when she was about to open the door to the mansion.

Turning around she saw Sain, looking terrified at her. And a woman looking confused at the fox.

“Please Madam Lillium, can you please go to Taija's room and help?”

The woman frankly passed Ellen and straight into the mansion.

“What is going on?” Ellen felt unsettled. The whole situation was strange. Why would that woman help with, and what was it they needed help with.

“I’m really sorry. I used your machine to clean a clock from dust.”

If that was all and the clock had got damaged, she didn’t need to act that panicked.

“I thought I turned it off... but I didn’t... Alice got in the way and collapsed.”

It only took a second for the words to sink in.

Alice got in the way for that machine and collapsed afterwards. That machine that could pull impurities out from crystals.

She ran as fast as she could to Taija's room. What had that machine done with her beloved sister? Was she badly hurt and how was she doing?

“HOW IS ALICE DOING?”

Ellen burst into the room like a hurricane and aim straight for the bed there she noticed that Alice was laying. Only to be stopped halfway by Taija.

“Ellen please let Lilly examine her in peace before you go over there.”

There was no way she could allow that. She needed to get over to Alice as fast as she could, over to her poor little sister.

Even if she put all her effort to break free from Taija, she couldn’t.

Minutes passed slowly as she only could see that woman doing a checkup at Alice.

“I don’t know what has happened, but the girl seems to be physically well.”

It was promising words from Lilly, but it still didn’t calm Ellen down.

“Taija, if that girl is close to this girl so can you let her come here”

Upon being released Ellen walked rapidly over to Alice side and took a good look at her beloved sister.

“Is Alice really fine?” She needed to hear it again. She wanted to be sure.

“She’s fine as far I can see, but I will examine her some more when she wakes up.”

“Can someone please tell me what has happened? I didn’t get the whole picture from the fox when she took me here.”

Lilly seemed to want to know as much Ellen did.

“I tried to use a machine to clean a clock from dust and it went wrong. Alice got in the way because I did wrong.” Sain guilty sneaked into the room, on the edge of crying as she told them.

She was clearly feeling ashamed by what she has done. For good reasons.

“HOW COULD YOU BE SO CARELESS WITH A THING LIKE THAT?!”

Ellen was angry into her bare soul and screamed at the fox. Turning around and giving her an angry glare.

Sain didn’t have the courage to face Ellen while spilling out another weak and pathetic apology. Which only irritated Ellen even more.

Her sister had been hurt and all the idiotic fox could do was to give her a pathetic apology. She needed to shake some sense into the stupid little bastard. She really had to.

Lilly caught Ellen when she started going toward Sain. “You better take it easy.”

Ellen tried to break free from her, but she seemed to be stronger then Taija.

“HOW CAN I BE CALM WHEN ALICE!..”

She could feel a small puff from inside her body.

It couldn’t be happening right now.

“How can I be calm when Alice have got hurt?” She couldn’t scream anymore. It felt unpleasant to breathe, even hard to breathe.

“Did anything happened Ellen?”

Taija seemed worried about Ellen's sudden tone change.

“Nothing happened.” She didn’t have to know about it until after Alice had turned out to be fine.

No matter how hard it could be to breathe so was it most important that her sister was fine.

“Something did happen, didn’t it?”

The woman holds tighter on to Ellen.

It didn’t make her feel any better, it didn’t help her at all.

“No, nothing happened.”

No matter how deep she tried to breathe, so was it like she only had a small, small pipe to breathe through.

“Ellen please. If something did happen, please tell us. Otherwise you might worry your sister when she wakes up.”

Sain was the only one that had chosen the right words to grab her attention. Alice. She did have a point. If Ellen just let it go on, it could be even worse for Alice later on.

She calmed down very quickly. She couldn’t let Alice worry more during a situation like this.

“May I examine you Ellen?”

Lilly talked gentler than before, almost as if she was talking with a scared animal.

“If you do, will I still be able to stay by Alice's side?”

It was even more uncomfortable to breathe now than when the problem started.

“It all depends on how bad it is.”

“What is happening with Ellen?”

Lilly had just finished the examination of Ellen when Alice woke up and spoke with a tired voice.

Ellen was so happy to see her waking up that she was in loss of words.

“How are you feeling miss? Do your body feel strange?”

Lilly wasn’t even looking at Alice, but instead starred frustrated at Ellen.

She now knew that Ellen had a serious problem, and that she had tried to hide it.

“I just feel a little dizzy, but otherwise fine. But is it something with Ellen?”

“It is something strange about her breathing. Something really bad.”

“Can you please tell us what is going on Ellen?”

Taija sounded more serious than ever before. First asking Sain to leave the room and then gave Ellen an even more serious look.

There was no chance for her to be able to hide it anymore. Not even to make sure that she could stay by Alice side.

She slowly began to tell them about the artificial lungs and heart she had got from Jack, then she came to the worse part that the artificial air tube she had was damaged. She was running short at breathe a couple of times during that time.

“So you need to get that changed? Yet you are trying your luck so you can stay by your sister's side?”

Lilly was spot on.

“If Ellen goes to get it done now, may I follow to make sure she’s really is getting help?”

Alice was talking in a plain tone, but expressed herself as if she was worried.

Ellen couldn’t help but feel more worried about her than herself. It wasn’t like her sister to talk in a plain tone like that.

“Are you still feeling fine? And can you promise to tell us directly if you feel ill or strange? So you don’t act like a child, just like your sister.”

Lilly had been about to deny Alice's request, but Taija was quicker to speak up.

Disliking it, she first gave Taija a glare before turning to Alice.

“I would recommend you to rest for a while longer.”

Alice made it very clear that she wanted to follow Ellen and that she could rest afterwards.

Lilly had just let out a heavy sigh before she let Taija help Alice while she herself helped Ellen, leaving for Chris's home where she would get the help she needed.

Even though they walked calmly, so was Ellen forced to ask to rest a couple of times.

She really needed help by now. Only because she had tried to break free from that woman. If she wouldn’t have done that, then she would have been able to hold out until the next day.

It had gone very wrong, and it all was that woman's fault.

“Are you coming for a visit today with some friends?”

Chris was surprised to see all of them when he opened the door.

“Yes, the air tube broke. So I am in need of getting help to change it, really soon.”

She avoided to tell him the parts that she both was forced there and that she had tried to hide it.

“I see, then we shall prepare for it directly.” He didn’t even finished the sentence before turning around and walk back into the house, leaving the door wide open so they could follow him.

“Hey Jill, It’s time for you to do some work!”

A Girl with purple, long twintails came out from Chris's living room and looked surprised at them.

She seemed to be at the same age as Ellen. The same length as her, but was in differences from Ellen very skinny.

“I thought you wouldn’t come until tomorrow?” She turned her look to Ellen.

“Do that mean that it couldn’t wait anymore?”

She could take a wild guess.

They had all followed to Chris's working room when Jill kindly asked Ellen's company to leave the room. “I would like to keep my practices as a work secret. But if you want to hear her, then you can sit close to the door.”

She was a travelling cog technician, so she had picked up much of her knowledge a little here and there. But she was very secret with much of it, for some reason.

“Can’t at least I get allowed to see my sister getting help?”

“Sorry, it’s still a no. But I will tell you as soon we are done.”

Jill was a strange person, apologizing for wanting to keep it a secret. Didn’t she had the rights to say no without further questions?

Even if it was Alice that asked?

Taija and Lilly lead the “princess” out of the room. She still didn’t seem to feel better than when she first woke up. But she would get better, Right?

“Chris, please turn around and stare into the wall. And you...Ellen? Start to strip.”

Ellen really didn’t like the way that girl gave her orders, but couldn’t have been happier that she asked Chris to turn around. She wouldn’t like to give him nightmares by showing her body.

“Now, jump up at the table so we can start.”

By a reason so was she acting as if she were in a hurry.

Laying at the table she could feel Jill's cold fingers running over her back, opening the lid.

“Jill, the wine won’t run away. So you don’t need to hurry.”

Chris had been allowed to turn around again and was now serving Jill with tools.

“I know... But if this girl stays here for the evening, so might I finally have some female drinking company.”

That was the reason she was in a hurry?

“The tube is more broken before... Chris please be ready to hand me the other one while I take this one out.”

Ellen didn’t get any air at all. She breathed all she could, but didn’t get any air.

“Don’t be scared girl, It won’t kill you. And if it kills you, so will you only die once.”

Jill's word was everything but comforting. If that was all she had to say, so could she just as well keep quiet.

The rest of the process went smoothly. It hadn’t been long Ellen was without air, but she dearly hated every second of it.

“Do you want to keep the old tube as a memory?”

Jill hold the old tube in front of her. An old leather tube, filled with holes.

Why in the whole world would she like to save that?

Want to beat that girl, will not beat that girl.

“No?”

Really want to beat her, not allowed to beat her.