I wake early. I had gone to bed alone but there are now three people in bed with me. Emi I could see, even Helen but the third person is a surprise. When had he arrived I wonder. I can see light through the slightly open door so it's near dawn at least. I move Helen and Emi's arms so I can move Benny up to my breasts. Once he is there he snuggles down. I place my arms over him, interlacing my fingers then relax, waiting to go back to sleep.

At about 495 Tilly enters Rufina's rooms to wake her. She is not surprised to find Emi and Helen in the bed but the presences of Benny does. Instead of pulling her toe like she has been doing, she comes around the side near her head. Reach out she pokes her gently. When her eyes open,"It's time to wake up, Rufina. Should I take him?" She nods. Tilly sits on the bed, reaching over Helen, picking up Benny. She cuddles him. Looking at his face she smiles, he reminds her of her youngest when he was that age.

"Could I get a hand Tilly?"

"Sure love." Tilly reaches over Helen again, gasping Rufina's hand pulling her up. Once she is sitting up she crawls over Emi. She leans down kissing Emi, "Wake up Emi, time to train." Emi hugs Rufina close, continuing the kiss. Tully coughs. Emi breaks the kiss, looking toward Tilly.

"Good morning Tilly, what do you have there?" Emi asks as Rufina gets off the bed, going to the chamber pot.

"He was laying on Rufina when I came to wake her. Rufina, what should I do with him?"

"Lay him on his auntie Helen. She is much softer than I am."

Tilly arranges Helen so she is on her back, then lays Benny on her, his legs hanging off her sides, the top of his head between her breasts. She stands then lays the sheet over them. "See you at T'ai Chi, girls. Be careful Rufina." She walks out the door.

Rufina stands then cleans herself before moving to the wardrobe. Removing a pair of knee length stockings from the wardrobe, she put them on the chest next to the bra, shorts and knee length tunic that she had laid there the evening before. She noted that those were the last pair in the wardrobe, she will need to buy a pair or two so she doesn't run out. The tunic is the last one also. "Emi, I only have three knee length tunics, don't I?"

"That right, three. Why?"

"I need at least one more and one more pair of knee stockings. If something happens and the laundry doesn't get back in time I won't have the proper cloths to train in. So shopping trip today. Plus Beth and Benny need a few things."

Emi has used the pot, cleaned herself and is removing the armor from the rack. Rufina takes off the chemise she wore to bed, tossing it toward the basket then puts on her bra. She steps in to the shorts pulling them up and fastening the frog. Sitting on the chest she starts putting the stockings on, "Emi, could you put the grieves on me please." As Rufina finishes put on a stocking Emi fastens the grieve on that leg. Standing after putting on the second stocking Rufina puts the tunic over her head, slipping her arm into the sleeves as Emi fastens the second grieve. Giving Emi a hand up, Rufina pull her into a hug, "Good morning Love." A kiss follows. Her hands clutch Emi butt, thumbs rubbing the base of her tail. Emi moans,"If you keep that up, you'll be late for training and Kalvin will come looking for you." Sigh.

Kissing her again, Rufina says, "Okay, let's get the armor on, maybe we can have some fun when you take it off later." Emi holds the gambeson for Rufina to put on, then fastens the straps and buckles going up the front. Once that is done the scale shirt follows getting its buckles and straps done up. The vambrace are the final pieces put on, the gauntlets and helmet stay off until they are in the courtyard. Buckling on the sword belt, Rufina is ready but Emi is not. Emi strips off the chemise she wore to bed, puts on her bra then her uniform. Slipping a pair of anklets on then her slippers she too is ready.

Snuffing the candles as they go Rufina and Emi head to the back stairs. When they reach the balcony they find a small girl looking around, a worried look on her face, until she sees Rufina then it changes to puzzlement. "Is that you Mama Fina?"

"Good morning Beth. What's the matter?"

"Why are you dress like that? And have you seen Benny? I woke up and he was gone." She moves to the rail, looking down into the atrium.

"First Benny is in my bed with aunt Helen. I am dressed like this to train so I can protect the ones I love which includes you now. Would you like to watch as I train?"

Beth looks at Rufina, then comes up to her touching the scale shirt which starts glowing which startles her and Rufina. Looking at Emi, Rufina takes Beth's hand leading her to her room. Standing her on the bed, she takes the chemise the child had worn last evening and slid it over her head, followed by the tunic. Taking her hand again she lead her back out to the balcony. The three of them goto the back stairs, descend to the courtyard where Rufina asks Beth to fetch her boots which are in the vestibule to the garden. While she is gone, Rufina looks at Emi, "While I train, will you go wake Sophia and bring her down. I have something I want her to test." Emi nods as Beth returns with Rufina's boots.

"Emi would your remove the grieves and put my boots on me please." As she stands there she asks Beth, "Do you know the names of your parents, Beth?"

"They are Mama and Pa."

Sigh, I thought so. "You said that your Mama and Pa came here to get away from the bad people, do you know when they did that?"

"Before I was born." She is sad, probably thinking about her parents.

"And you are how old? Seven?"

"Yes, seven. My birthday was just a short while ago." She sniffs, the tears flowing down her cheeks.

Reaching for her, I wipe her tears, "Sorry to make you sad, Beth. I need to know those things." Emi has the grieves back on her legs so she squats down, hugging Beth gently. "Now sit here and watch while uncle Kalvin teaches Mama to be a warrior." Getting back up Rufina approaches Kalvin who is doing sword exercises, practicing parries and lunges.

"Are you ready, your majesty?" Kalvin stops his exercises, placing his sword back in the sheath.

"What am I doing today, Kalvin?"

"We will be sparring today, you need to apply what you have learned." He hands her a wooden sword, "You had better put on your helmet and gauntlets." She turns to look to where Beth is sitting, there are her gauntlet and helmet.

"Beth, honey, would you bring me the helmet and gauntlets ,please?"

She picked up the helmet, which started to glow. Running to Rufina she handed it to her then ran back to get the gauntlets. Kalvin was staring, "Be calm Kalvin, be calm. I think I know why they are doing that." She put the helmet on her head, buckling it on, adjusting the mail skirt in back so it hung down her back covering her neck. When Beth handed her the gauntlets she pulled them on. "Thank you, Beth, go sit back down and watch." She went back where she had been.

Kalvin started showing me the proper moves. Fifteen minute later we took a break for a few minutes when Sophia and Emi came down the stairs. I dropped into centering stance but I was not relaxed, my mind was talking to Sophia who was holding Beth. 'Morning Sophia, sorry to wake you but I think this is important. When Beth touches my armor it glows.' '?' 'I think I know why but need you to confirm it for me, if you can. There is a book in the library that is about Ajax. In that book this armor is described, green with black and silver trim. I believe that the enchantment on the armor and sword is tuned to the descendants of Ajax. Rufina is a descendant. If the armor glows for me and glows for Beth, she is must be a descendant also. Can you sense who her family is? Can you do something like a DNA scan of us?'

'If I knew what that was I could. What is it?'

'The cells that make up the body have the plan for whole body in them. On earth they could take the cells from people, take those cells apart and compare the plans, if two people are related the closer the plans match.'

Rufina opens her eyes when Sophia doesn't answer her, looking at her. She is sitting, eyes closed, hand on Beth's arm. When her eyes open again, she nods, then reach out, touching Emi. Her eyes close again. They open again, 'Could you both come here for a moment?'

I catch Kalvin's eye then walk to Sophia. When we reach her she touches Rufina's arm, her eyes close. When they open again she touches Kalvin. "I see, each person's plan is similar but there are tiny differences. Emi is very different from you, Beth and Kalvin but is still similar. There are many differences between you and Kalvin but far fewer between you and Beth. I need more data." She stands Beth up then stands herself. She walk toward the kitchen.

"What was that about?" asks Kalvin, Emi nods, she wants to know too.

"I asked her to do something for me. I'll explain later. Let continue Kalvin." We go back to training. At 605 Kalvin takes my wooden sword giving me a nod, "You are doing well your majesty but don't be picking fights yet." She smiles at him.

"I don't intend to Kalvin, I promise."

Looking over toward Beth, I see that the rest of the family is there, Tilly, Aden, Helen, Benny, Eliza, Sophia, Abbey, Christina, Mabel and Molly. And Tobias just came through the door. Removing my helmet I smiled at them all.

"Mama has Armor? Why is she wearing armor?" Benny asks.

"The better to protect us." His sister answers.

"Benny, would you carry this." Rufina holds out the helmet. When he takes it, it glows. He looks at it, eyes wide.

"He can do it too." says Beth. "Why?"

"Can you wait a bit, I'll tell everybody at breakfast, Okay?" I take off the gauntlets carrying them out to the patio. "Emi will you lead, I be teaching Beth and Benny." Laying the gauntlets down on the bench, I take the hands of the children leading them to the path.

"Watch Emi and the others." Emi starts leading the others, first doing the warm ups then moving on to the forms. "Do you think you can do that?"

"I can try." says Benny.

In my best Yoda voice I say, "No, do or do not, there is no try." He stares at me. I guess I am not old or wrinkled enough to utter wise sayings.

"Okay, first put your feet like so." I stand with my feet shoulder width apart. "Now bend at the knees, not so much Benny, That's better. Now move you chin back and down, like this." I am in centering stance. I adust them. "Now relax." We stand quietly until Benny get antsy, "Now hands on hips, like this." I start rotating. They follow along. "Now the other direction." I show them the warmup exercises then a few forms. We do the forms several times, Beth gets them by the second go through but Benny has to try four time. We end by going into centering stance. After Benny starts fidgeting, we join the group.

Coming up to Emi,"Emi will you show Beth how to set the table. Sophia can help me take the armor off, I have something to talk to her about. Helen will you take care of Benny, Please." I pickup the gauntlets and my helmet, asking Sophia to come with me.

Once we are on the second floor of the palace I ask, "Did you find enough information, Sophia?"

"Yes, I did. I was unaware at Earthlings had discovered that information."

"DNA was discovered seventy or so years ago, but It has only been decoded in the last twenty years or so. There are fears that big companies will misuse the information that can be obtained from the tests. What did you figure out?"

"After I looked at both Beth and Benny I could see the way they are related, then comparing them to you there is a match of about twelve percent. You share more than a eight times great grand father, somewhere you share a great great great grand."

"So they are Rufina's cousins." We had reach my rooms, I started removing the armor, the vambrace and grieves. Rising my arms Sophia unbuckled the scale shirt then helps me get out of it. We placed it on floor then started on the gambeson. Six buckles later it is on the rack. It smells so much better than it had before. We put the scale shirt on the rack along with the rest of the armor. I check the water, someone had brought a pitcher of hot water through it was no longer hot but warm, I poured some in the basin then stripped. "Sophia, would you scrub my back please." As she scrubbed my back I washed the rest of me. When we finish washing she wipes me off. Putting on clean underwear I dress in a skirt and blouse, then put on stockings and my slippers. I give her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Then we go to breakfast.