And We All Fall Down

Just as it does for all parents, life continued to whizz by Evaline and Nikolai until it seemed that everywhere they looked, there was a child growing up or a foal being born.

Nikolai continued to dominate the racing circuits, winning International Equestrian competitions almost as often as he changed his underpants, thanks to Pharoah.

Although Pharoah was winning on the racing circuit, he was losing out where it mattered. Sweet Domino’s affections had turned elsewhere. Namely towards a gorgeous Palamino stallion, aptly called Palo.

 

The tension was horrible back at the Ranch, so when Nikolai was offered an obscene sum for Pharoah by one of his fellow ranchers, he couldn’t refuse. The sadness in poor Pharoah’s eyes haunted Nikolai something fierce.

It took awhile for him to shake the emotions he felt selling Pharoah, but he birth of a new foal, Alize, certainly brought some brightness back into his eyes.

The last of the shadows were chased from his eyes by Hunter’s amazing ability to smile and laugh at anything, his kindness and penchant for down-on-their-luck animals reminded Nikolai so much of himself.

Even as he grew into his too-large teenage feet, Hunter kept his honest smile and sweet animal lover ways.

Which meant that the house became a magnet for any stray animal within a five mile radius.

It drove Evaline mad but Nikolai loved nothing better than seeing his son shower a forgotten pet with love and kindness.

Alize was no different to any of the strays, following Hunter around the ranch every time he left the house. Many an escape attempt was made in an effort to follow him out of the ranch, but Nikolai somehow managed to foil them all. His constant watching was a bone of contention for Alize, especially once adulthood was upon her.

That bone of contention grew even greater when Hunter left his childhood behind.

His eagerness to discover the world and all of its creatures gave him a youthful restlessness that could only be satisfied by taking a monumental step.

No, not that one!

Running’s fun but it’s not a monumental step anywhere.

No, no, no. Not that one either!

I mean, graduation’s important, but this is a bigger step.

Yep, that’s it!

With a jump in his step and excitement in his heart, Hunter left his childhood home behind – not to mention all of the devastated hearts of Alize and the strays.

Poor Nikolai had a battle on his hands over the next few weeks. Alize couldn’t be trusted to walk five feet without making a break for the boundary of the ranch. The poor man was like a walking zombie, especially with the biggest International Equestrian Jumping competition of the year coming up.

Weariness came with a decidedly dangerous lack of focus, but Nikolai was determined to perfect the flame jump before the competition, no matter how many falls rattled his bones.

And there were a lot.

Evaline worried incessantly about Nikolai’s dangerous antics, insisting that the prize wasn’t worth putting his life at risk. Nikolai shrugged her worries off, his thoughts running through the dollars that raising so many children was taking – almost as soon as the money came in, it went out again. After school activities, excursions, basic necessities. The bills ran into the thousands, depending on how many babies and toddlers were around at the time.

Nikolai loved his family more than anything in this world.

 And he would never let his wife and children go without.

Or so he thought.

It took only one distracted jump for Nikolai to take away the one thing his wife and children needed more than anything in the world

Him.

The pyrotechnics went horribly wrong and even Evaline’s desperate grab for the fire extinguisher could not stop Nikolai succumbing to the horror of the flames.

No amount of bargaining could bring Nikolai back, no matter how hard Evaline tried.

He was gone.

Grief consumed Evaline as she tried to be strong for the children. The older ones brought food and helped out where they could, but the younger ones still couldn’t understand why Daddy wasn’t coming home.

The only thing that kept Evaline going was her parting gift from her beloved husband.

When the doctors told her that she was expecting twins, Evaline’s protective instinct finally seemed to kick into gear. She knew that if she was going to do her husband’s memory proud she would have to look after herself, and these babies, better than she had been so far.

So on Doctors orders, Evaline’s priority became just one thing – rest!

Which she did rather well, considering it’s something remarkably foreign to her after six children. The good news was, that by the day that those horrific contractions came, Evaline almost felt prepared for the whirlwind that twins would bring.

Determined to be independent – or perhaps the oxytocin had just killed off some brain cells – Evaline drove herself to the local hospital, only pulling over when the contractions hit harder than she could handle.

The labour was fierce, but Evaline’s determination to see her beautiful husband’s babies was fiercer. Soon enough they came into the world, filling a hole in their mother’s heart like no other children before them. After a couple of days, they sent the newly single widowed mother home with her two cooing newborns.

Say hello to Babies No. 7 & 8 …

Baby No 7 – Hope

Baby No 8 – Valor

Cute button noses and sweet rosy cheeks brightened Evaline’s smile just enough to let her see that her life hadn’t ended with Nikolai’s.

Four-Legged Love

Sharing the love is a Masterton tradition, so when Domino started to get a little lonely after Palo's quick departure and her long face seemed to get even longer, Nikolai got into match-making mode and scoured the neighbourhood for a suitable four-legged suitor.

After only three days of stall-mucking and dung ducking, Nikolai found the perfect stallion, Pharoah.

Fortunately Domino didn’t mind the fatherly interference in her love life, and with a hair flick and eyelash flutter, Pharoah was under her mystical spell.

Domino and Pharoah sitting in the tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

First comes love,

Second comes marriage,

Third comes the baby lying in the carriage!

And that, my dear friends, is how pretty little Koa came to be!

While the sweet little foal spent her days playing with Domino, the Masterton clan ushered Hunter through the beckoning doors of childhood.

Hunter really couldn’t see what the big deal was, he was just happy that they were all busy enough with the babies and the foal to leave him with his favourite friends, the characters in his well-worn, dog-eared Huckleberry Finn book.

The only one who had the charm – and the childish tendencies – to pull him away from his treasured stories was Niamh. Hopscotch was the addiction of choice whenever  his books left his grasp.

He rather fancied that Niamh looked like a one-legged frog with balance issues when it was her turn to hop, jump and skip.

Even though he likened her to a slimy, unbalanced amphibian, Hunter loved Niamh probably a little more than most of his siblings.

So when her birthday was coming up, Hunter snuck out of the house and used the spare change he had squirelled away when it had fallen from Nikolai’s pockets to buy his big sister a special birthday present.

It was the sweetest thing that any of her brothers or sisters had ever done for Niamh. She never would have embarrassed little Hunter by telling him that the pretty sapphire rings he had bought were actually wedding bands and not just lovely jewels from an exotic place where adventures were had and treasures found.

I mean seriously, how cute can you get!

Hunter’s timing was right on cue though, because that very night Niamh farewelled her teen years and grew into the beautiful woman her parents knew (okay, so hoped) she would be. 

A bit of fine tuning and the Masterton’s turned out another stunner!

And her family weren’t the only people to notice Niamh’s transformation. A young man by the name of Amit suddenly started hanging around the house a whole lot more than before. Each and every day he showed up bearing flowers and chocolates and teddy bears and truffles, oh my!

At first Niamh rebuffed his chivalrous gestures, but slowly and surely – with a wealth of handy advice from Nikolai – Niamh started to see Amit in an entirely different light.

Alas, love had claimed Niamh within its silvery web.

Soon enough it was Koa’s chance to join Niamh in adulthood and her pretty features bloomed into something magnificent.

But as with life on any ranch, when adulthood beckons it means that life is moving on and it was no different for Niamh and Koa. A sweet little girl by the name of Carrie became the lucky owner of Koa, thanks to her cashed-up parents, whilst crazy-in-love, Niamh and Amit blitzed the housing market and snapped up a sweet little cottage by the river.

And that wasn’t the only surprise …

Busted!

A leisurely trip to the grocery store revealed that little Niamh was sporting a little bump of her own. Barely two months later, a squalling baby girl named Tami joined the Niamh and Amit in their bubble of happiness.

With so many of their grown children moved out, Evaline and Nikolai were feeling a little left out of their children’s lives so they did what all parents do – they went visiting, meeting all the newest additions to the clan! Hours of delighted grand-children and worn out adult children later, Evaline and Nikolai were far happier and stickier than they’d ever been, and that’s saying something.

Moving On Up ... Or Out!

Drake's good looks were good for many things - modelling, getting out of trouble, and most of all - getting into trouble ...

If trouble's name is Sariah and she works at the local Saloon, that is!

Or her name is Lianna, and happens to bump into him at the park and get invited back home ...

Or she's caught his eye at the cinema and tells him her name is Oriole ...

And things don't get any less troublesome at work. That pretty face gets darn dirty cleaning up the ectoplasm of renegade ghosts after they ransack the neighbours place ...

Of course it wasn't long before Evaline caught wind of Drake's naughty behaviour and had a word with her treasured son. And by "word", I mean she almost twisted his ear off while she screamed phrases along the lines of, "I raised you better than that!" and "What kind of low-down, conniving man has three women on the go!" and worst of all, "I'm not angry Drake, I'm just really disappointed in you".

Which knocked Drake's rapidly expanding ego down a few notches and confirmed the annoying thought that had been circulating in the back of his mind for the last few weeks.

He had to choose.

Sariah. Lianna. Oriole.

Which one?

Each had their - er, attributes. Sariah could knock together a mean Jack and Coke. Lianna had that naughty smile. And Oriole had a body that could make a man beg and a personality that was completely unaware of it.

After a couple of days of thinking, Drake finally came to a decision and made that fateful phone call ...

And the winner is ...

Aw come on, I'm not telling you yet!

Have some patience, there's another million people in the Masterton family remember?

Let's peek in on them while Drake has that difficult conversation!

While his brother's philandering has been keeping him away, little Hunter grew into an adorably noisy toddler.



Although to be fair, he isn't crying all of the time ...

Just most of it.

Fortunately the constant noise didn't seem to bother Niamh too much, she just ducked outside and spent hours playing in the sandpit with her toys.

Childhood was a long forgotten dream soon enough, as Niamh jumped head first into teendom.

But she wasn't too impressed with the unfashionable duds that the fates cursed her with, so one quick make over later, she was a far happier teenager.

The human Masterton's weren't the only ones making strides in their lives, even Domino had finally shaken off the loss of Whisper and fallen in, well, lust again, with a beautiful horse named Palo.

And it wasn't long before Domino got him alone in a stall. She's a very mischevious girl, this one. Not to mention a smooth talker.

It was no surprise when Domino grew a little chubby and a beautiful baby Foal, Alize, was born.

Pretty, huh?

But all the pretty in the world can't save you from a Cake Fire!
Yes, you heard right, a Cake Fire! Poor Maximilian was finally on his way into the realm of adulthood when all of a sudden the cake caught fire - and so did the table!

Ka-Boom!

Hands up whose doing the Scaredy-Pants Dance!

And when the ashes settled and the fear abated, Maximilian finally joined the ranks of so many siblings before him.

And ta-dah!

It looks like that hairstyle is going to stick around a lot longer than Evaline likes!

Fortunately for him, after Graduation, the object of his affections was just that - one object - so his decision to move out and make an honest woman - as in, one woman, if you're listening Drake, was sweet and easy.

Aren't they sweet together?


Speaking of together, I bet you're wondering who Drake chose!

Mmmm ... I guess I should put you out of your misery, you've waited long enough.

Drumroll please!
Aaaaand, the lucky lady is ...



Oriole!!!

And by the looks of that awfully suspicious bump, it was a good choice!


And a few months later, Nikolai popped his grandfatherly head in and met the newest addition to the Masterton clan, Joseph.



Ah, multiple generations of procreation just make a Simmer so proud!