35, 36, 37
Card Captor Sakura
It honestly was not Sakura's fault that she was always late.
"But bed is so nice!" she wailed at her brother when he tried to wake her up so she wouldn't be late for school. "It can't be time to get up already!"
"You're going to be late, squirt," he said, yanking the duvet off her. Sakura glared at him, then had to stop glaring and get ready in a hurry.
"It must be a Clow Card," she said despairingly to Kero as they pelted down the road. "Where does the time go?"
"It's not a Clow card, it's just you," Kero said. "Run faster!"
"Easy. For. You. To. Say," panted Sakura. "I'm the one running, you're being carried!"
"Save your breath and run!" Kero said, and Sakura reluctantly did as she was told.
Sarah Jane Adventures
"Aren't you even the slightest bit curious?" Rani asked.
"No," Luke said.
"But it's your birthday! Sixteen! She must have got you something good!" said Clyde.
"It's not that I'm not curious, exactly," said Luke. "It's just that there are a high number of possibilities and so speculation seems pointless."
"Speculation is part of the fun, narrowing down the possibilities," said Rani.
"Besides, it's not really my birthday, more like my adoption day," Luke said.
"Semantics," said Rani, but she must have seen that Luke really didn't want to discuss this because she changed the subject.
*
"Aren't you excited about your birthday?" Sarah Jane asked that evening.
"Why do people keep asking me that?" Luke said, not angry but genuinely curious.
"It's tradition," answered Sarah Jane. "The younger you are, the more excited you are supposed to be."
"Clyde and Rani wanted to know that I thought I was going to get," confessed Luke.
"You're allowed to guess," Sarah Jane said.
"I don't want to," Luke said. "I just…well, I'm glad I'm here and I know that you're glad I'm here so why do we have to make a fuss?"
Sarah Jane laughed and ruffled his hair.
"Well, thank you," she said. "But if you could indulge me and open your present anyway, I'd be grateful. I know it's a day early, but you might was well have it now." She vanished upstairs and came down with a box. Luke took it cautiously and began removing the packaging to reveal a dark sphere. It seemed to be made of some sort of dark stone, polished so it shone like glass. When Luke looked more closely, he thought he could see coloured lights shining somewhere in the depths.
"What is it?" he asked
"An Orys crystal from Oryducal. It's a mineral only found there and legend has it that those lights are stars. There are a lot of myths attached to them."
"It's perfect," said Luke, and surprised her with a hug.
Temeraire
The voices had changed. There had been light and movement and the voices now were more guttural, sharper edged and didn't make any sense.
One voice in particular stood out. When it spoke, other voices fell silent, and it was calm where others were excited.
Gradually, he began to make sense of them. "Handler," "Carver," "hatch."
Hatch.
He shifted awkwardly, feeling the twinge in his belly spread all the way to his wings. He shifted again, scrabbling with his claws, and the voices got louder, more excited.
"…tell the Captain," he heard.
"Bring it onto the deck," the calm voice said.
There was movement again, then light and heat, and he put in another great effort.
"Keep back there, men." the calm voice said. "Mr Carver, please step forward."
"Yes sir," said a timid and uncertain voice.
He shook himself and the shell cracked in two. Outside, there was light. Blinking, he shook himself. The voices were silent, but he could see/smell the men they belonged to, hairless beings without wings. The one with the timid voice tried to speak to him, but there were so many more interesting things to see. He climbed off his cushion and began to explore the deck.
"Hold your positions," snapped the calm voice. "Mr Riley, look to the hold." There was a flutter of movement, but the men mostly stayed still, though the timid one kept following him and bleating. When he didn't respond, the timid one looked to the calm one. The calm voice belonged to a tall man, with gold bars on his shoulders. He seemed larger than some of the others, and he was frowning.
"Why are you frowning?"
"I beg your pardon, I did not mean to. My name is Will Lawrence; and yours?"
He frowned to himself. In all his time in the shell, he had not considered this.
"I do not have a name."
"May I give you one?"
He considered this, then said:
"If you please."
There was a pause; then Lawrence said "Temeraire."
He turned this over in his mind. Temeraire. It was a good name, and Lawrence was calm and authoritative and sounded like a good man. Temeraire.