Black Mage Hatchling Trading Trip!

[mage_hatchlings]

Ten little hatchlings maneuver a garden cart into the Nexus. It's loaded down with tubs of strawberries and raspberries, jars of raspberry and strawberry jam, raspberry and strawberry shortbread cookies, and of course those softball shaped vanilla cakes

Comments

[vicioussweetie]

Strawberries! That gets a bit of a smile from Ali; the hatchlings, even moreso. And Alured's just a happy baby.

"I like strawberries best, and cherries. Ooh, are those vanilla cakes I smell?"

[mage_hatchlings]

"Uh huh!" says Teo.

"We made them this morning," Tavi adds with a nod.

"Strawberries are very good," Mistral says.

"Mr. 33 says we've had a lot of strawberries this year," comments Lono.

[vicioussweetie]

"So I see! They look very yummy." She sits, settling Alured in her lap so she can get things out of her bag. "Let me see what I've got that you might like..."

Out comes two boxes of crayons, two pads of drawing paper, a blank journal a leather cover, a notepad full of recipes she's copied down for them, and a bag of marbles.

[mage_hatchlings]

Wow! Wide glowing eyes look at all the fun things. They'll happily trade for things like those!

"What do you want?" a hatchling says, willing to let her pick whatever she wants off the cart in trade.

[vicioussweetie]

She smiles. "Some of everything, please. I'll let you decide how much I get, I know you'll be fair."

[mage_hatchlings]

The hatchlings start to float things out of the cart and over to Ali. A jar of each flavor jam, a boxed dozen of mixed shortbread cookies, two tubs each of raspberries and strawberries, and three of the vanilla cakes.

[vicioussweetie]

Ali smiles at their generosity, taking each thing as it floats over and telling Alured what it is. He's fascinated.

[mage_hatchlings]

The hatchlings are just as happy with what she's brought them.

Two of them examine the marbles curiously before Tavi asks, "What are these?"

"They're pretty," Teo adds.

[vicioussweetie]

"They're called marbles. They're for a game. Would you like me to teach you?"

[mage_hatchlings]

"Ok!" Tavi chirps, while Teo just nods in agreement.

[vicioussweetie]

"All right, but we mustn't let Alured have any, he'll try and swallow them and choke." Alured, not caring about that, wants the shiny anyway. Ali fishes a bit of chalk from the bag, drawing a circle on the ground and explaining the rules of marbles, keeping it out of Alured's immediate reach.

[mage_hatchlings]

Teo and Tavi keep the marbles out of reach of the baby as they listen. Another hatchling attempts to distract by waving at the baby.

A short ways into the explanation, Teo and Tavi give each other a look, and then glance at their gloved hands. They hold marbles for a little while, and then decide that, yes, this might be something best done with the gloves off. So they remove them and set them to one side.

It looks just a little strange when they pick the marbles back up - the glass spheres no longer look perfectly round, as the edges vanish into the shadow that covers the little mages' hands.

[vicioussweetie]

She's seen weirder. Plus, they're the hatchlings. Ali loves them. Any swooky hand-shadow-ness will be tactfully ignored while they play.

Alured, on the other hand, is very happy for the distraction and playmate.

[mage_hatchlings]

Teo and Tavi try to grasp the rules and learn to launch the marbles.

And Juro is just as happy to play with Alured.

[vicioussweetie]

Ali sits back and watches, after a while, nibbling on one of the strawberries.

Alured wants to play peekaboo, so he covers his eyes then uncovers them several times, squealing whenever he comes out.

[mage_hatchlings]

Juro starts playing back, though he pulls down the edge of his hat to hide behind instead.