The roses have just begun to bloom in the House of Arch courtyard; whether that's due to nature or a charm helping them along is immaterial. Ingress loves the courtyard. It's where she goes for archery and sword lessons, and it's nice, happy place to breathe fresh air. Of course, who knows from which century the fresh air comes; that is immaterial
(
Read more... )
Comments 11
Reply
Reply
Ingress beams when she opens them, as she always does, and Lilly smiles (not so far) down at her.
"Happy Birthday, Ingress!"
"Thanks Lilly! I'm going to rock these in Valdemar!"
Lilly laughs at their standing joke, and Ingress gives her a quick hug before running off to show the shoes to Tom. Lilly watches her go, her own smile fading a bit.
Ingress is getting so tall, and she teases Tom, and while Lilly totally approves of that in theory, in practice it means watching the little girl she knew edge closer to being a teenager. It's awesome, of course, because Ingress is going to be a Herald and stuff, and soon Lilly's going to be able to give Tom heart attacks by offering to take her out on the town, but ( ... )
Reply
... Though upon closer inspection, the bush is not actually ambulating on its own. Puck is merely holding it up in front of him in order to disguise his tremendous belly.
Ingress stops, wrinkling up her nose.
"Why are you carrying that rosebush around, Puck?"
The fairy stops red-handed. (Or rose-handed, as the case may be.)
"Ah ... that is a question with a curious and somewhat unsavory answer, Ingress dearest," he says. "Shouldn't you rather have your present first?"
Ingress eyes him somewhat skeptically. But Puck has always been kind of weird, so for the moment she lets it go. Besides, the bird he carved her is very pretty-- it fits just in the palm of her hand, and though it looks like stone, it feels smoother and cooler to the touch.
Meanwhile, Puck has liberated a plateful of sandwiches and biscuits, and a great quantity of cake, and he and his rosebush are making their strategic retreat.
Many happy returns, dearling.
Reply
You'll learn some stuff, Kaylee tells her. You shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes. Or ask for help. It's not gonna work right the first time, once you get it all put together -- but figurin' it out is half the fun. And then you come find me, and we'll program it up to make it do fun stuff.
It's not a present she'd've given a six-year-old -- which is how old Ingress was when Kaylee first met her. Younger, when Simon first met her. But she's old enough for it now ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment