Side Effect
I have written this to aldersprig's second prompt. It is set seven years after Tales Behind the Verses: Between Eighteen and Nineteen.
“Mummy.” A tug at her dress along with her daughter’s voice brought the seer awake. Now near the end of her fourth pregnancy she had enough experience to gracefully admit that advanced gravidity made her very sleepy in the afternoon just after lunch. Jonness, her son, was in class learning history through stories along with his carefully selected classmates. Carida, her youngest for another month or so, was having her own nap in her room. This child was Endory, her eldest daughter, both the apple of her father’s eye and already the subject of his political matchmaking.
“Yes, Endory?” The seer smiled at the fair haired child looking up at her.
“Mummy,” Endory was waiting as patiently as she could, hopping from one foot to another. She was always in motion. “I can make the leaves move.”
“Oh?” That didn’t seem a reason to wake her but the seer had three years’ experience in listening to Endory and waited.
“I can move them without touching them.” That was the Endory-style burst of information she had been waiting for and it was interesting...
“Then I had better come so you can show me, hadn’t I?” The seer stood up from her garden lounge and offered her hand. “Take me and show me?”
Endory grabbed the proffered hand and towed her mother across the lawn to a pile of leaves left behind by the gardeners. “I have to look at them first and think about what I want them do,”
“Go ahead then and do it”, urged the seer. “I’ll watch.”
Endory let go of her mother’s hand and crouched down beside the pile, looking at it intently. Looking at the small figure, still for the moment but still busy playing, the seer was glad she’d resisted those who’d wanted to swathe her and her children in clothing too valuable to get dirty.
Suddenly, a handful of leaves from the top of the mound of fallen leaves spiraled up into the air above the pile, soaring like birds in a thermal. Endory stood with them, “See Mummy? See what I can do?”
“Yes dear.” The seer hugged her. “You’re a clever girl,” added the divine spark within the seer, “I didn’t expect anything like this so soon.”.
“Mummy.” A tug at her dress along with her daughter’s voice brought the seer awake. Now near the end of her fourth pregnancy she had enough experience to gracefully admit that advanced gravidity made her very sleepy in the afternoon just after lunch. Jonness, her son, was in class learning history through stories along with his carefully selected classmates. Carida, her youngest for another month or so, was having her own nap in her room. This child was Endory, her eldest daughter, both the apple of her father’s eye and already the subject of his political matchmaking.
“Yes, Endory?” The seer smiled at the fair haired child looking up at her.
“Mummy,” Endory was waiting as patiently as she could, hopping from one foot to another. She was always in motion. “I can make the leaves move.”
“Oh?” That didn’t seem a reason to wake her but the seer had three years’ experience in listening to Endory and waited.
“I can move them without touching them.” That was the Endory-style burst of information she had been waiting for and it was interesting...
“Then I had better come so you can show me, hadn’t I?” The seer stood up from her garden lounge and offered her hand. “Take me and show me?”
Endory grabbed the proffered hand and towed her mother across the lawn to a pile of leaves left behind by the gardeners. “I have to look at them first and think about what I want them do,”
“Go ahead then and do it”, urged the seer. “I’ll watch.”
Endory let go of her mother’s hand and crouched down beside the pile, looking at it intently. Looking at the small figure, still for the moment but still busy playing, the seer was glad she’d resisted those who’d wanted to swathe her and her children in clothing too valuable to get dirty.
Suddenly, a handful of leaves from the top of the mound of fallen leaves spiraled up into the air above the pile, soaring like birds in a thermal. Endory stood with them, “See Mummy? See what I can do?”
“Yes dear.” The seer hugged her. “You’re a clever girl,” added the divine spark within the seer, “I didn’t expect anything like this so soon.”.