use it or lose it

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth isn't sure till she says it, but when she says it, she's sure.

[My particular affinity for Milliways doors is gone. I went too long without using it when we had Jane, and if it comes back at all it will take a long time. Someone may still find one, but we can't expect it to be me or soon.]

She fields some questions - not that many; people tend not to ask Elspeth for clarifications or restatements.

And then she settles Harley on her lap.

"We're stuck in Aurum for a while," she tells him.

Comments

[pythbox]

He giggles again.

"I wanna try it," he declares.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth considers this.

Then she shrugs and undoes the square. "There you go. The sun will burn you while we're out here. Drink a lot of water and let me know if you want the burn wished gone."

[pythbox]

"Okay," he says serenely.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"Do you want some sandcastle-making toys?"

[pythbox]

"Yeah!" he beams.

[her_imperial_radiance]

She conjures up suitable toy buckets and shovels. They are pink.

[pythbox]

Harley giggles and hugs her.

Then he starts digging in the sand.

He makes a bowl-shaped depression with lumpy, crumbling walls, and then he runs to the edge of the water and fills up his bucket and comes back. Soon he has created a tiny pond.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth supervises tranquilly.

[pythbox]

He knocks a hole in the wall and watches all the water trickle out. Then he patches it up, builds it higher, and runs back and forth to fill it again.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Awww.

She'll just watch unless he decides to invite her to help.

[pythbox]

He is content to play in the sand by himself, apparently!

His pond walls get higher and higher until they collapse on themselves, filling the pond with loose sand. He giggles.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Elspeth conjures up a book and reads it with half an eye, the rest of her attention on Harley.

[pythbox]

After a little while, he abandons his pond and comes over to look at her book.

[her_imperial_radiance]

It's a short story collection. "Would you rather I read to you for a bit than keep working on your pond?" Elspeth asks.

[pythbox]

"Yeah! Read to me," he says, snuggling up.

[her_imperial_radiance]

"All right," she says, and she finds something loosely age-appropriate - though Elspeth is not nearly good enough at keeping secrets to sustain this perfectly, she can manage as a general rule - and puts her arm around Harley and reads it aloud.

[pythbox]

Harley snuggles and listens, gazing at the pages of the book.

[her_imperial_radiance]

Eventually the story concludes.

[pythbox]

But the cuddles do not!

[her_imperial_radiance]

Okay then. Cuddles. Elspeth starts looking for another story acceptable for a toddler.

[pythbox]

Warm sunny cuddles!

[her_imperial_radiance]

They've been out long enough that he's getting a little pink. She conjures him a bottle of ice water and hands it over; he wanted to try sunburn, not sunstroke. Then she finds a story that she thinks will be okay and starts reading it.

[pythbox]

Mmm, water! Water and reading and cuddles.

[her_imperial_radiance]

All three of those things.

This story too ends eventually.

[pythbox]

So does the bottle of water!

But there are always more cuddles.