her_imperial_radiance | use it or lose it

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

pythbox

He giggles again.

"I wanna try it," he declares.

From:

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."

From:

pythbox

"Okay," he says serenely.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

"Do you want some sandcastle-making toys?"

From:

pythbox

"Yeah!" he beams.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

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

From:

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.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

Elspeth supervises tranquilly.

From:

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.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

Awww.

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

From:

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.

From:

her_imperial_radiance

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

From:

pythbox

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

From:

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.

From:

pythbox

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

From:

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.

From:

pythbox

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

From:

her_imperial_radiance

Eventually the story concludes.

From:

pythbox

But the cuddles do not!

From:

her_imperial_radiance

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

From:

pythbox

Warm sunny cuddles!

From:

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.