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"Lucien? What did I tell you about running off on your own?"

Somewhat unsurprisingly, his son didn't answer him with more than a grin. And a splash, once Claude had drawn closer.

Leave it to any child of his to throw off his nice new boots just to stick his feet in the first likely looking stream that came along.

It wasn't even as if they'd gone that far out of town, but away from the roads, from the other sorcer-sorts and Aethies, even the breeze felt calmer, though it had hardly caught to much all the while they'd been walking. Claude being glad they had any at all, as hot as it had been the past few days.

The storm the night before had left lacy scatters of twigs and leaves and knocked down spider webs. Clean and still damp, the leaves overhead and tangled in the grass, they looked pieces of stained glass. And the trees, when they nodded, they sounded clear as harp strings with nothing else to cut the sound.

Out of farmland use and the whiles of any humans at all, the stream had been left so clear, so delicious looking. Just begging for some little blond imp of a boy to come along and kick his heels in it.

Well, one already had. Claude didn't bother with another sigh. He pulled his shoes off and laid them in the stones at his side, stretching lazy as he reached his own toes towards the glittering surface.

And promptly jerked back with a yelp. "Child of mine? That's /cold/."

"I know," said Lucien. "I think it feels nice."

"Maybe if you're part bear. I've always halfway figured, you know."

They had some teasing hums between them and Claude crossed his legs, feet now on the warm pebbles along the bank where they damnwell belonged.

"I think I got that from your side of the family," his son suggested after a while. "Anyway, why do you think it's like that? I don't hear anybody around."

"That wasn't tagging along?"

"Well..." The boy knitted his fingers in his hair, tugging himself a wingtip curl along his temple. "I think I'd only notice Nene if she was /gone/."

"And as for our new friends?"

"They couldn't have gone far. They know we have candy." To which, he nodded. Ever so sure of himself.

Ah, children. Children had gotten him this far with their self-assured beings. And children had found him what was really a rather strange clearing on closer inspection. The stream wore deeper through some places in the grass than others, showing shifts of rock, glints of moss and tree roots sneaking by. It divided the clearing just about cleanly in half.

Besides, on the edge of the forest easing back into being, a great, old ash stood.

Covered in tiny flowers. Pink and violet and hints of white. All of them, growing in streaks as if the bark had long ago turned to soil, though the tree seemed healthy and strong otherwise.

Besides.

"Papa," said Lucian, voice hushed. "There aren't any birds here, are there?"

"No," Claude answered after a moment. "It's just you and I and /a bunch of stinkers who ran off from us/."

"Oh, so that doesn't include me?"

"Child of mine."

They had a few more hums, there in the quiet of the clearing.

There, before something very strange and very faint began to creep along Claude's Aether lines.

It felt like being tickled almost. Anyway, it made him smile. Lucien too.

And next, there his son darted off again, racing over the grass and into the middle of the clearing, where he stood staring into the sky and whistling. Expecting a giant Gust to come sailing down in the form of a giant bird? It might just be that.

Welcome!

Note that anything your characters do in the clearing may result in posts back of things happening around them, even if these aren't exactly invited. Something's lurking around here, and it wants a snack!

Feel free to bring your own fairies, ghosts, mages and seriously confused regular people.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Isshiri followed him carefully--balancing on the ground here was different than on sand or glass or stone--and nodded. "She's twelve. Kira's our baby sister, she's four. Riluke's older'n 'Lani, she's my uncle Odaki's daughter, only he's not really my uncle 'cause he's Mamma's cousin, but we call him our uncle anyway."

"And how old are you?" Bill asked. He waited for Isshiri to sit on the bank, just to make sure he wouldn't slip or fall, then sat beside him. "I'm thirty-four. I don't have any brothers or sisters--it was just me and Mum growing up. We only saw any of our family on vacations."

"I'm eight," Isshiri told him. "Mamma grew up with her cousins, since her mamma died when she was a baby and her daddy died when she was six, I think. But we don't see Daddy's brother very much."

Edited (wrong icon) 2013-05-20 04:41 (UTC)

"I have a kid about your age--Zach's six and a half. Karen's going to be twelve next month. We also have two seventeen-year-olds and a baby on the way." Absently, Bill rubbed his thigh hard, pressing against a persistent tightness. "I don't remember my dad. He died when I was two. I think it was a lot harder on Mum to not have him around than it was on me." He smiled a bit. "But we went back to England every summer until I was fourteen, so I know a lot of my cousins well enough, and Mum's always kept in touch with all my aunts and uncles."

Isshiri's eyes widened. "Your biggest kids are almost big enough to be your baby's parents!" He couldn't remember where England was, and it was kind of a weird name for a country, but maybe it was the Plains name for it or something. He'd look it up when he got home.

Bill grinned. "I was just a kid when my daughter was born--she was born two days after I turned seventeen. My first wife, Dawn's mom, was a few months older than me. Dawn and Sam--Sam is Brenda's oldest with her first husband," and that phrasing turned sour in his mouth, "might have to babysit, but at least they won't have to wake up at three in the morning to feed the baby." He smiled broadly. "That's going to be Brenda's and my job."

So he was kind of excited about getting to experience an entire babyhood for once. He hadn't exactly had the chance before.

Isshiri made a face. "That does not sound like fun," he said. He had no idea why Bill was so smiley about waking up when it was hours and hours before the sun came up to feed a probably-screamy baby.

"It might when you're older," Bill said. "I didn't get to do it with any of my kids, really. I left for boot camp so I could join the army when Dawn was about a month and a half old, and my other kids are all from Brenda's first marriage. It's my first time being there for my kid's whole babyhood." He shrugged and couldn't keep a smile off his face. "And, when Brenda goes back to work, I'll be the one bonding with the baby all day."

"I guess," Isshiri said doubtfully. "At least when the baby's bigger, you get to play together more, just by yourselves. That'd be kinda nice."

"I'm looking forward to that," Bill agreed. "That won't be for about two years yet, though. I'll just make sure the baby wants my attention over Brenda's." That, he said lightheartedly, not meaning it in the least.

Two years seemed forever to Isshiri, but he nodded anyway. "Maybe he'll want to play with your bigger kids even more, though," Isshiri suggested. "Kira sometimes picks me or 'Lani over Mamma or Daddy."

"Maybe," Bill agreed. "Zach is always with Karen, and they both love Dawn and Sam. I hope the baby gets along with the rest of the kids." Avoiding friction between children would be nice. "Zach and Karen will still be home all the time when the baby is old enough to want to play with them. Zach's going to be about nine and Karen's going to be about fourteen." Probably good ages for the baby to idolize. "What are your sisters like?"

"'Lani's mostly with Riluke now," Isshiri said. "But sometimes she plays with me and Kira, and she saved me. She likes to make big eyes at the guards. She'd prob'ly do that to you, since you were a soldier. Kira's little, but she's really smart and she likes to play hide and seek with me." Since he wasn't supposed to talk about Kira's secret ever, that was the best he could say.

That made the second time Isshiri had mentioned his sister saving him. Bill very nearly asked before telling himself it was something Isshiri should share if he wanted, not something he should be pressured about.

"I don't know how I'd handle a twelve-year-old making big eyes at me," Bill said with a laugh. "It's awkward enough when it's Dawn's or Sam's friends." Which Brenda thoroughly enjoyed teasing him about, and which annoyed the kids to no end. (That seemed to make it even funnier to Brenda.)

"'Lani makes eyes at everyone," Isshiri said, rolling his own. "But 'specially the guards. And you're nice, so she wouldn't stop."

Bill shook his head. "Where I'm from, she's too young for that to be appropriate. Is she old enough where you're from?"

Isshiri tilted his head. "Not for serious. You gotta be sixteen for serious. But she can start to pretend."

Bill snickered. "I can't argue with sixteen being old enough." Except when it came to his kids. Then he was thoroughly against it. "Just not a good age to start raising a kid."

Isshiri nodded. "You're not s'posed to have kids 'til your not wild anymore."

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