It's late at the Inn, but Vee can't sleep so sneaks out of the room to go down to sit by the fireplace and get some tea. The child of a family that's also visiting sits near Vee and asks her to tell a story about her adventures. -- Anon Guest
"You do understand that I'm twelve," said Vee. "Twelve-year-olds aren't expected to be Adventuring very much."
The kid, half Vee's age and full of fanciful thoughts, scowled at this. "But you're traveling with a Bugbear anna Wizard anna Ogre anna... uh..." he fumbled over what Amatu might be. "Demon-angel?"
"Don't forget the snake in the cage. He's the only one who's naughty out of all of them. The Bugbear's my uncle and his name is Rawr."
A long, disbelieving stare. "And you told me you haven't had an adventure."
"Gram'ma and Da used to adventure with the same wizard. Gram'ma's a Kobold by the way. That's... why the wings."
"C'n I pet 'em?"
"Careful of the skin parts. I can't fly, but I can sort of slowly drift down so I never get hurt from a big fall."
Curious, clean hands gingerly felt her wings. "It's weird. Like warm leather."
"Draconic heritage works in weird ways," dismissed Vee.
"How'd you get an Uncle who's a Bugbear if'n your Nanna's a Kobold?"
"Well, after she adopted my Da, she adopted Rawr. He went from toddler-sized to grownup-sized real quick. I was very upset with him about that for a while. He made the best teddybear when we were both small." And somehow, the chain of conversation lead to that one time in Lower Petraine's more interesting caverns. Where they found, in order: a contributary stream glittering with gold dust, a gigantic geode, and a Dire Spider nest within.
Even with night vision, the mother was surprisingly well-camouflaged.
Tap, the kid asking all the questions, was rapt. "What did you do?" he whispered.
"What anybody would do. We screamed like babies and ran with all our might back to our Mamas. Da and Gram'ma and a bunch of others went down and tamed the babies when they hatched. They're weirdly cute when they're used to being hand-fed."
"Spiders the size of cows? Cute?"
"You'd be surprised. We have one with speckles on her carapace, back home. Bet you can't guess her name."
"Spot? Dotty? Kerebos?"
"You'd think so. I called her Giraffe. Raffe for short. She's trained for the spool and everything. I used to think it was fun to run the crank while she slurped soup out of her feeding bag."
At long last, a free-roaming parental found them. "What are you doing out of bed? We have a long day's travel ahead of us."
"No harm," said Wraithvine out of a shadowy corner. Hir presence startled the hell out of Vee. She had forgotten that Elves didn't sleep and were whisper quiet. "I was going to intervene shortly."
"Aw but Ma-a-a-a-a... I was learning about Dire Spiders and Spiderweave."
"Bed. Sleep. Now."
Vee also rose from her chair and faced Wraithvine. "Me too?"
"You too," said the Wizard.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / grandfailure]
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