A child is petting Lilbit and tries walking off with Wraithvine's sweet kitty. They are gently taught to ask permission before touching other people's pets, and to not try to take them. -- Anon Guest
Wraithvine was arguing history with someone who drank deeply from the Well-Actually. As one might imagine, Immortals get into a lot of these fights.
"Well, actually, the diaries of Wraithvine are the most common subjects of forgery and are therefore spurious sources of alternate history," droned the fellow whose chin was all neck, and didn't seem to know what grooming tools were for. "I find Bahaelmoss the Bard to be the most reliably consistent telling of all the established histories."
A small voice by Wraithvine's knee said, "Kiggy ca'. Nice nice kiggy ca'." It went almost without notice.
On Wraithvine's lap, the small rug known as Lilbit yawned and stretched and went, "Mmrrrp?"
"I do believe I can recognise my own handwriting," snarked Wraithvine. "As for that hack Bahaelmoss, I have been fighting for millennia to claw back my reputation from his 'creative interpretation' of events he never even witnessed."
"Izza goo' kiggy ca'," noted the voice under the table.
"Well, actually the real Wraithvine would have cursed me by now, and that's how I know you're yet another mummer trying to stake claim to his good name."
"Hir good name," corrected Wraithvine.
"Yoo comin play wif me kiggy ca'."
"Well aaaaactuallyyyy..." the know-it-all droned on without an audience because Wraithvine finally noticed that someone was absconding with hir cat.
It was the sliding that caught hir notice, rather than anything else. Wraithvine looked down to see a very small child attempting to drag Lilbit away.
It was not terribly effective as the child was smaller than the cat. Further, Lilbit objected to the relatively cold floor and simply oozed out the hug to return to her proper place on Wraithvine's shoulders.
The kid started to whine. "I wanna kiggy ca'..."
Wraithvine summoned a kerchief from thin air and daubed at the tears. "There now, little one. Lilbit wants you to ask permission to play. Did you say 'hello' and ask to play?""
Sniffle. "Nuh-uh."
"Let's see what manners can do, hm? You say 'hello Lilbit'?"
"Hullo Lilbi'."
The cat, perfectly cued, meowed and eased down from Wraithvine's shoulders. She almost knocked the child over with her affectionate lean.
"And now you ask, 'would you like to play, Lilbit?' like a good child."
"Woulja like a play, Lilbi'?"
Lilbit started purring.
"That's good manners," said Wraithvine. And speaking of good manners... "Some grownups need to learn theirs, too." A small wave of hir fingers and the droning of the know-it-all changed content.
"Well, actually, I like to sound important and listen to my own voice. The first source of knowledge I come across is automatically the best and I refuse to take learning any further than-- HEY!" His brain had evidently caught up with his ears. "What did you do to me?"
"Nothing much," singsonged Wraithvine, escorting hir cat and the free-roaming child to a safe corner. "Just a little curse of truth."
"Oh," said the know-it-all. And, after a moment's thought, "Oh." A further minute of realisation made him add, "Oh no."
[Image by Paper Butterfly on Unsplash]
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