Some children try to get Wraithvine, Birbid, and anyone traveling with them to come play. They had balloons that one of the kids' parents had enchanted so they wouldn't pop, so they could play catch and bounce the toys between them. -- Anon Guest
[AN: Balloons take a long time to exist in Alfarell because latex takes longer to launch so I'm handwaving some magic]
Someone had cast several iterations Tinrak's Bouncing Orb in the plaza. The brightly-coloured bubbles easily rebounded off of any surface. Then drifted slowly according to gravity and the prevailing breeze. What they also rebounded off were the hands, heads, and sometimes feet of the children.
Adventurers everywhere would agree that Tinrak's Bouncing Orb was a useless spell, and therefore only used by Bards to show off during concerts. Adventurers, Wraithvine decided, didn't know the true meaning of 'useless'.
The kids were having a screaming good time. Figuratively and literally. Many rushing about to bounce a colourful ball higher than all the others. Some defending the bubbles from the perils of the ground, and little toddlers running shrieking after any orb remotely near them. It was painfully loud chaos and it was beautiful.
Several screamed as a young Hellkin went to butt one with her sharp-looking horns. Then screamed laughing as the orb bounced off without any damage to it or the Hellkin. A little one was knocked flat by bubble twice as big as they were and sprang up to run after another one, completely unphased.
Even a few adults had joined the melee, though mostly to stop anyone tripping over the teeny tiny kids. They theatrically 'missed' any bubbles heading their way so that the toddlers could have a moment.
Just as Wraithvine was about to become instant guardian to small, shrieking sprite of a child, the orbs began to wear out. Fading and finally bursting with musical pops.
There was only one thing ze could do about that.
Ze cast Tinrak's Bouncing Orb and released a rainbow of grapefruit-sized orbs for the further enjoyment of all present. The orbs would only last two hours, but the memories?
Those would last a lifetime.
[Photo by Luca Upper on Unsplash]
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