i might as well be the man on the moon

[truthwright]

Their Isabella having just gone to welcome a new Bell into the peal, Kas and Petaal snuggle up together and take a nap. They'll want to be well rested for the party.

When they wake up, she still isn't back.

[Jane?]

No response.

Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.

The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy

"...So that's new," he says.

"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"

He shrugs. She coils tighter.

"Hang around and wait, I guess."

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Wheep!" Now he's a clam, digging under the sand.

[truthwright]

Kalavar nudges him again.

[alicornucopia]

He undigs. He's a sea turtle, itty-bitty.

Middle daemon is a seagull chick now.

[truthwright]

Kalavar flaps her wings.

[alicornucopia]

Eventually eldest witchbaby's mother scoops her baby into her sling, and the crane daemon puts the turtle in after her, gently-carefully, and off they fly.

[truthwright]

Helen and Kalavar keep playing in the sand. Kas and Petaal keep awwing at them.

[alicornucopia]

Ranata's enthralled too. She takes occasional pictures, and video snippets.

[truthwright]

After a little while longer, Kas starts writing a postcard to Isabella.

[alicornucopia]

Pregnant Witch drops by - with her husband, who's bundled up in several coats - to acquaint herself with Ranata and with the other witch baby's mother.

[truthwright]

But not with Kas?

[alicornucopia]

The husband appears to be trying to figure out who Kas is. "I know you're not Renata's husband or Luda's," he says.

[truthwright]

"I'm Kas," he says, and points at Helen. "She's mine."

[alicornucopia]

"I thought she was Ranata's? Maybe I misheard something."

[truthwright]

"She's not Ranata's kid."

[alicornucopia]

"Ranata's what, then? My honey tells me things, but it's hard to keep straight."

[truthwright]

"I'm the only parent she's got. Ranata's giving me a hand with the witch stuff."

[alicornucopia]

"Yours run off?" asks the fellow sympathetically.

[truthwright]

Kas shrugs and shakes his head. "It's kind of not my favourite subject," he says.

[alicornucopia]

"Sorry," says the guy. He produces a beach towel, unrolls it on the sand, and sits with his pregnant wife.

[truthwright]

"It's okay," he says.

[alicornucopia]

The remaining non-Kalavar witchbaby daemon turns into a cygnet, and then a lizard, and then a barn owlet.

[truthwright]

Kalavar turns into a series of different brightly coloured dragons.

Kas giggles at her.



A week later, the visit draws to a close; Kas collects his daughter and wanders away. He's back in two months, at Ranata's prompting. He decides that the month Helen spends with the witches every year should be August, since so many witchy things seem to depend on birthdays.

He gets back in the habit of burning postcards. Most of them are about Helen, one way or another.

[alicornucopia]

When Helen turns five, she is supposed to start dagger lessons. Work with a blade doesn't start right away; first she has to learn footwork and drawing and some basic moves with a wooden practice dagger. Shura starts at about the same time; she is younger than Helen, but she's been getting early coaching from her mother.

[carillons]

Helen is very excited about her wooden practice dagger!

[alicornucopia]

Shura wants a real dagger. She wants to learn to make arrows, and stab dummies, and cut her cloud-pine.

But she knows the fastest way to get her real dagger is to be good with the wood one, so here she is, lunging and slashing it through the air, insulting imaginary enemies. Since she is not even five yet, this mostly consists of calling them: "Frostbitten - um - spinach heads!"