you can throw me if you want

[truthwright]

It turns out that there was really not much point to making a schedule. Kas and Helen visit the witch clan whenever Helen feels like it, and stay as long as she wants, and go when she wants to be somewhere else, and it all adds up to plenty more time spent with the clan than away.

After the aquarium jaunt with Ranata, it's a little more than a month before they visit the clan again.

Comments

[carillons]

"Me too! They're fun to look at."

[alicornucopia]

"When we get older we can go get cloud-pines off of really, really big trees," says Shura.

[carillons]

"That'll be fun!"

[alicornucopia]

"And then we can flyyyyy!"

[carillons]

Helen giggles happily.

Over the coming months, she does her very best to be a little prodigy. She studies hard at magic, and seems to pick up dagger skills almost effortlessly. She still goes off away with Kas - on a trip to three different amusement parks, where she discovers that rollercoasters are more fun than cake - but the lost time doesn't seem to slow her down much. Her seventh birthday comes and goes; she celebrates by baking a cake and sharing it with Charlie and Ranata and Kas and Shura and anyone else who wants some, and then she goes off away again.

[truthwright]

This time, they wander across Canada. Now that Helen is a little older, Kas is letting her be by herself more, as long as he's nearby; he takes hotel rooms near libraries so she can go down the block and have lots of books to keep her company, or sits in the outside sections of restaurants while she plays in the park across the street.

[carillons]

On one of the latter occasions, Helen gets bored with the park and goes back across the street to collect her spinach so he can find her more fun things to do.

He is not there.

She frowns at the empty tables.

[alicornucopia]

There is no spinach here, except in the salad, but there are some witches.

"Are you lost?" one of them asks Helen.

[carillons]

"Not exactly," says Helen. "I know where I am, I just don't know where my daddy is." (She has learned that the 'mommy' and 'spinach' parts are best left out when talking to strange grown-ups, because they get terribly confused and it's a bother to untangle them.)

[alicornucopia]

"Oh, goodness," says the witch.

"Hmm," says the other. "What about your mommy?"

[carillons]

"I don't have one," says Helen.

[alicornucopia]

"What a pity," says the second witch.

"We're just about done here," says the first witch. "Why don't you come with us and we'll look after you while we find your daddy?"

[carillons]

Helen peers at the witches.

"Maybe," she says. "Can you find him? He should be close by. Maybe I should look in the bathroom first."

[alicornucopia]

"But he'd be in the men's room," says the first witch. "We can find him for you, you needn't worry."

[carillons]

"I'm going to look in the ladies' room," says Helen.

She goes into the restaurant.

[alicornucopia]

The witches do not expect that she will find her daddy in the ladies' room. They wait.

[carillons]

And sure enough, Helen comes out again.

"He wasn't there," she reports. "And I asked somebody to look in the men's room for me and he wasn't there either. I guess he's lost. How are you going to find him? Will you use magic?"

[alicornucopia]

"We know plenty of magic," replies the first witch reassuringly.

[carillons]

"I know lots of magic too!" she says. "But I don't know any daddy-finding spells. Will you teach me one? Or are there runes and things in all the ones there are? I don't know runes yet."

[alicornucopia]

"Lots of runes," says the second witch. "If he's very hard to find it might even take a sparrow or a pigeon."

[carillons]

"Can I watch?" says Helen, fascinated.

[alicornucopia]

"I suppose," says the first witch.

[carillons]

"What are your names? I'm Helen," she says. "Helen Ianthe."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm Kana Setira and this is Loviisa Lerandi," says the first witch.

[carillons]

"It's nice to meet you!" she says. "Where are you going to do the spell to find my daddy?"