The Twofold Houses 6: Multiplying like rabbits

[Rebonack]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Oh wow.

Something even COOLER than what Mister Wenomir is doing?

Trying to snatch a rock out of his hand definitely seems really tough.

Maybe you would have to surprise him?

Lapis really isn't sure.

"What kind of challenge is it, Anika, has it got bears?"

Anika often times does things with bears, this Lapis knows. Maybe this will be a bear challenge? Ride a bear? Hug a bear? Out-shout a bear?

And also, just because she's curious, Lapis asks, "Mister Wenomir is the signal to start going to be the fire getting lit?"

[Morty]

[Midsummer's Eve]

"Yes, it is," Wenomir tells Lapis. "Cora got the important job of lightning the fire this year."

[Recaiden]

[Midsummer's Eve]

What a brave tortoise!
"Heidie, get it back!" Ziselle cheers on the little dragon. The tortoise may have gotten a surprise first strike, but there's no way it can beat a dragon, right?
He looks at Jillian questioningly. This is a nice game; obviously the tortoise is harmless. Look how slow and gentle it is.

[Gullara]

[Out For a Hike]

"We find animals to play wi-" Laurana stops suddenly and looks back at Cassie over her should. The other girl is frowning all of a sudden. "Or we can find pretty flowers." Laurana course corrects, prompting a nod from her sister.

[Mithar Sleepover]

Cora and Bastion give her a blank look after that display. "Huh? What was that?"

"Is that how you read, Lapis?" Bastion asks, a bit more on the ball.

[Midsummer's Eve]

"Because it's too easy for you, Laela." Bastion reminds her. "You pick up snakes and stuff all the time. It's like cheating."

---

Jillian purses her lips and looks at the 'fight'. "I guess that's okay." She admits. "Just be careful." She has too much experience with her older siblings play fighting. It gets fierce when mommy's not looking!

---

"Okay! I'll be back!" Cora fires off towards the keep and shoves the door open, not even closing it behind her. Thankfully she's not long before she runs back out, swinging it closed behind her. She comes back to her mom with a sort of thick apron on. It's like the sort people who make swords would use, is how she'd describe it. It'll certainly protect her from heat and stray embers. "I'm ready!"

[Shadowcaller]

[Midsummer's Eve]

"No bears I'm afraid Lapis, snakes." Anika explains as she gestures at the shirt she's wearing. "You're going to have to pick out a token out of this jar filled with snakes." Her amber eyes flicks over to Bastion and Laela, feeling as if she needs to add to their conversation. "And yeah, it is a bit like cheating. I would have to come up with something, ah, bit different for you Frescots."

She already had an idea, she just wasn't sure if she could fit inside the jar in her snake form...

Well, only one way to find out.

---

As Cora emerges the kids might notice that Garn is holding something the gargoyle usually didn't carry around. A camera.

As soon as the girl emerges clad in her apron he starts taking pictures of her. Most likely at her mother's behest. How devious.

Cessie smiles widely at her daughter as she approaches. "Let's take a picture together first shall we? You look... very powerful in that, Cora." By which she means completely adorable.

[Rebonack]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Anika would need either a bigger jar or figure out on the fly how to be a smaller snake.

"I think Mother was going to do a challenge, too. But I'm not sure where she went," Lapis says. "I wonder what kind of challenge she would do? I bet it'll be lots of fun!"

She's pretty sure of that since she knows that her Mother enjoys fun things.

"Oooh! What if it's a quest? Just a short one though since there are other challenges."

Mother is a bar tender and bar tenders give out quests, right?

That's their main job as far as Lapis knows.


[Mithar Sleepover]

"Umm... no usually I just read words with my eyes for things like 'Cleaning Supplies' or 'DANGER!' or things like that," Lapis replies after a few moments of hesitation. "But those are really little ideas. This book has lots and lots of BIG ideas in it and if I read them all with my eyes that would take a really really REALLY long time! And Cora didn't want me to take a long time so I had to go faster. So instead I just took the ideas instead of reading the words to figure out which ideas they were talking about."

She wrinkles her nose a bit here.

"I know that's not a thing kids can really do, I'm sorry! I try to be a normal kid but it's hard sometimes. It's not fair that you guys can't do easy things like this, too."

Then she smiles.

"But! But I could learn the other books too if you want? Then we can talk about them!"

[Arkhosia]

Out For a Hike

There's a very slight quirk of the eyebrow as Calanthe catches Cassie's discomfort. Something to ask Sakura about once they're back home, perhaps. But if the kids catch any hint of that, it should be swiftly forgotten when she responds with a cheery timbre.

"Flowers are very pretty, but I've always liked the less visible things in the forest- the bugs and the fungi." The rabbit-eared woman comes to a stop as they pass by a stack of rocks supporting the end of a fallen log, the wood within long rotted away. She kneels down to look closer inside, turning back to the group with the kind of look someone gets when they have a chance to teach you about one of their favorite things. "Tell me Cassie, do you know what makes fungi different from trees and other kinds of plants?"

[Gullara]

[Out For a Hike]

"Bugs?" Laurana giggles. "Bugs are creepy crawly!" Doesn't seem as good as flowers.

Cassie furrows her brow and thinks hard about the question. "Um fungi um... Grow in dark spots?" She answers uncertainly. She's seen lots of mushrooms and they're always under stuff.

[Mithar Sleepover]

Huh. Weird. "There's five more books. That's a lot to keep track of at one time. Are you sure you can do that?" Bastion asks.

[Midsummer's Eve]

"Okay!" Cora turns and stands next to her mom. "Hurry, Garn, I gotta start the fire." She urges him. She smiles wide for the picture.

[Deathkeeper]

Midsummer’s Eve

Hiedie stares at the tortoise before squatting down low and jamming her head forward. She immediately tries to get her horns under the tortoise and flip it over!
…it’s kind of heavy but she actually does manage to start to lift it, slowly but surely…

[Murkus]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Dad and the Tortoids

Oh no! Laurana and Russell go from giggles to gasps as Hiedie starts to turn the tortoise over! "Evacuate!" Laurana advises, sliding down the side of the tortoise with Russell hopping shortly after. Hiedie will probably succeed if she continues... with the tortoise ending upside down, staring placidly at Hiedie with his legs in the air.

"Dang it..."

The Babs

Lucy bounces in place as she eagerly awaits the signal. "Go, Cora!" She shouts.

"Pssh, tell that to Cernunnos," Laela shoots back at Bastion. She crosses her arms and glances over at Cora. "You look really cool!"

[Arkhosia]

Out For A Hike

"Haha, they are indeed!" The comment seems to bring a certain light to Calanthe's expression as she laughs. There's a rather pleasant, chiming timbre to it. "It's part of what makes them so fascinating, even - they are so strange and weird to us, and that seems doubly true with our current subject."

The woman turns back to Cassie now, taking so little time to formulate a response that it's almost as if she'd been given just the one she planned to answer for. "No, though it's very easy for people to think that. Mushrooms may seem so very common within the shade, but they grow out in the light equally well." She grins. "You see, the way we recognize one from the other, is the very reason you see them out in gloomy places instead of all these ferns and flowers - while plants make food for themselves with sunlight, fungi instead consume it."

Calanthe pauses almost theatrically as she waits for a reaction from the children - the performance is nearly as important to effective teaching as the content, after all.

[Rebonack]

[Mithar Sleepover]

That DOES sound like a lot of books.

And Lapis DID just fill up her head with lots of ideas.

How many more ideas could fit in there?

Lapis isn't sure. Is there a limit to how many ideas a person can fit in their head? She really has no idea.

"Umm... do you think I should wait a little while before I try another?" Lapis asks the twins. "The first book was really good, I loved it!"

They could always do some other things while they wait for the story to settle?

But what!

That's the big question isn't it?

"Maybe we could play something else for a bit? What kind of thing would you like doing, Bastion?" she asks the lad, wanting him to feel included. Cora was being a little dismissive after all. Lapis wants all of her friends to be having fun!

[Shadowcaller]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Cessie puts her hand around her daughter and Garn takes several pictures before she seems to be satisfied. "Alright, now let's do it. Do you want me to annouce it or do you want to do that yourself, Cora?" Cessie asks as she starts to lead her daughter towards the unlit bonfire in the middle of the courtyard.

Meanwhile, Anika looks around the yard to see if she can spot Zee too. Failing that, she will turn her attention back to her currently empty jar. "Okay kids, I gotta go and prepare my challenge but I'll see you later, 'kay? It's gonna be a whole lot of fun." She grabs the jar and looks like she's about to carry it inside the keep but pauses as she sees Cora and Cessie approach the fire. Oh, this she had to see!

[Gullara]

[Midsummer's Eve]

"I will!" Cora insists. As they approach the bonfire, Cora speeds up, outpacing her mom. She goes up next tot he bonfire and turns toward the guests.

"Everyone! Everyone listen!" She calls out. Her voice has a distinct way of carrying. Once she has some attention on her, she carries on. "Um, thank you everyone for coming! I'm super excited to have everyone over to celebrate with us! When the bonfire's lit the party starts for real... So let's party!"

She whirls around to the bonfire. She squares her shoulders, puffs her chest, and pulls her head back. Then she pushes her head forward and releases a huge gout of flame into the bonfire. It goes up immediately, roaring into the sky. The girl whirls back around and throws her arms into the air!

[Morty]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Wenomir claps once Cora lights up the bonfire. Breathing fire is certainly not something he can teach her, but he wants his student to feel recognized all the same.

[Gullara]

Out For A Hike

"Haha, they are indeed!" The comment seems to bring a certain light to Calanthe's expression as she laughs. There's a rather pleasant, chiming timbre to it. "It's part of what makes them so fascinating, even - they are so strange and weird to us, and that seems doubly true with our current subject."

The woman turns back to Cassie now, taking so little time to formulate a response that it's almost as if she'd been given just the one she planned to answer for. "No, though it's very easy for people to think that. Mushrooms may seem so very common within the shade, but they grow out in the light equally well." She grins. "You see, the way we recognize one from the other, is the very reason you see them out in gloomy places instead of all these ferns and flowers - while plants make food for themselves with sunlight, fungi instead consume it."

Calanthe pauses almost theatrically as she waits for a reaction from the children - the performance is nearly as important to effective teaching as the content, after all.

[Out For A Hike]

"Consume it?" Laurana pipes up first. "Like they eat? How do they do that? They don't have mouths." Cassie giggles at that observation.

Sakura crouches down and gives Blue a little nudge and nods her forward toward the others. Blue looks back at the rest of the group and then edges in towards them.

[Mithar Sleepover]

That DOES sound like a lot of books.

And Lapis DID just fill up her head with lots of ideas.

How many more ideas could fit in there?

Lapis isn't sure. Is there a limit to how many ideas a person can fit in their head? She really has no idea.

"Umm... do you think I should wait a little while before I try another?" Lapis asks the twins. "The first book was really good, I loved it!"

They could always do some other things while they wait for the story to settle?

But what!

That's the big question isn't it?

"Maybe we could play something else for a bit? What kind of thing would you like doing, Bastion?" she asks the lad, wanting him to feel included. Cora was being a little dismissive after all. Lapis wants all of her friends to be having fun!

[Mithar Sleepover]

"Uh, I dunno how your magic reading works." Cora replies uncertainly. If Lapis doesn't know, she sure doesn't.

"Yeah we can do something else too." Bastion replies. Seems fine. "Um, we could play a board game." Bastion looks at Cora out of the corner of his eye as she heaves a heavy sigh. He heads off the whining. "Or we could build a fort?"

[Arkhosia]

Out For A Hike

"Well, fungi are a bit different from us, just like flowers and trees are a little different than us." Calanthe smiles as Sakura nudges Blue forward, already planning to field her the next question. "Do you remember how plants get water, Blue?"

[Murkus]

[Midsummer's Eve]

The Frescot kids, despite being variously distracted, will turn to see Cora's announcement. Little cries and calls of excitement precede her lighting of the fire. When it goes up, they balloon into rowdy cheers... at least as rowdy as so many squeaky little voices can manage. Adir will even look up from the spectacle with Hiedie and tending his smallest to give Cora a round of applause.

Since Anika has gone off, most of the kids - excepting for Lucy, Laurana and Russell - will scurry up to crowd around Cora.

"So what now? Are we supposed to start with games?" asks Laela, beaming.

"Time for the feast?" asks Cern.

The other wee ones echo similar queries.

[Recaiden]

[Midsummer's Eve]

It'll only get easier to flip the tortoise once there's no babs on it.

"See, that always happens to a tortoise." Ziselle remarks. It's why they're not much of fighters.

Arlem notices Cora's announcement right away, and Ziselle turns towards the bonfire a moment later.
Both break into applause when the fire roars to life.

Then the kids are off to see Cora!

[Deathkeeper]

Midsummer's Eve

Hiedie sticks her nose in the air and trots back to her father once her opponent has been properly bested.
"There. Ah, I think everyone had their good fun, now?" Spako chuckles, righting the tortoise with one talon.

[Rebonack]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Lapis, for good measure, throws her arms up in the sky, too.

This is going to be so much fun!

She's about to join the Frescot kids over at Cora when suddenly there comes a clear, bell-like tone.

"The fire is lit; the trials begin. Hearken unto me, youth of pure spirit and valiant heart! Tokens of great power have fallen into the hands of champions which you must overcome through might, through guile, and through courage. Gather the tokens, be judged worthy, and receive the bounties of this the Midsummer's Eve."

Those words are kind of fancy, especially for the little ones, but by some strange and heavenly design the meaning is left perfectly clear.

There's a...

A statue?

Over there.

A big statue! Of an angel seated on a throne with six great big feathery wings spread out behind her. In each of the statue's hands in an object: a tiny glass star that glows with internal light, a inkwell and pen, an engineer's compass, and a sword turned inward, as though offering it. The cowl of her robes obscures her face.

Lapis perks up immediately, pointing at the statue. "Oh! Look! Mother's doing a challenge too! Does that mean it's time to start?"

Oh no! Now Lapis has to decide who's challenge to do first! There are so many choices!

[Shadowcaller]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Anika applauds as Cora finishes her speech and adds a 'woohooo' in there somewhere.
However, as soon the girl finishes the druid's attention is quickly drawn in the direction the loud is coming from. A statue?! Zee just summoned a freaking statue?!

How in Elune's name was she supposed to be able to match that?! All she had in the terms of props was a jar...

But with a thoughful expression she still enters the keep. She still had some preperation to do. Maybe she could come up with something more then?

---

Once Cora finishes, her mom bends down and puts her hand on Cora's shoulder. "Very good. An excellent start of midsummer, Cora." Cessie says, smiling.

[Gullara]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Cora beams up at her mom, but then turns her attention to the other kids. She's about to answer when Zee's announcement booms. "Um, yeah! What she said. We gotta do the challenges." She looks around. "But make sure you spread out so everyone can have fun at the same time." She reminds.

[Murkus]

[Midsummer's Eve]

The tortoise is returned to his proper orientation, and promptly wanders in the direction of the children. They seem to have forgotten about Hiedie in the spur of the moment and the spectacle of Zee's appearance.

Laela is busy eyeing the statue of the angel, her ears still reverberating with the announcement. "Wow, that's kinda spooky."

"That's awesome!" says Cernunnos.

"Are we supposed to take the stuff from the angel? Or get Anika and Wenomir's stuff to get stuff from the angel?" Gwydion theorizes.

Lucy follows Wenomir around at a discreet distance. She's still got her eyes on that stone, as distracting as the rest was.

[Gullara]

Out For A Hike

"Well, fungi are a bit different from us, just like flowers and trees are a little different than us." Calanthe smiles as Sakura nudges Blue forward, already planning to field her the next question. "Do you remember how plants get water, Blue?"

[Out For A Hike]

"Um..." Blue ponders.

"You know this, sweetie." Sakura encourages.

"With their roots. They suck it out of the dirt." She answers more confidently.

[Rebonack]

[Mithar Sleepover]

"OH! I've built forts before, I love it! What sort of fort should we build?" Lapis asks.

Now, strictly speaking, she's got plenty of materials for fort building.

But they're weird materials for fort building.

Or at least that's what's been confided in her by other children in the past.

Usually when kids build forts they use things like... Pillows.

And blankets.

And chairs.

Pillows and blankets and chairs, oh my!

Lapis begins looking around for any clearly superior building materials.

[Arkhosia]

Out For A Hike

"Precisely! Very good, Blue." Calanthe nods in beaming approval, giving just enough time for the young wallflower to feel a sense of praise without putting her in the spotlight. "In a way, fungi do the very same thing. Now, we are looking at a mushroom, correct? Well, believe it or not, this mushroom is not really the fungus - at least, not its true form. A mushroom is simply a reproductive body, like the flowers on a tree of the berries on a bush."

The true form of the fungus is actually what you might think of as the mushroom's roots - long, thin strands of material known as hyphae that weave and branch and grow through the soil beneath it, often so small that they are invisible to the eye. Together they form an expansive network called mycelium, serving as both body and root. So every mushroom and mold you see in this forest is really only a glimpse of an organism living in its own secret world under our feet, more vast than we realize, and yet often too small and fragile to dig up and behold."

That eager, joyful glint returns to Calanthe's eyes as she expounds upon this, and as she speaks, she can't keep the sense of fascination and wonder entirely out of her voice. How can one not feel intrigued by such a strange and enigmatic form of life so commonplace and easily found?

[Shadowcaller]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Cessie pats Cora's head gently. "You should go there and make sure everyone gets along." She gestures in the direction of the statue. "Remember to tell them that they can all start at whatever challenge they like. Just one person at the time though unless the one in charge of the challenge says otherwise."

This had of course all been agreed upon when Zee had expressed interest to help out.

---

Anika seems to have managed to overhear Cessie's conversation with her daughter and is reminded by how they were going to set this up.

"Uh... kids! You can start with whatever challenge you like so everyone that wants to try out mine can come with me, alright?" She will then wait a few seconds before heading inside the keep. The door was being held open by rope so the kids could enter and leave whenever they wanted to.

[Morty]

[Midsummer's Eve]

Wenomir turns dramatically to face Lucy, his normal restrained motions gone in favor of theatrics.

"Would you like a proper shot at the marble, Lucy?" he asks.

[Murkus]

[Midsummer's Eve]

After some deliberation, Cernunnos and Laela will go to follow Anika. Although it sounded like maybe her challenge wasn't meant for them... aw heck, that just made winning easier. Gwydion, Laurana and Russell will remain where they are for now, still waiting for answers to Gwydion's questions and whispering as they admire Zee's statue.

Lucy, meanwhile, just bounces up and down in front of Wenomir. The motion shakes stray petals from her messy hair. "Yesss!"