A very small child is picked up by Wraithvine and keeps calling hir 'papi'. They refuse to let anyone but their 'papi' anywhere near them. -- Anon Guest
Ze was in the middle of nowhere, and had summoned hir traveling tower just to have a kitchen and a roof over hir head. Other wizards might make such a thing extravagant and palatial. Wraithvine's was a little stone cottage with just enough accommodations for an unexpected guest, and a self-maintaining garden. Unwelcome people should not have been able to enter.
The child entered anyway.
What she mostly had on was dirt and stains. There was a mat of hair under a large hat, a shirt that was straining at the seams, and very little else. She was sitting by the fire and sucking her thumb and greeted Wraithvine with, "Papi!"
If ze gained a copper for this kind of thing, ze would have about half a gold's worth of copper coins. Ze was well used to it by now, but... "I did set up in the middle of nowhere. Where did you come from and how did you get here?"
This was too complicated a question for a small child. She pointed out the sprawl of Lilbit and announced, "Fyuffy kiddy cat."
Wraithvine sighed. Some people just made their own family out of others they picked out of the gutter. Wraithvine was doomed to be one of those people. "Well. Papi says you must need a bath, and some food. All creatures who become part of my household must be clean."
The little girl held out a hand. She didn't know what a bath was. Well. Plenty enough reason to give her one.
The one rule against simplicity in Wraithvine's traveling tower was the bathing chamber. Wraithvine had seen many advancements in the field of hygiene and insisted on all of the best in hir space. Which meant hot and cold running water, a perpetual stock of soaps, scents, and unguents, and towels so thick they could class as a Barbarian.
Wraithvine gave the girl warm bubbles and floral scents and kept scrubbing and combing until the water was an entirely different colour. And so was the girl.
Green as the grass grew, but not much in the way of tusks. What the larger world called a Halfbred and what hir ancient contemporaries referred to as a "mutt". Wraithvine never liked the word. Ze much preferred 'quilted'. Made of many other things, and uniquely beautiful.
"Well, little adabaki, my new child-of-heart. Dare I ask what you like to eat?"
In a new dress, replete with underthings, and ribbons in her hair, the child shrugged.
Oh dear. One of those. "I shall therefore make you many nutritious and delicious things. And encourage you to eat slowly."
She would eat fast, Wraithvine knew, so the key would be in small portions. Maybe, if ze had the magic, ze would track down the people who neglected her and mete out some justice. But first things first, a child needed her breakfast.
The first of many.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / McIninch]
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