 “Woah!” Renn said with a laugh as her brother’s tiger burst into the room. Chaos ensued. The sheets of loose paper stretched all the way to the door and as soon as Solarius crossed the threshold his paws him them. The tiger went skidding across the floor. Renn managed to steady Danny by applying pressure to his shoulder, but there was no stopping the big cat. One of his paws caught the sketchpad and sent it spiralling across the room, shedding the loose leaves out across the floor until it came to a thudding stop against the wardrobe. Nico, who had been perched snoozing on top of the same cupboard, awoke with a start and the sudden movement was enough to knock him off balance. In an attempt to preserve his dignity he took to flight and fluttered down to land on Danny’s shoulder. He took care not hit the boy with his large beak.
“What’s going on?” the toucan asked surveying the scene, “what did I miss?”
Laughing Renn pointed at Solarius and the toucan clicked his beak in amusement.
“I’m sure we’ve talked about this, Sol” Nico said, “with paws the size of yours you really should be more careful! You could hurt yourself...and me!” Renn crouched down on the floor and gestured for Danny to do the same.
“I have been busy” she enthused, “I really want to get these portraits right. I mean, how many people get to paint official royal portraits! There are some in the books in the library from earth and the ruler died hundreds of years ago but we still have the pictures! It’s so exciting.” She glanced towards her sketchbook out of the corner of her eye and was relieved to find that the picture of Henry had landed face-down. Reassured, she turned her attention back to Danny.
“Okay,” she began gesturing around the room, “in this corner I’ve got my sketches of the king, over there is Lady Morgana, then Lord Mordred in the far left, Prince Tristan to the left of him and then Sol is sitting on top of Lady Nimueh.” Renn rubbed her hands together, “my problem is I can’t work out which version of them I like the best. I narrowed it down to four pictures each. I don’t want it to just look like them, I want it to feel like them. If you could take a look at them and tell me what you think they look like in each one, like, what their expression is, and then tell me which your favourite is.”
She encouraged Danny to get up and walk around the room so he could look at everything more easily. Renn watched him with a fond expression. He reminded her a lot of their father; he was quiet, a little awkward and he loved to learn. She saw it most in him when he smiled; it was the shape his mouth made and the way his eyes crinkled a little in the corner. “What happened to your hair?” she asked him, unfolding her legs and leaning back on her hands, “is everything going okay with Dr. Gupta? And with...Khase-whathisname? I’m sorry, I can never pronounce it. Tell me again?”
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