I couldn't help but wince a little as Grimbaud hefted the ladle, narrowly avoiding hitting the prince in the nose with the damnable thing. I opened my mouth to warn her, but by the time I convinced words to escape my tight throat she'd already lifted her saucepan and beamed innocently up at the very person she'd just threatened to bean with a soup ladle. The fact that she recognized him and, instead of immediately apologizing, only continued the game made me groan a bit, but I relaxed when the boy - a young man, really - seemed content to play along. That gleam of awe only brightened as the boy drew himself to full height, a rather noble expression of grouchiness etched on his features, and Grimbaud had to cover her mouth with her hands (narrowly avoiding knocking herself in the eye with the ladle in the process) to hide her giggles.
"I'm protecting you from the monsters!" Grim replied earnestly. Her ladle was waved about again (this time, thankfully, away from the prince's person) as if to ward off something in the distance. "They're purple and they have one eye and big sharp teeth, like this!" Grim put two fingers in front of her own mouth (which was noticeably missing a few teeth of her own) and wiggled them around while making what she clearly thought were ferocious noises. "Just like that!"
At Tristan's comment about the dogs, however, Grim's features suddenly lit up. She clasped her hands together around the ladle in what looked like an epic battle to keep herself from rushing over to the dogs. We'd recently had a conversation about such things, and she was trying her best to be good, but I could tell she was dying to pet them. She squeezed her hands tight and sent him a begging look, looking like she was just seconds away from dropping to her knees to beg (though her ill-healed leg would prevent her from actually doing so).
"Eeeeeeeeeee, canIpetthem?" she asked, all in one breath. She even went so far as to bat her long eyelashes at the prince in a completely female gesture she had yet to understand. "Please, please, please! I'm real nice and gentle, promise!"
Though she'd skimmed over the dogs, her attention was suddenly drawn back to the largest of the three, Celidon, who happened to be green. Her eyes widened, a high-pitched squeal of pure excitement escaping her. She turned to Tristan, her grin so big it seemed to take up most of her face and her eyes almost desperate.
"HE'S GREEN!" she announced with pure glee, as if he'd somehow avoided noticing this fact before she'd brought it up. "MY FAVORITE COLOR EVER! Can I pet him, pleasepleaseplease? Is he soft, I think he's soft. Does he eat a lot? I think he eats a lot, Gisli eats a lot too."
I cleared my throat pointedly, shooting an apologetic look in the Cu-Sith's direction.
"Grim, before you start harassing the poor thing, don't you think you ought to introduce youself?"
"OH!" Grim said. She managed a half-curtsey, wincing only a little at her leg's complaint, and beamed up at Tristan. "I'm Grimbaud, and this is Gisli. You can't pet her cuz she's a grouch. Well, but you're a prince, so she has to let you pet her, I think." |