RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes

Garaf · **08-31-2010, 10:11 AM**

Chapter 7

Crawa tottered outside, a large book in her hands and a wild grin on her face. Spotting Garaf across the green courtyard, she waved and shouted to get his attention. "Garaf!" The Duskwight boy turned, scowling in the sun with shovel in hand. A narrow ditch extended from where he stood to some ilms away, evidence of a morning of labour. As usual, he didn't seem to exactly ecstatic to be deprived of his freedom to laze about for the entire day. "Garaf! I'm learning magic!"

Esslar shuffled up behind her, nudging her shoulder and correcting her gently. "You have but begun to learn the most rudimentary basics which might one day lead to an eventual preliminary understanding of the fundamentals of the elements. That's IF you manage to maintain your studies."

Crawa sobered immediately. "Yes, sir."

The lalafell smiled. "You are free to go now, Crawa, but take care not to disturb Garaf in his work." Esslar turned a discerning eye to the boy who had gone back to driving the spade into the soil. "It seems he still has some way to go." He wandered off, leaving Crawa with her book. She waited a moment, then put it down and ambled up to Garaf, inspecting his handiwork.

"What'cha doing?"

The boy looked up and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. "Esslar wanted me to dig 'em a ditch so he can catch rainwater fer his garden, or something. It'd be easier iffin' tha ground was actually made of dirt instead of rocks."

The ground was indeed stony, and the shovel was chipped in a few places from the effort of driving it through the earth. Crawa looked down at it introspectively for a moment, before giving a shout. "Hey! Look at that one!"

Garaf furrowed his brow and peered into the dirt. "What?"

"That rock! Right there - it moved!" She bent down until her nose was nearly level with the stone in question. It was mottled and had an odd shape, and as the two stared at it, it shifted slightly and a small protrusion poked out of its side. Crawa gasped as four tiny legs and a head slowly emerged from the stone. "That's not a rock! It's a ... a turtle!" She reached forward to pick the creature up, nearly falling into the ditch herself but managing to finally lift it out. She straightened, holding it up in front of her in triumph.

Garaf grumbled "Yes. It's positively fascinating", mimicking the way their tutor spoke on things of scholarly interest.

"Isn't he adorable?" Crawa cooed, placing the turtle down on the ground and watching it closely. "What should we do with it?"

"Make soup."

Crawa ignored him. "I think we should play house! It'll be fun! See, you'll be the papa, and I'll be the mama, and he can be our baby!"

Garaf wrinkled his nose in a look of both confusion and mild disgust. "I ain't gonna do that! I don't wanna be that thing's dad!" And then under his breath, quiet enough that she wouldn't hear he said "'n who'd wanna marry you?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "It's just pretend, stupid. Besides, I already know who I'm going to marry, for real. And we're going to have LOTS of babies."

The proud declaration caught Garaf unawares and he cocked his head with a curious "Oro?"

"Yep! His name is Dasma, and Mama said I'm going to marry him when I grow up! I can't wait, I'll get to wear a pretty dress and everything!" The girl spun around, grinning, as though she were at a ball.

"Well ain't that just grand fer ya." The boy was annoyingly unenthusiastic as he lifted his shovel to resume his chore.

"Hmph. I'm going to go study, if you're going to be so boring."

"Suit yerself."

"Have fun digging, stupid. Come on," she beckoned to the turtle, who ambled up behind her. "Let's go."

The Grand Adventures of Little Garaf and Crawa [Closed]

RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes