#earthrunes

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For Sparrow, preperation for Carnival has been fun. And she has help. Children are doing poster boards

And finger paints!

And masks - paper plates with paint and construction paper and... yes, glitter.

Gyre prefers to use blocks for his painting, the nocker lad has been more and more at the Key Club, but still comes by for lessons and his friends.

Oneus is more energetic and slap dash, the boy will cut, sprinkle, or slap paint down depending on what he's handed.

"easy, Oneus, try to atl east keep it on the posterboard mm?" She says gently

"I like the colors, though! Very vibrant!" She grins. There is glitter in her feathers.

Isis says "boys get more attention than girls." The kitten pooka says "Unless they're princesses." She takes her make shift crown and shifts it just so behind kitten years

Enri is struggling with his own glitter in curly hair problem, "Problematic stress"

"Lucky you're a princess then, isn't it?"

that seems to earn Sparrow points from Isis

Sparrow herself is working on a more delicate paper mache mask - a red and gold lioness, in a venetian style.

Ludmilla helps with the battle of the curls, "here , Enri. You're handling it fine. It's only a little."

"That's fancy," Freddy yawns

"Well, a king and queen of fools will be made... they need appropriate masks. And the baroness will need a jester's one, of course."

"Shalimar's out of a joob?" Surprised look from Oneus

"Well, it's Carnival! Have you been to one before?"

"Nope, this will be my first."

Ludmilla says "Things are topsy turvey on Carnival"

She flashes a smile and nods at the trolless. "Fools are kings, and kings are fools. Everyone wears masks and there will be singing and dancing. And lots of sugar."

"Real sugar? Or kisses from old people?" Isis says distrustfully

"Probably both."

Enri breaks out crying "oh no! Hit the brakes, stop the carnival train, I want to get off!"

"Hey, hey," Ludmilla says "You like sugar. And the kisses from old people aren't that..."

Enri shakes his head, 'Kings are fools is what Lark said, and that means... that means the Baroness will be Unbaronned, they'll take her sceptre and hit her with it!" He says worriedly to his sister, "Our lioness will be delionized"

"She will be a fool for the night, absolutely. But when the sun rises, she'll be the baroness again."

"Princess Pinky swear?" Isis says

She looks a bit distressed herself

Sparrow holds up a hand, pinkie crooked.

Isis takes this, and hooks hers, then looks to Enri "She PRincess Pinky swore, so now the sun will rise. Stop being such a scaredy dog."

Enri is being tended to by Ludmilla "be nice to your brother,," then the troll says to Enri "See, the Baroness may even have fun. "

"I hope she has fun. This will be her first Carnival, too."

"That's right," Freddy says sounding tired "Because she got a shotgun saining."

"Pretty much." A pause, head tilted. "You okay, Freddo?"

"I didn't sleep well" He says

"Hunh. Okay. Well, it's almost the weekend. You'll be able to kick back a bit."

"Sure. I probably won't go back to Firnost again for a bit"then he cups his mouth

She raises an eyebrow. "Did you eat something at Firnost?"

"uhm candy."

"you took candy from a stranger?" Ludmilla's eeyes widen, "Freddy, that can be... not everyone... " She looks very tense

"Firnost can be... tricky. Sometimes people play mean pranks there. I had a bad encounter there, this past Highsummer. Someone left out brownies with a spell baked in."

"oh well, this was like superdross," Freddy says, "Really sugary, and..well, the lady who gave it was a pooka."

A soft sigh. "So you took candy from a strange pooka?"

"Wel, I've seen stranger. there's a lion serving drinks in Jacks. HE looks pretty weird' Freddy says defensively

"He is not at Firnost."

Ludmilla says "You are not to take snacks and things from folks outside this hold unlesss an adult you know and trust is present. In fact... maybe Firnost should be off limits."

"I don't know about off-limits.... not entirely..."

"Come on! My feet lead me there," Freddy protests, "I'm supposed to be there. I feel it in my feet... and.." Then he realizes Sparrow is on his side kind of "Also you know, the chancellior out ranks us, what can wwe do?"

"But we should know if your feet are headed somewhere, just in case."