Chapter Text
It was the morning after Hunter had met the owl lady’s daughter, Luz. Hunter stood beside his uncle Belos in the throne room. He fidgeted his fingers at his side. He knew he should be telling Belos about his find, about the child that Belos mentioned wanting brought to him. Hunter did not want to go against his uncle's wishes, but Belos wanted Luz. He didn’t know what for, but she was the most innocent baby he had ever had the honor of meeting. For some reason, he had yet to tell Belos about her.
From the short amount of time of being with her the other day, he knew that she was a bright happy light. She intrigued him and he wanted to know more about her. He wanted to understand why he was having this reaction to her. The wanting feeling and need to protect her and keep her safe. It confused him and he wanted to find out why he felt this weird instant connection with her. He had never felt this way before, so why was he feeling this weird feeling now, out of the blue. He had just met her too, she wasn’t someone he had known very long, so he didn’t understand why he felt such an instant connection with her. It was so odd, it confused him.
This is all exactly why…why he could not tell his uncle about her. He knew his uncle, he had to deal with his uncle from as long as he could remember. Belos was….not the best caretaker around and he knew it. He knew this first hand growing up. Belos could be rough, callus, and mean. He didn’t have much patience when it came to children, and Hunter did not want to see him hurt Luz. He didn’t want to see her light go out, or at least the light he knew that was there. He especially didn’t want to see her cowering somewhere in a corner crying and covered with bruises. Even if he had just met her, he did not want to see her that way. He would die before he ever witnessed that happening to Luz. She was far too young to be going through any of that mess.
Hunter didn’t need to be told by Luz how much caretaking she needed from an adult, he could just see and tell for himself. He noticed her wearing a diaper, so she had potty issues of some sort, which meant she needed diaper changes, and probably pretty regularly. That was not something he saw his uncle doing. He himself was potty trained very, very, very early on in his younger years. And when he used to have accidents as a small child, he would get punished for it greatly in many different ways, none of which were good. So many potty training incidents that made him wince at remembering. So there was no way Belos would put up with Luz having to wear a diaper at her age, even if she did look pretty young, he still knew Belos would have none of that. Especially if he was going to keep her around and not automatically petrify her for being the owl lady's daughter.
Hunter knew how terrible Belos could be first hand. And he was not going to stand for that happening to Luz, not like he had to. Maybe if he had the guarantee of being able to be by her side all the time if she was brought here to Belos. But there was no guarantee that Belos would allow Hunter to be by her side every second of every day.
Again, he didn’t know what Belos was going to do to her. So for now, and to keep himself at ease, like he wasn’t straight up lying to his uncle, his excuse for not saying anything was because he was gathering information. This was the Boiling Isles most wanted witch's daughter. The owl lady's daughter. Maybe he could learn something new or important by staying at a distance and watching. Yeah, that is what he was telling himself. Intel, he was gathering intel and nothing more.
Hunter continued to stand rigid and tall beside his uncle Belos’s throne, waiting for permission to leave his side. It felt like hours before Belos finally called him. Feeling even more rigid, Hunter turned towards Belos.
“Yes sir!?” Hunter called out, waiting to follow an order from him.
Hunter gulped when Belos gave him a calculating look. For a second there he was very, very worried about somehow his uncle knowing about Hunter having found Luz, the girl he had been looking for, and not having told him.
Hunter waited with bated breath and sweat trickling down his face, behind his mask as he waited for Belos to say something, anything. And finally Belos nodded his head towards the throne room doors.
“You are excused for the day, you may go back to your chambers and read or study or stroll around town and find witches that aren’t following the law,” Belos finally said.
Hunter wanted to sigh in relief, but didn’t in fear that Belos would hear him and suspect something was up. He planned to do something a little more than go back to his chambers and study or read or go looking for witches that needed to be locked up. He had something a bit more in mind. A little sneaking and watching. A little bit of gathering intel on a certain someone who made him want to know everything and anything he could about them.
“Yes sir, thank you sir!” Hunter said with a curt nod and a deep bow. He found, living under his uncle, the deeper you bow, the happier he became. Bowing as far as you could showed the utmost respect you could show to your superior or in this case leader.
Hunter rose from his bow and began walking towards the throne room door when Belos called out, “oh and Hunter.”
Hunter stopped walking immediately, turning on spot and felt his breath caught in his throat and heart suddenly started hammering away against his chest erratically. Had Belos known what he planned on doing today?!
“Yes, Emperor Belos?” Hunter asked, successfully keeping the squeak out of his voice.
“While you are out, I need more galderstones. I need the stones for my project again since the last batch got messed up somehow,” Belos told Hunter with a slight hint of annoyance in his voice. It made Hunter want to cower, good things did not happen when Belos got angry.
Hunter nodded, “I will try my best to find the looking glass graveyard. Would you like for me to also get more selkidomus scales as well, while I am out?” Hunter asked.
Hunter didn’t know what Belos was working on, this so-called project. But he often needed specific supplies for this project he had been working on for the last three years. He always needed selkidomus scales, galderstones, and palistrom wood. He also heard Belos muttering about stonesleeper lungs, but stonesleepers were extinct, or supposedly they were. Although he could have sworn he saw his uncle with stonesleeper lungs in his study late one night, but that couldn’t be right because..again…they were extinct and it was dark that night, plus he had pulled a two day overnighter, so he must have been seeing things. There was no way his uncle had stonesleeper lungs, he must have imagined them being there. Yeah, that is what happened!
“No. I have someone else fetching the selkidemus scales for me as of currently. You will only be fetching me galderstones if you can find them, that is, and that is it. Got it?” Belos asked, sounding even more annoyed.
“Yes, of course Emperor Belos. I understand,” Hunter told his uncle, sounding determined to find those galderstones.
Belos nodded and then flicked his wrist to show Hunter that he wanted him to leave now, so he nodded, turned around and continued to walk towards the throne room doors to leave.
Hunter closed the doors shut behind him and brought his staff closer to his chest, tightening his grip on it as he made his way out to the main bridge of the castle, his walk there was rushed.
~~~~~~~~
Willow, Amity, Luz and King were still upstairs in Eda and Raine’s bedroom, still all passed out in the nest while Eda and Raine were downstairs in the kitchen. Eda was making breakfast for all the kids and herself. Raine had already eaten something a bit ago and wasn’t hungry enough for a full on breakfast meal. So they stuck with standing beside Eda while she cooked, watching her and grabbing whatever she needed for the next thing she worked on for the kids.
It wasn’t much longer that the kids had all roused from their sleep, all walking into the kitchen in a line of sleepy and groggy children, all of them in different stages of having just woken up. Some of them yawning, some stretching and some rubbing their eyes. Raine glanced over at Eda and found themselves smiling when they saw Eda’s smile at seeing them all come into the kitchen. It was like their family had grown bigger and bigger. This is along the lines of something Raine pictured when they were a young child who had a crush on their best friend, Eda for a couple of years. They imagined being together in their house and a gangle of kids of their own. Granted these were not all of their kids, and only one might possibly be their child together, but that was still a bit unclear for Raine, but this…this is what they pictured all those years ago as a young child who was so deeply in love for the first and only time. It had always been Eda, only Eda. It warmed Raine’s heart to see this scene before them and it made them wish they didn’t have to leave so soon for work.
Speaking of having to work they knew they really had to start getting ready, they needed to get out of their pajamas, they needed to put on their work clothes.
Eda had all of the kids sit down at the table, with Amity helping King in his highchair while Willow got Luz into her own highchair. Once everyone was situated in their seats and in Luz’s case buckled into hers, Eda grabbed two plates at a time and began handing out the food. After having everyone's food plated and in front of them, she began asking about what everyone wanted for drinks. King got Ghoul-aid, Luz got boo-berry juice, Eda poured herself a demonic pick me up, and Willow and Amity both got shiny D juice.
All of the kids officially had their plates of breakfast and a drink, so she turned off the stove and smiled over the rim of her mug as she stared at the full table. She had yet to bring her own plate to the table to eat as she saw Raine was beginning to make their way towards her.
“I have to go get ready for work for real this time,” Raine told her.
Eda nodded but told the kids to continue eating and she would be right back, following behind Raine. Raine grabbed their clothes and both adults walked into the bathroom. She had to talk to them. Raine seemed to have known because they allowed her inside the bathroom by holding the door open for her and gave her an inviting smile. She smiled back as she walked into the bathroom, Raine shutting the door shut behind them. If Eda didn’t have to talk to them about something so serious, she would have cackled and made sly little jokes about them both being in the bathroom together.
~.~.~.~.~ A couple minutes later ~.~.~.~.~
“Raine, he was with Luz. I don’t want him telling Belos and him taking her away. I won’t let them. I would die before that happens,” Eda told Raine sternly the next morning as they got ready for work.
“And I understand that Eda. I’m worried too, but please refrain yourself from saying that in front of the kids. They’ll hear you saying something about you dying and then you got two emotionally upset and clingy children to deal with for who knows how long. I promise you I will look around for him today at work and keep an eye on him. If I hear or suspect anything from him, I promise I will let you know,” Raine promised Eda as they grabbed her hands and held both of their hands between both of their bodies.
“I know, I just…I just worry about you and about Luz and King. I don’t want that little brat informing Belos that I…that we have a kid. If he already wants her…What does he even want with her Raine? She’s just a child, she hasn’t done anything to him,” Eda replied sadly.
“I don’t know what he wants…Speaking of which..Have you spoken to Luz about having met him before?” Raine asked with furrowed yet worried brows.
“I have, but she says she hasn’t met him…she doesn’t think she does at least. But what if they did cross paths at one point? It’s not like I have photos of him or anything to show her. I could only describe that dumb getup he wears. And even if I did show her a photo, what if she met him when he wasn’t wearing that? What if he didn’t have his mask on when she met him? What if-” Eda ranted, but Raine stopped her short by crashing their lips into hers in a kiss.
When Raine pulled back, Eda looked taken aback but soon a smile curled onto her lips.
“Kissing me, just to shut me up Rainestorm?” Eda asked playfully.
“Maybe,” Raine said softly but then chuckled at the face that Eda was currently making.
“No but seriously Eda. I will find out everything I can without making it known that I am looking for information. I wanna know these answers just as much as you do. I don’t want him being anywhere near her either,” Raine told Eda who nodded in agreement.
“I’ve gotta head out soon. Let’s go back out to the kitchen. I don’t think I trust those kids not to make a mess, even if they are busy eating breakfast,” Raine said with a hearty chuckle.
“Alright. Just…Just be careful today Raine. We don’t know if that golden jerk has said anything to Belos. Make sure to be on high alert and watch your back today and just for now on,” Eda told Raine firmly, not taking no for an answer.
“I will,” Raine reassured Eda as they walked out from the bathroom, down the stairs and into the kitchen where King, Luz, Amity and Willow were still eating their breakfasts.
“Mama. Baba. You take forever in da bafwoom,” Luz moaned, her cheeks filled with eaten bits of scrambled griffin eggs.
“Sorry about that little bird,” Raine told her as they walked over and placed a tender kiss on the top of Luz’s head in passing, and did the same with King before grabbing a clean mug and filling it with demonic pick me up.
“Hey….wait…How do you know we were in the bathroom together? Okay, who is the spy here?” Eda asked with her arms folded in front of her chest and an eyebrow raised as she looked around at all of the kids’ faces. Everyone looked down at their food.
“It was King!” Luz shouted as she pointed an offending finger at King.
King gasped, “What in the heck Luz!? She’s lying mama, she was the one who was spying,” King said with a glare as he pointed back at Luz.
“I can’t even get out of my seat!” Luz yelled with a huff.
“Willow helped you get out and then back in!” King shouted back.
“Woah, don’t bring me into this,” Willow replied with wide eyes, a shake of her head and hands held up as she shook them. “I didn’t do anything,” Willow said again.
Amity giggled behind her fist. As soon as Eda shot Amity a look she immediately stopped and began shoving a piece of toast in her mouth with an innocent shrug, eyes averting towards the side.
“Nobody is going to fess up then?” Eda asked, a single brow raised.
“No!” All four kids chorused together that it impressed Eda with how insync they all seemed to be, which made Eda think that they all were in it together. Dang kids being sneaky. She was kind of impressed if she really thought about it.
“Hmmm, good. That’s a good thing to have among a group of friends. You’ve bestest me this time, but I will find out which one of you it was,” Eda said with narrowed searching eyes as she glanced at each and every kid at the kitchen table.
Raine chuckled gleefully at the scene unfolding before them before swallowing a couple mouthfuls of demonic pick me up while Eda rolled her eyes and brought her plate of food and own mug of demonic pick me up to the table, sitting down. She took a couple bites of her toast when King began looking at her, looking to be thinking. He finally spoke after a little bit though.
“Hey, can me and Luz go outside and play with Hooty for a bit sometime after breakfast?” King asked with big pleading eyes. Eda hummed in worry as she thought about them being outside in the open.
“I would if I could, but I have to get heading out very soon here. I need to stop by the manner to change and head into the library, it’s my day to volunteer and work today there,” Amity said with a sad look, wishing she could stay at the owl house longer.
“I would stay too, but I also have to get home soon, me, my papa and dad are all going on a trip together today and we have to leave early in order to make it there on time,” Willow said sadly, wishing she could hang out with her friends a bit longer.
“Peas mama. I pwomise not to walk off and get wost ‘gain. Pinky pwomise,” Luz whined from King’s other side. She felt bad about the other day and how stressful it was not only to her but to her family too. She had seen their looks of worry. She knew they were panicked and scared at her being lost, she could see it in their faces later that night. It probably didn’t help that she wanted to sleep with everyone that night.
Raine gave Eda a smile and gave a short curt nod, encouraging her that it would be okay. Eda looked down at her own half-finished plate of food. She knew it would do good for the kids to get out and get some fresh air. But on the other hand, she also didn’t want them to be outside. She wanted to keep them inside where it was safer. Then again, Hooty was a good protector when need be and he would keep the kids safe in case anything or anybody comes marching through the forest line. If anything he would make sure they got inside safe and sound.
Eda was cut out of her internal battle between the cons and pros of letting them play outside for a bit before she felt a hand on her face. Looking up she saw Raine smiling down at her.
“I know you are scared..I am too, very much so, but just for a bit?” Raine questioned her, their hand lingering on Eda’s cheek before they tucked a tuft of her hair behind her ear.
Eda leaned into their hand and sighed softly.
“Alright fine, but only for a little bit,” Eda groaned out, causing Luz and King to cheer out happily. Luz was so excited to play with her uncle Hooty today! It’s been a little bit since she last played with him. He was always so much fun and his personality was fun too, especially when she was feeling little. His happiness was contagious and he always made her laugh.
Eda felt her gut churn as she didn’t want the kids outside today, but she knew it was useless locking them inside. For one they wouldn’t like that very much. Two, they needed some way to get out and active and burn off some of that excess energy they always had a huge storage full of. Maybe she could even take the kids to the library today so that Luz could join in on Amity’s little reading session that she did with all the kids in the kids corner of the library every Saturday around two in the evening.
Raine took a few more chugs from their mug, draining the last of their demonic pick me up. Raine walked over to the sink and rinsed their mug out, placing the mug into the sink.
“I’ve got to head on out to work now. So I will need all the hugs and kisses I can get before I leave for my boring old day job,” Raine told their family.
Raine went around to give a hug and kiss to King and then to Luz and finally Eda. Raine turned towards Willow and Amity and wished them a nice rest of the day with a bright smile and a friendly wave.
“Goodbye!” Both girls called out with matching smiles.
Raine brought out their staff as they walked towards the door. Eda ended up following them and giving them one last hug and kiss.
“Call or message me on my scroll if anything happens or if I need to come home early at any point. You guys come first before my job. So if something happens, I will be right home.
“Okay, I will. Fly safe and keep an eye on your surroundings and stuff today, Rainestorm,” Eda said as she leaned into their chest.
“I will. You also keep an eye on the surroundings and stuff. I’m not joking Eda, if anything at all happens, let me know,” Raine told her as they caressed her thick hair.
“Okay. Bye Raine,” Eda murmured, as Raine pulled away from her because Titan knows she wasn’t going to be the one to pull away.
“Bye Eda,” Raine said.
Raine gave Eda’s worried face one last warm smile before they were heading out. Raine closed the door shut behind them and bid Hooty a farewell before they climbed onto Fiddlesticks and started flying off towards the emperor's castle. Eda watched out one of the windows beside the door and waited until Raine was out of sight and high in the skies before she was turning to head back to the kitchen.
In the trees that surrounded the owl house crouched a figure who watched the head of the bard coven, Raine Whispers, fly off.
“Hmmm, so this is where Whispers lives? Is Luz their daughter? Is Luz the daughter of Eda Clawthorne, the owl lady and Raine Whispers, the head of the bard coven?” Hunter whispered to himself in wonderment. How had they not known about this? Raine having a partner and a kid or kids was not in their documents. So, was Raine trying to keep their partner and daughter a secret?
Not that long after Raine had left the house, two children, two girls also left the owl house. The golden guard eyed both of them as they walked off like a bunch of giggling school girls. Hunter did not have to wait long before Luz and a small demon with fur, a bone skull and big yellow eyes with pink pupils. Hunter’s eyes immediately went to Luz who wore a pair of red leggings, black flats, and a black ruffled t-shirt with a pacifier attached to a clip on her shirt. Adorable as ever.
The little furry bone demon child whom Hunter learned after a minute of the kids being outside was named King. Luz and King began playing with the house demon that was a part of the front door. Hunter watched, being mindful of breathing quietly as he watched them from above. He must have made some kind of noise though because the house demon that was playing with the kids, Luz and King, suddenly stopped playing and gleefully laughing alongside them was now rigid and looking around before finally settling his eyes right at Hunter. Hunter felt like his soul was being stared into. He made not a single movement in the thick brush of leaves in his perch on the tree as the house demon, Hooty continued to stare. That was until Luz had noticed him staring with narrowed eyes at the trees.
“Uncwe Hooty? Whatcha wooking at?” Luz asked as she stopped beside Hooty with her hand resting on his elongated tube body.
Hooty seemed to snap out of his staring daze from Hunter to shift his eyes down to look at the girl who had spoken and smiled at her gently.
“Nothing, probably some birds,” his high pitched voice rang out before coiling around Luz and bouncing her up and down on his body and contorting his body so that she could slide down and back to the ground. All the while Luz cheered with happiness, forgetting Hootys paranoia rather quickly. Neither kid seemed to notice Hunter's presence in the trees as he watched them. Hooty however felt the eyes of someone watching him and the children and was always glancing around in the treetops with a look that showed he knew someone was there. It was beginning to bother him.
Hunter tried to keep his rapid heartbeat from thudding any faster against his chest so that his quick breathing did not alert Hooty of where he was located among the trees.
It was a few minutes later of Hooty making glances and the kids playing that the door opened once again to reveal the owl lady herself. She wore her usual red dress, black tights and black heeled boots.
“Hey you three, hows it going out here?” Eda asked as she watched the kids playing with Hooty.
“Fun!” King replied.
“Mama, did you come out ta pway wif us too!?” Luz yelped happily.
“I was going to have you two come inside and eat a quick snack so that I could bring you two to the library. How does that sound? Maybe you two can check out some new books you haven’t read yet?” Eda asked.
“OOoooO!” King squealed happily.
“Weally?” Luz asked.
“Ye-” Eda began but something felt off. She glanced around, and much like Hooty, she scanned the treetops with her eyes narrowed, looking for something or someone.
“Do you feel that Hooty?” Eda asked quietly to the house demon who wiggled beside her.
“Yeah, for a little bit now, but I’ve been keeping an eye out and making sure these two haven’t wandered off,” Hooty replied as he too looked around at the tree coverage around them.
“Hmmmm,” Eda hummed, something just wasn’t sitting well with her stomach. She didn’t like this one bit.
“Have you actually seen or heard anything?” Eda asked.
“Nothing. I just feel…feel like we're being watched but I haven’t actually seen or heard anything,” Hooty replied, answering Eda honestly.
Hunter gulped from his perch as a bird landed near him. He didn’t like how the house demon and the owl lady were both looking around the area he was in like they somehow knew he was there. Because how would they know? He’s been stealthy and quiet!
The bird glanced at Hunter and Hunter huffed quietly as he tried shooing the bird away from him. The bird squealed very loudly and Hunter was shocked that he didn’t yell out, if anything he clamped his mouth shut even tighter. The bird squawking immediately gained the attention of Hooty and Eda, both taking defensive stances quickly. Hooty while taking a defensive stance used his back body to form coils around both children, effectively scooping them up, and squeezing them together while also opening the door and literally tossed them inside onto the couch before slamming the door shut once his body was back outside, all the while keeping his eyes peeled.
“Ouch, you dang bird worm! A little warning next time would have been nice!” King shouted, even though the door had already slammed shut on them.
The bird flew out of the trees and Hunter took this chance to literally zoom away on his staff, making sure to stay hidden from the skies and from being too low. When he looked back he got a glance of Hooty opening his mouth, unhinging it and swallowing the poor bird alive.
“Serves you right! My territory! Mine!” Hooty shouted as if the bird could still hear him from deep in his stomach. Usually he eats birds as a way to play with them, and eventually lets them fly out of his mouth, but today he was digesting a bird. The bird had it coming.
Hunter whimpered when he saw literal rows upon rows of razor sharp teeth tunneling all around Hooty’s mouth in a spiral. It was single handedly the most terrifying thing that Hunter had ever seen, and he had seen some real bad and scary shit, growing up in the Boiling Isles. Hooty was number one on that list for sure. Hunter flew out of there so fast, only slowing down when he got to town, in the middle of Bonesborough.
Hunter flew directly to the library and once inside, he found a private place where nobody was around. He brought his staff up and used the magic inside of it to change his clothes from his golden guard uniform. He felt so exposed wearing a yellow knit sweater and black slacks. But he didn’t want all the attention that his golden guard uniform brought him. He had to remain inconspicuous when following Luz around the library, if the owl lady was still willing to bring them that was. She had to of, right? Neither the owl lady nor the owl tube saw him, hopefully they suspected the bird of having been watching them this whole time. But he got a feeling that they knew it wasn’t the bird watching them.
Hunter stared at his face through the window pane reflection, he hoped that the owl lady did not get a good look of his face the other day when she and Luz first spotted each other, because at the time he did have his mask off. On another point, the owl lady did look frantic enough when she first spotted Luz that she might not have gotten an all great look of his face. He just hoped she didn't, that way if he was caught today, the owl lady wouldn’t realize who he was, if anything he looked just like any other kid from one of the three schools in the Boiling Isles. Hopefully…One could only wish that they saw him as just another witchlet student who wanted to be friends with Luz.
He just wanted to watch over her a bit more from afar. He shouldn’t get too close to Luz, but maybe he could continue to watch her for a bit longer. He was good at that, watching.
~~~~
Eda had gone inside after giving Hooty very strict instructions about protecting the house and really started keeping an eye and ear on the surroundings. Hooty bowed his silly bow with a strangely serious look on his face that let Eda know that he was no longer playing around and that he would do much better at keeping watch. It was weird to see Hooty so serious, no matter how many times Eda had seen him make that face of seriousness, it still unsettled her to see him other than happy.
Eda wanted to message Raine and ask them to come home, but she knew she was being silly….or was she playing it safe? It was nothing but a bird, but she could have sworn it wasn’t the bird that was giving off the feeling of being watched. The hair on her neck stood alert. She knew the feeling of being watched, well. And she knew when she was being watched and it wasn’t from just that bird. Something or someone else was watching her, and was watching her kids too. She just didn’t know what or who just yet. She will though. She will make it her mission to find whatever or whoever the heck it was that was watching her family, guaranteed. Nobody was touching her precious children, not if she had anything to say about it, and she always had something to say about it.
One thing Eda hated the most was being watched, or her family being watched. It made her body feel like there were bugs crawling under her skin and it gave her the hibbie-jibbies as shivers wracked up and down her spine. She hated the thought of her kids being watched, it gave her the same feeling as if she herself was being watched. Being watched was not a good feeling.
Both kids questioned what the heck had happened as soon as Eda was inside. Luz, more so curious about what uncle Hooty was protecting them from, while King was furious about suddenly being squished in his coils and literally thrown into the house like a rag-doll. He was the King of demons, he didn't deserve this type of disrespect. Not the mighty King of demons!
“It turned out to be just a bird. You kids know Hooty and his protective streak. He thought it was someone bad,” Eda said, not wanting to tell the kids the seriousness of the situation. Not yet at least. She still didn’t know what or who had been watching them and she didn’t want to frighten the children. Hopefully she wouldn’t have to tell them if she caught the intruder who thinks they are sneaky enough to watch her kids and house. She definitely should bring it up to Raine when they got home from work though. They had to know that something was amidst here, and she didn’t like whatever it was. It gave her goosebumps and shiver.
Eda made sure to clean the house up a bit before making the kids a quick snack to hold them over until dinner. Their snack basically consisted of juice, fruits and crackers. It wasn’t much but the kids didn’t seem to mind. If anything they seemed to enjoy the small snack as they happily munched on said snack items while they watched the crystal ball.
While the kids were watching the crystal ball, she decided to begin packing the diaper bag, albeit a bit slower than usual as her mind weighed heavily about a few things. She felt better about bringing the kids to the library than she was about letting them play outside the house. Which was a bit weird. If you had asked her a few months ago. She would have said she would feel better about them playing outside the house than at the library. But times sure are changing.
Once the diaper bag was packed, it was soon time to get Luz back into her flats and a very light jacket and get heading out with them.