Shi stretched and yawned. She was feeling really tired this morning. That was not susprising, considering how late they'd gone to bed the previous day. Shouldn't I say this morning? But it didn't make it less tiring.

Noli was already up and checking the advancement of his last brew. Neti had slipped away after a rushed breakfast. And Shi was still ghosting her way on the grass around the kint. She needed something to wake her up.

Finally, the green-eyed witch stepped in her kint, and came back with the ancient sword in her scabbard.
Not that good an idea to train while tired, but it'll give me a focus. Let's just review the basic moves.

She thought about Neti. She was growing up to look much more like a Mugrobi woman than an Hoxian galdor. Tall, brown skin, curled hair. Only the eyes, the small nose, and a certain delicateness in her body reminded her mother.
Shouldn't I go and chek on her? Shi caught herself before she really went, and chided herself for losing her focus.
Concentrate on your training and let her breathe. You'll have soon enough your hands full checking the kovs yaching her, if she becomes as beautiful as it seems she'll be!

After a few basic moves, Shi managed at last to centre herself. Everything was falling into place. The sound of Noli's hammer in the brewery kint. The heat of the spring sun on her shoulders. The scent of the drying grass. The weight of the sword in her hands, as she moved through that first sequence she had learned earlier than she could remember. She was finally awake, and it was a good day.

A young woman walked through the Black Hand camp, calling the name “Glorie.” She was a small dark, mugrobi, and although she looked about fourteen, she was actually twenty-two. Her long waist-length black hair, streaked liberally with red and purple, was pulled back in partial corn-rows. Riotous curls sprang from the braids that ended at the nape of her neck. Her earlobes were covered top to bottom in hoop earrings with chains between them connecting them to each other. She also sported a nose ring and a naval ring. Her clothing was bright and colorful ... a ruffled off-the-shoulder top that bared her midriff and a matching tiered and ruffled skirt. A black belt slung low below her waist held six sheaths containing her throwing knives. She wore no shoes.

“Glorie? Glorie, where are ye, me nanabo? Come t' yer daoa!”

Xanadu was starting to become worried. She had been tending her cookfire, warming up some curry for breakfast while Glorie played nearby, happily singing to herself. She'd stepped into her kint to get a few more spices, and when she returned, the four-year-old was nowhere to be seen.

It wasn't like the girl to wander off. Xanadu had checked with her parents to make certain she wasn't with them, and had asked everyone who was outdoors if they had seen her. No one had. She seriously doubted someone had kidnapped the child. As a bounty hunter and mercenary, Xanadu did have enemies, but no stranger was foolish enough to walk into the Black Hand camp and expect to leave in the same condition he'd been in when he entered. Because of the tribe's less-than-wholesome reputation, it was actually a safe place to be, as long as you were one of them.

And none of her enemies or business associates knew of her real identity or even the fact that she had a daughter. The only exception was Tal, and they had an agreement.

So where was Glorie? Had she wandered away from the camp?

After about a half hour of searching the immediate surroundings, she decided that was the only explanation. Calling to her parents to look out for the child, she left the camp, wandering the festival grounds, asking anyone who seemed approachable if they had seen a small dark-skinned girl with auburn curls and yellow eyes.

Again, no luck.

A few tears slipped out of the young mugrobi's eyes. Glorie was her life, her beautiful little girl. She couldn't just disappear. She had to find her. She was only four, much too young to be wandering about on her own. Anything could happen to her out here in the wide open spaces of Surwood Isle. There were men out there who preyed on small girls, although she did not really think they frequented the festival. She could not bear to think of her Glorie winding up in the clutches of someone like that. Hulali, if you can hear me, she prayed, please protect my baby and keep her safe for me until I locate her.

“Glorie!” she shouted through the early morning crowd, over and over, growing ever more frantic with each moment that passed.

“Glorie!!!”

Glorie had seen a cat today. It was a fair pretty cat, with a black tail and a white body, with spots on. She had wanted to pat it but it ran away. That had really annoyed Glorie, she wasn't a mean girl, why wouldn't the cat let her pat it?

"Kitty! Come baaack!" She cried, following it a piece of fish clenched in her small hand.

She was quick for four but still no match for a cat. She scrambled after the thing, climbing over logs and rocks, the little feline always a few yards ahead. The cat eventually climbed a tree, stopping Glorie in her tracks. The cat sat on a high branch and glared down at Glorie. The treebark was smooth, with no low branches that Glorie could grab hold of. She put the piece of fish on the ground and tried to shimmy up the tree.

She slid back down again, the friction of the bark making her small, chubby arms go red and hurt a little. Glorie rubbed her arms and sniffled. She wanted a hug. She glanced about for her mother and realised that she was on her own and had no idea where she was.

"Daoa?" She said, eyes tearing up, voice sad and tremulous in a manner endemic to children. "Daoa?!"

Glorie began to cry, face scrunching up, hands balling and reaching to cover her eyes. The cat flicked it's tail, still watching from above. She was four, she was sad and she was hurt. She needed some assistance.

In the distance, a young girl called Neti, busy playing with her pet osta, heard her cries. She ignored them for a little while, sure that a parent would wander along and handle it. When the cries continued she sighed to herself and stood up. She had a pretty good social conscience at age nine. She whistled to her osta and went off to investigate.

When Shi paused, she had already spent half an hour with the sword, rehearsing basic sequences, listening to the way the blade whistled to balance her hold. She was now realizing it might be time to go back to more earthy thoughts. For instance, what were they going to eat for lunch? You couldn't live off tales and music. Especially a big man like Noli, or a fast growing child like Ti.

She looked critically at the blade as she slowly sheathed it. It was pristine, but the scabbard was smelling rancid oil. She draw it back out, and noted the traces of mold forming in the oil.
Time for a good cleaning.

That was the problem with this blade. It was wonderfully strong and sharp, but the steel it was made of was very susceptible to pitting. You had to oil, clean, and re-oil the whole thing very often. Easy to do as a noblewoman routine, but not exactly something suited to a roaming brewer wife, or easy to remember during Festival. Actually, Shi sometimes wondered why she continued doing it. She had chosen a wick life, it was not like she was going to parade in Dessteka with it one day. Even less need it for a war. But it was grandma's blade. Neglecting it would be neglecting her memory. Like ripping the page with the family tree off the Hack's grimoire. As she often said, this sword and the matching knife were her only family jewellery.

Finally, the green-eyed witch hung a dirty oily rag on the side of the kint, carefully wrapped the sword in a clean one to store it back inside, and let the scabbard to dry on the steps.
Then, she set off to find fresh food. There still was had plenty of rice and some dried meat in store but some fresh greens, or some fish, would be nice to taste. She decided to look in the direction where Neti had disappeared. It would give her a good excuse to chek that her daughter was doing nothing dangerous.

Neti found Glorie curled up and crying. Ti wasn't quite sure how to deal with this eventuation, since she was only a child herself. She settled for looking about nervously and scuffing her feet.

"Um, hey, you alrigh'?" She asked, feeling quite unnerved by the sight of a crying baby.

Glorie emitted a series of high pitched noises that roughly translated into "I have been made incoherent by despair and I would really like my mother to come and pick me up now, thank you."

"Aw, boch, please stop cryin'... What's wrong? You get lost? What's your tribe, I can walk you home." Neti's osta climbed the tree Glorie was sitting under and walked tentatively up to the cat still nestled there.

The osta's nose twitched, neck extending as it sniffed at the cat. The cat hissed a little, then subsided. The osta sat down next to it. The two felines watched the wicks below. Glorie had yet to stop crying. She was now shaking her head.

"I'unno we live inna kint witha thing and I want my daoa!" Glorie lapsed into sobbing once more.

Neti knew there was one thing for it.

"DAOA! DAOA, I NEED HELP!" She shouted because this really was quite outside her normal sphere of influence.

She sat down and put her arm around Glorie, who snuffled and burrowed into her side a bit. She was going to take all the succor she could get.

Shi darted towards the source of the cry, and it was an anxious mother who entered the clearing.

"Ti? Are you hurt?" She slowed down. Visibly, her daughter looked fine. But there was a young girl crying on her. Was that child hurt? Was there an accident?
"What's happening?"

((SFSR))

((Hey, could you try to make your posts just slightly longer? I just need a little more to work with.))

Neti gave her mother a worried look. She truly had no clue how to handle this situation but she was trying her best.

"Daoa, I got no idea, I just heard her crying and she won't stop or anything." Ti said, blathering over Glorie's cries. "I can't even figure out where she's from because she doesn't seem to know!"

Glorie was still sniffling, slightly more quietly now. It turned out to be a segue into more crying. Glorie pointed upwards towards the cat, which seemed calmer now, almost purring next to Neti's osta.

"I followa cat bu' a cat woul'n lemme catch it and I wan' ma daoa!" She sobbed, looking at Shi with big, sad eyes. She'd had a hard day for a young girl.

"Daoa, are there any other camps nearby? I feel a pina slack just sittin' here." Neti said, wanting to get the girl home so she'd feel better. Neti had gotten lost before and she'd only felt right after when she'd been home and safe in her parent's arms.

The situation made sense now. Neti had no problem, the problem was this young girl getting lost.
Shi crouched in front of her and gave her her best motherly smile.
"Hesta, young girl. Don't worry, we'll find your daoa. It might just take a little time." She extended her hands towards Glorie. "You want to come with us? You help us search?"

"Well, of course, there are other camps nearby. But which one?" Shi answered her daughter while trying to think quickly. If neither Neti or her recognized the girl, it probably meant they could discount the Laughing Sky camps. But it was festival, the isle was full of spokes. There were at least three Red Crow camps, and one Yellow Eye, and one Tall Tree, within walking distance of the place for a small child. Plus the Black Hand camp a bit farther. This was going to take some time.
"We'd better find Elder Hale. Maybe he'll recognize her." Children with brown skin, like the two girls, weren't that numerous amongst Anaxi tribes. Perhaps the elder would have heard about her, as he was always trading news and looking for tales material. The problem was he was rarely to be found in his own kint during the Festival. Too many people he wanted to meet.

Anyway, the immediate problem was to find a diversion during this time. The pale witch glanced at the cat sitting near Hillax in the tree. Getting the cat to come down was probably a lost cause. Or even Hillax, unless Neti managed to coax her. She tended to be wary of younger children. She'd lost enough hair to Neti's grasp a few years ago! Shi adressed Glorie again, extending a finger to wipe a tear from her cheek.
"What do you think, young lady? We stop by our kint, grab something to give us strength, and look for your daoa together? I think we've still got some of the cornbread from yesterday." Sweet food. Maybe that could be a good diversion.
"By the way, I'm Shi. And this is Neti. What's your name?" She kept her arms open near the child, indicating she was ready to hug her and carry her back to the kint.

Xanadu's feared that her daughter was in the hands of one of her enemies. Where else could she be? Small children did not just disappear into thin air. There were countless criminals who were probably out to get her. Before she turned them in, she often stole their loot. If they ever escaped from prison, they would surely come looking for her.

Yet she had covered her tracks so well, never giving them any personal information that was actually true. How could one of them have found out that she was here? Some of the men she had captured had been wicks. Suppose one of them had already been here and seen her with Glorie?

Her fear was now matched by an anger that was nearly palpable. The people walking by her gave her a wide berth, not wanting to get in the way of an armed and rampaging Black Hand. If she didn't find Glorie in the next half hour, she would have to find someone she could send for Tal, assuming he was where she thought he was. She hated depending on that maddening man, but his criminal contacts were far more extensive than hers. If anyone could find Gloirie, he could.



Xanadu stopped and stood still. The people around her hurried past, their glances wary.

Was that a child calling for her mother? It was quite a distance away, but she knew it wasn't Glorie; she knew her own daughter's voice as well as she knew her own. Was another child lost? And was that child's disappearance related to Glorie's own?

She did not know, but she turned in that direction, hurrying as fast as she could toward the sound of that voice. Up ahead, she saw an older child, and a woman crouching in front of ...

"Glorie!" Tears filled her eyes as she ran toward her little girl. She was safe! Thank you, Hulali, for letting these people find my baby before anything happened to her.

"I ent got no idea, daoa, she doesn't seem to know." Neti said, replying to her mother before wondering if it was time to get Hillax down. "Hill, Hill, come to daoa!"

Neto raised her arms but gained approximately no love from the osta. It was currently chirping, purring and apparently cooing with the cat. Felines made no sense at all to Neti.

Glorie had been about to walk into Shi's arms when she heard the sound of her mother coming. Turning like a colt in a good mood, she ran towards her mother immediately, as fast as her small legs would carry her. This was a slightly rude response but she was feeling fairly overwrought by this stage. She needed her mother then.

"Daoa! 'm sor'y I follow' a..." Glorie gave up and buried her face in her mother's skirts, sobbing a bit.

The additional comfort brought it on again, it was probably going to stop as soon as she felt secure again. Neti watched the exchange with mild confusion. Surely she'd never cried like that. She was glad she was grown up now, childhood seemed so undignified.

Xanadu sighed with relief as Glorie burrowed into her skirt. She reached down and stroked the child's curly auburn hair, telling her over and over how much she loved her. After the horrible things she had imagined might have happened to Glorie, it was such a relief to have her close again.

As for scolding the child, it looked as if she had suffered enough already. With any luck, she had learned her lesson and would not wander away again. She would have a talk with her when they returned to their kint, but she would not reprimand her. She did wonder what had possessed her to leave the camp. She said something about following .... what had she followed?

But first things first. She swung Glorie up so that she was sitting on her hip. Walking up to the woman and her daughter ... at least she assumed they were mother and daughter ... Xanadu smiled. “Mujo ma for finding me boch and keeping her safe. I owe you one, rosh, you and this pretty young lady here.”

Xanadu's assumption was right, though the woman and the girl didn't have much in common in terms of look. Where the woman was short and lithe, with a pale yellowish skin, the girl was promising to grow tall and strong, and sported a brown skin and curly hair that clearly marked her as Mugrobi. But she indeed shared her mother's eyes.

The mother stood and saluted sideways, Hoxian style.
"You would have done the same thing for us." Shi was eyeing the woman, noting her obvious Mugrobi origin, but also that she wore the black hand colours. Noting the absence of a field, too. Human?
She was wary. Black Hand were not exactly known to be the most honest people around. But after all, this woman was also a mother. And Festival time was not the right time to be disrespectful.
"I'm Shi. Here's my daughter, Neti." The witch beamed towards the girl. "She's the hero of the story. I'm afraid I didn't do much more than stumbling on them just before you did."

Shi heard Hillax chirping and stole a look towards the feline. Hope the cat isn't male. I know the family is made of strange mixes, but I don't intend that to extend to the pets!

Xanadu sat Glorie back down on the ground. She was getting far too heavy to carry around for too long. Children grew up so fast. It seemed like only yesterday that she had been holding her newly-born daughter in her arms for the very first time. Sometimes she had the feeling that if she turned her back for very long, Glorie would be all grown up. No, if you turn your back even for an instant, she disappears.

Her heartbeat was finally slowing down now that she knew Glorie was safe again. “Me name's Xanadu and this here is Glorie. She bent down so that she was on Neti's level. “Mujo ma, Neti, for watchin' out for me boch. You'll be a benny daoa someday.”

Hearing the chirping of what sounded like a bird, Xanadu followed Shi's gaze to the tree where the two felines sat. Glorie loved cats of all kinds. The osta most likely belonged to somebody. She'd never seen a wild one. The other cat, though ... Glorie had said that she was following something. She'd bet that the cat was the culprit.

“Were you chasing that cat, Glorie?” she asked. She turned her gaze back to Shi. “I wonder if we can convince it to come down.”

Shi nodded at Xanadu question but did not answer directly, preferring to let the child explain by herself. Young children liked to explain that kind of things, from her admittedly limited experience.

"Neti has already tried to call Hillax down. That's our osta up there. But if she won't answer even her, I'm afraid I don't know a better way. The day feline will do what you ask them to..." The witch smiled at the remark. Even if it was sometimes annoying, she was quite fond of the osta's independance. Living her way without giving a tock about what the other wanted her to be. She felt some kinship with that.

"Maybe we go away and interest ourselves in something else? They then might want to come, just to contradict us?" Now, there even was a hint of laughter in her eyes.

Glorie gave the cat another doleful look, wanting to cuddle it while it was being purry. Neti simply gave the two animals a bit of a miffed look, though she looked brazened by Xanadu's earlier compliments.

Hillax seemed to perk up when Shi looked like she might be considering leaving. The osta actually didn't want to be left alone, although it seemed quite content to stay with the cat, up the tree.

The cat was indeed male but still young and pretty. It hadn't become a grizzled old Tom yet and probably actually did have a small amount of pet potential.

“Oes, that might work. Cats don't like to be ignored.” Xanadu knew well the independence of felines. She'd adopted one as a child, and had even taught him a few tricks. He'd been with her for a couple of years when he had disappeared one night while the tribe was camped near a city. Perhaps he had been a city cat at heart and had not really enjoyed the nomadic life. Whatever the reason for his defection, young Xanadu had been heartbroken.

She looked down at Glorie. Perhaps if she took this cat home, it would occupy her daughter enough that she would not wander away again. If it was feral, she could always find another.

“So where can we go?” She thought about inviting them back to her kint, but not many outsiders were comfortable in the Black Hand camp. Xanadu was a respected member of the tribe ... she could lie, cheat, and steal with the best of them, and she was one of the best fighters they had. Anyone she invited home with her would be tolerated and left alone, but they probably wouldn't make any new friends. No, it was best to go somewhere else.

Shi had no idea were to go. She had meant to shop for some fish, not play with children. But it was Festival after all. One could allow herself a bit leeway during that time. Except that she still had no idea of where to go!

"We can always go home" she shrugged. "I mean, to our kint." She was not sure inviting a Black Hand to her kint was a good idea. But if Xanadu was as Mugrobi as she looked, she'd respect her host. And Festival time was not a time to be prejudiced.

"Hillax is bound to come back at one time or another. Maybe the cat will follow her?" The question was to Xanadu, but the witch raised a questioning eyebrow to Neti, not sure if the girl would come along and risk being caught between a younger one and two mothers.

((edited for grammar error))

Xanadu was surprised that Shi would invite her to her kint. Most wicks were a bit leery of the Black Hand, thinking they would steal anything that wasn't nailed down, and a few things that were. It was a reputation that was not undeserved, but one that the young dancer was not entirely comfortable with. She was a bit friendlier than most of her tribe, probably because she spent a lot of time in the Muluku Islands with her grandparents. People were a lot more open and friendly there, and it was about the only place she was able to associate regularly with other humans. In fact, she'd probably take Glorie to visit her great-grandparents in a couple of months. The warm, welcoming sun was calling to her again.

Xanadu shrugged. “You can't predict the behavior of cats. It's like they read your mind and know what you expect them to do ... and then they do the opposite. But me and Glorie don't mind going to your kint if you don't mind having us. Or I suppose we could walk around here and shop a bit. Whatever you prefer is fine with me."

Shi had a brief laugh at Xanadu's description of the cats. "Sometimes, Hillax does what I want. She even knows how to help me hunt. But most of the time, your description is spot on. And I've heard ostas are easier than cats." She was now wondering what the cross between a cat and an osta would look like. Was that even possible? She had never heard about such an animal.

"And shopping would be fine, yes. I was looking for something to cook for lunch. Some fresh fish would be nice, if there's some to be found." The witch was not sure the cat would follow them there. Probably too many people around. But after all, Glorie had found her mother back, the diversion was not needed anymore.

"There was a fisherman stall down there yesterday." She pointed towards the river, further away from both women's kints.

“Hmmm ... fish might be good to lure the cat out as well.” Xanadu glanced up at the tree again where the two cats still sat. For all she knew, they would still be sitting up there when they returned. You could never understand cats even if you spent your entire lifetime studying them. Felines were a mystery ... and they liked it that way.

“To the river it is then. Come on, Glorie.” She held out a hand to her daughter. Usually the child enjoyed holding her mother's hand, but lately, she had been asserting her independence a bit. It probably wouldn't be too long before she would think she was too old to hold hands with her daoa. Hopefully, though, that would be a few years in the future. Xanadu didn't want Glorie to stay a child, but she wasn't in any hurry for her to grow up either.

Having had a fairly tricky day, Glorie took her mother's hand without complaint. She did seem to think twice about it after a moment, not wanting to seem childish in front of Neti. Neti sighed and took her own mother by the hand. Glorie smiled widely, completely ameliorated. She actually quite enjoyed walking hand in hand with her mother. It was just that, like most wicks, she was in a bit of a hurry to grow up.

Neti stayed quiet in the face of the adults' conversation. She wasn't quite sure what to say, so she just kept her tongue and listened in.

Shi flashed her daughter a surprised smile when she took her hand. The girl tended to assert some independence these days, and was usually closer to her father. Probably, the witch had to admit, encouraged by her father warm and open style, where her mother acted more distant.

She briefly pressed Neti's hand while leading the small group towards the fisherman stall. Their smell informed them the man was here even before they saw him. But despite the strong smell, there was some fresh fish on display, notably a big one looking good to bake for a small family. It might even last two or three meals.

"What do you think?" Shi turned towards her daughter. "This one would be nice in clay."
While she talked, she located the source of the smell. There was a closed pot on the side, but apparently not closed tight enough, which might be containing some fermenting fish. It reminded Shi that their fish sauce bottle level was very low.
I should ask if he would give me some. Amongst its many uses, the sauce was very useful to flavour plain rice, when you had no time or ingredients to cook something more elaborate.

Xanadu, with Glorie by the hand, followed Shi and Neti to the fisherman's stall. She was not really interested in buying anything, except maybe a few tidbits to tempt the cat with. Generally her mother cooked for them, and she had probably already bought whatever she had planned to make for the evening.

The mugrobi dancer was spoiled in that she had never really needed to prepare meals for herself. She did know how to make a few simple dishes, but they never tasted very well. She had to add a lot of spice just to make it edible. Glorie generally ran to her grandmother's kint whenever she found out that her mother was cooking. Even Hank and Ivy, her two bander wolf puppies, turned their little noses up at her culinary efforts. She was hopeless.

As Shi and Neti perused the fish, Xanadu looked over towards the river. A swim would be nice, but the water might be a little too cold at this time of day. Glorie had learned to swim before she could walk, just as Xanadu had, but she still watched her daughter closely when she was near the water. She always watched her daughter closely. Except for earlier this morning, she chided herself. But that is over and it won't happen again.

She turned back towards the fish stall. “When you're done here, Shi,” she said, “Let's walk down to the beach and see if it's warm enough to swim.” Even if it wasn't, they could perhaps sit by the water a bit. Glorie liked to build sand castles. Perhaps Neti did too.

Shi first frowned at Xanadu's proposal. She was supposed to cook lunch, not play in the water.
But she answered with a smile. It's Festival, after all! We can allow ourselves to be a bit lax, can't we? "That'd be nice." Yes, some cool water would be nice on her weary legs. Not that she had worked them that much this morning, but the night had definitely been too short. Beside, it might be fun to play with Glorie. Neti had grown so fast. Not that she was sad for it, she was proud of her daughter. But sometimes, she regretted not to have enjoyed earlier times more.

After negotiating the fish she had eyed, the witch asked the fisherman to put it aside for her, and followed Xanadu towards the beach. Being barefooted, she just had to pull her pants up to immerse her feet, and she did so with a hum of satisfaction.

The water was quite cold, but, with the warm spring sun, not enough. She was now tempted to undress and lie into it. Only she wasn't sure she felt wick enough to undress in a public place. She glanced at Xanadu and the children, waiting for them to decide on a game.

Xanadu was a very spontaneous person. She loved to take advantage of any opportunity to have fun, especially when she was with her daughter. Perhaps it had to do with the fact that she was often away infiltrating criminal organizations and chasing down men with prices on their heads ... a job, that, although dangerous and exciting, was not exactly fun, especially when she was forced to kill. When she was home, she preferred a carefree life, living from moment to moment and never knowing what fun adventures might lie ahead.

Water always called to her in a way she could not explain. The young mugrobi tucked the edges of her ruffled skirt into her belt and splashed along the river's edge. A bit cold for swimming, at least right now. She had often been referred to as cold-blooded and preferred to believe it was because she craved warmth like a reptile rather than the more obvious interpretation. The water would be warm enough soon, though.

She also didn't want Glorie to catch a cold, which really wasn't all that likely considering that the little girl was very rarely ill. The sickest she had ever been was when Xanadu had inured her to snake venom a year ago. It was something she had not liked doing, but necessary when you lived with poisonous snakes. She had gone through the same process when she was three, and she had come through it fine. Although she didn't truly believe it, she sometimes liked to think that her excellent health ... she couldn't remember being sick a day in her life ... was partially due to the occasional dose of venom she had to take to keep up her immunity.

She smiled at Shi and stretched her arms up to the sky, as if trying to embrace the sun. “I do love the festival. You can just do whatever you want without any worries.” She flounced out of the water and walked over to Glorie. Kneeling on the sand, she rolled her daughter's loose pants up to her knees. “Would you like to come into the water, Glorie? You can only splash around at the edge until it gets warmer. Or would you like to do something else?”

She turned to the older girl and smiled. “Is there anything you would like to do, Neti?”