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Eret yawned quietly to herself, patting the sand around her as she bobbed along to a tune in her head. The sun was big and bright above her, shimmering down over the unending abyss of the desert. Just in front of her, the large summer home spread out, sandstone walls glistening with gems pushed in by hand. They rose and spiralled along the walls in intricate patterns, greens and reds lighting up what would’ve been a breath-taking sight regardless.
She wiggled her feet, kicking up her legs to watch the sand spool away from her. It splashed and swayed like thick water, sloshing over miniature ridges of gold with nothing more than a whisper. She’d pulled on a dress this morning, because she’d planned to come over for lunch.
But right now, Foolish was twenty foot up some scaffolding, making some ‘finishing touches’ to his pyramid.
That was okay. Eret was more than happy to sit in the sand and wait. She felt fuzzy and everything was sort of far away – distant in a good way; one that wasn’t cold and scary like when she dissociated and couldn’t focus even if she wanted to. How she felt was warm and blurry, akin to sitting in a fluffy blanket in front of a warm fire on a cold winter night. It was a reassuring haze, and one that she could pull herself out of if she felt so inclined.
Eret didn’t want to wake up right now. She was happy and content to simply sit in the sun and wait.
She would wait for Foolish.
Head bobbing, Eret surveyed the landscape very seriously. There was a lot of sand. Behind her was the path that lead all the way to the netherportal and to her right was the big temple that… the big temple Foolish had made.
It was really big. Sticking her hands up, she measured it to be the size of a whole hand! The temple was humongous but the pyramid ba—Foolish was working on right now was even bigger! Holding her hands up to it, she found it was waaaay bigger than just one hand. It was bigger than two and even three hands, it was just so gigantic!
Mumbling to herself, finding that she didn’t really wanna make words (and that was okay, because bab—Foolish knew the hand-gesture language she somehow knew), Eret let her gaze flop around. The pyramid was cool but it was something she’d seen before lots of times. Gaze roaming along the sands, she stared at the piggy guards for a bit; watching how their stabby sticks sparkled in the sunlight like… uh, really brightly.
Blinking widely, to get the sun spots out of her eyes, she drifted away and noticed movement on the sand. There!
It was a bunny.
Rooooolling onto her knees to see it better, Eret gasped as the little white bunny bounced and bounced and bounced. It was on the path, shuffling along, and it was so pretty!
Pretty, pretty, pretty, she thought to herself, hands jumping with her thoughts. Already on her knees, it came second nature to crawl closer, sand lapping at her bare legs and knees and hands as she wriggled closer.
The bunny had big floppy ears and a really soft looking nose that twitched and wiggled when it sniffed.
Overjoyed, Eret clapped her hands. The movement felt slow and sluggish, though she was much too enraptured to care. The bunny hopped over to her and stared at her. Eret stared back, eyes wide. She stopped clapping as it jumped over, getting within sand-throwing distance.
It sniffed at her and wiggled its bottom. Eret giggled as it turned and bounced off, hands pressing down into the sand to help her sit back down, off her knees. She was too excited in going down and fell backwards, head cushioned by a wreathe of sand.
Soft. She spread her arms out and made snow angels that were really sand angels because she’d made them with the sand and not the snow. Snow was too cold to be sand, because sand was warm. Eret liked warm things. Hot chocolate was really warm! And bab—Foolish, no—baba was warm and smiley, and she liked him lots.
The ground shook with a big thump! A shadow fell over her closed eyes, and she opened them to find her baba standing over her, looking really reeaallllly tall.
“Heya, little one,” he chuckled, voice big and boomy and heavy in that nice way she super-dooper liked. “Enjoying yourself?”
Yes, she signed, words not coming to her tongue but her hands instead. Baba was smiling as he looked down at her signs. Sand is warm.
“That it is, kiddo,” baba grinned. “Do you wanna lie here a little longer or do you want some basbousa?” His hands rolled into an action – the sign for the food. Eret watched it and repeated it thrice.
Basbousa? She rolled her head in the sand, listening to the little grains rush around at her movement. Is it yummy?
“Your favourite,” baba reassured. Eret looked up at his face and found he was really far away! Lifting her arms up, she reached for him but didn’t come close to touching him. Baba chuckled and bent, popping into her view as he scooped her up from the sand.
Suddenly, Eret was tall! Baba cradled her, hooking his arm under her bottom, and let her see the world the way he did. Everything was so far down and she was so far up that it was a little scary. Whining, she buried her face in baba’s big chest and was bounced for her troubles.
“Shh, baby, no need to be scared,” baba cooed, knowing what was wrong before she even signed. “Baba won’t let you fall.”
Promise? She pushed the gesture into his face, hands shaking just a little.
“I promise,” baba murmured, hand running along her hip. His skin was rough and it tickled against her skin! As she wiggled away from the sensation, baba teased her, rolling his fingers up and down her tummy. Her dress was thin and did little to keep the tickles away. Giggling at the feeling, she batted his fingers away and stuck her tongue out at her baba. “There’s a good girl, such a pretty smile.”
Her body went warm. Eret squealed intelligibly and kicked out her legs happily, baba simply bouncing her up and down during it. He watched her with a big smile that made her happy. Remembering her manners, she quickly signed, Thank you!
“Oh, sweetheart,” baba laughed, grabbing her hand to kiss her knuckle. “Aren’t you the cutest thing ever.”
With her hands stolen, Eret couldn’t sign, so she settled for babbling wordlessly. Baba smiled even brighter and she had to close her eyes, head pushing into his chest.
Feeling sleepy, she nuzzled baba’s neck, wrapping her arms around his shoulders when he gave her hands back. Baba started humming and everything got really fuuuzzzzzy. Settling, she brushed one of her hands off on her dress and started sucking on her thumb.
“Ah-ah, sweetheart,” baba spoke suddenly, pulling her out of her doze as he tapped at her arm. Peeling her eyes open, she blinked at him with confusion, watching as he gently nudged her thumb out of her mouth. “I’ve got something for you.”
What? She signed, eyes wide as baba stuck his arm into the air and it vanished! He wiggled it a bit, almost as though he was rooting around in a box filled with things, and pulled his arm back with a familiar object clutched between his fingers.
Crying out in joy, she reached for her paci. Baba grinned and moved it in her direction like a shooting star. “Psssh!” he sounded out, miming it falling down from the sky and into her mouth. She giggled and latched onto it, a hand coming up to clutch at the handle as it bobbed furiously. Baba laughed as she sagged back against his chest, content now that she had her paci.
He carried her into his pyramid, the doorway bigger than two hands! Baba shooed away a few of the doozers – little green guys who went “squeesh!” when he flattened them with his feet, and came out the other side looking like a clay plate – and carried her into a big room with wicker couches and a big fireplace.
Baba fidgeted about, bringing cushions over into a pile on a larger couch. Pillow fort! Pillow fort! She shook her hands happily as her baba set her into the middle, deeming her “the princess of the castle!” and pinched his fingers over her nose, stealing it!
Pausing in grabbing at the cushions around her, she slapped a hand onto her face, searching for her nose. She needed that!!!
Give nose back! She signed, shaking her head at him. Baba stood, snickering, clutching her nose in his closed hand.
He paused to think, head tilting. “What if I need it now?”
Patting where her nose should be, she frowned at him. Baba still didn’t give her it back, so she sucked quickly on her paci, legs kicking in the beginning of a tantrum.
Suddenly, baba leaned in and kissed her on the nose. “There,” he smiled, leaning back to beam at her. “Nose returned, safe and sound!”
Halting in her motions, Eret tapped her nose and was relieved to find it was back! Clapping, she nodded.
“Or should I say, safe and smelly?”
Baba chuckled heartily. Eret blinked nonplussed at him.
You not funny, she stated.
“I’m very funny,” baba defended, kissing her nose again. “Do you want some basbousa now?”
Reminded, Eret nodded vigorously. Hungry!
He ruffled her hair and vanished. Eret wriggled in her pillow fort as she waited, getting distracted by a doozer climbing onto the couch with her. It made a little “noot-noot!” noise at her and bounced on its feet. Cooing at it, Eret scrambled lethargically onto her knees and poked at the little guy. It had a jelly-like body and wibbled in place when she played with it.
Sucking at her paci, she idled with the doozer until her baba returned, walking through an open doorway that from her angle made it look as though he was walking through the wall. He grabbed the doozer and tossed it onto the floor as he sat down beside her, giving her a small square of basbousa (to distract her from the loss of her toy).
Paci dropping onto her lap as she let it fall, she nibbled at the basbousa and was quick to agree it was yummy. Her baba ate with her, munching through a bigger bit as he nursed a sippy for her to take when she wanted.
What in? She asked when she was reaching for the sippy. The basbousa was super yummy but also kinda dry on her tongue.
“Strawberry milk,” baba hummed. “I got this from one of those interdimensional traders just for you—”
She wasn’t listening, busy suckling at the sippy and wriggling happily in her pillow fort. Baba grabbed her paci before it could fall off her legs and topple onto the dirty floor, and held it until she grew tired of the sippy and abandoned it in favour of her paci once more.
“Hey, little one. You wanna colour with baba?”
Looking away from the shiny gold coin sitting on the mantlepiece (it was all shimmery and glittery and had caught her eye), Eret found her baba sitting with a book. It had a half-coloured in bug on the front, with big blocky writing that she couldn’t make her eyes read. When she nodded, baba placed it in her lap and gave her a few big chunky crayons.
Struggling with the book, she got it open and found it even more difficult to master the dexterity needed to flick through the pages one-by-one. Baba settled a warm hand on her neck and leaned over, fingers easily separating single pages for her. She let him flick through the book until she seen a picture she liked and stopped him.
“This one?” He asked. She liked the way he asked – his voice was soft and nice; not harsh and mean like other people on the server. Whenever she spoke to other people, they were always annoyed with her. But baba never was!
Nodding, she stared intensely at the page. It was a bunch of fishies, swimming about in water. There was one that she was sure would look really pretty in purple… Looking down at her crayon collection, she found one of the crayons in her lap had been stolen! Baba grinned at her as she looked over at her thieved blue and blinked.
“Can I use blue, sweetheart?”
Deciding she’d colour the page in pink, Eret nodded and pointed at the crayon baba held. He was already paying attention, looking at her for guidance, so she tapped the page where she wanted him to colour in blue.
“Okay, I’ll try not to go over the lines,” baba chuckled. Eret nodded gratefully and picked the pink crayon up with unsteady hands.
She coloured a whole fish in pink after deciding the page was too big to fully colour. Her hands kept shaking and she couldn’t keep the pink within the lines, despite how hard she tried. When she got upset and whined about it, baba soothed her and encouraged her to take a little break.
Trading baba her crayon for her sippy, Eret declared it a fair deal and kicked her legs leisurely as she fiddled with the sippy cup. Sipping at her strawberry milk, she wrinkled her nose as she grabbed the clean plastic with her clammy hands. Playing with crayons always made her skin feel dry and weird. Crayons smelt weird too.
“I think it’s beautiful,” baba cooed, looking at the half-finished piece. “Definitely gonna get framed when we’re done.”
Happy her baba liked her fishies – even if his blue one looked waaay better than her pink one – Eret was content to simply drink her milk. Baba was right beside her; big and comforting, and she slipped a little further, more than she’d thought possible, and became jelly in his arms.
“Good girl,” baba hummed when she finished her milk. He settled her in his lap and patted her back until she burped, too sleepy to fuss over it as she normally would’ve. Eret felt really tiny when her baba let her sit in his lap like this, because he was so much bigger than her.
Her paci was returned and she blearily sucked at it. Baba was murmuring something, his chest vibrating with each word. Everything glossed over as she nestled against her baba, lulled asleep by the warmth of the room and his voice bouncing in her chest.