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Wicker peered into the dark tent, seeing that Loodvigg was seated on a nest of pillows that it had made for itself, pondering a jigsaw puzzle. They looked content, good! The shadow Celestial’s absence today had been on her mind, along with the general growing concern that she had for them.
“Hello, little star.”
They spoke, catching their attention.
The monsterling blinked back at them with its shiny, pink eyes, a curious clicking sound emanating from its feathered throat. Their tall, blue friend had returned, but what did she have this time?
“Hi.”
Loodvigg whispered, bobbing their head up and down.
Wicker slithered into the tent and carefully placed down a plate in front of them, on top of which were two full carrots, one boiled and one raw. The child baulked at the food before nervously glancing up at her, their webbed fingers fiddling with the puzzle piece in their grasp. It had been around three weeks since Loodvigg’s revival, and in that time they had refused to eat or drink anything. Luckily that didn’t seem to hinder them in any way, there were no signs of dehydration or starvation at all. But in Wicker’s mind it was not right for a child to go without food, even if they didn’t need it right now, it would definitely help them with growing up strong - and as a Celestial, Loodvigg had a lot ahead of them.
“It’s only some carrots, don’t worry. This one is crunchy, this one is soft.”
Wicker explained, pointing to each one.
“You don’t have to eat them if you wouldn’t like to, but they’re nice and they’ll give you energy to play.”
Loodvigg stared at the carrots with caution, clearly not convinced that they were any good. Carrots were one of the most boring and simple food that the Seasonals had on-hand at the moment, but maybe she should have chopped them up, that might’ve made them less daunting to try?
“Its orange…”
The shadow monster said, squinting. It was a just stating a fact, but their tone had a hint of disdain behind it.
The comment brought a smile to Wicker’s face, it was lovely to see the children’s little personalities begin to form, to see them learn what they like or dislike. Loodvigg had been very closed-off so far, not saying or doing much when the adults were around, so this was progress!
“It is, do you not like that?”
Loodvigg shook their head in reply, setting the jigsaw piece in its place.
“Well, what about this green bit here?”
They offered, gesturing to the leaves of the uncooked carrot.
They considered it, looking over the vegetable in a thoughtful way before their gaze landed back on Wicker. Loodvigg didn’t say anything more, but she could sense that it was waiting for her to do something. And so they picked the carrot up and snapped off the top of it, holding out the leaves to them. The spiderling awkwardly took the food and just held it for a good fifteen seconds, stroking the leaves repeatedly as if they were running their fingers through hair… But finally, they took a hesitant bite off of the edge of it, turning away so that Wicker wouldn’t see them directly.
“Is it nice?”
They asked hopefully.
“Yes.”
Loodvigg confirmed.
“…Go away.”
The Boo’qwurms unexpected chuckle at their request made it flinch, it didn’t quite understand what was so funny
“Okay, enjoy your snack. I’ll leave the rest for you just in case.”