Hello again! In keeping with my new writing vows, I wrote this one post-haste! I know it's short, but I think it's funny, and it was hard to do one with Daja and Crane because they didn't have any really compatible canon. However, I have always suspected this would come to pass.
Thank you all for reading my work. We've made it to nearly 1500 hits! This is huge for me, and it gives me warm fuzzies daily.
Crane-Daja Grinch
Timeline: After Daja's Book, before Briar's.
Dedicates of the Living Circle gave up their old lives when they joined the temple. They shed their status, their family, even their names, in order to help others without any past dramas hindering them.
Crane's mother simply would not accept that. And no matter how many times he insisted to her that he had no need of a Midwinter gift, she sent one tirelessly each year, each tawdry or overly ornate.
This winter though, was the first of many he had been able to appreciate it.
The creation had been haggled from Traders making their way around the country. Crane didn't know how much she had paid to have them deliver the gift as well, but sometimes with his mother it was best just not to ask. Instead, he took it into his private greenhouse and examined it.
The creation was clearly a work of magic, though what kind he didn't know. He had never felt such a mixture in a person, let alone an inanimate object. It was alive, despite the dead materials it was composed of. It consumed minerals, just as plants and animals did. He couldn't wait for the chance to explore it with his magic.
"Crane?" called Osprey from the hall. With a sigh he straightened. Look at him, goggling like a child over a present. It wouldn't do at all for his apprentice to see him like that. "Rosethorn's sent you a messenger- and it's not the boy, so leave don't bark at me!"
Oh, Crane had not missed them while Discipline Cottage had traipsed all over creation with his Grace. It had been nice to have time to breathe without that infernal woman and her pick-pocket apprentice at every turn.
"Dedicate Crane?" it was the Trader girl, the one Frostpine was training. She at least had the modicum of respect to bow, though she didn't look much impressed with him. Her eyes wandered his study, "Rosethorn wants to talk Watersday to you abou-" she stopped, mouth open.
"Well?" prompted Crane.
Her mouth twitched. The girl fought a giggle and lost.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded crossly.
That did it. The girl burst into loud, raucous laughter. Crane watched, mildly aghast, as she doubled up, still in the grip of her insanity.
"Here you are!" she gasped, thrusting a note into his hand, "Have a nice day!" and with a final whoop of laughter she left, leaving him feeling more displaced than if she had attacked him.
"Little hellions, the lot of them…" he grumbled as he scanned the paper. Osprey looked on, lips twitching as well, though it was obvious she wasn't in on the joke.
He simply couldn't understand what was so amusing about his Midwinter gift. That woman simply wasn't raising those children to understand finery, if the calmest of the bunch couldn't appreciate the beauty of a magical metal tree with living copper buds.
A shorty but a goodie? Let me know!