I am going to attempt to discipline myself into getting out one chapter a week for each book. This one will be on Wednesday. When Even Two Sparrows Fall will be on Saturday.
When Sophie's door was banged open by a frazzled Edaline in the middle of her homework (why teachers felt it necessary to give a research paper before term had even begun was beyond her), she expected that something had gone horribly wrong with Keefe, or they needed her help with the vermilion again. Or something like that. She was not expecting to hear the Amy had showed up unannounced at Candleshade with a lot of boxes.
It was not her fault Amy had made up her mind that she was going to bring items to entertain Keefe with. It was not her fault Amy decided to go through with her plan. And it was certainly not her fault that Amy had badgered Mr. Forkle into bringing her and all her stuff to Candleshade and arranged a 'sleepover' to cover her butt with her parents. None of this was her fault (except for mentioning it to Amy, but that didn't count), but no one else really wanted to take part in that argument.
So now Sophie was doing her best to mediate. Amy refused to leave and the Council was angry about the unauthorized part.
At this point, she'd just tuned out the argument. His sister was not giving any ground against the Council, which was impressive for someone who'd just turned twelve. The Councillors refused to yield either.
Finally, Amy yelled, "You all can either send me home and keep Keefe entertained by yourselves, or you can let me stay and entertain him myself! It is your choice!"
Bronte silenced the rest of the Council. "Amy is correct. We all know what Mr. Sencen is like when he is bored. We may as well take the opportunity."
"What he said. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Amy leaned against the wall of the room.
"Don't look a…what?" Councillor Alina's nose scrunched up trying to understand the phrase.
Sophie sighed. "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. It's a human expression that means 'don't be picky about what you've given'. Like if somebody gives you a horse, don't immediately check its teeth to find out how old it is."
"I see." Councillor Emery sighed. "I hope you understand the amount of rules you have broken, Miss Freeman."
"What can I say? It runs in the family." Amy flashed Sophie a smile.
Oralie giggled quietly. Sophie ignored it, grinning back at her sister.
"You may stay for as long as you need."
"Well, I've only covered myself for one night, I might need more than that…"
Councillor Emery sighed heavily again. "We'll take care of that."
"Thank you!"
Amy skipped back outside to her pile of boxes, shooing curious elves away from them and smacking a few on the hand for touching her stuff.
"Amy, what did you bring?"
A sheepish smile. "Stuff."
"A lot of stuff."
"Yeah."
"How big is that TV?"
"It's says on the box, let me look," Amy ducked behind the box and popped back up. "It says forty-eight inches wide. It's wall-mounted. I thought that'd be easier."
"TVs have to be plugged in. To electricity. Which elves don't have."
"Dex can make it work. He's the one that does tech stuff, right?"
"Yes…Is this an Xbox and a Playstation?" Sophie nudged the boxes with her toe.
"I didn't know which one he'd prefer."
"Don't those also have to be plugged in?"
"Dex can make it work." Amy had more confidence in Dex's abilities than almost everyone else.
Sophie picked up a smaller box and read the label. "A Nintendo Switch? Don't these have to be charged?"
"Dex can make it work."
"Is that a tablet and Bluetooth speaker? Those both have to be charged and doesn't it need internet?"
"Kindle Fire. Dex can make it work."
"A DVD player?"
"Dex can make it work."
"Is that going to be your answer to everything?"
"Yes."
Sophie sighed. "So what's in those boxes there?"
Amy grinned. "This one is movies, this one is games for both consoles, these two are books, and this smaller one is audiobooks on cassette tapes and a player in case the Kindle doesn't work. I also packed a bunch of USB cords and battery packs just in case."
"How long did it take you to get all of this together?"
"Well, I started a few days ago. I had to talk to a few people about money and stuff. I think I ended up drawing from your birth fund. Sorry not sorry. I have a Kindle myself for books and audiobooks and I really like it, so I got one for him. I don't know much about what Keefe likes, but I know Ro's going to have to do it with him, so I tried to find things in the middle. There's a couple drawing apps on the Kindle, he may like them, he may not. I got a lot of different games for the console, some are more action-y than others."
Sophie smiled. "It's an impressive collection. He'll probably love it."
It took several trips and a lot of telekinesis to get Amy's haul up to the 156th floor. Dex was a bit overwhelmed at the amount of work she expected him to do, but he enjoyed the opportunity to work with a different kind of technology. Ro, finally back from her trip, did a lot of heavy lifting, installing the wall-mounted TV after Dex said it would probably be easier to modify mounted.
Amy set to introducing Keefe to video games via the Switch, which she had a few downloaded games on. She and Tam got into a bit of a heated match of Mario Kart or some other racing game, with Amy ultimately winning. Keefe enjoyed watching.
Amy brought a lot of stuff.
"Yeah, she did."
"Are you talking to me?" Amy looked up from trying to sort out the mess of cords.
"No. I keep a telepathic link with Keefe so he can talk to me. He'll be keeping a running commentary in my head."
"Cool. Can you tell me what he thinks of the games as I describe them?" Amy handed the switch to Tam and dragged the cardboard box over. "So I got as wide a selection as I could. I avoided first-person-shooter type ones, but I've got Minecraft in here, Mario, stuff like that. I have a few FPS I thought he might enjoy though, like a couple Star Wars games."
What's a first-person-shooter?
"We'll show you when we get stuff set up."
Amy started pulling games out of the box and setting them on the floor. "Do you want to start with audiobooks? Those can be used without modification."
"What do you think, Keefe?"
What's an audiobook?
"Oh yeah. An audiobook is a recording of a book being read aloud. It's really useful for humans who are blind, dyslexic or otherwise don't have the time or can't read. Amy has a bunch of them."
"Do you have Ranger's Apprentice?" Fitz was elbow deep in the box of books, setting them in neat piles along the wall.
What's that?
A series I've been reading. Fitz wants to borrow it when I'm done.
Amy opened the Kindle and scrolled through it. "If I'd known you guys wanted it, I would have been sure to get it. I have the first book in audiobook form but that's it. I can get the rest. What I do have on here are Harry Potter, Beyonders, Percy Jackson, Fablehaven, um, Five Kingdoms, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Blood of Kings, How To Train Your Dragon, Trinity Flynn, Twelve Upon a Time. Stuff like that. I also have most of them in book form."
Dex yelped and Ro barely caught the TV tilting forward.
"Be more careful!"
"Yeah. Noted." He went back to fiddling with the wires. "Human technology is weird."
"Don't die. I need you to modify all this stuff." Amy started rooting around in her box of movies. "I also have a bunch of movies. They're generally more violent than books. I was thinking of Ro with some of these, since we have to keep her happy. There's a couple that probably aren't elf-appropriate, but that I'm pretty sure she'd love and since Keefe's going to be sleeping twelve hours out of the day, she'll have time to watch these without him."
I forget human media is way more violent.
Don't worry. I'm sure Ro will do her best to watch them without you.
Ro remounted the TV and sat next to Amy. "Whatcha got for me?"
Amy grinned. "Horror and thrillers. A Quiet Place, one of my personal favorites, It, haven't seen it but you'd probably like it, Mortal Engines, not a horror, but plenty scary. Deadpool, one and two, they're pretty bloody, so these are definite watch-without-elves. There's some iffy ones in here, I don't know how high personal tolerances are, but we have the entire MCU collection."
Sophie squealed, accidentally cutting her sister off. "The entire collection!?"
"Yeah. Infinity War and Endgame came out while you were gone. So did Ant-Man and the Wasp and Spiderman: Far From Home."
"We have to watch them!"
You really like those movies.
Are you kidding? They're the greatest!
"Don't worry, they'll be here a while. I also have Star Wars, the earlier ones should be fine for elves violence-wise. I don't know about the newer ones, I like them as movies, not so much as continuations of Star Wars. And of course I have the Clone Wars series on DVD because it is necessary. I do have Lord of the Rings, I don't know what Ro would think about it, but I have it anyway. I also have the Hobbit movies. Mom and Dad don't like them. Again, objectively they're wonderful movies, but maybe not for the die-hard fan. But the goal here is to keep Keefe entertained and they will do that."
There was a yelp and the thud of a book being dropped. Sophie jumped and looked over and the source of the noise.
Fitz was sitting against the wall, the book he'd been reading lying open on the floor. He was tense and breathing hard.
"Which book is that?" Amy leaned forward and squinted at it. "Oh, Blood of Kings. Cool."
Fitz is reading a book called Blood of Kings?
Blood as in descendant.
Okay.
"It looked interesting and I couldn't put it down. That Eben came out of nowhere!"
"Oh, you're at that part. Anyway, there should be some boxes with shelves inside to put the books on. I brought those since I wasn't sure what you guys had." Amy went back to digging in the box, sorting the movies into three piles: okay for Keefe, iffy, and Ro's movies. "There's TV shows in here too. I have ones that Keefe might enjoy but are mostly for Ro, and some shows that are for Keefe. I wasn't sure how much time Ro would be spending by herself, not being able to leave the room in case something happens. So for her I've got The Walking Dead, it's about zombies, Firefly, fugitive running around space, Gravity Falls, it's just weird. That's an iffy one. For Keefe, I have probably the best TV show of all time."
Amy pulled out an old, beat up case with a familiar red and green duo on the front.
"Is that VeggieTales?"
"Yes!" Amy's smile might have been bigger than her own.
Veggie Tales? Umm, I don't know what I think about that.
We'll watch an episode of it first.
"What's VeggieTales and why does it sound childish?" Ro commented, looking at the Walking Dead case.
"It is a show for preschoolers, like three and four year olds, but I LOVED it up until I came to the Lost Cities. Some of the song wear on my nerves a little, like the S.U.V. song, but this was what I grew up watching. Once I understood that the tomatoes and cucumbers we were eating weren't actually Bob and Larry's family."
"What?" Ro was the only one really paying attention now. Everyone else had originally been helping Fitz unpack the books, but had found one that looked interesting to them and were sitting against the wall. Tam and Linh were engaged in a heated match on the Switch. Amy had left to sort all her boxes and was having fun bossing some of the elves around trying to get shelves brought up, either elvin ones or the ones she had brought.
"Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber. You'll have to watch to find out."
"That sounds so incredibly stupid."
I think it sound kinda cute.
"That's probably what my parents thought."
"Sophie! I need your help!" Amy yelled.
"I'll be right back." She poked her head out into the hall to see Amy dragging the final box across the floor.
"Literally anyone would have been happy to help you carry that."
"They're negotiating Ikea shelves. I was watching until I remembered this last box."
"What's in there?"
Amy plopped down on the floor and opened the box. "Disney movies!"
Sophie grinned. "No way. Is this all of them?"
"All the ones I could find." The movies Sophie could see on the top were Big Hero 6, Aladdin, The Princess and the Frog, and Brave.
"Brave's not a Disney movie. That one's Pixar."
"It's close enough. Help me drag this thing in there?"
Sophie grinned and lifted the box with telekinesis. Her sister gave the box a 'I should have asked for help earlier' look.
There was a loud yell of "YES!" from Keefe's room, Sophie jumped.
Keefe what happened in there?
Dex got the TV working and he and Dex we racing each other on the small TV like thing.
It's called a Switch. Sophie corrected.
Yeah, that. Tam finally won. Dex has been kicking his butt.
Cool. "Tam finally won a race."
"Nice. Let's get this box inside. Hopefully there will be shelves to put things on soon."
Amy opened the door and whistled loudly. Sophie winced, and everyone else in the room flinched, except for Keefe. He yelled, squeezing his eyes shut and his hands went to cover his ears, but since he was trying his best not to move, it resulted in a slight jerking of the limbs.
Can you please tell whoever that was to NEVER do that again? That was horrible!
"Amy, Keefe wants you to know to never do that again."
Her sister's eyes were wide. "Yeah I could tell! I'm so sorry. I totally forgot!"
It's okay. Just don't do it again. It felt like my head was being ripped in half, in addition to what I'm already feeling.
Everyone else relaxed. Amy blew out a breath. "Now that I've got everyone's attention, I need help getting everything sorted out and on shelves once they get here. I have three categories for stuff: stuff for Keefe, iffy, and Ro's. Dex said he got the TV working, so maybe we could put on a movie while we work."
Everyone nodded and set to work. The shelves were eventually installed and Amy oversaw the sorting and shelving of everything. Keefe kept up the commentary in both Fitz and Sophie's heads. It took at least an hour for them to be done, Dex modifying all the human technology the entire time. By the time they were done, Keefe had fallen into a half-sleeping state, Dex had everything working, and Amy had a small pile of requested movies built up on the lower shelf under the TV.
"So here we have How to Train Your Dragon, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Big Hero 6. Not the movies I thought you guys would pick, but hey, I'm cool with it. I'm gonna take The Hobbit out of the running. It's a bit violent and should probably wait. The first Harry Potter's less violent, but might be a bit offensive, 'house elves' and all. The last two are both pretty equally violent, definitely not very, but it's a matter of preference. Dragons or cool robots?"
The consensus was dragons. Amy popped the disk into the player. "Sophie can you wake Keefe up? I don't want to hurt his ears."
Don't worry. I can hear her. Are we watching a movie?
"How to Train Your Dragon. Do you want to watch or wait?"
Cool. I feel good enough to watch. It's probably close to my next soporodine dose, isn't it?
Not yet. You've got a few more hours.
Amy leaned against the wall next to Sophie. "Can you dim the lights? The movie's a bit dark at the beginning."
Sophie snapped her fingers, shutting the lights off.
It had been a very long time since she'd seen the Dreamworks logo, with the boy on the moon, as the music played in the background.
Tam jumped. "Did you see that? In the background? There was a dragon flying there!"
Amy nodded. "Yup."
The screen shivered into the water and panned up to show Berk and Hiccup's narration began.
"This… is Berk. It's twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It is located solidly on the meridian of misery."
A wave splashed over the camera and the view changed to to show more of the houses and fields.
"My village, in a word, sturdy. And it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new. We have fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests." A sheep is snatched away by something large with claws. Biana jumped.
"You see, while most places have mice or mosquitoes, we have…" Hiccup opened the door and looked outside, only to hurriedly close it when a heavily shadowed dragon almost roasted him, staring in terror at the camera. "Dragons."
The camera panned around the village, showing the townsfolk fighting off various dragons. Since it was an animated film, there was no blood or gore, but occasionally someone flinched anyway.
"Most people would leave. Not us, we're Vikings. We have… stubbornness issues." Hiccup ran out of his house. "My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But, it's not the worst. Parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls."
Fitz snorted. "That doesn't make any sense."
Amy paused the movie. "Vikings thought gnomes and trolls were going to steal their children."
"It makes a little more sense now."
She restarted the movie.
"Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't do that."
Another much bigger Viking knocked Hiccup over and almost brained him. He stopped his axe in time and said, "Mornin'" before running off again.
Various older Vikings yelled at Hiccup as he ran through the village.
"What're you doin'?"
"Get inside!"
"What are you doing out?"
"Get back inside!"
Hiccup almost ran into a dragon's blast of fire, but a hand the size of his head grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him out of the way. "Hiccup! What is he doin' out aga- What are you doin' out? Get inside!"
Hiccup continued his narration after being thrown offscreen. "That's Stoik the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean off of its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes I do."
It took about fifteen minutes for everyone to adjust to the movie, counting the several times Amy had to pause the movie and either she or Sophie explained Viking culture.
The camera zoomed in on Hiccup's notebook, showing all the places he'd checked. He looked up and saw more ferns and empty forest. He sighed and crossed out the spot, then scribbles all over it. Closing his notebook, he puts it back in his jacket and grumbles, "Oh the gods hate me. Some people lose their knife or their mug, no not me, I manage to lose an entire dragon!" He smacks a branch in front of him and it whacks him in the face. He looks up and sees the tree broken in half.
Keefe shivered. That's it, isn't it?
"Whoa." Biana, probably subconsciously, reached over and took Dex's hand.
Sophie grinned. This was probably her favorite part of the movie.
I apologize if that felt abrupt or unfinished. I couldn't think of a way to continue the chapter. Review for a teaser! (let me know if you don't want one)
Shine brightly!
Ruby
