Opkepa Rattop Hedplei

Chapter 19

Nowe Soulou

It had been a couple LONG days for Heda and she quickly discovered several things. For one, when you let a child sleep all day, it meant they would most likely be up all-night. Thanks to the pox, it meant Clarke was up crying, either about her pox itching or because she had to wear mittens. She had never met anyone who hated mittens as much as Clarke. It made a great behavior reinforcement though. Even Lexa had to admit. If she promised her no mitten time she magically would stop crying and do whatever was asked. Of course, making her put them back on was a little traumatic after that. At this point, Lexa was honestly getting a bit worried the blonde would re-age with some weird phobia of mittens because of all this. The second thing learned, was art. The more Clarke started to be more awake the more she seemed to crave it. When she did not get to do art, the fits and crying would start. Almost like her body crying out for oxygen or dying of thirst. Thanks to Amma's nursing, the girl did not lose any more weight. In fact, she gained more which seemed to help with her energy levels. She did not need to nap as long as she used to which was good and bad. Good because it meant the girl was healing finally. Bad because it meant Lexa had less time to herself. That is when art came into play. It allowed both to do their own thing at the same time. She could get things done while the girl created what she wanted. If they were in her playroom where she could not destroy anything of Lexa's. She would read and take notes on the sacred texts while the child created to her heart's content. At first, she expected Clarke to magically begin to act older. Like painting and art was the magical fix for her. But it was not and that frustrated her to no end. She knew that it took time and Clarke needed to do this on her own. She could not rush the kid but she hated not knowing what to do to help. Mediation seemed to help her process through this. She figured this was why Nann kept pushing her to do it every morning. Regardless of how little she slept the previous night. Instead she worked on focusing that frustration to Clarke's training and education she would need after re-aging. Making games or songs to help her learn things.

The natblida took turns visiting Heda quite often. Amma had told her the day after Clarke came down with pox, that they had all volunteered to take shifts. Both her and Fei had tried to explain they did not need to sacrifice their free time or sleep. All they received in response was confused looks from every single child. Telling them that they were Heda's family and families take care of each other. Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lexa was also notified that a few of the youngest Natbilda had not had the pox yet and were not allowed to come. Elisae was among this group and quite upset about it. Though it seemed perseverance was in the natblida's blood because the child refused to give up. Deciding instead to use her strengths, the child colored pictures and worked on them throughout the day. Fei had to pick her up from the coloring table to put her to bed that night still holding a little crayon in her hand. Every single picture was sent with Amma the next morning when the woman checked on the sick goufa. Making Lexa chortle when the woman strode in that morning, heading straight for her bed and promptly dumbed out a huge pile of decorated pictures from Elisae. Both Heda and Nann got a kick out of them all as they carefully looked through each one. Mercifully Fei, Amma and Oxyte found ways for everyone to help out Heda in some way through various little projects. While the girl's treehouse was being constructed, they would bring down some of them at night to work on. Oxyte at one point found a ton of metal and decided to give a lesson on welding which turned out to be a huge hit. So, they promptly created something for Heda as a surprise from the left-over pieces.