Child of a Wanderer

【Finale - Set Up for Next Book】

"mama! mama! wake up!"

you groaned a little, eyes fluttering open to see scaramouche and soki fully awake and ready to go somewhere. "h-huh? what... what's going on?"

then you gasped a little. "wait, soki?! why aren't you at school? kuni, what the-"

"language," he chided, mocking you a little which made soki laugh.

"mama almost said a bad word," she teased.

you rubbed your eyes. "what is going on?"

"you don't remember," scaramouche asked you, curious.

"remember what," you asked, trying to wrack your memory. "what happened?"

"soki," scaramouche said. "want to remind mama?"

"yeah! we have a field trip to natlan," soki cheered. "fire!!! lots and lots of fire!!!"

you couldn't help but give scaramouche a horrified glance. "it's today?!"

"yeah," scaramouche said. "don't worry, i've already packed for all three of us."

"aradegi is coming too," soki cheered. "all my friends are going! mama, i'm so excited!"

you couldn't help but sigh a little, "is this because of the upcoming pilgrimage? i don't think that's appropriate for kids."

"no no mama! it's the saurians," she said. "i've heard there are some that can climb mountains! and ones that fly through trees!" she held up a small saurian toy and made cute sound effects as she demonstrated her point. "see? see?"

you couldn't help but pat her head affectionately. "yeah, mama sees."

scaramouche sat on the bed next to you and wrapped an arm around your body. "we're supposed to leave here by 9 so we get to natlan at around 5."

"okay," you sighed, and scaramouche pecked your cheek.

"go get ready, love. soki and i will be waiting for you," he smiled before hoisting the girl up in his arms. "let's give mama some space."

"okay! can we play saurians?"

"yeah," he said, their voices and footsteps growing faint as they left the room. the faint sound of soki's laughter filled your ears from the living room, making you smile fondly.

you get up and stretch your body, get changed and go through your morning routine. when you go to the kitchen, you see soki playing with her saurian toys as scaramouche made breakfast for you. he holds soki in one hand while mixing stuff with the other hand.

"want to help your papa out," scaramouche asked his daughter.

"no! saurians are more fun than cooking," soki said.

"brat," scaramouche chuckled but kissed her temple anyways.

and with breakfast in your stomachs, and hearts full, the three of you set out to travel to natlan. soki sat on scaramouche's back while he flew, re-enacting the "green saurians" she liked so much. he would fly low to the trees while she pretended to swing from branch to branch, which made you laugh as you flew next to him.

hopefully this time, you could have an unproblematic trip.

... ah shit, did i just jinx myself?

for those of you who will ask:

WHY ARE YOU ENDING IT RN??? NO BUILDUP??

a reminder that this is a FILLER book. it's not meant to be a well-thought-out book. tbh, it's more of a series of one-shots that give you a brief look at the family dynamic. please keep that in mind, and it's also because i want to focus on natlan since that book is going to be the LAST OF THIS SERIES!

anyways, much love! hope you all aren't too angry at me :)