Stuck With You

Chapter 5 - Sol

Sol took her hand and held it out for her to see. "No! I mean all rainbowy! That means I'm important, right?"

(This chapter of Sol's would take place a few months before book 1 [Colorweaver].)  

Sol scrambled up the stairs of Blythe's wagon and threw the door open. Then he scrambled again to catch it before it hit the wall. Blythe wouldn't be happy if he dented the wall. Again. It wasn't his fault that he was so strong and the door was so flimsy! He'd told her he'd make her a better door, one that could open in both directions and even close by itself, but she hadn't been interested. He carefully shut it behind him and eyed the doorknob to see if there was a way he could adjust it to bounce harmlessly off the wood paneling without her noticing that he changed anything. Rubber, maybe? No, that would be too soft to turn and if it was stronger, it would be too hard and damage the wall anyway. After he gave her this present, he would work on fixing her door as the next one.

Right, the present. That was why he was here! This was way more important than a dumb doorknob. "Blade! BladeBladeBladeBladeBlade!"

No answer. She couldn't not be home. She was always home when he needed her. Etri said it was because Sol was "her most frequent patient" and "she probably waited around for his inevitable daily disaster" and something about having a shelf of healing supplies with his name on it, but Sol had tuned him out by that point in favor of trying to get an itty bitty spring to have the force it needed to propel a toothpick. Etri worried too much about everything. 

But today Sol would prove that he didn't need to worry. The toothpick launcher worked perfectly and he'd finished an entirely new invention and not once had it bit him or caught on fire or exploded or put a hole through the wall. No one could say he needed a healer today! 

When the door opened behind him, Sol didn't take the present out of his pocket. He wanted to build up to the surprise. He was pretty sure she wouldn't guess this one. She was frustratingly good at guessing. It was almost like she could read his mind, but that would be silly. No one could actually read minds. The carnies who did that act always had a plant in the audience or planned this out with their picked person's friend before the show. Okay, so he'd believed it at first. That was until he caught Blythe smirking at him from backstage and he remembered that he told her practically everything. That was probably how she guessed at the presents he made her, actually. He probably just slipped and didn't remember slipping. 

Blythe squeezed past him to get across the narrow room and dropped a pile of plant cuttings on the counter before lighting the weaving-lamps he'd made for her. She didn't know they were weaving, just really bright, but she used them all the time which must mean she liked them. He liked when she liked what he made. "You really only have to say my name once, you know. I could have heard you on the other side of camp. What did you need? You don't look hurt." 

"I've been working on a thing." He knew what her grimace meant. She thought he meant the automatic waffle dispenser that had been the cause of the hole in the wall. "No, not the waffle-makey-shooty-thing. A new thing. A better thing! At first I couldn't get the spring to work without bending, so I thought maybe if I tried a different size that would work better, but then it didn't make it spring as far, so I decided to-" 

"Sol." 

"-Go back to the original size but use a different metal and after a few tries that worked, but then I wanted onyxes because they're all pretty and shiny like your eyes. Did you know Etri went by Onyx before? Our old troupe uses gem names and-" 

"Thanks for the compliment. Now about the thing you wanted to tell me?" 

"Right, I went looking for onyxes, but I couldn't find any so I had to use boring black beads instead and I hope they're okay because they're not really shiny enough. I thought about sticking glitter to them and-"