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Chapter 24: And Then Some

Riley had a reason to be proud- it was the second time in a row she'd managed to wake up without any person's help.

The speed bump Rick drove into was sufficient on its own, the girl muttering incomprehensibly for a moment as her shocked brain struggled to catch up to her mouth.

"You alright there Riley?" Rick asked with concern as he heard her gibberish, his daughter realizing where she was before speaking up, just a bit cranky at her nap being so violently interrupted-

"N-now I am. Hope at least we're close now..."

"In fact, we're here!" He responded with a chuckle as the car slowed to a halt, taking a spot in the small, makeshift parking lot, individual spots differentiated by precisely nothing.

"O-oh." She wasn't gonna say no to the convenience, unstrapping herself before slinking out into the cold and to her total lack of surprise, very snow filled air.

After Rick had locked the car, Riley followed him and Andrew into the fenced field, a handful of humans and anthros alike strolling through the selection of many, many trees of various sizes and shapes.

How do you even choose any single one?

"What are we looking for anyway?" She asked absentmindedly, baffled by what must've been literal hundreds of trees leaning on the fences and laying on the ground, piled up awkwardly.Rick quickly pulled out his phone and looked at the note he'd made of the dimensions-

"So, about Andrew's height, and about as thick at the base as... hmm... half the length of your hand, roughly."

Imperial units were one thing, but this was on another level.

"Well that's... exact." Riley responded with a deadpan voice, stepping up to the nearest tree on display.

"I mean, there isn't any real need for super specific dimensions, we're not exactly lacking in space. It's more so just so that the base isn't too wide so that I won't have to saw it down to fit, which just takes forever. Happened last year, and by the time I was finally done with it. Timmy was already asleep and upset we'd decorated without him." Dad answered plainly as she'd leaned in to inspect one of the trees in detail, having forgotten the one small tiny detail with conifers before a couple stings on the palm of her hand reminded her.

The prickling wasn't particularly painful, but she still had no idea how to go about it all when she couldn't even hold the-

"Riley?"

Mention of her name made her snap her head back towards Andrew, taking a moment to notice the pair of very soft looking gloves he was offering to her, grabbing them with a slight blush at his generous gesture.

"Let's just go looking around individually, if anyone finds anything good just shoot the other two a message." Rick sent them off before turning around to take a closer look at some silvery spruces. Well, at least silvery in parts that weren't covered up by snow.