Fun with Blueberries

November 16

It was dinner for Berry's family. His father, Pines, smiled as he looked to his wife and young child. Though his eye still stung from an incident many years before, he was still able to see them with his good eye and was happy that Berry, though extremely energetic, would still listen to his warnings when he talked about humans being deadly forces.

"Did you find any cool stories with William?" Berry innocently inquired, smiling right before stuffing his mouth full of a muffin crumb. "He's awesome."

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Berry's mother, Lily, chided softly, "and isn't that one of those humans Jace joined with a long time ago?" To her question, Pines nodded softly and turned to Berry.

"Do you remember the dangers of humans," Pines asked in a tone slightly more stern than Lily, "that they would kill us all if they could, thinking nothing more of us than they would if we were an ant or fly." As he spoke, all attention came to rest upon Pines's burn mark over his eye, from where a human had used a magnifying glass to focus the sunlight upon him just to see what would happen.

"They certainly seem dangerous," Berry conceded to his father, "but that can't be indicative of the entire population's tendencies and decisions." As Berry added his thoughts, both his parents turned to him, surprised at both his vocabulary and his position on the matter.

"Where did you get that idea?" Pines asked his son only for Berry to start blushing in embarrassment as he realized he would have to tell the truth. "Your aunt and uncle?" Berry solemnly shook his head. "The Honorbounds?" Once again, Berry shook his head. "Then where?"

"Well," Berry started as he put his hands together on his lap, "this will be a bit of an awkward story right here, but you know how we're not supposed to be seen by any humans?" Before either of his parents could answer the question with the same words they would always talk about with humans being monsters they must hide from. "As it turns out, one of them couldn't sleep and went to get a drink from their refrigerator when I was taking in the vastness of their kitchen. They quickly saw me, and we talked for quite a bit about how rules made by old people from a long time ago usually don't account for one thing or another." As he spoke about his time with a human, both his parents looked between him and the ceiling in a show of rising horror. "He wound up having a 'midnight snack,' as he called it, and gave me a bunch of yogurt. That's why I wasn't that hungry the morning after."

"We need to leave," Pines spoke up, "now. In the meanwhile, you're grounded."

But they promised they would never hurt us and would actually help us out if we were to need help.

"I once knew a human who made that same promise. Next I knew, I was tied to a stick with them grinning maliciously while trying to set me ablaze. We're leaving tomorrow, before you lose use of an eye like me." With that said, dinner effectively ended, and both Pines and Lily set out packing while Berry snuck off to try to speak to the human who helped him learn to read one last time.