Open: The difference between arson and a birthday party is the number of candles.

[biteybaby]

On the day of her birthday, Sagramore takes Sunny out for an early ride on Fenyes. The foal is due any week now, but Sunny is so little that it’s fine for her to sit on top of Fenyes’ back, in the groove that seems perfectly made for a rider, while Sagramore leads her around by the bridle – and it keeps them out of the house long enough for Laertes and Magnus to put the plan of her party into action.

Laertes uses the brief window of time well--he has his cake pans selected, his parchment paper already cut to shape, and his chocolate frosting mixed ahead of time, and all that remains is to mix the chocolate cake batter and to bake it. To delight his daughter's many teeth, he's selected a mix of sprinkles with several different textures of crunch.

For her part, Sunny knows several things. She knows her birthday is likely very soon, and that Magnus thinks she should have a party. They talked about it some, back at the wedding. She also knows that they are going to have company over today, though she didn’t give that much thought, as they often have company over, and nobody specified how many people would be arriving. However, she has yet to put these facts together, and as a result is unaware that her birthday and subsequent party are today.

Magnus has been secreting things away in the shed where he and Galahad found Drosera for weeks — they're not precisely close, but they're close enough that he can move things over in fairly short order. The crucial supplies include several card tables, a KIERKLAAND-brand dinosaur-themed bounce house and slide with an attached battery-powered blower, with enough stakes that it should be fine for an adult to go in with her whenever she wants, and so many balloons, streamers, and ribbons. A more recent addition to the lot includes loads of additional party-appropriate snacks: crudités trays with dips, apples for slicing with caramel dippers on the side, and a couple of kinds of chips. Also, most importantly, Magnus's gifts.

Once the bouncy house is anchored to the ground and inflating, Magnus starts setting up the tables, tying balloons to ribbons and arraying them around the tables and yard and, frankly, tossing the streamers all over the place. Finally, and based in part on some magazine articles he's read on throwing parties and showers (a birthday party for a two year old is basically a baby shower, right?) he puts out some signs: GIFTS GO HERE on one card table, and BOOKS GO HERE on another. (They asked each attendee to bring a book to contribute to Sunny's personal library in lieu of cards in the party invitations, preferably a children's book with personal meaning and significance but with no true limitations.) The final card table gets the polaroid camera and some silly costume components — funny hats, disguise glasses, feather boas — so people can document the occasion. He has secret plans to take the resulting photos and make a little album of them for the family.

So it is that when Sagramore finally brings Sunny home again, riding on his shoulders, everything is ready for her – including Sagramore’s own gift, as abysmally wrapped as one might imagine, and sitting on the outside eating table, which has been reserved for that purpose.

Sunny has never seen a party so large before, that clearly took so much planning. Her first birthday party, though lovely and a lot of fun, was nothing like this. Her eyes dart all around, at all of her friends who have come, all of the gifts they were kind enough to bring for her, and at all of the activities her family have planned, all with her in mind. There's an overwhelming mix of emotions running through her small body, but she quickly settles on happy and excited. She wipes a couple of rogue tears from her cheeks before turning to her Apu, pointing at the bounce house, and asking, "Can I go jump?"

Comments

[biteybaby]

It's on the table, so Sunny definitely can't reach it right now. "Up?" she asks Magnu, thinking she can just sit on the table to open it.

[summerdude]

"You got it, bug," Magnus says, kneeling down so that she can clamber up his body onto the table. "Galahad, hold the table steady?"

[onthewillowsthere]

He can definitely do that, and he does.

[biteybaby]

She unwraps it and then grins. "For horse baby!"

[summerdude]

"For Dro," Magnus corrects, getting back to his feet.

[onthewillowsthere]

"She promised to be careful. And she tried it on already."

[biteybaby]

Her eyes get wide as she realizes what this means. "Ride Dro?!"

[summerdude]

"Yeah, Sunny," says Magnus, breaking out into a big grin. He directs it at Galahad, like, we did good, buddy! "You'll get to ride Dro. We have fatherly approval and everything."

[onthewillowsthere]

"You can fly."

[biteybaby]

Her eyes get really wide. "Won't fall?"

[summerdude]

"We'll practice on the ground first," Magnus promises her. "So that you get practice holding on and Dro gets practice carrying you. And the saddle has a strap for when you're in the air, see? Your-- um, the... um, our... anyway, Waetee and Sagramore will give us a thumbs up before you go airborne."

[onthewillowsthere]

"And if you want to get down, Magnus will leap up and get you," Galahad adds.

[biteybaby]

"Oh, seatbelt," she says, nodding at the strap. Seatbelts are important! And if Far and Apu said it would be okay then it has to be pretty safe, right? "You both ride too?" she asks, wondering if they can take turns maybe.

[summerdude]

"Maybe we can when she's full grown?" Magnus guesses, glancing at Galahad. "When she's not just Sunny-sized."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Temeraire also allows it."

[biteybaby]

Sunny stares in shock. "Temrare don't let Sunny fly!" Is he flying everyone else around?!

[summerdude]

"I've only flown on Jack and Alex and Hanguang-jun's sword," Magnus assures Sunny. "And my valkyrie, I guess, but that's different. That was before I got here."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Perhaps it's because I read to him. You can read your books to him and see what happens," Galahad says, in the very grave tone he uses when he's making a joke.

[biteybaby]

She's starting to look increasingly frustrated. "Can't read yet!" Maybe if she takes one of the books she has near-memorized and just pretends she's reading he won't mind!

[summerdude]

Magnus leans in next to her. "He's kidding," he tells Sunny, at his regular volume, with a fond smile at Galahad. "He's really deadpan when he's telling jokes. You can tell because he sounds extra serious, and because he gets this innocent look in his eye," which is as clear as day to Magnus (Hearthstone, Galahad, and Hanguang-jun expert), but might not be as visible to anyone else, "and also leans back a teeeeeeeenny tiny amount. See?" and he nods at Galahad's posture. "And since he's teasing, I bet you could ask him to help you read your stories to Temeraire. Right, Galahad?"

[onthewillowsthere]

Galahad nods, relieved that Magnus has translated him.

[biteybaby]

"I try but only know," she holds up a completely arbitrary number of fingers "some letters. Galad help Sunny read for Temrare?"

[summerdude]

"Maybe Galahad could read the stories and Sunny could act them out?" Magnus suggests.

[onthewillowsthere]

"I can do that. Are you good at acting?" he asks Sunny.

[biteybaby]

She shrugs. "Mama actor," she says thoughtfully, vaguely remembering a time when her mother was practicing singing a song from an opera she was in. Sunny can't really remember how the song went, or what her mother looked like as she sang, but trying to remember this is much happier than thinking about most of the other actors she has met.

"Had different jobs," she says, as an explanation for why she's not sure if she, personally, would be a good actor. It has never been a profession of hers.