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

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?"

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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?"

Galahad nods, relieved that Magnus has translated him.

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

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

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

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.

"I bet you'd be really good at acting out stories," Magnus tells her. "Especially from a bestiality. You're so good at animal noises! Actually..." He glances between Galahad and Sunny. "I bet you guys could have an animal noise competition." Yes, he is thinking about kid Galahad's ribbits.

Galahad is not thinking of that, and he tilts his head slightly at Magnus, bewildered.

"Oh yeah! Noise game!" She thinks this sounds exciting. "Oh, just me and Galad. Alex not allowed. Alex professional." Sunny figures it's probably a good idea to set some rules down before they start, in case it grows and more people want to join in. It wouldn't be fair for a professional of Alex's caliber to be competing against amateurs like herself and Galahad.

"Very reasonable," Magnus says solemnly, hiding a grin. "Galahad, can you still pull off a perfect frog?"

Oh. "Sunny may be better now," he answers with equal solemnity, but he sinks down to the ground -- he needs to be in frog position to inhabit a frog mindset.

Sunny climbs down off the table, dropping the last few inches onto her butt. This is fine though, as she turns around and proceeds to sit cross-legged to watch whatever Galahad is about to do.

Magnus watches!

He thinks about all the frogs he's seen -- low, springy, green skin glistening. He tries to hold the frog essence inside himself, cradled in his chest like a ball of glowing light. He crouches on his haunches, his hands flat on the ground, and then from deep in his throat he makes a low croak.

Sunny gasps. It's perfect???????? "Galad frog! So good!" She claps, because that is the polite thing to do after someone delivers such a wonderful performance. She thinks maybe it should be nominated for perhaps a Daytime Emmy.

"Right???" Magnus says, extraordinarily fond. "He tried to teach me how to do it a few weeks ago, but I'm not nearly as good... Your turn, Sunny."

Shyly Galahad smiles. He hadn't expected the applause or the enthusiasm from Sunny (from Magnus, yes) and it makes him feel warm inside, the way he always feels when he's praised for something he had to work at and think about.

"Yes, your turn," he echoes.

"Oh okay!" She gets into position like Galahad did, then says in a very very low and very very quiet and very very slow voice, "rrrrrrrrribbit."

Magnus is no longer an einherji; he's a being of love and light and joy, actively transcending beyond this plane of existence. He's definitely clutching his hands to his heart. "You're both so good," he says, eyes shining. "Gods, you're both so good. Two of my three favorite frogs." Alex, obviously -- his beautiful poison dart frog -- is the third.

Frog moment, Galahad signs to Sunny. It's an important part of their culture and she needs to know about it.

What mean? she asks.

"It's a meme," Magnus tells her. "Based on the time he drew Alex in frog form for me." This is a very bad explanation, and he does realize it, but it's, like... an intro-level explanation.

"You can say it whenever there is a misunderstanding about something that should have been obvious. Or if you are trying to tell a joke, but the other person takes you seriously. Or just to say hello to me or to Magnus or to Shen Yuan."

"I misunderstood lots," she says, because she is misunderstood a lot of the time about things that should be obvious, at least as far as she's concerned. "Lots of frogs."

"I bet people would also listen to you more if you started ribbiting to get their attention," Magnus says, peaceably aware that he's likely giving Sunny more ammunition than any non-Sunny baby ought to have.

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