Open: Well young lady, have you been good to your mother?

[biteybaby]

Sunny Baudelaire has been having quite an exciting time lately. For once, "exciting" means "filled with fun" and not "filled with terror, pain, panic, and an inordinate amount of running and hiding". Without the threat of Count Olaf and his associates finding her in an attempt to steal the Baudelaire fortune, Sunny has had more time for her studies. "Her studies" is a phrase which here means, "catching up on learning how to do things most people take for granted".

She has finally learned how to walk. She thinks the amount of words she is now able to say has increased. Magnu has even taught her a few things in sign language, which she finds is a little easier than speaking. The biggest news is that she now has five very sharp teeth, as opposed to the four she started with when she arrived.

Shortly before she arrived, Mr Poe had told the Baudelaires about an aphorism: It takes a village to raise a child. She wonders if that is why she has had so much time to grow. Her days are spent rotating around between several different guardians, babysitters, and friends, and it has been lovely. She hopes her siblings are having just as good of a time in the village of V.F.D.

Unfortunately I must report that her siblings are not having just as good of a time in the village of V.F.D., nor are they even still in the village of V.F.D. Sunny does not know this. It would probably be for the best if nobody tells her.

Comments

[summerdude]

"It's good she's not a lindworm," Magnus confides to Galahad in tones that are meant to sound like he doesn't want Sunny to overhear (though he definitely does plan on her overhearing). "That means I don't have to fight her." He tickles her again.

[onthewillowsthere]

"That is good. She would defeat you."

[biteybaby]

Sunny laughs. "Fight! Fight! Lindorm!"

[summerdude]

"You look as wriggly as a lindworm, little dragon pupa," Magnus says, with one final tickle. "When are you gonna come out of your chrysalis and defeat me?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"Strike him down," Galahad intones solemnly.

[biteybaby]

Sunny manages to wiggle out of the hoodie - she loses the bow holding her hair up in the process, so she takes a moment to shove her hair out of her eyes before she tackles Magnu, shouting, "Raaaaa!" in her breathy, toddler way as she does so.

[summerdude]

Magnus gives a great shriek and lets Sunny's momentum bear him down to the grass. "Oh no," he cries. "You're too strong for me, Dragon Sunny. Galahad -- Galahad, help me."

[onthewillowsthere]

"It's nature. Dragons eat people." Galahad has been reading so much about the food chain lately. "Once she's eaten most of you, other animals will take care of the rest. Wasps and carrion beetles. It's important for the ecosystem."

[biteybaby]

Sunny starts giggling and bites on Magnu's shoulder. She is careful not to bite too hard even though she's playing very excitedly.

[summerdude]

Even if she did, it would be fine; Magnus is resilient and heals remarkably quickly. Still, he gives a great shrieking cry and falls -- carefully -- to the side, tumbling down and cradling her so that she doesn't go flying. "Ahhhhhhhh," he says. "The dragon... it's got me. It's eating me!!!! Tell Alex I loved him..."

[onthewillowsthere]

"I will tell him."

[biteybaby]

"Alex next," Sunny says, though it might not be able to be understood because she still has a mouthful of Magnu Shoulder.

[summerdude]

Magnus certainly can't hear or understand this; Magnus is being eaten alive by a dread dragon! He clutches his belly, trying to keep his guts from spilling out. The guts Sunny has gone nowhere near. She's just that powerful.

[onthewillowsthere]

"You're going to devour Alex?"

[biteybaby]

“Uh huh!” She says, but then reconsiders. She quickly says, “No!” actually taking her mouth off of Magnu for this. “Alex dragon too!”

[summerdude]

Magnus cracks one eye open. "Don't go to Alex," he says, voice tremulous. "She's a fierce lindworm, and knows so many effective ways to kill me dead even faster..."

[onthewillowsthere]

"Alex and Sunny will join forces to destroy you."

[biteybaby]

"Destroy! Destroy!" Sunny starts chanting while sort of log-rolling across Magnu's torso.

[summerdude]

Magnus gives a loud, anguished yell. "I'm being destroyed," he cries. "How can I ever fight back?"

[onthewillowsthere]

"You can't," flatly. "You must die."

[biteybaby]

Sunny keeps yelling out variations of "die!" and "raaa!" and "destroy!" and "murder!" as she rolls around on Magnu, occasionally biting.

[summerdude]

Gods, Magnus loves Sunny so much he thinks he could cry about it. "Wait," says Magnus weakly, as if something is just occurring to him. "I just remembered... I'm really good at fighting dragons."

Then he flips over, tossing Sunny (very carefully) in the air, catching her gently, and proceeding to tickle her relentlessly.

[onthewillowsthere]

"Alas, dragon," Galahad intones.

[biteybaby]

Sunny tries to play dead, but she's laughing too much from being tickled to do a very good job at it.

[summerdude]

"I," proclaims Magnus, "am the dragon-slayer!"

For his pièce de résistance, he lifts Sunny's little t-shirt a few inches and blows a big raspberry against her tummy.