The Garden, Saturday Afternoon

[glacial_queen]

Karla wasn't surprised when she woke up and couldn't find her Mommy or Daddy. They were often gone for hours and hours and hours, doing important Court stuff. What was weird was that she didn't recognize anyone in the castle, and there didn't seem to be any servants around to feed her.

So, rather than stay in the room she'd woken up in (also not her room--had they caught the Winds after she'd fallen asleep?) Karla had decided to go looking for people. Someone had to be taking care of her, right?

Her search had lasted right until she'd gone outside and found the garden. It was a good garden, filled with lots of healthy looking plants and deep, rich soil.

The perfect kind of soil for mud. Specifically, mud pies.

Karla forgot all about trying to find someone. Instead, she was sitting in the center of the garden, spattered with mud, patting the mud into rough pie shapes and decorating them with pretty rocks and leaves.

[Open! Come and get dirty!]

Comments

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

Eventually, Jonas had decided that leaving his room would be allowed. He hadn't wanted to go too far in case he got lost but he did stumble upon Karla and her messy garden.

He didn't say anything when he arrived, instead choosing to stop and observe things before making any sort of decision on the activity.

[glacial_queen]

Karla glanced up and waved, slinging even more mud on herself and the nearby plants. "Hi-hi! Wanna come play? I'm makin' mud-pies!"

She tried to hold up one of her more recent creations, this one lovingly adorned with a ring of flower petals. However, her pie couldn't maintain structural integrity off the ground and most of it landed in her lap.

Karla glanced down, shocked. And than began almost shrieking with laughter.

[see-beyond.livejournal.com]

"What's a mud pie?" Jonas asked solemnly, taking a few steps closer. "It looks messy."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack had managed not to notice any of the children as he dressed and left the dorms, so he was almost surprised to spot the small girl making mud pies. Another misplaced child?

"Hello there," he called. "Are you looking for anyone in particular?"

[glacial_queen]

Oh! A grown up! Karla gave him a very big smile; maybe he'd know where the kitchens were. "My Mommy an' my Daddy," she said, standing up and giving him a tiny, albeit mud-spattered, curtsy. "My Mommy is the Queen. Do you know where she is? Or breakfast?"

At this point, Karla was a little more interested in breakfast, to tell the truth. "I'm hungry."

[bitten_notshy]

"I don't know where the queen is," Jack said thoughtfully, trying to weigh who among his fellow students might be meant by that. "Breakfast, I can help you with. Are rolls and eggs all right? Have you been to the castle yet?"

[wantstodirect]

"Hi Jack!" Tony waved.

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

After escaping from that jerk of a prince, Merlin was left to wander about.

Fear, Fandom. Fear.

"What are you doing?"

[glacial_queen]

"Makin' mud pies," Karla said solemnly, patting some more mud into place. "It's squishy!"

And therefore fun.

"You can help if you wanna, but only if you make good ones."

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana had woken up and decided to go looking for someone to bother. Samuel, who had not de-aged, followed behind to keep her out of trouble.

"Come on Sam." Diana told the cat. "We've gonna find an adventures!"

Samuel sighed and kept following along.

[glacial_queen]

If adventures came in the form of a six-year old Karla, almost now fully covered in mud, then they were certainly on the right path. Karla was humming tunelessly to herself, patting mud into the appropriate shapes. She was setting up an assembly line of mud pies to decorate.

[anarchist-queen.livejournal.com]

A figure that could have been a boy or a girl for all that could be made out through the baggy, too-big-for-them clothes, and mass of white hair peered through the deck railings at the world beyond. And consequently at the little girl playing in the mud.

It looked like more fun than Florida would have thought.

[glacial_queen]

"I can sense you!" Karla called, even though she still hadn't turned around to look at the deck. "S'not polite to start a game of hidin' seek if you don't tell no one you're playin'."

[robinthefrog.livejournal.com]

With a gleeful squeal, something very small and green fell from on high and into the mud. Well, from the top twig of a bush, but it was certainly high to Robin.

[glacial_queen]

Karla squealed when she saw something falling near her, sending a spatter of mud in its direction.

[momslilassassin]

Ben stood quietly over to the side, watching and wondering if this girl was one of those nebulous "bad things" Ender had been so concerned about. She seemed really messy, but not bad.

Ben wasn't much of a talker as a little kid.

[glacial_queen]

Karla would be very offended if someone suggested she was a 'bad thing.' Karla knew that sometimes she could be very naughty, but usually she tried to be a good girl an' make her Mommy and Daddy very proud.

"I can sense you, y'know," she said quietly from where she was pouring water from the watering can onto more dirt for a fresh quantity of mud. She didn't bother to turn and look at him. "You can come play if you want."

[wantstodirect]

"Ooh! Whatcha makin'?" Tony asked, bouncing over to Karla and her mud.

[glacial_queen]

"Mud pies," Karla said, studiously examining several small rocks in her vicinity. She had a pie to decorate and only the choicest rocks would do. "Haven't you never made some before?"

[justwantsquiet.livejournal.com]

When Sookie saw what Karla was making, she quietly went and selected some pretty leaves and brought them over. "Hi," she said softly, waving a little shyly.

[glacial_queen]

Karla smiled at the other little girl. "Oh!" she said, clapping her hands when she saw what Sookie carried. "Those would be perfect for my mud pie!"

[inthereflexes.livejournal.com]

Jack could admire someone who would make a good mud pie. Even if she was a girl.

[glacial_queen]

Currently, Karla was in the process of shaping yet another pie. She'd had a Vision of what her next mud creation could be, and it was brilliant. She just needed more mud.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah, as it happened, had just come back from hanging out with Claire for a bit, and had to stop and grin at the picture Karla made. "Wow. You're really good at that."

[glacial_queen]

Karla beamed up at the older female. "Thank you!" she said, brightly. "I'mma be a baker an' a Healer an' a Queen when I grow up. So I'm getting lotsa practice now."