Dinosaur Campfire [suppertime]

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

Rilla had helped her siblings and the manse children gather firewood for bonfires in Rainbow Valley more times than she could count, and so she knew she had the proper mix of kindling to larger logs.

There was only one little problem--as the youngest, she'd never been permitted to light the fire, and the sausages she'd brought out with her weren't going to cook themselves.

How irritating.

She said down on a nearby log with a little flounce of her skirts, hoping for one of the older students to come along and help a wee freshman out.

Comments

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

"It is at that, isn't it?" Sara agreed with a merry laugh. "What with moving into the cabins and all, my sense of everything is a bit jumbled right now."

To say nothing of certain less than pleasant cabinmates . . .

"You wouldn't let something like that stop you, honestly?" asked the Story Girl, who had after all been brazen enough to sneak into the house and change the hands on the clock when several hours' waiting had turned out to be unbearable. "I'd offer to do the lighting, but I haven't any matches myself."

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"It's mostly that I haven't found matches," Rilla admitted with a little laugh. "My imaginary brother isn't that fearsome. What cabin are you in? There's a boy in this one who is the most frightfully noisy snorer."

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

"Jello Dragon," Sara said, putting a whimsical quirk into that first word. "I'm still not sure exactly what that is, only it sounds whimsical. There are several boys in there, but I haven't noticed any particularly horrible snoring. There is one boy who uses the most awful language, though."

She glanced around the campground and decided, "There's bound to be someone with matches, isn't there? Someone seems to have at least one fire going out here every night so far. One ought to come along eventually."

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"Well, you're a dragon," Rilla said with a bright smile. "Shouldn't your cabin be the ones in charge of such things? Well, and guarding treasure, of course."

Her eyes went wide. "You'll never guess who used to be a student here!"

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

"Well, not all dragons breathe fire, you know. The ones from the Chinese stories never seem to, anyway." Still, Sara couldn't help but laugh. "Of course, I haven't got the slightest idea where in that range Jello dragons fall, and if we're guarding treasure it certainly isn't gold."

She sensed a story, or at least the makings of one, and dropped gracefully to sit on a log, leaning forward curiously. "You're not going to tell me it's Napoleon Bonaparte, or anyone famous like that, are you?"

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"King Arthur!" Rilla whispered. "The snoring boy said he wasn't anything like the stories, though."

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

Her initial guess hadn't been that far off the mark, then. The way Sara's eyes widened was, by comparison, one of her more dramatic reactions. "Not Arthur of Camelot! Did he really? Oh, I wish I'd had a chance to meet him. Imagine hearing the real stories straight from the source!"

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"Do you think he'll visit? Oh my goodness, would coming here count as his return? Do you think he'd bring Lancelot with him?"

Calm yourself, Rilla.

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

"If he'd been here before, it might count," Sara allowed, somewhat more calm if still distinctly excited. "And Merlin! D'you think we'd get a chance to meet them both?"

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"I didn't even ask about Merlin," Rilla said. "Isn't he vastly old?"

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

Sara's face fell a bit. "He would have to be, wouldn't he, to be Arthur's trusted advisor? But still, it would be fascinating to meet them . . . and just think, what if he brought any of the Knights of the Round Table back with him!"

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"They were so dashing in the stories," Rilla sighed. "Do you think they were terribly handsome as well?"

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

"I like to think so," said a decisive Sara who had never gotten over the disappointment of Rachel Ward not being pretty. "How could they not be, with as many women pining after them as they had?"

Her lips quirked up in amusement. "Didn't your mother re-enact one of those stories once upon a time? We've heard stories about that."

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

Rilla blushed. "You've heard about that?"

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

Sara smiled, hoping to put Rilla at ease. "Oh, word got around. You don't need to worry, though; when I heard it, it sounded charming."

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"I'll have to tell Mother in my next letter home," Rilla decided with a tiny smile. "She'll laugh about it--my coming all the way to the States to hear stories about her in Avonlea."

[isntabitpretty.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure you weren't expecting to meet someone else from our tiny little island in this great big place," Sara pointed out. "But isn't it grand?"

[rilla-myrilla.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure how I would have adjusted without it," Rilla said dramatically. "It's so comforting to hear the sounds of home."