keeper of the lost cities short stories

Dinosaur fluff and mallowmelt

A/N

this scene happens in chapter 15 and we decided to write it from both Grady's point of view and Edaline's. hope you like it!

Grady

"Oh, stop being such a drama queen" Grady said to Verdy.

ROAR! Was her response.

"Okay. here goes nothing." he called.

The gnomes tugged on the ropes, pulling verdy's neck low enough for him to heave himself up.

SNAARRLL!

"I'm trying to help, you silly girl," he yelled as Verdy bucked and thrashed.

"Need a hand, Grady?" Alden called.

"Nah. Almost got it." He lunged and grabbed something black tangled in the feathers. It twisted and writhed, but Grady yanked it off, nearly losing his balance in the process. Verdy stopped struggling as Grady tossed the black thing to one of the gnomes and slid down her back. "Sorry about that," he called to Alden, once he was back on the ground.

He looked at the girl beside Alden, she was blonde and she had weird brown eyes. He knew that humans had brown eyes, but he thought she was an elf. That was what Alden told him.

He looked at her again, trying to guess what the girl might be thinking. She looked as worried as he felt and probably even more.

"No problem, my friend. Verdy giving you trouble again?" Alden said.

"That's why she's our permanent resident." he said.

"Would you like to meet a tyrannosaurus, Sophie?" Alden offered.

It looked like it was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Is it safe?" she asked.

"It is now that he got that jaculus off her neck. It's a winged serpent that feeds off blood." she held on to her blue elephant doll and moved away from the jaculus.

"Easy there, verdi," Alden said, as verdi whipped her head toward him and sophie.

Grady looked at the girl as she moved toward Verdi, she looked scared but he thought she was brave because she agreed to get close to Verdi without arguing.

"Are you surprised by what dinosaurs really look like?" Alden asked, motioning for the girl to come closer.

"I wasn't expecting the neon feathers," she admitted.

Grady laughed. "You must be Sophie" he said and gave his feathery hand to shake. She shaked his hand and then squeezed her doll stronger.

"Want to pet Verdy?" he suggested.

She approached her and rubbed her cheek lightly and then said "she's still in pain."

Grady looked at her with surprise, how could she be so sure? It was like she actually knew what Verdi was feeling. "Is she?" he said and separated the feathers on Verdi's neck. He looked at the wound with concern, the wound was deep and didn't looked good. "The wound is pretty deep. maybe I should treat it" he took kelpie dung, it was as stinky as always, and put it on Verdi's wound.

"Kelpie dung," Alden explained to sophie. "Takes the sting out of most bites."

Grady closed the jar and wiped his hands on the cloth a gnome handed him.

"I think you were right, Sophie. She seems more relaxed now. You must be good with animals." he said, this Sophie could be exactly what havenfield needed.

"I can be—with normal animals at least." she replied.

"Well, come on, Edaline's probably waiting."

Edaline

Grady came in with Alden and a blond girl with brown eyes who Edaline assumed was their new adopted daughter - Sophie Foster. She looked at them, frowning when she saw Grady.

"You're covered in dinosaur fluff!" she told him "I'm sorry, I told him to be presentable," she told Alden.

He laughed. "I've yet to see someone ride a T. rex without picking up a few feathers."

"You've never seen Edaline in action," Grady corrected with a smile. Edaline flushed.

"I'm going to wash up," he said, dashing up the staircase.

Edaline nodded. Then she took a deep breath and turned to Sophie. "Welcome to our home."

"Thank you for having me." she replied. What manners Edaline thought to herself

"I hope you can stay for tea," she told Alden. "There's mallowmelt." Alden would never miss an opportunity to have some of her famous mallowmelt.

"If you insist." he said.

"Would you like some lushberry juice?" Edaline offered Sophie.

"Um, sure."

Edaline snapped her fingers. There was a tiny pop and a flash of light, and a bright green bottle appeared on the table.

Sophie scooted back like the bottle was possessed. Edaline assumed she had never seen something like this and was startled.

Grady laughed. "Guess you've never seen a Conjurer in action before."

"How?"

"If I know where something is, I can bring it here with my mind. It's kind of like teleporting, but with objects." she answered.

"What can you do?" Sophie asked Grady.

His smile faded. "Nothing nearly as fun, trust me."

Grady was a mesmer, he was powerful but he didn't like it, Edaline understood him, she knew that it took for the council a long time before they trusted Grady and he didn't want Sophie to be scared of him.

Alden rose. "I, unfortunately, must get going." He dug a scraggly paper out of his pocket and handed it to Edaline. "Elwin wants her to take these medicines for the next few weeks. You should be able to find them at Slurps and Burps."

All the color faded from Edaline's face, she couldn't remember when exactly she left her house since Jolie died, but she did remember it was awkward. "I guess I'll take her tomorrow. Is there anything else she needs?"

"Della took care of the rest. You know how she is when it comes to shopping."

"I do. I made the mistake of letting her help me shop for a gift for . . . a friend's daughter one time. Four hours later I had a whole new wardrobe and still no gift." Edaline wished she could take the words back. When she remembered Jolie she let out a cry in her heart, the pain of her loss didn't fade even after 16 years.

Grady took Edaline's hand and she turned away, staring out the window.

Alden handed Sophie an imparter and said "This is an Imparter. It'll allow you to communicate with anyone in our world. So if you need anything, or simply want to talk, say my name to the screen and you'll reach me. Okay?"

"Okay."

Alden whispered to Sophie something and she nodded.

"Good." he answered.

Then took out his pathfinder and leaped away.

The silence after he left was turning awkward until Grady broke it by saying "Let's show you your new room."

A/N - if you have ideas for points of view we can do please write in the comments 

We'll post a chapter when we get to 5 votes.