by Milton Garby
"Ooooh," she said, getting up. "Okay." She wiggled out of the covers and dropped to the ground.
"Get dressed then come downstairs, your mother made pancakes."
Her face brightened up. Pancakes! She loved pancakes! She hurried to her dresser and put on a long earth-brown dress, a shirt of the same color, some socks, and then her nice dark brown shoes and hurried out the door as fast as her feet could carry her. Rounding the corner, Sara slowed down on the stairs so she wouldn't trip and hurt herself. When she reached the bottom she found the kitchen easily. She breathed in and let out an exaggerated 'aah' at the smell.
The kitchen wasn't that nice looking, it was painted with ugly pinks and yellows. But the pancakes smelled so good, so she made her way to the giant stone table and took a seat. There was already a plate, knife and fork set out - smaller than the ones Mommy and Daddy used - but no pancakes and no syrup, so after seating she let them know.
"Can I have pancakes?" she demanded. Daddy, who'd followed her down with a newspaper tucked under his arm and Mommy, who was approaching with a stack of food piled on a plate, both raised an eyebrow. "Please?" Sara added.
They chuckled. "Sure thing Sara," Mommy said. Her parents came and sat down next to each other, and both the plate and a jug of syrup. Sara immediately reached out and grabbed a pancake before her parents could tell her to be patient and set to cutting it up with her knife. It wasn't easy, the stupid thing didn't want to be cut, but she did it anyway because she was strong!
Her parents poured syrup for her since it was too big and heavy, and as Sara began eating she listened in to what they talked about. She liked to pretend she understood.
For the first bit her parents didn't say anything, contend to eat, but as Daddy read his paper eventually he made a noise of interest. "Honey, listen to this! The siege of Orgrimmar's a complete success."
"Really? I thought the fighting was over a while ago."
"It was, but they just finished trying the Warchief. Uh, the old one, not the troll one. They executed him just yesterday."
"Hmmph, good riddance. You think they'll ever take back our old home?"
"I don't think so, honey. The Horde really, really seems to want it."
Mommy groaned. "It's just not fair! We should at least be allowed to raise our child in her town of birth."
"I know, I know. But hey, this new Warchief may decide he doesn't want Hillsbrand as much. Gotta look on the bright side, right?"
"Right. So, I was thinking I could bring Sara to the park while you were at work. Maybe she could make some friends."
"I don't know, honey. I mean, I don't know if there are many others her age group."
Mommy lightly smacked Daddy, which made Sara grin a little. "That's no excuse for her not getting some air." Mommy leaned in to whisper into Daddy's ear, but Sara didn't think she knew that she could hear her. "Though I do wish she'd find something else to do besides play around with the insects."
"Hey, everyone's gotta have a hobby. And she's not hurting anyone." Daddy glanced up at the clock on the wall that was behind Sara. "Oh shhh...oot. Honey, I gotta go to work." He stood up and grabbed his remaining pancakes in one hand. "Love you."
"Love you too." Daddy leaned over and kissed Mommy, then pulled away.
Sara, who'd been quietly eating and kicking her feet against her chair, grimaced. "EEEEWWWW!"
Her parents chuckled. "Alright, I'll leave before I traumatize Sara. Remember the test this time?"
"I will," Mommy said. They shared another kiss - Eww! - and Daddy left, taking his share of breakfast with him.
Sara looked at Mommy. "What test?" she asked.
"In a few, dear. Finish up your breakfast so we can go to the park, okay?" she said, stabbing her pancake with her big grown-up fork.
"Okay."
The rest of breakfast passed by quickly. When Sara was done she pushed the plate away. "Mommy, can I go get my magnifying glass?"
Sara almost didn't catch the little twitch in Mommy's smile. "Of course, dear. But be back soon; I'll get everything else sorted."
"Yay!" she cheered, pulling away from the table to run upstairs. Once back in her room, she looked around and spotted the drawers where she kept her clothes messily laid out, no matter how much Mommy said to fold them neatly. She crouched down and reached her hand out to the little space beneath it and felt around. Soon her hand wrapped around the handle, and pulled back with her magnifying glass. It was about half the size of her head, and the glass was held in black-painted wood. She smiled and turned around, running out of her room, carefully down the stairs, to where Mommy was packing lunch into a green bag.
"I got it!" she announced proudly.
"Good, Sara." Mommy hefted the bag up onto her back and reached out a hand for Sara. Holding her magnifying glass in one hand, Sara walked over to her and held her hand rightly. Mommy then led her out of the house, opening the door to the town, called Greenvale or something. Sara was pretty sure it was called Greenvale. There was green grass everywhere, at least. There was also a ton of people around doing things that Sara didn't focus on too much because they were boooriiing!
Mommy led her past the buildings, past the school and the church, to the outskirts of town where there was a giant lake. The sun was rising in the bright blue sky, and it burned at the corner of her eyes because it was really, really bright even though some clouds were forming. There were also more than humans. There were a few night elves and... she didn't know their name, but they were blue and had weird horns. They looked funny.
Sara had to walk with a little skip in her step to keep up with Mommy, and it was a little tiring, but before long they arrived at the park on the outside of town. There was a big fence going all around the outside, a forest near the outskirts, and a small pond in the middle filled with fishies. The fishies never came up to the surface though, so Sara almost never got to see them dance. Oh well. At least there were plenty of smaller animals to have fun with.
There were a lot of other families around the park. Like, more-than-ten a lot! Mommy brought Sara to about halfway between the pond and the forest, where five wooden benches were placed for people to sit down if they got tired. As they walked, Sara hummed happily and swung her magnifying glass by her side wildly. Mommy sat down on a bench facing the forest and brought Sara to face her.
"Alright honey, I'll be right here in case anything goes wrong. You go and play, alright? Maybe speak with one of the other kids here?" she said, motioning to the other kids around Sara's height playing tag and whatnot.
"But they're stupid heads!" Sara whined.
"Sara, it's not nice to call other people stupid heads. I'm not telling you to go talk to them, but if they come to try and play with you, give it a shot. You'll never know you don't like it if you don't try," Mommy said, singing the last word.
I can too know I won't like it, Sara thought, but she didn't say it out loud; that would make Mommy angry. Instead she gloomily said, "Okay."
"Good to hear. I'll be here if you need anything."
"Mmhmm!" she said, taking off at a quick pace. After some time she slowed down, feeling the warm air wrapped around her. Sara looked around the ground, searching for the mounds of dirt in particular. After a few minutes she found an anthill, with a dozen or so ants crawling around it.
She liked ants. They usually came in large numbers, which meant she could choose whether to play with them one at a time or a whole bunch, and if she decided to do a whole bunch it was so easy, because ants were small. Like, really super small. She couldn't play with many mice, or garder snakes, at a time, but ants she could. And the best part was that there was always more ants.
"Yay!" she cheered. Sara held out her magnifying glass and found one of the ants scurrying around a nearby patch of grassless dirt. She spotted the ring of light made by her magnifying glass and knelt over the ant, moving it and turning it to get the light smaller and smaller. Once it was small enough, she focused the super-duper bright spot over the ant
she'd been looking at, making it dance. It ran away from her light, so she followed it, and then it ran back, which was silly, and then it stopped running and danced in one place, slower and slower the longer Sara held the light.
"Aww." Before too long, the ant stopped dancing completely, laying still. It made Sara a little happy that she'd managed to tire it out like that, but she wanted to see it dance. To dance and run around in circles and do things. So Sara focused, barely even noticing the itty-bitty black flashes in her palms. It wasn't hard to make ants move; they were so small! With almost no effort, Sara took the ability-to-move and put it into the ant. There was a little flash of green along the ant's body, which puffed outward and blew away on the wind. Immediately the ant stirred to life, dancing crazily and running away before Sara could get her magnifying glass to bear again. But it ran to another three ants, which made her smile. She could make them all dance!
Focusing on the same ability that let her make the ants able to dance, Sara reached out to all four ants - and another five not too far away - and pushed the energy into them. They started squirming around randomly in the dirt, and two of them even hit each other as they danced! Sara giggled and increased the magic, causing the tiny ball of black energy in her hands to grow from the size of an ant to the size of a peanut. The effect spread from those nine to more of the ants around the anthill, forcing Sara to stand instead of crouch so she could see them all rolling around on the ground in zig-zags.
But like with her magnifying glass, if she kept them dancing too long they eventually slowed down, gave a few more kicks, and then stopped. It was pretty to see them scattered around like that, like peppercorns, but not as much fun as playing with them. Sticking her tongue out to the side, Sara focused on the ants and, one by one, put the ability-to-dance back into them, small grass-colored lights leaking from the ants for just a moment when she did. They scurried away into the grass; apparently they didn't want to play anymore.
... oh, but there were more ants! There were always more ants. But first, Sara wanted to see if maybe she could spot any fishies to play with.
Getting up and tightening her grip on her magnifying glass, Sara ran the distance to the nearby lake. She didn't really pay any attention to the grown-ups around or, or to the other kids who were playing something where they ran into each other, then ran away. All Sara was interested in was the lake.
Mommy and Daddy always told her to be careful around the lake, so she didn't fall in. And it wasn't that bad, since the lake started out very shallow, filled with all sorts of rounded pebbles that looked like they would hurt if she threw them at someone. Every now and then one of the tiny fish came out into the not-deep end of the lake, where she could cast her... her stuff on them and have fun with them. Sara took off her shoes and held them in her hands as she waded in until she was ankle deep in the super cold water, looking around for any fishies. She thought she spotted one, a tiny thin black fish, but before she could make it dance it swam away into the deep part of the lake where it was too dangerous for her to go; that made Sara frown.
After a few more minutes of looking for fish to play with, clouds gathering in the sky, Sara gave up. They just didn't want to play today. Oh well, back to the anthill!
Running out of the lake, Sara put her wet feet back into her shoes, giggling at the strange feeling of water and leather. She didn't go back to the same anthill as before, instead she found a new one and started playing with the ants there with her magnifying glass, or her powers, or sometimes both. Sometimes she made the ants stop being tired, sometimes she left them there. But doing that was a little tiring if she kept doing it again and again and again, so eventually she decided to run back to Mommy for lunch.
Mommy was already watching her and smiling by the time Sara ran back, her tummy growling. "Hey honey, did you have fun?" she asked in a kinda-worried voice. That was silly, Sara was fine! What was there to be worried about?
"Uh huh!" she said with a nod. "I'm hungry."
"Alright Sara, here." Mommy reached into her pack and pulled out her lunch. Sara hopped onto the bench and took the peanut butter sandwich, eagerly chowing down on it. Yum. "So, what were you doing in the lake?"
"Looking for fish to play with," she said. "They always splash when they dance!"
"Yes... dance. Sara, remember what I told you about making animals dance?"
Ooooh not this talk again! It was so boring! It also made Sara tense; she felt like Mommy wanted to not let her have any fun! "That it hurts them, and it's not nice, and never to make people dance," she whined.
"Sara," Mommy said sternly. "This isn't a joke. I'm serious."
She threw her head back and groaned. "I knooooow!" She leaned her head back over and kept eating. "Can I have some water?" She paused. "Please?" she added.
Mommy cracked a smile, breaking her stern look. "Of course." She fished out a flask of water and gave it to Sara, who quickly drained the cool, tasty liquid, pushing the flask away with a happy 'ah'. "Now honey, I have a present for you, because you were such a good little girl."
Sara gasped. A trip to the park and a present? This was the best day ever!
Mommy put both of her hands in the brown bag and pulled them out clenched into fists. She shown Sara both hands; in one was a single piece of chocolate, and in the other were two.
"Now Sara, you can make a choice. Either you can have this one piece of chocolate now, or you can have these two pieces of chocolate when we get home. Which do you want?"
Sara considered it, tilting her head. Then, she went with her first idea; she reached out her hands to grab all three at once! But Mommy was fast, like, grown-up fast, and pulled her hands away before she could grab them.
"Ah ah, Sara. One or two."
Sara pouted, but said. "Fiiine. I want the two."
Mommy smiled. "Okay honey. Now come on Sara, it looks like rain. We should get back home soon."
"Aww," she pouted. "Okay." She hopped up from the bench as Mommy stood and followed her, skipping lightly as they left the park and went back to the town. Afternoon was always when both Mommy and Daddy worked, so she was always alone then. It wasn't so bad, she could look at her parents' books for fun. But it meant there were less things she could do. Mommy and Daddy had said that it would be better for her if she played with other kids her age, but...
... well, they really were stupid heads!
As they got back into town, Sara's skipping and jumping died down into gloomy walking. But there was some good news as the clouds grew darker and heavier...
Cracka-BOOM!
The clap of thunder made her jump in surprise and, as it kept rolling through town and making her shake, she giggled. Yay! Thunderstorm!
Of course, as drops of rain began falling more and more, Mommy decided she wasn't as happy as Sara was. "Come on Sara, let's get inside." Mommy grabbed her hand and pulled her along as the rain fell harder and harder, until Sara could barely see ten yards in front of her! It also got into her eyes, which wasn't as much fun, but by then they were at home and Mommy was pushing her into the wooden building to get out of the storm.
Sara laughed when Mommy closed the door behind her, handing her the two chocolates she'd been promised. There was another peal of thunder, which made her laugh again. Taking off her shoes, Sara ran up the stairs and to her room to peer out through the window. She wouldn't even need the books! She could just look at the thunderstorm!
Giggling, she pulled a seat up to the window and sat on it. She crossed her arms on the windowsill and rested her chin on it. Outside was Greenvale, dark and gray with people running for shelter from the downpour, barely visible through the rain. Then a flash of lightning, followed by another roar of noise, making her giggle.
The rest of the day was fun too. She ate her candy, and Sara spent a good portion of the afternoon watching lightning bolts strike down from the clouds. The rain diminished quickly, but was joined by a howling wind that swept through the streets and made the house rattle. Each hoo of
wind or crack of thunder made Sara giggle. At one point, she thought Mommy came up from her paperwork to check in on her, but she was too focused on the storm to ask what was going on. The little cuckoo clock in her room ticked the hours away. The sun went down, but the storm was still going so the only way Sara could tell was how dark it became, which just meant the lightning was even easier to see! She still lit a candle though, cause if she hit herself in the dark that wouldn't be fun, not at all.
Eventually though, a light shudder ran through the house as the door opened and slammed shut. Sara's eyes widened. Daddy was home from blacksmith-er-y-ing work! She pushed her seat away from the window, almost tipped over and hurt herself, then jumped off and ran downstairs. "Daddy! Daddy!" she shouted. Sara found him easily, drenched with rain and soot. He leaned over as she approached grabbed her, and lifted her up.
"Hey there honey! Did you and your mom have a good time?"
She nodded vigorously. "Uh huh! We went to the park, and I looked in the lake for fishies, and then when we came home there was a storm, and I got to play with the ants!"
Father's smile twitched a bit when she mentioned playing with the ants and he lowered her back to her feet. "That's, um, really great to hear honey! Where's your mother right now?"
"Working in her room," she answered. "Are you gonna make dinner tonight?"
Father tilted his head and rubbed his chin. "If your mother's working, then I think I am. But first, I need to talk to her a bit. Think you'll be okay in your room?"
She nodded again. "Yeah!" She turned around and ran for the stairs. "Bye Daddy!" Another clap of thunder boomed through the house, which made Sara giggle. Thunder was nice. Lightning was even better know; she couldn't predict where that would strike at all! Thunder, she knew would always follow lightning. Still, Sara went back to her window and looked outside at the windy storm. Summer was her favorite season for just that reason; sooo many storms!
Just a few minutes later, Sara found herself back in the dining room, with both of her parents talking with each other about boring, icky, grown-up stuff to the tune of wind outside. Dinner was pasta, and she liked slurping it up, or twirling it around and around her fork, or just looking at how the pasta was dropped together on her plate like a maze. Other times she'd listen to their grown-up talk, but after all the fun she'd had today in the park she was feeling too tired.