chase the sky into the ocean

With the same expression a cat would make before pushing a glass off a counter, Zora leans over to the knobs and turns all of the stove’s fires on. “Yew can’t stop me.” She taunted. “Ah could set this whole place on fire if ah wanted too!”

Percy probably wouldn’t be too happy about that, though. And blaming it on a freak accident probably wouldn’t work either. And after that, there would be no reason why Percy and Ramsey would still keep her around.

There was the quiet click of a lock turning.

Zora glanced down at the fires. Uh oh. Better turn these off quick.

She sticks out her tongue. “Make me.” Zora glares at the fire. It’s hardly helping to warm her up at all. “There’s nothin’ around for it to set on fire, ‘cept me. ‘Nd look.”

She puts her hands in the fire. The fire curls around her fingers, but they don’t burn. She can feel how hot the flames are, it should be warming her up, but it doesn’t. “Not a very good fire.” She leans forward over it, glad that her hair wass tied back behind her. It’s a little more flammable than the rest of her, and while it wouldn’t burn away, she doesn’t think Percy would appreciate coming home to an on-fire child.

Zora nods. “Ah’m usually warm, so bein’ cold’s weird.” The sun wasn’t helping, so she looked around for a better option. Hmm. The stove made fire, and fire’s warmer than sunlight. Percy and Ramsey weren’t around to tell her not to, so...

“Yew cold too, bud?” She asked the sheep as she got up. Browley bleated at her, which she took as a no. “No tellin’ anyone ‘bout dis, ‘kay?” She fiddled whth the knobs on the stove for several minutes until one finally caught, turned it until the fire was as big as it could go.

“No one’s here so ah’ll do what I want~!” She said with a sing-song tone as she clambered up onto the countertop. Zora put her hands over the fire, lowering them so they were practically in it, and sighed. “No luck here. Still cold.” She reported.

“Yeah.” Zora says with a sigh. “Just cold.” Her extra poncho and Browley aren’t doing much to help keep her warm, unfortunately. She feels colder than she was before. Awkwardly carrying the sheep with her, she made her way to the glass doors at the back of the house.

She sat down right next to the doors, and smushed her face against the glass. The sun helped chase away the cold for a few seconds, then the chill set in again. Zora was starting to get really annoyed and a little freaked out. “Ah hate bein’ cold...”

Cold: Wear a jacket silly! Muse is always cold and doesn’t know why and is always trying to snuggle up to another person.

Zora always felt a little chilly when she wasn’t somewhere warm or out in the sun, but today she felt colder than usual. She grabbed her old, worn poncho and put it over her new one, hoping that it would help her warm up a little.

Several minutes passed, and she felt colder than usual. Zora grabbed Browley, happy that the sheep summon was still around, and buried her face in the fluff.

“Ah wanna be a cowboy!” Zora exclaims. “Or maybe a cop, like Percy an’ Ramsey.”

She considers it further.

“Yeah, them. You say you’ve had them forever? ..why would a regular mundie child have such strange marks..” His mention of that is rather explicit, and able to be heard very well, but it’s also a child that was supposedly found in..what, the forest? So maybe it was something epithet related. Maybe they just didn’t know. Eh, whatever, she was adorable and he wasn’t going to question anything.

“Right, right, Keep liking them, they are very amazing, little Zora. Would you enjoy Browley staying around you for a long time? I can easily keep my epithet running from a far range, if you wanna snuggle him for a while.”

She shrugs. “Yep. Just natural ah think.” Honestly, she’d never spent much time wondering about it. She didn’t exactly spend a lot of time looking at her reflection in the forest, and even less time thinking about how she looks.

He observed the reaction to the sheep with slight mental note-taking, but was glad to see Browley wasn’t being anything reckless or causing a ruckus with her. In fact, this was a delight, as the sheep just let her, nuzzling in care and comfort. Note: Use the sheep for children that come into the office, it might really assist them for therapeutic endeavors.

“I’m..afraid that keeping him might be difficult considering the intricacies of trying to take care of or own a sheep, and no less, he’s a summon, I haven’t experimented with time limits, but I don’t imagine him staying around. ..For now, you may though. Okay?” He gives a bright smile, the little ‘baa’ from the summon almost seemed calming in of itself, trying to help someone sleep. When they weren’t constantly nibbling of course.

“Thank yew!” Zora took her face out of the fluff to beam at him- literally. The markings around her eyes and her irises flickered and flashed before fading to a dull glow again. She was oblivious to it, as always. “Ah don’t think Percy’d be okay with a sheep anyway...” She giggles, a little embarrassed.

“If the other person has aquaphobia, yeah, I could very well do so and likely flood an area at the same time. I can’t do it freely, however, unless someone is physically daydreaming or is in a groggy state. Hence, my sleep dust.” He gathers up a little of the sleep dust in his hand to show off, the orange powder glistening a bit in any light of the area they’re in, before he turns away from her to scatter it away. Not wanting to get her in the crossfire.

“..Otherwise! I have a few small summons, including very fluffy little sheep that tend to nibble by my command.”

“How fluffy are the sheep?” Zora’s eyes light up. Come to think of it, she doesn’t think she’s ever seen a sheep before. She knows what they are, sure, but she can’t picture on in her head. “Ah wanna see them! There aren’t any sheep in the forest.”

He’s surprised at how quickly the child would surmise him possibly having an epithet, and giving two simple nods, maybe it’s interesting to her, perhaps a demonstration is slightly in order? “Why, yes, I do have an epithet, and highly trained as well, a very powerful one! Do you want a demonstration?”

He’s thinking it’ll mostly be good for the child to be exposed to an example as soon as needed, and also needing to make a mental note to empty out the constantly building sleep dust in his coat fluff.

“Ah’m not really...” She trails off, trying to find a way to word her thoughts as she glares at the fading dust, mentally ordering it to stay away. “Ah don’t like epithets much but, as long as yew don’t use it on me.” Some innate need to know demanded that she try to figure out what his epithet is.