A Bough That Won't Break [PM for Invite]

[Aydyn Blair]

Late Afternoon on the
34th of Melora in the
Season of Spring

Aydyn had a lot on her mind, a lot that needed to be put away with busy work. But Aydyn didn't really have a lot to keep her occupied. Not true, necessarily, given that Noah in herself was a full-time job for any mother. Despite her daughter's sweet and relatively easy-going nature, Noah still needed to be watched, bathed, fed, burped, changed, given a nap, and held when she wanted attention. All the things that babies required of their mothers and fathers. Only Noah had no father. It was only Aydyn.

Another fact that wasn't really a fact at all any more. She had Selena, a good friend who nonetheless had her own issues to deal with without Aydyn having to constantly stick Noah into her care as well. So that afternoon Aydyn had taken Noah out with her, the child bound in the sackclothe that Amelia had fashioned into a carry sling of sorts so that Aydyn could carry Noah against her chest, on her venture outside of the city. She did so feeling a little wary, having felt a good deal more comforted surrounded by people in the city rather than out in the open. Not that she didn't enjoy seeing something other than buildings flattened together, but she'd strapped her staff to her back...just in case.

The trip had been a quick one and she'd purchased three thick logs to be delivered to Selena's address that afternoon and hurried home so that she was sure she'd be there when they arrived.

The logs sat now in the center of the main room all on their sides. They were the remnants of a bigger tree and though Aydyn was dismayed that they'd been cut down at all, she knew that she'd at least put them to good use. Or, at least, her baby...and Selena's...would. She sat in a chair in front of them, Noah napping on the bed, elbows on her knees, chin in her hand, trying to decide what exactly she wanted them to look like. Should they each look different? The same? Similar but varied? Not that she could make anything complicatedly decorative anyway. That could be applied with paint.

Besides, they didn't really need anything fancy anyway.

[Aydyn Blair]

An image had sunk itself into Aydyn's mind as she studied the logs. They would be different, each of them, and they would not be the sort of cradles that you rocked back and forth--too dangerous, she decided, especially if the supports turned out crooked. No, she'd just make them so they were upraised cradles. Nothing special. Nothing fancy. She was not the sort of woman who required something special, something fancy.

With a bit of trouble she reset one of the logs so that it was directly in front of her. Her hands slid over the log, over the rough bark along its sides, not because she needed to, but because she felt it important to have a fair understanding of the wood that she planned to warp. Nothing could be out of place. Not so much as a splinter. As she looked it over she relaxed herself gradually into clara and set about combining vis and ara, then the essence, to create the mana. She wove the mana into the shape of the cradle with Alteration and Abjuration. She settled the weave over the log in front of her and sat back against the backrest of the chair as she released it.

She watched the cradle take shape in front of her. The change was instantaneous, the log morphing from solid, bland log into that of a basined cradle with a slightly high, curved backboard. There were four, cylindrical legs that jutted away from the basin to keep it steady on the ground. She tested the sturdiness when she stood over it, bending to set her hands on the sides and rocking it a little. Sturdy enough. It barely wobbled. The cradle came up just above her knees. It didn't have to be tall.

She smiled to herself as she stepped back. It really wasn't special, just as she'd planned it. But it was perfect nonetheless.

[Aydyn Blair]

Aydyn moved around the living area, stepping across the room to the bundle that she'd bought earlier that brightening, another errand she'd run when she went out to buy the wood. She'd picked up a few baby blankets at the bazaar and some material to pad the curving inside of the cradle. She set in the padding in the cradle and lay the yellow blanket on top of it, admired the color against the dark wood of the warped furniture.

She went to retrieve Noah then, lifting her delicately out off the bed where she'd been napping. Noah wailed at the interruption of her sleep but with a few soft words and a little tickling of her belly and Noah was giggling hysterically, her chubby fists grabbing for her mother's curling hair. Aydyn let her take a lock but had to extract it from her daughter's mouth soon after. "Silly, I was going to show you your cradle," she chided gently, smiling. She was a happy baby. Would it be proof enough that a mother was all the girl needed?

She lay Noah down in the new bed, but she'd already woken her daughter up and the girl cried out in protest as soon as Aydyn had lifted her hands away. Her small hands waved in the air as she wailed and Aydyn sighed. She was bound to get a headache if Noah kept this up, so she bent down and humored the girl, scooping her back into her arms and carrying her about the room. She hummed tunelessly--Aydyn had no head for music or rhythm--until Noah had quieted, dozing and drooling on her mother's shoulder.

Gently she resettled her daughter in the new crib where she continued to sleep once Aydyn retracted her arms. Success.

[Aydyn Blair]

With Noah settled into bed, Aydyn sat back down in the chair, which she moved away from the new cradle and placed on the other side of the logs still waiting to be tended to. She reached out and tapped a finger against one log, thinking, her eyes shifting over the cradle that she'd already made. The same...or different? It was a thought that made her hesitate. Would Selena want a cradle similar to her own?

She wasn't certain, but something in her mind decided...why not? The two were friends, growing closer, and had a shared bond not only in their Druidism, but their relatively fatherless children. If they were begotten different ways, it didn't matter. Their situations were nearly the same. Perhaps the gesture could be termed cute, but she decided to make them the same. Besides. It spared her from having to think of too many deviating ways of making the cradles anyway.

She sat back and relaxed for a second time, meditating into clara and combining vis, ara, and the essence from the plane to create the mana she required. She began to shape the mana, using Alteration to create the shape of the cradle and Abjuration to give it the movement to get into that shape, then released it around the log in front of her.

[Aydyn Blair]

The log took shape in front of her, not unlike the one she'd created not half a candlemark earlier. It was the same in every aspect of the word in form, with four legs that splayed away from the curved basin of the baby bed, the headboard jutting up slightly higher than the rest. Almost every bit like the one she'd made for Noah save this was slightly higher. She hadn't been focused too hard on the height and had accidently adjusted it slightly in her own head as she worked the spell.

But that was not a problem for the log had been able to handle it anyway. Aydyn had no idea what to expect in terms of the size of Selena's children. They were sure to be more delicate than her own Noah given their elvish heritage, but from what Aydyn had gathered from her discussions about her rapist the man had been human, barbari. They were bound to be less delicate in structure than a full-blood human. Doubtlessly they would not be unlike Noah then. She size couldn't have varied all that much. Still, she speculated over the matter as she felt along the inside of the cradle's basin to ensure that there were no rough edges to be found.

Aydyn then arranged the inside with the padding and the blankets that she had purchased. She had gotten her friend two different color blankets, one green and one yellow. Twins she was expecting and should they be identical there was no reason to become confused. Perhaps the blankets would help some. She set them into place, trying to picture a baby wrapped among them...and finding it not all that hard to do with Noah nestled comfortably in a bed of her own not far off.

She smiled at her daughter, sitting alongside the new cradle, a hand delicately brushing over the dark head of brown curls that were growing in thick as anything. This girl would have hair, lots of lovely, curling hair. Thankfully Noah did not waken when touched, but continued to doze in the cradle, a curled fist against her mouth, the thumb just out of reach of tiny, rose-pink lips.

[Aydyn Blair]

Aydyn did not complete the cradles that brightening, understanding the limitations of her own abilities and not wishing to drain herself completely. One never knew when they might need to use something only to find that they had no access to it. Only to find that they over-taxed themselves, causing more trouble than they'd started with. It was better to hold off, to wait. So she did.

She spent the rest of the afternoon arranging the first two cradles, the first very carefully given that Noah rested inside of it. It was too much to hope for--the jostling wakened her daughter and set her to crying. She fed Noah and rocked her, humming tunelessly as her daughter settled into a comforted state. A happy state. She giggled, a happy smile on her face as her mother bent over her, hair tickling her tiny cheeks. She loved her mother's hair and grabbed what she could of it when it came near. She never pulled hard for she was too small and it was never too difficult to untangle once Noah had sunk her chubby digits into it. Then Noah slept and Aydyn was left to do as she pleased around the room.

It was the next brightening when she managed to sit down again in front of the third and final log. Noah was sleeping in her new cradle having been fed and hummed too--never sung to because Aydyn had no singing voice to speak of--thus granting Aydyn adequate amount of time to settle down to complete the cradles.

She looked between the first two cradles and this log, recalling the image she'd had for them the brightening before. As she remembered it she sunk herself down into Clara, meditating herself into a sedate and restful frame of mind so that she could repeat the process she had done the brightening before: drawing the ara and the vis together, combining them with the nature essence from the appropriate plane. Mana it formed and she wove this with Abjuration and Alteration just as she had before, giving the weave the proper shape so that it would in fact form the cradle.

Aydyn released the spell around the log and watched as it took shape.

[Aydyn Blair]

The spell took hold of the log and the wood changed, warped, until in its place there was no longer a chunk of bland wood, but rather a third--and final--cradle. The same as the others in its shape with the slightly splayed legs and curved, half-cylindrical basin. As she had with the others she tested the inside for chips. This one had a few and she looked around until she found a knife to smooth it down with, frowning slightly as she worked at it--Aydyn was not a carpenter.

Finally she put the knife down and stepped back to admire her handiwork. Boring, plain cradles. The sort that the lower class accepted and the upper class would cringe at if someone suggested they keep it in their homes. The sort Aydyn would have doubtlessly had if she had never left her home in Candaceburg. If she had stayed and married a local farmboy and popped out as many babies as her body could possibly handle; given her own mother's history, Aydyn wondered if this would in fact be very many at all.

She arranged the remaining yellow blankets she had purchased into the bowl of the cradle, placing them a top the padding, then stood back. She hoped that they worked well with the twins. She hoped that she hadn't made a mistake somewhere along the lines. She didn't think she had. They looked sturdy, firm. These were nothing like normal cradles whose legs were shoved into the basins, each part separate made. They flowed together, the legs one with the basin, the basin one with the headboard. One piece. To her they looked fine. To her friend perhaps they would be bland and dull. To Aydyn...they served a purpose. That was all that was needed. Practicality.

Picking up the cradle, Aydyn manuevered it into its place beside the other cradle she had made for Selena. There it would stay unless her friend decided to move them around...or decided they were trash, that she wouldn't use them at all. She certainly hoped that wouldn't be the case, doubted it would be.

Work done, Aydyn settled down alongside her daughter to relax. Fidgetting in her relaxation, but relaxing nonetheless. It had been a while since she'd been aimlessly idle.

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