Room 203, Monday, Early Afternoon

[kitchen_maid]

Mondays, in the schedule Amy has drawn up for herself, are for dusting, sweeping, and having a general tidy of her room. But as days of the week don't have a whole lot of meaning here, and as those chores never seem to take very long, she won't feel the least built guilty about leaving it till Tuesday, should something more interesting present itself.

Comments

[kitchen_maid]

Amy's smile wrinkles up her nose. "Very used to it. I don't think I could get lost in the Forest of Faraway if I tried to. I grew up there. It's always been more like home than the palace, I think. At any rate, I ruined a great many pairs of shoes there."

She looks at him. "What about you, Perry? What sorts of things did you do, growing up? Aside, of course, from learning to make birds out of paper and becoming king at the age of ten."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Oh, the usual princely activities," he replies. "Riding, hunting, horrifically dull lessons...that sort of thing."

He helps her over a fallen log.

"I did enjoy boating, though. I suppose you could say that was my escape, the way the forest was yours."

[kitchen_maid]

"You'd think someone would come up with some lessons that weren't horrifically dull one of these days," says Amy.

"I'm glad you had an escape. And boats would seem to be a very sensible choice, because it's that much harder for your councilors to come and get you if you're in the middle of a lake."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Especially as none of them could swim," Perry says, with a grin.

"However, I never managed to become as chummy with the fish as you did with the squirrels."

[kitchen_maid]

"It's very difficult to become friends with fish, because you can really only say a few words at a time before you have to get air again. It makes conversation terribly awkward, all that stopping and starting, and eventually the fish get annoyed and swim away."

She might be kidding. She might not. It can be hard to tell with Amy.

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Generally they swim away rather sooner," Perry laughs, "as they do not appreciate oars coming down into their water. Besides, I'm not entirely sure I'd want to be friends with them, anyway. I'd feel terribly guilty about eating them later, wouldn't I?"

[kitchen_maid]

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that. Yes, that would be terribly awkward. And it's really no great loss, as they're hopelessly boring as conversationalists, anyway. Unless you are very very interested in swimming."

There's not much to the life of a fish, really.

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

Not particularly, no.

"Which is why you showed great presence of mind in choosing squirrels and crows to be your friends instead," Perry points out. "Much more useful, and quite a bit more entertaining."

The squirrels in question leap from various shoulders and begin what seems to be half a wrestling match and half a game of tag on the snowy ground.

[kitchen_maid]

Amy watches them for a moment, and then bursts out laughing.

"Well, I'll give you entertaining, in the case of the squirrels. I'm not sure how useful those two are. Except in snowball fights."

Peter Aurelious takes off with huffy dignity, and, from his perch on the branch above them, says, "Qwa." As disdainfully as possible.

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

Which is rather disdainful.

"Peter Aurelious is useful," Perry tells her, straigh-faced, as if he were nowhere in sight.

"He found your Christmas tree, after all, didn't he?"

[kitchen_maid]

Peter Aurelious could probably out-disdain Princess Persephone, really.

"He did," agrees Amy. "Oh, he's terribly useful, if a little smug about the fact."

She looks up at the crow and gives him a smile. The qwa she gets in response is somewhat less disdainful.

Somewhat.

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

She could use some disdain lessons from Peter Aurelious, as a matter of fact.

"I'd say he has every right to be smug," Perry says, nodding. "I say, you don't mind if I have him come in and be smug at the Council for a bit when we get back, do you? It might just throw them off long enough for me to get a word in edgewise now and again."

[kitchen_maid]

Amy giggles. "I think you probably underestimate the ability of your councilors to say what they mean to get said, if they're anything like the ones in Phantasmorania. But if you think there's a chance it will work, and if Peter Aurelious has no objections, I certainly think you should try it."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"There is always the chance," he says, laughing, "although the Lord Chancellor is very keen on getting everything he wants to say out."

Putting his hands on his hips, he looks about.

"Well, no brambles as of yet. How predictable."

[kitchen_maid]

"I believe it is the job of Lord Chancellors to be keen on saying everything they want to say."

She laughs.

"Well, it's probably rather silly to be looking for a berry bramble in the middle of January anyway, Perry," she says, practically. "I don't know of any berries that are in season in the snow. But it's a very nice excuse for a walk."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"Well, there is that," he says, cheerfully, reaching out to take her hand as they walk. "And it's a perfect day for it, whether we find something interesting or not, isn't it?"

[kitchen_maid]

"Absolutely perfect," she agrees, "and I think its being interesting has nothing to do with what we do or don't find."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"How true," he tells her with a smile. "After all, I am in excellent company, and therefore have no complaint to make."

And perhaps his smile is rather more fond than cheerful, but he turns his attention back to the path quickly.

[kitchen_maid]

"Well," she says, looking over at him. "You know what the key to being in excellent company is, don't you? You have to be excellent company yourself."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"So that the excellent compnay doesn't up and leave you?" he asks as they tramp through a particularly large snowdrift.

[kitchen_maid]

"Not exactly," she says. "Because it works best when everyone involved is in excellent company.

"Like now."

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

"I think perhaps it has a lot to do with the squirrels," he says confidingly, as the two shoot by in a blaze of gray and red fur.

"So, tell me, kitchen maid, what have you been doing? Keeping yourself busy?"

[kitchen_maid]

"True," she says with a laugh. "The squirrels rather improve any gathering, don't they?"

Amy thinks for a moment.

"I manage to stay busy, after a fashion, I suppose. I've done far more embroidery that anyone at home would ever believe. And I talk to an awful lot of people. And . . . and I try very hard not to think about whether or not I'm ever going to see that door again."

[kitchen_maid]

[ooc: And I need to sleep. As much as I really hate to say it . . . slowtime?]

[man-of-all-work.livejournal.com]

[ooc: of course! night!]