Once little Livia had planted herself into the lives of the Eigeroy family, she quickly rooted herself there. Only a few weekends after her first introduction to Molil, she appeared again, early on a Saturday morning. The Eigeroy family was surprised by small footsteps coming up the path to the cabin. It was a pleasantly warm day with a cheerful morning breeze which had encouraged the family to leave the cabin door open while they ate their family meal inside.

The family was sitting around the table eating oatmeal with berries and honey, talking in subdued, morning voices. Solveis was chatting, half engaged with her family about school and the way the popular girls re-did their hair when they got to school after their parents left. The family’s mood switched from cozy to medium-alert, though, when they heard the footsteps coming unexpectedly up the path. The family all fell silent. The footsteps sounded small though, like a child, so the alert dropped to low level. Arlendr jumped out of his seat and walked towards the sounds.

“That round eyed girl is back,” he announced to his family, sounding like a soldier reporting to his command. He grew stern and leaned forward, beyond the door frame, to get a good look.

Livia approached quickly and rushed past him into the cabin, not seeming to notice that he had positioned himself to block her entrance. She went to the table and sat in his empty seat, immediately starting to chatter at the family, dripping water onto the seat and floor. Arlendr looked affronted. He left the area altogether.

“I came a different day too, but you weren’t here. It was creepy alone, so I got the fishermen to take me back home. I looked for your boat a lot. Until today I saw it. So, I asked the fishers again. And you are here this time!,” Livia chattered in an unceasing flow at the family.

The parents glanced at each other. Baby Oskar looked deeply amused. He toddled over to Livia, pulled himself up into her chair, and then began touching her face.

“No sir, Oskar,” the mother corrected his behavior.

Livia didn't seem to mind at all. She booped his little nose and made silly noises at him. Then she noticed the bowl in front of her. She dipped a finger into it and ate a bite of the gruel.

“Not bad!,” she exclaimed. “It’s pretty sweet,” she noted.

“Honey,” the mother began to entreat Livia soothingly, “does your sister know you're here?”

“I told Papi I went to a friend’s house,” Livia answered absentmindedly. She continued to play with the baby. “Soon we’ll have a baby at the house,” she continued absentmindedly.

The mother and father glanced at each other.

After that incident, Livia was around all the time. She found her way over to Molil almost every weekend that the Eigeroys were there. Her appearance that day had been an incident; it had caused the parents some concern. Somehow though, they handled it. Solveis suspected that they’d had a conversation with Juju. Whatever the case, Livia seemed to have permission to hop over to Molil on weekends.

When the weather started to get cold, the parents grew concerned about how Livia was arriving at Molil. She generally got a ride with fishermen from her town, but she often swam part of the way over. This would become unsafe when it got properly cold out (Also, Solveis’s mother was disturbed by the child walking around in a dripping wet bathing suit all the time.). The Eigeroy parents decided to remedy this problem by buying Livia a proper kayak, like the ones their own children had. The autumn holiday celebration was coming up, and that was the traditional holiday of gift giving, so it all worked out. The little kayak they bought for Livia matched Solveis’s and Arlendr’s, except that it was violet colored and had obnoxious purple flowers painted on the sides.

On the day of the fall holiday, the Eigeroy family did their usual holiday thing. They had the festive breakfast, visited family, and exchanged gifts. Then, they had friends over to Molil island for the second half of the day. Livia showed up unexpectedly. The parents had expected her to be with her own family all day on this holiday. They hadn’t expected her to visit again until a couple of weeks later, after the holiday. The Eigeroy mother had planned a whole ceremonious lunch, where she would present Livia with the gift. The family had grown used to Livia’s charmingly uncivilized behavior though; they accepted that Livia’s sister likely didn't mind that her little charge had abandoned her own family’s festivities. The mother made an effort to welcome Livia into their celebration. The cabin and surrounding area was full of a dozen friends and cousins. They’d had food and exchanged gifts. Now, everyone was just celebrating together, talking and playing. Upon Livia’s arrival, the Eigeroy family presented her with her gift. The father brought it up outside the cabin. Its large size drew a circle of children around, watching interestedly. Livia was so excited by a large, wrapped parcel that she literally jumped up and down, spun in circles, and squealed. She opened it as quickly as her young hands would let her. The unwrapped kayak created a new burst of giggles and jumps. Most of the other children already had a vessel like this one and were only moderately interested in it. Livia, on the other hand, burst with excitement. To be gifted with such a thing, to have your own boat! On top of this wonder, it was also beautiful, just to her liking. The puffy purple flowers painted onto its sides were mesmerizing and fun! Livia stayed near it all day, playing where she could keep it in her line of sight. She traced the shape of the flowers with her finger over and over, all day. The next day, when it was time for her to go home, the parents told her that she was to ride it home. When she understood that it was hers to keep, to bring home with her, and to use whenever she wanted, she overflowed with new excitement, matching the level of excitement from the day before. She navigated it home in a fit of ecstatic fun.

After the episode of the purple kayak, the mother became more patient and charmed by the little oggo’s silly babyness. She grew affectionate with her, though still occasionally annoyed by her naivety.

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Shortly after the purple kayak episode, Livia entrenched herself even deeper into Solveis’s life by announcing that Solveis was her best friend. The morning had started in ordinary fashion, with the two girls playing together on the plateau and on the west hill. Unknown to Livia though, that day would lead to her eventually having the honor of being allowed entrance into the cave.

When Livia had first started coming to the island, Solveis hadn’t understood that Livia had meant to be a friend, that she would be a lasting fixture of their lives. Livia had been a strange, chatty, visiting novelty; like visiting relatives or a circus. After Livia continued to be present week after week (though certainly not every weekend), she became part of the routine and of the atmosphere. Eventually, it occurred to Solveis that the visitor wasn’t a visitor, but a member of her small community.

Seemingly out of nowhere, one morning, Livia told Solveis, “You're my best friend!” She had announced this mid-conversation, not realizing the significance of what she’d said. Continuing absentmindedly, Livia said, “Alle was my best friend when I was little, except she’s my cousin, so it doesn’t count. I have friends at school too. – Oh and – you go to school on the men-lind?! Don’t you?” Livia looked questioningly at Solveis, waiting for her to answer the question about the mainland school. Having known Solveis for a few moons by that point, Livia was beginning to realize that if you wanted Solveis to answer a question, then you had to wait silently for a second and give her a chance to respond.

Solveis had been thoughtfully taking in the contents of the conversation when she became aware that her little friend expected an answer. Stashing her dwellings away for a moment, Solveis formulated an answer, “yes. I go to Magnus. – Do you really have your own school on your island?”

“Yeah. But, we use the same kir-kik-lum as the other schools. The teacher told me that,” she stated proudly. Then, out of the blue, she asked Solveis very seriously, “Am I your best friend?” Her usually silly, thoughtless expression looked almost intense, a little pathetic. Her child’s eyes held Solveis’s.

Solveis had a thing for telling the truth. She wasn’t sure what to say to this entreaty. She hadn’t thought about it before. Solveis had never had a best friend. When she had been very young, she’d had a friend who she’d called her best friend, but neither of them had really meant it. She thought it was something that should be taken seriously now. In her consideration, Solveis realized that taking such a long time to reply might, in itself, hurt Livia’s feelings. She decided – quickly – to define a best friend as the friend who you spend the most time with and know the best – except for siblings. In that case, Solveis could safely and honestly say yes to her little friend. It also gave her a framework by which to judge the growth of this friendship.

Finally, (though not so much time had passed as it had felt like) Solveis answered, “Yes, you are.” Then she wanted to explain why it took her so long to answer. She began to explain, “Sorry I thought for so long, of course I…”

Livia cut Solveis’s explanation off with a big hug. “I thought so!,” Livia said trustingly. “You too. None of my other friends have a faun best friend. I like you. You’re really cool…”

Livia continued to chatter on in her usual way. Solveis was surprised that the issue concluded itself so easily. Feelings usually seemed more complicated than this. She had expected to have to prove her faithfulness in words or actions. She was also surprised at Livia’s comment about a faun best friend. It occurred to Solveis that she didn’t know many faun-oggo friend pairs, not that they were unheard of, but still... That particular difference between them had never seemed significant to her though – until Livia had mentioned it. After that mention, Solveis paid more attention to other people’s friendships and to the relative similarity to the parties involved. She decided to make a study of friendships.

Before Solveis had begun to see Livia as a semi-permanent fixture in her life, she had been unwilling to allow Livia into the cave – into Solveis’s and Arlendr’s inner sanctum. After the best-friend conversation though, Solveis began to consider it. Livia had been around for many moons now, and Solveis was growing tired of avoiding the area of the cave all the time that Livia was around. Solveis would have to consider Arlendr’s preferences as well as her own though. It was as much his space as hers. Solveis knew, unfortunately, that she couldn’t ask Arlendr for permission directly. He might play dictatorial just for fun. She couldn’t learn how he thought about a thing by directly asking him, not reliably. She’d have to find a way to discover, in a roundabout way, his feelings about allowing Livia cave entrance.

The next time Solveis was alone with Arlendr, she took the opportunity. “What are you going to play today?”

“Whatever I want!” he said with a childish, dramatic flourish. “I’ll play swords. How come you don’t have a sword?,” he challenged his sister in frustration.

The reason she didn’t have a sword was because he had destroyed them. When he said sword, he really meant the slim planks of scrap wood that he collected and used for hitting things. He was always destroying them. He had one that was particularly strong. He kept that one for himself. The rest always got destroyed right away.

Solveis made an effort to keep him talking. “Maybe we can play swords with a branch.”

“No! Peasant! The stupid branch doesn’t last long enough. It just breaks against MY sword.”

She found her opening. “Maybe we can play the tire game in the cave.”

“We,” he repeated the way she said we. “We, we, we.” This implied that he took issue with the word usage. He probably didn't want her to assume that he was going to hang out with her.

She could use that. “You don’t have to babysit me,” Solveis told her brother, allowing him the place of superiority in the situation. “I can play tires with Livia.”

“Livia. Livia. Livia.” He repeated the way she said Livia. Solveis wasn’t sure why this time. “You always play with baby round eyes,” he laughed at his sister.

“So, you don’t have to,” Solveis replied just to keep him talking.

“I don’t have to. There’s nothing I have to do. I am Arlendr.”

“Right. So. I’ll just play tires with Livia.”

“Go and do it then,” Arlendr answered dismissively. Then he remembered and thought aloud, “She’s not here today. Ha ha.”

“Next time she’s here, then. I can show her the tire game.”

“This is boring,” he replied. Then he walked away and the conversation was over.

Solveis had just presented Arlendr with the image of herself and Livia playing with their toy tire. That toy tire was in the cave. He must have seen then, the possibility of the two girls in the cave together. That mental image hadn’t caused him to exclaim in horror. This was a good sign. If he had been fundamentally offended by the image, he certainly would have expressed it. His lack of rebuke was permission enough for Solveis. Livia would be invited into the cave soon.