“Help,” Frija croaked as she tried to drag the chair onto the balcony. Vasso looked at her quizzically.

After an eternity, he finally spoke. “You can see through the railing.”

Frija huffed and puffed. A slight sheen of sweat was dampening her forehead as she levered the chair out one leg at a time. “But I want to see it good.”

“Properly,” Vasso said. He turned his stupid tall head on his stupid tall body around and looked over the railing. Frija scoffed at him. That was such a big brother thing to say. Probably. She didn’t actually know what the difference between a big brother saying and a regular person saying. She might have to ask daddy. Though he didn’t have any siblings.

Frija leaned against the chair, scooting it forward slightly as she thought. That was a real conundrum. Frowning deeply and biting her lip in thought. Elpir didn’t have any siblings either. What about Amalia? No, she would’ve heard about those.

Sighing dejectedly, she sat down, nearly falling over as she leaned back. Looking over her shoulder, she found the railing so far away. That was way too far. She glanced at Vasso. But he was no help. The idiot was just staring into the night.

Menace prowled over, one slinky step at a time. Lithely, he leapt onto the chair and laid down. Purring, the even stupider cat, started grooming himself.

“No!” Frija yelled, getting to her feet. “Get off!”

Menace turned one lazy eye to her, before returning to his licking. Feelings welled up. They burned in her stomach, clenched in her hands, and quivering her chin.

“Hey,” Vasso said from the other balcony doorway. He was holding another chair. “I got you one.”

Frija looked at him, buzzing with emotions. Unable to let go of her feelings, but with nowhere for them to go. Her eyes prickled, but she made her way over. Vasso smiled at her and she tried not to scowl back at him. Instead, she sniffed and climbed onto the chair. The railing was just tall enough that she could rest her arms on it and look out onto the city.

She sniffled and gasped, a few tears running down her eyes. But she was a big girl, and she didn’t cry. Not really. Vasso had helped her, and that was definitely a big brother thing to do.

But nothing was happening. Daddy wasn’t fighting the big monster. It was just quiet and dark.

“This is boring,” she muttered.

Before Vasso could reply, the door to their rooms opened and one of the half-animals stepped inside. “Juice for the children.”

Frija wrinkled her face like she was an old man. “We asked for tea.”

The man stepped further into the room, holding two glasses of some dark golden liquid. “It’s too late for tea, especially with what we have around here. Even more so, for kids,” then in a whisper. “Too much caffeine’s good for no one, especially at this hour.”

He was a weird one. Almost looked entirely normal, except he had to bobbly things on his forehead on long, thin fingers. Silly. Also, his clothes were weird. They looked almost normal until she noticed his right sleeve was entirely made of wet red cloth.

“This is good, Frija,” Vasso said, after taking his glass and trying it. “You should try some.”

She made a face, but couldn’t resist the curiosity. Taking the glass, she sipped on it. Sweet and tasty and so tasty! She smacked her lips loudly as a smile crawled onto her face. She took another bigger sip.

“I should’ve brought a jug,” the man said, a humorous glint in his eye.

“What are those?” Frija asked, lowering the cup and pointing at his forehead. The bobbly things bobbled as he caught her glass before tipping on the floor.

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“Careful there,” he laughed. “These are antennae,” they wiggled back and forth. “Most people don’t like them.”

“Well, they are silly,” Frija said and scrunched her nose. “I wouldn’t want them.”

“And most people would agree with you,” the man laughed. “But it’s nice to be back home and not feel like I have to cover them up.”

Frija almost asked him what he meant about home when she saw Vasso’s expression. He looked worried, eyebrows raised and face pale. “What’s wrong?” she asked. She wanted to crawl down the chair, but then she might miss daddy.

The servant man with the antennae laughed. “I think he’s wondering why I’m still hanging about. You don’t seem as sociable as the young miss.”

Vasso shook his head.

“Well,” the man leaned forward on the railing, pulling out a golden orange oblong ball. He rolled it on the banister as he looked out over the city. “I heard about the young man making his way through here and decided I wanted to see what all the fuss is about.”

He winked at Frija. “Your father’s quite the extraordinary man.”

“Young?” Frija asked, making a face. “Daddy’s old.”

The man laughed, still rolling the ball back and forth between his fingers. “I think he’d disagree with that. At least, if I said as much,” there seemed to be a glow coming from inside the ball, faintly coloring the skin of his nearest fingers orange.

“It’s about to start,” he said.

Frija turned to the lake, just as a figure lit up. Daddy wasn’t bright like the sun, more like the hottest coals. Just enough that she could make out his form, but never blinding.

They stared at Ranvir as he leapt high into the air. Daddy was very powerful to jump that high. He was basically a bird himself.

“He’s gone,” Vasso said.

Frija turned to look at him. The servant had left. Disappearing without a trace, except for two filled glasses of juice. She almost hopped down from her chair, but an enormous cry sounded out through. Jerking her head to the mountain, she could just make out Daddy colliding with something dark in the night sky.

“It’s not glowing,” Frija grumbled. “I can’t see what’s going on.”

“At least we can see anything at all,” Vasso replied.

She made a face, but didn’t reply.

Standing on the chair was horrible. Either it was too tall, or she was. Kneeling on it, she fit much better, but it hurt. Her knees were already sore, and they’d barely begun fighting, not that she could make out much of anything.

“My knees hurt,” she said, shifting uncomfortably. She tried a few other positions before making a face. “They hurt.”

“Get a pillow.”

“No,” she intoned. She couldn’t miss the fight, not any of it. She’d never seen Daddy fight before. But her thighs were aching as well. She tried to sit on her heels, but the banister was perfectly thick enough to fill her entire view. Her knees resharpened into pain sticks as she raised herself again.

“Promise you’ll tell me if something interesting happens,” she said, crawling off the seat. Vasso rumbled a muttered reply as she returned to the room. Rushing past the dinner table, she stopped at the couch. The butt pillows looked big and fluffy and comfortable. She for sure wouldn’t hurt if she knelt on one of those.

Grabbing onto one with both hands, she pulled. Heaving with all her strength, she could barely get the cushion to shift. Slowly, it tugged out and landed on the floor. Uff, it was big and heavy. Holding it was nearly impossible. There was no good grip. She had to hold it by the tassels and drag it.

“How am I supposed to get it on the chair?” the thought struck her so suddenly, it rolled right through her brain and out of her mouth. She glanced at the smaller, less comfy, less plushy pillows. A few of those had fallen to the floor when she’d removed the good one.

“Do you need help?” Vasso asked, though he sounded distracted.

Frija groused under her breath in return and clambered onto the couch cushion to grab on its smaller brethren. It wasn’t near as comfortable, but it was easier to move. Turning around, Frija spotted something on the dining table.

The oblong orange ball, its glow softly illuminating the wood grain. “Whoa, pretty!” she whispered, staggering towards it. Climbing onto one of the few remaining chairs, she could just barely reach it. It was warm to the touch, but much harder than she expected. It had seemed like a ball in the man’s hand, but now she saw it wasn’t round enough to play with.

Turning it, she couldn’t see much from within the shell, only the light and a vague mass at the center. Glancing suspiciously around the room, she put it in her pocket and climbed back down.

She arrived on the balcony just in time to see sand bursting into the air, like someone throwing a handful but that someone was a giant who was so very big it seemed to reach the mountain and above.

“I wanna see,” she cried, crawling onto the chair and dragging her pillow after her, the stone warm in her pocket. More sand was thrown into the air, so much that she could see it gathering in the sky now.

“It’s just hanging there,” Vasso whispered. He looked pale and worried. Frija reached over and placed a gentle hand on his forehead. He looked at her with an odd look on his face.

“You should have some more juice. Because it’s too late for tea,”

Vasso frowned at her, confusedly. Frija shrugged and looked at the sand clouds. A light burst in the gathering storm clouds of sand. “Pretty!” She squealed.