OOM: In the Summer Country (Bran)

[creator_raven]

It did not take so long to find Moiraine's room and drop off the slippers.

Hopefully she is fond of leopard-print.

And now, of course, it is time to visit another of his kin.

Bran is often very good company.

Though perhaps being Regent is a very different thing from being a university student.

Or a harpist.

Perhaps.

Comments

[theravenboy]

"A long way, it is, to come for a visit. Would you like food, or drink, or shelter? I think the land would rise up in protest if a guest came in peace and we did not feed him."

[creator_raven]

"I am not so bad with distances, I do not think."

Raven grins, shrugging quickly.

"And you are knowing well, I think, that I am always hungry. So."

[theravenboy]

"Then come with me." Bran leads Raven down one staircase, through a hallway and down another. One level below the ground floor, he pushes open a wooden door. The room revealed is small, and contains nothing but a shelf of dishes and goblets on one wall and a great brass cauldron in the centre of the floor. "What would you like, Raven?"

[creator_raven]

Raven looks speculative for a moment.

"I would say bear fat, I think, but you would be making faces, so."

Blink.

"Cookies will do well enough? Also milk."

[theravenboy]

"I do not think I would have understood this at all, before Milliways," Bran says, dipping a platter into the steaming cauldron. He lifts it up again and passes it, filled with clove-studded gingerbread, to Raven. Then he ladles out warm milk from the cauldron into a pitcher and pours for both of them.

[creator_raven]

Raven beams, shoveling down a handful of gingerbread, waiting almost patiently for Bran to finish pouring the milk before he snatches up a cup and takes a sip.

Well, a gulp.

Traveling outside of Time is hard work, even when you have a cheat sheet, really.

"You would have learned, I am thinking--if circumstances were right. It is a thing that happens."

[theravenboy]

"Slowly." Bran shakes his white head. "I should be learning faster. There is too much I still do not understand."

[creator_raven]

Raven grins crookedly.

"That, I think, will always be so. It is not so bad as all that, perhaps."

[theravenboy]

This line of reasoning does not reassure Bran. "If there is something at school I do not learn right away, I have time to study. Here I must know everything, as soon as possible, because I am using the knowledge already."

[creator_raven]

Raven pats Bran's shoulder.

"That, I am thinking, is the difference between school and life, yes?"

Life's a bitch.

There are reasons they say that.

[theravenboy]

"I suppose it is. Although I am not sure that this--" Bran waves a hand, indicating not only the room but the whole kingdom-- "is life, exactly."

[creator_raven]

Raven shrugs.

"It is, I think, what you have to work with. So."

Sometimes there aren't better answers.

It is a pity.