Valera covered her ears as something nearby exploded.

Again.

Over the last few days, it had become a sort of tradition; about twice a day, once in the morning and again at night, the little snake made an attempt to shove a huge amount of mana into a carving or sculpture with fairly explosive results. Each time, he would twist and writhe afterwards in agitation before creating an illusion of an even larger snake figurine at anyone who would pay attention. She didn’t have any idea what he was trying to do, but had been making an attempt to humor the little guy. Surely he was trying to do something.

She just had no idea what it was. Still, she made sure that she was far away from him when he tried to accomplish whatever it was that he was attempting. The first time that a stone figurine exploded into shrapnel had done a lot to dampen her curiosity. She was more than willing to let him do whatever he wanted - from a distance.

Preferably with at least two walls in between them. Just to be safe. She could find out what the little guy was trying to make after it worked.

She hastily scarfed down the remnants of her breakfast before heading out to check on the damage. Fortunately, it seemed that the little cutie understood the dangers of explosive failures to some extent, as he had been willing to confine his attempts to the training yard - barring the first failure, at least.

She stepped out into the yard, and was quickly met with yet another request for a larger sculpture. It had been difficult to understand what he wanted, the first few times, but Valera had managed to figure it out. Eventually.

Stone fragments littered the yard, testament to the most recent failure. Valera winced when she noticed a particularly large shard that had left a noticeable scratch in the wooden door.

Captain Wren wouldn’t be too happy about that one, she was sure. Darkwood wasn’t particularly hard to come by - or it hadn’t been prior to the fall of Verdant Grove, at least - but it was always hard to convince the Council to dip into the coffers for repairs. The inside of the Seeker Barracks weren’t often seen by the populace, so any incidental damage often remained far longer than it had any right to. There were more than a few gashes and gouges in the training yard’s walls that marked the times when Kala had missed her targets during training.

The little snake at the center of the yard hissed again, flashing another image of a snake sculpture far larger than itself - though one that was obviously based on its own form. It even had a cute little Core on its head.

She placed one hand on her hip, speaking with exaggerated slowness. “Now, look. You already had your morning attempt. Whatever you’re trying to do clearly needs some more work. That’s probably the seventh sculpture you’ve destroyed by now. Have some patience, at least until we can find something big enough that it doesn’t break under the strain.”

As she spoke, her other hand snaked towards the [Little Guardian’s Totem] around her neck, fingers curling around it. Valera had already noticed that the Little Guardian had some connection to the glowing carvings, though anyone could have seen that. More importantly, she had noticed that the tiny snake seemed to react to emotions that humans had when they were touching the things - though it was sometimes difficult to tell, since his emotions could be hard to discern.

She pushed the sensation of patience to the forefront of her mind, and the tiny snake stilled somewhat. Valera grinned, holding out a hand for him to climb up. He took the offered limb, and a little laugh burbling past her lips as scales tickled the inside of her wrist.

Valera gave him a bit of a scratch, which he seemed to gladly accept, and they left the Barracks for the day. Hopefully, she would be able to hunt something down later that would actually work for him. Given how useful the Totems seemed to be - a large number of the Guard had escaped injury or worse due to wearing them - Valera had high hopes for whatever her Little Guardian was trying to make.

First, though, they had a meeting with the Council to attend.

That had been the plan, anyway.

The tiny gremlins waiting outside had different ideas.

Valera took them down mercilessly, ending the battle with one foot pinning a large pile of the gremlins against the ground. They huffed and puffed a few times, struggling against the inevitable before finally conceding defeat with high pitched whines.

“Miss Valeraaa,” the largest-but-still-tiny gremlin said. “You’re too heavy…”

She leaned down, looking her defeated foe in the eye. “Now, now, there’s no need to be rude.”

They responded with an escalating series of whines until Valera finally let them go. Moments later, she was forced to keep her balance as her body somehow became a climbing platform and a tiny snake found a new shoulder to hang from.

As the children ran off, giggling incessantly, she shouted after them. “Remember, be careful and stay away if you see anything start glowing!”

A chorus of “Okay, Miss Valera!” and “We know!” interrupted the fits of giggling, causing Valera to sigh. The little snake had already used most of his mana and probably wouldn’t have enough for a second attempt until late in the day, so there shouldn’t be much to worry about. Not to mention, the kids and their various caretakers had already been warned about what was going on.

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, wondering whether she should chase after them, before noticing them gather around Triss, who was apparently their chaperone for the day.

It must be her day off, she thought, breathing a sigh of relief that the little troublemakers had supervision. Valera gave the beleaguered woman a wave and a nod before heading off to meet the Council in a brisk walk.

Valera grimaced, narrowing her eyes at the Chronorb high above the city. She was running late for the meeting. After a quick internal debate, Valera decided to fix that with some actual running.

Captain Wren hated it when she was late - probably because she didn’t have much of an excuse.

Valera managed to make it in time, not that she really understood the necessity of it all. Doran seemed to agree, based on the way that his eyes kept glazing over while the members of the Council droned on and on. Erik tried to pay attention, but she could tell that it was a struggle. Kala had been the lucky one; she had avoided having to attend the meeting by the skin of her teeth, as had most of Rowan’s group, having been placed on the patrol schedule for the day.

Eventually, though, they hit upon a topic that was directly related to them.

Apparently, some of their food problems were beginning to be solved. A few of the traders had returned, reporting their success in forming new supply lines. It was more expensive than when they had relied solely on Verdant Grove, but less likely to collapse from a single disaster - and supposedly, the group of tradesmen that had been supplied with Totems to sell had found a rather large degree of success, as well.

The members of the Council were quite happy about that, she noticed.

They talked about a few other things that managed to hold her interest: some discussion on whether they were now able to investigate the ruins of Verdant Grove in search of the lost Nature Core among them. The general consensus seemed to be that, though they had managed to establish a dependable flow of food from other cities, retrieving the Nature Core would be in their best interest. Despite the danger, Valera was excited by the thought - she was beginning to feel a little cooped up, and was sure that she wasn’t the only one. Still, it wasn’t until the end of the meeting that something really drew her attention.

It was just a passing remark between two council members, one that she barely even heard, but it sent her nearly flying out of the room.

Apparently, a large stone statue of Orken’s new Little Guardian had been commissioned in order to celebrate the end of the food crisis. It was supposed to be a way to raise morale among the citizens or something along those lines.

And it was being set up in the middle of the marketplace right about now - in plain view of any tiny snakes that might or might not pass by.

As she raced away, Valera could only think one thing.

I really hope this one doesn’t explode, too.